Winter Music

  Well.. I was optimistic! My farrier is amazing and got the message about me wanting him to come put Lyrics shoe back on and luckily Dan's special fancy shoes arrived so..he came last night. Bless him, he had to wait a tiny bit for me to get home because I was working later than him. I'm so grateful. Especially because I was wanting to ride today. But mostly because she's been so lame without a shoe.. even with the scoot boot on. So.. we got it put back on. She didn't test positive anywhere specifically with the hoof testers so we're hoping we avoided an abscess. I gave her some bute last night although she walked off so much better once the shoe was back on.  I sent him this photo right after he left. THIS... THIS is why we can't have nice things. Dingbat! Luckily, all four shoes were still on! This morning she was still a little gimpy so I gave her another dose of bute and turned her back out to eat her hay. I had breakfast and rode Funny first so she had tim...

  Today was supposed to be XC schooling in Aiken but the other 9 riders bailed, so... Jacel opted to just school XC at Ashland. Which, with this heat and humidity, probably a better call than hauling for 4 hours. And it worked out well because I ended up getting someone to come spray my pastures for army worms today vs Mon or Tues, so.. hopefully this will save my pastures! Especially since it was not cheap. Sigh. But because I was at Ashland I was able to meet him and lock ponies up while he sprayed.  So, we met up and rode with Julia and Laura. Yay! I hadn't ridden with Laura in eons it felt like. And we rode at 10, so... still hot but maybe not as humid? I don't know... regardless we were all literally dripping sweat and puffing. Laura couldn't even wear her glasses they kept fogging up and then she said "I think even my eyeballs are fogging up". Hee hee. It was bad. But like... it's been bad. I'm so over it. And now I've got a migraine from it. I...

  You know... I just didn't have it in me today. I knew I had to take the heathens to the vet and I knew we had to leave at 10:45/11. I knew I could have gotten up and ridden. But... I was tired. Bone tired. Like... laid in bed and felt like my body was lead tired. So I slept in a bit. And then I did a few little things to catch up on life... just a load of dishes and folded laundry. And then I had to hitch the trailer and pack hay bags and make sure I had the ponie's vet records. And then... It was 9:45. I figured it wasn't worth trying to put on breeches and getting hot and sweaty (er... I was already hot and sweaty as it was). I'm sooooo sick of being hot and sweaty. So... we lunged.  Luckily they were already up at the hay feeder, so I just grabbed a halter and cookies and caught her. We went to the arena without any grooming. Sorry chick. We did a few laps of pillar walking and then did our lunge. She started out a bit lazy and while she was tracking up at the walk...

 Mine...not hers. She's been a love.    I woke up with a severe case of the crankies. I'm sure a good bit of it is hormonal. But man, I am in a mood. It doesn't help that Dan's lame at the walk. I'm thinking/hoping?? it's his right stifle and we just over did it. We're going to see Dr. Keelin Thursday. But between him being out and Funny being out... and the weather is gorgeous this morning and all I want to do is ride.... sigh. And then, Lyric was acting weird this morning like she couldn't bend her neck all the way down to get her hay and I noticed she has a big hot lump on her neck where I gave her the pentosan. Sigh... dangit. So I caught up on stupid stuff this morning but was just cranky. So finally I decided that I would give her some bute and take her to Ashland. She was eating her hay after acting like she couldn't at first and I figured I could always just walk her on the trails if she didn't feel great.    So we loaded up. Luckily she ...

 And sweaty pants! Holy cow we were both so sweaty! And today wasn't even as hot as it has been, but there was no breeze and the humidity was rough.  Lyric and I went to Ashland for a XC clinic with Aubrey! She came back from NY to hang with us. :) I rode at noon, so at 10:45 I went out to get Lyric, just in case she wouldn't let me catch her or took awhile to load. Last time I went out at 11 to get her I was running a bit late! Of course I caught her easily and she loaded right up. We got to Ashland and the poor girl was already damp almost all over. I don't know if the trailer rides make her nervous... or if she's just that warm bodied. I think a little of both because you can feel the heat radiating off of her all the time. I'll have to remember this come blanket season. Ahhh.... blanket season.. I miss you! ;)  We got to Ashland and said hi to everyone. I parked in the shade and tried to give her time to cool off a bit before I tacked up, but... it was just so h...

  Today was so hot and I had things to do so I just rode all 3 at home. I rode Lyric first and she was so good! I put the figure 8/flash noseband back on to see if that helped with her fussies. I think it did. Not because I strapped it down so tight she couldn't move her mouth... I had it so loose. But I think maybe it was either keeping the bit steadier or maybe it was proprioception? I don't know... she seemed less fussy today.  We didn't ride too terribly long because it's hot and she was so good. We had some really nice transitions in all gaits and some really nice work. She was much steadier in the contact and much softer in her back overall. Much more swingy. Yay! We had some good stretchy work too.    After our arena work we took a cool down trip to the lake. The geese were out and she was already wiggly about going to the lake, so I opted to let her turn around before the troll bridge instead of making her go past it and all the way to the lake. But she was b...

  I slept in this morning because I was tired! Plus, it's so humid first thing in the morning it almost doesn't help. Of course, I regretted it because when I finally did get to ride, it was so freakin' hot and humid anyways. Poor Lyric runs so hot she was sweaty just tacking up.  We got to the arena and Jean was having some work done on her driveway or gate. They had just pulled up and were shoveling mulch onto the tree islands so I let Lyric watch for a minute as she was a little concerned. She settled so we did some pillar walking. Then they started jack hammering the driveway or something!! Sigh.. so we had to watch again. But bless her, after a few more minutes I just... got on and put her to work and she was super. She looked once or twice but didn't bolt or spook. She was more just distracted for half a circle or so. And fair enough, because I don't know what they were doing but it was noisy! We started out a bit fussy in the mouth, but she was happier in her...