Well, we lost a week.

Yup the rain came back. We were under a few inches of water. THEN Friday rolled around...

I finally got to ride. It wasn't the most productive. We switched back to our loose ring so it was still a bit of an adjustment (for me more so than him.). I had to come to terms with loosing a tad bit of control (Poncho had fun with it, though). Really it wasn't that bad he just had a little sass.

Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday expect he was extra hyper. Yard work was being done that was most intriguing.

Today we have snow. I wish I had know when I was heading out to the barn that it wasn't doing much there or else I would have squeezed in a quick ride today. Maybe there will be enough snow tomorrow that I can ride. I hate when you have some but not enough to have decent footing.

The attitude is back!

One thing about Poncho that's backwards is that when it's cold out he's extra calm. When it starts to warm up he gets koo-koo. Of course Poncho has to defy the stero-type. DUH.

So after our nice quick ride on Wednesday we had a nice little hack on Thursday. It was chilly and windy. He was a smidge looky but overall a superstar. We only walked because the field was basically a death trap with slick spots everywhere.

Yesterday was considerably warmer and still a little breezy. So we could actually get some work done I headed to the ring. He was feeling good! Very responsive. Tracking left everything went smooth as can be. However tracking right, as per usual the "other side" appeared. He was solid for the w/t work. But the second I asked for the canter we started to run sideways. His signature move. I couldn't work him out of it at the canter so we backed down to the trot for a little. (* in the ring there is a corner that is washed out I refer to it as the corner of death - it has gulleys and what not that instantly drop a little over a foot) Because I didn't want to kill us both. The first time going around again he dove right off the edge. Ohh my word I almost had a heart attack, I thought he finally managed to kill himself. So after a slight over reaction on my part we got out of the ditch and back into action. This time around he dried to dive and I SMACKED him good on the neck/shoulder with the whip. He of course acted like he was going to completely loose it (but did not). We had a few of those episodes then he settled and was a good boy again.

We're going to be getting more rain off and on for the next few days so here's to hoping the footing will stay nice enough to continue riding!

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!

The day that just won't happen! TWICE

On Wednesday (2/27) the vet was supposed to come out to do Poncho's teeth and finish up him and Midnites shots.

Being a relatively good pony, waiting in the stall.

Well we get a call at 12:30ish that there was an emergency call that just came in, she'd keep us posted. So that emergency got resolved with-in an hour. Then we get a call about another emergency which would mean that our appointment needed to be changed. Fine I suppose. We settle on the next day at about 2:00.

Poncho and Midnite standing around confused as to why they had to just stand in a stall for a half hour.

 So to accommodate for the new Thursday appointment time I need to get off of work early (only by an hour though). I get off work and everything seems to be going according to plan. Thank goodness. However I spoke too soon. Right as I was leaving work and heading to the barn I got a text saying that right as she left to come to me that there was yet another emergency!!!!!!

"I just don't know what's happening anymore!!!!"

As of now were are planning for sometime Monday afternoon (after work they might not be too happy about me leaving early again!) Third time's a charm right?

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! 

Some improvement!

I'll take it! Yesterday I managed to squeeze in another ride with the hackamore. Due to even more rain the fields were completely swamped so I rode in the yucky ring. He probably wasn't too pleased about that - but complied well enough.

He was much better in the hackamore today. We really concentrated on driving power from behind so that he wasn't focusing on the weird feeling of no bit. It seemed to really make a difference. The trot work was dramatically better he was lowering his head and "softening". I got gusty and tried cantering with it. It didn't go too bad. I was extremely surprised actually. And tracking right we even got a few strides on the correct lead. I didn't want to push it and ruin the progress so I ended it there.

Today I was so, so, so unbelievably tired! I didn't even try to ride. I could barely stay awake driving to the barn. I can't imagine if I came home first to let out Bogart and grab my stuff. I would have just died! (Since I HAVE to go out everyday to do hay.)

Hackamore, was it a raging success?

Ultimately riding in the hackamore was quite different from when we used it last year. And last year we used it for several months straight. I guess since he's been accepting the bit so fabulously here lately he was a tad confused. Not bad by any means though.

Friday we rode in the ring just walk and trot to get him used to it again. He was a bit resistant and kept diving behind the vertical (while I had no contact).

Yesterday I just hacked around the field basically on the buckle to help get him to loosen and stretch out some. That seemed to help some. Tomorrow hopefully he will be even better.