XC field adventures!

Took Andi to a lesson today with Ann, and I must say, I am constantly impressed with this horse. I figured out some of his issues, too.. AKA. THe Western saddle-cowboy-bucking issues. LoL

So, Ann and I decided that Andi holds a grudge. Really well. So, if you make him hurt or scare him, he's going to remember it FOREVER and whatever you were doing at the time or did to him is going to bite you in the arse 10-fold in the future! Bahaha- I heart smart sensitive scaredy cat OTTBs. No, seriously, I do. Or this one, anyway.

This is how it went. Andi was footsore in the ring- so we put his boots on and took him to the XC derby field. We warmed up W-T, then walked over a couple small things.. No big deal. Honestly. This horse is the same in the wide open field as he is in the ring. It's amazing and wonderful. So then we trotted him over a couple pre-elem fences, and he.. was great! So THEN.. Ann decided to try using a fence as a canter transition, but since the small fences weren't working- he would just happily trot over them, we put him over an adv-elem log, and again- no fuss, no muss, all business. And the canter was fine in both directions. No hysterics at all.

REVELATION!!! Andi holds a grudge! 1) against canter transitions (probably a combination of being held too tight and/or being popped in the mouth), and 2) cowboys with their giant western saddles. How did I figure that out? I was just telling Ann about how his owner had had a cowboy-type cat come in to see if they could get him restarted, and.. bam! I figured it out. Western saddles might be too long for him, or he was already in pain, or.. who the hell knows. But he definitely gets alllll sorts of sassy with Logan and I just don't get it. We'll work on it, though.

So, more good news! The saddle fitter is coming out next week and he is getting his very own dressage saddle! What what?! Reasoning being: If he stays, the albion works enough for him that I can shim the Mattes pad to fit him and Sher has her own new half pad, and he has a dressage saddle for trails that is custom fit to him. Perfect! And if he goes, I will have it re-flocked to Sher, because they are built similarly enough that I can do that, and then she will have a full eventing set! Voila!

Also.. Bought them a matching set of fly gear. I'm going to cry thefirst time they roll in mud, but I am so excited about fly season now, because they are just going to look soooooooo cute and coordinated!!! *dies laughing*

Mud fun!

So, Sher had a lesson with Eliza Farren Saturday and did super well. Sort of.

After taking 30 minutes to load up, she proceeded to stomp and pout and flail in the trailer until... she fell. I pulled over and found my mare on the ground in the trailer, nose peeking above the chest bar, and.. patted her, took back all the threats about dog food factories from loading, and prayed a bit that nothing was horribly wrong. I ran around the back to push over the divider, but by the time I opened the back window, she was up. I called friends frantically, and the one who was running the clinic walked me through checking her over- no broken bones, nothing horribly wrong- so we continued on. And... besides a couple cuts, one of which later got a couple staples, she was... okay. So we hopped up and.. she was golden. One of the best lessons yet. I swear. Sometimes, she just needs to fight it out with someone (or a trailer), to figure out life. *Rolls eyes* I just wish she wouldn't give me a heart attack every time she does it.

Anyway... So, fast forward to today- I managed to get them romping around in a rare sunny period, having some mud fun.

No one judge my excuse of a paddock. When I moved them home, the whole thing was grass- and then it rained for 2 weeks straight, and... Now it is ruts of mud. The piles of wood? Yeah. We can't move those until the tractor can get back there. Which, if this year is anything like last year, will be never. But lets watch some mud fun, yeah? These two are ridiculous. And then.. it started raining again.