Ride Time

Must. Start. Writing. More. 

So this past Sunday L and I went out for a Dakota / White Prince trail ride and then the plan was for me to ride Echo and her to ride her other horse Gio for some arena time. I knew getting ready for the ride Echo was in a squirrely mood. Finally got her tacked up and L jumped on her first to see how she was going to behave overall. Walked and trotted around and she was handed over to me. For me, I just knew I needed to get back on her and remind myself I'm able to ride her, so I planned on just working on some circles and lots of stopping > walk and walk > stop transitions. 

Tuesday was time for a L ride and going into it I could tell Echo was in a much better mood. Looking back all the horses were a little wiggy and off on Sunday so not worried much about riding Echo again. I usually stand on the rail to watch L ride, but decided to stand in the middle - which caused a great distraction for MareFace, but she got over it and realized she had to listen to Lauren. I set up two single ground poles just to get her walking over them again under saddle. Finally L got her to canter both directions on the correct lead, though picking up her left was more difficult. She went over the poles I had set up without blinking an eye. After L cooled her out we started pulling her mane. It's super long since it hasn't been touched since I roached it last summer. I'm never doing that again on her!

Hopefully going to do another ride on her tomorrow, whether it's myself or L that will ride her I'm not sure but someone will be!

I have dubbed this the "Did I do well mom?" Look

Catching Up: Dakota

Oh Dakota... 

Dakota is on delayed evening turn out. Despite me cutting his grain to almost nothing, supplements to prevent weight gain, etc. Mr Dakota has become robust and he's quite happy about it. The new joke is the two of us could go live in middle of Siberia and come back 6 months from now a healthy weight. 

So... he's not allowed to go out before 6:30-7pm when most of the horses are out by 5:30. It's not a huge difference but it's a little less grass time. I may have to try a muzzle again, but I have a feeling one of the other geldings will be happy to assist him in removing it. 

I've been taking him on our trail ride / hacks with L and White Prince. Both like each other's company. We tried taking Dakota with one of L's other horses before he was sold and Dakota was a complete tool / jerk, worse than normal. 

Best part of Dakota these day's is he's back to not eating hay in his stall, during the day. Probably because he's so stuffed from grass. He apparently sleeps all day. 1 flake of hay is now lasting 4-5 days... and yes the hay smells perfectly good and isn't moldy, he's just a grass pig. 

Photo from last night to show off his weight 'condition' - poor Dakota. 

3 Month Hoof

Yesterday marked the 3 month mark since Echo's hoof injury. Time flies when you're having fun? Something like that. 

Note the growth! This is the inside off the hoof where the damage had been done. There is some proud flesh there but 1-2 more trim's you might not be able to see any remains of it. The shoe will probably come off on the next farrier visit. 

The outside of the hoof. You can see the ridges and bumps. It's probably going to take a while for the hoof to look completely normal but we're getting there. The coronet band is new growth - hence the nice whiteness of it. 

Last Friday was her first day out on her reseeded grass paddock, which she obviously loves. She's only on it 2-4 hours right now so she can be adjusted back to eating that much grass since she's been on a drylot almost since she left Lexington last October. 

Shes Back!

I've failed to get pictures, but Echo has officially been ridden twice now! L took her out on Friday and again Monday evening. 

Friday they stuck to the arena, doing walk/trot, some circles and stopping and starting. It was mostly a ride to see how she would handle it. Her hoof placement looked normal, other than her usual annoyance with the bell boot that's still over the hoof for extra protection. 

Monday L was eager to push Echo to see what she'd mentally handle, so after a few rounds of the arena, I just heard the words "this is boring" so she took her outside to ride around the grass 'track' area. I had told her about my outside riding attempt with her back in Michigan so I think she was secretly hoping for some bucking action. Echo however was her normal rock-star self and only had a few moments of not wanting to go forward. 

She got trimmed / reset today so I'm anxious to see how she progresses from here. I promise pictures of her next outing. 

Catching Up: Rolex

Ahhh it's already been 2 weeks since Rolex Cross Country day. I'm so behind on the blog world. I made it to the horse park in time to see the first rider mid course, so about 11:10am. As I put in my update from yesterday, I hiked around the horse park way too much and was sore, sunburned and dehydrated. So worth it though! Enjoy the pics!

Catching Up: Me

I'm alive. I've officially moved. Rolex X Country day did a number on me. I think my pedometer thingy topped out at me walking 10-11 miles on the day. I was beyond muscle sore for the next three days. Bad timing for moving. Somehow though, I got it done. 

Happy cat's on leashes! Great distraction for when I needed to be packing. 

I only lightly hit one curb driving this beast moving day. 

Now the fun part is going to be getting back on track all around and settled into the new place, unpacking, and looking ahead as to what the next 6 months is going to bring. 

Also yesterday marked my one year anniversary of being back in Lexington. It's been a crazy year of bad decisions / learning moments sprinkled with the occasional good thing I've done. Lets just keep myself and the four furry creatures healthy for the next year and I'll be happy!

Catching Up: MareFace

Hello blog world. Haven't completely forgotten about you. Going to do my best to update everything over the next couple of days so I can go back to regular post going forward. 

The beastly Echo is doing as well as I could hope. We've had quite a few lunging sessions between L and I. L has spent time with her just playing around getting to know Echo - something we all know MareFace needs. L is equally as stubborn as Echo and doesn't let her get away with her lunge line antics, super amusing and impressive to watch. 

Both horses were scheduled to be trimmed / reset today but moving cost has me delaying it an extra week, pushing them to a 6 week trim instead of 5. Not overly worried about the extra week since 5 seemed a bit early to me, but you can see they both are ready. Yay for fast growth in the summer. Her hoof is looking great while she's slowly getting less aggressive each time I pick out her injured hoof. 

Weight gain, despite as much hand grazing as possible, seems to have stopped. Still without our rice bran pellets but I think the temporary substitute I have her on is at least maintaining her at the maximum amount to be fed of it. May 17 is D day for her to go out in her grassy paddock - which has grown a ton and looks great after being mowed. 

We're no longer on any type of stall rest. She's been out in muddy paddock a few times and it's caused no problems so we're free and clear there! Which has made for a happy mare too, getting to go out nightly. Also off our calming supplement that I put her on to get through stall rest.