60's and Sunshine in January?! I'll take it!!

I was sitting at my desk at work this afternoon, watching the clock and day dreaming. Finally, my boss told me it was too nice a day in January to be inside!! So, I bolted out the door and headed to the barn to finally ride Gypsy after an almost 3 week break.

So after a good grooming and some Willie Bakery muffins, I tacked her up and headed out to the arena. First we did five minutes of longing to see what her attitude was like. She was feeling frisky and spirited, but she responded perfectly to my voice commands so I felt it was safe to give her a go. I got on and we started working out. It felt sooo good to be back up on her wide, furry back after almost 3 weeks. We did lots of walking, circling, spiraling, and softening until I felt she was really on the bit and listening.

Once we were ready, I asked for the trot and got a whole lot of lazy trotting. Ha! She did pick up the pace every time I asked her, but as soon as I got distracted she would slip back to that lazy trot. Which, ya know, was actually cool with me for once. It wasn't long until the weakness in my knee was starting to be a problem. I couldn't move my leg well enough to give her clear aids with my left leg, so we spent a lot of time doing crazy weaving. I was able to handle about 30 minutes of walk/trot exercises before my knee really started to ache.

Of course, Gypsy hadn't even broken a sweat by the time my knee was waiving the white flag, so back to the longe we went. We did another 15 minutes or so of walk/trot exercises. She was wonderful! She was still a bit short on the right rear, but it's better now than it has ever been so we are definitely making progress! She felt smooth, well as smooth as a draft can be anyway!

By this time the daylight was fading fast, so I figured we'd end on a good note and head back to the barn so Gypsy could have her dinner and go to bed. I'll be back up there Sunday for barn chores. I'm hoping I can ride again, but the forecast is calling for rain. It would be good for me to ride in the rain since dressage tests run rain or shine, but we'll see. Fingers and hooves crossed!

Best Laid Plans...

Well, I didn't get to do EITHER of the things I said I was going to do today! On Sundays I do chores to give our barn owner a day off. So I fed Gypsy and turned her out while I cleaned stalls. Not 10 minutes after I turned her out, a darned monsoon started to pour down. Of course, I didn't know it was supposed to rain, so I didn't bring any of my rain gear with me. Gypsy got soaked and I got soaked. So, no clipping or riding today. I just pulled her back in the barn, fed her some muffins, cleaned out her feet and treated her little bit of seedy toe, and turned her back out. Of course, after I turned her out, packed up my stuff, and started driving down the road, the sun came out and the rain left. Grr Grr Grr...that's ok, I told myself, I'll just ride tomorrow since I have the day off! Well, the forecast for tomorrow is a high near 35 and winds up to 40mph, not exactly enticing riding weather...

Such is life, especially in the horse world. It was probably for the better that I didn't ride today anyway. Last night my knee was aching terribly and this morning after getting stalls done it was pretty stiff. I have a feeling if I had ridden, I'd probably be in some pain right now. Plus I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to bend my knee enough to mount anyway. Another week off isn't going to hurt anyone.

On the positive side, I did get to do some thinking this evening. I received two interesting books (amid many others) for Christmas: Equine Fitness by Jec Ballou and Horse Training In-Hand: A Modern Guide to Working from the Ground: Long Lines, Long and Short Reins, Work on the Longe by Ellen Schuthof-Lesmeister. I sat down tonight and thumbed through both books and wrote out a preliminary training schedule for the next 6-7 weeks. Sadly for now I can only ride once a week due to not having daylight after work/no lighted arena. I'm excited to have all of these training tools! Hopefully by spring Gypsy will be in top shape, our dressage will be awesome, and we can finally go to our first show!!! Fingers and hooves crossed...

My Gypsy and Me

I've decided to keep a log of my riding with my horse Gypsy. She and I are in training for dressage and we both have already come so far in the 22 months I've owned her. She is my first horse and when I got her in February 2010, I was a total beginner rider. I'd like to have a record of our rides so that I can see how far we've come. Gypsy is a North American Spotted Draft Horse (Percheron/Paint Draft cross). She was a PMU foal who was born in Canada and shipped to Ocala, FL when she was about 6 months old for dressage. Her owners had some financial troubles and she ended up in TN, owned by a friend of mine. My friend had back surgery and could no longer ride her. She heard I was in the market for a horse and I always wanted a Draft, so she gave Gypsy to me! Gypsy is 9 years old, 16.3hh and 100% attitude.

When I first got her she had quite a lot of attitude because she had been a pasture puff for 2 years. Well, let's just say I learned how to deal with her outbursts and sit her bucks pretty quickly! Since I've had her, she's lost probably 300 pounds of pure fat and is in nearly top shape! I'm proud of that.

Unfortunately in February 2011 she came up lame in the rear. After a few weeks of on and off lameness I took her to UT for a lameness exam. After some flexion tests, nerve blocks, and x-rays, it was determined that she had some arthritic changes in her hocks. We had her hocks injected and put her on joint supplements. She is on strict no cantering, no collected work, and no small circles orders until her hocks fuse, which at the posting of this blog they have not yet. She has definitely made huge improvements and is nearly sound, but it has been a slow, slow year.

Right when she came up lame we were preparing for a Spring show season at some local schooling shows. That was put on hold until she isn't off at the trot anymore. We've spent these months working on our walk, leg yields, trot, and transitions. Our work has really paid off as she has improved in leaps and bounds. Hopefully with a careful training over the winter, we'll be in good shape for this spring season!

I haven't gotten to ride her in two weeks as I have a knee injury from a trailer-loading mishap, plus Christmas. Tomorrow I plan to do a good hour-long dressage workout in the arena, after trying out my new clippers and giving her a good trace clip. Her Canadian Yak coat is just too much! :)