It was quite the horsy weekend! I know I haven't been posting much as of late, but I've had a pretty good reason. Zigs has been off for several weeks. I of course took him to Elgin and had a lameness eval done. Thankfully, the vet didn't discover anything more serious than a twisted right front shoe. Ed came out, and after another week or so off, I pressed my Alfalfa addict back into service. As is to be expected, the ride was a bit rough, but I stayed in the saddle, and Ziggy didn't go lame again. I was just glad to have my horse back. Saturday, I spent the day out atSCARE for a CURE, moving all of our stuff to our as-yet unannounced new site. But, anybody who knows anything can probably figure out where it is. I'm dying for them to officially announce the site, so that I can start talking about it. Anyhow, this is a blog about ponies, so I will try to keep the Haunted House chatter to a minimum.
However, I love doing Haunted Houses almost as much as I love riding horses, so I make absolutely no guarantees. Especially the closer it gets to October. Anyway, my intention was to ride when I got back home Saturday, but after moving flats all day, I bravely sat on my couch, and passed out. At some point Saturday night, Fuzzy Pony called and asked Zhi and I if we wanted to tag along with her and Saga's mom to visit Tango and Cash. Since I even brought it up, you may safely make the assumption we said yes.
While Zhi and I were getting ready Sunday morning, Saga's mom called and mentioned that there was actually a horse at the barn Tango is staying at whose owner was looking to free lease to somebody while she goes to California. Since the horse sounded like it might be a good fit for Zhi, we went ahead and got together our riding stuff, and met Fuzzy Pony and Saga's mom at Saga's mom's house. Now, you might be thinking, "I've never even heard you mention this Tango horse before. Who is he, and why were you so excited about going to see him?" Well, wonder no longer! A couple of weeks back, Zhi found a Dutch Warmblood in the San Antonio Craigslist for sale for $2500. We went out to see him, and the poor guy was seriously overweight, his feet hadn't been seen in 6 months, and to top it off, he was all alone in the pasture, and had become a little neurotic. To make a long story short, and not steal Zhi's thunder, Zhi was able to help orchestrate his rescue, and he is now being rehabilitated with the intention of becoming The Oracle's new riding horse. There is, of course, a lot more to that story, but it's Zhi's to tell, and I'm not about to steal her Thunder. ;)
I'm happy to report that when we got to the barn where Tango is currently staying, I almost didn't even recognize him! His feet have been seen, and he's trimmed down a good bit. His overall affect was much calmer and he seemed like an entirely different horse! After taking a quick look at him in his stall, we left him to munch on his hay while we checked out the horse that we might be free-leasing for Zhi. His name is Sahani, and he's a very cute Medicine Hat Paint, that looks a lot like Cash. After we watched the barn's trainer ride him, I hopped on, and I must admit, I rather liked him. I had to use a whip to wake him up a bit, but that's largely due to him being used to packing around little kids who can't kick as hard as I can. Once I'd determined that he wasn't going to do anything stupid, (and by that I mean, "I realized that I should actually let my wife ride the horse that we'd be getting for her"), I let Zhi hop up on him. From where I was standing, they looked good together, and it certainly looked like Zhi was enjoying herself. I'm hoping we're able to make the deal and bring this guy home for a couple of months, as it'd be really nice to be able to go riding with my sweetie.
Once we were done with Sahani, The Oracle's daughter pulled Tango out into the round pen so we could see him go. And boy, did he go. It was really nice to see him in so much better shape. I hope I get a horse that moves like him when I grow up. ;)
After taking a few good pictures of Tango, we loaded up in the car once again and headed out to Paige to see Cash. This was the first time I'd ever been to Paint Creek Farms, and wow, what a place! Forget retiring my horse there, I want to retire there. The place is every horse owner's wet dream. Gorgeous, rolling pastures full of lush coastal grass, a large clean barn with stalls that have partially covered runs, Saga's mom warned us on the way that since he's been at this place, Cash had gotten more aloof, and I can't say I blame him. Now that he's living in Pony paradise, what good are us humans? Oh, right, we bring carrots. We pulled Cash in from the pasture, and gave him a bath. In the process, Zhi and I took some mane and tail hairs for a sooper seekrit project whose results will be shown at an undetermined date in the future.
While he was drying out, Saga's mom was nice enough to let Zhi and I up on Cash bareback. One at a time, thank-you-very-much. There will be no FHotD-worthy shenanigans on my watch. (or on any of ours, I think it's safe to say.) Once Zhi and I had had our turns, Saga's mom hopped up on him, and reminded him and us that he was at one point a show horse. He looked really good, too. Hopefully, one day I'll be able to get Shoulder ins, leg yields and half-passes bareback and in a halter. After more carrots and scritches, we put him back in his pasture and headed home for the night.
Which brings us to yesterday. After riding Saga, Saga's mom was nice enough to come over and work with Zigs and I. Although I typically like to work on jumping when she comes over, Zigs is a bit out of shape after his time off, so we did flatwork instead. Which was good, because she was actually able to help me out with several problems I've been having. We started off by walking, trotting and cantering on a loose rein in both directions, which is how I'll do my warmups from now on. After letting him go on a loose rein and stretch what he needed to, I found it a lot easier to collect him up and put him on the bit. Once we'd warmed up, we started working on circles. Saga's mom identified several problems I have that I need to work on.
- On the right:
- My right leg tends to drift backward.
- On the top half of the circle, I tend to lose the rhythm.
- On the Left:
- If I let him go straight, I lose the rhythm. I need to keep him bent the entire circle.
- I tend to over-bend.
- In general:
- I need to keep my outside rein steady. One of the problems I've been having that Saga's mom helped me fix is that Zigs would evade by cocking his head to the side. The reason it's happening is because I have too much inside rein and I let my outside rein cross over his neck.
- I still have a habit of pushing with my seat when I'm trying to get him to walk out more. I need to rely more on my inside leg to get the job done,
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