We're finally back on track and ready to G-O!

After having such a hard time getting an appointment for Poncho's teeth we finally got them done!!!! Score!

sleepy pony

Then the rain came. Of course such is out luck. After all was said and done there was standing water everywhere. Needless to say that majorly cut into our riding time. I did manage to have a couple of schools in the ring. One attempted hack on the trails (where we almost got swallowed by a pond, that wasn't supposed to be there).

Today he got his shoes put back on so I had a quick ride to see how he felt. Holy moly! Pony feels good now. With the teeth and shoes he's definitely feeling like working again. He's been much foamier since the teeth too! Drool everywhere. And today with his shoes he was moving out dramatically better, especially at the canter. It was to die for!

I don't even know where to start at this point.

Wow! Have I missed a lot or what?!

In summary Pony Man has been fairly fantastical lately. We haven't been doing to much because of some unforeseen circumstances, enter lost shoe and abscess. Booo hoo. However with the lost shoe we were still able to do some work.

We stuck to mainly walking and trotting we have cantered a handful of times. He had some mini bronc sessions very mini. But overall he put his game face on. He's been going on the bit fairly consistently - more than ever before. HECK YESS! I've been pretty much staying out of the ring. So it's all mainly been in the field and the trails. Which leads me to PONCHO has decided he likes trails. The other day he WANTED to go out on them.

As far as the abscess goes it popped out his heel. Poor dude he had been on and off lame a couple of times. But when I say on and off I mean like for 10-15 mintues on two different occasions. So I had no clue. He's not to pleased with wearing his little wrap and makes it known when I'm putting it on.

ALSO dude got a new rain sheet. Since he's outgrown all of his and they have been given to Midnite. He's getting a new wardrobe. So far we have his new Rhino Wug.

Settling In

The ponies are settling in quite well to their new home I think. It was touch and go the first day on what they though. Of course the one day it rains all day - with a lot of wind I may add. Combined it did not equal the most calm of ponies. However they held it together and didn't look like total out of control beasts. Success?

The next day when we got out they were running about having a grand old time. So I snapped pictures for a while. Then to wait them out some my mom and I went exploring on the trails around the property. Once we got back the ponies had calmed down considerably. So I tacked Poncho up and headed to the ring. We only did a quick ride w/t and the hack back the field. He was super duper for his first time down there. Not too spooky.





Monday I felt like death, my arms were going to fall off and I couldn't even put my car in park without my back killing me. So no barn.

Tuesday it was HOT by the time I got out there and the bugs were out with a vengeance. I still attempted to ride. We hacked some in the field which was not a raging success. I didn't think anything of leaving Midnite in there with us because why would she be a problem? Wrong. She was up his but the whole time or running at us on into us. FAIL. So we left the field. Rode in the ring for a few where he got a little pigheaded about falling in again. No surprise there. He cantered once - I didn't ask for it but it was nice and calm.  Then I rode down the driveway and back to the field.

Wednesday was an epic bug failure. I couldn't do anything on him. He was just hopping and twisting all over so I quit and called it a day.

Thursday I got there and someone else was riding his new pasture buddy. So he was back in with the ladies. I take him out to tack up and he loses his sanity. After several failed attempts I give up and turn him back out. Head back to the barn to grab some ointment for Midnite and the flyspray. Get back out to the ponies and Poncho is now lame. WHATTHEHELL! So I go back to the barn to grab bute and a halter to further assess situation. Although it turns out after about 15 minutes of me leaving him alone it was just a bug that got into his bell boot. 1g of bute wasted!Oh well.

Today I got a fairly productive ride in. Rode with the BO. In the field. W/T/C. Still didn't ask for the canter but he was just happy and wanted to go so I let him have some fun. I felt like I was 75% in control during canter - much improved. His trot work could have been smoother but he's not used to such a hilly area to trot. It'll just take some time. Ponyman just rocks. He's pretty much acting like a total rockstar. You'd never know he hasn't even been at this barn a whole week!

Such a superstar.

Poncho is such a little dude. I am just over the moon with how well he seems to be taking this whole adequan thing. He got shot number 2 on Tuesday. I gave it on the other side and he was even better than last time. He's just so grown up now. I feel silly for being so excited about how well he's doing.

In other news we also handwalked through the trails yesterday. He was a superstar. We had  a buddy which I think made all the difference with him. He did have a couple moments where he was on the verge of losing it. But held it together like a champ minus one little, mini, tiny bolt.

Also Miss Midnite was moving out much better on the longe for my mom yesterday post chiro work. Quite promising. We are just focusing on the quality of work she's getting right now and conditioning her up. It's so nice when something goes according to plan.

Not much accomplished, but none the less fun.

Last Sunday we had a nice ride in the outdoor. We did things a little different, we ended up cantering more towards the beginning of our ride rather than later. He seemed a bit more supple in the canter when we did it this way. Also we did a bit of polework.

Monday we took down the jumps down to set up some new pole patters. A nice circle, a straight line, and a zig-zag. Poncho was going lovely until he saw the blue gate on the side. Then he was quite determined it was out to get him. He was pretty much on the verge of meltdown mode any second. But I was so proud of him for holding it together - he kept his cool. We ended up getting some nice trot work over the poles, atleast when we could maneuver ourselves away from the gate. Silly pony.

Then I had a busy, busy week at work and didn't get back out to the barn until yesterday. I got a little over ambitious and wanted to go out on the trail. We did go out, but it wasn't pretty or productive. He was pretty spooky from a tractor at the neighboring farm. We stayed out for a little while. However I wasn't able to bring him around. So we left. I wanted to end out a good note so we headed to the ring so I could get him to gather his thoughts again. After I got him listening, somewhat there was another horse in the ring, we headed to the gelding field, FINALLY, to ride. He was super out there. Could not have been more proud.



Today I put my spurs back on. I did also order some soft touch ones since I know Pony doesn't really like my regular ones. However he did need to wake up to my leg a bit. So back on they went. Well I don't know what was up with Poncho but he had an attitude from the get go. We did some polework (like what we did last time) then just trotted around to loosen up. When I went to ask for the canter he almost immediately got 'tude. He got a bit bracey and the tried to throw in a little buck. Then I kind of went down hill from there. He didn't really want to stay in the canter when I got him going and he kept on bucking sporadically. I at some point took off my spurs in a vain attempt. He was still really jerkish. And he did still give me one real big buck, as in I almost went flying out of the ring buck, so I cracked him hard on the neck with my whip. He settled down a bit after that and we were able to get in some quality trot and canter work. I was determined we would end on a good note so I'm pleased it happened.

Then he got a nice bath and we hung out for awhile while he wore his cooler to dry off a little before turning him back out.

The week that could have been.

Even though I had plans for a wonderful ride in the big gelding field, that never happened. Heck I hadn't even been to the barn since Monday. Thank goodness I made it out today since tomorrow it's supposed to be nasty weather and I have no idea what Monday has in store for me. There was a bit of damper when we arrived at the barn. It turns out the barn manager left their blankets on all week - it was 60 degrees a couple of days. Needless to say we were beyond mad. Luckily the horses seem no worse for the wear. Poncho was slightly sweaty in his chest area but that was it.

On to the riding front. There were several people out in the ring so we headed to the pond field for a nice hack. Since it had been over a week since Poncho had a  serious undersaddle work out today was an "easy" day. We did little trot sets weaving in and out of trees. Up and down small, small slopes. And just walked around on a loose rein ambling around the whole field. The uneven footing took some getting used to on his part - it's been far too long since we were out there. Can't let that happen again. We cantered once, I didn't want to push it today, he l-o-v-e-d that. We were on the verge of galloping by the time I pulled him up. Silly pony. The mom, Midnite, Poncho, and I headed to the trails. Only on the front part - it was far too muddy for the hills. Poncho was super duper alert. It's been a couple months since the stars have aligned for us to get back there. Midnite was a bit more looky she even spooked once heading back. Once we were back in the pond field Poncho's ego got the best of him. He was marching around all proud for facing some monsters on the trail (lots of trash left on the side) it was beyond cute.

After riding we did some clipping on the pony faces. Poncho gets his beard off but I leave his whiskers. Midnite gets beard and whiskers off. I also got some ear fuzz (it was sticking wayyy out of Poncho's ears) out of Ponch's ears. He did not like that one bit. He got a little jerkish with me. But let me do it.

We turned them out for a bit sans blankets - but put them back on before we left since the impending snow storm will come before we could get back out to blanket. We're just going to have to be super on top of the blanketing situation from now on - had no idea she would ever do that.