Washed Away

It’s been a rough week for riding due to rain! There is currently a horse show going at the barn, and the show stalls were put in the indoor on Tuesday. Of course it rained on Tuesday, so no riding for me.

Stampede modeling the wind-blown look on Monday

On Memorial Day I went out and rode P in the afternoon and we had the opposite of a fun ride. I don’t know if it was the bugs (they were trying to eat him alive despite fly spray), the deer that jumped out in front of us as we headed out to the field, the windy weather, or something else but P was on the muscle. He didn’t want to trot unless it was fast. I asked him to slow down and he tried to pull my arms off. He kept trying to canter. I ended up resigning us to doing figure eights at the walk around jumps in the ring to get him cooperative then trotted a few long sides that felt pretty crappy but at least he wasn’t pulling. I didn’t even take any pictures!

Wednesday I rode Stampede in the ring and he was very good. Up to 14 minutes of trot and 14 strides of canter each way. When we finished I took some pictures and video of my friend Christie and her new horse Carson as they did more flat work.

Stampede supervising

Thursday was schooling day for the show this weekend so P and I took advantage of the grass ring being open and rode in there. He was back to himself and we did our 8 minutes of trot with no problems besides a grunt hop thing when another horse knocked a rail and he didn’t like it apparently. It was amusing regardless, lol.

Grass ring in the evening

P grazing with his girlfriend Willow Thursday night

Friday I was hoping to do Stampede’s lunging and thought it would be okay since the show was over for the day already. I was very wrong and Stampede was much too on edge for things to be constructive so I went back in and tacked him up for a ride. The grass ring was closed as they moved the course around for the next day so I just went in one of the sand rings to work. He was more tense through his back than usual but loosened up fairly well to the left. Going to the right we were having a similar ride until he tripped out behind then proceeded to get upset about it. Since I’m still not doing circles it was proving difficult to settle him down. I tried a halt break and a walk break to no avail. Finally I just picked up a trot right before a corner and trotted through the corner okay then called it a day. Frustrating to end such a good ride like that but I didn’t want to make him sore by working him harder or sitting on his back too long.

Furry beefcake

Yesterday I got on P first and ended up riding in one of the schooling rings since the show was going on. P was not a fan of the footing, he much prefers grass, but we got our workout done. I actually added in a few strides of canter each way as a reward since he was being so good. It wasn’t a particularly fun ride, more stiff than on Thursday, but we got the work in!

Watching the show while P grazed and dried

I grazed Stampede next since we knew the heavy rain was coming at some point. I got him out and a random short shower came on soon after. Luckily I could hide under the barn’s overhang while he grazed happily. He was pretty much dry by the time I put him away.

Stampede says his hair will dry and the grass is tasty

I got lucky and had enough time to hop on my second ride of the day, my friend R’s lease horse Tango. He’s an older gentleman with a lot of miles who really just needed to get out and moving so we did just that. He’s very much the opposite of my usual rides, short in height, short in length, and very stiff. I’m not sure he was a fan of all of my requests to bend but he complied and we fit a short hack in before the rains really came.

Tango

Just so you can see how much rain I’m talking about and so I can say for once that I am glad I’m not showing…

This is the same ring as the picture of Stampede supervising Carson earlier in the week – note the horse on course

Note neither of these pictures are mine, taken off Facebook.

And one of the schooling rings…

So needless to say I didn’t get to ride today either! Hopefully I can get the boys out of their stalls for some grass later on.