Wednesday (Water) Walks

Butterball and I went back to Dinner pond two weeks ago. We started with some fitness work: 

And then moved on to the best part, the splish splashing. I had my phone in my pocket in a ziploc bag and every time the bag crinkled he thought he was getting a cookie. 

Starting the fitness work

Close to the end, we made a nice little loop (ft the lime rock showing through that probably bruised his feet)

This was a not fully thought out trip so I didn't have his normal rope hackamore in the trailer, but we made do with Goggle's rope halter and long line, creatively placed. And just went bareback without the pad this time

Pretty view of the water between his ears

Took such a long drink after the conditioning work, happy pony

We shared dinner pond with some vultures. Who were probably there for their dinner - someone had left a mostly stripped clean deer carcass. Charming. 

Selfies on horse back are hard 

The happiest butters

Trying to get him out of the lake was like trying to get a kid to leave the playground. I let him wander and swim for about 30 minutes then needed to get on with my day. I'd point him at the edge and he'd make it almost there before U-turning back towards the deeper spots. I'm so happy I've found something he loves this much. He does so much for me, it's nice to be able to do something that I absolutely know brings him happiness. 

Few random pics from a click-and-treat exploratory hand walk around some spookier stuff in Ms. GY's front yard where he was enjoying day after show grazing privileges. 

This wasn't scary, he was munching on hay scraps 

This was a little scary

But we touched the things and got cookies

Does he not have the absolute cutest face?? 

Touch this

Touch that

Touch that... I ran out of cookies at the tarp. He touched this and then stared at me wondering why the cookie button broke. 

HIS DAPPLES 

Finding his own snacks because I ran out 

Strategies for Staying Cool (plus lesson notes)

(This isn't an actual educational post... I have no strategies for surviving this brutal heat other than acclimatization and trying to ride in close proximity to storms but without getting struck by lightning) 

Monday, Ms. GY and I loaded up BB and her mostly retired dude, one of Butterball's pasture mates, and headed to a pond/lake to the west of us. 

I have zero pics. The phone stayed in the car which was the right choice because Butterball turned full sea horse this trip. The pond wasn't as clear as the one we went to on our first swimming adventure this summer. But it was still very delightful. Butterball is basically a solo trailerer 100% of the time now, so it was interesting to see him travel with Ms. GY's horse. He basically dragged me on to the trailer after her horse and hadn't pooped in the trailer at all after our short 20 minute drive. So I guess there is a small stress component to our solo trips that goes away with a buddy, I'm sorry kiddo. 

We moseyed from the dirt road where we parked down to the pond. Both boys snorted at the edge of the water for approximately 10 seconds, then Butterball charged on in. The bottom wasn't completely even and it freaked his friend out a bit, but Butterball didn't seem to care at all. He went in and out on his own the same way as he had at the other lake, even spending a few strides here and there swimming. It was so neat to feel him swim!!! He snorkeled some and pawed, although he did less pawing than last time, I think because he was mostly at least chest deep. At one point he even laid down in about forearm deep water. He looked shocked when I jumped off of him and stood right up again when I slid off. I thought he was going to roll and certainly wasn't going to be on him for that! It definitely seemed to be part of his plan to keep me on for his laying down adventure though LOL. I led him out of the water to a nearby fence blocking off the area around the pond and hopped back on. He headed back in and did some more deep water walking. After about an hour of splashing around and standing we headed out of the pond. Both boys had devoured their open hay bags of orchard on the drive over, but survived the ride home without snax. 

He is SO HAPPY in the water, it is awesome. I did encourage him to try the few strides of swimming the first time, but after that he explored it on his own, just a couple of strides at a time. It seems like GREAT fitness as well, and especially since the underwater treadmill facility is 45 minutes away and $75+ for a 15 minute session, this seems like a major upgrade. The dirt roads leading in to Dinner Pond were nicely hilly... might be a great place to park, do a trot/canter set, and then cool off with a quick dip in the pond in September/October when I could at least not kill both of us in the heat on the unshaded dirt roads. 

His fave water source at home because... Horses

The next morning we were supposed to load up at 6 AM today head down for a lesson with PW. It has been 3+ weeks at this point. But when I woke up from my 4 hours of sleep I just... wasn't feeling it... so I texted PW and went back to bed for another three hours. Thursday we did load up, at a much more reasonable hour given my work schedule, and headed to JV's for a dressage lesson. I did a good job listening to my brain on Tuesday it seemed... I thought I had hooked up the trailer completely the night before, but I missed the essential step of climbing into the truck bed and actually LATCHING THE HITCH and doing up the chains and such, but mostly LATCHING THE HITCH!!! Ooookay. So I did my usual peek in the bed Thursday morning and saw it wasn't latched and fixed it before I moved the trailer... sheesh... 

Fortunately there was a bit of a breeze at JV's and it wasn't quite as hot as it was the previous few days. We had an absolutely AMAZING lesson (with no media). 

• Now that we're consistently getting good reactions and have forward, swinging gaits, we're starting to ask for a bit of collection. Collection at the trot should feel like he's bouncing over trot cavaletti. At this point poles on the ground is okay. Soon we'll want raised poles. 
• Get freely swinging forward first. Then half halt. He needs to react in *that stride*. The rapid reaction makes it much more likely you'll maintain the lift vs slowing down over multiple strides just leading to being on the forehand and going slowly. 
• Once he's slowed, has he maintained impulsion? Ie can I take my leg off and he doesn't peter out and break?
• Don't guard against the break. More applicable with canter than trot... Ask for just as much slow down and don't be afraid to have to correct the mistake of breaking. But if he breaks, is the trot actually slower than the canter was? If yes, then pick the canter right back up. If no, slow the trot then pick the canter back up. 
• It was very helpful to work on collecting the trot before we tried collecting the canter. 
• In the left lead where he wants to throw his outside shoulder right, don't get trapped circling where it is even easier to do that. Go straight, use right leg to move the shoulders. If that doesn't work, counter bend slightly. But don't skip using the leg, he needs to learn to yield to the leg aid. Don't be afraid of getting a flying change when he is getting straighter. 

The energy level Butterball had after this lesson. Pony was TIRED. 

Wednesday Walks: Splish Splash

Last week, Butterball got to go on a great adventure. My friend has a house on a lake about 45 minutes outside of Gainesville. And she sent me pictures of horses riding in from the boat ramp on the lake. I roped my friend into checking it out with me. I did say multiple times I had NO IDEA how it was going to be other than the lake is a nice sandy bottom, relatively clear lake. She made it extra adventure-y by zoning out and missing a turn and having to turn around in someone's yard. 

I can see why the zoning out though, it was a beautiful drive

I managed to get there on the first try, but did get a little worried when I pulled through pretty narrow metal gates into a long, single track sandy road that led to the boat ramp. I consoled myself that people with boats managed to turn around, so surely I would be able to turn around the two horse trailer. And indeed, there was plenty of room at the end. When I got out of the truck, there were a million bugs that looked A LOT like MOSQUITOES all over the truck and trailer. I braced myself and started rifling for bug spray in the tack room before realizing they didn't seem to bite. Okay, we can co-exist then. 

Butterball was a bit confused about what he was doing at this new spot all alone and for once didn't want a drink. We made our way in hand down to the boat ramp. 

His little ears go a bit sideways when he is unsure. So cute. 

Then he got his drink from the lake

After getting his feet wet at the ramp, we walked over to a more gradual sandy lead in to the lake. 

Unsure ears again since there were little tiny waves

But it just took him a minute to get comfy

I took my shoes off at the shore and didn't actually fear for my toes, he's such a good boy. I should've brought water shoes, not a single pair of boots that I didn't really want to soak. 

We wandered back up to the trailer after that. 

Speckly pony from splashing around

My friend arrived shortly after we walked back up. Butterball got a quick brush and then got his hackamore and the bareback pad. The one fault of the bareback pad is it is hella slippery when the top of it gets wet. Which it did. Oops. But all good, I did not unintentionally dismount that day, although I did come close at one point. 

The boys were actually quite goofy about the concrete barriers. I was surprised when Butterball balked, but then realized it wasn't about the water in the distance, it was about the weird concrete barriers. But we made it past and then back into the water. 

The black ear tips are just THE CUTEST

This was the best group photo I managed

The boys had a fabulous time. Other than keeping them out of each others laps, which they both seemed to really want to do, we gave them very little direction. Without me asking, Butterball walked out about as deep as he could walk without starting to swim. He moseyed around, drinking some, holding his chin in the water some, and then pawing a good bit. This is what soaked the bareback pad, but that's the whole reason I was in it. Eventually they seemed to have had their fill and we headed out. 

We headed down the dirt road to the boat ramp and then spotted an entrance into a state forest right across the road. But there were also cows. In the woods. That kinda sorta chased us. I regretted the bareback pad and the rope halter at one point, but it turned out fine. Butterball doesn't truly want to go anywhere when he spooks, which is great. 

There were a few flies, but it wasn't terrible, so we took a solid 20 minute walk down a relatively shaded track before turning around and back tracking. Then the ponies got groomed and got to graze a bit before we loaded up and headed home. 

Overall it was an absolutely delightful June morning, I would 100% go back. Out of respect for the people who live there and/or use the boat ramp for boats, I won't ever go on a weekend, but we had the place to ourselves this weekday morning. We did pick up the poop that they left in the grass, so hopefully this continues to be allowed.