I'm getting my butt in gear and back in the saddle. I've enlisted an instructor that my neighbor utilizes to train and ride her horses. Erin is awesome! My lesson was amazing and having not been on Dani in a while and being really rusty and nervous in the new location (just my neighbors arena) she was very calm, methodical and put me at ease. I plan to take lessons every other week and hopefully get hubby on board with Chance. I need to ride Chance some too.
My lesson was mainly Erin trying to see where Dani and I are in our communication etc. We trotted most of the lesson and I was worn out! We did get pretty good work done with getting Dani to respond to slow downs, speed ups and turns. She's no ballerina but she did quite good for being rusty herself. Now that it's been a week I'm at a loss for more description of the lesson. It's good to have someone push me some again and getting that trot done was great, I need to work on posting the correct diagonals though! The plan is to eventually get this mare on the trails around here and for me to not be a woos about that. I'm nervous and that's not a good thing to be when I need to support her!
As to Chance, I'm going to give the Australian saddle another try with a cushy pad I bought for the seat. The problem I found on the first ride was the over girth that these saddles have and the location for stirrup attachment. Not the best design in my opinion but people swear by them. I'm going to give it a few more rides before I break down and get a western saddle for him. Steve can ride in which ever one he desires. I'll keep everyone posted.
So why does this post have pictures of Dani's feet? Well spring time means trimming of the fetlocks. My horses have both gone from goat beards and bell bottoms to a much more horse like clean cut look. Always nice to have a good look at their heels before the mud starts up in the spring. I have to be on the watch for scratches and the trimming helps.
The spring clipping has led to excess hair that I just don't want to toss. I think the birds will appreciate it. Looking at the saucer I placed out for the birds I can't help but think about Donald Trump. Hmm....hopefully there won't be an angry tweet from in the future....wait what am I saying. LOL. I've since picked up the hair and placed it in a cute barn shaped suet feeder, sans suet of course. This way birds can pick it out and bring to their nests. I need to get more bluebird houses and other critter houses for that matter but that's another story.
1 comment:
You can remove the overgirth altogether; my daughter rode an aussie saddle & it irked her too, so we just pulled it out and no problems after that. I personally felt thrown a little forward in that saddle though, so when Slipper sold her horse, I sold the saddle as well.
We're back to riding (finally the ice has melted off the roads & trails, for the most part) & just building back up by alternating walking with 1/2 mile slow jogging & trotting bursts. I start the year with seated work, so my thighs aren't screaming yet, but soon. Hypothetically, I wonder what it would be like to live somewhere that horses & riders never fell out of condition due to months of shite weather?
Good idea about stuffing horse hair into a suet cage - I've been composting enough hair daily to make a small army of decoy ponies.
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