I took a half day off of work today. The hubs met me downtown, watched me choke down a sour beer, fed me Thai and took me to get my hair done. I've historically been a Great Clips sorta girl. Actually, let's be honest: I've been a kitchen stool sorta girl. Thanks, Mom. 

Oh, heeey, little blog.

I sort of forgot about you.

Um.  Sorry.

It'll never probably happen again.

I didn't have a lot of pony time last week.  Between traffic, dog obligations (I ran out of doggie toothpaste) (and decided that I wanted to supplement brushing with a prescription diet (t/d), so I needed to pick some of that up), and being a photographic friend, I didn't get out as much as normal.

We've still had some killer rides.

I've been pushing, pushing, pushing for more go.  Archie doesn't appreciate it, but the discussion about moving forward and getting off my inside leg has gone from the main speaking point to an introductory paragraph.  We address it and we move on.  Occasionally, we go to the big pasture and I ask him to find a little gas in the tank.

Jumping has been pretty great, too.  He's been a little sloppy, but I think that's mostly because of pilot errors.  We did have two moments of rider brilliance (a dull shimmer, at least!):  C had set up two barrels in the lane between the ring and pasture.  While pointing Archie to them, I felt him suck back.  I was able to immediately respond appropriately with leg pressure.  The second time was last night.  C had also set up a swedish oxer.  After making it tiny, I started to think about dismounting and making it tinier.  Because it was scary and neither of us has jumped a swedish.  Instead, I pointed him at it and he was brilliant.

Okay, looking at it in this photo, that wall on the right doesn't look bad.  In real life, I find it terrifying.

Swedish in the dark.

Oh, hey there, pinched knee.

And video, because the fence post is my friend.

I had way too much fun with this.

Hillary at Equestrian at Hart has partnered with Spreadshirt to do a giveaway on a custom t-shirt.  This appeals to my need to a) customize everything and b) create.

But let's go backwards for a second.  Last week, Hill shared this photo for her TBT.  I immediately told L that I wanted to make it into a group t-shirt.  I mean, tooooo adorable.  Hillary teases herself for her excitement, but it's that enthusiasm that makes me love it.

I feel like it needs something.  Like, "Happiness is a Pony."

Ladies, you might be getting a Christmas preview.

 And then I had to make one for Archie:

I got a text from my BM last week about a Saturday trail ride.  I love group trail rides.  ...When I take my Xanax, pony is agreeable, riders are polite, and they don't last four hours.

I woke up in time on Saturday and hitched a ride with C.  There were five of us:  BM on her dead-broke paint, a new retired A-circuit H/J rider trialing BM's brand-new Palomino baby, C, me, and a boarder I hadn't met before on her Perch.

Before the start, walking around.

Long story short:  Archie was a gigantic asshole, the babies were better behaved, and I don't think people learned the same rules for trail-riding that I did.  Maybe that's a result of having learned to trail ride by a fox hunter?  Oh, and I forgot my Xanax and almost bit C's head off.  Roar.

Not picture:  C immediately to our left.

So, we started out in the back.  Archie's ridden in the back tons of times.  He's normally okay with a buddy.  Kinda.  C's mare was supposed to be his buddy, but instead he started that crap about trying to spin backwards.  I can sit your spins, asshole.  So, I moved him up to second.  He walked by the paint and the palomino baby just fine and started after the Percheron mare.  For a very long time, we were great on a loose rein.  And then the psycho switch flipped and dude started that sideways jig.  I had to ask the rider on the Percheron to hold hard about a dozen times so the rest of us could catch up, which I don't think helped his brain.

For the rest of the ride, mostly, it was a variance of the jig, crow hopping, and a perfectly well-behaved pony.  At one point, I asked him to move up between the paint and the palomino.  He had ample room and had no problem passing them before.  But something offended his senses this time and he started that crow-hopping shit.  I was seriously afraid that he had engaged his weak hind end and given some half-hearted kicks at the paint, but they said he didn't.

So, yay.  I got to be the asshole growling at my horse for half the ride while I yelled at another rider to slow the fuck down.

I love group trail rides.

Promise.

After sweating my poor pony to death with Koby, I untacked and hosed him off.  He was stuck in a stall with an overhead fan, a water bucket and some hay, while the hubs and I headed out to find some Mexican.

When we came back, I had a screaming pony who'd eaten all his hay and downed about half the bucket.

I went down to the jump ring and started lowering fences and taking off decorations.  Then I dressed my poor pony back up and dragged him down there again.  He'd had about two hours off after the dressage lesson and was plenty spry again.

Blurry, but I wanted to show that I still had what Koby taught.

He didn't really stop - just perfect camera timing!

I like this because I look like I know sort of what I'm doing.

Butts.

Moose is so majestic.

"Mom, I can walk over this!"

Still working! Okay... maybe not on contact.  But on forward!

We trotted over the two crossrails that I'd set up a couple times in both directions and then trotted over everything else.  Finally, I asked the hubs to set one jump up a little higher and did a little three-jump course of a cross rail, an 18" vertical and finally cantered into a 2'3" with filler.  I think the facial expressions between Archie and I really.. tell the story.  The bottom line:  Archie wants to jump bigger, I think.




After another bath and loading all my crap back in my car, TE opened the back of her trailer up super wide (on the way there, only one door had been opened and the tack section had been left closed).  Per her suggestion, I walked him in large loops over the ramp, giving him periodic opportunities to look in the trailer.  Finally, fat guy just climbed in, no big deal.  I don't know where his trailer issues came from.  It's a new thing.  I told D that I want to seriously start looking into getting a trailer of my own - two horse slant load bumper pull with a step up and the little stock-like slats on the side.

Hauled home, fed and linimented the Dude all over and finally turned him out.  It was a great birthday.