Life..

Such a sad sorry state of neglect I have left my blog in... terrible! I shall try to rectify that post-haste!

Summer has finally come to the great northland that is my home. Sunshine and warm temperatures make S a happy camper. Mo too. I think. Maybe not. The flies bug her a lot. Mo has moved into a quaint paddock created from step in posts in my back yard so that I can have her close, as her being forty five minutes away was causing me to struggle with sanity. Its not fun partaking in your primary addiction in life only once in two entire weeks!

Needless to say, that situation has been remedied nicely and now I can see Mo any time I want, simply by looking out a window. Her Royal Higness, Miss Indy is still enjoying the pleasure of Rocky's company out at Dad's. Mostly because I dont think she would respect a little fence that would hardly come past her tall knees. Although, my dearling left brain ami finally [after three weeks] figured out the wire wasnt hot and decided walking through it was the best answer she could come up with to get the grass on the other side. Oh, and also, that the gravel on the road is the most curiously entertaining thing in the world, that she just MUST explore! *sigh* After three near heart attacks and a newly charged fence, m'dear Mo has stayed safely behind bars... er... fence. Thank goodness!

Since being at Dad's, Indy seems to have started a war with the trees. To tell the truth, I am really not sure why, they seem to be aimiable towards her, providing shade and relief from the bugs, but nonetheless, she seemed to feel the need to provoke their ire. Twice. I went to visit my spotty ami one day a few weeks ago, only to find her entire upper leg and knee swollen pretty extremely. Part and parcel with a twig sticking out of a tidy puncture wound. I tried to pull it out, but most was broken off, so I did what I could with the limited [aka none] supplies I had and headed home to re-stock. When I came the next day, it had mostly scabbed over but was still swollen. The teeny tiny wound looked to be nothing, but I still re-opened it to pull out the rest of the debris and disinfect it. Indy was a total pro for this, I must admit, I was VERY pleased and proud of her. She stood stock still, inspected my work and approved. She was a rock star.

To battle the swelling I cold hosed the leg for about 15 twice a day when I could, once when that was all I could manage for three or four days. I called the vet office to find out if there was anything I could or should be doing and they said I already was [which was a relief] other than getting her a tetanus shot. So off to the clinic I galavanted to fetch my pony a needle. Thank goodness for great ponies, because I just walked up to her at liberty in the pasture, poked her, rubbed her, gave her a cookie, and voila, sans drama, my pony was safe from the threat of tetanus for another year. Did I mention she was a rock star?

Slowly the swelling was going down, and I was getting quite pleased with my veterinary efforts until the fourth day. On the fourth day everything back slid. Silly pony. I walk over to check her out and all the swelling had moved down the leg to her knee and cannon bone.... huh? Running my hand down her leg, I found out why. My dearling had once again fought with the foliage, and this time had a thorn in her knee. Really now, can we yeild on the tree-wars please? Luckily this thorn plucked out easily, unlike the twig, but once again, I was back at square one dealing with swelling. Back on the bute my lovely went [she is pro at taking that to, even dad can do it! ] and mucho more cold hosing. Silly pony. At least she seemed to enjoy the hosing. There was a time, when I first got her, that the hose was the debil in disguise. She cut herself on the trailer ride home [OH so RBE that day] and I tried to hose it off... didnt work. At least now she stood rock solid, even trying to play with the hose and drink the water, and even give me a shower!

Finally [so far] a truce has been reached with our so-called enemies the trees. Its been two weeks, and there have been no further attacks. Hopefully, the truce holds, and further injury can be avoided. There is another Hunter Pace on the 10th of July that I would like to take Indy to, and as such, I'd very much like her to stay sans swollen limbs. At least she never got sore or lame.

Back to Mo. Mo has been a super pro here at home. We have been playing a lot, lots of online on the 45', getting our maintain gait at a canter better and better, playing with finding clean flying lead changes, and giving a focus on jumping lately, seeking the obstacle and jumping in a confident and rideable fashion. We had a great little liberty session a week ago too, complete with many canter laps and a few flying changes of direction! I was really proud! We have been playing with lots of finessey things while riding, getting back to stretching and using both of our bodies. Its so easy for me to get stuck in freestyle because its my favorite savvy. Bareback and bridless has always been my dream and what makes things fun and challenging for me. Finesse is fun to, and challenging in a different way, I just need to find the right motivation for it - other than just getting my L4 Audition taped. I dont have the excuse with freestyle anymore... since its already passed.

Either way, I have been playing much more with contact now, at all gaits, and Mo is getting better and better every day. Our latest focus has been jumping a course at a balanced rhythmical canter. Its going great. Maybe I will take her to the hunter pace... We have been playing a lot with patterns. I mowed a whole bunch into the grass where I ride so I have a follow the rail, a clover leaf, a circle [10m and 20m] a figure eight and a question box. I should make a weave... that would be nifty. Maybe next time. We are playing with breaking down the flying change, really building the pattern into the question box to change leads with a drop-to-trot change through the centre, and yesterday she offered me the first clean flying change in a while, which was fabulous.  Patterns patterns patterns!!! They work!

A few weeks ago now, me and Mo participated in the first Games and Demo day here. We had a big demo with seven local instructors and horses, and some tournament style games for students as well. It was a fabulous day, and a great way to see a lot of friends I hadnt seen in a while. Overall a great success and a pretty fabulous sum raised for the Parelli Horsemanship Foundation!  Mo was very tolerant during the demo. I hadnt been able to do much of anything with her for the two weeks previous, having just got back from Florida, and she still loaded up like a pro, got to the new place and helped me put on a great show for Parelli students of the area. What a great partner she is!

In other news, I will be moving to my new farm/house/home in just about a month now. I cant wait. I am terrified. I am excited beyond all reasoning. Seventy whole acres to turn into Parelli Paradise all to myself [well, I have to share with D, but same difference] I can finally have Indy and Mo at the same place again, I can leave stuff out to play with anywhere I want, I can make silly paddocks and mow patterns anywhere I want. I can have Play Days! Its going to be a great home and I really cant wait to live in it.

I think that about catches up things since my last less than timely post. I shall endeavor to post more often. Parelli Connect is sort of stealing blog-thunder at the moment, as I am keeping up with that instead of blogging here. Ill work on it. Try and be more exciting and all, so I have things to post.

:-)
S