Monday, December 5, 2011

Three Days of No Pony!

I have work deadlines and laundry and parent obligations for the next three days so I won't be seeing the Princess until my lesson on Thursday.  I'm okay with that because we have had great rides every day since Thursday.  That's FOUR DAYS of decent-ness.  I rode again yesterday in a very busy arena and besides one spook, the pony was very good.

She does have two things going on right now.  Neither is related to my fear or bad riding though, how cool is that??!?!  Small victories are good!  So problem number 1 is that she seems to have a cough.  On Friday, she coughed a few times under saddle when I got her going.  She hadn't coughed on the lunge line so I thought maybe she just inhaled something funny.  I gave her a breather and she didn't cough after that.  Saturday she did the same thing.  Sunday, she actually was coughing before I put the bridle on.  It's a dry cough and she has no other symptoms, such as a runny nose or goopy eyes.  She coughed maybe five times in the cross ties.  Then after about fifteen minutes of riding she started coughing again.  So I cut my ride short just in case and have emailed L to see what she thinks.  There were some new horses that came in a few weeks ago that had snotty noses and coughs, but they are on the other side of the barn from us.  Of course, though I was careful not to pet them, you never know who else might have pet them and then pet my pony....

Problem number 2 is that with her gigantic fuzzball winter coat, my square pad seems to be rubbing her hair off.  L thinks it's because the pads are new and that they just need to be softened up with repeated washing.  They're not too long so I know it's not that, but I don't want her getting a bald spot this winter!  I might buy an extra pad after Christmas is over and see if switching pads helps.  The two pads I have are both inexpensive pads from VTO saddlery ($25 for super cute square pads!).  But maybe the edge is too stiff.  Any recommendations for super soft dressage pads would be appreciated!

Here's a picture of the pony with her stable blanket on.  This is a backup blanket if I decide to clip her.  So far she hasn't needed it so she's just a big hairball.  The giant man is my husband.  Pony is 15 hands but looks like she's 13.2 next to him!  Cuteness!

1 comment:

  1. : ) It's a Schneider's blanket, isn't it?! I LOVE their blankets. Sounds like you two are having an amazing time together and really progressing! Great job!

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