"Frustration begins where knowledge ends"

Yesterday was so close to perfect but personal drama had to make it a little less than perfect. Le sigh. 70 degrees (which caused a horrible storm later on but whatevs..I got pony time!) makes for awesome barn time. And we desperately needed awesome barn time. Like I said in an earlier post, the ponies are very barn sour. Like, bad. They won't move and when leaving, Red likes to run me into things, leading to a horrible bruise that just went away on my leg. That's not cool. So mom and I went to the barn on a mission and started up Plan A, which I talked about in said previous post.

Went to go catch them, which was an ordeal. Spirit and Red were angels, had to do a few circles to get them to come away from hay, but they led well, then Stoney (previously named Hercules) decided to be crazy. He ran up to Red, started biting him on the butt, so I slapped him with my lead rope (I bring it for that reason only, Red follows on command without it) and got him away for a second, then he was back. He bit, kicked and chased Red, then grabbed a hunk of skin on Red's neck. Red doesn't fight back, he's not a fighting horse and he hates confrontation, but finally, I could see his ears start going back and I got away. Then, he hauled off and bucked Stoney away and finally, he left for long enough so I could run Red in the barn and get away. Stoney knows not to mess with Spirit so they were fine, lol. My horse is a pushover.

Got them to the barn, mom tied Spirit outside and I just groundtied Red to the barn and tacked up. Used my new pad that I traded my old barrel pad for. Yay! I'm sad because almost none of my red tack works anymore (red pad is too thin for the new saddle, red splints are pretty much almost dead, red ear  bonnet is almost dead as well....poop) and I seem to be acquiring a ton of green/burgundy tack. (Blanket, halter, new saddle pad, etc) SO, maybe that will be our new thing. I like how he looked in the green.

Once we were tacked up, we led them to the fruit and berry patch opening, away from the barn, and made them stand, mounted once they were standing still (Red had to do some more circles, Spirit did like one. Why is it that Spirit is turning into the not barn sour one now???) and made them stand for another 5 or so minutes. Basically getting them used to the idea that we don't just run as soon as we mount so the bolting thing will be worked out (barn sour=bolting) and it's definitely helping.

 

 

Red is always good at standing before a ride but not so great at standing after a ride. ;) We pretty much just worked on Spirit then while I fiddled around with Red, flexed him and tested him.

You can tell by Red's ears that he's chillaxin.

We got going and they did way better than before (before they stopped, turned and/or refused in the trail)  but this time, Red was actually happy to trot and do some hill work, Spirit just followed his lead. Which is weird, because Red has always HATED to lead but recently he's okay with it.

Passed the goats and the dog, Spirit was antsy but Red just wanted to play with them. Took them a different way than usual so they had a momentary "NO THE OTHER WAY!" fit but they got over it, Red was a little ouchy on the small piece of gravel but not as bad as he was without the Dumor supplement, yay! Trotted through that small part of the trail, slowed to a walk and made them stand for another few minutes when they were getting antsy (heading in the direction of one of their pastures!) and they stood pretty well.

Went towards the pond, took Red over a couple of the logs and did some hill work on a small hill, trotted up once and loped up once, walked back down, circled away from the barn without any trouble at all, stood, then got back on the trails. Normally they throw a fit when we circle away from where they want to go but they did it very willingly today. Woohoo!

Went towards the subdivision area after a small walk and went back towards the barn, made them stand when they were wanted to run again, took a few minutes to calm them down but Red ended up falling asleep. ;)

We accidentally matched.

Red says, "I hear a baby crying! I wanna go see the baby!"

 Red and I also took a selfie while he looked for said baby.

 

Once we got them settled, we went back to the area they like to run,  normally we take them through the woodsy trail and they get to trot towards the barn but the ground gets slick and muddy so we decided against it. Horses were confused but went along anyways.

I'm very proud of my EQ and reins right now. Also, Red is very fluffy and dusty and I just want summer coats back.

Once we were super close to the trail leading home, we circled again and took them right back to the goat area. Expected a melt down. Did not receive melt down. Horses got lots of praise. Yay good ponies!!

Rest of the ride went like that, took them back home after awhile, made them stand for a good 20 minutes where we mounted before, until they were relaxed, dismounted, stood. Walked a few steps, stood when they started pulling. Loosened cinch way before got to the barn so they got to relax before they were at the barn so barn doesn't equal relaxing, everywhere does!

Red makes awkward face.

Slightly better face.

Pretty sure I was getting a bur out of my reins, so they were stupid....my face was worse. :P

Got them in the barn, took off saddle, got dinner ready for them, sweat scraped, picked hooves, no treats in barn (don't worry, they got plenty when they were turned out) and Red showed me that he learned how to do weird things.

LOOK MA WHAT I CAN DOOOO

Worked on some tricks (smiling, hugging, bowing) and did carrot stretches, stretched legs, massaged with the curry, flexed, etc. Had extra time so might as well. :) MTG'd the hairless spots from the stupid bites...grrr. Also MTG'd his tail and mane. Haven't been able to because it's so cold (it froze when I tried. Yeah, hate winter.)

Spirit got the special treatment, too.

Skinny horse is getting a butt.

And just to compare....my mom doesn't see a huge difference (she's too blinded by his beauty, she said)

Top from May 2013 (when we got him), bottom from yesterday.

Also, sold my English tack. Not going anywhere with it and I've discovered that I'm a Western girl at heart, lol. Maybe if I ever take lessons or something, I'll try again. :)

I'm happy. We were getting super frustrated with the horses (I know I was going crazy over the barn sour stuff) and we really ended on a good note. We can't go anywhere when I'm frustrated, Red will feed off of that. Yay for good rides!