Saturday was Eryca's birthday. On Friday, she and I headed out for a new adventure. We took the horses to Deer Path Park in Flemington for a trail ride. This was Lilly's first time trailering off the property since Fran rescued her twelve years ago. This was my goal for the horses for 2021 and I am beyond delighted that we knocked it off the list already. Eryca and I wound up doing over seven miles on a glorious day. This was our most technical ride to date and the girls handed it super well. 

 Speaking of Bug being a really good girl, Mike came out to the barn last week and brought his camera with him. 

Of course, since I was actually going to get ring riding pictures, we had yet another wind storm that day. The wind was howling, gates were banging, and everything was flap, flap, flapping in the background. Luckily (?) the horses are pretty much used to it at this point. I feel like it has been super windy almost every day for the last five months. 

Because it was cold and unpleasant out and I try not to torture my husband, we kept it pretty short. 

Booger takes a while to warm up enough to really get to work. While I have been insisting on walking for several minutes at the beginning of each ride, I compromise by not micromanaging her until she tells me she's ready to get to work mentally. We spend a lot of time trotting around on a loose rein and just working on keeping a consistent, not-Mach-10 tempo. 

I figured we would warm up until Booger was content to do some work, grab some proof-of-life photos, and keep it walk/trot and quit early.

My current priority with Booger has been getting her to lengthen her stride without rushing, inverting, or trucking along on her forehand. She has recently figured it out and seems to actively enjoy it. If I can ever get her mature enough to handle the environment, she'd have a killer endurance trot!

In general, Booger and I have been spending a lot of time doing shoulder-in and leg yielding all over the place. She's definitely stronger and more supple off of my left aids. Her lateral work on the long lines has been stellar, and it's definitely paying off under saddle. We've also re-introduced a little bit of haunches in at the walk and trot. She does this better tracking left too. She still wants to cross canter on the left lead, but I can now correct it by holding the bend with my inside leg, and pushing the haunches in with my outside leg. If the ring ever gets done, I'll add poles and cavaletti back into the mix. She really needs hill work, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. 

We did end up having a touch of canter at the end of our ride (she was offering rather than me specifically asking). For better or worse, Mike did a really good job capturing how lateral her canter has become as she has gotten older. I think it's mostly that she inherited her dam's shitty canter, but I will always wonder if this horse has some sort of underlying neurological issues. 

I did not spend any time on this day correcting the right lead canter quality, but we had a great ride yesterday (with beautiful weather, no wind, and nobody around to see it, of course). After doing a lot of shoulder-in and serpentines, I was able to get Boo off that right rein and using her barrel really well. Once I had a true inside bend at the canter, the stride became distinctly three-beat. It took a lot of work on my part, but I was thrilled to see the progress.

As for me... don't even look at me in these photos. I have become hyper aware of the fact that Booger's movement often leaves me perching forward. The fact that I love to stare straight down at the withers is universal for me on every horse I ride. And, of course, my beloved Wintec puts me in a horrendous chair seat, but I can't afford to replace it with something that puts me in a good position and fits both of my horses.

But that's enough babbling... Mike got some gorgeous photos of us on this night, and I will be dumping them below.

My new favorite photo of us. See, she can put her ears up!

 Last Monday, Booger and I had a four and a half mile solo trail ride before my lessons. Spoiler alert: she was perfect!

 It happened again...

 Two weekends ago, Eryca and I had a fabulous seven mile trail ride. 

 Eryca and I currently have a weekly pony date on Wednesday nights after I'm done teaching for the day. 

Currently, Fran is overhauling the ring at home. The timing sucks for me, but the hope is that we'll have a really nice arena when all is said and done. The down side is that this limits my ring work right when the trails are wettest. That's not really a problem for Lucy, but Booger is definitely bored already (we're two weeks in to the project). I got on Booger for a few minutes while I waited for Eryca to arrive, but it wasn't nearly enough for either of us. 

After asking if Eryca would be ok with it, I decided to bring Booger along for our evening trail ride. I had ponied her off of Lucy over the winter in preparation for this, and the girls had been on their best behavior. As I keep mentioning, Booger has been ponied off of Lilly pretty extensively (and even ponied off of JR back in the day). I had no idea if Lucy  had every ponied another horse before I did it this winter, but she'd been perfect on our solo ride the day before, and I expected her to be a little tired and mellow. 

And so we set out with two riders and three horses.

 I got my first shot last week. A friend of mine managed to get us appointments within an hour of me texting her our information. My first appointment was on Tuesday, which happened to work out. I was supposed to be riding and teaching at Ashley's that day, but all the horses had their spring shots the day before and got the day off. I rescheduled my rides and got an unexpected day off, and then happened to get my vaccine slot for that same day. Sometimes things just fall into place. 

The weather that day happened to be glorious and I took full advantage of a free morning by taking Lucy for a solo trail ride. I set out with no goals in mind except to let her move out a bit and see where the day took us. I wound up doing just over nine miles in just under two hours, and it was perfect.

 This may be a little TMI, but I haven't used a public bathroom in over a year. While my anxiety about the pandemic has subsided slightly as we've learned more about the virus (I no longer wipe down my groceries or strip out of my clothes outside my front door), I have not been able to get past the bathroom thing. To be honest, public bathrooms have always skeeved me out a bit. 

Why am I telling you all of this? 

Well, you see, as a free lance horse trainer I do a fair amount of driving barn to barn. Often, I am on the road from sun up to sun down. I used to stop at like a Wawa or Quick Chek for lunch and take a potty break while I was there. I also knew where there were good parks with nice restrooms (those are currently still locked). These days, I bring my own food, but that doesn't help the bathroom situation. Some of the barns I go to have facilities. Some have... erm... stalls. But others? There are days where I have a four or five hour stretch without access to bathrooms or privacy in the barn. Considering how much coffee/tea I drink, this has put a real damper (ha) on my routine.

Somewhere along the way, I started picking strategically placed fields/bushes with easy access to parking. 

One of these corn fields is along the Warren Highlands Trail. I chose it because it's on one of my clients' roads and has a nice parking area and good tree cover a short walk from the car. Plus, there is never anyone there. 

And that's what got me thinking, as I was "taking a break" from my commute early last week. As I've mentioned repeatedly, Mike and I have been struggling to find places to walk Julio without running into a million people and their off leash dogs. I have been trail riding on sections of the WHT for years (see all my adventures with Pedar and Aneesah). In all that time, I have run into one person (another trainer) on horseback and one person in a parking area. With Merrill Creek around the corner, this trail just doesn't draw a crowd. 

When I got home that night, I told Mike I had a plan for where to take Julio walking this weekend. I pulled up the trail map and studied the different sections of the ten mile point-to-point trail and finally decided we'd start with the section I already know. While Julio seems to be completely recovered from his stifle lameness, we're still taking it easy as far as distance and terrain go. 

On Sunday, we made the hour long drive with a very happy dog in the back seat. When we arrived, I was delighted to see that the parking area was empty on the weekend too. We proceeded to have a lovely two mile walk in the sunshine.

NJ being hideous, as usual.

On the last Saturday of March, Eryca and I got out for our first spring trail ride of the year. 

 A couple of weeks ago, I felt particularly inspired one morning before my lessons. I decided to make Booger my priority for the day, and took her out long lining on trail. I figured it would be a good way to see how the footing was out there. Plus it would give Booger some trail miles without me having to ride through anything. 

Booger has long lined since she was two and I incorporate it into our ring work regularly. Long lining has been instrumental in developing her canter and regulating pace on a loose rein under saddle. I'll admit I've been somewhat lazy about long lining Booger on trail because it means walking the mileage on my own two feet. I'd definitely rather ride. 

Booger has ponied extensively on trail over the years (she actually ponied on trail alongside Lilly before I ever sat on her). While ponying is an awesome way to show horses the world beyond their pastures, it has its limitations. Just like being able to walk a horse doesn't mean you'll be able to ride it, ponying a horse and asking a horse to carry you down the trails is not the same thing. 

What I like about long lining is that it simulates riding in many ways. The horse has to respond to bit pressure just like it would when ridden, but more importantly, the horse has to lead rather than follow. I have found long lining on trail to be a great way to build confidence safely. 

 How are we a quarter way through the year already? I haven't even recovered from last March! I debated making a series of March posts because there are an awful lot of photos in here, but I honestly don't think I'll have time. Things have gone from zero to sixty over night here. The good news is I'll be back in business. The bad news is it doesn't leave much time for anything else, especially blogging. About half of my clients are vaccinated now, which has been a relief. Mike and I qualify as of Monday (agriculture and food production respectively). Now if I can just find us appointments, we'll be all set. We're still being as careful as ever, but it's the first time I've felt like there might be a light at the end of the tunnel.

I thought we were going to say goodbye to this sweet old girl last week. Her mobility has been steadily declining despite our best efforts. Then, ten days ago, she kept us up all night stress panting and whining and trying to pace. It's not the first night she has been restless in the last few months, but this was so much worse that I was ready to pick a sunny day and let her go. I am concerned that she might be starting to sundown, but she is so bright and happy during the day. This is going to sound crazy, and I have a whole separate entry coming up on the subject, but I had an animal communicator call me and, in the end, we all decided that it's not quite time yet (but probably soon, and definitely before the end of the year). In the mean time, I took Herbie off of Amantadine (there seemed to be a correlation between her dosing and her restlessness). We also put a night light next to her dog bed in the bedroom. Since then (knock on wood) she has slept calmly and peacefully through the night every night.