the everything pony
who would really much rather eat all day
The long game
Long feet are awesome. Said no horse owner ever. I totally understand that even our dear farriers need a vacation every now and then, but now I wish I’d known that ahead of time and scheduled him to do her early. She’s not horrible; I can tell though that she’s not the most comfortable when she moves. She decided to tell me she disagreed with her feet being so long on Saturday:
I didn’t have a chance to get her out Friday, but she was plenty excited (and frustrated) to get out on Saturday. I don’t really blame her, and poor thing kept losing her feet so we kept it short.
Friday I checked out a park about 2-3 miles away from our house. They have a dressage arena, so I thought perhaps once in a while I could haul over and do a ride, work in a smaller arena.
Unfortunately, there is no “enter at A” or numbers, but it’ll be just fine. It’s a really nice park even if it’s a little small, but I’d like to take Amber there and practice our budding dressage and our load and unload and being comfortable away from home. She’s not ever bad, but practice is always good, right?
Saturday evening we had a bit of a scare – found a blister beetle in the alfalfa/mix flake I fed Amber. I wasn’t too surprised to find it there because that flake was full of really blossoming alfalfa stems, and there were a ton of grasshoppers in it as well. That is a no-go for us, because where one is, there is a possibility there’s a whole lot more and I really do not want my horse dead due to blister beetle poisoning, thank you very much. Not to mention no one’s really a fan of grasshoppers in the hay.
So we scooped up the hay and dumped it. My mom and I will message the people to warn them about the hay since it could affect other horses, and ask if they can take the remaining bales back. We grabbed some mix from our local store Sunday morning, and the hay looked much better. Before this we had decided to buy from our local anyway, but the 4 bales we bought from them looked much better, and the horses liked the hay a lot more as well.
Which, by the way, the horses look fine. We probably overreacted, but I’d much rather be safe.
Amber and I took our routine hack on Sunday, but a much shorter one just around our property. She’s already long so I didn’t want to go over a lot. She initially looked as if she thought we’d be gearing up for a day in the arena – and she didn’t look too pleased. I’m sure because she felt uncomfortable.
But as soon as she realized we were outside she was happy as a clam.
Rode a nice 20 minutes, and she was done. She actually felt quite even most of the ride, really listening to my direction even though she was a bit focused on Whisper. It was a simple ride, and nice to hop on after two days without.
My mom took a few pictures for me of us riding since I actually don’t have any photos of us going around outside. We were also very matchy.
Happy Monday, all!
6 Comments on “The long game”
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the everything pony 
she has the best expressions hands down 🙂 Wow it is so barren where you are. Do you worry about snakes there? I know you are in Vegas right?? Just all your photos always reminds me how green it is here. Love her antics on the lunge line too. She is just too cute.
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Hahaha thanks! She is VERY expressive 😂 it is very barren in Vegas. I marvel at greenness whenever I’m not here lol. There are snakes but I’ve only seen 2 and they were the non-poisonous ones. They’re usually further out of civilization. Plus with the trains that come by I don’t think that many would like the vibrations. Thank you! She loves her bucks 😁
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ha she’s so funny on the lunge! also that nearby dressage court is awesome! i wouldn’t worry too much about the entrance not being at A either, that’s actually not required and some courts are set up so that you must begin from within the ring. plus – the reality is that those turns up the center line (half 10m circles) are legit the hardest movement in any sub-First level test, so getting lots of opportunities (even if by force lol) to practice them can only help!
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I had no clue some don’t enter at A lol. Thanks for that! And that’s why I want to practice in something smaller. Because I need all the practice I can get for those half 10m circles!
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That blister beetle is scary. I’m really impressed you caught it.
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It managed to fall out of the hay so that’s how I was able to catch it. But the people are coming to get the hay and they’re actually going to have the beetle tested to see if it actually is a blister beetle.
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