When I almost lost my ninja skills!

Last week I had several nice flat rides. Nothing spectacular. Nothing horrible. Nothing worth noting.

Yesterday however was all around an amazing ride, and I even almost ate dirt! I'll start off with Poncho had 4 days in a row off. Which means he's ready to rock and roll. He's a horse who doesn't handle the heat well but it makes him mega hyper. We warmed up on a nice loose rein. I couldn't get him to stretch down at the trot even though I was practically riding him on the buckle. We did some figure eights to try and get his head in the game. No dice. So I decided to just let him canter it out. 7 laps in a row! Now this is a really big ring. At least 200 x 350 I'd say. And it wasn't a slow canter, he was booking it.

After he had that out of his system he was in more of a yes ma'am kind of mood. We did some nice trot work then I let him walk for a couple minutes on the buckle before we did any jumping.

I'm proud to say we have officially conquered the flowers. Absolutely no hesitation approaching them today!!!!

the oh so scary flowers!

 After that I was feeling a little gutsy so we decided to tackle this....

The first time approaching it from each direction he refused it (not too surprising from him). The second time we soared over it!!!!! I was on top of the world until mid-air I hear my mom in the distance yell woo-hoo and start clapping. The second Poncho landed he bolted and started bucking the whole way down the arena! I narrowly missed flying in a gate. Somehow I managed to stay on! Of course we had to try the jump again so he realized it wasn't the jump that was scary. Luckily no theatrics the second time around. What a goober.

After that I just cooled him, hosed him off, and let him graze for a minute.

I just love my Poncho man so much!

Why my horse always makes me laugh!

If you've read this blog long enough you'd know that Poncho tends to have gigantic spooks at almost nothing from time to time. It's no secret.

Well yesterday after a horrible day at work I wasn't even sure if I felt like riding. But when I got to the barn the field that he doesn't think is going to eat him was open to hack in! So of course I decided that I'd just hop on for a few minutes. We're walking calmly around the field, I'm barely holding on the reins, there's a lovely (slightly strong) breeze blowing...then I hear a crack and whoosh. Holy moly a tree branch just fell from the tippy top of one of the trees in the field.

(I can guarantee you won't guess what happened next!)

He just shuffled a few steps sideways and kept on going.

This from the horse who's determined the flowers are going to eat him alive.

A cosmic joke, or what?

I'll start this off by saying that I love, love, love to plan. Nothing makes me happier than a well laid out plan put into action. So yesterday I had planned my day out perfectly so that I could hack Poncho, ride Midnite, and do the hay all before dark. It was raining/icing in the morning but was supposed to be over by noon. I left the house right on schedule and got to the barn at a perfect 2:50.

After I got there I got all my stuff out and organized. Grabbed my halter and headed to go out and get ponykins. As I was walking a little bit of ice hit me in the face. Hmmm.....Then it started to just come down! So my plan went to complete HELL. There's no indoor and I don't have a waterproof quartersheet, or a quartersheet at all for that matter. Needless to say I had to ditch the plan to ride. Fine I suppose we're not in a super big rush or anything.

So I start soaking the hay. Wait the 10 minutes. Fill up the hay nets. Then the ice spontaneously stops. Of course! By that point I was drenched because I didn't have any of my rain clothing with me. The whole way home I was fussing at myself for not just waiting a few more minutes to see if it would stop. GO FIGURE! 

Poncho conquers the COWS!

Those are in fact cows right behind him!

That's right today when I got to the barn Poncho was near the cows!!!!! He trotted up to me looking all happy and then trotted back over to the cows, then looked back at me like "Look at ma' new friendz!" Go Poncho! Of course after conquering the cows he decided that a garage door opening today was earth shattering while we were riding. Goober.

Poncho and his hostage!

Whilst I was cleaning up my tack and what not's today Poncho decided he needed the attention back on him. So what to do in that situation? Abduct a broom of course!!!!!!

Taking the pressure off.

Since my last post I've adopted the thinking that for the next month Poncho can have basically a mini-vacation. Not that he's not in work. Just that we aren't "working". We're mainly just hacking and putzing around for a little. Since the time change and holidays (holidays @ work are a total bitch) I've been losing my mind with the mentality of "Poncho needs 5 days of work 1 day hack". Of course I haven't been able to keep up with that I get off work at 2. Get home by 2:30. Get ready for barn. Get out to barn by 3:30. Prepare said pony 4:00. Not much time left over for productive work when you count in warm-up and cool-down. Boo freaking Hoo. Hence the new mentality.

So since the BO's horse is away at training for a few weeks we have the other field open to hack in for a change of scenery. Needless to say we are taking advantage of it.

Wednesday was farrier day. Ben (the farrier) was running late and I didn't want to put Poncho in a stall (there was a "toy") so that he could freak out the other ponies. So I just wandered around the barn letting him check out whatever pleased him. Like a picture frame OOOOH AWWWWW!

It's magical (that's my mom in the picture she's just sitting in a chair under said picture)

Aside from our ride today we've been sticking to mainly walking around with a smidge of trotting. Today however I felt like some more speed it's a tad boring just walking forever! So we trotted a bit more and tried cantering out in the field, on purpose I might add. Poncho got a case of the zoomies then. He zigged and zagged and tried to bronc once. BUT his canter was much more open and free which was the objective. We just need to work on containing the excitement a little. (Not too much though I love how he's so enthusiastic about his work these days.)

Two amazing rides and those damn cows!

Saturday and Sunday I had two amazing rides in the ring. We spent our time really solidifying our straightness and bending. He was super duper. Even with many distractions and being completely alone up there. He was nice and forward. Going on the bit amazingly (even though that wasn't our main goal he did non-the-less 80% of the time). His canter work was to die for going to the left the right somehow has gotten a bit messy. He just doesn't want to stretch out and really zoom on like he does going left. Tracking left I could just ride forever and a day!

Today he started his adequan again. Luckily this year the shots are still not a big deal. It just baffles me 6 1/2 years of extreme needle phobia and now nothing!!!!!! Anywho I was just planning a nice hack today. He hasn't been worked since Sunday due to some unforeseen circumstances. However that was fixed today! I got on and we were walking on a nice long loose rein when all of the sudden he jumps sideways. I straighten him back out and we go through this several times down the little hill at the front of the field. Hmmmmm. Then as we start rounding the turn I see it! Damn cows 5 or 6 of them in the field next door. Since it's such a huge field we rarely see them. And these are red cows not black. Oh no's. Poncho balked. I kicked him on he ran backwards. I kicked him on harder. He ran sideways up the hill. Then as we straightened out and I though we were in the clear BOOM! He did the weirdest run/hop/buck/rear maneuver I've ever ridden in my life! We went through that cycle several different times. I was able to get him semi-calm but never 100% throughout the rest of the ride.

Oh well there's always tomorrow. Since I work 6am - 12pm I'm going to stop out by the barn on my way home and sneak a ride in!

The ride that could have been.

Ahh when the best laid plans fail. Today is beyond beautiful out. I could have been riding. But I did not.

When I got to the barn it was a tad windy, okay to be honest a bit gusty. That however was not going to stop me - last time it was windy he wasn't that bad. I chatted with some borders for a moment to get some things sorted out for the vet visit next week. Then I waltz around the corner to be bombarded with luchboxes, zebra prints, little saddles, and little helmets. Oh snap that means there are kids on the loose. Then I look a little further down to the trailer parking area. DAMN there's a little bus with a hoard of kids. I don't know what they were doing or where they came from but they effectively ruined my chance at riding.

Back tracking a little - Poncho HATES kids they are minions of the devil. As it were when I went out into the field to say hello sine I drove out all thay way and stuff his cute little face with treats he had spotted said children in the pond field and was on HIGH alert. (Choice well made not to ride, it would have been a suicide mission practically) He was calm and cool for me to love on him though. He even groomed me back a little bit.

It's not the end of the world that he's getting a little mini-vacation (3 rides in 2 weeks = nothing in the grand scheme of things). I just reallllllly wanted to ride today. However we will get back on track and tomorrow will probably be more conducive to me surviving. I mean come on 3 rides in 2 weeks and I want to ride on a gusty day with demons running around. Mr. Poncho would be looking for things to jump from behind every tree, around every corner, and maybe even fall from the sky. Who knows, hopefully tomorrow will be the day!

Switching things up a bit.

This week my goal was to do things differently. I still have one more day to go, but I think we are on the right track as long as I can keep this up. Fingers crossed.

Monday and Tuesday were no go's for the barn. However I got to go in late on Wednesday and Thursday - so two days in a row! Wednesday had a bit of a rocky start. Someone came out to ride on the mares at the barn and while we were up at the cross ties (right beside the mare field) Emmie, the mare, decided she didn't want to be caught. She eluded the poor girl for a long time, long enough that it took the whole time I was tacking up. Midnite didn't care for it either. Needless to say by the time we got to the ring he was a bit frazzled. We trucked along though. We stayed mainly at a trot. However we did canter once in our bad direction and got a nice, nice circle - only cut off at the last minute by Midnite. Then we walked around on a loose rein for awhile to calm and cool down.

Thursday it was just me. I wanted to keep it short and simple because I was the only one on the property and didn't want things to go south with no "back-up" and having to head to work in a few short hours. He was much calmed at the cross ties considering there was no frantic field of horses racing around. We had a fairly quick walking warm-up. Just to get him acclimated to the soft-touch spurs we did some lateral work before heading into the trot work. I must say he was much improved with these spurs than our last feeble attempt. His trot work was lovely - we're still not working on going on the bit just yet I know he can and will offer it up occasionally. But that is just not my main goal at this point. It's forward and suppleness. Then his head can do whatever it pleases. Back to the ride though, when I finally worked up the nerve to ask for the canter (after remembering it's failed attempts with the normal spurs) he picked it up immediately and it was soo lovely. When we got to our bends he was resistant toward the spur however. But I didn't push it just because I was sooo happy. His bad direction was no good but hey they can't all be perfect days. I'll take it. We did a bit more trot work over some poles, we had one set up that was like a small oxer just it was not raised at all. He of course stopped and walked over that the first time - such a goober. But he got it the next go around. Then we had a nice cool out just meandering around.

Today I was determined to leave the ring. And that I did. We rode out in the gelding field - he decided to be a bit of rebel today, in a very tame way though. He didn't particularly want to leave the herd when we were walking. So he would stop and refuse to move a couple of times. He would only back up a step or two and then shake his head around. With either a smack on the butt or neck he would walk off. No big deal. He definitely wanted to test mr. spur today. Silly pony. So even though I wasn't planning on going above a walk I ended up doing so. I just wanted to make sure he would go nice and forward - not trying to keep sucking back. Mission accomplished. I'm so happy with the fact we got OUT.

In other news moving the mounting block to the opposite side on the ring to accommodate getting to the gelding field it caused chaos for the poor geldings, including Poncho who thought it was going to eat him when we were walking back to it. I found when I was bring Poncho back out to the ring that all the boys were frantic racing back and forth by the mounting block. Once I had given Poncho his treats and attention I headed to the ring to get the mounting block back in place. Those silly boys watched in awe the whole time. Goobers.