Welcome 2011!

The year 2010 was full of turmoil and change for me. A year ago today, I could not have foreseen the twists and turns my life was about to take. I certainly never imagined that I would ever move back to Indiana (I'm still coming to grips with this). Yet there were some wonderful events to balance out some of the more devastating occurrences. I made new friends and acquired a gorgeous black Arabian mare I absolutely adore.

I was determined to start this new year out right. To that end, I decided I had to work with the ponies today. My best friend Julie sent me a saddle for Christmas (curse you, Julie, you shouldn't have spent so much on me!) because she knew that my dressage saddle no longer fit the horses. Here is the saddle, an Abetta Endurance (synthetic) with the Arabian tree:

 The last couple of days, the weather finally warmed up enough to melt the snow that had been hanging around uninvited since the beginning of December. Of course this resulted in a soupy, swampy mess where the horse pasture used to be.

My poor ponies have to slop around in this, with few areas clear of any kind of clinging muck. I think Zeplin takes some kind of perverse pleasure in his filth.

My stinky boy wonder didn't want to slog his way into the barn so I could work with him (and try out the new saddle on him). Instead, I caught up my lovely black mare and brought her out of the barn into the rapidly cooling afternoon air. Man was she a mess!

It's difficult to see the mud against her dark coat from this cell phone pic, but trust me... it's there!! I quickly groomed as much of the dried mud out of her hair as I could with rapidly numbing fingers.

Better, but not perfect. Cursed Indiana mud season!

Next it was time for some longeing before I saddled her. She was acting a little nervous, and I wanted to find her brains through moving her feet. We still don't know each other well and have not had the chance to bond. I found through our primary session that she is lacking in some ground manners. She did listen good enough for today.

After reducing Layla's energy level a little, I worked some on desensitizing her. She was a bit jumpy when my rope gently coiled around her, especially her back feet. She has some scarring from previous rope burn, so that is understandable.

In spite of Layla's reputation for being difficult to cinch, I didn't have a problem with that today (knock on wood). Maybe she was too busy trying to snatch what few blades of grass she could reach. The new saddle fit handily!

Some more longeing, and we were ready to rock (although the sun was quickly setting)!

It was a brief ride, but definitely a bright start to a new year :-)