Topaz Dreams

On Confetti’s birthday this year, we did pony rides for several children.

First, though, she got to run in the arena with both her mother and sister. They haven’t all been in the same place for a while now, and it made my heart soar to see them all enjoying life together again.  Photo quality is atrocious because it’s a screenshot of a Facebook video.. I took no photos, too busy being in the moment.

Then we all decorated the mini-horse. Sparkles and kids and a mini-horse? Oh my.  I did try to take photos here, but they do not do it justice.  She was absolutely covered in glitter on one side.  Stars on the other side. Glitter on her hooves. Glitter in her forelock. Pink extensions in her tail – why not?!  It made Fetti’s “My Little Pony” costume look tame.

The cutest. And the sparkliest.

All the full-sized ponies got to give pony rides to all the children.  Here I see a training hole: we have not done enough low-level basic work in the round pen. Fetti was miffed at the inconsistent steering, tolerant but not helpful/forgiving, and bursting into trot rather than transitioning gracefully.  Hmmm.  We really need to do some hard conditioning work in the upcoming weeks – but I need to take some time schooling in the round pen and arena on these things too.  She wasn’t bad, but she definitely could have been better.

Children cropped for privacy.

I came back later that evening and gave her a beer with her grain. I had originally thought of making pony birthday cakes, or finding a crown, or something. Alas, on day three of a five-day migraine stint, it was not to be. Beer sufficed, and at twenty-one, that was Good Enough.

Here’s to many more.

I am firmly in “never going to properly catch up on posts” mode.  So, I’ll summarize:

The rain stopped for a little bit.  Hooray!  Rejoice!  I went against everything I said I was going to do and our first ride out was with Fetti’s sister.  We stuck mostly to a walk, especially since large sections of the trails looked very different.  Flooding does a number on the trails by the river, y’all.

I don’t have a lot of “before” photos. This section was our nice, easy mile out before the hills kicked in. It hadn’t really changed much in the last five or so years of riding it. There was one section we figured would probably collapse this year. The massive rains and flooding took out way more than one section.

Our first sign of massive trail rebuild: this photo is worth embiggening. The trail used to go straight. It now detours sharply left, then back to center.  There is a really big collapse where the trail used to be.

Hello, cliff!  The drop on the right side is new, although thankfully just a few feet – at least here.

The biggest tell is that my muscle memory, after all these years on the same trails, keeps trying to go left into a pile of brush, or right around a tree where the trail isn’t there anymore.  I am thankful to have a tolerant pony who ignores me when I am obviously very wrong.

We did our second ride alone on a windy day.  I was again impressed with Confetti’s brain this year. Polite pony. No bucks, no bolt. minimal spook as justified at the new trail sections.  We moved briskly enough, and I was quite satisfied. Pony is, perhaps, not broken?

A ride or two later, I believe, we went out again with her sister. We opted to move out more briskly and see how things went. The footing was satisfactory, the ponies were well-behaved, and they handled the traffic beautifully.  Fetti sort of lost her feet on one of the early downhill steps, though.  It was disconcerting enough, sufficiently out of character for my surefooted go-everywhere pony, that I bailed and handwalked down the rest of them.

I put a call in to the vet the next week and scheduled hock injections.  I might be able to get her arthritis back under control myself once she’s back in shape.. but I can’t get her back in shape without going down a significant number of steps.. and I am not going to hand-walk down all the steps in the park every time we go down them.  I have a senior horse. I have tried Pentosan, she’s already on Previcox, she is uncomfortable and it is time to step it up a level.

It was a delightful vet visit, as far as vet visits go. I braided and tied her extensive tail out of the way. The vet was initially astonished at her age (gold star, self! gold star, Fetti!) which is always nice to hear.  He injected both hocks – and I will edit this later with exactly what was in there, need to clarify with the vet to get that right.  The needle went in well and the joint fluid looked good. Per the vet, it was the best injections he’d done in at least a month.  He typically sees hock injections last around six months or so, sometimes up to a year. We’re hoping I can get 6-8 months out of these, through October-December or so. I don’t mind putting her back on Previcox through the winter when I can’t get her out in the mud and darkness anyway. We can re-inject in the spring when the rains start to clear up.  Rinse and repeat as needed.
The vet sees no reason Confetti couldn’t go back to to endurance this year.  I’m not convinced yet.  Then again, I don’t think I’m ever convinced in April that my pony isn’t forever broken and incapable of going more than 7 miles without wilting of exhaustion.  We have some work to do.

I took a five-day vacation to NYC.  This clearly meant that California should have amazing, wonderful, sunny weather with near-record highs, and the east coast had one day of beautiful weather when we flew in.  It snowed the next morning, and the really big snowstorm hit the morning we were supposed to fly out.

Even on my non-horsey vacations, I take pictures of ponies.  I even found the carriage horses by Central Park without even trying and petted the poor tourist-tolerant soul.

Be warned: this is a very photo-heavy post with zero ‘Fetti photos. 

Wandering the city, looking at stuff with our local friend as tour guide.  “One moment,” I say, and I turn around a take a picture.  This surprised neither my boyfriend nor our local friend.  They know me well.

Sorry, there’s definitely historical significance of some sort. I did zero research to remember what it was.

I also took photos of trees and snow.  In the middle of the city, and I’m staring at trees.  Trees make me happy.  Snow-covered trees are oddly pretty.

This bar has zero significance except that it made me smile walking past, so it gets a photo feature too.

I did some research on this: Worth served in the Mexican-American War, was moderately famous, I had definitely never heard of him, and this is the second-oldest monument in New York.

This is not a horse.  This is an Apple Store/Genius Bar at Grand Central Station.  Because we are tech folks who not only find such things, but go to them, and get a phone replaced in less time than it would take to wait for the queue back home.  Gold stars all around, y’all.

We actually almost went back a second time to get my phone battery replaced.  Sadly the timing could not quite be managed.  Alas, I will have to schedule and go to a mall somewhere in the vague area of home to get that done, and right now other things are taking priority again.  Someday..

There was a pony at Grand Central, though.

Horse flying out of the clouds at Grand Central.

My friend had mentioned that there were horses at Central Park.  I absolutely did not find it necessary to take a carriage ride, or really even to take a horseback ride in NYC (although I found out later that might have been possible.. and I might have considered that if I had been alone!), given the likely exorbitant costs.  I have a pony at home, she is amazing, I am content to admire from afar.

I wasn’t actually planning to go look for the horses at Central Park.  But then I stumbled upon them on my way to the Met.  Photos ensued.  There was a “running a few minutes late, found ponies” text somewhere in the process.

I will admit to liking the gray better.  I don’t know anything about the carriage industry in NYC.  I know that the drivers were polite and the horses were calm and blanketed while standing in brisk winds.  They looked to be in good condition and well cared for.

For everyone else curious about the number on the front left hoof, I refer you to this article.  Apparently it’s traditional to have their four-digit letter burned into the hoof.  Huh.

Eventually I did make it to the Met.  We found ponies there too.  There were ponies that looked like very confused Dachshunds, and then there were slightly more pony-like ponies.  I actually did take the weird-looking horses photo for comparison.  It’s not uploading.  I’m tired of fighting with WordPress uploads.  Imagine a Dachshund crossed with a horse and make it into a statue.  Be confused.  Mentally compare with these horses.  Mission accomplished.

(No, seriously, if it ever uploads, I’ll edit it in.  Sorry!)

We went to Rockefeller Center.  It was really cold.  It was even colder and windier at the very top.  Thankfully the sunset was very pretty.  As soon as the sun was done setting, we got the hell out of there and I think we found dinner somewhere warm.  Brrrrrrrr.

Not a landscape or a pony, but this feels like a good note to end on.  Found on a NYC sidewalk.  Wholeheartedly agree.

The barn almost-flooded over the Monday holiday last week. I went in to work – I can’t just take off every time it looks like it might think about flooding! – and refreshed regularly. Looks OK. Looks OK. Hm, kinda wet. Hmmmm. Uh, roads are getting closed. Umm.. it would take me 2-3+ hours to get home on my *one viable route home* because *everything else is closed* and the river is at 20 feet and rising. Words cannot express how grateful I am to my friend and her family who went in and hauled out the ponies up to their house that evening yet again.  I didn’t bother trying to get home that night.  It was incredibly reassuring that even as I watched the flood gage, the ponies were safe on higher ground.  That naturally guaranteed that it did not flood.  Which – well – is fine by us.  That makes three flood-camp stays in two months, and one actual flood.

This is why I haven’t been blogging. I haven’t been home, it’s been dark and/or raining every time I’m at the barn, and it is SO FREAKING WET EVERYWHERE.  Fetti came back to the barn on Tuesday.  Thanks to some bizarre work scheduling combined with crazy traffic, I made it to the barn after dark and in the middle of a fluke rainy cell.  WTF, weather.  The rain quit, I patted her on the nose and fed her, and went home. It was dark on Thursday when I made it to the barn; detouring to the city in the midafternoon will do that.  I patted her on the nose, cleaned her stall, and went home.  At least it wasn’t raining.

It was sunny this past weekend weekend before last. Sunny. Imagine that!  I woke up Saturday morning feeling fabulous and it is the best I can remember feeling in a long time.  Energy!  Not much pain!  Sunshine!  I turned out Fetti and the “baby” pony in the evening.  They went absolutely flying around the arena, running laps without too much encouragement, bucking jumping leaping ZOOM.  Dark by the time they finished and I opted not to get on.

Sunday, however.. Sunday, I rode!  First a bunch of bareback laps at the walk, socializing.  Relaxed.  No stress from either of us, and a nice big walk.  I hopped back on a bit later and worked in the round pen: can we trot like a normal horse and stay mostly on the rail?  Yes!  Not only that, we could do it without substantial pushing from me after a few laps around to remind Fetti how this is supposed to work.  It was a soft and relaxed trot.  I felt confident enough to work on my posture: shoulders back, elbows at my side, seat with the horse, core engaged.  I tried to work on not nagging, but didn’t do very well at that.  More work is needed; it’s my problem, clearly, and that’s something I can focus on.

And then, to finish off the evening, I handed the reins to one of the teenagers at the barn and walked with them as they moseyed along bareback.  Impromptu bareback lesson and discussion of seat-legs-core-balance connection.  It was a good reminder of more things that I should focus on myself, things I know in theory but haven’t really worked on in practice.  It was also a testament to how far we’ve come.  We’re four months past Quicksilver now, we’ve done barely any work all winter, and I still trust her enough to put someone else on her bareback in the dark.  Good pony!

Other February tidbits:

Confetti continues to shred her bale bag. I continue to patch it. The cats continue to help.

Life is always improved after a pony ride. February always sucks. Here’s hoping March goes nicely and uneventfully.

I decided to take a page from SprinklerBandit’s book this month, and so we’ve mostly lunged.

hello gorgeous

Sometimes we have lunged in the daylight with color-coordinated outfits and side reins and fabulous boots.  Sometimes we have lunged in the dark, with or without a headlamp.  I don’t have photos of that, for obvious reasons.  Photos this month were fairly lacking.

Fetti is on Previcox still.  I need to get her out and moving regularly to keep her joints happy and to keep me in that routine.

There is debate about side reins and how beneficial they are.  I am no training expert and certainly do not claim to know what I’m doing all the time.  So I decided that I was looking to get two – no, three – things out of this experiment:

1. Moving forward into the contact.  I’m not always the best rider, but if I can set her up to be doing this on the longe, this will hopefully help us both to do it better once I start riding regularly again.
2. Balanced canter.  Fetti likes to balance off her nose and forehand rather than use her hindquarters.  This is clearest in her upwards transitions, where her head launches her into the canter.  I’m pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
3. Real Work / increased fitness.  If this is replacing our six-mile rides, it’s important that she be putting some serious effort into it!

A blurry but reasonable-looking trot.

The side reins are on their shortest setting.  They should be shorter though, I think?  I’m not very good at this yet, and really no one else at the barn uses them so I can’t check in with anyone for help.  I may need to buy new side reins.  (Or see if the other pair I acquired goes shorter. Hmmmm.)

Side reins still loose. Super blurry photo, but you can see her nose-balancing here even within the canter.

Well this is not pretty, but for the sake of accuracy I am including it.

Zoom zoom, falling on the forehand and extended-y, side reins still flopping.

We’re going for walks around the barn too, and I’m getting on occasionally, but mostly this is what our month looked like. Lots of circles, lots of lunging.  Lots of rain and mudslides.  We need the rain, but I’m over it.  Sigh.. spring is coming, spring is coming?

It’s been a rough month for other reasons, and my blogging mojo is still lacking.  We’re still here, just quieter.  Instagram is apparently the place to make sure I’m still patting pony noses regularly.  Winter is always rough.  Here’s hoping we get out of it soon!