So ready to ramp it up!

So, I've been doing a bit of thinking lately. Well, that and some shopping. I went online to find necessities, like a leadrope that isn't torn into several strings from being repeatedly stepped on. So of course I go looking through the clearance section of all my usual websites, and I end up putting more in my cart than I should. I also end up doing an ebay search for tall boots, Ariat tall boots, just to see what's out there. Somehow I have this crazy luck. I always go looking for tall boots right when mine are about to crap out (or just don't take polish like they used to which makes me want new ones) and I come upon these crazy deals. I found Ariat pull ons, so I don't have to worry about the dumb zipper issues that everyone I know says the zip up ones have, for..... $75...... in my PERFECT size!! So I made a promise to myself, that if I'm going to buy a pair of boots to show in, I have to commit to actually going to some shows this year.

The other stuff I bought is going to come in handy for all the schooling I'm going to need to do to prepare for those shows. So basically I shopped my way into productivity... hopefully.

The arena was being reconstructed after it got washed away AGAIN in this last storm, so hopefully I will ride tomorrow!!!

Or maybe I'll just lunge the 6 yr old TB who hasn't been out to do ANYTHING other than eat in the last 10 or so days.

But then I will begin my show training in earnest. I'll post about all my grandiose ideas relating to that next time.

Do March Showers bring April flowers?

It's been soaking! My arena got washed away again and won't be back in commission until after the next storm. However, I have had a chance to ride in my (potentially) new M. Toulouse Brione saddle, but only once! It was also the first ride after the chiropractor. So far it looks like Dr. L made a world of a difference.

Bijou was not obviously sore the day after, so I went ahead and put her in the round pen to let her move out to make sure I could get an idea of how she was feeling. She was a little frisky, but not too much, just enjoying herself. If anything I might say she was a little short strided in the back, but it was so small that I could have been making things up. We called it quits, and I fed her her lunch. Which is consisting of soaked beet pulp and this great low NSC senior feed that has 5% fat!

I took her out the next day after picking up the new saddle which is wool flocked and will hopefully be able to be fitted to her... I stuck that on her and went for a short ride. To the left she was much the same as before, flexible and quiet, but to the right she finally felt like she was able to bend! Not totally the same on both sides, and not completely better, but she was much more comfortable at the walk and trot and took less pressure from my aids to get a good bend out of her. Then for the real test - the canter. This is where she had been bucking before. I decided I'd leave her alone as much as possible, so I got off her back and picked up a right lead canter. She picked up the right lead on her own, and we went an entire circuit of the arena with no bucking, even in her old favorite corner. I tried putting a little weight back in the saddle and she thought about getting crow-hoppy, thought better of it, and just went around like normal. She did have a few cow kicks when I asked her to bend through the corners more, but it's hard to say if that's due to lack of strength, or because she's still out somewhere.

I'm a believer. I think Chiropractic worked on my horse! Now I'm off to find one for me :P

New Saddle?

So I stumbled upon this saddle. It's practically brand spanking new, and new they sell for about $1100. The woman will take less than half of that...

It's a medium tree and 17.5 in seat. Wool flocked as far as I know (double checking on that) so I would finally be able to get a fitter out to fit it to her.

I'm picking it up tomorrow, I plan to take lots of pictures and post them for opinions please?!

still crooked

I have two different horses, one that trots with huge slow stretchy strides at the trot, and canters around on a loose rein to the left, and one that throws her head around, and is stiff as a board at the trot, and bucks in the canter!

I scheduled the chiropractor for 11:30 on Monday. I'm hoping she'll be good and fix everything. The guy I had been talking to flaked out on me, so I saw her at the barn and swooped in to make it happen. I'm crossing my fingers!

I made a pretty tail

I haven't been a good horse mom lately. I think about doing things with my horse all the time. I think about getting her adjusted and riding and showing and competing and winning and spending lots of hours in the saddle, but it just doesn't happen. I've been so swamped taking 18 units and working 20 hours a week, I hate it!

But today I was a good horse mommy. I washed, repaired, dried and applied my old tail bag. I used a stretch stitch, so now it shouldn't get any holes in it because it will just stretch. I washed Bijou's tail with delicious mane n tails shampoo, and I scrubbed all the way down to her once dandruffy tail bone, which is now almost completely dandruff free. I fed her her grain and brushed out her tail. She got to graze in the sunshine after a good grooming while I waited for her tail to dry, then I braided it all up. When I was washing and brushing I noticed how LONG it has gotten! Her tail DRAGS on the ground, when I got her it was right between her hocks and pasterns.

All together, I spent about an hour at the barn, which is nothing to what I would have liked to spend, but I'm proud that I made time to get it done. I'm going to make appointments for barn time in my schedule for next quarter, because this is ridiculous.

Playing the waiting game

So a few things have changed, big surprise. That show we were supposed to go to, it rained the whole week before hand, and was supposed to rain the day of, so it got canceled. I was training the week before that, hoping to do really well in W/T and getting some really good work in the walk and trot, but our canter totally fell apart. At first it was just a mild hop through a couple of the corners, but through the week it progressed into a couple of full blown bucks in one specific corner, and only to the right. Her left lead canter is still almost as good as ever, only with maybe a tiny bit more tension. I haven't changed her saddle, bit, bridle, feed, pasture, etc. I can't figure it out. So I began the search for a chiropractor. I found one, but have yet to get him to commit to an appointment so I'm just waiting around. I went out and lunged on Sunday (which was the only day out of the last several that it wasn't pouring/HAILING!!!

Bijou got ahead of me on the shedding front, usually I like to keep up with them as it progresses slowly, but I haven't been able to take her blanket off without her getting soaked in the last several days, let alone brush her. So I left several small fuzzy animals worth of hair laying around the trailer on Sunday, while I spend every spare moment grooming her. She was very easy to lunge, not ripping around like she usually likes to. I was going to go ride today but they fed early and I wouldn't have made it out there with enough time to work her without her losing her dinner.

So now it's time to twiddle my thumbs and see if I can find another chiropractor who will respond to my emails, or wait for this other guy to get back to me. I'm going to wait to ride her until I have this issue mostly ruled out just to avoid teaching any bad behavior.