@Luzien: o_o That sounds kinda bad, though great it's not something they need to fix by surgery. Hopefully not too painful either? Really sucks for you though, I know month was hard to be doing nothing. And not being able to ride for even more, really sucks. :c That area of the back also moves a lot during riding, so it's probably best to do as the doctors say so you don't get trouble with your back later in life... Hopefully you'll heal faster than they expect, and get back in saddle sooner even if it's just for walking.
If you can't find someone to just walk/do ground work with your girl. Could someone could have your girl as in hand horse, while their ride their own horse?
Hmmm... Maybe some velcro could do the trick. Though for once it had stayed in place, though bit twisted to the side but not that it matter much as it is a tube. XD
Yup, only 7, though I'm thinking same as you, maybe some are still thinking it over/are not sure are they able to go at the time. Though it's kinda common issue to find staff/volunteers for shows even on our national level(which is why we don't have that many bigger shows...). So probably very few even consider volunteering in a show in different country. : P
@Enchanted: Most of our trails are actually some sort of hills/slopes, or at least it feels like it. So hill work is more or less mandatory if you go out on the trails here.
Though sometimes it feels like Heta doesn't like going very steep down hill, which I guess could be because of her hock... :\ Sadly most of the snow is gone(but still plenty of slush at some spots and mud comes after that), which would have been great work out. :c But the main issue is the fact the mares have free hay and according to R, the older mares mostly spend their time eating. Though I these days I more often find Heta not eating at the bale when I go get her. And I really haven't been riding more than maybe 3(sometimes 4) times a week, compaired to usual 4-5. XP At the moment I think we are in a situation where she won't loose or gain any weight. Which is kinda okay, but ideally she really needs to loose weight, alot.
Yay, Willy gets to go outside with big sis(or would that be future girl friend XD) Willow. ^^
Blaah, empty promises I see. That's so not nice of them. I don't think it's fair to pressure you(even if it's kinda silent, not said in your face kind) to get another horse, when you are not sure about it yet... But you do what feels best. Maybe one of those horses clicks, who knows. They do sound like they could be nice. Though I have to ask, what's the differance between walker and racker? Aren't they both lateral gaits at least?
@Zayn: Cotton is not very good to dry the horse really. And if you meant 30 celcius(since 30F in Australia sounds kinda weird XD), then I'd put no rug at all. Unless you were just putting them on to keep him clean. Yes, if it's rains hard enough the rug will get soaked, the horse may not, depending on the make of the rug and duration of the rain. But also with that kind of heat, they both will dry fairly quick if they get wet. As you probably have noticed.
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Trail ride yesterday and bareback today.
The trail ride turned out bit longer than planned as we checked out a 'new' road+trail. There's one road I thought we were never allowed to ride on other than short part of it, as there's summer cottages along it and apparently the people don't like horses going there. But it turns out it only applies for summer season. Or so I understood as G told me she has been riding there with another boarder, and the road and then the path that starts at the end of it and connects to one of the main trails. Well, we went to check it out on Saturday with Heta, as the road bit is slight up hill mostly and is excellent to canter. c; We did go little of our usual routes and then headed there, as it's like the farthest road we go to. Well the road part turned out suuuuuuper long and then the forest trail from the road also felt really really really long and because it was pretty narrow and the ground was not very good(puddles, mudd, ice that might break under, snow etc.) walk was only option. Couple times I had to kinda guess which way to go, but I let Heta kinda choose at those spots and she choose correctly as we ended up on familar area, eventually.
Poor thing was really sweaty afterwards though(there was little moisture even on top of her butt >_<), so I let her stay inside rugged up for moment. Resulted in mostly quite soaked fleece cooler and still fairly wet and warm pony... -__- So had to still rug her up to go outside as it was getting little windy and there was some white-ish stuff falling from sky too.
She also managed to nip my finger when I made her do some stretches with treats, that were apparently little too small for that as in her greedyness she bit my finger... It even started bleeding a little and 'lazy' me didn't bother finding proper band-aid, but instead went to Heta's first aid box cut up little piece of animalintex and secured it with little strip of vetwrap. lol
Then today. Noticed that some little meanie had ripped up Heta's rug, again. >:( Grrrr.... Like one piece I stitched properly so that it wouldn't get ripped, was totally ripped out and is now somewhere in the paddock. Then the large rip on the side, yup, someone just had to rip it half open again, and not even so that is was just the stitching, but above it. Someone also had grabbed the 'padded' teddy piece at the withers and shreded some of it. Not happy at all, as this hasn't been an issue before and I've never in the 5 years of having Heta, have had to patch up her rain rugs, nor coolers, until now. It's also the dark blue one they seem to target, but leave the green one alone. XP Guessing it's the chestnut filly or the big mares. The black filly Heta actually tolerates these days and seems to like more or less.
I didn't ride super long. I did go bareback, but had saddle pad+gel on Heta as I'd rather not take half of her hairs to the car with me. XD For some reason my legs got pretty tired fast and the ground wasn't too great to be honest. I did do some halts and Heta listened to seat pretty nice actually. Then some tolt and trot and we even cantered a whole round to right.
I did have to use my whip in canter at first to keep her going, but after one good tap she kept it and I stayed on pretty well. Like on corners I did feel my balance shift too much to some direction(lol focused so hard to stay on I didn't pay attention to detail), but I expected that much really. Then when I got off and cleaned up some poops(none of the boarders EVER seem to do that, other than me) Heta stood at the gate and didn't move a muscle, other than turning her head occasionally to look what I was doing.
I guess a rule is a rule, though c:
I don't usually smack horses, but I'm clearly not going to put up with dangerous behaviour. Cheeky little devil.
