Filthy Pig-Mare

I. Hate. Red. Mud.

Because Dee grows a winter coat that would make a yak proud, the red mud just gets ground into her coat until it is light red/brown dust.  This dust will not come out.  I curry and curry, and brush and brush, but she still looks like an absolute dirt ball.  I know she can't help it, but ugh.  She looks terrible. I can't wait until it's warm enough for me to give her a long, warm, sudsy bath.

She looks EXTRA filthy because I had just finished some in-hand work, and had given her some bum scratches as a reward.  At least her shoulder is shiny.

Racing Dee

As a fun update, I bought an equibase day pass so that I could watch videos of all Dee's races.  Here are screen caps:

Snowmageddon

Photo from my mother (in CT) of her front yard / the road:

Photo from my ride yesterday:

So glad to be down south!  Stay warm, New England!

Getting Greedy

Dee and I have had two pretty nice rides this week.  I've taken a half-step back with her and have just been concentrating on improving her trot work.  She had regressed back to her baby-self a bit, with giraffe-neck and lack of steering, so now that she's on U-7 and Mushroom Matrix, which seem to have gotten her focused, I'm focusing on keeping rides short and pleasant and waiting to canter until the U-7's been in her system a bit longer.  I think that part of her problem in the canter might be stemming from being a little ulcery.  It would make sense.  She was hotting up right after canter work (NOT typical Dee).
I addressed her baby-giraffe behavior by getting a little tougher with her.  After allowing her to mosey around on a loose rein at the walk for 5 minutes, I've been picking her right up and sending her to work.  She's been starting off grumpy about this, and even kicking at my leg occasionally (which she gets a swift kick for), but after grumbling at me about it and having me growl back at her, she's actually been settling into some nice work.  Yesterday she was especially good.  She was quicker to settle and really moving into the contact from behind (she tends to want to drop behind the aids).  After about 15 minutes, I felt her really engage and push from behind, to where we had two or three gorgeous steps.  At this point, I thought "Yes!  This is fantastic!  Let's keep this up!"
Well, I got too greedy.  She responded well for a little bit, but the added pressure was just a little too much, and I lost the relaxation.  So I spent the last few minutes just asking her to relax into a quieter trot again, and once she gave me a few relaxed strides, we just quit.  My goal isn't to frazzle her, which is what started to happen by asking for the bigger, bouncier, fancier trot for more than two or three strides.  Oh well, I suppose that eventually three strides will turn into six, which will turn into twelve, which will eventually turn into that gorgeous trot always.

The mushroom, of course!

I've decided to put Dee on Mushrooms for a month or two.  She hasn't been bad, per se, under saddle.  But she has been incredibly distracted and tense.  I've ordered a month's worth of ECP to see if it can help get her focused again.  It's like, as soon as we get going, she just starts finding things to worry about.  She doesn't do anything about it, but she just can't seem to take a deep breath and relax.  Even when she does relax for a second, it's as if she'll suddenly go "OH!  WAIT!  I can't be RELAXED!  I must be alert!  And worry!"  Part of it might be the crazy weather that we've been having, which swings from chilly to deliciously spring-like, but who knows.  I've liked the ECP i the past, so I'm hoping it can help to let her chill a bit.  It would be nice to be able to really ride her again.  Right now, I  can really only push on her a little before she starts to melt down, and most of the ride is just me trying to be as soft as possible and encourage her to just relax and stretch.  I'd like to get to the point where I can actually pick her up again and push her to really work.

New Year, New Places to Hack

Dee is officially back in work.  Of course, she doesn't believe me when I tell her she was on vacation.  She apparently thought she was retired, and has expressed her extreme displeasure at the fact that she is not a retiree.  She did some light work on Saturday and Sunday, and was, for the most part, a good girl.  Monday was a different story.  I don't entirely blame her, because as soon as we started, these two girls started wandering around the ring, in and out of her line of sight, and being a complete distraction.  Considering she's been on vacation for three weeks, I understand being easily distracted.  That said, once they disappeared, she was just out of the game.  No amount of leg, transitions, circles, changes of direction, leg yielding or anything else could get her to pay attention.  She was just going around with her head in the air, looking in every direction.  She wasn't being naughty, but she was completely out to lunch.  So once I got two trot circles where she took a breath and stretched, I stopped and decided to take her for a walk instead.  I would have loved to take her out in the big field behind the ring, which I think takes you out to a road at the college that winds around the perimeter (not sure about that, it's possible we would have gotten lost forever if I had done that), but we have been getting tons and tons of rain, and knowing what a mess her pasture is, I figured it was a bad idea to go hacking through the hay field.  I don't want to piss anyone off by ripping up the grass, and I think that even walking would have done that.  So instead, I took her up the dirt road that goes between her pasture and her neighbors' pasture.  That leads out to what I think is the main road in the college's campus.  We didn't go too far, but she was definitely a happy camper.  She was unsure, and a few times she would sort of hesitate while walking, as if to say "are you sure mom?  I don't know where we are!"  But, she marched along on a loose rein, looking around and seeming to enjoy the view.  My favorite part was when a car passed us, and it cast a shadow at her feet.  I don't think she understood the dark blob on the road coming towards her, so she kind of hopped over it.  Adorable.  Once it's dry, I think there are loads of places I can take her, but for now I guess we're stuck on the tar and gravel roads when we want to get out.

New Clothes for a New Year

When Dee came in August, she did not come with the correct halter, which was a bummer, considering that I really liked that halter.  It was a triple stitched weaver halter, and I always got compliments on it.  Instead, she now wears an ugly black leather halter that is too big for her.  I really hate that halter, so for Christmas, I just ordered her a beautiful new halter by Quillin Leather, complete with a name plate.

Yeah, she's going to be stylin' in that, and with a nameplate set to read "Today" on the first line and "Dee" on the second, no one will be confused about which horse that lovely halter belongs to!