Can we have an adult re-rider support group?

[spacytracy]

Sounds like everyone had some good rides this weekend! I’m taking it easy now. I do have a stall cleaner but had hubby on that duty this weekend and he is admittedly NOT a horse person. And my TB has this stinky snot nose (vets coming today) and he slimed my hubby and hubby had to shower. So he has a definite distaste for the horses right now.

But he was down at the barn when I went out to feed (I can handle scooping grain) and helped me bring them in (they are angels on the leads and if one acted up I would have just let go) and then it was all done for the night.

My stall chick just left. My only horse responsibility today is just meeting the vet and I’m going to explain that I can’t be much help. I’m thinking she can examine him in his stall, and he’s pretty easy to handle.

[CVPeg]

[QUOTE=spacytracy;6002496]
Hi all,
Just wanted to let you know surgery went well, Cleaned a stall (I KNOW!) [/QUOTE]

Spacytracy - take care of yourself! …so you can be back on sooner than later! :yes:

[QUOTE=jaslyn1701;6003327] there is always one for $200. Well, yours truly won that one. So, guess I will have to pull my head out and show next season.

Gulp.

The adventure begins.[/QUOTE]

Yes, it’s a sign!!

Had a really nice weekend. After having 4 days between rides over Thanksgiving, and ex SO here - we gave a demonstration of how well B is doing, and of course, 4 days break did not prove to give that much credance. :eek: He has a head cocked to the left/leaning on the bit, “back at the track” habit when he’s full of himself. We had worked our way through that, for the most part, quite nicely. And now this week he is feeling so good that he thinks he is back at the track again. It had been frustrating. I was trying to just boringly work him for a few minutes each time in both directions, and he wasn’t listening.

Had a lesson yesterday, and visiting H/J instructor gave us several new exercises and maneuvers to work on. He picked them right up, immediately began anticipating when I wanted him to do it again, we had balance! and just a great lesson. I just love how OTTBs think ahead when they’re tuned in with you - they are so willing to please, and so smart.

A really nice day, ending with another nice walk outside on the dirt roads during this freakishly beautiful Northeast weather. I think I love riding even more than when I was a little girl, if that’s possible!

[spacytracy]

Do you think you can “tune” a horse to yourself? The reason I ask is, my horse was used in IHSA lessons during the fall. So when I brought him home, he was really fit and used to being ridden 4-5 times/week.

Normally, I just ride on weekends in winter, more in summer with daylight. Do you think a horse can kind of be “dumbed” down or “tuned down” for just casual riding?

[Opus1]

Last week, my lesson was canceled due to rain. And since then, I’ve had two people on vacation at work, meaning 60-hour work weeks. I finally dragged out to the barn in beautiful 70+ weather … and we did an unmounted lesson at my urging. I was in a daze the whole 50-mile drive and felt like crap.

On the plus side, we used my lesson horse for a refresher course on polo wrapping (I haven’t done it in over 10 years), as well as fitted and talked about all the various boots and their uses. My poor guy was standing there like, ‘WTF? You’re playing dress up with me?’ But it was very interesting as I finally learned the differences between boots and their uses. (I know it’s very elementary, but I hate looking at tack catalogs and not knowing what this is for.

Next unmounted lesson: bits.

I can’t wait for this month to be over. The holidays, special projects, people cramming their unused vacation in … Gah. So, I’m taking off the next 2 weeks so I won’t be in such a daze.

[TarheelJD]

jaslyn – that is what I need to do with my 8-year old. I occasionally need to get his attention with a quick kick, but alas I am too chicken most of the time, so now he is taking advantage of me. I must “grow some balls,” and do what needs to be done!

Opus1 – I know what you mean about December being crappy. I only rode once this past weekend. I’ll be home this weekend, and will get to ride Saturday and Sunday, but I will be exhausted from crazy work schedule. I’m out of town the weekend before Christmas, Christmas weekend, and New Year’s weekend – all family obligations. By January, I am going to totally suck! OK - whine over on that one.

spacytacy – NO MORE STALL CLEANING! REST! Hope all goes well with the vet appointment, and the snotty nose clears up quickly.

[spacytracy]

Vet appt did not go as well as I hoped. My TB has sinusitis. I am devistated, as this is very expensive to treat and a long process. It could not come at a worse time.

Can you send some jingles that the antibiotics knock it out and I don’t have to make some major decisions?

[Dewey]

Ugh. I’m sorry. Hope the drugs knock it right out!

[EdwardMoore]

Can we have an adult re-rider support group?

I think the drug may be responsible and moreover the habits pull it out.

[Ray]

Edward, what the heck ?

[OneGrayPony]

Edvard appears to be a spammer.

spacytracy so sorry to hear about the sinusitis. jingles for a good and easy recovery…for both of you!

I also re-found the racehorse in my guy after moving him to a new barn…but alas, he’s also off. He was off the day before we moved him in one of those “vague” off sorts of ways. So we moved, he’s on this new gorgeous footing (and I do mean gorgeous, I have NEVER seen his hind end articulate like that) and he’s still off. Looked like tendon, knee was swollen, I was panicking. Vet came out, sensitive to hoof testers through a thick pad, blocked him and thinks it’s his foot and that it may just be an abscess (which she couldn’t find because he was blocked). She did find bruising at the tip of his frog.

I’ve never wanted my horse to have an abscess so much in my life.

So now I have to twiddle my thumbs and wait for my horse to either blow an abscess or feel better. sigh

It’s making me even more anxious to ride, because now our first ride at the new facility will be with a horse who is rather up from the move AND not having been ridden in a week, or two weeks, or longer depending on how long this takes to resolve joy

[TarheelJD]

Sorry spacytracy - that sucks. Lots of jingles that the antbiotics knock the sinusitis out.

And as weird as it sounds - here’s hoping for an abscess for OneGrayPony’s horse, and that he’s on the mend soon.

[RolyPolyPony]

Feel better, spacytracy!!

And fingers crossed for an abcess, OneGrayPony!

I did ride last week, despite the ick, and had a good lesson - take that, evil left lead canter! And we’re working more on crossrails and little verticals, which has been going really well - no anxiety about it at all, which is a change from my last barn where I was terrified before each jump week. Not sure why it’s so less scary at this place, though I suspect that fact that it’s a smaller barn so I’m not fighting hordes of other riders help!

I’m really growing to love the schoolie I part lease - he’s such a sweetie, and really tries to figure out what my sometimes-not-quite-right signals mean We had a lovely practice ride on Friday that made me just glow.

Alas, today I HAD to cancel my lesson - the warm weather here (which I love) is not stopping the leaf mold, which in turn has made my asthma insanely bad today. Riding congested is one thing, but riding unable to breathe at all doesn’t seem like a good idea So here’s hoping for one good hard freeze (and then back to the 50s, please!) to kill the mold!!

[iechris]

I finally made it back to the barn to ride this weekend after almost a month away. Sinus infection (still hanging on), rain and dog shows have kept me away. I had a great ride on Saturday, just took my time tacking up and rode for about 30 minutes in the arena. I cantered some poles and saw my distances. I felt great, not at all like I had taken so long off. Of course, I’m sure that will ALL change the next time I have a lesson! Sunday I went back to the barn and went on a nice trail ride with my friends and we started planning our barn Christmas party.

It is raining now and supposed to rain all day into tomorrow, so I don’t think I’ll be lessoning tomorrow, then I’m out of town again this Sunday. I do have a long vacation coming up around Christmas, so I should have plenty of time to ride then.

Thinking about trying to make homemade horse treats as Christmas presents for barn friends. Anyone tried it and had any success?

[myguyom]

Had an interesting lesson last night…it was “all about quick turns and thinking fast”, as my coach put it. And OMG, she was NOT joking! We had lots of elements is the various courses she set, including a four stride, a five stride a three stride, three bounces and even a skiny set sideways at the end of the arena. I really think she is trying to convert us to jumpers!! LOL. My mare and I did some turns that I would have thought impossible!! Not one ounce of hesitation in the mare, and other than one moment of “airtime” between me and the saddle (mare decided she really DID need to put a chip in there, when I thought for sure she was going!), the lesson was an absolute blast! By the end of the hour and a bit lesson, the mare was listening to my leg and I was sitting up and holding the front end while keeping the hind end engaged without losing impulsion.

Although my my main discipline is Hunters, my coach says that excersizes like we did last night get the horse listening to you and responding faster…and will thus leave us better prepared for any type of course we may face.

I hope everyone has a great ride this week, and that your ponies get better…the one with the abcess and sinusitis.

[spacytracy]

I have! I would just mix dry oatmeal, grain, molasses, veggie oil in a bowl, enough so that it was the consistency that I could form balls with it, bake for like 10 min at 350, and voila! The edges would sometimes burn because of the molasses but the insides would be ooey-gooey.

I made some one year and my brother said “Those cookies were disgusting!” I said “They’re horse cookies, and you ate two of them.”

[Hinderella]

Myguyom, I had a lesson that was a lot like yours, and it was so much fun! I had to listen to the instructor describe the course three times before I could understand it. I’ve tried to “sketch” it here.

We rode into the center of the in-and-out, jumping fence #1 away toward 4, then rolled back to the right, through the center again, jumping fence 2 away from #1, then rolled back around to our left, through the center of the in-and-out again to jump fence 3, then turned left, through the center of the in-and-out one more time to finish by jumping fence 1 again, and the bending line to fence 4. The jumps were positioned quite close together.

__________ (4)

                                        /
                                      /
                                     /
                                (1)                                  /
                                                                     /
                                                                    /
                                                                  (2)


                        \
                          \
                            \
                            (3)

None of the jumps were very tall, 2’ and under, but it was all about the riding in between. I seem to FINALLY be able to remember to look where I’m going!
My pony’s been known to get a little fast when we do a series of jumps, but on this one, she was just enjoying the turns. She’s like a little sport bike, she can turn on a dime, so this was right up her alley.

[Hinderella]

OK, never mind. My little fence diagram works in email, not in this posting. Jumps 1, 2 and 3 were like three leaves of a clover. Jump 1 at 10 o’clock, Jump 2 at 4 o’clock, jump 3 at 8 o’clock, nothing at 2 o clock.
Sorry about that, but I can still say it was fun!

[spacytracy]

Thank god. I looked at that and was like “man, I’m so stupid” because it looked like gibberish to me.

Well, Dublin’s snot doesn’t smell anymore! i guess that’s a step in the right direction! My trainer came today to help me and she gave him his injection, and he was perfect for it, so hopefully I can handle it on my own in a a few days!

[Dewey]

Had a breakthrough with the green mare today! Usually, when faced with a new jump, she jumps it with five feet to spare and bucks afterward. Today, she jumped the little flower boxes we’ve been doing lately (at about two feet), and then with a lead from another horse, she jumped a two-foot gate she hadn’t seen before from a quiet, relaxed trot with no freaking out or bucking. It was almost as though something clicked in her brain. I hope so! It was certainly fun! I floated all the way home! :)

[spacytracy]

Hope everyone has a great riding weekend!

Dublin is doing awesome - snot is going away, smell is totally gone. My friend is going to “ride” him tomorrow at an easy walk to just let him get out and stretch his legs a little. No real work.