A picture is worth a thousand words..and then some

Edits

That moment...when nothing else matters

Blondie. Always there when I need her. Always calm, thoughtful, precise. When others watch you ride, it happens in the blink of an eye. But when you're the one in the saddle, gripping the reins and moving in motion with the horse, years pass by. And you never want it to end. Never.

Blondie Jumping

Blondie Jumping - Celebrity Skin

Perfect weather for riding! Attitude? not so much..

Took my younger sister to the barn to film some riding for a college video. The weather was in our favor with a nice breeze for a day in the middle of summer. Jeans didn't even make me sweat. Blondie's feet looked great today so we went ahead and jumped. She was in a really good mood in the beginning, but that slowly turned around when we started jumping. She did fine over the first jumps, a little over-jumping, but nothing bad. Then it started getting hot and she started getting lazy, trying everything in her bag of tricks to get me to end the riding session early; sidestepping, bunny hopping, lowering her head, running out. It took forever to get her to give me one last good jump and I wasn't going to leave on a bad one!! The bad thing is we're both stubborn, so it took forever for us to work "together" to get the jump we needed. ugh.

Sore Feet

Blondie's feet haven't been looking so great lately. A visit from the farrier this past week told me that she had bacteria build up in her hoof wall that needed to be taken care of. I've been putting hoof oil on her feet for awhile but had no idea that her hoof was much worse than I thought. So I went to the store and picked up some bleach and hydrogen peroxide to make my own cheap hoof-soaking mix. It has been working to get rid of the bacteria so far. Blondie loves the soaking sessions, amazingly, so far. I expected her to be more difficult, but using a small, square soaking bucket that gives her foot lots of room and is shallow enough to not to unsettle her, seems to be in her favor. I can even groom her all over while she soaks her hooves and she just stands there. Mission accomplished! Now I just need to get her set up with the chiropractor to fix her overreaching. I've noticed she's been a little tight in her hindquarters and a little touchy when I clean out her back, right hoof. Let's hope the chiropractor pays off.