Maid Mare-ion

Seriously? How cute is she? We got a little wet yesterday, and Dee wore the towel for a little while. How is it that she'll let me throw a towel over her face, but she gets mad when I put a blanket on her? And speaking of blankets, her sheet now barely fits her! Not too thrilled about that, especially since I'm pretty sure it's a size 82 and my midweight is smaller... I'll have to try that on her one of these days. We might be in the market for a new midweight.
Yesterday's ride was sort of a bust. We walked around for a little while, did a little trotting and then the heavens opened up. In .2 seconds we were both drenched, so I just headed back to the barn. Today went much better. Interestingly, trotting to the right, she kept alternating between wanting to break into canter or walk... ANYTHING but the trot. I let her canter around for a little while, but even after that she kept trying to go back to canter. Part of me wanted to let her, because HEY, she's FORWARD, but the other part of me said "no, she's STILL being disrespectful". I listened to voice number two and insisted we just trot. It wasn't like she had SO MUCH energy that she needed to blow off steam, she was actually very polite about breaking to canter, so after I insisted she just trot, we had a very nice time.
We had another day of left-lead difficulty, today... it took me lots of tries to get the left lead. The good news, though, is that I FINALLY got a left lead canter transition with absolutely NO fireworks. She's been very explosive to the left lately, so it was nice that she was very quiet in every single canter transition. During our trot work, we did have a bit of an explosion when she thought she saw something and scooted off, but it was just a minor spook and she settled right back down to work.
We still had a little bit of that stubborn-ness in going forward, but it seems to be getting better. Once my trailer gets back from the shop, I'm hoping to get her over to Bettina.

pictures!

These were taken on 9/15...


Such an attractive face she's making...







Neck Shot, 9/26:


Freshly Pulled mane, 9/26:




Around the Farm, 9/26:




And this one is from today, at Lyman's Orchard in Middlefield. We were sitting on the hill near this couple, and my friend snapped the shot when we got to the car because they were SO adorable, sitting there, reading a book together...

Clearing out the Scruff

I've been completely engrossed in studying for the LSATS, so my time spent in the barn has been minimal. We've done some lounging, and she's been very good. Yesterday, I gave her a little mini-spa day. She's not very good about getting her mane pulled, but I decided to give it a go. True to form, she acted like a total cow at first. I then tried the twitch, which also went as badly as usual. HOWEVER, when I took the twitch OFF, I tried to pull her mane ONE more time. Maybe the twitch made an impression, because she actually stood very nicely for me while I pulled her entire mane. (Well, very nicely in Dee terms... she's ALWAYS sort of fidgety). I used the system of pulling a small piece and then telling her how absolutely wonderful she is (which she loves to hear). Once we finished I gave her cookies and grass. All in all? It was a great day and Deer Run Spa!
I have a few pictures, which I will update with later.

Progress is a good thing...

...I mean hey, we could all be cavemen with scummy fingernails trying to hunt down a wooly mammoth.

After mild success on Wednesday, I got up on Dee planning to continue with my reverse-psychology style riding. This seems to be working, as we had another fairly decent ride. She was doing a very nice, stretchy working trot all over the arena and focusing more on me than what was going on outside of the arena. Our right lead canter was very nice, though she's getting a little bit into the habit of leaning on her forehand. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that she wants to stretch down in the canter. I mean, she doesn't rush around out of balance, but on the other hand, she is VERY much heavy on the forehand. I've been leaving it be for now because I don't want to be telling her 'stretch stretch stretch' at the trot and then TOTALLY contradict myself by saying 'no, I don't want you there' at the canter. She's got a pretty good natural balance, so I don't think it will be hard to pick her up and teach her to canter uphill when the time comes. For now, I'm just happy that she's behaving and steady.
Going left, I DID manage to get the correct lead. It took us a few tries, and at one point we went from trotting along very nicely to broncing straight towards the arena fence (which I think happened because the cat appeared suddenly outside of the ring... I wasn't actually asking for canter at that point), but we finally nailed the left lead. Once she had the correct lead, the canter felt quite good. I think part of the problem is that she's weaker on the left hind, so stepping under and picking up the left lead is more difficult. In her mind, it's easier to throw her weight the other way and pick up the right lead, so unless I'm VERY careful to have her in the PERFECT balance, she just has trouble with that lead. I know that will sort itself out as she gets stronger.

On another note, I took my trailer to get serviced on Friday. They've got some work to do, but I'm hoping to have it back by the end of this week or the beginning of next. Once I have that sorted out, we can get back to lesson-taking.

Wide-Eyed and Legless

Dee has been excellent on the lounge line lately. We've been doing lots of transitions, and she's been getting better and better. Today, I decided that I would get on and do a little after our session. Well, it didn't go exactly as I hoped. As soon as I got on, she was right into her snarky, "i'm not going forward attitude". I handled things a little differently today, though. Nancy told me to stop worrying about things and JUST GO FORWARD. Well, when she gets in these moods, the more I push about going from walk to trot, the less forward she goes. With this knowledge, I just stopped asking for trot. Instead, I decided that since we were walking already, we would continue to walk, but we would do the MOST FORWARD walk we possibly could. Well, it worked exactly like I wanted it to, because she got fed up with marching along at the walk and started trying to break into trot. However, I insisted that we stay walking, because she has to know that she doesn't dictate what we do. Once she stopped trying to break into trot and resigned herself to marching along, I asked for trot. Guess what? She marched forward in working trot! My only goal in the trot was forwardness. Tilt your head to the side? Pretend to be a giraffe? Be my guest. Just keep trotting forward. Eventually, she realized that it was easier to keep going forward if she stopped fussing, and she actually ended up stretching into my contact and marching along. We even managed some nice canter work going right. Our left lead canter, on the other hand, seems to have disappeared. I think part of the problem going left was that I didn't have her straight enough, so every time I asked for canter, she picked up the right lead. Interestingly enough, at one point, I asked for canter and got a very impressive saddle bronc move from her - head between knees, back rounded, all four feet off the ground. When all four feet ended up back on the ground, I was excited to find her on the left lead, so we just went with it. She didn't work hard today, but we DID do an awful lot. I think I was on her for an hour, and I'll tell you what - I'm sure my legs will be yelling at me tomorrow!

Viva Las Vegas!

Ok, so I haven't updated in a WHILE, but I also haven't had any updates to make, since I've been on a much needed vacation. I started out in Las Vegas, and then after I got home, spent a very nice 3 day stint with my father and brother at the Rock n Roll hall of fame. Needless to say, the mare's been a little neglected.
Today she's officially back to work, although for a moment, I thought that might not be the case. She had a puffy knee (from a small cut) and was VERY sensitive when I picked at it to see if it was a nick or some sort of puncture. She was being a squirrelly jerk about letting me look at it, but I was 99% sure it was just a cut. Needless to say, I was convinced that she would be hopping lame (or at least slightly off) on it.
When I got her up to the ring for our lounge session, we had a brief spook fest at the shiny silver ribbons still adorning the fence from the barn owner's daughter's wedding on Saturday, but she got over it and got to work. To my GREAT surprise, she looked AWESOME. I don't think I've ever seen that mare trot with so much suspension... she's pretty fancy when she wants to be. I did about a half hour with her, and she was pretty well behaved (only one or two attempts to go galloping off), doing lots of trot - canter transitions.
The knee was still a bit puffy after I worked her, but considering that she was 100% sound on it, I'm not too worried. She DOES seem to swell up at the smallest nick (is that a thoroughbred thing? Tango was the same way).
Now that she's back in work, and I'm about to start school, I'll have regular updates.