Strangers.

Ah barn night! Despite being up half the night with a cranky toddler (the wonderful husband (DH) actually got up with her...I just couldn't sleep because I knew she couldn't sleep, so I laid there in bed. Which DH the next morning pointed out that I might as well have been up with her while he sleeps, since he knew I wouldn't be sleeping when she wasn't anyway. But he knows I don't like his logic ;)

Anyway, dragged myself off to the barn once the kiddo was in bed, which got me there a little later than the recent days. Moon had dragged his girlfriend off to the furthest reaches of their pasture. I had thought the treeline was the end...but no. It carried on from there, and the two of them were pawing snow and eating the grass underneath. Okay.

Drag my boy up the hill and of course, all the horses except the twins follow us. And a big black beast decides he needs to bite the ass of my horse RIGHT when I'm opening the gate. Moon pulls away, the lead rope drags through my hand and I manage to flip a nail over backwards. Le ger.

Of course, I've been wrangling barn ponies for years now, and let out a loud "HEEEEYYYYY!!" in my deepest mom-voice, chastising the bad behaviour and vocally ensuring that I will not tolerate being run over.

Right as a random fellow and SL are coming down the path to another horse pasture. SL calls out to see if I'm okay, which of course I am. Random fellow seems to give me a raised eyebrow as I lead my horse past, grumbling about the burrs that are now stuck to my mittens and my sore finger and misbehaving ponies with horrible timing.

Into the barn and start unblanketing, happy to see Moon's rain sheet only suffered a small tear in the tail flap.

Then over comes random fellow, to announce that my horse has the "perfect" feet, to explain whatever it is he's explaining to SL.

"I'm not sure you say perfect like it's a good thing, or perfect like you're about to declare how perfectly imperfectly they are..." I retort to the fellow.

He lifts Moon's foot and proceeds to explain that at a recent seminar "they" had been discussing long toes and proper angles, and that properly trimmed, he would nip the hoof back to "this point", which was the little ridge behind the white line. Pretty well my thumb in the below picture.

Strange Fellow's suggested point of "trim"

He states that this will improve the angle of the hoof so it better matches the shoulder, because it forces the hoof to become more upright and natural. The toe will automatically shorten and the heel will come up.

While he's standing there holding Moon's hoof, Moon is shaking it every so often. Like "Who is this man, why is he doing this?" And he almost seemed to hold the leg...differently. When I hold Moon, my shoulder is touching his shoulder, my right arm is wrapping his leg and supporting it. This fellow seemed to more hold the hoof, and just the hoof. I could feel Moon feeling "unsupported", like if someone was holding your foot up by a toe, when you're used to them holding your foot up by your leg.

He proceeded to chastise Mr. Moon repeatedly about how he should stand still and to "stop that" with the shaking his hoof.

It was one of the those moments where you lean back half in bemusement, half in eye rolling irritation like "Kindly put my horse's hoof down and go spout your pseudo-farrierism somewhere else."

I'm getting less patient in my old age.

Mr. Moon, hanging out in the corner of the arena. 

He eventually moved on, namely because SL noticed the huge pool of blood on Moon's hind leg, dripping onto the floor and dying his white coronet band bright red. The fellow hurried over to run a hand down the leg, but I already knew it was just a little scratch that I guess with the cool temps stayed brighter red then normal. No biggie. Apparently Moon had done some mud bogging bc his back legs were covered in mud too. SL agreed it was just a superficial scratch and no harm. No swelling and it seemed to have scabbed over already nicely.

That freed me to carry on with my tacking and before long I had the barn to myself again. Oh thankfully! Sometimes I think I should ride more during the daylight, but man I love an empty barn to myself <3 I think this is sometimes an introverts dream. And I totally understand those people who build massive arenas and 4 stall barns and don't let anyone else in! I totally would. Just a few close friends and that's it!

We warmed up and started the "usual". Lots of working on bending and softening and reaching into the bit. You know what?? I think Moon did really well. To the right he had moments of beautiful that almost felt like they were 50% of the way to where we were when we quit lessons. To the left I'd say it's more like 20%, but I had a few moments of success and that made me over the moon!

Hard to see, but he's moving more and more with his head lower, his neck reaching. I even feel like you can see a bit of an "arching" to his neck, without his nose going behind the vertical. 

Considering it was the 3rd ride, I feel like that's awesome. I want to try to start adding more lateral work in again, but I feel like I need to rebuild a certain level of softness and flexion before I ask. Like he needs the opportunity to grow those muscles again that are needed to do it.

After a bit of canter work and a cool down, I couldn't help myself. There was still a little x-rail and a vertical set up (which saddle was out of my video capture!), and a huge perk of an indoor is jumping! Yes, we were in our dressage saddle, but I wanted to, so I did. And Moon's little ears just perked right up and he energetically headed towards the jumps. The x-rail he eventually just cantered over, but I got some cute little jumps from the vertical. Man do we love jumping!

Woohooo!! :D 

He was a bit damp by the time we were done, so I walked him out and then scooped poop while he followed me around. The barn was still quiet and empty when we went back in, so I threw his cooler on and puttered about for awhile. I had sewn up his winter blanket Tuesday night, and while the job isn't stellar, it's workable. The poor DH had to flee downstairs because of the "rich" barn smells the emanated from that old blanket lol.

An "acceptable" patch to Mr. Moon's blanket

Once cooled I re-dressed him and put him back out in the field. Already it was 9:30pm and I was tired, but happy. Really happy. No matter what, an evening at the barn just refreshes me.

I can't wait until Saturday when I get to do it again!! And with just 2 weeks until Black Friday and my saddle somewhere on the road between Washington State and North Dakota, it won't be long before I'm soaring over jumps. I was thinking lots about my Blackburn, and I suspect it might be part of my issues with toes down jumping this past summer. With my long legs and the position of the stirrup bars, I feel like it really moves my legs ahead of me. Even in my dressage saddle yesterday I felt like my heels stayed down nicely and felt nice and secure. Just to be sure, I did a good 10 minutes of 2-point work, and aim to do lots more!

We <3 Jumping.