Cuteness quota

Jazzy is getting big pretty quickly. It seems like yesterday that she could sit in my lap while I was on the computer and have plenty of space...now I have to turn her away because she's just not so little anymore!


She starts puppy school on the 24th, and I am SO looking forward to having some things to work on! She's tough...seriously lacking in the manners department and very opinionated. It's been a while since I've trained a puppy so I am in desperate need of a refresher...plus having the structure and socializing and distractions is going to be very helpful...AND challenging.

good mare, bad owner

Good mare:

Promise got last weekend off due to bad weather, and yesterday off while I recovered from lack of sleep after a Toby Keith concert Friday night. I played lazy most of the day. I went up this afternoon hoping to be able to ride...and found this:

Not too shabby. So, after she very politely told me she didn't need to show off anymore (in the last video, lol)...we went back to the barn and tacked up. Had a nice ride, mostly walk, but we did trot a few times around and cantered about half a circle in each direction. The right hind felt sticky when it was on the outside, but she worked out of it reasonably well. And then to cool down we did some serpentines, working off my legs and trying to gently remind her to loosen her mouth. 

Oh yea, check out the leg below. I am very happy to report that what is left feels VERY much like the scars on her left hind that I assume are the result of barbed wire as a baby. It is grey, hard to the touch, smooth and not the least bit tender. We just may have finally beat this thing!

All in all, she was good. Moving well, happy and quite full of herself. 

Bad owner:

We finish our ride and I bring her back to her stall to untack her - she's STILL in heat, so I figure she probably needs to pee. I undo the girth, toss it over the saddle, pick the saddle up off her back and turn to take 2 steps to the wall and place it there. In the time it took me to do that (*maybe* 5 seconds), she reached down to scratch her face on her leg, the reins dropped down to her ears and she promptly stepped in them. When she brought her head back up, they broke. Sigh. 

Yup. Not my brightest moment today...I definitely know better.

Years ago I learned the hard way that after every ride, she scratches her face on her leg and I have to make sure to grab the reins so she doesn't step through them...because it's ugly when she tries to bring her head up and finds she can't. Normally, when the reins don't break, it results in a rather understandable, albeit dramatic, bronc session. 

This time, luckily, they broke...but unluckily, now I have to find a pair of reins that won't break the bank so I can continue riding. Ah well. Better than breaking while I was riding, right? 

Contest, Update, Random Thought

Shameless plug for a second entry: 
Don't miss out on a chance to win one of Kate's fantastic hand-painted saddle pads! Visit The Adventures of Lucy to enter!


Update:
Miss P (maybe it should still be Miss W) was still sassy and still in raging heat on Saturday. Apparently, she's been in heat for at least two weeks and she can't keep her eyes off this new gelding in the stall beside her.


But, on the bright-not-so-slutty side, she was quite sound...so much so that I promptly dragged her sassy little butt back to the barn and threw my saddle and bridle on. We then proceeded to mostly walk, but we did trot around twice in each direction (my foot wasn't too crazy about me posting) and I even let her canter half way around in each direction. She was good. Forward, but stiff through the mouth. I didn't ask for very much in terms of bending, as it really wouldn't be fair, but in previous rides, she's retained a good amount of the softness she had when she was in regular work. Could just be a side effect of the mood she's been in. Who knows?


Random Thought:
I had an rather odd thought just as I was falling asleep the other night and it made me go..."Hmm?"


I think the majority of her behavior for the vet was hormonal/herd-boundness. But I can't help but wonder how much of it is related to her last vet visit (with this same vet), which was that emergency call back in February, where she was clearly in quite a bit of pain and pretty distressed. 


Anyone think memory might have something to do with it? Thoughts? I could be crazy, too. :)