I am still here!

 

Sorry that I have been a little absent lately. There is nothing wrong, in fact, quite the opposite. The weather has finally started to turn a little nicer and to be honest, I have not wanted to be at my computer any longer than I needed to be. I also have been very busy with my belt sales. For real, I am SO excited about the response that I have gotten. If you haven’t already go check out RMBelts on Facebook. I just put in a big order of some spring and summer colors that I can’t wait to get!

My weight has been a bit of a plateau but I also have cheated a few times. Hey, I was perfect for like 4 month. As of this morning, I am down 45.2lbs so I am not complaining. I also got my saddle pad! I thought I got a picture of it on Winifred but either I am wrong or I somehow deleted. I guess that will have to be in a different post which is fine because I have enough for this post!

The boys are mostly good. Luther is giving me some anxiety again. I am worried that he may have Cushings. He is shedding but I am starting to wonder if his immune system is lowered. He had that terrible infection from his puncture wound this winter. I didn’t think anything of that but he currently has a HORRIBLE case of fungus on his back legs. Like seriously HORRIBLE!! He has no hair on his lower legs and it is all crusted and swollen. I was out at the barn last week Thursday and gave him a full groom like norm and he was fine. Due to my work schedule and some family obligations, I was not able to get out on Friday or Saturday. I could see it as soon as I walked up to his stall on Sunday. He already was swollen and lost all his hair. How does it get THAT bad in two days?!?!?! This quick progression is why I am thinking his immune system might be compromised. I am doing my best to keep his legs clean, dry, and coated with Banix. They have gotten better but we still have an uphill climb. He is still my Mr. Stoic so he is acting like nothing is wrong at all.

Just gives me coooooookies please!

Winifred has been good but we still have had a few refusals which have been driving me crazy!! TS tells me that I am still tipping but I swear I do not feel like I am! I was very lucky though because I got to have a great talk with TS over dinner recently. It is hard sometimes to get into the nitpick details during a lesson because I do not want to take up someone else’s time so getting to talk to her at dinner was great. I told her that in the past I fully admit that I got sucked into Winifred’s running at the fence and thought that he was going jump. I went up and then he did not. The last few refusals, including the one at the show, I was holding him back from running but then about two strides out I would soften my hands so that we could move forward. I was not thinking that we were actually jumping so I was not going into position and doing a typical tip. TS explained that while that is what most horses need and would jump fine with, Winifred needs some form of constant support. By me softening my hands, I do in fact lower my shoulders a little with that and no contact on his mouth he felt completely unsupported and for him that means he slams the breaks. She went on saying that I need some sort of contact with him and really that should be my leg. Even when he is being a freight train I need to do what I have been with softening but as soon as I soften I need to really add a lot of leg. That idea seemed a little weird to me since he likes to go fast but I gave it a try last week. Guys it was………… AWESOME!!! Winifred was jumping so confidently! He didn’t get all crazy hyped up like I thought a lot of leg would do. I mean life changing!

I had a lesson this morning and it was a good test to my new light bulb moment. He actually came out pretty lazy. One of the riders boyfriend came out and was in the corner sitting on the straw bales. Winifred was fine with him to the right but once we went to the left it was like that guy became the Boogieman!

Why is he so crazy? Oh well, this made our jumping a bit jazzy. The first jump took him a little by surprise but then he was on. Our first line was decent but then we really argued over the into the diagonal line but because I sat back and legged. Surprisingly, I kept my cool and we made it out great. The next line got a little tight and we knocked the rail on the out but hey, we didn’t drop a stride or refuse so hell yeah I will take that! You would think that after that our next jump might not be great but he was SO responsive and our last jump was probably our best.

Then again maybe his current confident jumping also has a bit to do with the recent massage I got him. He was really not sure about it at first but then he realized that…..wait…..this kind of feels good! Even though we are not showing a lot this year, I will be doing a massage a month for him.

Um excuse me miss, what are you doing back there??