SnowBunnies

I'm glad that I can approach my resting pony without the stomach dropping fear of "omg why is he laying down?!"  I know him, I know his napping times and this was just one of them. It took a while for me to get here..to let go of fear a bit.  

It had snowed a lot the night before with high winds and low temps so I had blanketed him. He was warm and happy to shed his rug and roll in the snow

We rode a bareback hack. The pasture was literally too pretty to ride in, so I left it alone and we went for a ride down the road

I mean, sometimes, you just can't beat nature or mess it up

We had such powdery snow to plow through, what a good work out for Laz and Mason

 Playing in a side field along the road, where Laz was pawing at the snow threatening to roll

I had to steer him past it as he full on ROLLED with me in the water only last month...I didn't want to test his 'want' again

 Look at how much snow we have already, it's beautiful

 Bare toes

 Relaxing

"I iz sleepin nows..you go homez"

On Saturday, I took a bunch of videos of our ground work for an online lesson I'll have with my Parelli trainer coming up this week. SO excited! For $25 she helps with any 'issues' or sticky spots and we have one going on.

It's minor but I want to nip it in the bud before it escalates  Laz is tossing his head and doing this physical 'thing'..it's not a buck, it's not a crow hop, it's like snaking his head side to side, tossing out his front legs, forward and semi crow hopping/baby threatening bucks.

At any rate, he did it on the trails this past Fall, and lately in our winter work so, I want/need help with it. Looking forward to what she has to say :)

Sunday, I got video of us riding, and dealing with said situation

But despite the tiny misbehaving moments caught on our youtube, Laz was such a good boy...

 We road rode (lol!) and played in the thick soft snow

I used our treeless and need to take the stirrups down a couple of notches-yipes

 Working through some deeper snow/brush aka making a good trail pony :)

 Some trot work (girl, keep you head UP)

 Some stills from our ride

Dressage anyone?! ;)

In all seriousness, he is acting very coltish and I want to know how to handle this. 

It reads as soooo small on video but under saddle it feels big and STRONG

I just want to know 'why?'

Do I channel it? Do I push through? Do I stop him? etc etc...we'll see after we skype to discuss 

The side tossing of his head side to side, in a bareback situation makes it VERY hard to stay on

Being he did this a lot more on our rides, I want to contain/change it now before it turns into a nasty habit.

Speaking of coltish, doesn't Laz look like a 3 yr old below?! 

He's a handsome 11 yrs old :)

Another video still and maybe a favorite photo... what a handsome boy

Speaking of handsome, what better view than your man riding your fuzzy horse

Billy is 6'3" for size comparison, he makes Laz look like a pony. We just walked around and I stuck by Laz's head as Billy got to enjoy 'the feeling' of Laz walking

So cute :) 

You have to appreciate a non horsey hubbie willing to come out to the barn to video tape while he misses football.  

The Lions suck anyway, right??? ;)

 Laz eating his warm mash of hay cubes, beet pulp, spirulina and chia seed

 Not one calorie was burned ;)

My Mongolian Yak

Last week pulling into the barn, Mason and I were greeting by a flock/herd/pack/school of wild turkeys. 

They are UGLY birds. 

I'm not a fan of loose, free big birds (perhaps it was from getting my rear whooped by a swan when I was six yrs old-no joke).

Laz and Justin were totally curious as to WHAT are these things?!

More like a road runner...

Mason jumped out of the car and chased them away, cue the horses to RUUUUN!!!! Safe your self!

There has been some changes at the barn.  Currently there is now only Laz and Justin (WB x), as the BO's decided to send their OTTB to their trainers for her program to use (or to see how he does).  They like the small, quietness of only two boarders and I can't blame them.  My concern was I noticed immediately after their horse leaving, how Justin and Laz have become like GLUE.  Here is Laz below SCREAMING for his Painted lover as he was getting groomed out of his eyesight.

Pathetic.

It's been a little over a couple of weeks (I think?) and they seem to be adjusting well and panicking less when apart.  It's odd, but if I take Laz away from Justin, he's fine and Justin calls to him. If Justin is taken away from Laz, Laz freaks and screams for him.  

The other day, as I was grooming Laz, Justin approached and Laz nickered the sweetest little "HAROooo lovie BOO " to himI hope they calm the gelding love "I can't be without you for a minute" affair a bit.  

***

Friday, we rode. I had a long week and a nice little ride was want I needed.

PLUS, it was 70 degrees out!

Look at my silken Yak below...

Why don't I clip him? 

Um, because I don't have clippers that are strong enough to endure the thick fluff...I SUCK at clipping, and it's supposed to get back down to 40 degrees soon.

I had decided to ride within their pasture with Justin loose.

How cute.

Except they started playing, and Justin bite Laz's bridle and Laz semi reared up.

DUMB idea on my part. Laz let out two high pitched squeals, almost like "I CAN'T handle dis!!!" So I hopped off, put Justin in the 2nd pasture and we continued for a nice calm ride.

He was SO sweaty after about 30 minutes of walk, trot and a couple of canters that I opted to stop. I yanked off his saddle and cooled him off via walking with him for a mile. 

Walking by, a neighbor's truck shovel thingy scared the bejuses out of Laz so we approached it, he snorted, then sniffed, then licked and we went on our merry way.

Lovely boy admiring his digs

***

Saturday; first bath of the year! 

My friend who had never ridden or been around horses came to help us!

What a fun way to celebrate St. Patty's!

Laz enjoyed the cool water and dropped a lot of fur

***

Sunday; HOT, almost 80 out.

Again, saddled up for a ride and worked on bending, circles, trotting and getting Laz to carry himself instead of leaning/balancing on my hands which he's been opting to do. It's an odd balance of pushing him forward fast enough to get a good motor going and balance his own weight vs. falling down into my hands or falling into a downhill canter.

I was asking a lot from him mentally as well as real body work, so we kept it short again, about 35 of work (not including 10 walk warm up and the HOUR cool down)

Side note; There are white hairs on his back (I've only ridden him in this saddle about 5 times) and two bumps on his spine area (one old, one new) so I'm anxious for Chiro's input next time he's out. I'm not sure if it's caused by this saddle, or from when I was riding bareback..I had noticed the white hairs (about where my butt sitts) along his back this winter.  

Joy!!! 

Sweat much?!

Here was my attempt in a conformation shot after we had cooled down

Nice, huh?!

Oh well, at least he's looking a  bit more fit

A glorious Sunday in March

Hello March!

March is my Bday month, it's also the starting tastes of Spring is near, longer daylight is coming back and I LOVE me some March...

Sunday, Billy (El Hubbie), Mason and I went to the barn.

Billy went for a jog as I groomed and warmed up Laz. I had been begging him to come out to take videos and pictures of us.  Being he's a HS varsity Basketball coach, winter season gets fun but hectic, so finally he got a day off to come to the barn.

After lunging Laz to warm him up, he trotted right up to his Dad.

So cute...after he put on a little snorting trot show when Billy came running back, he pretended that Billy was a horse eating monster.

"ohh u is safeeeee, I is silleee ponee. We is OK, MaySon."

I brought him back to bridle in our bitless, helmet up and stack the crates to hop on

Oh!?

What's that you say?

Why yes...this IS a glorious new beautiful custom saddle pad that Laz doth don on his rumpa

He thinks it's pretty snazzy that an artist painted his face that he gets to wear proudly. 

"I is HANDSUMMMMMmmm"

Thank you to Polar Square Designs for this most amazing pad. 

HUGS to you Kate! 

You make us look way better than we are

Off we go to the pasture

Pasture de Bucks a lot

I kid..that was just one day, he's been 10000% better

Isn't this field glorious?

Seriously...I pinch myself that I get to board here

Sometimes I wonder if Laz would misbehave without his Mason pup by his side.

I'm sure unknowingly, Mason gives Laz comfort.

I love that dog.

Warming up at a walk, a bit past sleeping.

Easing into a trot..

Cantering a bit...

 Some canters I ask for, some he offers up

I know as we ease back into riding, I TRY to be extra careful NOT to push him past what he can comfortably do

Sometimes when trotting gets tiresome, he'll hop into an awkward canterTrot so I allow it so he can stretch into it better 

Correct leads...NOT even worrying about those right now

Hunch back much?

Oh well, as least I've got slack reins

Let me tell you, riding in a saddle again is SO weird after two years off.

I feel like a hot sloppy mess and I'm trying to ride, give Laz the correct commands (lol at that lately) and not slap around his back. 

Practice makes perfect, right?...as he can handle it

Love me this OTTBreath

And a couple videos below

They tell the truth don't they?

I see where his RH is still mega weak, but as both my Vet, Trimmer, Chiro seem to agree ; work him as he can handle

Some moments of it looks great to me (him, NOT me) and some breaks my heart that he isn't sound and I want to pull him up. 

It's balancing his fitness, happiness, soundness, work ethic, humane ethic, horsemanship, riding properly (what's that anymore?), retraining an OTTB, building confidence...what else?!

Oh, having fun :)

 My aim is 1x/2x a week riding to start, with every other day hand walking to get him to 3x a week riding, and so on...for now...