July Wrap Up

Halfway through August seems a fitting time for this post. It's kind of the way the summer is going... the extreme heat and having two horses in two different places means I'm feeling pretty behind and disorganized in multiple areas of my life. 

 

	Ben	Goggles
Training rides	4	0
Lessons	4 – 3 dressage, 1 jump	1
Hacks	2	3
Ground work, lunge, long line	0	6 – 3 with me, 3 with JT
Flat rides	3	7
Aquatred	5	0
XC school	0	1
Total	18	18

Ben: Ben did a lot of aquatredding during July. It really helped bring him back into shape pretty quickly without being too taxing in the extreme heat. He also had his first jump lesson back and was only mildly shocked and surprised to learn that he is in fact still an event horse. I learned his warm up routine and got to ride my first baby half-pass ever on him. I also discovered the strategy to deal with his spooking... lots of slow, tiny, circles. He has to stay soft through his body and swinging through his back while he does 8m circles by whatever he is spooking at. This takes the wind out of his sails pretty quickly. At the end of the month he also briefly considered angling for pasture pet life again, but then blew an abscess out of a hind foot and has been sound since then.

What's next? Getting back more into the swing of things with jumping, maybe heading out for his first cross country school since April. 

Goggles: Goggles moved to JT's the last week of July as I headed out of town. He had multiple long lining sessions with her barn manager while she watched. He came around to bending and lifting his withers pretty quickly with only one mild temper tantrum about it. He also ended my hopes of having both him and Ben at the GY's by getting along swimmingly with Ben in turnout for about 5 days before kicking him multiple times in one night. Why you gotta be like that? So he got himself solo turnout, but in a field in the middle of all the other fields so he is content and doesn't pace. He also switched to Hallway Protenza and didn't drop as much weight as he could have with the move. 

What's next? More focused riding and long lining in which he continues to build strength to properly carry himself. Also planning on going on a few low-key outings and maybe officially introducing jumps. 

I have no related horse pictures, so enjoy this sequence which cracks me up every time I look at it.