Winter Music

  Phew... long day! I adjusted ten horses in Keysville, but... I did manage to get home by 5:45 ish and Mike was cool with me working Lyric before we ate, so.. I was able to sneak in a lunge session.      She was naked because it was rather warm today. Not first thing this morning though! I bet she was a little pissy for a few hours until it warmed up. Sorry girl! But I felt like they would appreciate naked time and it was supposed to hit almost 60 degrees. I think it even hit 64 but it was breezy. She seemed okay when I got home though.    I walked her over the 2 poles on the hill about 6 times before we went into the arena. Once we got in the arena I did the tail circles and neck wiggle, which was a quicker release today. We did a little bit of "rocking" but she didn't rock as much today, but did engage her pectorals at least. Then I put the equicore band on her and we headed off for some pillar walking. Then we did our back ups. She's shifting a little b...

  Today was so cold!!!  I had Patrick first thing in the morning so I got up and got the ponies in and fed and noticed that Lyric was missing a hind shoe. I may have missed it last night because it was dark by the time I fed, but... I'm assuming she lost it in the shenanigans last night. But no big deal as Patrick was scheduled anwyays. :)  So he showed up and when we got to her I noticed she had scrapes on her knees and then on her nose. Girl! And then I noticed that one of the straps on her blanket chest looked like it was almost frayed through. Hmmm.... I wonder...  Anyways, Patrick got her shod and I told him the great job he had done and showed him the x-rays. We did switch her to frog support pads in the front, which may offer just a little more give for that one front foot which was almost too positive. And she seemed a bit more comfortable in the hind end today although when Russel was finishing her clenching she did reach out and nip.  After they finish...

Dangit! I'm running out of daytime! And it's too darn cold early in the morning. I did manage a quick roundpen session though. At sunset.  We did some pillar work and walked the zigzag poles to the two raised poles a few times. We did a short serpentine pole. And then we jogged in hand for 3 minutes each way and then lunged for 3 minutes each way. She's getting the hang of "out" and starting to step to the outside vs falling in. That's nice! She seemed happy too and not anxious or stressed today. I did the tail circles and the head wiggle and got some releases and she didn't seem to stress. And she looks softer in her topline again today, so yay!  After that I got the shockwave machine out and we did her third session on her back. I opted to not do her sternum although maybe I should have. Oh, and her red light mat came tonight so hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out tomorrow or Thursday. 

So.. it's cold. So cold! And we got that snow yesterday, although it really wasn't enough to make it a problem other than possibly on the roads. I mean.. there wasn't snow on the roads, but I did worry a little bit about the roads having random ice patches in the shade and such. I wasn't going to ride because it was just too bitter cold.    But then... I went out to toss hay and... it was kind of warming up.. So... I thought, well... let's just go see what the arena looks like. As much as I wanted to haul and go ride, I figured that it was not a great idea. Between my truck having issues, the risk for ice, and the fact that there probably wasn't enough snow on the ground at Ashland to justify the risk for mediocre photos... not worth it. BUT... I could ride at home.    So I walked out there and the arena was fine. I had decided that I could try to use my cheap plastic flower pots that all my plants came in.. that I couldn't bring myself to throw away but wer...

SNOW DAY!!  If you could call it that. ;) I mean.. it did snow. It started about 8 am and snowed very lighty fluffy dry flakes for about an hour or so... then stopped. And it was bitter cold! Then the winds picked up and started blowing the snow around and then it started up again and snowed for multiple hours. It was enough to cover parts of the ground but not enough to cover the pastures. Not like last year! At least not here... Kelli got a ton, as did Liz. And man was it COLD!! So cold! I think the wind chill was 5 degrees at the lowest! BRRR.. I did lock them in for a few hours to let them drink some water because their trough kept freezing over and based on the lack of hoofprints near the heated water, they weren't drinking that. I figured if i put them in their stalls with hay and the heated water buckets maybe they would drink. So they stayed in for about 4 hours. And meh... they maybe drank a tiny bit. But as soon as I turned them out, Lyric marched right up to the trough, ...

Today we had time for a quick lunge in the roundpen. We did our pillar walking, then the zigzag poles. Then we trotted in hand and did some lunging. She was good but it's harder to get her stretching and soft and reaching tracking left. We did.. it just takes a little longer for her to go there. We did a few transitions to walk and walked the poles, then back up to trot. I did five minutes each direction and then another two laps to the left as she was starting to stretch better. She seemed happy and soft in her neck but tight in her back again. Although it's a bit harder to tell because I had to run with her instead of being able to stand back and lunge. She just... doesn't move out as much when I'm in the middle of the circle vs next to her. We finished with her stretches and she was a bit better in the back but not willing to do her belly lifts. And at the end of the work and during the stretches she got a bit fussy and chewy again. I didn't have any gear on her ...