A Day Without Stirrups

I was inspired by L. Williams at Viva Carlos to try a day without stirrups.  Umm.  I have massive appreciation for this activity now!  I am exhausted!  And to be perfectly fair, I was not even capable of posting without stirrups so all I did was sitting trot and cantering (with lots of walk breaks in between!).  I think that it will definitely be a good exercise to incorporate into my weekly routine so I think that Thursdays are going to become my one ride a week without stirrups since it's always a shorter ride anyway, and then I will just do a bit of stirrupless work on the other days (depending on how much pain I am in every day afterwards).

Hello, Handsome

Because my ride was more me-focused instead of Walker-focused, I decided to do a little bit of groundwork/free lunging/join-up with the little bugger after I was done riding.  I did a little impromptu showmanship work with him while he was still tacked, but he was getting pretty lazy.  I decided to untack him and free lunge him (without his halter or anything - good thing I trust him!).  We have a bunch of hay in our arena down at one end, so the exercise quickly became an exercise in moving his feet, making him change directions, and most importantly, trying to keep him away from the hay pile.  I would try to keep him down at the other end of the arena, and when he was cantering along the rail, I would get him to change directions a billion times so that he could never make it back to the hay.  This perturbed him to no end, and so he would try to dodge me and the lunge whip at a rocket ship speed, galloping like a wild thing down the rail to get past me before I could get in front of him with the whip.  I wish I had caught all this on camera because it was pretty hilarious, but after about 5 - 10 minutes, he puffed a big breath of air and then trotted over to me defeated.  After that, he was more than willing to let me be the leader, and I walked him around the arena without a lead line for a few minutes before I took him down to his stall for supper.  Once again, thank god I trust him, because I didn't put his bridle back on.  I just walked him down the hall halter-less and bridle-less to his stall.  Like any horse, he's more than willing to let you be his leader if you earn it, but he'd much rather be the boss than you!

My barn owner stopped by while I was getting Walker's supper, and she complimented me again on the progress Walker has made, especially with regards to his physique.  As I've said before, I often think that she doesn't have that much faith in me (for whatever reason), so I appreciate every little compliment I get from her!

Unfortunately, with all this warm weather we've been getting - well, relatively warm weather anyway - the horses haven't been getting outside.  Warm weather in the winter is not a good thing.  It melts the snow, and when the temperature inevitably drops again, it freezes into ice.  There is a nice sheet of ice lying in wait underneath the snow everywhere around the barn, and apparently one of the other barns in our area had to put a horse down this week who had slipped on the ice.  :S  Needless to say, I'd rather Walker be safe and cooped up than dangerous and free.

Argh

Sorry for the nasty picture but I felt the
need to share my pain

I had a bad ride today.  I shouldn't complain because Walker wasn't bad or anything, but I just felt like I had a bad ride.  I have resigned myself to hating the d-ring snaffle bit.  As you can see from the picture, I rubbed my finger raw trying to get Walker into a frame.  My reins are also rubber so that didn't help. :( I talked to my trainer about it briefly, and she says that when she uses a bit like that on her horse trained like Walker, it is absolutely useless.  And she doesn't think that a French link will be any better, although she did tell me that it never hurts to try.  So I'm pretty sure I'm going to use two bridles now - one for jumping and one for the flat.  This way, I can get over the fact that it is a gong show in that bit because we'll be jumping so I won't care as much about putting him in a frame, and we will use the other bridle and bit for our flat work.  I'm considering buying a new bit anyway.  I'm thinking something like a slow twist with d-rings.  I have a full cheek slow twist that I haven't tried yet, but I don't know what I think about full cheek anything.  I would just like to try something different in the flat bridle to see if I can improve on what we have going on, but if not, I'll probably just go back to the bit I was using before.

I was also frustrated with our ride because of how out of shape I'm in.  It's bad enough when I'm using that disaster bit and practically wrenching Walker's mouth around because he won't listen to me (and feeling like a bad rider/horsemom for doing so), but he also wears me out.  When I rode my friend A's horse, I had so much fun because when I asked her to canter, I only had to ask once and she was like a rocket ship.  I cantered for circles and circles and circles, and I couldn't understand how my friend could possibly get winded on a horse like that.  This is because I have Walker who is SO LAZY.  It's bad enough that I'm out of shape in general, but Walker also requires so much more leg and constant leg and added reinforcements all around.  He is not a forward horse to say the least, and in fact, when he is teetering on the crazy side, I usually have a more enjoyable ride because I don't have to work as hard!  Today I did an exercise where I cantered for 5 circles, trotted for 5 circles, changed directions to repeat, and then went down to 4 and then 3 and so on.  Let's just say that I never made it to 1, and considering the tiny size of our circles, I am quite ashamed.

Since I got Walker 9 months ago, I have packed on the muscle and got into shape like nobody's business, but there's still a long way to go.  I've been trying to figure out a way that I can get in shape outside of the barn but I'm at a loss.  I'm really not a gym kind of person.  I think I've only ever been to a gym maybe 6 times in my entire life even though I've had free gym memberships at every university I've attended!  If I didn't think that I would slip on the ice and break my leg, I would try jogging outside, but instead I'm cooped up in my apartment and the neighbours below me don't seem to like me running in circles through my kitchen and living room.  I would like to try lifting weights as well, but I have no money to actually buy them.  Even if I could convince myself to go to the gym, I don't actually have time because the time I do have, I spend going to the barn. :S  It's quite ironic really.  Only in this sport do the "athletes" feel the need to get fit before they get fit!  What do you guys do to keep in shape for your horses?

So with the bit being a disaster, me wrenching around and flailing in the saddle to try and make it work, rubbing my finger down to the bone, and generally feeling exhausted like a 90 year old on a horse, it wasn't the best day I've had at the barn.

I also tried to get some conformation shots of Walker to check his weight loss/condition but he did not want to participate.  Because I was already angry about our ride, we had a little lesson in ground tying where he seriously regretted not listening to me when I asked him to, especially since I took him away from his supper to do it.  Luckily, he's a smart little bugger, and after about 5 minutes, I was able to put him in the arena untied and leave the arena without him moving.  He appreciated his hay, grain, alfafa and apples all the more after that!  Yes, I may have overdone it on the treats at feeding time!

Starting to walk away from me - not cool

Message received

"I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  I'm sorry.  Now can I have supper?"

Unfortunately, now that I'm looking at the pictures, it's hard to tell that he has lost weight.  Oh well.  It's so hard to get an accurate representation of their build and all in the Winter when they have a Winter coat.  It's more perceptible in person, or at least it is for me.

You can tell that he still has a belly, but not nearly as much so as before

Comparison from August - I realize it's harder to tell the difference
since he's shiny here, doesn't have a winter's coat, and there's better light

Disaster Bit, Round Two

Today I went out to the barn to deworm Walker and get a ride in before visiting M and Lark at their new barn.  I've never actually dewormed Walker before because my barn owner usually does it for us all, but I wanted to do it myself in case my new barn doesn't offer that service.  Walker is losing weight, and according to my barn owner, it's because he's replacing fat with muscle.  When I weighed him a couple months ago, he was closer to 1000 lbs, but today he was 960 lbs.  I'm always so conflicted about his weight.  I like him plump and fat.  It's definitely a quarter horse thing, but of course I want him healthy, muscley and toned.  My biggest concern is always that he's not getting enough to eat, which is probably me just being delusional since it's true that he's probably losing weight from all the work he does, not from being underfed. Just another over-worried horse mom!

Anyway, I rode Walker in the d-ring snaffle bit again today and although he was less forward, I still couldn't get him in a good frame.  My barn owner said that she wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't able to get his head into position in that bit just because of his training and blah blah blah.  She is the exact opposite from my instructor.  My instructor is a big fan of  gentler bits, and my barn owner is a big fan of harsher bits.  It's merely a discipline preference since my instructor has a jumping and dressage background, and my barn owner has a quarter horse/Western background where you pretty much don't ride a horse unless it's in some ungodly long shank bit.  My friend, A, has a French link bit that she doesn't want though, so I think I'm going to buy that off her and see if I can make that work better.  I realize that you're supposed to use seat as well as hands to get a good frame, but it's just very difficult to take a horse used to something so harsh and expect similar results from something so gentle.  I'm pretty sure that every time I put the d-ring on, Walker thinks he's on vacation and can do whatever he wants.  I just feel like I have no control!  And also, I think I do more damage in the d-ring just because he forces me to be so much more aggressive with my hands in order to drive him into a frame.  I just have to find that happy medium!

Other than that, I went and checked out M`s new stable.  I think I mentioned in my last post that I had the opportunity to read the nasty emails exchanged between M and my barn owner, and after that day, I was pretty much convinced to move to this barn.  However, I had a good ride with my instructor on Wednesday which calmed me down, and now that horses are getting turned again so my concerns are quickly dissipating.  This barn that M is at is pretty nice.  The indoor is much larger than ours, which isn`t hard to do, and the horses get LOTS to eat.  They`re fed three times a day, and they get lots of turnout.  However, the paddocks aren`t very big, although I think that there are bigger ones around front that are simply impassible right now because of the snow.  The barn is also not heated.  I shouldn`t be such a big baby about that since I never had a heated barn before, but you really get used to it once you have it!  It seems like a great place for M and Lark, and M has already found a pretty eager and experienced kid to ride Lark on the days that she isn`t able to get out to the barn.  They also have a plan to teach Lark some manners, and the barn is mostly dressage and jumping as opposed to our barn which is so rooted in the quarter horse world it`s unbelievable.  Lark, who is a Canadian warmblood and has a background in dressage, is probably much better suited there.  I probably would`ve been out of my league!

Anyway, Walker is getting Sunday off uninentionally.  Apparently there are makeup lessons all afternoon in the indoor arena, and I don`t have time to go out any other time tomorrow.  Unfortunately he is getting Sunday and Monday off even though he already had two days off in a row this week AND I missed Friday. He seemed more than content chilling out in the paddocks with his friends though so I`m not going to worry too much about it!

Second First Jump Lesson

I'm a little slow at writing this post but it just seems like the last couple of days ran away with me.

On Wednesday, I had my second first jump lesson.  Although Sunday was my first jump lesson ever, I consider Wednesday night my first real jump lesson, especially since on Sunday I had simply dropped in on a jump lesson designed for people who already jump.  When I led Walker down the hall in my English gear, my instructor (who has a h/j and dressage background) pretty much lit up, and when I told her that I wanted to jump, she was pretty excited.  Our lesson even ended up running late because she had so many plans for me!  I even convinced H to jump in the lesson, although she was nervous.  I don't know why she was nervous though because she has jumped before.  Apparently it was a few years ago on a horse who was an old jumping pro, as opposed to the horse she rides now (Ash) who has a Western background like Walker.  Ash was actually pretty good at it.  Despite his training, he's pretty forward and has a lot of suspension.  In fact,  he's so bouncy that my trainer rarely lets the younger kids ride him because she's afraid that they're simply going to fly off when he starts trotting.  Anyway, my instructor asked us to trot into the crossrail, but Ash was so excited that he cantered in each time.  Once H got going, she felt much better.

As for Walker, he did pretty good too.  Although at one point, my instructor said, "If he goes any slower, he's going to take the whole jump down with him!"  Yeah, I know.  I'm working on it.  The crossrail she set up was in fact much smaller than the crossrails we did on Sunday and which I play around with on my own.  It felt much better though because my instructor actually took the time to make sure I was going into the jump in the correct position, as opposed to Sunday when my trainer pretty much just pointed me to three jumps and said "try it".  I'd say my two biggest issues were trying to keep my shoulders back (same story, different day) and not leaning forward too far.  According to my instructor, that is a tall person problem (she is like 5 feet tall and I am not!).  I'm pretty excited that I'm finally getting some instruction in jumping and that I've convinced H and potentially the other girl in my lesson to start jumping too.  My instructor is also clearly excited that we are doing something she's actually interested in, and she seems to have big plans for me.  She kept talking about the summer and doing a crossrail class in the shows.  Obviously she forgot that I'm switching barns when I move. :S  I'm hoping that I will be able to trailer back for some of the shows though because I'd really like to try some crossrail classes, especially if my instructor thinks she can get us to that level.

It was actually a great end to an otherwise horrible day, whose highlights included getting an eviction notice from my landlord and reading some pretty nasty emails exchanged between my barn owner and M which brought me up in the content.  :S  Luckily, the eviction notice was simply a misunderstanding about the rent that I have since resolved, but the emails were not so fun.  I was talking back and forth with M about going to visit her and Lark at her new barn this weekend, and she told me that my barn owner had sent her some angry emails.  She forwarded me the emails and I was less than impressed that she had drug me into the conversation (along with other people at the barn) to try to justify some of her actions and explain away M's complaints.  M went out on a limb for me and asked the new barn owner if I could have one of the empty stalls at her new barn, but unfortunately I can't afford the extra rent and my current barn owner is my connection with my new barn in the city I'm moving to.  Unfortunately, I don't entirely trust her not to screw me out of there, especially since he only took me because she recommended me.  As I've said before, I don't have nearly as many issues with my barn owner that M had, but I was pretty upset after reading the emails.  At the time, I seriously considered taking M up on her offer to go with her.  My instructor's great lesson really calmed me down and reminded me that I'm sure I can put in a few more months and avoid the drama.

My instructor also made me feel really good because she told me that I was doing a great job with Walker.  She said that he wasn't easy, and most people who had him as a first horse would have given up on him long ago.  I felt pretty good after that!

One of my errands today: annual vet checkup for the other man in my life

Thursday I was only out at the barn for a short period of time, but I switched Walker's bit from the kimberwick to a regular D-ring with a jointed mouthpiece.  That was the disaster bit that I used on him in the summer for maybe two days before I realized that it was, well, a disaster.  I really hoped that it would be better in the indoor arena with literally nowhere for him to run, but I'm not so sure.  He was definitely more forward, which my instructor will love, but it was infinitely harder to get his head into a frame and keep it there.  I only switched bits because my instructor thought it would be a better option to learn to jump in, but I might have to shop around for something else.  D's horse is a lot like Walker in training and she uses a French link instead of the one I'm using now because she said that she had the same problem.  I may give that a try and see if I can get the best of both worlds - forward but packaged.

Unfortunately, I had so many errands to do today that I never made it to the barn, but I'm going out tomorrow.  I'm also going to visit Lark's new home tomorrow so I'll be interested to see what this place is like.  From M's emails, it sounds like a nice place.

First Jump Lesson

Walker and I had our very first jump lesson today.  I'm sure that to anyone watching, including the other riders, it was hilarious with me all over the place, but it actually felt really good.  First of all, even though I've dabbled with jumps before, I've never actually had an official jump lesson - not on Walker or any other horse.  So I was super ecstatic to get some instruction.  Unfortunately, the exercise was really hard, and my trainer even said that normally she would start out much easier but because I was doing a makeup lesson with girls who already jump, instead of running around switching jumps, she just asked me to try it anyway.  She pretty much said that she was throwing me into the thick of things, and I definitely agree with her!

The exercise was like this:  There were three crossrails, one on each long end and one on the short end so that you had to keep your horse bent and turning around the jumps.  I only did it at a trot of course, although Walker broke into a lope a couple of times and I just let him.  I know I have complained about the size of my indoor arena before, but it makes the world of difference with a course like this because there would literally have been maybe 2 canter strides (at least quarter horse strides) between each jump on a turn for someone like me who hasn't even been taught how to jump straight!  I have to give Walker credit though.  My instructor said that he didn't seem like the type of horse who would be "eager" to jump but that he was more than "willing" to jump.  In fact, because I had a really hard time turning him fast enough to hit the centre of the jumps, we were literally jumping them sometimes on the side where it's higher instead of the middle.  But he never refused once and he never gave up.  Considering the flailing going on on his back with me trying to push him faster, keep him halfways decently centred, and trying to tighten up those stupid reins, he was a pretty good boy!  

I actually intended to ride Western in the lesson but one of the girls conned me into riding English.  I didn't have my good English boots with me, but I had a really cheap pair in the back seat of the car (you know, those $50 rubber boots with a heel).  I borrowed a pair of English spurs and changed his tack at the last minute.  Some of the girls in the lesson actually ride in cowboy boots with Western spurs, but I figured that I would just end up jabbing him with the spurs when I jumped if I tried that.  They're more coordinated than I am!  The only problem with the little English spurs is that I got winded fast, and when we were working on cantering earlier in the lesson, I could feel how hot my face was.  I was pretty much panting, and Walker was loving it that I had to work to keep him going.  I'm not sure, but I think he may have won the battle for whose fitter.

Despite my complete lack of jumping form/position/ability, it was a great lesson!  I can't wait to start doing it in my own lessons.  Now that I've done it once, I'm pretty sure that I will start to beg my instructor to let me do it more often.  My trainer also complimented Walker on his form earlier in the ride before we were jumping.  She said that he had a great head position and that he would look really good in some English classes this summer if I could get him to go like that all the time.  I was pretty proud, but I know that it was all because of the clinic.  The clinician really helped me get a handle on Walker's form and my own position.  He pretty much told me things that my instructor and trainer have been telling me for months, but for whatever reason, he just got through to me better.  I'm so glad that I did it.  Our rides have been infinitely better.

Walker gets Monday off like usual and Tuesday off because I have an appointment.  Then I have my lesson on Wednesday. :) Until then, I'll be dreaming of jumping.

Herb Best Clinic

It's been a whirlwind two days, and no, I don't have any pictures. :S  The clinic was a wonderful experience, and I'm sure it would have been even more wonderful if I wasn't as sick as a dog.  Unfortunately, I started to feel under the weather the day before the clinic started, and by the time Wednesday rolled around, I was beyond nauseous.  I rode at 9:00 in the morning and 1:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday, and when I got home around 3:00, I slept from then until 5:00.  I had supper, forced myself to stay up until 10:00, and then went back to bed.  Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, I was still super sick, and so I ended up skipping my morning ride in the clinic.  Even though I'm super disappointed that I missed out, I felt so much better for the afternoon ride.  I think it really did my body good to just have a bit more sleep and medication.

In general, Walker was pretty good for the clinic.  Mind you, when I say "pretty good", I mean it was Walker, not Bruce, so I didn't have an uncontrollable monster trying to run around the arena.  However, Walker did some major bucking during the clinic, and I learned that he doesn't like ponies.  I was paired with a little girl and her pony for all of our rides, and a couple times, when Walker got close to her, he actually kicked out at them.  Oops.  Since Walker is generally the most sociable horse I've ever met, I take this as his not-so-subtle hint that he doesn't like ponies.  In truth, Walker hasn't bucked with me on him for a while, so I'm not sure why he decided to buck in the clinic.  Herb thinks that I may be gripping too much with my knee/inside leg and thus going against his motion.  I'm not entirely sure about this since he also bucked when Herb got on him, and obviously Herb doesn't grip.  Oh well, like I said, it was more of a fluke than anything else - except for the pony-hate kicks, which were obviously intentional on Walker's behalf.

Herb actually rode Walker twice during the clinic.  He got on him the first day, just to see what kind of horse he was dealing with.  Walker was less than impressed, and he reared.  Then, this morning, when I missed the first ride, Herb got on Walker again, and he also put another girl on Walker.  I was not exactly happy that he got the other girl on him, mainly because I had only given my barn owner permission for Herb to get on him, and also because this other girl is the favorite of the barn, if you know what I mean.  She could burn it to the ground and they'd still love her.  I know that some of the kids complain about favoritism with her, and frankly I was mostly upset because I didn't give my permission and I also didn't want the star pupil to make Walker go perfectly.  I know that sounds petty and stupid, but I've often had the feeling that my barn owner doesn't have a lot of faith in my riding, and so it would have been just my luck if Walker would have been an angel for her and made me look even worse.  Luckily, he did the same things with her as he does with me, and she wasn't on for long anyway.  I was mad initially, but I got over it because I know that it was Herb that asked her to get on.  He's the clinician, and he probably thought that my barn owner got permission for that as well since she had been the one to suggest that he pull Walker out and ride him at all.

In general, we talked in the clinic about a bunch of different things with my riding.  I got yelled at perpetually for not sitting up straight (shocker) and on the first day especially for not riding into the corners.  These weren't a surprise to me, but I did learn some things that I never knew.  For instance, since I was riding Western with a Western trainer, we did things very differently than I do with my English instructor.  I had to ride with my inside rein at least as high, if not higher, than the horn on the saddle, and the outside rein long and low back by my thigh.  Apparently that's a Western training stance, and you're also not supposed to thread the reins between your pinkie and ring finger in Western.  I honestly never knew that before.  I guess your thumb and index finger are supposed to have the greatest grip, and the other three fingers are gently holding the reins, squeezing only every so often.  I could get over the hand stance since I've done that before with my trainer, but the hand thing took some getting used to.  I know that my English instructor is going to murder me next Wednesday.  She has been trying her hardest to get me to stop riding so Western just to have all her hard work undone in two days.

Other than those things, he really tried to help me package Walker up.  We worked on head stance the entire time, and everyone would be yelled at if the nose went out or head went up even an inch.  This really helped with Walker's canter though, and I had one really good moment where I felt very controlled and packaged up at the canter.  He also pretty much told me that my rear end wasn't muscular enough and that I really need to shove my seat into my saddle more.  I also grip with my knees apparently.  We had about five disastrous minutes of stirrup-less trot work.  I know that most of you don't ride Western, but I dare you to try to find a good place to put your feet when your stupid Western stirrups are down and smacking you in the leg while you're trying to get your slow horse to pick up the pace to even have a chance of propelling your body in the air without stirrups.  I had no idea where to put my knees since the bars and horn on the saddle were in the road, and I pretty much just flopped around until he said stop.  And then we laughed about how disastrous that was.  Other than that, there was a lot of discussion about speed.  I would get yelled at if I passed at the jog (no one was allowed to pass at the jog  or walk at all because you're supposed to keep your horse going slow), but then when we were trotting, I got yelled at because the pony was faster than us!  On this point, the girl who rode Walker and I both agreed that Walker likes to try to break into a lope instead of fast trot, and so we have a lot of work to do on that point.

Then, as though the clinic weren't enough, there was a major meltdown between my trainer, the barn owner, M (who owns Lark) and M's mother. M's mother got banned from the barn, and M got 30 days to find a new barn. It all went down because M and her mother were complaining about the no turnout, the stalls (which I personally only find dirty because the horses are in - horses are dirty, otherwise they're fine), and other things. M's mother tried to drag me and another girl into it, and I really don't know where I stand now with my trainer - although I managed to clear things up with my barn owner. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am unhappy about the no turnout issue, but we're all doing what we can to make things work. It's been an unfortunate Winter, and weather is mostly to blame for that. I still think something needs to be done, but other than that, I don't have any serious issues with the barn. I really can't afford to burn bridges with my barn owner anyway - I have nowhere else to go and she's my contact with the new barn I'm going to in May.  I felt bad for the other girl who was there with us during the screaming match because she's only 13 years old and kids shouldn't have to be a part of that.  I pretty much shooed her away, and the two of us went and waited quietly until all was said and done.  :S  I'm too old for drama.

All in all, with my weird flu-like sickness, the intense riding, and the barn fight that went down, it has been quite the two days!  Also, to exacerbate everything, it was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) both days, and we're getting this cold snap for at least a week or so.  Tomorrow I'm giving the pony a day off because he was slightly lame after the farrier came and also because he had a hard couple days of riding.  He deserves a break, as do I!

Thrush

Camera held at eye level from as close as I could
get to Walker's paddock.  His gate is way at the back of
the photo.

Yes. That's right. Walker has thrush. Imagine how thrilled I was to find that out when I got back yesterday. It's not bad or anything, but I'm still pretty angry. Another horse has it too. I wouldn't be angry about it except that they haven't been turned out for 2+ weeks so they've been just standing around in their own manure.  It's no surprise where he got it from.  That being said, I put some Fiske's on, which seems to be working quite well, and shortly after I told my barn owner about it, she told me that Walker has an appointment with the farrier on Thursday so he can check things out.

In other news, I scouted out around the property to figure out why the horses haven't been turned out now that there's plenty of snow to cover the ice, and as you can see from the pictures, the snow is the new problem.  It is chest high in some places and although a plow comes through and does as much as it can, it's still piled up high around the paddocks.  My trainer (who is pregnant) can't shovel around the gate, but it really wouldn't matter because Walker's paddock is the one in the picture to the left.  To get to it, we would need to shovel 40 - 50 feet through waist deep snow.  Without a plow, it's simply not doable.

the outdoor arena: Walker's new turnout (as far as I'm concerned)

With that thought in mind, I decided that the outdoor arena was a much better option because the snow plow goes past there anyway, meaning that there was only 5 - 10 feet of waist deep snow to get to the gate.  I enlisted the help of two girls at the barn whose horses get turned out with Walker and who are also semi-furious that they are not getting turned out.  So today we went out, shovel in hand, and worked our way towards the gate, managing to shovel enough around it to get it open and get the horses in. The wheel on the gate was literally frozen into the ground, but another girl arrived shortly afterwards with her boyfriend who was strong enough to get it out.  I am literally exhausted from the effort, but it was well worth it!  Walker was ecstatic about running in the snow, and the three horses were galloping all over the place.  It was like a picture out of a catalog.  Of course, they were all soaking wet when we finally brought them in, and I forgot his cooler at home. :S  I managed to get him dried off with a towel, and then I borrowed one of my barn owner's coolers just to finish him off.

Walker enjoying his romp in the snow

Although my barn owner or someone she hires should really be the one who makes turnout possible, whatever that entails, I'm simply sick of excuses.  I realize that there is a lot of snow, but we live in a place where that is no surprise.  Usually, at this time of year, we have more snow than this.  And while I know there are other factors at play (my trainer being pregnant, some horses getting priority because they're in straight stalls, the snow literally coming all at once in two weeks, etc.), I'm a "get things done" kind of person.  When I get something on my mind, I'm pretty much going to make it happen, come hell or high water.  When my trainer's husband came to the barn to do feeding tonight, one of the girls I was shoveling with pretty much cornered him and said, "I don't care who gets turned out up in the outdoor arena that we just cleared a path to, but our three horses better be in there too!"

Walker's girlfriends

Also, Walker was a speed demon outside today.  It was hilarious to watch my little Western Pleasure quarter horse outrun the thoroughbred.  When the two mares would take off ahead of him, he would gun it and pass them in no time.  Who knew?!  Maybe he's got more speed in him than I give him credit for!

Tomorrow is supposed to be the clinic.  I say "supposed to be" because it is 8 PM and I still haven't heard a schedule of times yet for when we all ride.  I know that my barn owner has been overwhelmed with the holidays and other things lately, but um, I have absolutely no intention of getting up and going to the barn earlier than I have to.  I love my barn owner, I really do, but by now she must know how OCD I am about these things.  I'm not even going to bother to call/email/text her about it.  I usually try to avoid human contact when I'm perturbed. :S

The next paddock I intend to tackle