March 10, 2012

Long, Warm Spa Day

As promised, photos!

Because I live so far away from my barn and my life is a hectic overscheduled mess thanks to two demanding hobbies, an 8-5 and a husband, my trips to the barn are typically...rushed.  I always feel like I need to go, get my stuff done, and get home.  The fact that it's been winter for the past, you know, five months doesn't help either - it's hard to want to hang around when your fingers and toes are ticking time bombs thanks to Reynaud's.

Ignore the borrowed purple horse-sized halter.
But today...today was different.  There was not a cloud in the sky, the sun was warm, I was warm, and for once, I just wanted to love on Connor.  I brushed him thoroughly, clipped the goat beard, whiskers and ears, trimmed the sides of his tail, and touched up his bridle path.  (Sue me, Cob people!  It drives me crazy having to pick through five pounds of hair just to get his bridle on each time I tack up!)  I also finished up the mane pulling job I started, oh, three weeks ago.  Ta da!




That funky section was initially pulled too short, and is now the same length as everything else, but lays weird.  Sigh.

Gorgeous day, gorgeous facility, gorgeous pony!

Now that we're respectable members of a respectable barn, I expected some respectable riding, and I got it.  I didn't challenge him too hard today; Thursday was tough on him mentally and physically, and he warmed up a teeny bit stiffly, but worked out of it.  I did ride in the outdoor, and asked for a lot of canter.  I need to get comfortable there, and so does he.  He also needs to develop those muscles so that he has the confidence in himself needed to take off into the canter.  So, they were more conditioning work than Dressage work, but that will come with my trainer and hopefully being in shape for it will make our time with her more productive.


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