Yay again!

I rode River today.

His third ride since he left the track.

My second time riding him.

I did it:

Bareback.

Alone.

And he was perfect.

I'm trying to think of words to describe how I'm feeling... this is about the best I can do: FJDFOIDSFJ0E043%$#@%#@$#@9UFDSA43432!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yeah. I'm basically quietly spazzing about what a good boy he is. Who knew a recently retired exracehorse could give me so much confidence? I was a little nervous for about 5 seconds, mostly because I was hoping he'd hold still long enough for me to mount and get settled... which he did. Honestly, his worst behavior was lining up at the mounting block, which took a whole two tries.

He is very much an OTTB--going to the right is hard work. He tries, but it takes a lot of work on both our parts to not be awful. But we were able to get a few steps here and there where he wasn't stiff and falling in, so I'm happy. He didn't mind being thumped with my leg to get out. I have no idea how this horse was a good racer. Seriously no clue. I checked his tattoo, he really is River Mountain Rd, winner of 20 races, including a Stakes race, with earnings of $408k. He's also Riv, a lazy backyard pony with a strangely shaped head.

Now that I know he's good about riding bareback, I'll probably start riding him more frequently. I'll try, anyway. It's a lot easier to work up the ambition to ride when all I have to do is put on a helmet and slap on a bridle. I didn't even take the blanket off... not like he's going to get overheated at the walk. I rode my mare, too. It's so easy to ride two horses when you don't have to bother tacking up!

At some point, I'll have to ride him with a saddle, or at least without a blanket between us, if for no other reason so I can use a whip to help get his body where it needs to be. This is a good time of year for all this--the weather is yucky and we don't have an indoor, so we really can't do anything more than walking, but what he needs is lots of walking and bending and suppling. No temptation to skip the necessary stuff and move on to the fun stuff... By the time the weather cooperates and lets us do more, all the boring fundamentals should be pretty well in place.

I am just so so proud of my boy. I don't want to jinx it, just because he's good putzing around doesn't mean he's going to be good when we get to cantering and *gasp* jumping, but so far things look promising. I might be a little biased, but I think I got the best horse on the FLF listings this year... maybe even from any year. He's just such a darn good boy.

(Oh yeah, and his legs are good! No puffiness, and regular applications of Desitin and petroleum jelly are keeping the back of his pasterns from getting yucky.)

Sorry

I apologize for the lack of updates, interesting or otherwise. It's just been so darn yucky out, I don't feel like spending much time at the barn. When I do go out, it's to give Mare and River some grain, make sure they're both alive, and then I leave. Currently it's wet and snowy and windy and just really really gross out. Call me a wimp, but it's hard to motivate myself to do much of anything when it's like that. There are two things I absolutely cannot tolerate in weather: wind and wet. Not a fan of heat and humidity, either, but those things are a bit easier to work around. But when the mud is ankle deep and the wind is blinding... well, I just want to curl up in my bed with a hairdryer under the covers to keep me warm. (Shuddup, there's nothing weird about that.) Also, I keep losing my fleece earwarmers in the black hole that is my car. I neeeeeed my earwarmers in this weather. Cold wind + uncovered ears = raging ear infection. I'm not going to discuss how long it took me to put those two together, but it was a painful lesson that I have learned very very well.

River was still alive yesterday. I'll pop out later today probably, and definitely tomorrow. I haaaaaaaate rain!

I mean, look at this:

This is NOT natural. This is Buffalo. Okay, it's 40 miles east of Buffalo. Whatever. It's supposed to be COLD. It's supposed to be SNOWY. It absolutely positively should not be above freezing and raining almost every bloody day! We've had a few days where it got up to 50 so far this month. Now, if you don't have to deal with being outside in the mud, this weather is probably great. However, because I do have to be outside, it is not great. It is terrible. We already have to deal with a crapload of mud in the spring when the snow melts (not that that'll be a concern this year, the way things are going). But still. The point is, we're supposed to have 4 distinct seasons. Currently, that season is winter, not spring.

Mother Nature, put the bottle down and get thee to an AA meeting. You have a problem.

Here's a random picture of River from a few days ago.

He likes his pink bucket. So there.

Oh, and in case things weren't annoying enough, my farrier and I had a miscommunication and had to reschedule again, and the new wheels for my car equaled a month and a half of board for my two horses. *sigh* I need to find a very wealthy, very generous man who doesn't mind a wife who puts her animals first.

meh

Weather sucks. It's raining and muddy and gross. Here are some pictures from the weekend, when we had a bit of snow.


And my mare and her friend:


She's a wimp and refuses to stand up to him. River, I can give him a bucket of grain and not worry because he won't let anyone touch it. Not the mare, oh no, I have to stand guard over her.

There's really not much to report... Riv's hind legs were getting puffy over the weekend when it was cold and frozen and hard to move, now that the ground is soft again (ugh) he's fine.

At some point, I'll do something with him. Mare's farrier is coming tomorrow (yay!), so I'll have him look at River too. Thursday I'll be at a funeral all day (rest in peace, Aunt Teresa!), Friday is work, so maybe things will work out on Saturday or Sunday. I almost rode this weekend, but then I didn't. Mostly because I didn't feel like digging my helmet out of my car. Yes, I'm aware that that is just about the most pathetic excuse for not riding ever. Oh well.

Oh, but good news! Tomorrow, I should finally get the new wheels for my car!! Stupid thing came with aluminum wheels. Ran over a big rock a couple months ago and ruined one, over $200 for a new wheel. 3 weeks ago, another tire went flat and surprise! That rim was dented and ruined too. So screw that, I'm getting steel rims put on. They got the rims, I went to get them put on, oh darn, the lug nuts aren't right. Come back a week later, the lug nuts are in but they're the wrong ones because the salesman at the.... lug nut warehouse?.... is stupid and insisted they were right when they aren't. So with any luck at all, they'll have the right ones in finally. I've been driving on a donut for 3 weeks. Which for me is something like a thousand miles. Holy crap that's a lot more than I thought it would be...

So... yeah. There we go.

Quick thing...

The aforementioned very exciting thing is in progress and hopefully there will be news very very soon! Don't know if it's going to happen, but reallllllly hoping it does!

He's alive.

Aaaaaaand that's about all I can say. It's wet and extremely windy, so it was a very short visit. The only reason I stopped was to change blankets around so the mare wouldn't cook, but then I felt her and decided she would be okay in what she had on. So I patted them both, gave them each a kiss on the muzzle, and told them to be good.

Riverless Post

No River today... no bowling, either, one of our group was sick (what a baby) so we decided to skip this week.

No, this post is about my baby! You remember her....

LOL


(Sadly, she does not look like this anymore. She looks like a cross between a yak and a mule.)

Enough comments on her incredibly homely appearance... Tonight she was a very very good girl. We've been working on "whoa". Not just "whoa" as in "slow down a bit.. maybe? please?", I mean "whoa" like "come to a dead stop in mid step and wherever your feet end up is where the stay, even if you look like you're playing Twister for a million dollar prize".

She's been getting better and better, so we've been trying "whoa" and then I move around, so she knows to take the verbal cue and obey until she's told otherwise. Tonight was a new one... it took a couple reminders that "when I say 'whoa' it means you plant yo' ass", but she halted and stood perfectly while I dropped the lead and walked around her. What a good girl!

She might be a little hellion, but she's getting good at this well-mannered-member-of-equine-society thing.

Okie doke, that's all. I should have a River update tomorrow, unless he decides to be thoroughly uninteresting.

I really am amazed...

Gosh, he's a good boy. Doing stuff with Riv is like working with a broke old school horse that you've known for a decade. Well, he's a bit more perky than that, but you get the idea. He does what you ask without drama, he waits while I fuss with a gate or equipment, he doesn't spook or fidget. The extent of his misbehavior is sometimes balking at walking through a muddy spot or being in a bit of a hurry, neither of which is a big deal.

So today we did try long lining. Nothing fancy or really productive--the goal was just to see if he could understand what we were doing. He was a little confused here and there, but he figured it out without getting upset at all. He stood for me to get the surcingle on and the lines set up like a gentleman. I just used his halter, no bridle--now that I know he gets it, we'll try with a bridle. Such a good good boy. We walked big circles, little circles, and several figure eights, and he got better and better as he understood what I was asking.

Just... wow. I realize it's not really a big deal--oh, big whoop, he walked around in circles! But what I'm happy about is that he didn't go into it obviously knowing what I wanted (maybe he's done it before, he's had a job for the past 10 years, but he was clearly unsure of the situation), and yet he quietly went on, tried to do what I asked, and after 5 or 10 minutes was responding correctly and without hesitation.

The only problem is I can see myself becoming complacent because he's just such a darn good boy!