Neck!

Over the summer, in full work:


Yesterday. From groundwork:


She's finally getting SHAPE in her neck. GOOD shape. We're making slow progress, but it IS progress!

100th post!

It's hard to believe that I've now posted 100 times, but there you have it. To commemorate it, here's the quote of the week:

"I'll eat you for lunch if you don't get moving! I trained in France, where they eat horses who don't make themselves useful!"

Dude Looks Like a Lady

Apparently, my little lady has some... ahem... gender issues. Yesterday, as Bettina was putting the cavesson on her, Dee began hardening the left side of her jaw and leaning into us. I had always just thought it was annoying, but apparently it's a bit more than that. For some reason, my mare is displaying teasing behavior normally seen in stallions. It's a bit strange, but there you have it. Now, instead of just pushing her away, she gets reprimanded for that sort of behavior. We don't need her getting any bright ideas and deciding to mount someone!
Other than that, she's been doing pretty well. We've been doing lots and lots of lunging and groundwork with Bettina, getting her to find her own balance, stay out of our space, and cease being a wild thing while working. It's going well. Unfortunately, I've not been faring so well. I'm dying to get on her, but have had one set back after another. 1st, I found out that the terrible back pain and leg pain I've been having will likely only be fixed by surgery. Next, I spent the past few days sidelined with a kidney stone. Thankfully, she's still been working on the lunge and has been getting some serious learning in. Her aggressiveness in hand has been greatly diminished due to dealing with it head-on in the ground work, and she's finally learned that her stall only belongs to her when a person is not present. When we go in, it's ours.
Another good thing about her groundwork? Her back is starting to come up! She's becoming rounder! A cute by-product of this? When I curry her belly, she takes the opportunity to stretch her back out. On the cross-ties, she doesn't get a great stretch in, so yesterday I groomed her in her stall. She walked her little front feet out so far that her knees were only an inch or two above the ground. It was very cute.

No more snow!

I am SUPER sick of all of this frozen precipitation! Dee moved last Sunday and I've only been able to work her TWICE. Yesterday, I threw her on a lunge line, because she needed to blow off some steam and get a little more settled in the new indoor. Bettina came in while I was finishing up and watched her trot and canter a bit. I am happy to say that she thinks she's very cute! Within two or three strides of trot, she was able to tell me that she's a bit weak in the LH (BINGO!), needs to learn how to elevate her shoulder, and could use some remodeling in her neck (OH YES, it's a bit upside down), but overall, she thought she was well put together and probably well suited to eventing. She also told me that if she didn't turn out to be brave enough or scopey enough to be a great eventer, she would probably make very nice babies, which is kind of nice to hear coming from someone who breeds horses.
In other news, my girl somehow snagged the penthouse suite at the new barn. It's done wonders for her piggishness in the stall, because now she doesn't tromp around in her poop quite so much! Yay!
We have our first lesson with Bettina tomorrow, which I'm stoked about.
Dee in her Suite:


And, at least SOME of us are enjoying this nasty weather...
Amado having a roll during last week's ice storm: