Vet Trip, Ride 3, New Horse, and a Longe Lesson

Shamrock had a super busy week.  Friday I trailered him in to the vet, where he had his teeth done, a coggins pulled, and got his vaccinations.  His teeth were pretty bad, two big hooks and two ramps.  

I gave him a day off and went on a short bareback ride Sunday, looking for the halter he managed to lose his first day home.  He was a perfect gentleman and even allowed me to keep light contact with his mouth throughout the ride!

Then today I had a longe lesson.  It was my first longe lesson and I really enjoyed it!  We started out with lots of stretching and warmup exercises for me. 

Twist from side to side

Windmill each arm individually

Arms out, palms up, flip hands over until palms are up again and arms twisted
Turn with hands on horse's back, elbow straight, let shoulder move freely to follow horse's movement 

Toe circles 

Lift leg off horse, rotate back, put back on horse

 

Do each 8 times for maximum effect...any more than 8 times won't make you stretchier so it's pointless to go past 8 reps.  

After the warmup we did a lot of trotting, 7 strides posting, 7 strides 2-point, 7 strides sitting, and then repeat. 

And finally, this morning I went to look at a pony with my cousin, we liked him a lot and we're going to go pick him up tomorrow...hopefully he'll be Shamrock's buddy since Clifford still has the donkeys.  I'm also going to work with Cowboy to get him better trained, so I'm excited about that!

Lesson over...

What a day yesterday. Got to the barn on time, barely, and gave Sophie her first watermelon treat out of the batch I bought at Equine Affaire. She seemed to like it ok, though made the usual horse funny faces. Then I got started with brushing her...she was a furry mess. A shedding machine and definitely put her new pink brushes through their paces. After Amanda arrived I gave her another watermelon treat and she bit it in half and spit out the other half! Aack. She's supposed to *love* them. I looked ALL OVER for them! So I picked it up in all of its grossness and gave it to her again. She let it dribble out of her mouth in crumbs, so I left it.

So then we went on to do our lesson and it wasn't good. She had her teeth done on Wednesday so we're thinking that her mouth was sore from having her teeth done (they were in BAD shape). We got nice stretchy circles to the left, but not at all to the right. However, she was a lot stronger in maintaining her bend and staying soft and round and keeping the contact with the bit/hand.

I'll have one more lesson next Friday, weather permitting, and then we'll bring Sophie home a few days after that. I decided to hold off on trying my saddle/bridle on her for next time. I compared the bridle sizes and mine seems to be just a touch smaller than hers, so we'll see.

She looks great in her purple breakaway halter, and I did get some on the ground pictures of her that I'll post after I get the camera out of the car.

I did get some good news on both sides of the breed registry front. First, the AHA send me my membership card/pin number, so I could enroll Sophie and I in the frequent rider program. That's where I log all of our riding time and they send little gifties as you reach certain milestones. And on the ATA side, they found her papers and are getting them processed the rest of the way ASAP. Phew. I was really worried about what I'd do if they didn't find them.

I can't wait to have Sophie here. Especially once I get her shedded out the rest of the way. Then I'll be able to give her a bath and do a photo shoot with the awesome purple Arabian halter that Amanda got me as a horse warming present. It is soooo pretty, and is going to look great on Sophie's petite, Arab head.

Papers problem...

I emailed ATA over the weekend to get an online account for the members only section...only to find out that they haven't received her papers yet. I checked the tracking and they were delivered on the 7th, so I need to call tomorrow and see if someone at the Post Office can tell me who signed for them. But on the upside, I called the AHA and they did receive her papers and printed the new set on the 10th of April. So they should be on their way at least.

Also, I bought lots of Trakehner stuff at Equine Affaire and picked up a show bill for an Arabian dressage show at some point during the summer. It'd be pretty nice to be ready to show there, but we'll see.

Sophie gets her teeth and coggins taken care of on Wednesday and my next lesson is going to be Friday. The weather is calling for 73 degrees and partly couldy, very nice weather for my next lesson. Unfortunately, it's going to rain the rest of the weekend, but that's ok, she'll probably appreciate the break. Plus I know Linda doesn't ride seven days a week anyway. I can't wait to see how well she's doing after nearly 3 weeks of training.