Flat Stanley visits the barn

I had to take Flat Stanley to the lesson for Little Jimmy. Daniel was very patient while I took the Flat Stanley pictures.

I'm still getting lots of winter coat out of Daniel. He's looking more like a horse and less like a yak or a woolly mammoth!!! Leeandra had us working in the outdoor arena today. We warmed up doing shoulders-in in both directions, then we worked trot poles and little cross-rails. I don't like jump, but know I have to be able to. Daniel LOVES to jumps and takes good care of me. I think I got color back in my knuckles about an hour after the lesson!

My Mom went with me and was feeding Daniel peppermints. He was even trying to mug for more - he's always going to think she's the peppermint lady!

It didn't dawn on me until after I was driving home, but that's probably my last lesson with Leeandra at Legacy. I'm out of town next weekend, then the show is the weekend after, and then he moves to Tory Hill Farm near my house.

I'm really excited to have him living 15 minutes away... I'll be able to run over and toss a sheet on him if the weather forecast changes, or treat him if the scratches come back... but I'm also petrified that Leeandra won't be right there with us.

It's going to be a tough adjustment...

Shedding out

I didn't take too many pics today. It was an absolutely miserable day! Poor Daniel was so soaked that he walked up to me at the gate like, "Please, get me somewhere dry!" His coat is really shedding out. Look at all of that hair that I curried out of him!

In our lesson, Leeandra had 4 crossrails laid out so we could work 20m circles. We worked on extension and collection at walk and trot. She had me counting strides and getting as many as 3 per quarter at the extended trot, and as many as 8 at the collected walk.

Daniel was a great boy as he always is! I'm just the one learning!

It's getting green!

Spring is here! Daniel was a Saturday horse today. We were supposed to go on a group trailride offsite... but due to mechanical problems, that didn't happen. Leeandra suggested that I see if anyone else there wanted to trailride onsite. Heather didn't think Lori could handle all the wind (it blew down the sign, and the boy's run-in shed), so Lisa H (or should we call her Lisa3?) on Mona, and Daniel and I rode the trails at the farm. Since Lisa3 hadn't ridden the trails before, Daniel and I led the way. If anyone had ever told me, two years ago when I took my first lesson on him, that in two years we'd be leading a tail ride, I'd be crying laughing. Hell, I'd be laughing so hard I couldn't breathe... I get like that sometimes, usually over something my nephew says.

so, we rode the trails! I told Lisa3 that Mona has been on trails, and even out to Fair Hill, so I think she felt a little better. We did some trotting in the big fields. Mona did great! It was Lisa's 3rd or 4th ride on her, and I was so impressed with how Mona handled all the wind with someone who is still fairly new to her aboard!

Nik was a riot today. He was trying to lead Daniel by the lead rope - at least I was in between them, so I was able to buffer Nik's tugs (Daniel didn't care, he was just happy to eat the grass!)

The horses were all goofy with all the wind. As we walked by on the way out, Ariana was cantering all over her field, screaming and pissed off that Mona wasn't there with her. The boys were cantering all over the place when I led Daniel out. And the young Friesians are always silly - they were prancing and bucking when we walked by.

Had another first with Daniel today. I put a few treats in my pocket when I turned him back out. I opened the gate and walked him in the pasture. He turned to face me and I gave him a couple treats. He put his head down so I could take his halter off, so I gave him a couple more treats. Then he walked off to see Lyric and Eddie, and put his head down to graze. I still had a couple treats in my pocket so I stood in the field. Daniel noticed I was still standing there, and he walked back to me! So I gave him the last of the treats. Usually, once he walks off he doesn't roll back. Silly horse!

I also told Meg and Amy that we were shipping out on May 4th to Tory Hill. I wanted to move the week before, but Leeandra asked me if I would show Daniel in Legacy's first show on May 3rd. I told her that I had no interest in showing, but if she wanted to ride him in his last show, she was welcome to. So he'll be in the show on May 3rd, and shipping out on May 4th!

Got a lesson in before the rain hit!

Worked on Renvers and sidepasses today!

Daniel was absolutely muddy as hell when I got there - must have been my punishment for giving him a bath last week :-)

Deer in the woods

When I showed up today, Meg warned me that Daniel had a healing bite on his face. I thought they were over when Topper (the last horse to bite him on the face) moved out. I guess I was wrong! It wasn't too bad, and I cleaned it up and put some antibiotic ointment on it.

Today was an interesting lesson. We worked outdoors on the trails. It was about 60 degrees and sunny, so it was a perfect day for being outside! Leeandra was on foot, with Robin on Fred and me on Daniel. Robin's way more experienced than I am, but Fred's sort of green. She had a section of the field picked out that rolled slightly uphill, then downhill, and back uphill again. She wanted Robin and Fred to lead first, then we were to switch with Daniel and me up front.

I had to keep the brakes on Daniel because he kept running up on Fred. He was much happier when we were out in front on the way back. We had a few times when Daniel just wanted to really e-x-t-e-n-d that trot of his! :-)

After we trotted that stretch a few times, Leeandra had us set up for an uphill (runaway truck ramp!) canter. There were two pheasant feeders along that stretch, and she reminded me to sing, so I'd remember to breathe, and put the brakes on by the second feeder. We did it, and I put the brakes on... but he wanted to go left at the end of the stretch, and I wanted him to turn around. I put the rein and leg *wall* up for him, and got him to turn around. Leeandra said that I couldn't see it, but when I won, he did the lick and chew on the bit.

Then Robin headed back, so we headed to the trails, while we were walking, Daniel's ears shot up. Leeandra thought it was a noise she made, but it was 5 deer that ran by that caught his attention. They joined a herd of about 20. Leeandra commented that that must have been why Ariana wasn't crying when Mona was taken out of the field leaving her alone... the herd of deer were keeping her company :-)

After we rode the trails, I went back to the indoor to clean up after him (I mounted up there and he just HAD to poo... of course.) I was talking to Lisa1 and Joe while I was there, and Daniel was SOAKED! I loosened his girth and pulled up the stirrups. Lisa1 held him while I scooped poop. We decided that he needed a bath (Lisa1 rides Daniel in her lessons), so we introduced him to the outdoor washrack (new to him) and cleaned him up.

He wasn't too sure about hanging out on that concrete pad, but he put on a show for Lisa1, because he loves drinking from the hose :-) the big goof! After we were done, I detangled his mane, brushed him, put some MicroTek on what looked like the beginnings of scratched on his RH feathers, and hand-grazed him a while. I was hoping he'd dry a little before I turned him out with the boys, so he wouldn't be MUDDY...

There was also some drama in his field the last few days. LJ was turned out with the boys. He's 2 or 3 years old and just wants to play with everyone. Joe said that when the other boys chase him off, LJ thinks they're playing with him and he keeps pushing... We'll see how things go this week... hopefully Daniel won't have any more bit marks on his face next week.

Trail ride in Hampstead!

I got to the barn today, thinking that with the weather forecast we'd be in the indoor, but Leeandra said that she, Jettie and I were going on a trail ride! She took Daniel on the trails last weekend on his training ride (while I was out of town), but this was the first time I'd ridden him on the trails.

I hit another goal too - I got on him from a 3 step mounting block! Granted, I had the block uphill and Daniel downhill, but I still got on him without the 4 step!

I didn't have a jacket with pockets, so I didn't bring my Blackberry on the ride, so no pics. But, spring is just about to start, and we're going to be there for another 6 weeks before the move to Tory Hill, so I'll be sure to get some shots.

In like a lion?

Today was a "hit and run" visit. I was at the barn all of three hours :-( There was very light snow on the way down, and the forecast was for near blizzard conditions starting about 5PM... I wanted to be close to home by the time it started... not just starting the 2+ hour trip!

I was VERY teary on the drive down. I'm torn between two farms closer to home to move Daniel to. One is 11 miles from home! It is called Tory Hill Farm. Compared to the 105 miles now, only 11 is a DREAM! Beautiful rolling hills, an indoor, trails, only a dozen other horses on a 120 acre farm (for pastures, they figure 3 acres per horse), owner/trainer is a retired dressage judge, Jill Willcox, and she is just brilliant, but they will stall him at night in winter and it's a couple hundred more than I'm paying. Saving gas and cutting lessons will help bridge the gap, I'm sure.

The other place is 20 miles away, they will field board, but I wonder how he'll do turned out with 19 other horses.... I'm really agonizing over this decision! My family thinks I should go with the closer place - and ironically, it's where Dressage at Devon began. DAD is the first place I got up close to dressage and fell in love with it...

But, what happened today makes me feel less bad about leaving. Leeandra texted me that she had a stomach bug and wouldn't be teaching today. I texted back not to worry, I was heading down anyway. I went out to get Daniel and he was in the upper field. I brought him in, picked out his hooves and groomed him. Then I tacked him up and walked him to the indoor... what I saw was a jump course. I guess when people heard that Leeandra wasn't coming (she usually teaches in the indoor), they scrambled to set up a jump course. What do they say? When the cat's away, the mice will play? Hell, that's what happened!! To hell with asking anyone if they were planning to ride anything other than a 2'9" course... UGH! We basically just walked and trotted the very perimeter of the arena. I could tell Daniel was getting bored, so we hacked out to the outdoor.

Yep, jumps set up out there! Double UGH! We did a little walking and trotting in the outdoor, hacked back to the indoor and disappointed, dismounted. I took him back to the barn and untacked him, and started grooming him.

Apparently, someone at the barn was showing their horse to someone who was interested in buying him... she set up the course for them to ride. She must have thought, "Fuck everyone else", I guess. One other person wanted to lunge her horse, and she didn't even have enough room to do that...

The horse she's trying to sell took a bite out of Daniel's face last week, from what I've heard, so I'm not sorry to see him go. What pissed me off even more, was the buyers saw marks, and the seller bitched about the stallion he was out with and the dominant gelding who gets into it with him. I guess they didn't see me cleaning my saddle (even though at my size, I'm really hard to miss!), so I laughed and said, "I guess that dominant gelding would be my guy - he had a chunk out of his face from someone in the field." I'm sure their saint didn't freaking do it...

On the way home, I didn't feel so bad about planning to bring him closer to home. I'm leaning towards Tory Hill Farm. It's classical dressage... the two trips out there, I didn't even see a jump... Maybe that's the best place for us.