Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Open Wide

Riva's favorite vet at work
 
 
Sleeping off the drugs
 
President's Day was spent hanging out at the barn in sunny 50 degree temps...Love!  Of course, it plunged to a high of 24 the next day.  Riva and Cheers got their Spring shots, Coggins, and dentals.  Riva's teeth were good - just maintenance floating.  Cheers, poor guy, had 4 hooks.  Should feel much better now - hoping his grumpy in general mood improves!
 
My vet was very happy with Riva's overall body condition.  Said her weight looks good and was impressed with her top line and muscling, esp in her neck.
 
I hung out at the barn until they both were fully awake.  Cleaned and conditioned my bridle and saddle - cleaned out my grooming box and straightened out the tack box.  Not hard for me to find reasons to stay at the barn most of the day!
 
Back out last night to much different temps.... Winter just needs to leave.  Horses got brought in early as the BO said they were all hanging out at their gates, looking miserable.  Riva was anxious to get out of her stall and to work - very forward and quick off my leg.  Had a really good ride - one of those rides where I leave the barn totally in love with that mare :)
 
Due to lots of indoor arena traffic, we did not get to work on our loop exercise.  Austen of  guineaforaguinness FB'ed me a great article from Practical Horseman that breaks down the loop and has super pictures.  Here is the link: http://www.laurensprieser.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/practicalhorseman.pdf  Thanks Austen!
 
But we did work on lots of transitions and had some nice canter work.  I could really feel Riva coming from behind and into the bridle.  Most times, at canter, I feel as if I am doing more work than she is.  Last night, she just carried me and it made me smile!
  
 Photo

 
 
 

6 comments:

Austen said...

Daw, aren't drugged ponies so completely adorable and wobbly?

I guess some sort of pony Good-Mood-Fairy was out last night. Guinness was super good too! Hooray for good, happy rides!

Achieve1dream said...

ROFLOL!!!! That Murray letter thing is hilarious! Where did you get that?

I'm glad the vet visit went so well. Hopefully Cheer's mouth will feel better now. :)

Achieve1dream said...

I found Dear Murray on Facebook, but I can't read that web address at the bottom of the picture.... off to search Google. :D Thanks for sharing. I've never seen that before. So funny!!

Shelley said...

Glad you had a good ride!!! I need to get my mares teeth done too... Next month!

Hillary said...

Love the dear Murray. Glad Rivas teeth were good!

Carol said...

Thanks for posting the link to the article. This is a great exercise and the article really explains it.
The Dear Murray is perfect :)