Pinkalicious

Not much exciting happening these days.  I'm only riding about two days a week and I'm just focusing on keeping my rides forward and short.  It seems to be working because forward is happening faster and faster.  As we settle into a forward going way, then we will start working on keeping ourselves even and keeping our rhythm as we go forward.

I had someone show me how to do polo wraps on Friday.  Tessa was great about her front feet but kept waving her back foot around.  Then it was my turn to do the other side.  She stood like a rock and didn't even try to lift her foot at all.  What a good girl!  When she took a step forward, she kept kicking her back legs behind her to get the wraps off.  I walked her around and lunged her for a few minutes and she quit doing it, so I got on and had a good ride.

A friend of mine just sold her mare and acquired a gelding and was getting rid of a bunch of pink stuff.  Score!  So we now have a new sparkly browband (I'll work on getting better pics of it soon), hot pink dressage boots and hot pink jumping boots.  So pink!

I put the dressage boots on her on Sunday.  I got three feet done and on the last one, she lifted her leg to kick.  I should have held on to her leg and asked her to hold still, but I panicked and let go.  So the boot was only half on.  Tessa tried to kick it off and since it wasn't secure, it spun around.  That freaked her out more and she began frantically kicking.  Then she spun around in the crossties (small horses in large horse crossties aren't always the best combination).  I got one side undone, so she spun completely around.  I got her calmed down and someone came over and helped hold her and get the boot completely secured.  She did her usual kick, kick, kick at the boots but was fine once I got on to ride and didn't try to kick when I took them off.  Silly girl!

I will be riding in boots now for every ride until we get the hang of it.  Tessa doesn't really 'need' boots, but I feel it's part of her education to be able to wear them.  I can't have a horse that is kicking out at things around her back legs, even if it's not intentional kicking AT someone, it's still dangerous.

The weather here has been sunny and hot and I'm sad to say I have not had time to bathe my horse!  She really needs it and her tail (as usual this time of year) is a hot mess.  She also still needs more time in the scary wash rack, so I really need to bump that up on my pony to do list.

I hope you are all having a great summer!