Barn Cleaning and Riding

Was up around 5:30 this morning in order to drive Keith to work and head on my way to Richland Ranch to help clean the barn. Got to the barn by 6:45 and helped grain all the horses and then started kicking them outside and got to cleaning.

Once we were done cleaning (which was around 10:30), I went outside and grabbed Dollar from his pasture so that we could do some riding and start getting rid of his belly fat. I let him loose in the arena to warm up a bit and roll and then we got to work. I quickly saddled him up and got to working.


Dollar having breakfast


Choosing breakfast over me. Lol.


Dollar in the indoor arena


Hey Mom, what we doing??

Once I got him ready to go, I brought him into the indoor arena, mounted up and got to work. He warmed up nicely at the walk and trot and then I started asking him for a more energetic trot. He nicely obliged and we went round and round the arena. He was being pretty good with his head, but the more trot I asked for, the lower it went. Damn you Western Pleasure!! We just stayed with his long trot around the arena for a while just to start getting him in shape.

Luckily for me, I remembered to bring my Dressage Exercise book with us, so I made him work some of the exercises and found that we really have to work on our leg yield. He was being pretty sluggish with it, which did not impress me much. Mental note for us to work on. We did work on his canter a bit, which was pretty good. But you could tell that he is out of shape. He was huffing and puffing quite good. So I let him just walk around for a bit to get his breath back and make sure that he didn't stiffen up. Once he caught his breath, we worked on some stuff the other way and then called it a day.

Once we were done, I brought him out of the arena, untacked him and then, because he was quite warm and had broken out in a sweat a bit, I threw my "cooling sheet" on him, which was basically a light blanket that I grabbed from home and then went to work on his mane and tail, braiding them. I started out with his mane and just braided it normally, and then I went to work on his tail, winterizing it. Yes, I'm aware it's a bit late to do that, but that will probably stay in until a show or something. So once it was all braided, vet wrapped and had a tail bag over it, we were good to go.

This thing better stay in this time!!!


Dollar with his braids and "colling sheet"

By this time, he had cooled down enough, so I put my blanket away and then kicked him outside. Now I'm hoping that this thing will stay in!!