Getting out and about!

Since Poncho was struggling with his canter in the ring I decided to take a different approach these last two rides.

On Tuesday I was riding solo and didn't want to be bother with the ring. So we ventured out to the big gelding field (for those who don't know/remember it's 14 acres). We walked up and down the field once each direction. Then we cantered. The first canter I did on his "good" lead, his left, it was a bit bouncy you could say. He was hopping and tossing his head around for the first half of the field. Until he realized we were simply cantering down the field, then he got right down to business and cantered on. Ha. When we turned around he started to get a little fired up his trot just got totally pumped up. Then we broke into the canter. And boy was he moving out nice! He still drifted out majorly, majorly. I didn't push the issue at the time though. Since it was his first time doing that as long as he was content to go I was happy. Then we hacked around the field for awhile. After a lap of the field we went to the back where there's a nice hill and did a bit of hill work. All in all it was a nice change of pace and I think it's a ride type we are going to continue adding to our routine.

Yesterday (Wednesday) by the time we got out to the barn it was HOT. I felt like dying I can't even imagine how the ponies were feeling. So I knew right away it was an easy day. Mom came out with me so we both headed to the pond field. Poncho thought there were some monsters hiding in the woods and on several different occasions felt like he may just explode at any moment. He didn't though. We only walked around for about 20 minutes because it was just sooo hot and Midnite isn't used to working on varied terrain as much as Poncho. But still even with that poor Poncho broke a sweat.



On Tuesday I only longed Midnite I was tired. It was extremely brief because it seems that dragging the ring isn't a priority at the moment and it was like concrete in a couple of spots. So I didn't want to stress her joints out too much. Then on Wednesday in the pond field she was a super star. She seemed to handle the terrain exceptionally well.

Bit by bit.

We're getting there. Slowly but surely.

In the last three rides (Friday, Saturday, and today) there has been immense improvement. Friday we started out a bit rushy and very stiff at the canter. Although he still listened to what I asked, he wasn't quite "there".

Saturday started off much more consistent. We even ended up going out to the gelding field for a hack to cool-out. While we were in the ring we worked on our figures and consistency in the gate. I think things are starting to stick. YAY.

Today he seemed to almost pull it all together. He was much more consistent in his trot work. We did lots and lots of cantering it's still got ways to go. On our right lead we still epically fail. I want to take him to the gelding field and just canter up and down it - so that he can just canter and not worry about turns. The adequan is for surely making a difference i've noticed that he's trying to come on to the bit more often now. Today we got some glimmers of it in the trot. And then when we went out to the gelding field with mom and Midnite he was full on going on the bit 85% of the time. So he's definitely pushing much more from behind now.

Midnite is now officially trotting undersaddle, about 5 minutes total. Luckily she seems to be having no problem with it whatsoever!

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.

It started with so much promise.

Last Sunday I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with Poncho, so we tried some longeing. He was much better than the last time. I like to think we are making progress with it. Since I do really love to see him go.

Then Monday and Tuesday passed with no time left for the barn.

SO I didn't get to see the ponies again until the vet visit I scheduled for Wednesday. We started with Midnite on the longe because of how she had looked on Sunday. Ultimately we ended up re-testing her for EPM on the spot. Luckily it came back fine. Which led us to decided to hold off for the day on her chiro work for fear of doing to much too soon.

Onto Poncho we decided it would be best to see him go undersaddle. I am so glad we did that. It was the first time I got some real feedback on what has been feeling "off" to me. It turns out he is in fact sore in his hocks. So I am not crazy. I feel horrible that it took so long to get to the bottom of. But after watching him go we decided we wanted to do flexions. However we wanted to see him flex cold, not warmed up. Which meant on Thursday we had to go out again. He ended up flexing slightly positive in his hocks - no big surprise though. So he's now on adequan and in 3 weeks we will re-evaluate. Luckily Poncho decided it's okay for me to give him shots, just not the vet. So as long as this thinking continues the adequan is a-go.

In other news I had to have a discussion with the Barn Manager about our horses weights. Apparently only she, because my vet says they are perfect, thinks that they need a major diet and grazing muzzles. GAHH. So poor Poncho is so depressed stuck in the diet field during the day longingly looking at "his" field and friends. I feel so bad for him. He even whinnied and met me at the gate today. That n-e-v-e-r happens.

Today we ended up just walking and minimally trotting around the ring - it was mega soupy. Too much darn rain. He is still mega stiff and resistant to bending and stretching at first. He does improve somewhat through out the ride. Hopefully with a few more shots of adequan he'll be a new horse.  Only time will tell...

When things get interesting.

I left off at last Sunday, so you would think I have a lot of catching up to do. But in reality - nope. The week got swamped, I got a migraine, I was exhausted. Blah blah blah...

So on Sunday Poncho came in with a nice little chunk missing from his left eye lid. Who knows what he smacked it on but it wasn't bad at least. Since mom was working Midnite we ended up riding in the ring. Boring but he lived through it. We had some spectacular trot work really nice and forward. He even had some glimmers of really truly coming on the bit (I'm still adamant not to make him - but to let him figure it out). He was a bit feisty on  his left canter lead - but it was more fun than annoying. On his right lead we are still having some issues. He would only bend to the left if I put him in a circle in the middle of the ring around a jump. Weird. Luckily I put it on the schedule that we are going to do some chiro work on the ponies on this coming Wednesday (3/21). Overall Poncho was a superstar and was so close to putting all the pieces together.

I didn't get out again 'til Tuesday and then I was only there long enough to put some goop on his eyelid. Although with all the heat we've had I'm sure he wasn't complaining about no work.

Yesterday (Friday) I was finally able to get back out to get a nice productive ride it. I decided we are boycotting the ring for who knows how long (it's semi-impossible at this barn). So once we were tacked up we headed to the ring to mount up since a nice boarder offered to let me into the gelding field once I was on. Instead of just hacking around getting him used to it like last time we pretty much just went to work. We trotted up and down the fence line several times. He got some walk breaks in just because that was a lonnnng stretch (it's a 14 acre field). He loved every minute of it. He trotted so fast and forward at times I just had to get into two-point because it was impossible to post. Silly pony. We did that for about a half hour then headed back to the barn.  Instead of letting Poncho get off to easy he got a bath. Oh the horrors. He wasn't too thrilled about going in the wash stall but once he got in he was a pro. I know he secretly enjoyed the cool down. I was going to clip him but decided not to since I didn't have back-up just in case he pulled  a Poncho. So he just got cooled off and pampered a bit. Of course he was fed copious amounts of treats - he's just too cute.

Then right after I turned him back out he just had to go and roll....

Of course after he was thoroughly muddy he wanted to cuddle. And of course I obliged despite the mud. He's just to cute to resist.

Today I was planning on a repeat of yesterday's ride. However the universe had different plans. We had one nice trot down the field but as we were coming back things quickly unraveled. One of the mare's started running up the field (the two fields are side by side one separated by a driveway) so Poncho lost his marbles. He was trying to bolt for all he was worth but luckily I was already prepared. The rest of our time was just spent trying to calm him down. It worked to an extent. I'm not too bummed because just a few months ago if that happened I would have been flung out of the field into the driveway. Haha.Just to cool his marbles  a little bit more once I hopped off we handwalked around the indoor for a few. He held it together in there. Only some minor spooks.

So I guess you could say he really is growing up.

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.

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.