We moved this past weekend...I am pretty sure I could fall asleep standing up at the moment. Moving is probably one of my most HATED things to have to do. Especially with a 3 year old! Thank God for wonderful daycare! (If anyone is looking for Daycare in this area, Janie has openings. CTR Daycare.) We have everything moved out of the old house. Half is in storage and half is in the new house. We are about 90% unpacked. I got home last night and William had reorganized the kitchen, which made me very very happy! All in all, moving could have been a whole lot worse.
I got my release from unpacking Sunday morning. At 7am I was headed to the barn. Yay for manure! I was really looking forward to seeing Tia and having Becca work with her again. It was cold, windy and again, COLD, but we pressed on. Everyone ate breakfast and out they went. I love seeing them all gallop to the bottom pasture, even if the poor little goaties can barely keep up. :) After cleaning stalls and throwing hay, I moved onto my next project. Setting up the riding ring...
I bought 12 8' landscape ties, to use for ground and jump poles, a large tarp with tent pins to keep it on the ground, 4 orange cones, and a bag of balloons and ribbon. 6 of the landscape ties are for the jumps. I told the girls they could paint them any color they like...we still need to get paint. Here are the jumps.
I placed the tarp in the middle of the ring at the flattest point and anchored at each corner and on the long sides with the tent pins. Then I took the other six landscape ties and made them into a trail obstacle since we already have 3 ground poles at the other end for walking over. The balloons I am saving for next time.
So we started at the lunge. Of course the tarp was going to eat her...
She did jog over it eventually and even cantered over it. At one point, she ripped a seam at one of the corners and I had to re-anchor the tarp. You should have seen the look on her face! Ha! Here she is facing her fear and walking with me over the tarp.
After we played on the tarp for a few minutes, we went over to the horrific orange cones. As she was lunging she flung one cone, with her back foot, about 10 feet away and then tried to kill another one by stomping on it. So we had a small session on "Cones are friends, not enemies" (If you have ever seen Finding Nemo, say that line as Dory!) and this was the outcome...
Yes, I am that weird person that sacks their horses out with ridiculous nonsense. I find it helps them accept new surroundings and scary things a bit easier.
I then handed her over to Becca...
Tia has a bad habit of not really picking up her feet, so she trips every so often. To help her figure out she needs to pick her feet up every so often, we had her walk over higher poles than just the ground poles. You would have thought her feet weighed 100 lbs each. It was quite entertaining!
Then we were on to riding. Becca hoped right on and off they went. This was Becca's first time riding Tia outside of the makeshift round pen we made before, so she was a little nervous. I can't say that I blame her. It was extremely cold, extremely windy, and she is riding a very green little mare in a huge open ring when she hasn't been ridden in over a month. They both did amazing. Her hip is looking wonderful. No more of the wincing sticking I was seeing before. She is still a bit stiff in her back end, but I think that is just the way she moves at this point. They walked and reversed and worked on picking up her feet over poles, doing the trail obstacle, doing the cones and then finally walking over the tarp with a rider.
I am so proud of both my girls. Tia doing very very well and has gained all of her weight back. I am estimating about a 300 lb weight gain at this point. I also think she might have grown a little bit on me, which I am totally fine with. The taller the better at this point.
I am still not at a weight where I feel comfortable riding her just yet, even though everyone keeps tell me to just get on her. And that may very well happen. It all depends on how I am feeling that day.
I ordered a magnet for my car and a stall sign for Tia as well from Custom Stall Signs. They turned out amazing!!!
I will leave you all with a picture I took of Tia on cross ties before her session on Sunday. Such a pretty little mare. An sometimes..just sometimes, she looks a bit like a horsey angel.
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