Tag Archives: Jiminy

I’m alive… sort of.

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Short recap, but I am alive.

I’ve barely ridden this past month (good riddance May!) and managed to miss my last 2 lessons due to work travel. (Thank you work conference in Seattle that also had me miss the entirety of the Devon Horse Show).

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Yay for latte art

But, hopefully work has settled down and I can start riding again. Lesson this week and I can finally see my Ranger again! I miss him.

Miss that face! But, work (hopefully) calmed down and most students are gone!

Meanwhile while in Seattle, this little bugger nearly needed to find a new home.

Free to a home? Free to any home? He’s so damn lucky he’s cute.

Recently he’s been a turd. After 2 years of ownership, he’s started testing fence boundaries and breaking through fences and escaping. We put up electric and that worked until it didn’t which was day 2 of my trip. I got a frantic and angry call from my husband that Jiminy was loose and could not be caught.

Eventually he was herded into the paddock and then the shed. The next day he was released and got loose again… This time the calls were MUCH more angry and divorce was imminent. However, beyond the screaming (what the hell was I to do from Seattle?!), Jiminy decided his best place to escape was down the tree lined hill between the fence and the woods where he got caught up the fence between a downed tree branch, old pallet, and the fence and patiently waited for assistance. If there is ONE this I can say about this turd, he doesn’t NOT panic when stuck and understands when the fight is over. Humans are here to untangle you from the messes you get yourself caught up in…

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At that point, Jiminy was jailed. I told my husband to leave him stalled  until I return with hay and water less we repeat the near divorce proceedings again. Since the mid atlantic has been without much sun, we turned our charger off and this gave it some time to (hopefully) fully charge as well. Since my return, he’s been on supervised turnout with the assistance of an attached lunge line (it’s his ball and chain) –he’s fine with it– in the paddock. We added an additional strand of electric fence polywire Sunday but I realize we’ve got a bleed underground which is probably why the shock is so weak and the battery/solar charger is running down so quickly (we used the plastic tubing to bury our wire, but we’re just going to replace it with the underground wire since I can hear the stuff buried under the gate pulsing…). So, we need to fix that before he can resume normal turnout. But, Sunday everyone spent some time out on the grass and  he was a happy pony for several hours.

Then there was that moment I thought he was dead…

The other boys are doing well. Subi is Subi. He’s happy, eating well, and I thought was super sound, but still is having these skip trot moments behind that even my husband is noticing. My one dog does this thing were sometimes she trots on 3 legs (skipping one hind leg). My husband is comparing it to that. I haven’t seen it, but he’s noticing every once and and while he’s avoiding that one hind leg with the stifle issue. Overall, he’s happy and pasture sound, but I’m feeling justified retiring him. It’s usually after he goes for a nice gallop that he’s hitchy.

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If he had muscle, he’s be fat. But, no sign of ribs, he’s round and happy.

 

 

 

 

 

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Always my best boy

As for this guy, he needs to get back into work which HOPEFULLY will happen now if life has settled down some. I need to call the farrier again (for some reason never got a scheduling call back…) and the dentist, but I should still be able to do something with him in the mean time. He’s a little hivey and it turns out his fly sheet had a big hole in it I forgot about. With all these other expenses, I’m going to try and get it repaired by the blanket lady (she thinks it can be salvaged), but I need to wash it first so I don’t need to pay for that. So, hopefully I can to that today… In the meantime he’s got one of Subi’s old one’s on… He’s busting out the front. My husband compared it to the pudgy guy who wears a too tight fitting v-neck t-shirt, but that’s body-shaming… Half of his belly is hanging out too. But, better than nothing…

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When your mom makes you where your older, skinnier brother’s hand me downs…

Because what’s better than a half clipped mini?

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I seriously have the world’s BEST luck with clippers.

Seriously.

My. Luck. Sucks.

This past fall I did a bib clip on Jiminy with my Andis AGC 2 Speed Clippers before he turned into a yak. This was fine until we hit the 70s in November and he started sweating to death. The other thing about Jiminy is that even though he grows a yak coat and SHOULD be able to go blanketless, he  hates being cold and wet and LOVES his blankets. He would also love living in a stall all winter. Being a mini, I wouldn’t mind him using some calories to keep warm though…

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Fall bib clip (his first clip ever, such a GOOD BOY! seriously this pony is amazing!)

So, in November, I decided I’d clip him (my farrier actually had been pushing me to body clip and finds it really helps with mini management) since he was a ball of mini-yak sweat. So I pulled out my Andis clippers and found his yak coat had grown way too thick and, after an hour and a half, I had a mini with a destroyed coat. For the sake of the life of my clippers, the lack of daylight, and my sanity, I gave up.

The next morning, I purchased brand new pair of Oster Variable Speed Clipmaster Clippers. I stood in Tractor Supply debating between those and the Lister Star Clippers and ultimately ended up with the Oster at the recommendation of someone else in the aisle who owns both and preferred the Oster. Plus I read lots of reviews on Amazon, Dover, Smartpak, etc. I did NOT buy Tractor Supply’s 3 year extended warranty because, at that point, I didn’t have an extra $100. Cue regret.

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I fell in love way too soon… 

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Such an adorable clipped pony, even if he is giving me the stink eye…

So, Jiminy got clipped (minus face/legs because why bother? He’s hanging out in my backyard). I meant to clip him a few more times, but I never did. He’s been looking raged lately and it’s been super warm and he’s not shedding out so I finally got around to clipping him again on Monday. Body, legs, and all. He’s not a yak, but definitely needs a clip. It’s been in the 70s and 80s during the day so he’s been hot and sweaty, poor guy!

So, imagine my surprise when I start clipping with my clippers that I used 1x back in November and halfway through part of Jiminy they sputter and DIE. They never got hot. His yak coat wasn’t a yak coat. That was this fall. They didn’t even struggle this fall. Monday I clipped for MAYBE 25 minutes with breaks to clean the hair out and this happened.

So, now my poor 36″ miniature is half clipped. If it gets cold, I have to come up with some crazy blanketing solution.

Such a pathetic state. Terrible pictures courtesy of my husband. Breakfast
remains courtesy of Batts…

I spent $30 to send the clippers back to Oster and I can only hope that they will honor their limited warranty because I cannot imagine I did anything to ruin these clippers in 1.5 uses. Even the lady in the Oster warranty office was shocked. She asked me 4 times how many times I used them. She kept repeating they’d take care of me. I can only hope. If not, I’ll be posting something on their social media accounts… She felt I’d have something back in 2 weeks.

So much for clipping Batt this week… He’s shedding out, but… He looks gross. I can use my Andis clippers on him, but they’re so slow in comparison… I got spoiled in my brief time with my Oster clippers… But I can’t afford to buy a new pair…

Just a gaggle of pictures

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Not much to post but why not some photos?

We pretty much went from warm weather to freezing on Saturday with a lovely wind storm and some strange frozen precipitation that left the boys none too happy. It also left me none to happy either. Lovely weather shifts leave my head celebrating with migraines. I tried out a new medicine yesterday that worked (yay for samples from the neurologist’s office) only to find out that my insurance will make me fight for it with a coverage review and “step therapy.” Shoot me now. This morning’s migraine I tried to fight with a different pill. That one requires that same fight, but left my stomach upset and head still hurting so no fight necessary there.

On to photos because pictures are better than migraines! This boy and I are going to try and take a trail ride on Wednesday and hopefully hit Fair Hill on Friday for a paperchase with strangers since no one I know can attend. Thankfully the organizers said they’d match me with some riders from their barn so we can still attend.

Then there is my little idiot who I finally body clipped. Thanks to the 60 and 70 degree weather we’ve been having during the day, he’s been sweating with his yak coat. The 30s at night have been cold, but he’s had enough blubber that I haven’t been overly concerned with him. That said, Saturday night I was NOT expecting such a dramatic shift in weather. He was one GRUMPY pony in the sleet when I finally threw his sheet on him. I gave in Sunday and exchanged his sheet for his medium weight. Now, most clipped horses I’d go right to a medium and not a sheet, but even clipped he’s super fuzzy. But, Jiminy does not like being cold and was extra grumpy in the wind on Sunday. Tomorrow will be warmer so I’ll swap back out to his sheet (it’s actually a really heavy sheet–way heavier than any of my horse sheets). I wouldn’t mind him losing a drop of weight before winter… Anyway, I did have a bit of a clipper fiasco that involved an unanticipated purchase of new heavy duty body clippers for his yak coat. When I get around to it, I’ll do a clipper review post… Maybe.

And finally, my favorite boy. Other than the super warm days, he’s been blanketed a lot lately. He just likes to be warm and grows very little coat. He was thrilled to have a new round bale yesterday. Of course, thanks to the new round bale or possibly the wind this morning, he only ate half of his breakfast. This horse kills me with his lack of eating sometimes… Normal horses cause panic when they don’t eat. Subi? Not so much. He sometimes just chooses not to eat and it drives me crazy.

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Pretty much just perfect in every way (other than the million ways in which he drives me insane)

Weekend Trail Rides (or, Batts and Bailey take on Fair Hill)

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Nothing too exciting to report. We had a really nice weekend weather-wise (in other words, unseasonably warm), so lots of trail rides. Saturday, I took out a nice couple down at Marsh Creek and on Sunday, Batt and I explored Fair Hill with a friend of mine.

Saturday was just my usual Marsh Creek excursion. I didn’t bring Batts down due to the warm temps, not having clipped him yet, and 2 new horses who had arrived the evening before from auction. I figured they needed some quarantine before I exposed Batts to them. So, I took out Sam instead. (For those of you who don’t remember, Sam is the 17.1 Belgian-TB cross who is pretty much dead quiet despite being 6).

For size reference refresher, here’s Sam…

Anyway, I like taking Sam out on trails as he’s slow, steady, and keeps up with his slow and steady buddies Poe and CT. Batts has no issues leaving CT behind… Despite his long legs, Sam doesn’t actually mind moving at a snails pace…

Needless to say, Sam was less than impressed by the whole thing. But, it was a beautiful day and he was a good boy. Hunting season has started in the park so we all wore our neon vests, but thankfully no hunters were hidden in our path. Nothing like a 17 hand fraidy cat jumping in place… We only did that once, walking back to the barn when we spooked at the barn pickup truck pulling in behind us carrying grain. How can you spook at dinner?

Sunday morning I finally got around to clipping Batts and Jiminy. Batts has been super fuzzy this year and Jiminy is always fuzzy. I hate  how sweaty both have been. I decided to try a bib clip with Batt and a chaser clip with Jiminy. I may end up with a chaser clip on Batt and a full clip (minus head/legs) on Jiminy, but we’ll see… Thankfully, both are good about clipping, unlike a certain other chestnut… (I’m pretty sure Jiminy has never seen a pair of clippers before but like a good mini, he takes everything in stride).

Instant Pony Weight-loss Technique! Batty, on the other hand, was less than impressed…

Later that afternoon, Batts and I headed out to Fair Hill to meet my friend Terry and her horse Bailey for an afternoon trail ride. She leases one of the barns out in the park, but despite that, we rarely ever get out to ride together. We were planning a short ride as Bailey is 28, but we sort of got lost and ended up staying out for a good 2 hours. They horses had a good time though. Unfortunately, while Bailey knows the park really well, we can’t give him his head as he’ll take us back to Fair Hill Stables as that was home base for a long time for him. As for Batt, Batt never likes going home so he’s no help. We eventually just turned around and took a longer route back and were find, but our cross country efforts were interesting… Bailey decided hills were meant for galloping up (seriously, you’re 28…) while I’ve learned that Batty is seriously the most incredibly amazing trail horse every. I’d have no issue with him galloping his hills or really anywhere, but I know Terry isn’t necessarily comfortable and was just trying to keep Bailey in hand so I figured I’d help out by NOT cantering up those hills, as tempting as it was for both of us. Bailey was good for Batty as well. All our bridge issues we faced in the past when out alone? No issue! He followed Bailey over without hesitation.

I seriously love this horse!

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Best Batthorse Ever!

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Batty and Bailey returning home

Rounding up ponies, or something like that

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Updates are hard without media…

So some of these post are useless without pictures, but I’ll do the best I can…

Not too much to report on on the horse front. The boys continue to do well though mostly just spend there time stuffing their faces with hay and grumbling about a lack of food… The feed store was out of alfalfa cubes a few weeks ago and so we got timothy/alfalfa cubes instead. Subi has always been hit or miss with cubes, but I like the benefits of alfalfa. It seems timothy/alfalfa cubes are the way to go and are a BIG hit with him. He’s actually enthusiastic about evening cubes now. We’ll see how long he keeps this up, but… I’d love to actually up with cubes in the winter, but that might be pushing my luck. Still, in the mean time, it’s nice he’s so enthusiastic about food. On top of that, he’s back to eating flax too. All of this means he’ll probably stop eating in January just to drive me insane..

Sunday I had a nice ride on Batty. By nice, I mean I tortured myself with 2 point for longer than intended. I set a timer that failed to go off so instead instead of staying up for my targeted 5 1/2 minutes, I ended up in 2 point for an awful 12:36.64. At the walk. How I did not fall asleep of boredom, I do not know. How my legs did not fall off, I do not know. How, 2 days later, I managed to hobble around, I do not know. But, listening to a podcast while in 2 point did make things more tolerable. As did a very happy and pleasant horse. He’s not normally this happy or pleasant, but I think the fact that I wasn’t asking him to actually work much helped a lot… After the torture of 2 pointed ended, we did some trot sets up and down the hill for a while and then I let him gallop up hill a few times before calling it a day.  Then I conveniently decided to fill up a water trough, forgot about the hose until we came out to feed dinner, and noticed I flooded the paddock… Ooops. Only 2.5 hours of extra water… At least the round bale was sitting on a pallet?

Prior to my 2 point fiasco, I had a lesson earlier in the day on Ranger, where I more or less learned that I’ve been 2 pointing wrong most of my life. Well, not wrong so much as less correct. We don’t necessarily work on 2 point specifically in lessons, but I was warming before we started and my trainer started commented on position and all that. Turns out my heels are down to far to the point of being ineffective. So, the goal becomes concentrating less on heels and more of distribution of pressure between the big toe and the little toe (I already and pressing into my heel enough) to ensure that I’m keeping enough contact with my lower leg. Huge difference just bringing the little toe into the equation (and I’m blaming the little toe for all the pain felt as a result of the 2 point with Batt–but I certainly felt SO MUCH MORE stable making that minor change).

Anyway, back to my lesson. I love that little horse so damn much. He’s so perfect for me right now. He’s so broke on the flat that everything is just easy, but all my faults just are just magnified (my ineffective outside arm seems to move forward while circling for some reason…) so I really know what I need to work on. He’s super comfortable and steady too. What he is, I have no idea, but he’s truly amazing for me.

We warmed up trotting into a simple line focusing on where I’m looking (UP toward the second jump and not at the base of the first…). First time through I didn’t have enough energy and sort of held and we trotted into an un-energetic 7. Added leg to trot into a 6 the next time that actually looked better. Then I screwed up cantered in… I don’t know why I couldn’t pick up my damn lead. Then when I did, I needed to circle to get my rhythm, and unlike normal people who cut corner, I am the opposite and turn too late. So, we worked on that until it was nice.  Then the conversation turned to “you’re going to think I’m crazy” and of course anything that starts with those words… So, left lead canter to a single towards the in gate) around to the outside triple (4 stride to 4 stride). Me: stops breathing. Before we start, we break it down a bit and remember that this horse will stop and NOTHING and all I need to do is steer as he does duck in a bit so in between the triple I need to pull hands to rail (triple was against rail which actually made it easy) and LOOK UP TO LAST FENCE OF TRIPLE until I’m approaching that fence and then look out of ring.

So, our first attempt was interesting. Coming to the single, Ranger decided OMG JUMPING TO IN GATE and decided to actually speed up and brain said OMG I DIE but as we approached in gate, Ranger said, time to stop and my leg barely said keep going, so, going to the triple it was wiggly and slow and ugly, but we made it over all 4 jumps. Trainer asked my opinion. Me: It was really ugly. Trainer: Did you get over jumps? Me: yes. Trainer: Are prizes being given out today? Me: But… Trainer: Goal was to get through it. Did you stop, crash, die, etc.? Hit him in the mouth? No. So, attempt 2 was pretty much perfect. We still rushed the first jump a bit (a little bit of OMG JUMPING TOWARDS IN GATE) but not (OMG DIE from me) and I was more prepared that he was going to pull me towards the quarter line while cantering to the first fence so I was able to use more leg and hand to have a better spot. And then landing I was prepared to just look up and ahead and then start adding leg as we approached the in gate so we didn’t have a debate about stopping which led up to a perfect spot at the the first jump of the triple. A little leg and steering in the air allowed him to just carry me over the rest of the triple and with that I survived. So, when I was told to do it again and add in the 6 line we started with, I actually said OK.

Was out 6 jump course perfect? No, I think the triple was prettier the second time, but our first jump was the best the last time (FINALLY no more OMG JUMPING TO IN GATE!!! from Ranger) and I finally had a nice turn to my 6 stride. So, for not having done a course in at least 7 years,  I was pretty happy. The jumps are small right now which is fine. I need small though I don’t think the height really matters with Ranger. He’s just amazing and exactly what I need. If he were a little smaller, I might be able to fit him in my backseat and take him home with me… img_1606

I’ve ridden so many greenies over the years that I’ve learned to ride defensively or super well schooled horses with soundness issues that I’ve been very limited in what I can do, or modified HOW I ride to best support the horse. Or lesson horses that we pretty much limited to cross rails or had little to no education or soundness issues or both. Or “Wenglish” horses that were just interesting… I’ve had little chances to just ride a really well trained schoolmaster. For where I am right now, I need to bring my education back up. Subi is the exception as he was pretty well trained, but, my trainer at the time never got on him. Granted, I didn’t do training board, but I’ve learned even if I had, said trainer wouldn’t have actually ridden my horse, just charged me for service not rendered (not always the case but was the case during the period of time when I was a boarder). But that’s a whole other rant that I’m not getting into.

What’s better than a PONY?

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Really need to catch up but in the meantime, Jiminy!​ He’d argue he’s allergic to work, especially when thick grass is involved! It’s also really hard to lunge said pony and video it… Excuse my poor skills!​ we did much better when I put my phone down. Nonetheless, he’s crazy adorable!

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Defeated.

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I haven’t written in a while. It’s just been a long winter with good and with bad and with vets. Since we all love a good vet bill or 2…

In a minor update of the vet bill related stuff, sometime around Christmas, Subi stopped eating on me. Well, minor correction, he stopped eating grain. This isn’t all that abnormal, especially since he hasn’t loved the grain he’s been on. To make a long story short, last winter, I switched him from Purina Senior Active to Progressive Senior Sweet after the Purina formula changed and Mr. Picky stopped eating it. He loved the Progressive and ate regular meals, licking his bucket clean. Then, 5 bags in, my feed store stopped carrying it. Said feed store also served as the area distributor so all other area feed stores that also carried it, stopped. They also couldn’t special order it. So, I contacted Progressive and found a dealer about 90 miles away and bought from him, 8 bags at a time. But paying cash and driving really far took it’s toll and I stopped around November. So, instead, we tried various feeds. He doesn’t like Triple Crown Senior (too much beet pulp), didn’t like Pennfield. He sort of ate the Safe Choice Senior so we stuck with that. Then he didn’t. He didn’t like Buckeye either. Then he just stopped eating grain.

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Thanks to the lovely workers at my other feed store, I tried the Purina Omalene 500 which he actually eats, semi enthusiastically. Thankfully we only went through 5 different 50 lbs varieties that he wouldn’t eat before settling on the 500. I don’t like sweet feed, but honestly, the best feed in the world means nothing if my horse won’t eat it.

But, during all this drama, I decided to schedule a vet appointment and get Subi’s teeth done and blood pulled, just in case. After a couple reschedules later, the vet finally came out and floated his teeth, which weren’t actually bad at all. He had some swelling around his lower incisors, but that was pretty much it. Vet liked his condition, approved his feed even though she doesn’t like Purina, and we held off blood. She did warn me that they picky thoroughbreds out there tend to get pickier as they get older. Great, just what I need…

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Then, later that month, my Marble dog was diagnosed with happy tail. Several vet visits, wrappings, $$$, 2 cones, and a blizzard later, her tail went necrotic and we had to amputate part of her tail. She’s a chocolate pointer now that her lab tail is missing. She doesn’t care and she’s happy and healthy. Though she was never actually unhappy. And unlike Subi, she never missed a meal.

Then there is my idiot Batthorse with whom I am currently not speaking. He had a great winter and a fun blizzard ride, and emerged from winter fat and happy. Then spring came early and I found myself dreaming of field trips and trail rides.

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This past week, after spending some time driving the trailer and all that, I started Remedial Trailer Loading 101 with Idiot horse. After some initial work, I got confident Batt would pass with flying colors. He was loading without issues. So I made plans to haul out on Saturday for a fun day at Marsh Creek after I finished teaching. Which is way he decided to scare himself to death on Saturday morning (after a minor scare Friday that he seemed fine after) and refuse to load. At all. Ever. I finally gave up Saturday and tried again yesterday and he was even worse. Shut down right from the start. When he shuts down, you can’t get anywhere with him. At this point, I’ll give idiot horse a couple weeks off and see what I’ve got but I think I need professional assistance.

Which is why, after Saturday morning, I decided to immediate reach out to a local trainer know to be great teaching loading. Trainer is happy to work with us and asked that I drop  him off. Which would be fine. Except I can’t get the damn horse on the trailer! If I could get him on, I wouldn’t be in need of assistance. A few others said the same thing. So now I’m left with a trailer, a horse who won’t load, and several miles between me and the trainers who can assist. At this point, I really just need to send him to someone, but I can’t load him and I’m pretty sure that won’t change. So what do I do?

I am so completely defeated. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt this way. Ever. I’ve had frustrations, things haven’t worked, I’ve had fears, but not defeated like this. I am so completely frustrated I can’t  even explain it. We’re also hitting idiot horse’s annual colic season… AHH. So frustrated.

And because I can’t not post a picture of Jiminy…

 

Dreary day and random thoughts about blankets

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It’s a really ugly, rainy, dark, depressing, dreary, disgusting Wednesday (I started with the Ds and just couldn’t stop). I should be doing something productive, like work, but instead, here I am.

The weather is strangely warm and will be warm tomorrow (high close to 70) which is really strange at the end of October. It’s going to cool off by the weekend, but looking at the long range forecast, we’re going to be back at 70 next Thursday? This fluctuation is driving me crazy. I had blankets on a couple weeks ago, we had frost as recently as yesterday (or was it Monday?), and now warm and rain (and 70s and sun tomorrow)? I don’t know what to wear to work anymore!

I also need to spend the time and go through blankets. Warm temps are not helping me find the motivation! Jiminy is all set (thankfully someone is!) but I need to figure out how Subi and Batt are doing. Subi should be good in terms of weighted blankets (though I really need to do some laundry as I never quite got there this summer… oops.), especially now that he has Hayley’s old (new) heavy weight that actually fits him nicely. He has his Horze Avalanche as well and that seems to be in good shape though I may need to re-waterproof that one just to be safe. He’s also got some various Rider’s blankets that fit (one in good shape, the other with misc. repairs) and a pair of old statelines (10 years old at this point) that work really well as backups. That said, his rainsheet isn’t great though I think it’s still waterproof? It should work if I can manage to reattach a back leg strap…

Batt, on the other hand, is king of hand me down blankets. His old rhino (originally Hayley’s) fits him really well, but the waterproofing is gone. His pink argyle smartpak blanket has seem much better days (again, a Hayley blanket) and doesn’t actually fit that well, but it’s a good spare. He also has a heavy Horze Avalanche (well, 2 if I repair Hayley’s old one) so he should be set. BUT, because he only has 1 that fits well that’s NOT a heavy and that blanket may never be really waterproof again, I’m debating getting him a new medium weight. Hopefully one that fits and then I can relegate the Rhino to be a spare (I’ve had it since 2009? and bought it used…). Thinking about getting him one of the SStack ones since I love Jiminy’s and while I’m at it, I could also get Subi a new sheet… http://www.sstack.com/horse-blankets-and-sheets_waterproof-turnout-blankets_euro-fit_traditional-fit/2015-dura-tech-1200d-viking-turnouts/

But, of course, do I really need MORE blankets? It’s really an unhealthy collection I have. But, if they’re not completely dead, I hate throwing them out. I also hate using the ones that don’t fit that well or are partially dead… While I do have a crazy amount of blankets, my guys live out 24/7 in ALL conditions. So, depending on the temps, Subi may wear either 2 heavy weights or a heavy and medium. He spent most of the winter in 2 blankets (usually heavy and medium) but ended up with more when needed. That said, he’s a wimp and shivers when he’s cold so it’s easy to figure him out. Batt wore either 2 mediums, a heavy, or a medium/heavy combo depending on the temps (and what blankets were drying out inside).

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2 pointing through October and a nice (?) fall day?!

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I hate the fall. Everyone who knows me knows how much I hate the fall. I hate the darkness, the angle of the sun, the shorter days, the crunchy fall leaves and dying plants, the darkness, and the angle of the sun (those both deserved a second mention). Good things have happened in the fall like all horse purchases but Jiminy, buying my house, and getting married, but I still dislike it. But every once in a while, fall issues a beautiful, unhated day. Today was one of those days!

I’m on the reference desk tonight (i.e. Now) and on Sunday so with comp time, I didn’t have to be at work until 5. Weather was perfect; temps in the mid 70s and sunny. So I took advantage of my day off to hang out with the boys (the little butterball definitely needs his muzzle back on when he’s out on grass…).

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I haven’t ridden Subi in a few weeks so I tackled him first. Being home alone plus the lack of work he’s had, I played it safe and lunged first.

Really Mom? I have to leave my friends and work?

Really Mom? I have to leave my friends and work?

Thanks to the warm temps and living out, Subi was pretty quiet (almost dead) on the lunge line though he did have his idiot moments. Still, I’m glad I worked him pretty hard even though he was a sweaty mess.

After lunging I hopped on and we pretty much walked forever while he cooled off. I took advantage of this time to work on the evil known as 2 point. I’ve mostly been doing my 2 point on Batty because he’s pretty flat while Subi has the big old bouncy thoroughbred stride. That said, even with the bouncier stride and leg Subi requires, he’s so much easier than Batt in that he doesn’t get annoyed or bored as easily. So on we walked through multiple songs from wicked until I could 2 point no more. But we survived and by far had out best time yet.

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After 2 pointing, on dead legs, we did some trotted over poles (during which I was surprised how strong my 2 point felt)  until we were both bored. Playing it safe (after all, I was alone and didn’t bother to let my husband know that I was on…), I hopped off and hand walked him around in the woods before getting back on out there. As expected, he was perfect and really prefers our “woods” ring. I really need to clear it out more in the spring so there’s more useable space. We trotting a bit (with much more effort and energy) before calling it a day.

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Somehow I managed to ride Batt after Subi. I have very little to say about him other than neither of us were feeling it. He’s bored hacking and I really struggle to get him in front of my leg at the walk and trot. He really just wanted to canter and if he could canter, he sucked back and sulked. At least at the canter I could get him in front of my leg, but… He would have been thrilled to pop over some jumps but I try not to jump when I’m alone. Next ride I guess… He just gets in these moods where it’s his way or else… Usually boredom is involved. I could have hacked him out but I had the dogs out so I didn’t want to leave them. In the end we survived, but…

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