First Bareback Ride...

Sunday evening. :) Went something like this...

Friend: Want to go trail riding with me?
Me: ARE YOU KIDDING ME I NEVER GET TO RIDE WITH ANYONE!!!  Yes.
Me: [takes River to barn] Now buddy we are going for a little ride before we eat.
River: Urhm, I don't think you asked me about this.
Me: Bridle, saddle pad...saddle? Um, ah, saddle? I don't know...want to ride bareback...don't have tights...jeans rub saddle...Bareback. With a saddle pad because your back is still all spiny!
River: Yes, I keep it that way so you don't ride on it--what are you doing?!
Me: Laying across your back to see if you're going to freak out. Now calm down.
River: WHAT are you doing.
Me: Bridle!
River: I'M A GIRAFFE!! Oh never mind.
[bridle goes on. We walk outside.]
Me: Now let's see if I can get onnnn [enter 5'3" me trying to scramble aboard 16 hh pony from a very short mounting block: reason 101 to train your horse to stand still for mounting...] There we go.
River: Um what is this?! Who are you?! What are we doing?? I-am-going-to-walk-very-fast-somewhere-surely-that-will-FIX IT!!
 Me: La la la you aren't too bad to ride bareback.
*Meets friend, who is walking*
Friend: So Chico has a stone bruise, won't be able to ride.
River: I TOLD you this was a bad idea!

We went for a little short ride anyway, up our conditioning hill. No pictures--sadness. But it was fun, and he was great!

River Stats :)

Evading homework on a Saturday night by looking up info on my bestest Buddy Boy...

Wish I could see his videos without paying... :)

I also found an old ad for him--wonder if the phone number's still valid?? I keep waiting for the guts to try, lol.
http://www.horseclicks.com/great-horse-needs-loving-home/horses/314754?op=photos

Wish I'd found him when he was free...haha! 

Doesn't matter, though--he's where he's supposed to be right now, and he's keeping me sane. That's worth any price you could put on him.

Best Kind of Medicine

 .....as we all know, is pony medicine!

I suppose I probably shouldn't go on a rant here about how much I don't like school at the moment. Fall is finally here and I have been looking outside at things like this:

Through my window, it's sunny and blue sky!

But instead of going out and riding all day, my life has been 16 credits of class time, 15-16 hours of work, and 25 hours of field experience. Want to know what that looks like? This:

Books. Papers. No pony. Ugh.

 However fortunately my pony needs to eat! And even more fortunately I have a wonderfully supportive family that understands my immediate need to rush out to the barn when I get out of class/work/etc. every day around 5! So this week we have actually gotten two, count them, TWO rides in. Plus groundwork and lots of eating.

Sunday we went on a trail ride, all by our two selves. I tried to take a picture beforehand but this is what I got:

Whatz that mom, feeeed meeeee

Eventually he did stand still and look sufficiently decent, so here you have it, the OTTB: The Ultimate Crossover Vehicle!

We rock the mismatch trail horse/hunter pony look.

Except said "hunter pony" needs to be a wee bit fatter to really fit in in the hunter ring...however I'm personally quite happy with his weight and for the sake of his joints don't want him too fat!

Today we did hill trot sets! Not too many as the poor lad is quite out of shape (not even going to mention his rider), but we enjoyed ourselves and proved that until the sun starts going down really early, we can indeed still ride during the daylight. Woo! River is really a trooper about going out by himself--so proud of him. Rather proud of both of us at the moment, actually. ;)

Got an exciting (horsey) opportunity coming up on Sunday, so may or may not end up actually riding my buddy. Maybe we'll ride tomorrow, though; and you can be sure I'll be getting my River therapy every day, one way or the other!

Schedules

Hah, my schedule is I.n.s.a.n.e. And I had just got a lovely schedule figured out for River--school Friday, trail ride and/or break Saturday, school Sunday, lunge/groundwork Monday, break Tuesday, trail Wednesday, massage/break Thursday--and then my field experience (where we go out in classrooms and practice our teaching) got switched around and I have no free Friday afternoon now until 4 or 5, at least until early November. UGH. So I have to rethink the whole River-schedule thing. I think we'll go and ride in the dark sometimes :P

Thursday was massage day. River really got into it and I got some really good releases out of my work on his shoulder/neck/face area. He is learning how to stretch into the massage and get himself an even better release--really fun to watch. Smart little cookie. ;) The unfortunate thing was that I spent so much time on his front half that I didn't really get to spend a lot of time on that all-important back half. I will have to start giving him mini-massages on that neck/shoulder area more often--he had a lot of tight spots.

Friday I did homework so just worked on some sidepass/Sideways Game on the ground (he did really well for his first time ever, caught on quickly), and today it rained and the neighbors were shooting so I didn't really want to wander up by their place to get to the trails. :-/ So River just got his yums and turned back out. He is continuing to gain weight slowly but surely (!!!) and is really looking good. Shed out all his sunbleached hair and is looking super shiny and handsome. Even some faint dapples showing up! ;) Need to get some new pictures so we can compare!

Bye Bye Facebook

Hello horses!

I disabled my Facebook today.  Yeah yeah I know, who does THAT these days?! But I just have to have more time and I knew it was sucking out my time, so you do what you gotta do.

River had visitors today--a couple of friends. The wife is a vet tech/massage therapist and the husband a barefoot trimmer/saddle fitter. Because they are amazingly awesome they gave River a once-over for free!! :) So he has nicely trimmed footsies that I didn't have to trim (woo!) and I have more stretches and exercises to do for his hind end. The only downside was that I didn't have my saddle out because we had the back of the car filled up with a dog crate, so I didn't get a free saddle fitting. :( However I did get lots of tips. So all good!

This afternoon we went for our first solo trail ride! River was a trouper--probably would've been even better except that I decided to do some trotting and that hyped him up and he started spooking at things. Lol. So we just walked after that. His feet did really well...he's still a bit ouchy on the big 1" gravels, but the little stuff he's fine with. Our ride today was around the edges of the pastures on the grass, just in case his feet were a bit sore from his trim, but I didn't notice any difference. Yay!

We are going to be riding mostly solo from now on I guess--the Brother has school so that is that. I have my phone and my phone arm strap, so unless something truly awful happens I should be okay. Looking forward to riding more! :)

Groundwork and Allergies

River apparently has an allergy to his fly spray. :( I was using the Pyrhana stuff and noticed that his skin was starting to scab and peel randomly at his elbows. Tried putting MTG on it and no improvement. In fact it got worse and started spreading to his neck/chest area too. I looked it up and found that scabby, peeling skin (if it's not rain rot) is often a symptom of fly spray allergies. So I rinsed him off thoroughly and stopped the fly spray, and what do you know?! Two days later he is nearly 100% in the skin department.

The flies are still AWFUL though, so any suggestions on fly sprays for a moderately sensitive-skinned horse are welcome! I'd get him a sheet, but I'm pretty sure he would destroy it in the woods, and being in during the day isn't an option as I can only go out once a day. I know the spray doesn't work all day, but it helps me feel a bit better at least!

We've been doing groundwork only because of said awful flies and lack of fly spray--my idea of fun is not being on a horse that's getting bitten by a horsefly. But on the ground The Buddy is fantastic. :) He loves loves lungeing. Weird but true. I think he just likes moving forward, period! I need to get some poles and start lungeing him over poles and doing some more advanced/creative groundwork; he's definitely ready for it.

Always Learning

Had someone comment on my Facebook today saying I needed to get a school horse so their daughter could take lessons from me...aww. I feel the love! :)


Really though, I have this conundrum these days. I am at the point where I could give lessons to beginners--and when they got too close to my level for my comfort, I could happily hand them off to Coach!

But I really don't feel like I could or should, even if I had the horse to do it (River would be great for intermediate and up, but he's got too much "go" for beginners in my opinion). It doesn't matter that I've ridden for close to eight years regularly, ten off and on. It doesn't matter that I've ridden a great many of the problem ponies in the book, more or less successfully, English and Western, sale horses, school horses, and privately owned horses. And all this is not because I have yet to show or compete. I'm of the opinion that competitions only demonstrate a tiny part of what you might be.

It's because I still have so much to learn. SO much. I feel like I'm just scratching the tip of the iceberg that is horses, and I love it, but the thing is, I'll always have so much to learn! I love that, it's one of my favorite things about training (anything, but at the moment horses)--you never, ever quit learning, or at least you shouldn't. But it doesn't make me feel qualified to "teach" anything!

So I responded to the comment saying that said daughter should "come and meet" River anyways. ;) She could sit on him anyway...that's enough to get the Horse Bug going if it's in there! Which is always my goal for us humanoids! :) 

Not much going on, feeding the pony, going for walks, teaching him tricks. Ha. I'm usually not one to hand-feed much, but River loves his carrots sooooo much that I really can't resist. :P Currently he is learning to bow (sort of; put his head between his front legs anyway), stretch both ways, and give me a "hug." Cheesy yes, but he loves it. Haha. And it stretches the muscles, so all good!

Working on ways to ride more often. There's usually nobody there when I go out, so I have to ride alone...I'm reasonably positive nothing major would happen, but you never know...so just figuring out the safety stuff. Once we get that figured out I'll set up a schedule (I'm obsessively scheduled during school, so yeah...) and we'll be riding more often.

School is full speed ahead and a bit overwhelming but thank heavens for the ponyface; he's keeping me sane. The one big benefit to having him in a self-care place a drive away...I have to take a break every day and just do what I love. Usually the break turns into most-of-the-evening but it's all good. :) I'm feeling better this semester than I ever have and that's worth it.