Talked to the vet

She suspects he sprained something and doesn't think it requires an emergency visit (neither did, I to be honest). She just said to cold hose it today and maybe put some liniment on and we scheduled for her to come out and look him over tomorrow.

Figure I'll ask her opinion of the skin tag warty thing he's got then too.

Hocks! :(

So...was riding Kieran tonight and things were going well. He was actually being really good. Until I asked him to canter to the left.



The first part is us going to the right, then we turned and went the other way.

I was like, "wtf horse? What is your problem! DO IT!" Yeah. Then he did it a couple more times when I'd ask him to canter that way.

Then I thought, "maybe he's not just being a jerk. Being jerkish is really unlike him, anyway."

So I checked him over and his left hock definitely has some puffiness going on. Not sure what's caused it as he doesn't appear to have been kicked and it wasn't warm or anything like that but anyway, calling the vet tomorrow.

Ugh. Keep your fingers crossed its something minor, please.

Here's a happy picture, at least?

Kieran schnoz

Why yes, he is sleeping while tied to the hitching post and resting his nose on it.

Barebackness

Picture has nothing to do with the post. :)

Decided to take up riding bareback for a while, though we didn't do much in the way of work tonight. I'm so much less secure-feeling bareback! Makes it pretty obvious how much work I have to do on my seat and my legs (I watched this amazing video last night where the rider's lower body like...didn't budge at all and I was thoroughly impressed). Kieran won't mind, I think, since we're going to have to be doing pretty low intensity stuff for a while until I can sit on him without bouncing too badly (or bouncing myself right off his side).

Trail rides, I'll still go in a saddle. :)

Exciting ride today!

So...I went for a trail ride on Kieran now that we've been shown the trails. The BO had texted me earlier in the week and mentioned they'd done some trail clearing, and I thought that she had just meant that they'd cleared out the one tree that was pretty much totally blocking one path (you had to bushwack to get around it). Alas, they also moved the two logs lying over the trail in two places that were perfect to hop over. *sigh*

Oh well!

Anyway, Kieran was a champ. Sometimes he can get a bit insecure riding out alone be he was just fine and ready to explore with me.

The exciting part, you ask? Well, we'd started trotting down this one section of trail when all of a sudden, pretty much out of nowhere, we trotted up on these three guys who were apparently out shooting shotguns for the hell of it. (Myra says if it had been her on her horse, she would have been left in the dust...but Kieran was really good after the initial "oh crap where did THOSE guys come from?" reaction) I had no idea they were going to be back there and they had no idea I was going to be back there. It was...awkward. But they were polite enough and we moved on. I could hear them shooting from time to time but we managed to avoid each other the rest of the time (well, except for near the end of the ride when I took a wrong turn and almost ended up in someone's backyard and had to backtrack. They were headed that way to go out when I turned around to get back on the trail I needed to take).

Other than that, Kieran and I got in some good trotting and cantering (a lot more trotting than cantering) and I was able to do a lot of the trotting in two point with little issue! Not sure why it's so much harder in the ring, LOL.

Kieran seemed to really enjoy himself once I finally let him open up a little and not just mosey along, hah!

And it turns out the dudes I ran into are related to the guy who owns the land I was riding on so at least they were some random strangers. Well, from my perspective, I guess they were...but you know what I mean!

Also, anybody have any sweet itch remedies? I think that's what Kieran is developing on his neck and I want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a big problem. Currently I've just slathered the area in SWAT, but there's got to be something more I can do. Here's a pic!

Raaaain

Wasn't able to make it back out to the farm all week.

Today? I was like, "yes! I'm going to go! Early in the afternoon! To miss the rain that's supposed to come later!"

Yeah, I get halfway there and the bottom falls out of the sky so I decide, "screw it, I'll go and cuddle my pony and we'll do some sort of ground work in the rain, whatever."

So that's what we did. I went and cuddled him and gave him treats then we went and did some ground work. Mr. Kieran was enjoying the freedom of the big ring too much though so we ended up going to the round pen and having a reminder session that he's supposed to be listening to me. My fault, I should have been prepared to actually work in the big ring but of course...I wasn't. Next time I'll bring a lunge line and get myself a proper whip instead of trying to free lunge him in there (it worked okay at the old farm because their ring was smaller and not grassy but here it's just too easy for him to get out of reach and then start grazing until I catch up to him, ugh).

Anyway, after that I took him back to his field just stuck around scritching his ears and talking to him a bit. I noticed he looks like he's been scratching the front of his neck on things (and a couple of not-so-straight-anymore fence posts) and I'm concerned bugs are bothering him or maybe he's got an allergy to something in GA. :( Will have to figure out what it is before he gets too itchy.

Of course, about the time I wrapped everything up and was on my way out (just talking a bit with the BO first)...of course the rain stopped. You know, after I was soaked, LOL.

Keep your fingers crossed it doesn't do that to me again tomorrow.

Trail ride!

Went out on the trails today. They're about 300 acres on lumber tree farm. The trails are all pretty flat and wide and are basically the fire breaks between sections of trees. It's definitely different from riding in the state parks up in MD! Still, it was nice to get out of the ring and into some different scenery and I think Kieran had a good time too. Plus, Myra's (the barn owner's) horse walks out, man! Kieran was marching to keep up with her, I swear it was the fastest walk I've ever ridden on him, hah!

We even managed to get in some nice canter stretches, though the one section they do that on mainly needs someone on a tall horse (uh, me) to come through with some clippers to take down a few of the low hanging branches that tried to smack me in the face. I don't believe anybody's been riding out there regularly in a while so a bit of cleanup needs to happen but it's not too big of a deal.

Annnnd, that's about it. :)

Screencaps from Friday's ride

Smile for the camera!


Look at that extension!


Cantering around a turn


More cantering


I moved the camera


Y halo thar