Last post of 2014!

Hard to believe 2014 is coming to a close already!

I rode P on Friday during the day and it was unseasonably warm for winter in Michigan. I decided to ride the beast outside, and once I got to the field I opted to take a quick loop through the trails to warm him up at the walk.

Headed into the field

All was fine as we went through the woods until I turned towards the exit and a certain pony started prancing about. No amount of stop and back up, circle, face the other direction and stand for a while, or go sideways could convince the crazy beast that he could walk down the trail.

Into the woods

After making it back out to the field I walked for a bit to try to settle the beast before we got to work. P had other plans however, and could not maintain a civilized trot when I tried to put him to work. P loves to tranter (trot and canter simultaneously) when excited, and the more you get after him the more nervous and excited he gets and the more he tranters! Tried a few things then decided to go inside to avoid overdoing it before our lesson the next day. Once inside he of course put his good pony hat back on and got right to work.

Evidently the tiring of the pony on Friday worked in my favor because he was soft and pliable on Saturday for my lesson. Probably one of the best flat lessons I’ve had on him since he became my main ride.

P wanted to show off his shiny pony coat – he also says this is not his best angle, lol

On Monday, I decided a bareback ride with P in his hackamore was in order and he didn’t disappoint. He was still on his game and I had a good time. P also got a few compliments on how nice he looked, which never hurts.

Someone needed a cookie so much he had to pick up his right front hoof and hold it out

Last night P and I were in a very small flat lesson, probably due to the holidays. The pony was really good, although not to the level of Saturday. Can’t expect perfection all the time. 🙂 Lots of transitions between trot and canter and lots of circles. Ended our last lesson of 2014 on a good note with a good pony.

Handsome horsebeast

Stampede has been doing lots of pole work on the lunge at the trot which seems to help with the boredom of lunging for both of us. Hopefully sometime I’ll have a videographer to document his improvement! Talked to the vet today and he okayed adding in a little bit of canter work. To this point we’ve only really cantered (accidentally) two or three times for a few strides, so hopefully he will be a gentleman when I try that tonight. Cross your fingers that the next few weeks include a trailer ride to the vet so I can sit on this handsome beast sometime in January!

Clearly the best hay is at the bottom

If you follow me on instagram (@stampyandthebrain) you’ve probably seen that I tried out some Relatively Stable leather monograms this past weekend. I’m feeling pretty in love with them, particularly the one on P’s monocrown bridle.

Love silver on the brown leather!

Close up

The girth I monogrammed is Stampede’s schooling girth (because I can’t get it on him with a show pad!) so I thought blue would be a nice touch. Really I might do blue on his show girth, but I’m waiting to make sure he is going to recover for riding before I put anything on it since it’s brand new.

Oh, and I never shared that I randomly put this other decal on my tack box cover at the barn!

Yay for jumping horse decals!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!