Catching Up

I work overnights Wed, Thurs, Fri, and Sat, and that is when I'm usually able to blog because work tends to be pretty slow.  So, Sun-Tues I don't usually post because Sundays are for sleeping and I tend to spend ~12 hours a day at the barn on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Also my dad was here this weekend.

On Sunday, we headed out to the barn.  My trainer had given the go-ahead for my dad to play around on Pepper, the oldest horse in the barn (approximately 30), and perfect babysitter of all parents and boyfriends, who also doubles as a challenge for small children with tiny legs.  We don't have trails, and Pepper is notorious for, well, walking in a determined fashion towards the barn despite all attempts to dissuade him when in the outdoor, so we stuck to the indoor.  Luckily, my dad thought that this was pretty great; he's actually never ridden inside before.  They toodled around at the walk and I gave a bit of a mini-lesson and by the end of it, my dad was actually kind of figuring out posting.  He had a blast, and it was awesome!

The old man. He's actually an OTTB,
but his tattoo is too faded to read.

During this time, I was riding my monster pony.  The maybe-magic bridle has been shipped to New Jersey (THANKFULLY not to Sweden) to be replaced with a non-scuffed model, so we were back to using the (very nice) old borrowed bridle with a flash.  Unfortunately, I accidentally left the magic bit at home, so had to borrow one of my trainer's.  Leo was less than thrilled.  All of that work with contact and head-lowering that we had figured out in the last week was suddenly gone.  It was a constant battle of this:

                    

Head down, avoiding the bit, or flung straight up and almost hitting me in the face.  We finally settled somewhere in the middle, and were able to do some almost-quiet trotting and some not entirely out-of-control cantering.  Sigh.  At least his nose wasn't straight in the air. Also, I really need to do something with that crazy mane. 

loving this picture. 

On Monday, I would normally have had a lesson, but I decided that Leo and I really, really need extra help, so I scheduled us for a private this week instead of our usual group.  That will happen tomorrow afternoon.  I also had a mini-breakdown.  There's a horse at the barn right now for one week.  Before I bought Leo, I was in conversation with this horse's owner about potentially buying him.  We were trying to figure out a time for me to go and meet him.  Then Leo happened.  Now M is at the barn and he's this huge gorgeous gelding - Leo is cute, but this horse is STUNNING - and he's trained and I somewhat jokingly made the comment to my trainer that maybe I should try and get his owner to trade horses with me.  This escalated to a whole slew of issues - how I'm trying so hard but I feel like Leo just gets worse, how I'm not having fun riding him right now pretty much all of the time, how I'm worried that I'm making him worse and how I'm afraid that he doesn't like his new job and would be much happier as a barrel horse or something.

Trainer basically told me that while she fully understands where I'm coming from, she would have already told me to move on from Leo if she thought I was doing wrong by him.  She apologized for not being able to help me more recently, offered to let me get on M so that I could see exactly why Leo was the better fit for me (this hasn't happened yet but may tomorrow after the private lesson), and told me to stick with it through the winter and that if we still weren't progressing by spring, then we could re-evaluate.  Then she told me that she loves Leo, and we decided that for the first part of tomorrow's lesson, she'll ride him.  (this will be her first time riding him). The conversation ended in hugs, and I feel better.  Hopefully we can figure out a better training schedule that involves less of me feeling like I'm flailing around on my own.

pretending like standing in the washrack
is no big deal

Yesterday, one of my friends rode Leo in her jumping lesson because her usual ride was unavailable.  I watched a good part of the lesson and felt a lot better by the end - many of the issues that I have with my horse were the same ones that she was having, which made me feel like at least it's not just me making him do things or making him act poorly.  She had a blast with him - her usual ride is another of the barn's jumping saddlebreds, so she's used to their special brand of crazy.

Today I was supposed to have a confidence-building lesson on one of my favorites, the Dragon pony, but about 5 minutes into our warmup it became clear that he was off up front.  No heat or swelling - possibly an abscess - but he wasn't sound and I didn't have time to ride in a different lesson, so after much babying and treat-feeding, I headed home for the day.  Possibly riding in a fun lesson on Friday, but not sure yet.  And crossing my fingers that the baby pony isn't too injured and gets to feeling better soon - the little guy has never had an off day before, so we were all quite concerned for him.

Old picture of the baby <3

I'm excited for tomorrow's lesson - I have been dying for my trainer to try Leo out since he got here, and I can't wait for her insight.

Also, I maybe renamed my blog.  It sounds so much cooler now.