Making Time

I've been so consistently busy and stressed out lately, that I just keep putting off my rides. Finally this week, I told myself to stop. I pulled out my tack, set it out and was determined to fit in a ride. First, on Wednesday, I pulled Charmer out. I spent a while grooming, because he is starting to shed. Then we got all tacked up and headed into the arena. I forgot about the fact that we haven't ridden since before I got jumps & a harrow and they live outside the far end of the arena. Charmer practically had a meltdown about them. This horse is never spooky, so I don't know if it was him trying to get out of work or being legitimately concerned, but we spent most of our ride on that end making him deal with it.

Love that fresh arena

Once he settled, we got some good work in. But I can definitely feel how out of shape he is, mostly because he was on the forehand for most of our ride on Wednesday. Since we are both dreadfully unfit, we kept our ride to a pretty quick and easy 20 minutes of walk and trot. Charmer and I both have a tendency to get anxious really easily, so I am working really hard on "restarting" him with everything really relaxed and calm. Thus far it seems to be working, so hopefully we can continue that!

Telling Wonder kid how it's done
(I hope)

I didn't quite have time to pull Wonder out on Wednesday before I had to be somewhere, so he got yet another day off.

 

Thank goodness for the days getting longer, because I was also able to squeeze in a ride at 5:00 on Charmer on Thursday (which is after dinnertime and he wasn't thrilled about that). Again, we kept it short and sweet, but at least this time we didn't spend 80% of the ride spooking at some stupid jump standards! It amazes me how quickly he can start to get fit again too, because he was significantly less on the forehand for this ride than his previous one. Okay horse, please don't get fit so quickly, I've got to catch up! 

Learning how to pose!

And because sunset wasn't until 6:45 on Thursday night, I was even able to put in a quick ride on Wonder kid. His ground manners have rapidly improved over the last month, which is good, because I don't have anywhere to tie when I tack up! He was very polite to be groomed and tacked up, except when I tightened the girth once and he tried to bite me. Oh well. Other than that he was a perfect little angel to be tacked. He knows that the better he is, the more peppermints he gets, and peppermints are life. 

Still getting used to these ears

He also had a complete meltdown about the jumps at the end of the arena, but he got over it in about 5 minutes for the most part, other than continually throwing side eye in their direction. We got a nice loose rein walk warmup, and he is definitely starting to stretch his topline just a little bit more - which is great! Instantly, there was tension when I picked up the bit however. His teeth need done (hopefully next week!) but he also seems distrustful of contact. Not sure if that is due to teeth, racehorse history, or something else, but whatever it is makes him really wary of the hands on the reins. I worked on serpentines & circles with him for most of the ride. A good amount of trotting and just working the whole time on letting him relax and go forward, not turn into an up&down ball of energy. We got a handful of really nice steps with him reaching into the contact. 

He also has a tendency to start getting his legs moving faster than the hamsters in his head can keep up. I have to be really really purposeful in my posting to keep him from "running away" in his trot. This is something I pretty much have never had to do with Charmer, so its an interesting contrast between them. Both horses are very different rides in a lot of ways, which is going to be great for my riding, but it is also pretty difficult at times. I am really enjoying figuring out how Wonder works.

Sleepy

Hoping to keep fitting in more rides over this weekend, and into the coming weeks! Feeling good about finally getting back to a little bit of a routine.