New Bit for Comrade

Peggy picked up a new bit for Comrade to try. It is an eggbut, three piece with a revolver peanut.

He who must always rest a leg while standing in the cross ties

Our first ride was Saturday. I was still dealing with the right side resistance that I had last week, but numerous circles and bendy lines helped soften his neck. He had a foamy mouth after working, but I still am not completely won over.
Today I braved the cold and wind to ride with music. Comrade always keeps me warm. I set up my IPOD on one jump standard and put my camera on another. I worked through some goofy pony in the wind antics before I started the video. This ride was not as good as yesterday, but he did have some good points. He cantered when I asked and not 5 strides later. He did some  great simple changes. No cross cantering or bucking. The music served to focus me and in turn focused him.
I used the music to do intervals, trot during stanzas, canter during chorus and repeat. Comrade's responsiveness improved by the end of a few songs. Some Native American instrumental music served for great walk/ lateral work and into cooling out.
As for the bit, I will keep it for now. It needs more usage in better circumstances. Comrade gets trimmed tomorrow so I am hoping that will help a lot since he is really long.

And I will warn you I did not edit the video.
I hope everyone is staying warm.

Riding with Music

Today was a busy day, including trimming the Appies feet, show clipping for Roscoe, cleaning stalls and of course riding.
Let start with the Appies. Rebel is still pretty lame but we were able to get 3 feet completely trimmed and 1 a little rounded. So he has 1 long foot still.
Jenna is really lame. Mom and I hope she did not founder. She is sore on her front left enough that when you pick up the right, she points the left after. With everything, I only rounded her toes.
Keep your fingers crossed that she gets better.
Next up Roscoe. Mom helped me by holding him so I could trim his ears. Then by myself I trimmed his beard. He was great. I did not even need a halter. Now when I attempted to even out his mane, we had a battle. Roscoe does not believe his mane should be pulled or as I was doing today using a clipper blade to shorten it. He shook his head over and over while I kept working. Not easy since his mane is so slick, but I did have some success. After a quick hoof trim, he was finally able to go eat his hay.

Finished product

Cleaning stalls is normally not difficult. Pick into the wheel barrow and roll out to the spreader, dump and pitch. Well today I wondered how I was suppose to pitch into the spreader since the house parked two ATVs right by the spreader leaving no room to dump. Luck was with me. As I started cleaning, the girls came and took the ATVs for a ride. I quickly finished and rushed to pitch into the spreader before they came back. Sometimes it is tough to remain diplomatic.
Now for the fun stuff. DaVinci and I went for a bareback ride in the front field to work the little hill. He was a bit lazy, but what he did do was good. Nothing like a half hour of hill work to give a quick work out.
It was a bit too windy to ride Winston, so he got lunged and long lined. I think he was a little bored on the lunge. He did everything I asked, but it was kind of vanilla. To change it up, I clipped the other end of the line to his halter to long line him. This perked him up. I asked him to trot and was able to walk behind him. We completed a bunch of figure 8's at the trot. Plus we did some lateral work. Both of us were happy when we ended.
And the grand finale. The show is Hunter based which means Comrade's dressage saddle won't work. I decided to try Dottie's Wintec Wide. Since it has the widest gullet, I used a sheep skin pad under it to help with the size difference. To spice up my ride, I used my Ipod and a little speaker system to play music. Comrade is so silly. He hung over me while I set up and turned on the music. Then once I was on he decided that the mystery noise was scary. During the song, "Proud Mary," I don't think we rode one straight line due to him trying to avoid the music.
Then a Trans Siberian song came on. I love riding to their music and Comrade seemed to like it too. He had a lot of energy built up from the previous song. Harnessing that we did a zig zag pattern of haunches in, haunches out, then trot on. Then at a tempo change, we cantered.
During the next song, he was trotting forward and I realized I was holding him like he was still "going fast." I relaxed and enjoyed the movement. Over the next few songs, we did some slower, collected work with corners and some more canter work. By this time he was working well. Music brings a whole different aspect to a ride. I enjoy seeing what music a horse responds to and how their movement changes.
And the saddle seems to work. We may need the thicker sheep skin pad, though. Comrade is very quick to say if he does not like a saddle and he did not give me any negatives. One show question answered.

Hmm, do you think they would let me play music during the class? :) Probably too exciting.