Notes of Seeming Importance

I must start writing more often...  <knocks head on wall>  After all, I'll be doing Camp Nano again next month and writing every day is mandatory. I wonder if I can add blog posts to my word count?

Anyways... so, this week had been planned to spend time with a friend of mine and her horse at my place working on various horsemanship principles. Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances, she had to leave several days early and therefore I did not get as much horse-time in this week as I should have. <sad face>

The best part of this week (besides the short time my friend was here)!

Not so lovely on camera, but oh well....

The arena got mowed and trimmed! My daddy is the best and I am super excited and motivated to make some more progress now that there are not 3 foot tall weeds in all directions.  :-)

Lady has been doing pretty well lately. She listens and tries to understand and do what I want. We're learning together and its slow at times, but we are making progress. She has been a little sore the last week or two, and I'm quite sure that her hocks are hurting her at times. She still offers things like jumping and such, so she will continue to stay in regular work so long as the discomfort is minimal. I am doing extra warm-up and flexibility exercises for her though. Poor girl tries so very hard for me.

While my friend was here, my primary focus was on keeping Lady calm and obedient. She takes the screaming and carrying-on to an excess when it comes to other horses. I was very impressed that she kept most of the shenanigans inside the pasture and behaved very well when I had her on the ground or under saddle. She was capable of standing still and watching them canter across the arena and of moving away when I asked, so I was pleased.  :)
Yesterday, I brought only my bridle out and did some liberty. Lady's confidence is a little shakier than usual with a bit, so we're working on that. She was quite a good girl at liberty and I hopped on for a little bareback/bridleless ride afterwards. Lovely, especially as the sun went down.
Today, I simply pulled out my 45-foot lariat rope and played with that. And my conclusion is that I need a ton more practice. We spent more time standing still whilst I untangled the rope than we did actually moving around! Yeah... I'll be practicing that without her attached.  ;-)

Catching Up and Concerns

So, I haven't been keeping up this week... with anything. Finals are this coming week, which is actually not that big of a deal, but does add a bit of stress. Yup... life just keeps coming on, whether I keep up or not.

Cute pony picture for your enjoyment. :)

Monday. Everything else took up so much time, but we had a lovely little bareback/bridleless ride in the dark. We didn't do anything very challenging, just worked on some basic yields.

Tuesday. No groundwork or riding.

Wednesday.  Again, no groundwork or riding. Writing took up a lot of time!

Thursday.  Did some basic groundwork.

Friday.  Got half-way saddled, and Lady just did not look right, so I cleaned her feet and loved on her instead of riding.

Saturday.  Still didn't feel quite right, but after getting her out two different times to check on her, I finally saddled up and rode for a little bit. And it felt worse from her back than it looked on the ground.


Sigh. I'm quite worried right now. Lady has been sound and fairly solid for all of 2014 so far, and I really do not want to go through the process of trying to figure out and solve whatever might be wrong AGAIN. She looks and moves pretty stiff through her shoulder and especially her right front leg/foot. Nothing appears to be wrong with her shoulder and there is no heat or swelling. She does need her feet done pretty badly, so I'm hoping that is what is wrong. Really hoping. *weary sigh...*