January Week 1

Tuesday 12/29
5 minute hack outside - cold, dark, rainy. Good uphill but a little sticky downhill. Small spook-scoot when the neighbors fired up the four-wheeler, but fairly controlled and straightforward.
60 minute flatwork session. Lots of trot. Needed a reminder about moving away from leg pressure - leg yields were getting pretty dull. Tried to allow stretching down on big looping figure-8s to get the correct bend; will continue to play with that as it seemed constructive.
Some decent canters. From sitting trot, she actually picks up the correct lead on a straight line very well, and if I insist, she's prompt in her transitions (read: need to insist). Our very very shallow canter 'serpentines' are getting a bit smoother.

Wednesday 12/30
Not the best ride but I suspect it was the saddle - rode in the old jumping saddle. Pandora was unfocused, a bit lazy, and generally not herself. 30 minutes. Not terrible, just not the same horse I have every day.

Thursday 12/31
Really good ride (back in the usual saddle). Long walk warmups are working nicely, especially when working on stretching down while bending. Starts off pretty short-strided but tends to warm up nicely - arena footing may play into this as it's been a bit hard lately, barn owner's tractor out of commission at the moment. Canter still improving, working on spending more time in the canter each ride. Shallow serpentines coming along. Left-lead canter vastly better than right-lead, not entirely sure why - seems to be a function of balance. To the left much smoother, not leaning on hands, don't need to bring her up with the outside rein as much. 50 minutes.

Friday 1/1/10
Rest day.

Saturday 1/2
Free-longed 30 minutes, set a ground pole out on the rail on each side to keep her focused. Pandora worked really nicely. Very relaxed, stretching, smooth gaits, aware and careful of the poles. A very nice focused session. Canter actually looking pretty good. McKinna was in the arena too and the canter work was a bit difficult to coordinate with both of them, so in future will only do free canter work individually.
Washed tail as well as udder area and finished pulling mane.
Started on new joint supplement - liquid Hyaluronic Acid, FlexForce brand. Smells like cherries, not entirely unpleasant. Administered in syringe as this is supposed to have better absorption, but don't know if I want to deal with that every day so may just end up top-dressing feed.

Sunday 1/3
Supposed to be a clinic day, but not so much. Did not unload properly, my fault - opened door before untying. Pandora tried to back out, hit the tie, freaked out, broke halter. Did not flip on the way out and did not bang her legs up but cut her poll. Shallow cut, but she was too sore to let me bridle her so I didn't ride.
Trailered her in the divider on the way home and was a lot more careful. She loaded up nervously but well, and unloading went off well too. Haltering is sketchy but doable, she's pretty head-shy. Administered 2.5g powdered bute, mixed with applesauce in syringe. She seemed bright-eyed and cheerful, ate and drank well, just didn't want me to touch her head.
I designed an extender we'll fabricate for the dividers so she will actually fit.