Excuses, Excuses...

Well I promised pictures and an update on Wednesday's ride, didn't I.

But then college started.

Woo hoooo. The main really good thing about that is that I only have this year and one more and then I'm done and River and I can go explore the known world! ;) 

Annyways so then I didn't have time.

And so it is only now that I'm getting around to it. Without further ado, here is Wednesday evening in pictures. :)

I thought I would do some two-point torture for myself while River plunked around warming up. Uhhm...one lap of the arena later I gave in. Apparently it's not just the Buddy that's out of shape!

Proof that we don't only torture the ponies...

We did a lot more trotting this week and looked and felt pretty good if I say so myself.

Still a few ouchies when we hit a big clod, but much better!

Swish-swoosh hair :)

 Just trotting got boring, so we made some faces...

Awkward!

Much less awkward!

And when we got tired of making faces, somebody (not me!) invited an old friend to make an appearance.

Look, it's the Thoroughbred Giraffe! (No idea where I'm looking...)

Then we cantered! River thought that was extremely very exciting but we only did a little bit and tried to get the correct lead both ways.

We are so good, we even counter-canter! Ignore my bounciness...ugh

Then we trotted a little more, walked, halted, backed up, and were done.

Done and walking back down to the barn

 It was very hot, so River got a bath, which he was NOT impressed with...

Pony says STOP BATH NOW!

 ...but then he got food and turned out, so that made everything better.

Pretty sunset to end the day

And that, in a nutshell, was our Wednesday evening!

Tuesday Torture

Tuesday we did hill work. In-hand, so we both did it! Didn't do a lot since poor River is so out of shape (and we won't even mention me); so just did several laps up and down at a walk, then two laps up at trot and down at walk.

Well, we tried doing two laps up at trot. Really it went something like this:

Me: Now we're going to trot up! Yay! Ready, set, [cluck-cluck] trot!

River: Trot?! Mom no. I can't trot. We're walking, remember? Walking. Walk. Walk. Walk. Walk. 

Me: [Cluck] Trrrot! 

River: III willlll nooottt trooottttt nooooooooooooo [much neck stretching and exaggeratedly slow footsteps]

Me: River. Trot! 

River: I CAN'T TROT!!!! HEEEELLLPPP!!!!! 

Me: [waves stick at River's hindquarters] Cluck-cluck! 

River: AAHHH! What's that?! Ahhh! A STICK!! ACKS! I-must-bolt-to-the-top-of-the-hill!

Me: *le sigh...*

We did several rounds of that but finally finished on a good note. Today we did another arena ride, really testing out all the buttons, and finding a great many that don't exist...but the update on that will have to wait for tomorrow! :)

Insanely Proud of My Boy

A friend texted this afternoon and asked if we could go out on the trails today since she was bringing her horse over to ride and of course I said yes! Since River's feet were doing great today, I figured might as well take him out.

It was his first "real" trail ride that I know of and he was just about perfect. Led the whole way, basically on the buckle, climbed some crazy hills, thwacked through some crazy brush, and he was amazing. By the end, he was even figuring out how to tuck his hiney under him, slow down, and actually use himself coming down hills! Yay! Sheesh this horse is like perfect. If only his body weren't broken! But really who cares...I am SO so so proud of him, I could just about burst. :) Hosed him off, let him sit under the fans, fed, gave carrots and hugs and scritches, fly spray, and turned him out. He's going to be a bit sore tomorrow I bet!

Also got his teeth done yesterday and it helped tremendously with his happiness with the bit. He was much much less fussy with the bit today. Yay again!

Do I have pictures... No.  -_-  and I brought my camera to the barn (my phone takes awful pictures) but I forgot it. Ugh. But never fear, we shall do it again and I will take photos!!

Need a breastplate to keep the saddle from sliding back to never-never land, and my girth is a wee bit too big--when we get those pieces fixed up, I think we can be on to regular work and starting to build his muscles back up. :)

Promised Photo Spam!!!

(or, yes I actually can ride this horse...)

River, his girlfriend Cheyenne (in the middle) and another sort-of-buddy

Nomnomnom GRASSSSS

Nomnomnom GRAINNNN--look how shiny!

I iz sad horzie lookz me I iz starvingz and they makez me work

We are off!

We back up!

Scritches for backing up nicely

We threaten to run over the photographer!

 *We interrupt this program for a public service announcement: Dear self, please close your fingers on the stinkin' reins, bend your elbows, and SIT UP!!*

Okay, on to our regularly scheduled programming: I have an awesome pony beast.

Hugs for good ponies, even if they choose said hug moment to be distracted

Wheee!

Your daily gratuitous cat picture

River's newest nickname: The Goose Moose.

No ride today, nice long massage and grain and back out in the pasture. Vet coming out on Friday to do shots and teeth, hopefully that will help him feel even better!

Ride!! and Contests

Yesterday we RODE!!!!!!

SQUEEE!!!!!

And we have PICTURES!!!!!! (well soon anyways)

DOUBLE SQUEE!!!!

And we have CONTESTS!!!!

YAYYY!!!

If you can't tell, I'm excited. :)  The Boy's feet are doing mucho mucho better so we went up and did a little mostly-walk-some-trot ride in the arena. They finally dragged it (!!) but there are still a lot of lumps and bumps and dirt clods, so less than ideal. He is still a tad bit footsore so mostly walking, stopping, backing up, and a little bit of trot on the long sides. He was very willing and happy though, and even reasonably light in the bridle--only rooted down and really threw himself on the forehand a couple of times, though obviously it gets worse with speed. Soo happy!!

And CONTESTS! It is contest time in the bloggy world apparently! So you should check out Nicku at The Polka Dot Periodical, and Amy and Steady at Slow and Steady Wins the Race. Because they both write awesome blogs about awesome ponies, and because we all love contests and free things, admit it! :)

The Brother hasn't gotten me the pics yet, but get ready for photo spam next post! :)

Back Out

Courtesy of Pinterest

 So I liked New Farrier better, anyways. River is still a touch sore afterwards, which I am not happy about, but I can't blame the farrier for touching his soles--he didn't at all, not even to trim the bars or the frog. Hmm, not sure that's my ideal, but obviously the Boy's soles are thin (though improving!) and we didn't want to cause him any more ouchy down there.

New Farrier also seems to be well-studied in all things horse lameness, and proceeded to tell me a bunch of things I wasn't sure I wanted to know about what else is wrong with my pony. Ha. What it pretty much all boils down to is that right side--probably because of whatever-caused-all-the-bangs-and-scrapes on that side (major old scars from his flank down to his rear leg), he is super stiff and sore and probably has some other stuff going on too. Basically all comes down to, he needs massage and/or chiropractic work and a lot of building up in that hind end before we can go about jumping and whatnot.

After pulling my hair out (WHY IS MY PONY MORE BROKEN THAN I THOUGHT?!?!?!), I finally settled down to business. ;) We both need to improve our fitness levels before we can go from so-so to good and on to great. For me, this means torturous boot camp yoga stretches, back exercises, and cardio. For River, this means massage, carrot (and other) stretches, and a cycle of hill work and ground work in-hand until his feet are back up to snuff, when we can go back to trail walks and riding.

So far, he is in love with carrot stretches. Haha. And he also got to go out into the big pasture yesterday--cue much enthusiasm because that means he and his girlfriend Cheyenne are back together again. We'll see if he remembers me at all after that. ;)