Day 7

Aleythia and I didn't feel like bringing the horses in. They were in the pasture, and they wouldn't have felt like coming in anyway.

I take way too many pictures. Like seriously I took all the pictures of my horses off of my computer and put it on an external hard drive. There were about 1,400 pictures.

The pile of dirt you see in these pictures is because the tile wasn't doing a very good job of draining off the water. The ground is so saturated out there the horses sink up past their ankles.

We took all that we needed out to the pasture and I went and got Toffy.

So, here's what's happening with Toffy. Today when I rode her, I rode her bareback. Just to see if that would help anything. Aleythia led her. She started walking, and I could feel her back muscles tense up. She felt like if she was pushed any faster she would explode. We stopped, and her back muscles took a little while to relax. Now I don't know if that's normal or not so I rode Coffie bareback too. Coffie tightened her back muscles too. So I figure that was pretty normal. But Coffie relaxed her back muscles right when we stopped too.

What Aleythia and I are thinking is tomorrow, we'll see if we can't get something that is at least 100 lbs, and tie it to Toffy's saddle. Then we'll ask her to do ground work. If she bucks we will know that it's not because of a rider.

What we're planning on doing after that is...

we are going to stay off her for a little while. See if her problem will heal by itself. We won't leave her alone, we can still do a lot with her without riding. We'll pony her off of Santana, get her back muscles stronger by trotting a lot, go on trail rides, desensitize, ect. We'll saddle her up every time so she doesn't become out of practice with the saddle and bridle.

After a few weeks we'll tie 100 lbs to her saddle again and see if she bucks. Thus the reason for tying that much weight to her saddle in the first place. To have something to go off of. If she bucks she isn't okay.

Tomorrow should prove entertaining.

I rode Coffie bareback and we trotted. In the pasture. It was a little scary at first, but it was all right. I should do it more often.

Aleythia got on Dash bareback.... and promptly got bucked off when I started leading her. So we spent the next little while desensitizing. Eventually Aleythia got back on. It may have been slow, but she did eventually sit on Dash. We've probably only got on her bareback a few other times. The last time she wouldn't have anything to do with it either. It needs to get worked on.

Toffy

Toffy

Coffie

Aleythia and I were laughing at Toffy. When she had to go anywhere in the pasture she followed the outside where it was less muddy. Almost like she was saying "it's too much work to go on the diagonal!" Silly horsey.