One a day, plus iron

I took Birb for a spin after work yesterday, which was pretty entertaining because the hay is tall (so much snack opportunity) and because the boys had moved/rearranged the vehicles along the edge of the field in which we work. This obviously causes new locations of horse reflections (Birb is nominally "white" so he's kind of high-vis) against tinted windows and dark vehicle bodies and so forth. He does not like catching a glimpse of himself out of the corner of his eye behind him.

In preparation for the upcoming Dressage Schooling Show outing on June 7, we rode Training 1 and Training 3 a couple of times plus some additional canter work. There was a lot of spooking in the 20 meter canter circles. Like, half the circle (away from the relocated vehicles) was OK and then half of the circle (next to the vehicles) was a shitshow of spooking bullshit with skittery sideways, head in air, not a lotta brakes, sudden accelleration. Repetition did not improve things much. *sigh*

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The horses are fine. They're still shedding out and with the optimism of spring I'm about convinced that I want to go to a (small, local) dressage show to feel bad about myself and my riding and my horse again. What fun!

( Read more whining? )

Because we're having a heat wave (90F+) this week, of course it's the first DLB outings of the season. I'm scheduled for 8 and 7 AM rides on Thursday and Friday, so maybe that will help us beat the worst of the heat.

Birb's fitness is not quite what I'd like it to be but once the hay got tall, we were limited to road work and weekly outings to N's new dressage ring (It's a rectangle. Feels weird to call it a ring. Dressage Court? Work Area?) so... meh. He's not a potato but he's also not at Peak Fighting Condition. It will be what it will be, I suppose. I could have done more and I'm certainly feeling my pre-regret, here.

First outings of the year are for DLB to assess where we are and what we've got to work with, so I'm prepping for slight disappointment on the "horse does not have an endless fountain of abs" front. On the plus side we've made some strides at steady gaits and moar forward in ring environments, so it's maybe not going to be an entire shitshow? I can hope, anyway.

Also, as I've discussed previously, DLB is a little confused about what I want out of dressage because I don't really love showing.

We are continuing our work on canter departures (from walk) and on canter-to-not-walk failures that are... getting less flail-y? I mean, they're still not canter-to-walk but they're getting nicer at canter-to-smallish-trot. I guess that's progress. Canter is also becoming more shape-able.

We shall see how the DLB goes, I guess.

With the somewhat better (if unpredictable) weather and the advent of Springtime, I've been getting more spins on the Bird. (Finn has been doing boring groundwork that is boring and honestly he's got it down pat, so we just review known material, sometimes in new places.) And I'm revisiting the Flying Lead Change.

( What are you on about? )

I still have horses, Bird (the rideable) and Finn (the young sir). They've been standing around eating carbs for the last several months of fur, mud, and cold. But with the advent of snow melt and warmer weather, yesterday I fetched Bird out of his paddock and hopped aboard.

( How did that go? )

It was brutally hot this week so Bird got the week off. I don't think there's much point in trying to condition the horse in temps over 90F. Yesterday was better so I did take him out for 11 miles and change, mostly at the walk with some stretches of trotting. It was road shoulder, but, y'know, that's how it is in these parts. Road shoulder with rolling hills or mountains with rock.

( Boot woes continue )

He's been doing really well with a five-or-six day a week schedule. I try to mix things up so that it's not all "sit n lift" every single day. My enthusiasm has been helped by Pretty Darn Good air quality, lower humidity, and not a ton of late afternoon rain. I've been getting a bunch of rides in.

( How's that going? )

I did about an hour and a half of road work with Bird last night. It was kind of damp and humid and I was kind of *meh* on the whole thing so I decided to go the bareback pad route. (A bareback pad is just a thick wool-n-suede pad with a girth, no stirrups or anything.) I figured it'd be fine.

( And was it fine? )

So I worked on trailer lights last week and then (Friday) was deathly ill and stayed in bed all day. Saturday I got up and did an hour of trailer lights in the morning and then went back to bed all day so that on Sunday I could... go ride my horse on the mountain for like four hours. Because that's the sort of sane adult decision-making we go for in these parts.

( And now let me tell you about that! )

I took Bird out for a spin this evening after work. Normally he has Mondays off (because it's anime night) but last week was a flipping wash. All week it was cold and rainy. Saturday was beautiful. I went over with every intention of riding my horse.

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