Roomies

I know I say this way too often, but I've been so busy! My efforts towards rebalancing my life have certainly helped, but I'm still finding little surprises are really impacting my schedule and my horse time.

The barn owner was recently giving me a bit of (mild) grief, because I guess both ponies were being a little rambunctious this past week while I was away working extra. Sophie in particular is very social and busy, and gets a little silly if she's bored. This week's damages included a fence rail and a water bucket, plus she was apparently "pushy" with the barn owner. She's a good girl, but she's still a 2 year old who makes dumb decisions sometimes. She's pretty immature for her age, so although she knows how to do all the age appropriate domestic horse things very well, she still gets up to all kinds of silly feral pony antics in her free time.

B is the good pony right now, but even she's apparently been a bit cheeky. 

I don't want to burn any bridges, so I've suggested moving barns to somewhere where there is more room for her to run and less day to day handling is required by the barn owners. (Right now the horses have to be put in and out as the weather requires, so along with feeding when I'm away, that's a bit of extra work for the barn owner).  And yes, I'm away working extra right now, so much for my short work week and extra time at home, it's all hands on deck as we're very busy and unexpectedly understaffed.

It's frustrating, but if I can hold on til mid July my replacement at work will have started, and I'll be taking some vacation time. We'll see how it goes as far as barn and riding time goes then. I know the barn owner doesn't want me to leave, but I'm tired of being the problem child :)

The terrible twosome

In the meantime, I moved Sophie in with Bridget, in hopes they'll keep each other entertained and busy. Plus, Bridget is good at enforcing rules. Fingers crossed, this is a good temporary solution, as it keeps Bridget moving around, and gives Sophie some structure. I have no doubt there will be much drama on the part of a certain palomino princess when I separate them again, but for now it's working.

Twins? ;)

As far as adventures, we didn't get up to much this weekend. I worked on Sophie's feet a bit and she was a very good girl, plus she spent some time on the trail with us being ponied off Bridget. A+ for both ponies there, they're a proper team now, even matching strides as we walk along. Very cute.  Sophie's also possibly figured out how to get her halter off? Twice in one day when tied seems a little more than coincidence. I'll have to see if I can catch her in the act and see how she's doing it. At least she doesn't run off, she just takes the opportunity to eat grass nearby. The pony genes are strong in this one, lol.

B has been coughing a bit again, and generally feels a little icky under saddle. My allergies are crazy right now too, and the weather is very hot and dusty. I think she's a little footsore too. This would be a summer for shoes if I was riding on a proper schedule. So, perhaps good timing for her to have a fairly relaxed few weeks. If the cough persists, we'll get her some meds from our lovely vet. I'm a little concerned, but we've been here before and it seems to be seasonal, when it cools off and we get some rain she'll likely be feeling 100% again. As for her feet, we've got boots that work well, but they don't hold up to anything beyond trot - she overstrides a bit and catches them with her hind feet. I'm crossing fingers hard that our newest trial saddle will fit, it would be nice to jump her a bit and get her moving in the softer arena footing when the dust dies down.

I need to measure Sophie again. I swear it was less than a month ago she was 2" shorter than Bridget, yet she looks taller than B in every picture from today.

I'm heading to the Topline horse trials in a couple of weeks, and am both sad and excited about it. Sad, because I won't be riding (and actually my whole show season seems to have imploded...) but happy because it's just as fun to cheer on my barnmates and act as groom. Horsey adventures are always good!

Unintended consequence of them being roomies: Sophie is WAY more sociable than B, but B does not like to share. Therefore B is about 500% friendlier than ever before, and is pictured her trying to cut Sophie off to get to me first lol