Ollie working really hard

Yesterday I set up that exercise where you have two jumps in an X, so the middle of both jumps intersects. You can do the sides of each jump as a skinny, or jump the X in the middle. I kept it low, only a foot, and expected some issue to arise. Nothing. Naners just jumped them. Yay!

Today's ride north we went 3.56 miles, 4.6 mph average, out for 46 min, top speed 12.2 mph (327 mpm.) We trotted up the big hill twice and trotted up the little hill once.

I knit a hat!

Finished just in time for winter to be over

(We're going to keep the fact that I've been working on it for 2-3 years on the down low. But, 2/3 of it happened in the last three days. Part of decluttering the house is finishing half done projects, right?)

Again with the trash cans?

Another ride out on the road to take advantage of that footing, this time with the pelham. She does not curl or get heavy with it and she listens to half halts really nicely, even when cantering towards home on the side of the road. She might be a little hollow... but I'm going to take that over the other options she gives me at present. I feel pretty confident it's going to give me what I need at St Johns now.

Unfortunately, our ride was marred by a swarm of flies! We never have flies, okay, there are flies but they rarely swarm like that and come on! It's March.

And again with the trash cans, today on their sides from yesterday's intense wind. They were  waiting to get her and careful attention had to be given them. The dirt piles have been deemed safe though.

On the cool side, a bald eagle was flying circles over/around us for about ten minutes at the start of our ride.  I see them enough that it's not like a huge event anymore, but notable.

I downloaded an app to track our ride. I wish I'd done that years ago. We went 4.1 miles in an hour, top speed 10.7 mph, which is 287 mpm. As that's when we were cantering I won't have to up the speed too much to get up to 300 mpm.

We both came back on the sweaty side. I had decided not to lock Naners up tonight, but after she rolled she wanted into the stalls with Ollie, so in she went. Silly horse.

This afternoon Banana and I went down the road to the south, something we haven't done in awhile. If we go south it's just as windy as it is at my house, if we go north we go down into the gulch and it's significantly less windy. There was little wind today. Much to my delight I discovered they did something to the drainage on the sides of the road making the footing awesome. Much to Banana's dismay there were piles of dirt where piles of dirt should. not. be. She's also decided trash cans are suspect and one must be at the utmost level of wariness when such an evil object appears. A whole herd of deer can cross the road in front of us and she doesn't care, but god forbid there's a scary pile of dirt. 

We trotted in both directions, having a lovely time and she was listening so we picked up a canter... and what an awesome canter it was. A car passed us and we just cantered on. I'm feeling more confident about St Johns, now that we've gotten out and gone fast. I need to go back out with the pelham on, to see if it does indeed give me better brakes. I already know it gives me a softer, lighter horse. I've found that horses that went western first really like pelhams and Naners is no different. Surprisingly, I also seem to ride better with two reins. I know, odd.

The last harbringer has arrived

And the meadowlarks are here. As far as I'm concerned it's now officially spring.

Here's a bluebird that was hanging out yesterday:

The Snazzy Stock Tie

So I had this idea... a collar with the stock tie part attached so you can tie it like a regular stock without choking yourself. So we have: The Snazzy Stock Tie

It's made from stuff I had sitting around: white satin from when I tried to make a cinderella costume, the black piping from whatever, I always seem to have it hanging about. The pin was rediscovered upon going through my jewelry this week (and upon discovering the kilt pin stock pin I have is too thick to go through the material.) I have tweaks I will make to future Snazzy Stocks. I have the full intention of making something outrageous to wear at local shows. Because I can. Sure, I could pull out the teal sequined one, but it's only for special occasions.

In other news, the horses got their tootsies trimmed today. For the first time ever Banana actually had enough hoof on her hinds to be trimmed. Yay!

Darn you rural life!

Hubby and I went over our bandwidth allotment so we've basically been without internet for over a week. It's horrible. I had an event to enter! Fortunately, today we're back and I was able to go onto xentry and fill out Banana and my entry for St Johns. We will, again, rock Pre-Comp. I had a dream the other night that I showed up and forgot there were new dressage tests and a copy could not be found anywhere on the grounds. I also dreamed I was on a crab boat, so obviously both of these things are unlikely.

I saw the first fly today, the prairie dogs are awake and most of the birds are back. When the meadowlarks show up it will truly be spring.

school work

I'm working on a scientific poster for school. We have to do one on our choice of equine stereotypy aka: stable vice. I picked stall/fence walking as it's the one that has frustrated me the most in my life (my childhood horse stall walked and Banana of course fence walks.) None of the other equines in my life have had one.

It probably was not the best choice. Very little research has been done on stall walking, so I'm having to spend most of the poster on stereotypy generalities. But, I think I'll be okay. It's only supposed to be 800 words long, how in depth can you get on any topic? Lots and lots has been done on cribbing, but I couldn't walk outside and take a picture of a cribbing horse like I could with my fence walker (though actually catching her fence walking wasn't easy. There's always a track worn when I go out in the morning, but I don't see her doing it. The grass is coming up so she should stop soon when she can go back out 24/7.)

Anyway, I'm at the cutting words down stage, as what I had was way too long. And I still need to write an abstract and fill out the intro and conclusion. And fit my references, pictures and figures on the poster.

As I lament on facebook learning stuff is good, but writing stuff is hard .

Flat Stanley

A friend's daughter's class is doing Flat Stanley. Follow the link to find out more, but in a nutshell, I have a paper cut out figure of a guy called Flat Stanley, because he's flat. I take pictures of his adventures and send them to the student. Today Flat Stanley rode Oliver. It didn't turn out like we thought it would.

Stanley on his noble steed

Uh oh! Good thing he's wearing a helmet

Ollie! What are you doing?

Let Flat Stanley go!

 

 

 

Beating him against the wall? seriously? If he didn't have a concussion from his fall he certainly does now

That is quite enough Young Man.

Flat Stanley is quite soggy, but intact from his ordeal. He helped me feed too

As amusing as Oliver trying to eat him is, I still won't have the best pictures. One of the other Flat Stanleys is in Sochi with an ice skating reporter and getting selfies with ice skaters.

Snow

Banana says, "Why would I go in the barn when there's perfectly good falling snow to stand in?"