All Ready!

Well, everything is ready to head out tomorrow.

Trailer loaded with a nice fresh hay bag. My bag's packed. Food's in the fridge waiting to go in the cooler. Pandora got a bath tonight, though bathing a bay horse is so easy it hardly counts - just spray her down with the attach-to-the-hose-shampooer thing, then rinse. I scrubbed her socks with whitening shampoo, but compared to bathing McKinna, it was a snap.

Farrier job on Tuesday - sore on gravel yesterday - much better today, thankfully. I had a really nice ride in the arena. I actually felt like I was getting somewhere with lateral work. I warmed up without my whip, so it was slower-paced than usual, but calmer. Grabbed the whip to do a few turns on the forehand in each direction, then I asked for a TOF in motion - slow down, walk the hind legs around the forelegs while still taking small steps, then walk away forward. Hard for her, but by the end of the ride she was doing it without ducking through the outside rein. Progress.

Got some nice canter, too. I had to chase her a little because I think she got tired and wanted to quit, so then I had to work to get her to relax and slow down a little without breaking to the trot.

We are slowly working on stretchy circles. Nothing fancy - just more the concept of, "You can stretch down without speeding up or completely bending to the outside."

Cooled down out in the field. I did a lot of walking out there yesterday since she was striding short at the trot but fine at the walk. It was really beautiful out there tonight, late evening sunset. Very nice and warm.

Pandora's got something weird going on with her coat, especially on her back and haunches on the left side. Like her summer coat is shedding out, but you can see her black skin through the thin fur instead of seeing her winter coat growing in. A few tiny lumps here and there, fly bites I'm guessing - they could either be causing it or maybe they're just now visible because of the thinned fur. Maybe she's having an allergic reaction to something, but we haven't changed anything in recent history. I'll keep an eye on it for awhile and hopefully nothing's changing, she's just shedding out weird and the winter fur will grow in fine.

She had a bot fly following her today, stupid thing. I found a couple little eggs on her knees and got rid of them.

Alright, time for bed. Don't ride till Saturday, so we're in no rush and I don't even have to leave the house until 9:30 or so.

I can't even tell you how excited I am for this clinic. A little apprehensive, because I just don't school hard for 2 hours at a time ever, but I think we can handle it. I'm hoping to take a lot away from the weekend, and of course I will come back with a full report. No promises on pictures, because neither of my official photographers will be there.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend.