successful day!

pretty girl! acting sensible...

plotting her buckscapades

treats for flying changes?

Ear-eye view

Today dawned sunny and bright. Ice is still very much present all over the ground, but the sun is so warm, we got the barn heaters off, doors and windows open so the woolly girls could bask while they ate their mashes.

Amber's right hind was swollen yesterday from hock to pastern and today it was even worse so she came in for a cold hose and a poultice wrap. I'm supposed to be displaying her at the Salon du Cheval in Quebec City in mid-May, but if her shoulder is still stiff and she keeps injuring herself like this, it's not going to happen! It was still swollen when I replaced it for her second hosing, so she's spending the night in the makeshift corral in the indoor arena with Mae as company.

Friday is trail day for Tatoum and I, where weather allows. She was a pig with me yesterday. Once she gets wound up, that's it for calming back down. The big doors were open on the arena to let some sun in, and she freaked, sidepassing past the yellow tempo that's up at the back. She snorted and pulled and jigged her way round, eventually letting me take some control back and we practiced bits of CEF Level 1 test 2. However, she's finding leg yield left difficult and instead of working through it, when she's het up, she likes to either go sideways and not forward, or just stay on the spot, legs moving, ears in my mouth. She did one good 'rep' but then spooked when some snow fell off the roof and careered sideways into the wall, twice, so at that point I had had enough, made her buckle RIGHT down, and we did figure 8s with flying changes for a few minutes. She's fine going KXM, so right to left lead, but finds left to right hard. She got it maybe the 5th time when I made the angle for the changeover more accute. She was breathing very hard and sweating, bearing in mind it was 'hot' at 4c! As soon as she did it, I got off her, loosened the girth and led her around. She can  be very rewarding hard work sometimes! So today, we went exploring the new trails and had a good canter up a firm snowy slope.



So that was good. Then, my second ride was Mr. Plasticbags R Gonna Kills Me. Tyler and I have had the big blue tarp out all week for working everyone with it. Even Tatoum's been subjected to the fun! He was the only one who hasn't done it yet. So, I put my deep seated trail saddle on him, shortened my stirrups and went for it. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. He wouldn't even walk past it at first; he scraped us along the wall whilst keeping both of his eyes and ears on it in case it leapt up to attack him (complete opposite of Mama Grace, whose first act was to grab it in her teeth and shake it around!) I circled him closer around it and eventually approached it. He wanted to run back or sideways, but I said that wasn't acceptable, so we dithered for a long time. Lilly, who has been doing it every day, was freaked out by his reaction, but went over it right in front of his nose. This scared him, because it crinkled. He finally got a whisker of his toe on it, and it rustled, so he leapt backwards. Then we repeated this with half a hoof, the whole hoof, and then...he stepped on it!! From then, he was fine. Snorty, but fine. I was very proud. It was nowhere near as traumatic as the bags from the ground, so next step will be white feed sacks to walk over (he currently lives with three in his stall)

Finally, Tyler and I went for a lovely trail on Ella and Mae. We cleared some branches, crossed a stream, clambered up a snowbank to get around a fallen tree, gaited and cantered on packed snow and generally had a lovely time. Ella is very snorty, as this is her first winter doing trails, but she's pretty game. Mae was good, plenty bucky, but I'm determined to work on that!