Ready, set, let's ride!

This morning's demonstration of how Digby keeps the flies off of him after his hose down.

Digby has been a STAR lately. I cannot say it enough! He's been responsive, forward and happy to work. I've been walking 75% of our rides to build up strength in both of us, with 20% trotting and I throw in a few canter strides every here and there just to work on the "stay in front of my leg" game which we'll call 5% but it's probably less. I'm not sure I shouldn't be cantering yet since he's not all that fit but it's only a few strides so I don't worry about it too much. It helps the overall picture more than it hurts it. He's also one of those horses whose trot improves after you canter.

I've been working on our (he's in better shape than me!) strength and endurance. I've also been working on getting forward and straight. In order to get Digby straight, I actually do lateral work. I think it helps with straightness, plus it helps get him looser and more supple. He's a bit older and can be a touch stiff. I've been playing around with our leg yields and some turns on the forehand. Turns on the forehand has never been our strong point. He always wants to back up during it so it's always something I'm conscious of (less hand, more leg!) and working on. Any tips on this? 

I did a bit of pole work this morning. The ring is mostly jumps with fill so I don't have a lot I can deconstruct but I set up two single poles plus a line of trotting poles. I like pole work because I find it keeps me honest about his gaits (ie: "Ok Becky, if this was a jump you were going towards, would you be straight, balanced, and have enough impulsion to make it over? Or are you crooked and just plodding along and likely to crash and burn?") versus just flat work. Plus it's helpful to build back his topline! 

"Lemme just climb in there for an minute so you can put the AC on?"

Sweet Sixteen

Digby turned 16 on May 27! Where does time go?! He got his favorite treat (Pop tarts, as picutured) and he thought that was prettyyy awesome. 

Then came the bad news. The dentist had alerted me this winter when he came out to do Digbys teeth that his incisors were slanted and in need of a float with power tools. Between me working nights and 54 hours a week, the dentist and the vet, we couldn't get all our schedules together until now. The vet came out and gave him a sedative. Digby then got his teeth "fixed." The end result?

A drunk hony. Since he was pretty darn sleepy, I took advantage and pulled his mane and cleaned his sheath. Two tasks that are not his favorite but I figured he'd appreciate me doing while he was barely awake versus completely alert. In reality, his birthday probably sucked for him. I'm not sure poptarts and love make up for sedation, power tools, mane pulling and sheath cleaning. I didn't ride and opted to hose him off (sedation = sweaty pony) and graze for about 20 minutes. Hopefully that was good! 

So tell me your thoughts on sheath cleaning, people. Yay or nay? I've heard more recently that it's not necessary but I guess old habits die hard because I try to clean his at least twice a year. Does anyone's horse try to kill them? Is your horse tolerant of it? Mares count in this conversation too! Udder cleaning can be quite an event as well! 

Shocked and deeply saddened.

Yesterday was Digby's birthday. I was in the middle of writing a post about it when I went on Facebook and discovered this.

I met Seema while I was still in college during a summer internship I completed at an eventing barn. While I have not directly written about her on this blog, it was probably within the first year or two that I owned Digby and I was keeping him at my then trainers barn. He was having some lots of lameness issues and I couldn't afford to pay to ride another horse, plus do right by Digby and keep him hanging around. She selflessly mailed me a check so I could afford to half lease one of my trainers horses for a month while I was in the process of finding a cheaper place to move Digby. I had met her years earlier and was wildly impressed by this as I had thought she was kind and impressive - great professional, active in supporting young riders and eventing, and competed in marathons and eventing herself - but even more so by the fact that she mailed me, whom she did not know THAT well, a check to allow me to half lease and continue my riding while my horse was dealing with his lamenesses. I have made an effort, due to the impact of her kindness and generosity, to "pay it back" to another person who needs help.

She was selfless and a true gem, both in the horse world and otherwise. She was just so overwhelmingly kind, talented and beyond generous. I wish I could speak more eloquently about her but there are just so many words: smart, compassionate, witty, full of life, hard working, the list goes on. I have fond memories of her and her horses. My heart goes out to her family.

If anyone reads COTH Forums, she was the poster named Scubed. There is a post on the Eventing Forum right now about it. She also had a blog and although it wasn't updated super regularly, I feel like it captures just how much she did for others. This a crushing loss for the horse community that I wish was not true. Rest in peace Seema. You will be missed.

Life changes

Just a quick post to say I foaled out the last mare of the season last night! Whoo! I will be going back to days and I am so excited to sleep at night again. Literally can't wait. Someone remind me of this when I'm exhausted and trying to nap at 5 pm tonight. :)

The infamous last foal of 2015! 

Brief hiatus

Digby from earlier this week. 

So as you can tell, I took a brief (ok several week), unexpected break from blogging. I had a lot going on in my personal and work life that required basically all of my time, energy and focus. I didn't stop seeing my horse but I didn't ride or work him nearly as often as I'd like. Mostly because I have to pick ticks off him daily (HATE THEM!!!) and sorting through his mane and tail every time I see him has become awful time consuming. I got four off him today! Ugh. Gross. I've had Lyme disease before so ticks are my least favorite ever. To be fair, I didn't really like them before I got Lyme and now I reallyyy don't. I'm sure they have some impact on the environment and a reason to be alive but I'd be cool if they disappeared and weren't replaced with an equally foul bug. 

But anyway, I'm back! Whoo! I'm still (ughughugh) on nights but we're down to one mare so hopefully she foals soon (... Like yesterday.) and then I can go back to days! I have TONS of catching up to do both in reading and writing my own blogs. It may not happen. We shall see!

What do you do for a living?

Let's hear it! What do you do for a living? Did you go for something to support your horsey habit? Do you work in a job with flexible hours to make horses easier? Do you work with horses?

As for me, I'm a horse girl. I've only had horse related jobs my entire life but I'm potentially changing that soon. Rather than blabber on, I present you my job (all pictures taken in the last 2 weeks... I have roughly 10,383,665,721,986,362 baby photos and most of them are terrible like this. Babies are hard to photograph on an iPhone because they're constantly moving.)

Technically a yearling and not a foal. Still super cute.

 

Leaping!

More of the same foal running around. Mom does. Not. Care. "Must eat grasses."

Foal and Mom enjoying a lovely sunrise

Different foal, same sunrise :)

 

Would of been SUPER cute, but then there's Mom's nose!

The little forelock tuft's babies get just kills me!

Finals Week. We meet again.

So in the winter, I started taking college classes again. It should be noted that I graduated already a few years ago with a Bachelors degree. This time I'm at my local community college, just to get into the swing of things, potentially go back full time/part time in the fall for a different degree, you know.

 

 

I'm not full time enrolled but I'm taking a few and I work 54 hours a week. (Albeit, I'm writing this post at work right now so I usually get a few hours a night to study/watch Netflix/etc.) It is now finals week.

 

Which means this is pretty true:

 

And I'm not doing a heck of a lot of Digby riding for the week. I had originally planned to ride today and hopefully on the weekend. I was also meeting with an advisor who is in my potential future career choice. I mostly wanted to talk about 4 year colleges, career opportunities, if she had any advice for getting a job afterwards. We scheduled it for today and I thought, ok, fine, I'll just ride the hony on Thursday. After waiting 30 minutes, she never showed up. I called, emailed, nothing. Hmph. So really, I waited around and did stuff at home because I didn't have time to go to class, ride and be back for this meeting, essentially wasting a sunny, high of 78 day that I could of been riding. I don't have an indoor so I try to plan to ride any day that's nice out. Thanks for that, no-show meeting person. I drove home, took a shower, cuddled the dog in the sunshine and had a summer shandy in honor of Cinco de Drinko. I felt a lot better after that. Adult beverages and vitamin D for the win.

 

Sunday Funday

Had a lovely ride on Mr. Digby today! I've decided to bring him back into work now as he's finally gaining weight (praise hallelujah!) so we've started walking under saddle and I did a bit of long lining yesterday in the trot. 

Typical between the ears shot. (Pics or it didn't happen!!)

I did trot a bit under saddle today but a trailer came onto the property just as we started working and I knew it was either "trot it out" or "pick a fight and jig for an hour." So we did a few minutes of trotting each way until he realized his horse friend was in fact just getting ridden as well. He was forward and pretty darn awesome for the first time being ridden, minus one bareback ride, since probably December.

Good hony!

Video as promised!

A short video of some of our time spent in the round pen and then him actually going out into the field. Note wild leaps and cross cantering. Wild child Digby! He had been in for about a day and a half so I threw him out and let him leap around before actually testing any buttons out. These clips are after he bucked around for a while.

Also if Digby was a girl, the song would likely be his theme song. :)