I'm gonna kill my horse

Okay, I'm being a little bit dramatic . . . but I've had it with this mare and her feet. From what I've heard, she got into a stand off with one of the barn hands last week which ended in another broken cross tie. This was directly after she decided to run around like a feral animal with her pasture mates, one of whom broke a well and flooded a pasture. I'm just . . . why can't she be normal???

Guess who's big, gray, and covered in dirt?

When I went out for my ride last week, I found one of her shoes pulled and her back feet suddenly had large chips in them, most likely from running around and hard stopping. She has so much energy from just a week off, it's insane. In her defense, her feet are nearing the end of this cycle, and the new supplement that she's on will hopefully keep them growing out nicely. Also never thought I'd say this, but thank god it's hurricane season! The rain should also help reduce the cracking. Now all I have to do is look out for thrush . . .

Anyways, since Tubby wants to bring me nothing but despair at the moment, I hopped on Molly again. Still can't find the longer martingale, but honestly it's not an issue for me. For my skillset, the standing martingale is kind of useless while flatting unless I'm riding a nutcase, and Molly certainly does not fit into that category. She's just a sweet old lady.

Guess who's big, red, and covered in less dirt?

For some reason, a lot of horse people on my Facebook timeline started posting frequently about the value of walking at the start of a ride. This is part of why I wanted to incorporate a quick trail ride before going to arena with Lucie. Especially since Molly is older, I want to make sure that my riding her doesn't put any undue stress on her joints. Don't get me wrong, she's perfectly sound and is going great for her age. It's just one of those maintenance things, ya know? Like stretching and brunch.

Being matchy matchy is still a thing, right?

The thing I like about riding Molly is that she highlights habits that maybe Lucie has gotten used to or is able to hide based on her way of going. Molly is a lot bouncier, and I lean even harder into my canter transitions on her to avoid bouncing. She's so nonchalant that she just picks up the canter anyways, buuuuut none of that is gonna fly in a show ring. Plus, I really want us to be hacking around correctly and consistently. She's already a more tense horse, so it's definitely up to me to keep relaxing and sinking into her stride and letting her move into my hands instead of just curling.

If you look really closely, you can see me being run off with. On the other hand, that's actually not a bad stride!

We had a mostly good ride up until I brought my phone out to record. Boooo! I'm miffed at myself for getting her really worked up during our last canter (heh, maybe I should use a martingale), but I got her to come back and decided to call it a day.