Cameras Hate Me.

For starters, I updated my goals page to reflect our 2011 achievements and what we're aiming for in 2012. Check them out here.

I recently got back from doing 8 miles of trailing riding on Mr. MoonSox, which started out in beautifully falling white fluffy snow and ended in gusting winds and hards flakes. Except for when it got cold towards the end, it was a great little ride for us, though I've noticed my old guy has far too much spunk.

We walk-trotted most of the way out, briefly doing some canter work in the ditches that I knew were 'safe' despite the growing layer of snow on the ground (12 - 24"). We crossed over the highway into a local provincial park and headed down a lovely little wooded trail through the bush. Moon had Spunk, with a capital S, despite all the trotting we did to get there. Okay, let's canter.

Moon didn't want to canter. He wanted to gallop, and gave me his best buck to date. I actually for a second thought he might unseat me, but no such luck. He got reprimanded and I asked again for a nice canter. Buck, gallop, buck, brakes hard. Reprimand. Canter? Canter.

Little bugger. I DID eventually let him extend his canter into a great big gallop and boy is he ever the son of a race horse. I've met horses bred to run that do it sort of half-heartedly. They never really 'go'. Not Moon. He just wants to go as fast as his little legs will carry him, with or without me. You can FEEL the surge of his muscles and there's this HUGE propulsion force that drives you forward. It's not like a fancy sports car. This is like turbocharging a tank.

He was completely unwilling to go slower then a canter (and even that took a lot of convincing) and I could tell that he has WAY too much pent-up energy. He's always been one for givin'er, but this was like a hyper kid that didn't want to stop running circles. So I sat back and told him to go ahead. Burn it off. He's been hyper in the ring all week and he had 2 weeks of no work. Go. Run. Have at'er.

And he did. He ran and ran and ran. Through DEEP snow. When he FINALLY was ready to come back to a walk, he was SOAKED. Sweat dripped from his neck, his rump, his chest, his girth, everywhere. And it's WINTER. And SNOWING. Oye.

We walked 3 miles to cool him out, and he STILL wanted to go. Thankfully he was dry enough when we got back to the barn that I was able to blanket him and send him back out without too much delay.

I DID manage to take a bunch of pictures but none of them saved. Awesome. I found some pretty obvious sole bruising on his right fore, though he doesn't really seem tender-footed. Red spots the size of your thumb. I also photographed some impressive footage of his growing hooves. There's OBVIOUS growth lines and he has just over an inch of REALLY nice hoof growth. On all four.

I also snapped a picture, which sadly didn't save, of his froathy mouth. Moon NEVER foams when riding, which I'm hoping means he's using the bit a bit better??? This was a happy first that you'll just have to believe me about : P

Yesterday, I had more camera issues. After finally figuring out what was wrong with the video recording on the new camera, I gathered it up and headed over to the barn...

Saddled Moon up, pulled out the camera, turned it on and...

Nothing.

Oh right. Battery was plugged in at home charging. DANG!

So no video either. Not that we had anything impressive to show. We worked some more on canter, we got 1/2 way around the circle before falling out of it, and he did some nice work on serpentines and transitions. Overall, I'm actually kinda sore today, and that long trail ride will leave me sore tomorrow too. And if we ride tomorrow now that I'll remember the battery charger...

This afternoon I spent awhile tracking our riding on some calendars I printed off to add to our little practice binder at the barn. I being a bit odd, tallied up all of our times riding from September until the end of this week...and discovered that despite holidays, work travel, my own illnesses and Moon's injuries, we averaged 2.79 rides per week!!! If you remove the times I really couldn't ride (travel/illness), we averaged 4.07 rides per week!!! THAT thrills me! I often feel like I'm really not at the barn that often and I can now see that tracking it on a calendar proves I ride a lot more then I felt! We also did poles almost once per week through November and December! What I'm also pleased to see, is that while we were at T's in September, we were still riding between 2 and 4 times a week! Score.

Lastly, since I'm house sitting this weekend, I took a couple of shots of the horses and dog. Still going to try to snap a few more, but at least this post has SOME pictures!

Finally, Merry Ukrainian Christmas to all my Ukrainians out there. Tonight I'm going to enjoy the final round of 'Christmas' merriment and gifts with my family. And will be happy to wait another year for Christmas!