Living that retired life

Oh wait.

It's just called excessive heat warnings. Or excessive bug warnings.

Or turns out my horse cannot even in the summer.

"OH GOD I'VE BEEN IN NATURE FOR 2 SECONDS MAKE IT END."

Dopes got his feet done last Wednesday, I gave him that day off, and then pulled him out bright and early Thursday morning for a ride before this stretch of heat warnings kicked off on Friday only to find him covered in full body hives. It took a few days, but I finally managed to knock those out.

In the meantime, I was having to go back out to the barn at noon to bring him inside, hose him down, and lock him in his stall with his fan. As soon as he finished his hay outside he'd start walking the fence line and body slamming his pasture mates in an attempt to get rid of any bugs. I finally caved and bought my very first fly sheet when I went down to PA to visit Riding Bestie Monday (at which time I also just had the barn worker leave him in all day since I wouldn't be there to save him).

sporting his own clothes and bobby's hand me down mask
and boots. we're all about reuse and recycle here. 

Being swaddled seems to have made him happier, and this is supposed to be our last day of 90*+ weather for awhile...which really means nothing since 85* and a trillion percent humidity feels hotter than the dry 96* we had yesterday. I'm looking forward to a cooler tomorrow anyway as it was already 80* when I left my house at six this morning. It took me all of two seconds to decide even with his new clothes Opie wasn't leaving the safety of his stall. He was having a meltdown over the one fly circling his belly and wouldn't pull his face away from his fan to come get his candy. I've never owned such a summertime princess in my life.

i tried to get him out for some grazing when i got back monday. it lasted maybe
three minutes total before he was going back in his stall with or without me.

Between the hives and the heat, it was a full week of "vacation" time before I climbed back aboard this Tuesday. I expected Opie to give me a little bit of sass after doing nothing but a couple of longes in a halter during that time, but I ended up with the complete opposite. I actually climbed off halfway through to grab a stick because he was so behind my leg.

The walk and trot work both felt perfectly fine. The canter felt like he had a flat tire that was causing him to pound the ground like an elephant and tip over while turning where I had to pull him to a stop a couple times for fear of crashing. That's when I got the whip, and with a few spanks I suddenly had a horse that could be bothered to get off his front end and hold himself upright a little bit.

aaaand splat, right back to the forehand.
it's a lazy, quitting horse work in progress, yo.

Yesterday Hubby had the holiday off and obvi I was in dire need of new media so I got the barn done and was on the horse by 8am. Game time decision, I decided it would be more fun for all parties involved if we did some jumpies.

10/10 opie approved

There were a couple singles set up in the ring, a log leftover from the barn prepping for a hunter derby last weekend, and a one stride. I made the singles crossrails, and set the one stride as a crossrail to poles or vice versa. Dopie loves going over the log so that was left as is.

I wanted videos of the jumping since jumping Xs isn't the best for pics, but I told Hubby to hold off while we schooled through the one stride first. Opie has never done one before so I wanted to do some work with him figuring out his feet and knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

LOLZ It wasn't.

"YEAH, I AM SO GOOD AT THE JUMPING!"
i love those happy horse ears.

"JK WUT R LEGS DO NOT KNO OR CARE."

I've gotta give it to the kid, though. He doesn't have a stop in him. Even after several blundering attempts through the line before I shortened the striding up by about 3' to make it easier for him, he was raring to go right back through and try again. For this being maybe the dozenth time he's jumped, I got him sorted out in no time and he was coasting through at the canter confidently and without too much rail throwing.

He's never cantered a course in his life, but off we went to give it his first try!

HOW CUTE IS HE CAN YOU EVEN.

I saw the long spot to the log, kissed and closed my leg, and he was like, "Yep, I got this!" I stuffed a candy into his mouth, let him have a quick walk, and then we went for round two.

At which point he thought he was a pro and zoomied around. He took the first jump down because who needs to actually jump and lift your legs over such tiny things? He came out of the one stride on the wrong lead but also bearing fucking down which is why you can see me check him so strongly. Happy fucking horse ears the whole time though HE'S SO CUTE YOU CANNOT EVEN.

Round three:

I had Hubby put the sorry little starting X up to a 2' vertical hoping it would get him to lift his legs--which it did. He swapped over to the right lead coming out of the corner which I felt, but it was still balanced and we were landing on the right lead anyway so I let him hold it. The one stride was a little spastic, and then he tripped and lost his balance before the last jump so I circled him to give him enough time to regroup. I love him trying to figure out his leads all on his own though BECAUSE HE'S SO CUTE.

I had Hubby make the diagonal X a 2'3" vertical since Xs were obviously becoming very boring when you're the best at jumping (or think you are at least). Opie's only jumped that height once from a trot and he launched over it in a tangle of baby antelope on roller skates legs, but I could tell he was feeling pretty invincible so we came right around to it in a new course in the canter.

AND HUBBY BASICALLY MISSED IT.

It was glorious, I promise. As soon as we finished the course I hopped off and stuffed ALL the candy in his face and told him what a #childgenius he is.

I love that he genuinely seems to enjoy learning, and I think this slooooowww process of figuring out how to be confident with one's feeties on the flat is going to keep paying off in keeping him feeling like a little stud over jumps. As long as they fit in the schedule, kiddo will definitely be doing some of the fun local hunter shows next year.

so much candy and scratches for the dopie horse