Riding Diary: 45

Time: 1.5 hr

Ride: My horse, and his many facets of personality. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - how does one deal with a pissy horse... all.the.time? It's draining. I think ponyboy and I are both drained by dealing with eachother, and that's just no fun. I can't wait for the ice to thaw so I can start venturing outside of the indoor arena, I think we both need some fresh air to blow out all the cobwebs from our brains.

Anyways, the ride started out good, we had a beautiful, slow, workable lope to begin with, and then the zoom-ey side of my horse flung himself about for awhile. Jingle has a rub mark from one of his side-pull's on his nose (even though it's wrapped in vet wrap), I had changed up his sidepull to a softer rope one (Crystal! The one you so wonderfully gave me - I keep meaning to take a photo of him in it! haha), but it was still agitating the rub mark on his nose. So, halfway through the ride, I jumped off and wrapped that sucker in vet wrap too, but, the damage was done, and my poor pony with his slightly ouchy nose wasn't having any of it. (I know I shouldn't judge him, I certainly dont like running with a blister on my heel, but the rub mark is probably the size of pinky finger nail... and he's using it as an excuse to basically fling him self upside down and wail "NO MOM, PLEASE GOD NO")
So, vet wrap in hand, we went back to work. Our stops were lackluster, as they generally are, and my trainer was basically confused. She mentioned that he always looks like he's going to give me a nice big stop, he tucks end her hindend, he gets ready, and then at the last moment he just leaks through it, and attempts to run off. She tried to get me to think about giving him a release before pulling him down into a stop - which, obviously I should be doing, but one does need a reminder sometimes when your horse really doesn't love the whole concept of "stop, and stand here quietly". So, we tried that, bigger release before pulling him down if he doesn't listen, and then moved in to a very, very long time of transition work.

Basically, we just worked on a small circle and every 5-10 strides I'd throw a bit of slack, ask for a big "WOAH", wait a step, and then pull him down into a stop from a slow jog. It seemed to kinda, sorta work... our stop is definitely something to work on. It's frusterating because on the ground during leading exercises he knows how to stop - he'll stop the second I say "woah", and then all of a sudden i'm on his back, and he sprouts his dragon-wings and blows fire in my direction everytime I ask for a stop... even if i'm in a paper bag dress, begging for forgiveness, and asking ever so kindly.

My horse hates me.

Afterwards I gave him his standard Monday grooming sesh (one day I WILL blog about the insanity that is my grooming routine with Jingle). His braids come out of his tail and mane, I brush both out with spray-in conditioner, he get's re-braided, and then I rub MTG into the base of his tail, the start of his mane, as well as underneath. I generally trim everything, just a smidge, every couple of weeks. Then, because I love my horse even though he hates me, I rubbed a ton of Arnica salve on his jaw, cheeks, and poll area, to reduce any inflamation and tension he may be feeling. I like the arnica salve I have because it's thicker than my alternative (Apple Cidar Vinegar), so it's easier to use, and apply with your hands, but it is a mess. It's too thick, and so it globs on to his face, and of course he is shedding, so half of his facial hair come off onto my hands and clothing... sigh. He seemed to like his mini massage though. Then we did a couple stretches with the aided help of cookies, I applied some vetricyn to his nose rub, in an effort to get it to scab over quicker, and he was then allowed to mosey on over to his bed.

My horse likes me...

just not when I ride him.

For Next Time: Traaaaansitttiooooonsssss