rain on the roof
Dec. 11th, 2008 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_crowTemperature on rising: 32F
temperature when leaving for the barn: 33F
rain and rain and rain and rain
mud to the ankles at the boarding farm
This is when I feel worst for the red mare - the pen has a very small non-muddy place in it, and the mud everywhere else is truly ankle deep and sucky. It nearly took off my muck boots repeatedly. I couldn't blame her for being tight and bitchy when I first got on, so we went forward, a lot. It helped a lot to think of getting out in front of my leg, because she wanted to bunch up and bounce on all fours, and I wanted her to trot forward and stretch. After about 20 minutes of trotting we got to a much better place, and I started working on more sitting trot and getting the canter transitions smoother; more when I ask, more upright and less diving into it. The joys of a large flat ring: lots of room for larger and better cantering circles, and room to work on spiraling those in and out. The results; more upright around corners, less flop at the canter (on both our parts) and much crisper transitions up and down.
After that I cooled her out with the clicker and a pocket full of horse peppermints. We walked all over the boarding farm through the rain looking for terrifying things. Every time she put her nose on something scary, she got a peppermint. I'm not sure she got the connection between scary thing and click, but she totally has the click/peppermint thing.
I spent the rest of the day damp and cold. Brattleboro was cancelled on account of freezing rain. I was hugely relieved, and splurged on roast chicken, baked potatoes, and three berry pie for dessert. Al came home early, and we've had one of those nice evenings where everyone is happy and in a good mood.
temperature when leaving for the barn: 33F
rain and rain and rain and rain
mud to the ankles at the boarding farm
This is when I feel worst for the red mare - the pen has a very small non-muddy place in it, and the mud everywhere else is truly ankle deep and sucky. It nearly took off my muck boots repeatedly. I couldn't blame her for being tight and bitchy when I first got on, so we went forward, a lot. It helped a lot to think of getting out in front of my leg, because she wanted to bunch up and bounce on all fours, and I wanted her to trot forward and stretch. After about 20 minutes of trotting we got to a much better place, and I started working on more sitting trot and getting the canter transitions smoother; more when I ask, more upright and less diving into it. The joys of a large flat ring: lots of room for larger and better cantering circles, and room to work on spiraling those in and out. The results; more upright around corners, less flop at the canter (on both our parts) and much crisper transitions up and down.
After that I cooled her out with the clicker and a pocket full of horse peppermints. We walked all over the boarding farm through the rain looking for terrifying things. Every time she put her nose on something scary, she got a peppermint. I'm not sure she got the connection between scary thing and click, but she totally has the click/peppermint thing.
I spent the rest of the day damp and cold. Brattleboro was cancelled on account of freezing rain. I was hugely relieved, and splurged on roast chicken, baked potatoes, and three berry pie for dessert. Al came home early, and we've had one of those nice evenings where everyone is happy and in a good mood.