Catching Up

 Finally, my brain and body are feeling more energetic and in sync and I'm feeling a little better about life. Last week was a trial of a new daylight savings time work schedule and I LOVED it. I work half days Wednesdays and Fridays and of course still have weekends off. That means I have four not too crunched for light or time days I can ride or just generally horse around. I'm not sure how much my boss actually cared about the saga of the indoor arena being closed this year and sad me having nowhere to ride if it's dark... I'm just grateful he humors me :)

This week was just all about getting the ponies back to the idea of working. (TLDR catch up version: I got overwhelmed with work and depressed and didn't ride for 2 months. I've since quit the second job and amended the hours of the first. Not being exhausted and stressed makes everything better, who knew?)

Been a little while since there were ponies x2 waiting to be tacked up. S is SO much taller than Bridget now, I need to measure her again!

Two months off for a Bridget is actually sort of fine. She was a total wild child the first two outings and I didn't even end up getting on, just walked her around the neighborhood. I ended up doing 3 short rides on her this week. Trying to keep in mind her (lack of) fitness and on/off lameness, we just walked for 20-30 min or less and did one day on a short trail with a little hill. She says she'd love to do more, but she's feeling SO good, I don't want to break her! As always, I keep in the back of my mind that maybe we'll find the magic combination of diet/meds/fitness and she'll come back totally sound one day. 

Also... I popped Sophie's adjustable saddle on B (B's is not fitting...again) and it was a total revelation. WHY did I not ever ride her in a monoflap before? It's the best thing ever for a wide, round pony. So weird, because I don't like riding in that saddle at all on Sophie and have been saving pennies to get something better, but I LOVE it on B. Safe to say, we are keeping that saddle!

Someone is looking rather rotund (do I ever say otherwise? She gets two hours of this crappy grazing in the morning, one flake of hay and a scoop of hay cubes and vitamins morning and night...easy keeper or what.)

Her usual paddock. There's Sophie in the background, grazing pasture all day. I feel so mean some days.

Two months off for Sophie. Well, I'm sure we all knew that wasn't going to be a big success. I actually have no regrets about giving her a break, she did so well this summer and is growing and filling out like crazy....I think physically the time was a very good thing. Mentally though? Pony needs a job.  It would have been nice if I had have at least kept some kind of consistent routine with her, because feral doesn't even begin to describe the first few days. 

Arabian tail and dragon snorts all day.

She settled down a lot by Saturday - I took her out to the club grounds for a visit and she was pretty civilized even with other horses cantering around and doing horsey things. Yesterday was the first day she came out and checked in right away and I probably could have hopped on and ridden. I didn't though, because I've got a helper lined up for this Wednesday afternoon. S has been incredibly sharp and spooky this week and 'forgotten' just about anything she knows (I should have videoed her reaction to the saddle when I longed her in it...omg, rodeo, anyone?),  so despite being 99.9% sure she's back in a good frame of mind,  I think it's a wise choice to wait until we have adult supervision. 

See? There's dragon steam! ;)

Fingers crossed, this will have been the last big break she's getting and she'll be on an adult riding horse schedule now. In the past I've often given my horses a week or two off here or there throughout the year, but I think I'm going to nix that plan with this one. I keep waiting for her to mature mentally, but at 4.5 years old I think this might just be who she is :D

Yes, we see your attitude, Sophie.

I love this one.