I returned from my trip to New York about two weeks ago. Since then I have had 2845939572943 things that I have fallen behind on, and blogging was honestly not high on my list of things I needed to do. Better late than never I figure, so prepare for a somewhat out-of-date update. I came home to a beautiful pony that I missed very much who was also at least 98% covered with mud.
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| Naturally I took many pictures. |
I have had a few blog-worthy farm visits since then, but since the best one ended with my phone dying, I was unable to take pictures except for that first visit, so please enjoy the remainder of my photos from that day, only usually slightly out of context.
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| Mmm, fuzzy photos |
I got out Sunday after I got back (Feb 22) and lunged, wherein Jazz was a whole week of icy pasture and no exercise worth of crazy. She got super sweaty and worked up, and soaked through both of my coolers. On the bright side, I got to try on my new cooler (scroll down if you don't want to wait to see adorable horse jammies!), and it is smaller than my old cooler, which would not work for a turnout blanket but kinda works for a cooler.
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| Return of the demon pony eyes |
Then, I had a lesson scheduled for Wednesday the 25th, and my trainer asked if I was still up for it due to the cold weather. I debated just skipping it, but decided to go. I got there early, and lunged before my lesson. Jazz was super well behaved on the lunge, so I hopped on to warm up. Once my lesson started, I did the usual kind of warm up, bending and counterbending on the circle at the walk and then the trot.
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| Heavenly pony sunshine halo |
Next order of business was moving to leg yields on the quarter line at walk and trot, and I was super pleased with how well she's starting to listen to the leg. Next she was doing well enough to get to canter! Because she was both out of shape and a tad bit stiff, we ended up cantering whole arena. She was still not super comfortable, so my instructor suggested I try a half seat, and that made a huge improvement. Overall, it was great fun, and there were several moments when we were cantering where we felt really in balance and together, almost like we were one body. I found myself thinking of
Saiph and a post she made a few weeks ago about the Centaur principle, basically feeling totally one with the horse.
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| Sooooooooo muddy |
Jazz was so good in fact, that my instructor suggested we try leg yielding off the quarter line at the canter. Jazz was reasonably co-operative, but tends not to make as much progress at the end of the lesson. She is much more easily flustered when she's starting to be done with riding. We decided to turf the canter leg yields for the day, and I hopped off not too long after. Jazz got a nice mineral and probiotic dinner for being the best pony evar, and since it was just us, I closed up the barn doors and let her wander loose around the aisle. It was sweet to watch her chasing the kitties and trying to open a tin of what she believed to be treats (it was stale chocolate chip cookies that I think have been there since Christmas).
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| This picture weirds me out. Jazz has an infinite neck. |
Overall a pretty great ride, especially since I was considering just skipping it. I had another lesson today (March 8), but I'll save that story for another post. Enjoy the following spam of a) mudbeard the pony pirate and b) pyjama Jazz!
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| Indoor arena lighting + phone flash = ghost horse |
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| Spooky |
Happy time change everyone! Enjoy your extra hour of daylight pony time (if you can manage to stay awake, that is)!
