Another Week

One more horsey weekend in the books. I'll be sad tomorrow morning as I drive off to the early ferry and onwards to work on the south coast. I return Wednesday night, but sadly the ferries aren't lining up super well. I get home quite late at night right now, so Thursday evening will be the next time I can ride.

I LOVED taking lessons with EC on her horse Audrey while I am working there,  but as with all things West Coast and horses, the prices have been going up, up, up, and I simply can't justify the expenditure. The current cost is almost $80 a lesson, which is still a good deal for quality instruction on a talented horse. But, that adds up to over $300 a month over and above any costs for Bridget and clinics on her. So, I sadly declined further lessons as of last week. On the plus side that money can go towards my new trailer and pony fund, and I will of course keep taking monthly clinics and working hard with Bridget.

Things they don't mention in the tourist brochures: It rains here all winter. When it's not raining, and sunny everywhere else, being this close to the ocean means the sun is somewhere above that layer of fog. This was at 2:00. Not gloomy at all, right? 

My rides on Bridget this week were a little...weird. She had a ton of energy Fri/Sat, but was pretty much wanting to use it for evil, pushing into my leg and running through my hand. I got her going nicely walk/trot both days via lots of lateral work and spirals, but the canter really wasn't the best and I had to be satisfied with ending on a few good strides each day. Her answer to everything I asked in canter was to run off through my hand. Fun times. I pulled out a couple of "cowboy" tricks I've never needed to use on her, one of which is the good old halt and back up, then canter off from a standstill every time they run off on you. I added in some rollbacks too.

Relaxing after, looking all happy and innocent

We had an interesting ride too, in which G led the adorable mini, Lily, out with Bridget in hopes of me eventually being able to pony her like Cathryn does with Spud. Lily is adorable, and so, so well behaved. She loves Bridget, and made it clear right away that Bridget is her hero, and she'll do anything she says. Sadly, for now Bridget wants to abuse that power and there was a bit of tail swishing and ear pinning. Nothing overly worrying, but out of character for Bridget so I played it safe.  Lily is too small to risk an inadvertent kick, so G just led her beside at a safe distance. It's weird, normally Bridget could care less about other equines, but she has a strange fixation with Lily. It's not even that she hates her, because she's always wanting to stop and say hi when we walk past her field (which never happens with other horses, B is really not a very social creature). So, for now it's more of a love/hate thing from Bridget's perspective, but I think she'll come around.

Maybe she saw The Fog, and scary movies get in her head?

Sunday B was a weird combination of super spooky and a bit tired feeling. I have no idea what her problem was - we ride past the same trailhead every time we head to the arena, and more often than not there are vehicles there with bike racks, quad trailers, dogs, whatever. This time, there was a black Ford pickup with a quad trailer that was totally making her mind exit the building. Rearing, spinning, trying to bolt for home. So odd. Particulary as there were multiple other trucks and trailers there, and the one immediately adjacent was a black ford too? So why was that one extra special? She got in trouble because her drama over it was totally not a reasonable response. Stopping to look is fine, walking past and looking, better. Eventually, she walked past, and I thought I won.

Who ever really knows what's cooking in that pony brain.

Except, wouldn't you know? You could almost, just about see that truck up on the road behind the trees while we were in the outdoor arena. It was literally half a km away or more, but ponies have sharp eyes, I guess. And she was obsessed with the thing. Could not focus. I'd give her difficult tasks to keep her focused, and she'd be fine, but the instant I gave an inch she was back looking for the evil truck. Ughhh, ponies, lol. We found a happy note to end on, and chalked the whole thing up as good practice for all the distractions in show season, also a mental note that rather than just hating on 2000's era F150's, what she might actually be saying is that dressage was boring/too hard today and that 3 days out of 4 this week was probably too much.

Cowboy trick number 2: Riding past the announcers booth was driving her nuts because omg she couldn't see the evil truck. Compromise: We stay here and relax, this is your new happy place. You can listen for evil trucks, but you cannot move, or else we go right back to work.