Whiny Baby

The title of my post, "Whiny Baby", refers to me, not Walker today.  I am so exhausted from writing my papers, and I had such a chill in my bones today that it took every ounce of energy I had to go out to the barn, even though I got out of class early and I was in no rush.  I didn't even bother to take my camera so I also have no pictures.  :S

I thought that Walker might be a little hyper today even though he was outside since it has been so crisp lately, so I threw him on the lunge line for a few minutes.  This pretty much set the tone of our ride to follow.  He was pretty lethargic, and I had to really get after him to get him to move.  Since all I wanted to do was lay in the arena and nap, the lunging ended pretty quickly.

I rode English today mainly to try out my new Winter riding boots.  I tried them out the other day in my Western saddle, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to them.  They are pretty warm, and I definitely like them.  But as with all warm things, they're pretty thick and I find it hard to maneuver.  When I rode in the Western saddle, I could barely tell if I was kicking him at times between the thickness of the stirrups and the thickness of my boots - luckily, Walker seemed to know what I wanted from him regardless.  Today was a little better.  They're definitely an English style boot and they work better in an English saddle, I think.  They're still bulky, but at least I could tell if I was kicking my horse or not!

Our ride pretty much lasted a maximum of 20 minutes.  Have you ever had one of those days where you're just too tired to bother doing anything too strenuous and so you quickly run out of things to do?  Instead of wasting my limited energy trying to get after Walker to canter for a more extended period of time as I often do to work on his laziness/fitness, I decided that I would just canter him for a circle, stop, do a turn on the haunches, repeat.  I did this at all the three gates for a while, but the little bugger is smart, and he quickly figured out the pattern.  I did some leg yields but I got bored of that as well, and Walker was clearly in a similar mood.  When my trainer arrived to feed the horses, I figured that I might as well call it quits, and Walker didn't seem to mind!  He was turned out today anyway so he got plenty of exercise with his buddies in the field.  Even though I did absolutely nothing, I feel like I wrestled a wild boar - just one of those days, I guess.

I was proud of my big puppy dog because he followed me down the barn aisle without me bothering to take a hold of the reins even though there was a giant stack of hay bales and my trainer was rolling the grain cart down the aisle.  He just lumbered on by beside me.  He only got a little greedy when we got to his stall, and I had to make him wait for me to take off his bridle before he practically bashed his head trying to get his supper.  Silly pony.

In other news, I guess my trainer got herself into a sticky situation the other day.  She was trying to bring in one of the horses, a 5 year old mare, and the horse was misbehaving big time.  She was rearing and dragging my instructor all over the place and wouldn't settle down.  This is another horse at the barn that I do not entirely trust, and what makes it all worse is that my trainer is pregnant and she has high-risk pregnancies.  Because my trainer was trying to get a handle on the mare, she couldn't latch the gate and a whole bunch of the horses in Walker's field escaped.  Walker didn't go anywhere of course.  He is smart enough to know that the humans feed him.  Needless to say, the mare is currently not being turned out anymore until they can manage to figure out what to do with her.  My trainer isn't allowed to ride, and from what I gather from the situation, she really shouldn't be doing strenuous/horse-related activities of any kind.  There's no one else who does chores who could put the mare out or bring her in, and we only have one trainer at our barn.  There's a girl that currently rides the beast mare regularly so they're hoping that she will be able to manage her with a little guidance.  Another horse who needs to be put into line.  :S

I realize that from my last two posts it sounds like my barn is a madhouse, but I swear that most of the horses are angels!  There are only three horses I do not trust - well, two horses and a pony.  The two horses are Lark and this mare, and the pony is this evil little jeezer that I hate with a passion and seem to be the only one who does.  He's a bigger pony, and he needs an attitude adjustment as well.  I'm not afraid of him; I just don't like him at all.  Something tells me that when the clinician comes next month, this mare is going to end up getting put in her place real fast.  The clinician often works with my trainer and barn owner with breeding and training some of our horses.  I know that my trainer looks up to him as kind of a mentor, so I imagine that the mare will be put through her paces soon enough!  As will Walker and I, I'm sure... but hopefully in a different way