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What a stunning little chili bean.

I brought Tiny over to the arena. He's got itty bitty legs so the distance was enough to warm him up lol. We went right to trotting around in-hand and making sure we have ground manners. He was a little distracted my the horse in a round pen who's living in the middle of the arena but besides that he was good.

There were two jumps in the arena. One was two red blocks laying on their sides with a green pole laying next to it if you want to put it on the standards. The other was two blue barrels on their sides. I jumped him over the blocks a few times and then tried the barrels. He's never done something that wide and they were the same size as him so I had to let him sniff first. Scopey baby did it great :D I tried jumping him over the green pole with it on the standards but he kept doing a sliding stop. Looks like we need to get him used to scary fences.

The girls had a day all about mind things rather than physical exercise. I desensitized to the ScArY nEoN gReEn LuNgE wHiP, worked with Terry on backing up straight, and made sure they payed attention to the difference between swinging the whip and asking them to lunge. They were both good and I'm quite happy with the lick chews Dixie gave when desensitizing. I'll try and get the energy to ride them both tomorrow.

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I did the same ground stuff with Terry yesterday and the day before. The change? ScArY aBnOrMaLy LaRgE bLaCk WhIp!!! First day she was a reactive jerk and yesterday I could do anything I wanted, including bringing the whip to sit on her bum while lunging.

Today I was going to ride. I was just getting in the mood and then my mom points out the coming thunder and lightning storm >.> Sky is cloudy, dark, clouds are moving quicker than normal, its muggy, and Seattle is already storming apparently. So yay. I've ridden in bad wind and thunder storms before (woohoo Grey's amazing smarts) but I don't feel like dealing with that today.

Last time I did anything with horses in a thunder, lightning, and rain storm it was not fun. I had to bring three horses from one pasture to another, blanket them, feed them, and deal with Terry trying to run me over and drag my because she is sensing the next round of noise just moments before it happens. All of this while the rain is so heavy and thick that it hurts and the feed room is the only spot in the 24-hour-turnout pasture to hide in. Yaaaay.

So yeah... Not doing that again lol. I better get to ride tomorrow >:/

MY SON IS COMING TOMORROW

In other words, Rosco is coming home tomorrow morning after the farrier trims his feet. The anticipation is killing me. Help I'm dying.

Rosco came this morning!

I thought Dixie would be his buddy. She's always the sweetest, gentlest, most submissive mare ever. Today? She got a stick up her butt because she charges Little Coltrane (Rosco) from the other end of the pasture. I had to act as his dad every time I went out there.

Tiny, as expected, is in love. They are now best buds and are comfortable playing in the water troughs together.

Terry is coming around. She was a jerk just like Dixie at first. Then, out of nowhere, she started jumping in front of Dixie when that little devil tried to attack Rosco. I took Dixie out to lunge (she was such a dick >:/ ) and my mom watched the other three. They shared a flake of hay like a perfect little family <3

So that's all good. Then I start thinking about riding. Hmm... I should probably go soon. I thought. *BAM* Terry flicks her right front leg up as if she's trying to get flies off her tummy. She ends up just holding it in the air and looking at me. She did that once before but I thought she was just being dumb. This time after doing it she only put her leg half way down. In better words, the front of her hoof was flat on the ground while her heel was pointed up.

Well that's weird.

Let me take a look.

Oh no..

Blood.

Where is it coming from?

Not dripping from up the leg..

Trace back down..

Oh yay.

I couldn't see because of a build up of mud but I could tell the blood was pouring out of her hoof area. Although I felt bad because I knew it hurt, I took a soft brush from the feed room and brushed away the mud.

Problems of a horse with a naturally extended gait - Running in the pasture with the new horse? Whoops! Looks like she's just going to smack her hooves together and rip open the spot right where hoof meets flesh.

So that's fun. No riding until she's not cradling her leg ;-;

Rosco has settled nicely though :D We’ve been working on moving off pressure better, lunging (just getting the cues down), and messing around without a halter. I nominate him for best foal award!

I rode her today and ooooooh she was smooth. Not going to lie, I was a bit distracted with the song Wolf In Sheep's Clothing (Set It Off) playing in my head, so I didn't ride as well as I could have. I also forgot my tall boots so I used my mucks. AND I had my phone at the front of my belt so I could record. Lemme tell you, trotting with your phone is terrifying.

I let her walk loose rein like always. When I picked up the reins she felt a little heavy but she soon softened up nice and pretty. After a couple circles and halts we moved into a trot. Before Terry went lame she healed a bit so I took her to a lesson. (Side note, she was sound but was just a tad sore tracking right so we mostly went left. Obviously I would get off if she was in pain.)

At our lesson we picked her head up higher and got as slow as possible in the trot to get her hind end engaged. We worked on trot-walk transitions without her shifting her weight and got her in a better balance. So, that ride being AWESOME, I definitely wanted to bring in what we practiced to our regular work.

I did lots of 10 meter circles at the trot, getting her to slow, lift, and use her hind end. She wanted to push her shoulders out and turn her head in so I had to repeat multiple times to get her going correctly. I found that sitting the trot helped her a lot and I was actually much more steady. Usually my sitting trot is a mess, but I had watched a lot of Instagram videos of dressage riders and I kept picturing their amazing seats. It surprisingly helped and I felt like a pro for a moment lol.

The canter was a bit... Disorganized... But still good. I think that my phone was freaking me out and getting in the way of me rolling my seat correctly. I was just too far behind her. After not doing so well for a moment I realized my problem and forced my feet down in my stirrups, causing my heel to be my shock absorbing bit. If you don't already know, putting your weight in your heels for sitting trot and canter puts you in a great spot to move with your horse correctly. In this case it helped me reorganize and get myself together to ask for a collected canter correctly.

Overall, it was a great ride. The main issues were her shoulders bulging out and some rushing/head flips when trotting a corner I had just asked her to canter in before. We've got to work on our tempo and listening to half halts better. I've got to give her some wiggle room though; she had time off and lost some muscle.

I'm excited to get her back in the groove. If I'm lucky I can get in a cross country school and take her to a cool derby I found, so fingers crossed! Of course, if she isn't prepared than we won't go, or I'll just do light schooling on jumps.