February Recap/ March Goals

You get a picture of my dog extending his trot
because I have no new horse photos.

Re-reading my goals for February, I realized something. Either I was inept to realize how frightfully snowy it would get, or I was drunk. I was aware it was snowing (a lot!!!) in February, but I think I must’ve forgotten that the snow would stick and stay. Thus, a lot of my planned goals for Spud did not happen (ie. breaking to saddle) due to lack of space and uhm… the snow.

I've also added a slightly random/barn related goals honey-do list for me to try and achieve (or at least remember). So while some of the items don't have to be done this month, it serves as a good reminder since I self-care for both of my horses.

February Recap- Suzie

• Work on Showmanship  Hooray, this was a success, although quite minimally. We haven’t spent a lot of time on it, but we have practiced several times after the few rides I put on her as well as during hand-walks. She is pretty rusty on it – especially the pivots – but it’ll all come back soon enough!
  
  
• Ride the Beast Mare - in the very least, once. And ride we did – multiple times! Despite the meltdown towards the end of the week I had off work, she was still good. I hate the fact we don’t have an indoor in this community!
  
  
• Measure and send out measurements of pony's back to the fitter. – I didn’t do this. Mostly because it’s not a necessary thing at this time. Although, I am looking more and more at lower end Dressage saddles (ie. Wintec) because my CC seems to fit her back well and I don't need a super expensive Dressage saddle since we primarily do Western. BUT, I do need to get a hold of a fitter to make sure a Wintec would be the right choice for her.
  
  
•  Set up a smarter way of feeding the horses Success! I’m setting up a post on how I’ve been achieving minimal food wastage, keeping the horse’s busy, and keeping Spud from gorging on all of Suzie’s hay!!

March Goals – Suzie

• Showmanship – really start asking for more quality pivots and refine her halts (she likes to step once or twice after I have already halted). Bring out her showmanship gear and fine tune her to the chain again.
  
• Work on her "separation anxiety” she seems to get when Spud leaves. Dose her with Rescue Remedy for the next few outings and see if that makes a difference.

•  Stay on top of her weight – she is looking a bit thin and don’t be afraid to give her some beet pulp/ grain if she requires it. However, I am in the process of upping her roughage so that should be good.
  
• Trail ride with other horses again – it doesn’t have to be a 4hr adventure, but even small things to get her back on track again.

Hello, ladies.

  February Recap - Spud

• Lunging with a saddle on - get better walk, trot, canter transitions from him and responsiveness when I give him the cues.  Big fat fail. With the ridiculous amount of snow, there was nowhere to safely lunge him (in the pasture or otherwise). With our only available option being the road, I opted out of lunging him on the asphalt for obvious reasons. I was going to put the saddle on him for the in-hand walk I took him on prior to going back to work, but didn’t.
  
• Adding some weight while the saddle is on. - Nope. I should’ve put goals down about driving him, because we did some kick-ass driving this month!
  
• Learn more about what is required for competitions.  - Annnd a nope.

Soooo, the Suzie goals were a success at least. For March, it will be interesting because the SO and I are going to visit my parents for the week we get off from work instead of staying home like we normally do. Pony time will be limited this month until the sun starts to stay a bit longer, but I am hopeful and so, I’ve made a pretty large list of things I’d like to get busy on!

March Goals – Spud

• Continue with the progression in harness, if time allows. Start to get more quality work from him in the means of pace, rhythm and balance. He tends to poke out at the trot and once I’ve half-halted, he’ll hold a wonderful pace (and “frame”) only to become unbalanced and fall on his forehand… once he does this, he coils up and sucks behind the vertical. I need to let him know that he can be forward, but it doesn’t mean fast. The best part about this goal is that I don’t necessarily need him to be pulling a cart – I can also ground-drive him.
  
• Clean/condition harness; cause it’s gross.

"I helping you clean. Clean all the foods."

Barn "Honey-Do" List (aka: I'll actually do all of it 'cause I am self-sufficient and proud, thank you).

• Purchase a new hose for the barn – the BO’s hose snapped after our last freeze and I broke it when I tried to coil it up.
  
• New lights for the middle aisle of the barn – the current one is pretty lacking and doesn’t really throw enough light.
  
• Re-organize the tack room and start hanging saddle racks, bridle hooks, etc to make things more orderly. If necessary, purchase a tub to hold blankets/saddle pads that are not in use so they quit taking up so much room at home.
  
• Fences - after the “snowmageddon” we need to check and look over the fencing as the snow melts to ensure the horses cannot hurt themselves on it or escape. One fence board in particular has already been repaired by the SO from the massive snow-dump.
  
• Go through tack and separate what I need vs what I don’t need and either put it up for sale or donate to a young riding kid who could use it (srsly, why do I have like 10 white saddle pads?!).
  
• Manure. With all the snow and being unable to take their manure to the back pasture for disposal, I had to resort to creating a very large and very disgusting manure pile by the lean-to until the snow thaws and I can get back there with the wheel-barrow. I don't know why I'm putting this on my list just yet, it's almost like I'm inviting it to snow again.