Time to Shine.

Moon'er Spring 2011 (Pre-Lessons)

Moon, Last Week 2011Moon, Spring 2011 Again.

Let me start by saying I forgot to charge the camera batteries. And can't find the spares for the life of me. It's starting to become a pattern. : P Which is why I ordered ANOTHER card for my video camera : P

Regardless, this post will be (new) picture-less. Maybe tomorrow I'll get some for you.

Today when I walked in to the arena one of the people there said "Wow is your horse sweaty". I scrunched up my face and stared at Moon. He'd just been standing around when I was grooming him...why would he be sweaty? And he wasn't. "Um, he's not..." I replied. "Why does he look wet then?" Realization that he's SOOO shiny from his new blanket that he looks WET in the lamplight. : )

I decided today to finally tape him at W's since I had a solid level surface and could get him standing square. Probably a bad idea. No matter how I positioned him or the tape, he kept seeming slightly shy of that 15 hh mark. I normally claim he's 15.1 hh. It's a nice number. But standing there today I knew there's ZERO chance of him being 15.1. I might be able to cock his shoulder the right way to make 15 hands but I'm coming to grips with the fact that he very well may stand only 14.36 hh. And yes, he needs that 0.06. Regardless he's still safely 'horse height'. :P And at 5'9" he's just PERFECT for me.

I also taped his weight since he's looking pretty stellar. In and around 1000 lbs, maybe just under. I'm THRILLED. When I got him he was about 1200 lbs and none of it muscle.

For our lesson, we had fun. Let me say I'm dying to get my new camera cards as I need to catch some stuff on video. His leg yielding feels incredible. So great that I can sit it at a trot and he just floats. Our 10 m circles were awesome today, especially going the way he bends well. I mean, FIRST LEVEL quality at the end of the lesson. We might bicker, argue and have some pretty awful moves at times, but when we've got it, it's good.

I also learned that we're stupidly similar. I was trying to work on our shoulder-in and was having some trouble getting all the aids in right when suddenly I realized my mouth was open, my head was tilted stupid, my shoulder had come up and my face was scrunched. OMG! I had the "EVIL BUNNY FACE!" I always accuse Moon'er of having! Must, learn, to, relax!

We worked on shoulder-in, haunches-in and even canter work on the circle. We figured out what his go-to lead is his left. Oddly enough, he counter-canters on his left lead circling right better then he regular canters on his left going left. Go figure.

Unfortunately W noticed he's coming up a bit short on his right front fore, perhaps because he's a little tender footed from the freezing ground? : ( Makes me worry over him a bit, but we still gave him a good work-out. I asked W if she could put him in to the next farrier rotation and I look forward to seeing the job the fellow does and his thoughts. I'm still struggling with the flaring AND he's managed to self-trim after 5 weeks. A nice chunk out of his right hind.

I was so proud of him today. I can't believe that we're closing in on our 1 year anniversary. Christmas. Even crazier is that sometime this week is our 6 month mark from when we started lessons with W. 6 MONTHS of training under our belts. On our good days, we're schooling first level. On our bad days, we're a pair of doufuses bickering at one another. Those 6 months are MY six months. No one but me has really ridden him (W was on him twice for a couple of minutes) and I'm pretty proud of what we've learned together.

Yesterday after 2 days apart, I walked in to the barn and fell in love with him all over again. He is without a doubt, my bestest buddy horse. I trust him, I LOVE riding him and he's the perfect peanut butter to my jam. : )