Green Bean

Here we are again at the weekend, it's unreal how fast these weeks are going by!  I feel like school always drags from September-April and once April vacation passes the weeks just fly by.  I went and rode Molls early this morning, and we just had an easy hack because her mouth still seems a little sore.  I have some photos but I'll save them till tomorrow :)

Instead I have a photo of my sister on Blaze

Then it was over to lesson barn where I taught three lessons and then rode Montana, who I've posted about a few times on this blog.  His dad, D, is away for work this weekend so Montana is all mine, and I plan on taking full advantage.  D willingly let me ride him today and I was very excited to get a schooling in on him.

Sent a photo of Montana tacked up in English tack to D, who replied, "He looks like he's wearing a man purse".  I die.

I am by no means a green horse "trainer" but I've worked with a number of green horses in the past and really enjoy the process.  It also taught me so much about Montana that I hope to transfer to D in his next lesson.

I had the BO take a video to send to D, and also to see how Montana looked.  Evidently I thought locking my elbows was a good idea...

D was happy with what he saw and now I can't wait to teach him again because I feel like I have so much to tell him!

Wishful Thinking

Several weeks ago Mollie became very fussy anytime I touched the left side of her mouth.  If we were just cruising around with little to no contact she was fine, but the second I took any sort of hold on the left rein she would really brace into it/contort her body.  While I chalked it up to Red-Headed-Mare-Syndrome the first time or two, I started to think it could be something else.  While Molls is certainly opinionated it wasn't a typical evasion for her, and the triggers seemed very consistent.

Our vet was out two weeks ago for her second round of spring shots, so I brought the issues up then, and she agreed it would be a good idea to have her teeth done.  So by 9:05 am yesterday, Molls looked like this:

Drunk pony is drunk.

The good news is, Mollie's teeth are in great shape.  The bad news is, this doesn't solve any problems.  Granted, she is a super sensitive horse and the vet did find a few "points" that could have been irritating her, but nothing crazy alarming.  On the plus side, the vet manipulated her jaw before and after the floating to see how her teeth moved against each other, etc. and Mollie had a much better range of motion after the float, despite the vet not thinking anything drastic was going on.  While Molls was drugged up she also got her up-the-nose strangles vaccine because she hates it so much. 

It will be a few weeks before I can really tell if the float made a difference, and in the meantime I'm also scheduling a visit from the chiropractor so she can be adjusted.  She does have a history of being tight in her poll/TMJ so the vet thought that might be playing a factor as well.  After Molls sobered up I hopped on with my super kewl clip on reins for a walk around the arena, and then outside.  Once again the WonderPony impressed everyone with her level headed-ness.  They all can't believe I can ride her around the "scary" woods in a halter, and then open/close gates from her back in the same contraption.  She's the best :)

Ugly neck is ugly.

And since I took the day off from work for this little appointment, I figured stopping at the beach before going home is in order.  I always forget just how lucky I am to have this view 10 minutes from my horse until I'm there in the middle of the day on a Wednesday in May and there's not a soul around.

 

 

I may or may not have forgotten a towel or chair, but luckily had a saddle pad in my trunk.  The epitome of equestrians getting shit done right here ;)

 

Weekend Warriors

Yet another weekend has flown by and I took zero horse related pictures.  Oops.

Saturday was lessons all morning that went well...  I think.  Somehow I can't remember but I feel like that means they must have been alright.  One of my students and I are friends on Facebook, so he noticed it was my birthday and brought me cupcakes.  Yay cake.

Went over to Mollie's barn and realized her gated community is becoming even more secure.  This horse.

Molls was the energizer freakin bunny during my ride, but I kind of didn't mind.  She was listening(ish) and wasn't really being naughty... just wanted to go go go.  At one point I was having XC flashbacks because she was getting so balled up at the canter it was reminiscent of how she used to get on the XC course.

Saturday night I went out to celebrate my birthday with some friends.  I found several interesting photos on my phone the next day, this gem included.  I have no idea how it got there ;)

Sunday was a (thankfully) short day of lessons (I may or may not have been feeling crappy) and then out for a birthday lunch with one of my students.  They really are the best :)  After not sleeping at all, then being in a food coma, I really did not feel like riding at all once I got to Mollie's barn.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day though and I thought to myself "How lucky am I to have a great horse just at my disposal" and made myself get on.

I was so, so glad I did.  It was just one of those rides where you realize just how lucky you are to ride horses period.  I put Mollie's flash back on kind of on a whim, and immediately wondered why I ever took it off.  She's always been fussy with her mouth and this seriously cuts down on that.

After my ride indoors I took her outside for a walk around the fields.  There's a small path around the field fence line that borders the woods and I hadn't been able to walk Mollie all the way around it by herself up until yesterday.  She was on alert, but super brave and listening to me the whole way.  She even bush-whacked through some fallen trees and climbed up a small bank billy-goat style.  And possibly the best part of all was when she let me hang halfway off her back to open the gate so we could walk down the chute back to the barn.  I'd like to see the other fancy dressage dumb-bloods do that ;)

Five on Friday

Five things I'm happy about this Friday.

1. This week is teacher appreciation week, so it's always nice to feel a little extra appreciated at work :)  Our principal provided us all with lunch today, but the thing that made me appreciate my job the most was something a student said yesterday.  I teach at the middle school level, and there is nothing middle school girls like to talk about more than boys.  Seeing as I'm the youngest teacher in the school, they find me most "relatable" (or something like that) so tell me all the various boy drama (oh to be in middle school again!).  One of my female students asked me if I had a boyfriend, to which I said no.  Then she replied, "Oh.  Really?  Because they're all missing out."

God sometimes I love my job :)

2. Tomorrow my sister makes a return to riding, and is taking a lesson with me!!  She hasn't ridden since the summer for a multitude of reasons and this will be the first time I've taught her outside of summer camp.  I'm super excited and hope it goes well!

I think this is two years ago... but there's the sister on Polly Pony.

3. Puppies.  I've been doggy-sitting some new pups all week and while I'll be sad to go back home tomorrow I'm very excited that I get to come stay with them again later this month.

Meet Oscar and Cookie Monster 

4. Friends.  My best/longest riding friend has moved home from South Carolina for good!  She spent a year there from school but decided she missed little Rhody too much and is finally home :)

5. Celebrations.  Tonight is my birthday and I'll be celebrating it by stuffing my face in a bunch of sushi and probably a large bowl/pitcher/goblet of liquor.

My favorite restaurant in the whole world.

VCBH: Here and Now

Yay for L and her endless supply of blog topics since I am in the throes of hellish work weeks and haven't been riding much.  

"What are you currently working on in your rides or lessons?"

Well I think most people who ride mares will agree... it's absolute impossible (and laughable) to get on a mare with a plan, and then carry it out.  Mollie will 100% laugh in my face and not allow that to happen.  So my rides with her vary by day, and what we work on greatly depends on her mood.  So I've decided to break my ride up into different "sections" and talk about what I may do in each portion.  Keep in mind I don't do these all on the same day, but there's lots of picking and choosing from my toolbox each ride.

Warm Up

- Lots of walking on a long rein, doing lots of loopy, lateral work to get Molls moving.  This is probably our most usual warm up.  One of the easiest ways to get Mollie focused is to walk her on a long rein and leg yield away from and back to the wall.  I try to fit in four or five leg yields per long side (leg yield from quarter line to wall, switch bend, leg yield back to quarter line, change bend, leg yield back to the wall, etc.)

- Super collected walk on short reins with lots of technical exercises.  Sometimes I get on Molls and right off the bat her front end is six feet under.  She can be sooooo downhill at times that I really can't let her just plod around the ring like that so I put her right to work to get her forehand up.

- Human lunge line.  Then there are days I get on Mollie and she's a freight train with no brakes.  I've learned that there's no use fighting this, so I get up into a light seat, shorten up my reins, and sit on my horse while she basically lunges herself around the ring while I stay out of her way.  She will literally trot and canter herself until her hearts content and once she's done she brings herself back to a walk and we can actually be productive.

But first, let me take a selfie.

Body

I'm calling this section the "body" of our ride because I relate all things to school and this would be like the "body" of our essay.  If I was writing one.  Which I basically am.

- Straightness: Lately in my riding I've gotten away from practicing "tricks" and am working more on straight, correct, riding.  It's amazing how crooked most horses are when you actually get down to it and discipline yourself to correcting it.

- Collection: Mollie would be perfectly happy to cruise around in her hunter pony frame all. day. long.  That would be fine if she was a hunter pony, but I demand prancy dressage-ness.  It takes tons of abs/core strength and control over my entire body to get her in self carriage but it's totally worth it.

- Suppling exercises: Anything under my "Exercise of the Week" posts are things that I regularly work on.

Fancy Prancing.  Ish.

Cool Out

Long reins, all the time.  Either just loopy figures (like figure eight circles) in the indoor or going outside for hacks around the property.

Fat horse makes fatter shadows.

Unicorns

This weekend I schooled my favorite unicorn.  "Pit-Pat" is an lesson horse in her teens and of unknown breeding, at least to me.  But go ahead and tell me she isn't a unicorn...

She even flies.  Maybe she's actually a Pegasus.

Please excuse my lack of release/blatant checking of my lead.  She doesn't quite have her right lead canter right now, so I was trying to get her to land on it.  All equitation went straight out the window.

I've been hacking her about once a week just to help her get back in shape and she is seriously the coolest little horse.  She trail rides like a champ and is crazy brave/bold.  Nothing startles this girl.  She's also the kind of horse that I can throw on a lunge line with a dead beginner and she carts them around like a saint, and then in the next lesson I can throw a more advanced kid on her and she rises to the occasion.  She challenges you when she knows you can take it and is one of my favorite horses to ride at the moment.

VCBH: Do-Over

From L. Williams : If you could have one do-over in your horse life, what would it be?

Looking back on Mollie and I's 13 years together, there are tons of things I would change.  I can't say I have any regrets, because I think everything we've been through has been instrumental in making us who we are today, but there are definitely things I would change.

The main one would likely be getting more serious about dressage sooner.  I absolutely loved my time dabbling in other disciplines like hunters, jumpers, and eventing, and Mollie adored it as well.  Looking back however, I feel like we basically got halfway decent at a bunch of things but never really great at anything.  While I love that I can hop on my horse and do almost whatever I want, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care that we weren't great at anything.

I think if I had buckled down harder, had a clearer path of what I wanted to do, and actually pursued getting help to get there, Mollie and I would be much farther along in our dressage careers.