Ya know that feeling when you mean to post something on Tuesday and then forget, and next thing you know it’s Thursday? Whoops. Things have been poppin’ around here! Or maybe I’m just getting old and forgetful. Maybe both.
Rubes has been going to Groundwork Kindergarten every day and he’s just a little Rhodes Scholar (Rubes Scholar?). He’s figured out that when I come to get him it means mints (these remain his favorite treat, although I’ve gotten him to eat German Horse Muffins too. He’s not very enthusiastic about anything else.) and groomies, so he always makes an absolute bee line for me. I would be flattered but it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with my services rendered. He is DOWN for a nice long full-body curry, heavy on the belly scritches.
The groundwork is doing wonders for his focus though, and him having and knowing rules and boundaries seems to help his brain settle a bit too. He’s a lot more like Henry in the brain… he’s very eager and always thinking ahead, which is good, but he can also get anticipatory and is really sensitive about being wrong. So we keep things very methodical and consistent and black and white.
The groundwork has really helped him figure out how to take a deep breath, focus, and wait for me. He’s been working on staying out of my bubble, stopping when I stop, moving away from me if I move into him, yielding his front end and his hind end, backing, and the verbal cues for whoa, walk, and trot on a circle. This week I also starting teaching him to sidepass over/park up at the mounting block, which he’s starting to understand pretty well. Oh, and he’s learned to smile a little bit, although his is considerably smaller and much slower than Presto’s.
It’s really almost no “work” but it does seem to occupy his brain pretty well, and he’s gotten into the routine. I’m pleased that, if nothing else, he’s a horse that you can now lead around anywhere and never have to even touch the lead rope, vs when he came and was accustomed to kinda dragging people around by a nose chain. For this lifestyle it is a significant improvement in his general day to day handling.
He really does detest the bugs here though, like if there’s one fly on him he thinks he’s being viciously attacked, so he wears a lot of fly gear. Mask and boots at the very least, and fly sheet when it’s not too suffocatingly hot/humid. He got his own fly sheet (from Bow Horse USA, the first thing I’ve tried from them!) so he doesn’t have to keep borrowing Presto’s. He looks absurd when he’s all dressed up, but he’s happy to be bug-free, so… whatever RubenOnRye wants I guess.
In the meantime, I had another jump lesson last week on Presto, with more course work, and it was also good, like the week before. He had one feral moment when a dog came shooting across the ring (Ellie finally got to see what I call his patented Sit And Spin maneuver) but he was really rideable about the jumps. She and Alex are out of town for the next couple weeks so lessons are on hiatus until their return.
And then on Friday Presto came in with a chunk missing out of his fetlock and a puffy leg. I feel like I deserve an award for not freaking out as much as I wanted to freak out, because my first inclination was omg what if there’s a puncture I can’t see and it’s in the joint and he’s gonna end up in the hospital with a joint infection and cellulitis and and and. I’m fine. It’s fine. There was indeed not a puncture, and with some cold-hosing and bandaging and poultice and long walks it was back to normal within a couple days.
What isn’t normal is the fact that Presto is obsessed with licking the poultice off his own leg. He’s such a weirdo about injuries or topical medications… he always wants to lick, like a dog. That’s how he ripped his stiches out last summer if you recall – with his own teeth. Something wrong with that weirdo.
Yesterday we went for a fun casual XC day with my friend Emily, just popping over a few small things so we (mostly me, who always wants to go too slow/underpowered XC) can remember our job. We ended the day by coming the bigger way through the water and he was really super. I wish it was easier/quicker for me to get myself back into the more forward/attacking XC mode… I think I really need to come out once a week and just gallop a few fences so I don’t lose the feeling entirely.
I’m very clearly not going to be back in the swing of things well enough in time for the August Ocala recognized. I briefly debated just entering the Training, but if I’m gonna do that I might as well just do the unrecognized (which has starter through Training) a couple weeks later and spent 1/3 the money. So, meh. Instead I entered just a dressage test a couple weekends from now (the Prelim test, which I haven’t ridden yet!) at the Majestic schooling show, and then maybe I’ll enter a Modified CT or a M/T three phase at the POP schooling show. We’ll see how things are going a month from now. There’s legit no rush, but it’s prob time to start stepping it back up!
breedrideevent.com 
In Presto’s defense, many of those poultices have some sort of mint added, so they smell like treats. and maybe that’s why he wants to eat it. Or maybe he’s just weird.
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