Partial Clearance

One day I'll have a better schedule for posting updates! I'm now in a two week frenzy of packing, Rolex, moving and then Kentucky Derby. Maybe by the end of May I'll have an ounce of sanity, but not likely. My June vacation / time off is looking better and better. 

In good news... Echo has farrier AND vet clearance to start ground work! My farrier was confident she would be fine two weeks ago when he was here to trim / reshod but I was hesitant so I put off talking to my vet about it until this week. Today marks week 8 post injury and my vet agrees that if I go slow she should be fine and just to let her tell me when she's had too much. 

I'm going to go as slow and light as Echo will allow. She's going to be her beastly self.  I figure I'll start with 10-15 minute walk and trotting on the line and slowly build up from there. Maybe building up time first and then attempting cantering and then going to tack and side reins etc. 

Sorry hoof is kind of dirty... I had hard time getting it cleaned up yesterday!

Time Change Hangover

I really need to be better about posting updates on my day's off work. However, time on my laptop when the weather is so nice is limited so yay for lengthy Tuesday updates. Also I feel like I got zero weekend time and time change has thrown me completely off. At least I come bearing pictures and/or video. Videos are from Instagram so I apologize for the not so great computer quality.

Saturday the arena was busy so MareFace just got to go walk and trot around a little on her lunge line. She was not pleased, but she lived. Here are a few compiled clips of her from her first days of arena freedom. 

My unstressed mare. Thanks to someone at the barn for sending this to me Saturday.

Sunday Echo got freedom in the arena again where she just decided to run. A lot. She needed a good cooling out so we set out to walk the 'track' outside. I need to measure it but I've been told one lap is about 3/8 of a mile. We walked it twice so about 3/4 of a mile. She loved it, definitely in our new hand walking routes. 

Monday I met my farrier super early in afternoon (not the plan) and he threw a shoe back on Dakota. Dakota already inside and 65 degree weather? I knew I'd kick myself if I didn't ride. The round pen was dry except for a small area at one side. I put ground poles up against the wall to attempt to block it off and put Echo outside. I didn't want to witness her buck show and probable attempt to play in the mud so I went back inside to get Dakota ready to ride. Apparently she put on quite a show for bystanders... 

Anyways, I decided to attempt riding Dakota, and not just sit there and wander around. Holy... note to self, be sure to stretch again before riding, and probably after. Heels down? Pfft. Shoulders back? Pfft. I mostly worked on staying in a steady walk rhythm, something we always struggle with. Then the dreaded trot battle. We did a solid 10-12 walk / trot transitions where the trot was his 'I want to be a gaited pony' trot. Miserable. FINALLY got him to move forward and not up and down like a gaited gait. Called it a day. By that time we were both sweating. However I hadn't had enough apparently because somewhere in my mind I thought it'd was a good time to attempt a solo outside ride. Luckily we both survived and he only had one moment where I felt him contemplating his options of how fast he could take off, but we managed to stay at a walk! Overall I was very happy with him ending on a good note, an achievement for us in a ride. 

Love any view that's between those ears. 

After riding I cleaned stalls and reeled in Echo from the round pen. It was warm enough for a bath finally and she was in dire need. I left for a bit to go visit a friends new mare but came back to the barn for the evening to finish up. Took Echo out for a walk and some hand grazing time. 

Hopefully tonight we'll have another hand walk outside before the weather gets crappy and cold again tomorrow. 

Free Lunge Freedom!

Why is the mounting block the safe spot in the arena? No matter if a horse has a rider on their back or not that always seems to be the hoover point! Now that Echo has a clean bill of health, her blood work came back normal, I have no hesitations starting up her training again. 

As always, plans change, this time thankfully its just slight. The person I first planned on doing 30 days with her is being kind of flaky on working with the horses she has in training right now and I want consistency with Echo. Instead, a different person at the barn is going to be working with us. In long run it's a better fit and she's the one who was going to help us out after the initial 30 days anyways. Biggest difference, she is an eventer! 

Anyways, the other night I put Echo in the indoor to free lunge her. 1) I wanted her to get a chance to become familiar with the arena again. 2) I wanted L to see her move. 3) I wanted her to move around because of the muddy fields and her paddock is on the smaller side. We let her loose and she gave her normal show of trotting and cantering around. Of course she sought out refuge from the mounting block to only quickly learn the mounting block can't save her when she has 2 girls wanting to make her move pretty! I decided to put a few ground poles up just to throw her off and make her think while she got her arena freedom. This only led to us setting up a small rail for her to free jump over. L was super impressed with how bold she was at a jump. Even if it wasn't pretty, Echo was super proud of herself for going over and would stop and look at us as if saying 'did you see that!'

Already have our first goal of the year. May 4th is the Thoroughbred show at Kentucky Horse Park. They have lots of beginner classes in just about everything so it should be a good time. Even if she goes and does an in-hand class I'll be thrilled!