Back at the barn
Today was a relatively normal day... Yeah, right! I got up,
ate and made lunch while waiting for 10am to hear from Peggy. She called a few
minutes early to say Daryl was coming with his tractor and drag to deal with
the arena, so I was out the door by 10.10am. It’s a short walk from here (about
.5 mile, compared to 2.5 miles from Lana’s) so the sprinkler was on in the
arena by 10.20am. The idea was to get the surface damp so the drag wouldn’t create
too much dust.
Jenny came shortly before Daryl turned up, with husband
Andre in tow (his birthday today!). They took Gruella into the indoor to do
some groundwork. I mixed feeds and showed her the heart-girth press: Gruella
really seemed to like it. Meanwhile, Daryl’s tractor had stopped and there was
a moment of panic when we thought he’d dragged the outermost track and then
gone home!
Peggy and Susan arrived while he was still fixing. It turned
out that he’d run out of gas, so went to buy more, came back and the tractor’s
nearly-flat battery couldn’t start the engine which had cooled down by that
stage.Susan had to jump start the tractor from the car . All in all it took
about an hour to drag the arena and an hour to deal with the tractor.
Peggy and I worked Sully in the field. We walked him up and
down the small hills. He is quite stiff in his hind legs (especially hips and
hocks): they haven’t been asked to “fold” for quite some time. Peggy had her
hand on various places as I walked him in connection. He was OK with hip press but tended to crab
sideways when she did anything else (hip press, sacrum rock) and really didn’t
like tail pulls. But, he let his head and neck go, his stride improved and he
did start placing his feet in a better way.
Fon got a very quick brush then out for lunging. She felt
heavy on her shoulder and tried to barge through me (something I was working
hard on last week). Her rhythm was pretty good, considering, and she listened
to me well with some good out and in changes. I realise I did not fully
appreciate how GOOD she is at that sort of thing: she has good articulation of
her head and will offer quite a lot of turn, quite easily. Some of the horses
I’ve had my hands on in the last few days have not offered – or been able to do
– more than a couple of degrees of turning. Fon got three correct canter
transitions to the left, her sticky side. The horses in the field ran and
bucked: Fon stayed with her handler and did not explode or tank off at all.
Peggy mounted and rode around for a while. Fon was
absolutely fantastic. There is a little bit of a habit in the arena, where she
got a lot of bad schooling in a prior life, so she has some hang ups. However,
previously she was too unfocussed in the field so that was not a viable alternative
work space. Today, she rocked! It took very little asking to get her hind legs
and ask for bends in both directions. She was balanced and soft with base up
and back rounded. She kept going in a very nice posture for a good length of
time and with few reminders. Considering what they’ve been through to get her
into shape, it was fabulous. I also got to ride for a short time to feel
it. She is easier to the left than the
right; she understands the rotation out to hook the outside hind, then rotation
in to hook the inside hind. She knows rotation out then leg on to ask for some
more lateral steps (to make the circle smaller), and rotation in + leg on to
ask for a larger circle. She spooked one time when Gruella ran out from behind
some trees so I got to feel her moving in a disconnected way (base down) for
two strides. I definitely appreciate the exposure to the thing I don’t want, as
well as the thing I do want her to do. It helps me understand where she comes
from and how much Connected helps her.
Susan and Karen both got to see how well Fon went today. I
know all four people were very, very pleased with her.
We discussed Sully’s feet (the farrier comes tomorrow).
Unfortunately Peggy can’t be there as she’s flying out to a two-day clinic so
it’ll be me and Karen to meet him and see what he has to say. Sully’s feet have
decontracted significantly since I took his shoes off, even though I haven’t
trimmed him the way I would like to trim (ultimately, I was doing something to
get him through to the farrier visit, and he is likely to get shoes on either
tomorrow or next time). I would like to see him stay bare at least until I go,
as his feet need time to decontract much, much further (I would *really* like
to see him stay bare but he’s not my horse!).
I was lucky enough to get a Feldy session with Karen after
we left the barn. I feel much better for it!
Dinner was pork with garlic butter potatoes, fresh lettuce and snow peas
from the garden, followed by ice cream (all the pie at Joan’s and the ice cream
here isn’t doing my sugar free thing any favours! I figure I worked some of it
off today walking up and down the hill with Sully and also as I moved the arena
sprinkler around.... ;) ).
Tomorrow I want to be at the barn early enough to do barn
chores and lightly groundwork Sully before the farrier arrives at noon. I will
work Fonteyn after her feet are done. I am supposed to be going to dinner with
my current hosts, and after that will go back to Susan’s where I’m staying for
the next 10 days.
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