Reminder: Check Your Hay

I've bought hay from the same guy for a couple of years now and loved it, so I was pretty excited when I got the news he was baling yesterday and we could come grab some first cut later in the day.

I persuaded G to help and we loaded up both trucks of beautiful looking hay. It wasn't until we were halfway unloading the first truck in the barn that I noticed one of the bales felt warmer than the last. Uh oh. Stuck my hand inside, and yep...hot in there and just a bit damp feeling. We cut it open to confirm, then went back through and found three more in that load. By then I was feeling paranoid about accidentally setting the barn on fire and returned the rest to the farmer.

No big dramatic story here, but it easily could have been. We only lost 4 hours of our day loading and unloading hay (and then reloading!) but it could have been worse. Best case it just went moldy before I fed it, worst case (and the one that scared the crap out of me given that one bale was almost too hot to touch on the inside, only a couple hours after baling) is it could combust and burn the barn down.

So, just a friendly reminder to check what you're putting in your barn this hay season. I was complacent given I've only ever got beautiful hay from this farmer before, and to be fair, the majority of what we picked up looked and smelled perfect.

Live and learn, I guess!

May Resources

I've been spending a lot more of my spare time at the barn and in the garden, so my media consumption is less than normal. Still, I have to do something on those long ferry rides every week so no worries about me breaking the habit completely!

This month I was watching:

- The Event Rider Masters. I really like the short recap shows, but they post video of the entire event too if you don't want to miss anything.

- Badminton Horse Trails. Believe it or not, the dressage coverage is a highlight almost as much as the cross country and kind of a gold mine of learning due to the commentary.

- Elphick.Event.Ponies She's got a 14.1 Welsh D she events at BE100. I'm sold!

- USEF Learning Center. Thanks for the tip, LWilliams! I haven't explored this one too deeply, but there is a ton of good content just waiting for me to have the time to view.

Text break, only because I love this picture of S

Reading:

- Forward by Natalie Keller Reinert.  It's free on Kindle Unlimited and is about a couple of eventers in Florida getting started in the professional side of the business . In the same vein, Down The Centreline by Hazel Beecroft. Also free. I'm grouping these together because they were well written (for books with horses in them :) and suited for adults, both feature some pretty flawed characters trying to be better, and both were centered around eventing. I'm not going to give either a rave review, but they are both a pretty solid choice if you like light fiction with horses in it and served me well enough for passing time on my ferry commute.

- Smoky The Cowhorse. I was wondering if this one would hold up over time for me. My childhood self loved it. Yep, my adult self still likes it too. Some of the terms used might not be socially acceptable today, but it's a book about a cowboy and his horse written in 1927, so if anything that makes it feel authentic for the time. This part stuck out to me, because these days you do hear a lot about how the old ways were 'bad' and the new 'natural' ones are good. Seems that discussion has been going on for a very long time:

"There's folks that's read some on how horses are broke on the range, and from that reading they get the idea that the cowboy breaks the horses' spirit, that it's the only way a wild horse can be tamed. What I've got to say on the subject if that's what's believed, is that either them folks read something that's mighty wrong, or else they got the wrong impression and misunderstood what they read; and breaking a horse the way he's broke on the range is about the same on the animal as schooling is to the human youngster. The spirit of the wild horse is the same after years of riding as it was before he ever felt a rope, and there's no human in the world wants to preserve that spirit in the horse like the cowboy does;--he's the one what knows better than anybody else that a horse with a broken spirit is no horse at all"

That's it for this month...it's a beautiful day out, so back to the barn I go :)

14-16: Sidetracked

It's been unseasonably hot, and G has been on vacation so the weekend evolved to be more about yard work and social outings than horses. It's all good though, we so rarely have days off together that I'm quite content to spend my spare time doing normal couple type things when we can. Obviously, since I am self boarding, we still spent plenty of time at the barn, though :) Normal couple's date night includes feeding horses and picking poo, right? Fly spray is a nice perfume, yes?

"Feed us already, lady!"

I have a funny story regarding all that, actually. We had to feed all the horses at the barn Saturday night, as well as go to a friend's (dressy) birthday dinner at a nice restaurant in town. I had it all planned out, wearing barn clothes over top of my nice ones so I could hopefully look presentable post horse visit. I was feeling pretty good when my plan went off without a hitch.

Until we got back in the truck and had three missed messages.

Our neighbour: "Um hey, so your cat is in our yard and it's bugging my dogs and I don't know what to do. Can you come get it?"

Our neighbours have 3 dogs that are quite frequently in our yard. Our indoor cat is not a fan of that and likes to scowl at them from the window.

So, it seems he snuck out and instead of embracing his freedom and doing normal cat things, he immediately went next door to get revenge. And yes, he chased her dogs and generally caused chaos. Also, we live on the exact opposite side of town than the restaurant we were due at.

Such a jerk.

At least this time we weren't late for dinner due to my horses?

I'm back home Wednesday afternoon and my horsey plans should return to normal. I signed Sophie up for an in hand trail class Saturday morning and I think that will be fun.

Days 12&13: Honeymoon's Over

Thursday evening, I kind of ran out of time and was only able to get the chores done and move Sophie to a proper field (life in the round pen is over for the time being. Yay!) It was just as well that I didn't make any bigger plans because between Sophie and her new neighbours, the hormones were running rampant. I've been spoiled with Bridget, I forgot how much I am not a fan of mare-y mares. The universe does like balance, I guess, because Sophie is of the peeing-everywhere-because-I-met-a-new-friend mare variety. Ah well.

Friday, I had a lot more time so Ms Sophie got to go for some longeing again. Her neighbours were hysterical about her leaving and screaming and running around, which didn't make for the most Zen experience as I groomed her and got her ready up at the barn. Sophie was decent, just a little worried. Our walk down the road was a non event - maybe she's the type that is a bit of a worrier but once she's seen it she's fine. Theres a scrap metal recycler and an auto repair place that have tons of scary things and noises but she barely looks any more.

"Something touched me!"

The longeing was a bit more eventful. Like all smart baby horses she decided to see whether she really has to do these crazy things I ask and some opinions were expressed.  We worked on having prompt up transitions, because there was a dog training class with some pretty excitable/loud puppies going on nearby and she desperately just wanted to stop and watch them. Sorry S, I'm supposed to be the most interesting thing in your life! All in all not bad for fourth time ever, I'm not fussed about "mistakes" at this stage, but am a lot more serious about being consistent that checking in for 10 minutes of work a day with me isn't an optional thing :)

Good girl

Yielding that left shoulder away from me. Progress :)

So interested in the puppy party.

Heading home, some bicycles came zipping up behind us and well and truly scared her. I've talked G into bringing his bike next time to ride with and around us so hopefully we can address that with a good experience.

She kind of lost the plot after that and just desperately wanted to het home to her new (now within screaming distance) friends. To give her credit, she was still very polite to lead, just obviously anxious. When we got back, I left her tied at our grooming spot up by the barn while I did chores and her energy levels went back down.

I feel like we're at the stage where she's comfortable in her new home so the true colors are showing themselves a little more. All good though, she's never really difficult or bad (more just obnoxious, lol) I wanted something more energetic and thinking than Bridget, and think with some further experience and miles S is going to be fantastic.

Pay attention in school, Sophie :)

Days 10&11

Whoa, this one got a bit wordy! I've reverted to my old ways and have lots of text and no pony pictures from the last two days. Compromise? I have some more pictures from last week I don't think you've seen :)

Day 10 was a work and travel day for me, so the ponies had a day off.

Another ferry ride.

Day 11: I had forgotten my longe line and whip at the club grounds, so that seemed as good a reason as any to take Sophie down there after work to play with a little longeing and groundwork.

I was so proud of her because she walked next to me on our really spooky road and stayed focused on me the whole way. I was able to keep a nice loop in the lead, and she was matching her strides to mine without any reminding.

I really need to trim her pony beard.

We still have quite a bit to work on groundwork wise, though. Like a typical baby horse, she gets a bit insecure or inattentive sometimes and suddenly wants to get into your space. She's not super bad about it, it's certainly not to the extent of bumping into me, but it's there and I want to encourage her to stay confident in her own space. Progress is being made, it's nearly gone when leading her but still reappears when I'm asking her to stand and she's feeling insecure about something...you know how it is, they gradually inch closer and closer if you don't pay attention. So, it's something we work on. She's also a bit sticky about moving her shoulders a la turn on the haunches, the hindquarters/turn on the forehand are 10/10 though :)

"Please we can be friends?"

Related to the insecurity and not giving the shoulders, I also notice her body often wants to be tipped in towards me. I could be wrong but I don't think it's a respect sort of thing...quite the opposite, actually! She's so interested in learning and being good, she always wants to keep an eye on me and so she ends up having her head tipped that bit towards me. Being a baby, sometimes the body wants to follow! I have to be quite conscious of not tightening and influencing her with the lead rope and instead using my body to be assertive about my personal bubble and where I want her to be. The longeing is helping because obviously I'm sending her out and away from me and she needs to be brave out there on the circle all by herself.

Sassy

She's doing great for her third time on a longe line and just one week back in 'work', but she was also considering her options re: forward yesterday and thinking about stopping all the time. She's naturally quite forward thinking, so that was a bit of an interesting development. Smart ponies testing options, I guess. Too bad for her that after Bridget I'm very conscientious about always having a good forward energy.

I think the next logical step with her is ground driving. I look forward to trying that next, once we've really firmed up voice commands on the longe...for now when I longe her I often drive her forward around the perimeter of the arena so we are moving around and not just static on a circle all the time. I'm hoping this will make the transition to ground driving a no brainer for her.

I promise I have a nice leather halter waiting for her...she's not to be trusted quite yet though as far as breaking pretty things.

Tonight after work, the plan is to ride Bridget and Sophie can just tag along and wait in the show stabling. That's historically been a big ask for her - she desperately wants to be part of all our goings on.  Then, I have Fri/Sat/Sun off. I'm loving my summer schedule!

Day 9: Bridget Lives Here Too

Bridget has been neglected media wise, but she's still here being Best Pony and taking part in all the adventures. I'm just not as motivated to post updates of Bridget seeing the farrier, longeing, going for a ride, etc for you because she already knows her job and does it well. It's maybe not as exciting as baby horse adventures, but she's very much appreciated! I hope I never take her for granted.  In the past week we've gone out for some solo rides, had a spa day, and went swimming at the lake with Sophie. She also got put out to a summer grass field later last week and highly approves of that!

Bridget is more about wading than swimming, but was a good sport for leading her younger sister into the water.

we've been spoiled with lots of sunshine and warm temperatures.

Unimpressed, this seems like work.

Next week I'll pony the yellow pest off of her...to be honest though she prefers heading out solo so I'll keep making time for those rides too. It's not that she doesn't like Sophie, but I get the feeling she finds her a bit tiring.

Day 9 of Sophie boot camp consisted of a super rainy, cold day. It felt a little surreal that we were swimming the day before! So, both ponies just got a short period out to eat grass, plus a spa day and a short walk around the neighbourhood. Sophie tried on saddles and I think I have one that will do the trick for now. Sophie's energy levels were pretty low and she was perfectly behaved so I didn't feel bad about her kind of having a slack day.

I tried to tame manes, but Sophie's mane is even crazier than Bridget's and she's not fond of me pulling it (and I don't blame her). When they are that thick, it's not that easy to make it look nice with the thinning shears either. I'm not a huge fan of long manes on my horses (I love them on everyone else though) so I'm thinking I'll keep to a middle ground where I try to keep it tidy but it's not going to be perfectly pulled and neat for perfect braids or anything (kind of like Bridget's) Thank goodness I don't do hunters :D

I'm back at work today, so both ponies get a day off.  I'm returning home for further pony adventures tomorrow evening. I'm trying hard to stick to schedule as if S was at a 'real' trainer. Fingers crossed, week 1 felt like a success - I managed to keep up on chores for both ponies (picking paddocks is time consuming this time of year when they are out on bigger spaces), get them both out regularly, and still work and have a personal life.

Days 7&8: The Baby Pony Horse Trials

We're all about trying to keep it interesting over here, so Sophie got up to a few different things over the weekend.

Admiring herself in the mirror

Saturday: Dressage W/T/C longeing.
Sophie processed Thursday's intro to longeing and somehow came out almost a pro on Saturday. Seriously, she had better manners on the longe line than many of the grown up horses I know. It's a bit freaky.
Pretend scorecard: Pony is green but willing, right bend not as fluid as left. Transitions prompt and balanced.

Studying the course ;)

Saturday: Show Jumping Trot poles.
Someone set up what was probably supposed to be a western trail or horsemanship pattern. I jogged and Sophie trotted through all of it like the good girl she is. It's hard to tell when I'm leading her, but she seems to have good instincts for where her feet are and lengthening or shortening appropriately. I think I'm probably good to start longeing her over poles.
Pretend scorecard: Double clear :)

Sunday: Cross Country  A roads and trail adventure.
Off we went for a hike to the lake, with the goal of introducing Sophie to water. It was another warm day and my husband decided to go in for a swim, and Sophie decided to follow him right in. I'm not sure it occurred to either of them that she might not want to, lol
Pretend scorecard: Double clear plus bonus points.

"XC day" was a success, I'd say :)

Day 6: Hand Me Downs

The second kid never gets the good stuff.

I'd like this picture a whole lot better if she wasn't wearing an ancient halter with "Bridget" written on it in permanent marker :)

On the flip side, having an older "sister" like Bridget means you have a lot of things you can borrow and try on.

Like this saddle! Checking the whole "wearing a saddle again" off my to do list. Sophie was skeptical of the saddle pad so I spent a little time with that, otherwise she was fine and we skipped the rodeo this time. 

Sophie finished out her afternoon by being nearly perfect for the farrier. Thank goodness, because I really wasn't keeping her toes short enough and needed the check in.

Ponies have the best dapples.

Onwards to the weekend!

Days 3-5: Life In The Pen

I realized after going through my pictures that Sophie's life currently consists of moving from one round pen to another. She's got two to choose from right now for turnout, simply because it's the safer fencing to introduce her to her new neighbours over. Poor thing, her recent adventures also consisted of me taking her down the road to yet another round pen. We'll let her out of jail soon, I promise :)

Life in the pen

Anyway, I thought I'd make notes for each of the next 90 days. Kind of as if she was at a real trainer's.

Days 1 and 2 I've already recapped and consisted of trailering and settling in, plus a walk down to the show grounds and a visit to the round pen.

Day 3: Day off.
 I had to travel down the coast and pretend to be an office worker for a couple of days (I self identify as a professional equestrian, however I am not good at riding and horses have sadly has never paid me a dime, so my resume says GIS Analyst,  lol) By all accounts, Sophie was a good girl in my absence.

So many ferry rides

Day 4: Eat your vegetables, Sophie.
 I got the ferry  home in time for a late dinner, and it became apparent fussy pony has been simply dumping her dinner bucket and not eating it. Do I mix it differently than the boarding barn? One of life's mysteries, I guess. She's a super picky eater, defying all the normal pony stereotypes. I was short on time so I wanted to just quickly run the rasp over her feet and she was an absolute monster about it. We had a discussion, I picked up the most offensive foot without drama, and called it a day. The farrier is booked for the weekend and Sophie better not get us fired.

Day 5: "Do you want a chain for that thing?" - the barn owner.
Someone was not on her best behaviour as I was leading her out the driveway. I've got zero time for that so by the time we got out to the road she was minding her manners again and I didn't need to take up the barn owner's offer. Sophie found a few things to be spooky at on our walk, but was generally quite brave. Once at the club area, I thought now or never as far as teaching her to longe. She exceeded all my expectations and tried her little heart out. Walk/trot/whoa both directions were pretty solid! A couple of little bobbles as she tried to figure it out but she was listening and calm and genuine, so what more can you ask for. We'll leave canter for another day - I was extra pleased with her given the fact it's a huge open space in there and the park was pretty busy with distractions. When we got home she ate her dinner with zero hesitation. Guess it tasted better today?

No actual pics of her longeing because I don't have enough hands.

I'm off now for a 4 day weekend, and have hopes of reintroducing her saddle and firming up the longeing concept. I'd also like to get her out on the trail by ponying her off Bridget. I'm really enjoying having a plan and some goals to work towards again.

Day 2

Day 2 of Pony Boot Camp is in the books. I am off now to work today, then back home tomorrow afternoon to resume week 1. The tentative plan is to try for 5 days a week of pony outings now through fall. Sophie is 3 now, so I think it's reasonable that she have a schedule similar to Bridget's (except of course we keep things short and sweet for Sophie!) You can see from yesterday's picture that she's going through another big growth spurt, so obviously I won't be pushing for anything under saddle until she finds her own balance and matures more physically.

Anyway, today consisted of just walking down to the arena and reminding her of W/T/C cues in the round pen. Simple, yet this can be surprisingly difficult for young horses given it's a 15 minute walk down a surprisingly busy stretch of road, and away from all their friends.

I was proud of her for remembering her manners and leading decently, despite being quite up and spooky with all the things to look at. Of course the first vehicle to pass us was a loud truck with an ATV on a trailer behind it, but she was solid and remembers sharing the road with traffic last summer, it seems. She's actually braver than Bridget about a lot of things. Even though Bridget is quiet and doesn't react too much, she's not naturally confident and usually I am pushing her and providing the confidence, where Sophie's go to when she's unsure is to want to run over and investigate and take charge herself if she can.

Once at the club grounds, she was again feeling a bit anxious, but had no issues listening to me and I was quite surprised to find she's pretty solid with voice commands in the round pen...don't ask me how because I've yet to teach her to longe, and she's maybe been in a round pen 3 or 4 times for very short sessions.  Smart girl, or a mind reader. Or maybe a bit of both...I'm sure my body language tells her what I want and she's always watching me! I was especially impressed she was obedient to my requests for "whoa" and "walk" given she had plenty of energy to burn.

Fingers crossed, I'm still thinking I lucked out and got another good one :)

"Good pony!"

She's Home!

Loading Sophie in the trailer was quite comical.

Her first response was to want to spook and bolt far, far, away which had me questioning my decision to leave the driveway gate open (and my lack of gloves). Also, her sanity because it's not like she's never seen a trailer before. In fact, shes spent numerous hours on this very one. Apparently I give her a few months off to grow up and she's Wild Pony of The Raincoast, I guess.

Wild Pony is also super awkward and butt high. At this rate she might be horse sized by the end of summer.

When I opened the door, though and she saw Bridget in there she basically took one last look at her pasture buddies and jumped in the trailer to say hi to Bridget with zero urging from me.  She then proceeded to trailer without a peep to the place I board Bridget. Hopped of super calmly, and proceeded to chill out eating lunch in her temporary accommodations. Yesterday marked her third birthday, so perhaps she thought we were simply doing a lunch out in her honor :D

Been a while since we hauled the ponies anywhere!

All in all, it was far less eventful than I thought it might be. Given her apparent undying love for her previous pasturemates and the minimal amount I've done with her since last fall I thought there would at least be a lot of screaming and looking for them. Perhaps she's not as feral as she might have us believe, perhaps she's under the misguided notion that Bridget will be her new bestie (she may be wrong on that count, B was surprisingly unimpressed to be reunited with her and spent the afternoon on the opposite side of her paddock, ignoring the shared fenceline with S) :D

Bridget is trying the "if you ignore it it might go away" method of dealing with recent developments, lol

Today, I plan to get her out to the arena and see how that goes. She's a good girl, but a lot more sassy and disrespectful than I like at the moment, so we might have a few days of reestablishing rules and going over what she learned last summer and fall before anything new and interesting happens on the baby pony front.

Hey look, riding pictures! I do ride Bridget a few times a week, but our "dressage" amounts to this and we don't take anything too seriously anymore. I mostly just do a lot of bending and suppling exercise to keep her feeling good.

 I apologize in advance - I love baby horses and basic training puzzles, but this blog is probably going to be a little (a lot?) dull for those of you looking for lesson and show recaps...I simply don't have time to do both if I want to get Sophie out 5 days a week for baby boot camp and keep B in shape and commute for work. Give us another year and we'll hopefully be back to that life.