32 Degrees isn't so bad when you ride without a saddle!

Thinking that Wednesday was going to be warmer and being that I was a bit under the weather at the beginning of the week I didn't go out to the barn until last night. The horses were in the side pasture and they all came up to the fence to see what kind of fabulous treats the yellow car might have in store. It was almost dark already and windy and gloomy and I was all on my own. I had thought maybe I'd go on the trail but without orange clothing or the blinky light I had planned to dig out of my bike bag I decided to stay up in the yard.

I grabbed both Cody and Axel and groomed them while Axel ate his bute. I decided I would work with both horses but it's too dusty in the barn so it was out to the round pen. Axel can easily occupy himself alone in the barn so Cody got to go first. We did a few rounds of the circle game and switching directions. He was a little wound up about that. His switching directions looked more like rearing but he responded instantaneously when asked so at least he was paying attention. He worked a bit at liberty as I tried to get him to use the whole round pen. We only worked at the trot and canter a very small amount. He doesn't seem to like to canter and he often disunites so we'll have to keep working on that. I wanted to jump on bareback and to spare myself the embarrassment and Cody the pain of my literally jumping, I tried to get him near the fence. That didn't work. So I tried for the barrel. He'd stand there. Then as I moved to get on he'd back up. I could get him to move back forward in place very easily but as soon as I stepped behind his eye he'd back up. So it's back to the drawing board on that one. I did eventually get on and we walked around a bit, had a wee trot, and just kind of worked on leg aids and neck reining with just the halter and lead rope. He was his usual clingy self after that work and just stood there looking at me after I took his halter off and tried to turn him out. He ended up following me back into the barn and going out the dutch doors instead where he stood with his head in the window watching.

I haven't done a lot of work with Axel and lunging so I thought we'd work on that a little. The Parelli rope is too short and I have yet to pick up the 22' rope that I want. I got on Axel bareback first with just the halter and lead and rode around a bit. Mostly at the walk. Asked for a few trots and got some cranky head toss and pinned ears and only a few strides. As I'm not an expert rider I didn't feel the need to push him until he bucked and left me on the ground. We tried to ease into some lateral work with some spirals around the barrel but bending requires a lot of warm up which we didn't have. We did make some nice figure 8s with very little rein work. When I got off I had the lunge whip out so I sent Axel out on the circle at liberty and he did amazingly well. He actually stays on the rail fairly decently. And he's not too shabby at voice cues. Surprisingly he even responded to the whip when I asked him to canter. He didn't quite get a canter out but he tried. He worked pretty well at liberty until he was bored and then he just stopped, looked at me, and came to stand next to me in the center.

So that was about it for me, it was much warmer on the horse than on the ground but without a nice fluffy layer of snow on the ground to make me feel a bit safer about falling I didn't do much riding. I passed out my pile of apples and sent everyone back out into the dark, and it was only a little after 5.

Almost Spring

I was a bit afraid it'd be too cold to run out to the barn but at 32F it was pretty nice so I was glad I went for it. Cody, escorted by Kiko and followed by Papillon, came up to the paddock to see what kind of nonsense I was up to when I arrived. Since it had been so warm the past weekend and then froze up again, everything had a nice crust of ice on it, so riding was out for the evening. But no worries because we're far from not needing more ground work. Cody wasn't terribly pleased that I brought him into the barn without his buddies but he was very manageable. He's shedding pretty good already so the shedding blade will be my choice of grooming tool for a while. He still fidgets while tied in the barn but it was pretty mellow fidgeting at least. I set up 3 barrels in the corner of the barn with the plan to lunge him into the tight space (squeeze game if you will). Cody has really picked up the lunging and will turn when I ask and mostly stop when I ask. He's not quite as good as going from trot to walk, he'd rather trot most of the time but he knows what I'm asking. He's still not too great at just standing. I ask for a halt and he creeps. So I back him up. Then he creeps forward. Rinse and repeat. This time I backed him into the space between the barrels and barn wall and then continued to get him to turn 90 degrees while going backward. He was a little unsure of my request and bumped his butt on the wall but remained calm and figured out what I was asking. This is a really great lesson for him, that even if he bumps something I'm not leading him into a den of lions or anything. He is looking pretty good with his weight as well. Hard to completely tell with the fuzzy winter coat still but it looks like he's been packing on a few pounds. It will be nice to see him all rounded out when he sheds this spring. As usual he backed out of the barn door like a champ and was rewarded with dinner.

I waited for everyone to be fed before I worked Axel. He was not happy with me when I removed his nylon halter to put on the rope halter instead of letting him go eat hay with his herd mates. But once we got over that fight he followed me into the barn happily. The goal for Axel last night was to teach him to lunge. He's been ground driven and long lined but we've never really just lunged him like we do with Cody. He doesn't quite pick up on things as fast as Cody and he's never going to be the obedient "yes man" that Cody is turning out to be. But he did start to catch on to the lunging after a few minutes. I used a whip with him to keep him moving as I didn't think swinging the rope end would really faze him, a tap was a bit more effective. He was very unhappy to trot on the lunge and started off pretty lame and flung his head and tried to buck. I think his pain is manageable with more exercise and slower warm up periods. Unfortunately as I was lunging him I noticed he had a massive lump on his belly on the left side. My initial reaction was that was the reason he was so cranky at the trot. But in reality I think he just got kicked in the pasture and it was just a big bruise. I pressed on it a bit and he didn't really react, I didn't feel like getting kicked myself so I didn't press my luck (no pun intended). I probably shouldn't have stopped working him but he had done better than I expected up to that point so it probably wasn't a bad place to stop anyway. I did end with backing him up just in the barn on the flat ground. He backed pretty quickly even. We're going to move up to backing between the barrels, then the big barn door with decreasing width, then finally through the little barn door. Axel doesn't back out of the trailer so this is a good lesson for him but after last week when he would not back out of the little door we had to rethink our strategy.

Since daylight saving time ends earlier this year (or starts, I always forget), next week it'll be lighter even later so now we'll be able to get back to more riding and schooling type stuff as long as the ice melts! You can't even open the round pen gate right now, the snow drifted over it and then froze so it's hard as a rock. I'm looking forward to some trail rides this spring.