12/20/13

Lifted my spirits.

I know, I'm supposed to be on a hiatus and I still pretty much am. In short, I'm just being a lazy blogger for awhile and not stressing about getting a post out. But I kinda sorta tried to resist posting the photos from yesterday and I couldn't because they are amazingly beautiful. :D

We went out to ride yesterday. Kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, pun intended. I had seen Red earlier that day and he refused to move for me, but he was walking around everywhere with Annabelle so I was like.."Hmm..." and worried about if he was stiff again the whole day. But when I got to the barn in the evening, I went to go fetch him, he came pretty willingly and had no stiffness, but refused to come past the gate without...Spirit? Okay. Weird. Apparently they've "bonded" after the parade and when Spirit had to come to his rescue, I don't know. And we also got to talk to "C" and "T" who had been out of town, like, all Fall/Winter. They're going back to Florida in a few days but then they'll be back around Spring. I won't lie. I'm a little jealous of their escape from the cold.
It's hard to see in this photo, but he's getting dapples in his winter coat all of a sudden. Weirdo.

"I don't really want to move right now."


His mane is looking so good and it makes me super happy. One person-not gonna name names,LOL-was like "ugh it looks hideous you should pull it." and she was an English rider, which I guess kind of makes up for it? I dunno. I mean, I love y'all and I ride English too....but nope. His mane is STAYING. Haha! I mean, he's going to be a roper/occasional dressage pony, who cares about his stinkin' mane? If I ever show in English-which will probably never happen with this guy-I'll just braid it. But in her defense, she did see it completely unbrushed with burs all in it. :P And it's in an awkward stage. But Red does NOT look good with a short mane, sooo....it stays. ;)
 I really wish his forelock would grow......

Then I attempted to take a confo shot..

And he decided to act like a mare. Anywho, I'm somewhat picky with conformation, especially with hocks, pasterns and shoulders. I feel like he has pretty good confo over all. Nice hock set, shoulder is a bit too straight-which explains his stinking awful trot and canter..-he has a pot belly right now from not being worked and being fluffy and he eats ALL THE HAY. But he's sturdy and he collects himself well, plus he's versatile for what I want so, no complaints.

Not bothered by the ties.

I told mom that I'm tired of our subdivision rides that are constant nowadays and I want to really ride my horse because in a subdivision, it's not really riding. Just sitting while I cringe about the asphalt and Red and I stay at a walk. Not really the most fun thing. I mean, I enjoy it but I'd rather be doing stuff and working on stuff that we REALLY need to be working on and having fun. So we went to the 4 acres first. Tested Red's soundness....asked mom if he looked stiff and she said he looked fine right at the moment that he decided to lope across the pasture like a lunatic. Okay, not a lunatic but a happy horsey who actually likes being worked as opposed to the eeyore that he was less than a year ago.
Typical gloomy sad eeyore
"Oh, bother."

Probably the first and last photo of him at our house. He looks so sad. And scrawny.
So mom and I made a few laps. I loped around for a few beats and stopped after a couple minutes, saw my mom laughing and shaking her head. Her quote, "Never thought I'd see Red willingly cantering around like that." Booyah. Who needs crops and spurs? Okay...I may need spurs every now and then......but crop? Goodbye, crop!

Happy boy with a mane.


Riding at our house, for the first time in MONTHS. My first "in between the ears" shot.
Then Red and I practiced our fancy walk, haha. I dropped my reins and got him to lower his head and slow his walk down, just to see if he still had the whole Western Pleasure thing still fresh in his head and he did super well after a few reminders to keep his head low and relaxed. His walk was very fluid and relaxed and he kept his head down for the most part, and didn't even want to bolt home once we got to the gate.
Mom kept Spirit's elf hat on, lol. Red and I said, "to the garbage can, you go!" to our jinglebells. Throwing away ALL the reminders of the awful parade, LOL.

We moved around outside of the 4 acres, Red was a bit stubborn because he wanted to turn around but got over it quickly. We made a few circles around because Spirit wanted to run home and was barn sour but he got over his whole moment as well and we went back to the barn for a minute to see if "A" who had just gotten there wanted to ride. She couldn't, but said she'd set Spirit and Red's feed out so we could feed them if we were gone longer and she wasn't there anymore.

So we went back off into the fruit and berry patch. Went around the softer trails with better footing, went passed the dogs and goats and of course Red was like, "Herd ALL THE THINGS!!" and we thought Ted the dog was dead but he was just sleeping....phew. ;)

 

Then we found a pretty pasture and I took like,a million sunset, ear shots.
 

I took way more but this post is already longer than I had wanted it to be......

After that we just rode around, trotted and loped for a few more minutes and took them home on a good note. Didn't push Red at all and he was perfection. Seriously, I think it was by far our most relaxing ride and it just left me in a good mood.
Love this silly pony!

8 comments:

  1. Blogging should only be a chore if its your job. If its not just make it how often and when you want it to be.

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  2. Awesome! I love the in between the ears shots!

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  3. I'm with you on the mane thing. Have you seen B's? I was going to that little hunter schooling show and it was mentioned I should pull his mane. I said... I'm riding in a barrel saddle... Probably bitless... Do you think they'll really worry about his mane? I'd rather roach it. :) You guys are adorable.

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  4. Red does have a good all round conformation although hes built quite downhill.
    Dapples in his coat are good - it shows signs of good health so especially going into winter its a very good sign :)
    I agree with L, just blog whenever you feel like it. You don't have to be on any kind of schdule :)
    Love your blog btw

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  5. Red is so gorgeous!!!

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  6. Red looks great! People do have opinions on the long mane/short mane but definitely keep it the way you like. Ghazal's mane is long, well when he doesn't scratch it all out and I keep Loki's short. I couldn't imagine Ghazal with a short mane or Loki with a long one. I think it really does just depend on the horse. But, I will say for ease of braiding a longer mane is better by far!

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    1. Also, I just did the drawing for my giveaway and you won!

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