Sugar and Spice

 It feels like baby ponies have lived here forever and we have our routine, and then I unthinkingly do something it turns out they have a problem with. Chaos reigns for a second or ten and I remember that they are brand new at grownup horse things and I shouldn't assume anything. Last week, I learned Reggie is actually not cool with ropes around him. At all. Didn't occur to me to 'test' that since he actually leads nicely. But it turns out if he can see the rope 'following' him or it touches his body it's an issue. So we backtrack to work on that.

Dramatic reenactment of how catching the little beast was going for me last week - simultaneously annoyed and appreciating the fancy.

He's a super sensitive little dude and is genuinely scared and while he'd like to trust me more we are not quite there yet. It's fun trying to walk the line of setting up little positive experiences for things he really needs to know now, without sending him over (to be fair to myself a very, very low) threshhold. I had a mare (Ginger) when I first started this blog, that he currently reminds me strongly of. I'm excited that in this case I have a 6 month old and am not walking into buying a 4 year old who's similarly untrusting and spicy. Ginger turned out wonderfully because once you win her over, she does anything for her person. I'm hoping we're on a similar path here and once we win him over and he can relax a little it will be smoother sailing.

Thinks he's all that

but we all would like to add some better manners to him. You keep working at it, Buck

Buck is much more your standard Welshie and is learning and adapting like the curious little baby sponge he is. Smart and sensitive without being over the top.  It's nice he's here because I'm not sure how I would be feeling about a Reggie and Sophie show and that energy feeding off each other with out some sort of a balancer.

posing for the standard over the shoulder shot - going to be a blogger pony yet

Speaking of Sophie, she's been the most fantastic girl. I haven't felt like blogging about medical issues (not something I want to focus on at any time, but with baby ponies to obsess over it's even easier to turn it into a non topic). I've been pretty stiff and sore and generally not feeling my finest. That's to be expected, progress is never even. I've also not made any final decisions re: footing for the ring since it hasn't seemed a priority with the amount of riding I've been doing (I'm quite conscious I am still unbalanced and unevenly strong so I am so I continue to work on that outside of horses. I'm uncomfortable using riding as much of a pathway to improvement, it's unfair). 

here comes trouble

So, for those reasons Sophie and I have mostly just been walking around and stretching our bodies every day...something you'd think would be a recipe for disaster with a spicy banana pony in cold weather. But no, she's wonderful and happy to have the job. The routine of riding most days, even if it's just for a relatively short time, keeps me pretty happy too.

starting to rock her winter beard

I do have a test load of sand (with a little pea gravel mixed in) incoming because I am hoping to be able to ride properly at home this winter. The house renos, however need to take precedence. We're SO nearly there. I'm hoping to seal the floors this weekend and get the bathtub plumbing done. Then we are good to go! I can't wait to move in...it's coming up on a year of working on it when I have spare time, but it's going to be worth it.