Kokanee

So I did get to go riding on Thursday after all! Even though there was a whole crap load of snow.

When we got to the barn there was a choice between Zander, out in the farthest pen from the barn, or Kokanee, who is in Pony's old stall... decided not to brave the cold and wind and picked Kokanee.
I rode him once before and thought he had a super smooth canter to one direction, now I have no idea what made me think that.

He has some scar tissue on one hip so his trot is super different depending on the direction, so that takes a bit used too. And the back pain! It hasn't ever been like the time with Pony that it was almost crippling but it was worse than it has been in a while. Plus it started on the right and the moved over to the left as well. But usually it starts on the left and stays there. Not sure what to do about that.

He can also be super wiggly and pops his shoulder out if you aren't careful, which is why we ran out to the first jump.

His canter was crazy weird, very bumpy. K said just don't even bother trying to sit it. So we ended up in some weird two pointy/standing in the stirrups position. And the stirrups on his saddle don't even enough holes for my short legs, so that was annoying, but not horrible.

Jumping was good actually. Sort of? Well, the first jump, my first thought was "crap, should have got Zander." It was just the weirdest effing jump ever and I was not prepared for how low he keeps his neck!! He's more huntery than any other horse I've ridden and he's got the same long neck as Diesel so he needs a bigger release as well. The rest of jumping got better, we were practicing jumping jumps at an angle, so the four stride was a lot of work because he likes to wiggle and wanted to drop out to the right right after the jump. He also goes super well on a longer rein, which is such a weird after Rocky and Zander. And Zander and Kokanee feel so weird because they're both such narrow bodied horses compared to the others, so it's always a strange feeling when we first start riding.
But over all I quite like him, really, it's just something different now but I think we'll get on well enough. Still don't have a lease horse, but being able to ride these 3 will be interesting and hopefully I can improve a lot by the time spring gets here and me and Rocky can start working together again.

New Horses(Thursday/Saturday)

Well Rocky is officially on winter break so on Thursday I rode Roxy. I rode her a couple times over the summer when she first got to the barn and she's really come along way from how nervous she used to be. Her canter is still weird, it really throws your leg back and when you aren't along the wall she's really wiggly. For the most part she was good, she did start to rush at the yellow jump but after a few times over the other two she was good to go. She's still new to jumping so sometimes she forgets about her back end when she really tries to jump ahead/up with her front end. So grabbing mane = important on her. Especially with being new to it, I don't want her to think jumping is painful by catching her mouth. She was more fun than I thought she would be for jumping and she wasn't the horse I wanted to ride, although other than Rocky I don't know who else there would be. And really I should be grateful just to have a horse to ride at all. Although it's been along time since I've had to look at the white board to find out who I was riding, plus it will be harder to the get the whole "team mate/bond" going on since it seems like I'll be going between horses until winters over the snows gone and who the hell knows when that will be.

Today I rode Zander and I liked him a lot more than I thought I would! I'm not sure why I thought I wouldn't like him, but he was fantastic. He has a really slow walk but once he's trotting or cantering he's got a lot of go! I was a bit worried, since he was compared to a sports car on ice as to how he would be when we got going and he was great. Sports car with snow tires.
He also bridles up really well and riding with more contact is something I really have to work and trying to "ball up" their energy rather than letting them getting long and strung out. Supposed to think of them as springs, which was the analogy with Pony. So must work on that. It seems to help that he has a German martingale, it does something different than a standing martingale I don't remember what exactly but it has something to do with flexing rather than keeping them from throwing their head around. We don't use it for jumping, just flat.
Zander is a lot of fun to jump! He does slow down abit before the jump if you don't keep leg on, but he has such a lovely jump, and no pain at the trot!! So that's exciting. He feels so different than Rocky, he's so narrow with such a long neck and he keeps he's head pretty low, some adjusting to do I think. It will be a different winter that's for sure, I guess we'll see how it pays of in the spring.

that's what a German martingale looks like, it straps around the neck and then the other two straps loop through the bit and then clips to loops on the reins.

Pony For Sale.

So yeah, Pony has been sold, or at least her owners found a buyer for her. Whether she's going back to her owners on Saturday or to her new place I don't know, but either way, she's leaving on Saturday.

They've already picked up her tack and stuff, so yesterday we were stuck in this awful synthetic saddle that's a bit to wide her for her and I just hate. So neither of us were to happy about that.

This is kind of what happened when I found out Tommy had been sold, when K would say to re do something we were having problems with all I could think was what the hell was the point? It's not going to do us any good since she's leaving. But oh well, eventually we got it.
It was a frustrating ride though, and Pony was being crazy but it might have been because the saddle wasn't hers and didn't fit 100%, but she stopped at a jump and I fell over her shoulder on to the jump. So as K said Pony was trying to make parting easy. I guess so too.

At least I won't be left without a horse when she's gone. There's a few options:
1. Rocky-my favorite he's so sweet. A smallish bay Morgan, he shows 2'6" but has jumped higher. He hasn't been ridden in about a year though, but K said he's usually pretty good to just hop on, even though he's out of shape. I've rode him once ages ago before Diesel and I quite liked him. He can't be used as a lesson horse because he sometimes bucks after jumping and he wasn't eve super well trained, but I really like him.

2. Zander- A big chestnut Arab? Arab cross? He's a decent jumper but used a lot in lessons so that's not a great thing I don't think other than him being in good shape. He's not my favorite horse at the barn but he's okay.

3. Roxy. She's less of a possibility I think. She's a quarter horse mare that's been out in a field a long time and is pretty much totally western. She's 15.3hh but only in the ass. K thinks she could be a good jumper but she might have to start at like cavallaties or something. Not that that's a problem, it could be fun and a very different experience. But I think she's there to be sold or to be retrained as a lesson horse I'm not totally sure.

So we just have to wait and see what happens next week.