Happy Anniversary!

River came home with me one year ago today!

Here is Riv's listing photo, which is pretty much the entire reason I got him:

Here's Princess on the trailer ready to go:

I don't have any of him from *today* yet.

Let's see what's happened in the past year...
-various injuries/maladies
-bucking me off
-getting grossly underweight
-moving to a new barn
-lesson with a pro dressage trainer
-first jump
-first canter
-gaining lots of weight!!

Happy anniversary, Princess River!

Pretty in Pink

Saturday Princess got to wear his new blanket for the first time....

Heh heh heh.  Pictures don't really show how pink it is.  Think day-glo, florescent, glow-in-the-dark.

Interesting

I rode Riv yesterday.  He was okay.  Then we cantered.  As we went by the gate, a dog scrambled down the aisle playing with a ball and Riv spooked hard and threw some bucks.  By some miracle I didn't fall off and managed to get him cantering again.  We went past the gate without issue and immediately stopped and I got off.  My nerves were shot.

Today, I had a friend come out and ride him.  We were outside and he was pretty good.  A little scatterbrained, but that's typical Riv.  I put out a cavaletti on the medium side (so like 12" high) and he was SO good.  Going to the right, he trotted up to it and landed in a nice pleasant canter.  Going to the left, the first time he launched it and landed bucking.  After a minute to walk and settle, they did it a couple more times and each one was better.  The last time was so so good.  He clearly wanted to get excited approaching it, but he stayed calm, hopped over it, and settled right down afterward.

 And video...  not from the silly time or the best time, one of the middle ones.

My friend liked him a lot.  She felt the same way I do, that he's so pleasant and agreeable, even if he is a little dumb sometimes.  He tries hard to be a good boy and do what he's supposed to.

And like I told her when she was walking him out...  he did really well for his first time being ridden outside.

:D

River's Last Race

Riv's last race was one year ago today!  He finished 6 out of 10, so...  But all but one horse were at least 5 years younger than him, and the one horse who was the same age finished after Riv.  So really he did pretty darn well considering it was like grandpa racing the grandkids.

Last night I had one of the best rides on him ever.  He was SO good.  He's really getting what I want from him.  He's relaxing forward into the contact right from the start and listening to what I tell him.  Sometimes I'll be asking for something and he's not doing it, so I'll tap him with the whip or something and he swishes his tail angrily, like dude, woman, I'm trying, stop nagging!  Silly boy.

We trotted over poles some more.  Most horses I've ridden, when trotting poles, tend to tense their necks and stick their noses up.  Not River.  He stretches and reaches with his head and neck.

Speaking of stretching... we tried a stretchy trot for the first time.  And he did it!!  It wasn't consistent and it wasn't perfect, but he got it.  I asked him to follow the contact and stretch, and he did.  If he lost it and came back up, I'd ask again for a stretch and he did it.  Ah!  Such a good boy!

 Tacked up and ready to go:

Showing off his equipment:

Pole!

 All done!

Dumb boy.

I mentioned before that River is being a butthead.  He's still being a butthead.

Sunday I brought horses in.  I had River in one hand and The Mare in the other.  We're walking up to the barn and I can't see River on my side.  Turn my head to look over, and there's a cat running away and River flipping out and rearing at the end of the lead rope.  WTF?  Moron spooked at a CAT.  The Mare, however, never so much as blinked at Riv's antics.

Yesterday, River apparently walked the entire way back to the barn backwards/sideways because he was being a pain in the butt.  Gr.

He did it!

He trotted poles without falling over them and messing them up!!!

The first time through, he jumped the first one crooked and half jumped the second before ending up in the middle of the ring.  LOL.  After a couple tries, he was going through SO well--forward and careful.  Yay pony!!  He wasn't as good to the right.  He tends to get tense that way and sticks his head up and gets all jerky and annoying.

So I was getting tacked up last night and I decided to finally use my standing attachment.  I get the saddle on with the breastplate and was about to put my bridle on when I remembered...  Drop Noseband + Standing Martingale = NO!!!  Because I'm too lazy to change nosebands and I put all that effort into putting on the breastplate, I did it the easy way... put the plain caveson on first, almost like a grooming halter, and then put the bridle on top.  Used the drop like normal, put the standing on the caveson.  Success!  Looked a little ridiculous with all that equipment on his head, but it worked.

I would have gotten a picture, except when I got off at the end, my stupid phone battery died :(.  Which also meant I couldn't ride the mare :( :(.  After the whole broken leg thing, I won't ride without my phone or someone else in the barn.  Gr.  But at least it was a really good ride on Princess.

Progress

I rode River on Wednesday.  He's definitely making progress, each ride is better than the one before.  Nothing major, we didn't do anything new, but it was a good ride.

Pink polos courtesy of the BO, who found them while cleaning the barn and gave them to me.  Yay!

His neck is gross, but the rest of him looks good!

Peek-a-boo!!

Little of this, little of that.

I've been so neglectful lately...  Let me see.

Rode River last night.  He is such a good darn boy.  Had a week off, got on, picked up where we left off.  We even cantered!!  I was a little nervous because it had been a while, but he was very good.  As much as he's kind of a dumb boy, he picks stuff up fast and remembers it.

I also rode my old guy for pretty much the first time in almost two months.  (I got on him once bareback for like 5 minutes, but that doesn't really count.)  Oh dear...  I spent the entire time trying to get him under control.  You'd think a 25 1/2 year old would be slowing down... oh no, not my boy.  He is, however, the best frickin' horse in the world.  I got on and we were walking around.  He was kind of wandering around doing his thing while I was getting my riding playlist started.  I set it on shuffle, and the first song that came on was Pour Some Sugar On Me.  Immediately, my horse took off trotting.  BEST.  HORSE.  EVER.

Also re: my old guy...  yesterday I had my FB status about how "my boy has been really loud whenever he sees me and he's been molesting me more than usual.  I think he wants to be ridden."  Heh heh heh.

Oh, so River has been a big fat butthead lately.  He's been being stupid about coming in... trying to run people over and then running backward if they use a chain over his nose.  Just being a royal jerk..  we're thinking it's because he's finally getting to a good weight and he's feeling good.  But even so, he was very good being ridden.


On a completely different note...

I'm trying to avoid being one of *those* horse owners.  You know the ones.  The neurotic ones who have 18 different supplements to give and mixing their horse's feed is only slightly less complicated than making meth.

River gets a SmartPak (SmartFlex Maintenance, SmartDigest, half dose Tri-Amino) at dinner, The Mare gets U-Gard.

Then there's what I give them...

River:  1.5 scoops beep, 1.5 scoops falf.  Source, Accel, fake Omega Horseshine, and an RB (leftover for my baby who no longer gets grain).
The Mare:  1 scoop beep, 1 scoop falf.  Source, Accel, MSM, fake Omega Horseshine, and the RB.

(Scoops aren't full grain scoops... it's a plastic drinking glass, so probably a bit over 2 cups.)

Soak the beep/falf in hot water for an hour or so.  Dig out a hole in the middle, add Source, Accel, and The Mare's MSM.  Lightly cover with beep/falf.  Sprinkle with fake OH.  Add RB to top.  Oh, and their BOSS when I remember to get it out of the car.  Press down.  Add more hot water if it seems a bit dry.  Dump into feeder. 

My barn is quite wonderful, but I'm pretty sure they'd smack me if I suddenly added half a dozen different supplements, even without the beep/falf.  I considered having them feed The Mare's MSM, but that AND the U-Gard just seems like an awful lot of trouble.

On the bright side, giving them their extra meals makes them like me more.  Otherwise they'd see me coming and be like "oh crap, here she comes, I don't want to have to work!"  At least this way they're more like "crap, I don't want to work, but at least she feeds us afterward..."

Super-awesome farrier is coming tomorrow.  The Mare doesn't have much, but Princess needs things neatened up after having his shoes pulled.

Blah blah blah

No River Wednesday--barn is closed for part of the evening for a dog thing, so I just went home and stayed there.

No River yesterday--was at the barn for over an hour and a half watering the indoor, but didn't get around to doing anything with him.

No River today--probably.  My sister and her family got a new puppy yesterday, so naturally I have to go see him.  He's an adorable yellow Lab, probably 8 weeks old.  Puppy!!!!!!!  Given the choice between Princess and a puppy, the puppy is going to win every time.

I'm trying to think of anything interesting to say.... not really coming up with much.

Stuff

Princess got cranky with me last night.  He tends to bulge out through his shoulder on a circle between the quarterline and the rail.  So I've been tapping him on the shoulder with my whip to remind him not to do that.  Last night he decided he didn't appreciate that gentle reminder and threw a tiny tantrum.  I'm not entirely sure what he actually did... it was like a jump/kick/wiggle.  Not a big deal at all, though.  After that, he was much better.  He didn't bulge out nearly as much.  I guess he just needed to let me know that he has his own ideas about things, even if he gives in to my way eventually. 

He's really figuring out that leg means something, even if he's not entirely sure what that something is.  We leg yielded both ways at a walk quite respectably.  He trotted a leg yield to the left nicely, and one to the right decently. 

I'm very very happy with my boy :).

The Mare was okay.  She wasn't really bad, she just wasn't putting any effort into being good.  Ah well, she's a chestnut Thoroughbred mare.  Not bad is really the best that I can hope for.

I had posted before about my horses' condition when we moved...

Here is The Mare when we moved to the new barn:

This is The Mare after one month:

This is The Mare after 2.5 months:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's not gross!!!  She needs muscle on her topline, but she's actually at a healthy weight now!  Yay!!!!!  Love love love my new barn!

Long time, no post

Well, a week.  Whatever.

Rode Princess for the first time in almost two weeks... such a good boy.   Even when he's being giraffe-y, he's so darn pleasant and agreeable.  He doesn't get snotty, he hasn't been spooky or nutty even after time off (knock on wood!!!!), and he doesn't really regress.  I can pretty much pick up where I left off.  It kind of amazes me, really..  I rode The Mare, too, and she was surprisingly good.

I have some very exciting news...

I can no longer count River's ribs.

Woohoo!!!!!  I haven't ridden him in a while and he's been wearing clothes, so I really had no idea what was going on underneath...  apparently, what's been going on is some darn good weight gain!  The Mare is at a pretty good weight, too.  Princess does still need to gain weight, but he's not gross anymore.  Thank goodness..  It's getting closer to winter and I didn't fancy trying to put weight on him during the colder months.  It was 28 degrees out this morning when I went to do chores.  Princess is finally getting up to a decent weight.

No pictures, because my phone doesn't like taking pictures in the barn at night, and I wasn't about to undress them this morning for a photo shoot.  Some day...