Death to Mud

Ahhh. Winter.

Full of snow, blowing winds, freezing rain, ice and unseasonably warm days that create abhorrent amounts of mud. Its literally everywhere. I can handle the ice, but the mud just sticks to everything and makes life especially complicated.  I'm getting really tired of scraping mud off beasts, picking chunks out of manes, hosing legs and reducing turnout because the fields are torn to shit, which the ponies loathe. And its only going to get worse. I have mud everywhere. Car. House. Boots. Clothes. Hair?

Wahhhhh.

Miss Isis, Jackie's mare

Mr. Pronto

Lovebirds Fancy and Yanks

I've had horses for over 11 years and not matter what we do, nothing stops the mud monster. Rock, limit turnout, drainage...nothing works. And OF COURSE the retards always stand by the gates and make it worse. You would think they'd use their brains, considering they are all princesses and hate their feet being nasty. Luckily I'm a good horse mommy/babysitter and I hose them off every night when I bring them in :) But it doesn't mean I enjoy it.

What I DO enjoy though is being at the barn every single day. I truly don't know what I would do without my barn time-even if I don't ride. I love making stalls fluffy and raking aisles. Rolling polos. Cleaning tack. Sweeping mats. And my favorite thing in the whole world is hearing happy horses munching hay when I turn out the lights and close the door. I think I would go crazy if I didn't get to hear that every night.

 On a different note, I've had some very good rides lately.

Ayla and I went for a hack earlier this week when it was still freezing outside, but the ponies were happy to get out on the trail and stretch their leggies. Mr. grumpy nose lived up to his name and was exceptionally mehhh about the whole thing but we still put some good work in.

Been lunging when I don't have time to ride. Working on long and low as well as voice transitions. He's nailing it like a boss. I wish I had pictures. He absolutely loves stretching out and trotting with his nose near the ground! I also lunged him over a 3' vertical the other day and he was perfect. I'm REALLY glad I took the time to teach him voice commands as a baby.

I rode Miss Isis yesterday in addition to Yankee and it was awesome! Only the second time I've hopped on her, and we actually tacked up this time. I'm not sure what Jackie had in mind for me to do, but I worked on getting her to soften her neck and not fight the bit. She was fantastic and accepted the exercise very quickly. That mare's trot is to die for and I see some solid 9's in her future. Since she's still gaining muscle back after her injury we only trotted and didn't ride long. Hopefully I can keep riding her :)

Yesterday Ayla and I were going to jump because it was 55 deg., but got lazy and decided dragging standards out was WAY too much work. Luckily the horses did phenomenal with our flat school and we got some pics for once on the flat. Been forever!! I worked with Yankee long and low, keeping his back relaxed and as well as moving forward through contact. 

 

Made me realize how HORRID my dressage position has slipped, yet again. 

I've always had issues with my inside aides as well as crouching, only exacerbated with Yankee's constant need of half halts (inside hand, inside leg through outside aides). I REALLY need to get back into riding shape and strengthen that core!

Ayla had Fancy pants working nicely as well!

They were not amused with our picture whoring.

 Tomorrow I plan on doing more flat work. Maybe later this week I will jump, but since the ground is either mud, soaked or frozen, in addition to freezing temps ( I HATE you people in the south who are all like merp merp merp jump errday no probs), jumping really is not fun or conducive.

 Gettin me some OTTB love

PS. I have decided Blogger is just bipolar with the whole picture thing. I had literally zero issue today.