Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Burrrrrrrr! Pulled out my neck warmer, threw on my new Kerrits winter breeches, grabbed the dogs and headed out. By the time I get to the barn the sun has set. The skies were beautiful driving out. Wyatt let me put his blanket on but Pix she didn't want to come near. Once I got the blanket on she didn't want to move. I gave her a jump start and gathered my tack. I noticed a dead mouse and decided to sweep. Sweeping around JRT's is not fun. I can get them to leave others alone but apparently with me it is a game.

Ran into the saddle fitter and asked if she had any used jumping saddles - negative. Darn! She is going to be a snowbird now and won't be back until before Christmas. If I am lucky my saddle will sell quickly and I can use that money towards a new one. I am going to borrow a couple and pick up a couple from a tack store in Delano and have her evaluate it. I might try a few before hand to narrow it down. I am not a common size. Most people are 17 to 18 inch seat. I do have long legs for as height challenged as I am but still take a 16.5.

Since the horses have been dry lotted I haven't been getting Josie to come to me. This time I was smart and had a flashlight. Footing is horrible, the horse tracks have frozen and make for unstable footing. Took a bit but I got Josie to get her nose out of the feeder to put her halter on. She doesn't roll so much as she gets dirty when she sleeps on the ground. She had a good sized nick on her left hip. She must have tried to get to some real tasty hay and one of the other horses didn't like that.

She wasn't too happy with being brushed but sorry it has to be done. Wy and Pix hung out with their barn friends. At one point I was unloading the truck and I hear Pix whining. My first thought was something was going after her and I am ready to come to her rescue, turns out it is L. My dogs are crazy for her. Sigh of relief.

Josie needed a bit of a tune up to get her to not be too annoying - moving in the cross ties and trying to do a wall press on me. I just need to remind her of who is the boss mare around here.

Josie just does not have brakes when we start off. Getting my left foot into the stirrup doesn't happen until half way down the long side. I do make her stand at the mounting block but any movement is interpreted as move forward. I will have to try keeping her standing there longer. I am finding that while my new full seat breeches are warm, they are very sticky. This is good and bad. I would move my leg to make Josie move over and it would stick there. I think they will be fine once they are broken in but until then they are buggers! Josie settled in very nicely after a couple of walk laps around the arena. I was able to get both leads. I am happy to say I can ride her in traffic. I am most pleased with our progress. The more I don't think about things the better we do. I am working on tuning everything out but still being alert to potential headons. There are just some people that are better to ride with than others. I have my schedule and have learned to deal with "those people".

Josie is getting fluffier and fluffier. She was a little damp on her chest but dried out quickly. I am getting good at not over doing on Tuesdays and Thursdays so it doesn't take forever for her to dry. Knock on wood but she didn't get a cold this fall. Last year between trailering and getting strangles and the stress she did. It is good she is naturally healthy. I might want them to up her grain as she has lost a bit of weight already. Will talk to J about that.