A week in review: Grey mare drama

It's been a busy week with horses that's for sure. We'll start with the new girl first, since I'm sure everyone is dying to hear about her since my mention in my last post. Maija is another grey mare, a thoroughbred, I've just started working. Her mother, the hilarious and awesome Tiffany Finlan is currently dealing with an excessive work schedule on top of wedding preparations and asked me to ride her over the next couple of weeks til things settle down and she has more time. I had ridden her once before months and months ago and knew she's had a good amount of training, mostly dressage, and it would be a piece of cake and a good way for me to keep my riding legs. Hahaha. Famous last words, right?

My first ride on her was Tuesday. I tacked her up, threw on a surcingle and lunged her since she had been on vacation for a week or two just as a precaution. No issues there, so I get on and instantly the first thing that comes to my mind is "maybe I should have worn my vest". Thats really not a good thing. Lol. I don't know what it was but she had lost her shit a little bit. After fumbling around with an extremely tightly wound horse who would get light in the front anytime I asked for contact for about 10 minutes, I decided the best idea was to throw her back on the lunge and REALLY work her before I got back on. Much better. I put her through her paces to figure out what I was gonna be able to ask for. Walk and trot were good. Canter not so much. Leads were iffy, transitions need mucho work. Laterals, just leg yield and shoulder in, are lovely to the left but non-existent to the right. Typical OTTB.

Weds and Thursday were much the same. Although I think some of the canter transition issues stem from probably not doing a whole lot of cantering this summer and me needing to ask a little more aggressively. It takes her a long time to warm up enough to be round and stay round, so maybe more lunging is in order before riding. We shall see!

She also has this ridiculous quirk I had completely forgotten about until it happened on thursday. While standing in the cross ties for girthing, she will sometimes fall asleep. We're talking legs give out and she almost falls down asleep. It's really weird. And slightly disturbing. Lol. I've only seen one other horse do that in my life. It's insane to watch. I just poke and lightly smack her to keep her awake. Ohhhh horses.

On to the pony! Work wise, Pepper has been doing really well this week. She lunged every day except Saturday (I was in Hersey with Megan to see Dave Matthews!) and really seems to be getting it. She's actually given me a nice round trot a couple times WITHOUT side reins that almost made me pee myself. Pony is smart! Hopefully it will translate well into riding in a few weeks.

As for her general handling issues, things are not progressing as well. I've pretty much given up on cross tying, at least for now, since all she does is break clips and freak herself out. Single tying has been working out pretty well so I don't feel it's necessary to push it. I've also taken to hosing her off outside in the grass because I think she gets claustrophobic in the wash stall. This Friday we identified a whole new level of awful. Pepper does not like being sponged off. I don't know if it's the sponge itself or maybe the smell of the liniment (which of course was meant to make her feel better, god forbid). She basically melted down, flew backwards, sideways, all over the place, and managed to knock the entire bucket over even though I had placed it over ten feet away just to avoid things like that. Ugh. Oh well. I'm going to experiment with smaller sponges or wash clothes and see if that makes a difference.

On the plus side, I think she's lost some weight! The fat patches behind her shoulders seem smaller. Hooray for not so obese ponies!

Picture below is Maija.