This Time of Year

 Just some photos for you this week. I did have some adventures planned this weekend but the weather felt disagreeable and there's always another day.  After being spoiled with a cool and damp spring, summer suddenly arrived in the form of a very hot and humid few days. Everyone (ponies included) was melting. The humans were additionally sunburned and cranky.

Sophie also cranky. They spent Friday mowing across the street and she makes it A Big Deal every time. Mares, like why?  Luckily it is a big area and she gets tired of chasing them after a few initial laps. There is a natural ditch/hedge dividing it into two, so normally the boys stay on whatever side she's not occupying. 

Why not just leave her at home and save the drama, you ask? Because with true horse logic she HATES them but also is convinced she cannot survive with a city street between her and them. If we're measuring distances them across the street would technically be closer than their home grazing arrangements, but Sophie logic doesn't always logic:)

Sophie is normally the reason for the action shots of the boys tho ;)

"She sees us! Retreat!"

The vibe at home where they have their own space is much more chill. They're still pretty playful, but the roughhousing is getting less and less and they're acting more and more like grownup horses. Kind of sad in a way, but also not destroying everything they touch is nice.

This used to be part of my front lawn, but who wants to mow an extra half acre when you've got horses?

This time of year the vegetation is completely out of control.  I think in a perfect world we'd be mowing and weedeating twice a week but I don't have time for that.

My new coworker is so funny, she's like "I moved here last spring and thought everything looked so unkept and I was really judgey about people's yards and gardens. Now half my yard was been taken over by blackberries and I can't keep up and I think might just let it be wild"

Lucky for me welsh cobs are not fussy eaters and are not averse to trimming hedges and fence lines back, plus all those weeds and plants the books assure you horses don't touch.

Everyone had siesta afternoons this weekend. The boys were sweating just grazing in the field. I did get quite a few yard projects completed, but aside from the normal mowing and garden maintenance, it was mostly things that will be more exciting come winter (floodlights for the paddocks, a bunch of drainage pipe added, a few truckloads of gravel spread in the paddocks and some fencing replaced. When I put it like that it sounds busier than it felt!).

Summer 2025 Pony Plans

I'm in that awkward nowhere land of owning two year old ponies. They're good citizens for their age. They're also bored and smart little sponges. 

My own happy place for these particular 2 year olds would be to find things for them to do so they can be involved and challenged, but also keep it 1. Fun and 2. Not physically demanding.

Hanging out in the field of dreams

In an idea parsed out from a bigger conversation with the clinician last weekend, maybe it might be fun to teach the ponies some useful 'tricks'. Both to keep us all engaged and entertained, but also to challenge myself to being more precise and intentional with what I ask for. I've got really tuned in, sensitive horses, why not play with that?

Baby Pony Challenges:

- Instead of the standard taking a feel of the rope or verbal whoa or using my body language to ask for halt, what if I really refined it, even better what if it was something useful under saddle one day. Clinician's example was a deep exhale. From there, could we even refine it further to a square halt? My future dressage test self might like that!

- Same with 'go'. Does it need to be a pointing arm or 'chasing' body language? Could it be a small, specific sound that asks for 'more'?

- Come to me/back up. We practiced using little gestures. Hand up in your standard 'stop' gesture meant stay, standard shoo/go away gesture had him back up, and curling my fingers towards me had him coming to me. 

 - Teaching them to align themselves at mounting blocks etc, and reliably come when called. Sophie comes running and whinnying like we're in a Disney movie, Buck is a little leech as soon as he sees me and wouldn't THAT have been a nice feature to have installed with Reggie last weekend? Until then, I'm going to need to buy shares in Folgers :D

It's a pony leech, they attach themselves to you with their slobbery nose. They're especially attracted to clean office clothes.

Reggie giving a dramatic re-enactment of how catching him was going last week. It got worse before it got better, current status is I can call him and he'll (slowly) come if he's close-ish and put the halter on without dramatics.

The clinician (I'll call her B) comes to us via Germany. In a fun coincidence, once in Canada she had a job training, riding and showing for a Welsh Cob breeder for many years. So it was a bit fun that she immediately recognized Reggie's type and had an inkling that giving the pony a job and rules wasn't going to be nearly as important as teaching to pony to be ok with taking a time out and not trying so hard. She's also well aware of how surprisingly flexible and 'wiggly' they can be under saddle so there were a lot of moments on the ground where she was already trying to get me to be hyper aware of having him completely straight.

when the grass is so long you don't even need to stretch

I was contemplating taking Buck next month and alternating them, but we decided to just focus on Reggie for 2025, and I'll take home whatever I think I want to try with Buck and keep him learning in the background. Next year, they'll reverse roles. I like that because as she rightly pointed out it will be a lot more fun to just be consistent monthly rather than kind of being static every second month.

I really, really enjoyed her approach. If I'm honest, I sometimes I feel a bit like the square peg locally. It's always exciting when we find clinicians with a background in different disciplines and who are open minded to a variety of breeds, especially if they're willing to commit to regular visits!

Looking way ahead, if you've been here a long time you might remember the days of me living closer to the city and boarding and training with Eventing Coach (EC). I really miss seeing her regularly and part of my bigger long term plan is to find a way to get back in her area and on her schedule part time. Hopefully once the boys are ready to be going under saddle (and I finally have a new and reliable truck). Between B and EC and just owning some generally good ponies I'm feeling optimistic we're in good hands for the near future.