Under the weather

Hmmm...if it's not one thing it's another. I haven't been able to work with Boo since the longeing session last week. I went out to hold the horses for the farrier on Friday. I was perfectly fine. Later that afternoon, for no apparent reason, I had this terrible pain in my left hip. I could hardly walk. Nothing unusual happened with the horses while I was holding them, so I don't know why I have the pain...unless it was from dancing the night before. However, if it was from dancing why did the pain not occur until Friday afternoon? At any rate, I went to an OHSET drill team to watch a friend and limped around like Chester in Gunsmoke! Remember him?

On Saturday it was a little better but not much. DH and I went back out to watch more OHSET. We spent the entire day out there. I would sit on the benches, and then stand up to stretch and then sit some more. Didn't walk around any more than I had too. On Sunday it felt quite a bit better, but still there was pain, so I decided not to ride. Monday even better still, but still some pain so no riding.

I had planned to go out today because I figured it would be even better today if not completely gone. That had been the pattern. The pain is about the same and I'd probably at least go longe, but last night out of the freakin blue I started sneezing and sneezing and sneezing. I now have a sore throat, headache, stuffy nose, and my ears feel like they have fluid in them. Arrgghhh! This is my first cold of the entire winter!

What is so strange about all of this is both maladies hit me completely OUT OF THE BLUE!!! No warning. Feeling fine. Wham! There's a problem.

This was suppose to be the month I rode regularly in preparation for the clinic with Tracey next weekend and Bernadine at the end of the month. As I said in a previous post "If you want to make God laugh...tell him your plans!

I know some of the other bloggers have been really sick, so I will count myself lucky if this is just a mild cold that is manageable in just a couple of days. Until then, I'm gonna go park myself on the sofa with my blanket and my corgi.

What was he thinking!?!?

Can ponies have temper tantrums...cuz I think mine just did. I managed to get out to the barn and get Bay taken care of early. I had planned to longe Boo on Monday, but Bay's injury put a hold on that, so I figured I would do it today. He needed a bit of a clean up so I did that and tacked him up, took the longe line and the longe whip and headed for the indoor.

Almost as soon as I attached the longe line he gave a little squeal and he was off! I don't like that kind of longeing. I like to start off at the walk, then go to the trot, and finally go to the canter. Normally Boo listens to me on that but not today. I managed to bring him back down to the walk but it took some time. We proceeded to walk and then to trot. Once I knew he was warmed up a bit I stopped him to attach the side reins. Then once again we headed out at the walk, then the trot. He was giving me a really nice and forward trot. I worked him in and out on the circle a couple of times then sent him back out and asked for the canter. That's when it happened. He started cantering, then he started cantering a little faster, then he went into an all out gallop and completely ignored me on the other end of the longe line. Around and around and around he went. I had to keep looking away from him to keep from getting dizzy. I kept asking him to trot, but he just kept right on doing what he was doing and he seemed ticked off! Since he wasn't listening I just stood there and let him circle around me at top speed hoping he wouldn't end up falling down. I let him run until he began to slow. Figuring he was tiring himself out I asked again for the trot and then an immediate WHOA!

I won't try to tell you he stopped on a dime because he didn't. It took some time to get him to slow the trot and then stop the jigging and finally to come to a complete stop and let me approach him. Once I was sure he was calmed down a bit I switched sides and sent him out again at a walk, then a trot, and finally a canter. We mirrored everything we had done in the first go round except this time Boo didn't start galloping like a mad hatter! I think he was just to tired. He used to do this to my previous trainer a lot. As a matter of fact he got so worked up he even started backing up on her and one time reared up and went over backward. With me he's always been a lot calmer. I don't know what his trigger was today. Maybe he was just expressing his irritation at having to work that hard. It's been awhile since I've longed.

I'm not going to stop, however. Next time I'm going to work the opposite side first. He's going to get longed at least once a week until he goes back to obeying my voice commands like before. It wasn't that the side reins were to tight because they were on the very first ring. I think he just had a temper tantrum. Today he was lazy Boo and he ended up working harder and longer than he would have had to otherwise. All his choice.

LET'ER BUCK!

DH and I love rodeos! We have an entire row for 2 days running at St. Paul. We usually always make an appearance at Molalla. We think the Canby rodeo is great! We've been to Ellensburg and danced in the arena with the Native Americans. We've done the Grandaddy of them all (Cheyenne Frontier Days) more than once. Every November we go to the Columbia Circuit Finals in Redmond Oregon. We have tickets for 4 every day of the Roundup! We usually try to go to a new one every year. I have Chief Joseph Days on my radar and the Calgary Stampede is a long held dream of mine, but my favorite rodeo by far is the Pendleton Roundup.

This year is the 100th anniversay of the Roundup. DH has been monitoring the progress of the new grandstands. While perusing the website he came across a souvenir that we just couldn't pass up. It arrived a few days ago.

LET'ER BUCK!

Want to make God laugh?

Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans! I've heard that before and boy is it ever true. My last 2 posts have been about planning my rides and what I intended to work on. I decided last night that I would longe Boo in side reins today. I've found he's better about giving to the bit when I do that regularly. He respects me more in the saddle when I work him from the ground, and I think it's good for his topline. We do walk, trot, and canter. We work on transitions between the gaits. We make the circle smaller and then larger so he gets his hind leg crossing under him in both directions. He works up a sweat. It only takes about 20 minutes.

As soon as I walked into the barn I knew my plans were in jeopardy. Bay was standing in the cross-ties and there were about 6 people gathered around him. The first thing they said was "we just called your husband!" No one knows how he did it but Bay had knocked one of his teeth sideways. It was sticking out of the side of his mouth like a teensy tiny elephant tusk. He let me look inside his mouth and the tooth was very loose and there was congealed blood around it.

As soon as I saw it I knew it was something the vet would have to see. It was so loose that one would be tempted to just pull it out, but then again I didn't know if it had long roots. It might be a lot harder than it looked. Who knew if it had broken off and the part I was seeing was only the top part?

So I called my hubby and he just happened to be on the phone with the vet. Hubby really had no idea what this looked like. He was under the impression it was just loose. I set him straight with my description and within about an hour the vet arrived. He pulled the sideways tooth and the one in front of it too. By this time Boo had chowed down on his dinner and I decided it wasn't a great idea to longe him on a full belly. Not to mention that I had been out there in the cold long enough to get that bone cold you get. The kind where you really need a hot shower to warm up.

I'll be going to the barn every day this week. Some of the days I will be going twice. I have to flush his mouth out with warm salt water and an antibiotic 2 times a day. No riding (of course) for at least 5 days. Luckily the mouth usually heals fairly quickly what with the wonderful blood supply it has. I'm thinking he'll be much better by this time next week.

So I guess I'll use all that barn time to take care of Bay and to ride and longe Boo. At least I plan too...hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

Sunday Stills

The assignment for this week was texture. I had fun with this one!

Saddle Success

Much better ride on Boo today!!! That is the beauty of riding. One day it's frustrating and feels difficult and the next it's completely different. This was my first ride since I had the shims put in my saddle. I worried it was going to feel wrong, but it never did...and the best part? No backache. Now things weren't perfect. We had to work at round but we did have some nice moments and I felt much more patient. That's always a good thing. I think some of my problem is my inconsistency with working Boo. I let the summer and how busy we were interfere and I still haven't gotten back to my old routine. I need to commit! I have a clinic with Trainer Tracey in a couple of weeks and another clinic with Bernadine at the end of February. I'm committing myself to working hard between now and those clinics. I want them to see progress! I'm going to sit down tomorrow and outline a plan for my rides this coming week. I want to get in at least 4 rides a week with the hope that I'll get in 5. I'm going to work on specific things each ride and use all those lovely books I have on my bookshelf to help me decide what exercises will help me accomplish my goals for each day. My ultimate goal is to increase the communication and harmony between myself and Boo to the extent that I can start riding in some dressage schooling shows. I am scared to death of showing, so that will be a bit of a challenge for me which I think is a good thing.

I went to Hillsboro today to have the shims put into my saddle which Bernadine recommended at our last clinic. I'm looking forward to riding in the saddle to see how it works for me. It will probably feel wrong at first, but I am sure I will get use to it. While I was there I looked for a loose-ring snaffle bit also recommended by Bernadine. Since they didn't have one in my size I ended up ordering one. I got a KK Herm Sprenger Aurigan. Spendy bit, but I think it's going to work out well. I ended up getting a new pair of black reins too. Tack shops are dangerous places for me to be spending my time as you can see.

Tuesday I had the equine chiropractor come out to work on both horses. I use to be a bit of a sceptic when it came to chiropractors. A few years ago Bay had some problems and our trainer at the time recommended Mark. That man worked wonders with Bay. I'm not kidding. I have been a believer ever since. I don't have Boo worked on as often as I'd like, but he gets a couple of spa days a year and Tuesday was the first one for 2010.

Before Mark got there I had a ride on Boo. We were working on our homework from the Bernadine clinic. Sigh...sometimes it just seems so hard. My legs were so tired from asking. We finally got the forward I needed but only after I had to smack him with my dressage whip (He bucked. He always bucks when I have to use the dressage whip for more than just a tap tap tap). Once he did what I'd been asking him to do I called it a day and took him outside to walk through the big puddle. We warmed up on a couple of small ones first. I walked over to the big puddle. He stopped. I gave him a long rein. He sniffed at the water. I gave him a nudge with my overly tired legs. He walked through the water like it was no big deal!!! I don't know if he's finally getting over his resistance to water or if the memory of the dressage whip was still fresh in his mind. I don't care. I'm just glad we didn't have to fight about it. It's not always like this. In fact most of the time we really have fun. Maybe we're coming up on a break through. Yeah! That's it! We are gonna take a giant leap in our riding relationship any day now. I just know it ;)