Tubby getting chubby

The weather is just . . . thoroughly not on my side. We've officially hit the time of year where it's either blazing hot or pouring. I am slowly getting used to it, and I've made a commitment to go to the barn every day after work at least to see all the horses and do some handywork. My hours are going up in the fall to 24 per week instead of 16, and after talking to my boss, he's said that I can just start working more hours now. We have at least one big project that'll be moving forward and potentially another multi-million dollar project if we can get the numbers to work. Fingers, toes, eyes, and stars are crossed!

Needless to say, Lucie hasn't been getting as much time out of the stall. I know she's still in lessons right now, but she's only used for up-downers doing basic stuff. Outside of me and her other leaser, no one rides her seriously, and apparently her other leaser also hasn't been riding much lately. Again, the weather. With all this in mind, logically, Tubby got quite hot for our last ride. By chance, Trainer G was working with a very wound up stallion in the round pen as I was riding, and Lucie picked up on his energy.

Or she was mad that I spent a significant amount of time poking her while grooming just for fun. Who knows!

I'm always on the fence about when to work through certain rides and when to quit. Hot, tense, and overall unworkable is not Lucie's usual mindset, and I find myself going through a checklist before proceeding as normal. Was she hot at the start of the ride, or did her mindset switch? What's changed in the past week? What's changed since I pulled her out of the stall? Is there something that I'm not seeing? My eyesight is a nightmare, but I always leave my glasses in the car when I'm at the barn, so there are times where horses see things that I cannot. Additionally, she's usually tense when something is hurting. I checked with Trainer G after my ride to ask if Lucie has been acting weird lately. That's when she told me that her other leaser hasn't been out much, but, yes, Lucie has been getting more forward during the kiddo lessons. There, problem identified.

No touch!

Prior to that conversation, I still had it in my mind that she might be off and tried to work towards ending on a "good note." We started the ride with some very nice walk work and leg yielding, similar to what I did for my walk ride a couple weeks ago. It wasn't until the stallion got into the round pen that the meltdown started. We worked through it. There was some bolting, some sideways Dressage, and a couple of one rein stops. After cutting the ring in half to avoid getting near the round pen, she offered some decent transitions and a moderately okay trot. Definitely would have gotten a generous 5 in the sandbox, but I can't ask for that much when her mind is struggling to settle. That's when I decided to quit rather than continuing to push and push and push until she had a full on explosion.

Hot mares still get the obligatory roll and bath post ride

On the plus side, I'm really liking the time spent walking and pushing her with my legs. Of course it's a great way to check all of my buttons and make sure they're working. More so, it makes me feel so much more secure in the saddle and completely changes my feel in the saddle. I've forgotten how nice no-stirrup work is for when you need to "plug in" to your seat. It also gets the tendons and muscles on the outside of my leg - i.e. the ones that cause a collapsed hip - to stretch out before doing anything serious. All in all, it wasn't a great ride, but I learned a couple things, and a lesson is a lesson no matter how hard.

Good bean