Pumpkin Spice

  First of all, thank you everyone for your kind words and best wishes about Guinness. He's healing well and no longer needs his pain meds. When he first was home I worried about his pooping (or lack thereof). I knew that his intestines were likely empty but I didn't want him to get constipated so I started him on some pumpkin puree. That certainly did the trick.  

Enjoying the sunshine

Cordelia is trying to step in and help.

Cordelia: I'm helping! 
Me: sigh

After a week of warm weather the temperatures dropped to more typical September temperatures. The first day was cool and the wind was snapping. I looked at the two horses cavorting and snorting in the field and decided that a trip to the gym was probably the better choice. Since then they have definitely been peppy. Carmen has been pretty spicy but it doesn't last. I don't know if it's because of how I handle it or because she's 14 and it's soooo much work to be sassy. 

I had a date with my daughter to see a play in the city and I wanted to have a short ride. But just as I went outside the power company showed up to fix a light on our property. I have a rule that if I don't have time to deal with an issue I won't put us in the situation of having to deal. So I decided to do a groundwork/liberty session. Carmen was right with me and I probably could have ridden but it's fun to do this too. I feel that our half-halts are improving. We'll see what Jane thinks. 

Carmen enjoys it too

Even Quaid is feeling the cooler weather and it's putting a bit of pep in his step. He's being pretty good. With Jane being out of commission Tanya and I got together to coach each other. We call this our TnT Training Sessions (TNTTS for short).  It's very helpful-  she comes and coaches me and then I go to her place and coach her. This time I rode Quaid because I wanted her eyes on us. She was able to remind me that pulling my outside rein away from his neck was really counterproductive to my goal of getting him to move out to the rail. But we had some lovely transitions and canter departs. I've been trying to make cantering less of a thing and doing it earlier in the ride. And also not letting him just fall out of it but instead trot forward. He started to believe that after canter he was done. And truly this is my fault. The nice thing about horse training is that there is no end to the new errors you can make. Julia rode him the other day and I as all 'damn, he's got some nice gaits'. 

She also had some struggles at the end with him going to the right turning away from the in-gate. Which was interesting.  He's so honest so something is bugging him about this. I still think it's about turning away from the gate but we'll see. 

In other news, I got my hay delivered a couple days ago. I already had my small squares and I'm still feeding last years hay so I wasn't in a hurry. This year instead of rounds we're trying large (3 string) squares. The quality of the hay is really nice and I'm hopeful it will be less dusty than the rounds.  

I love the smell of fresh hay in the barn

How's your fall going?