Riding for Clients

Magnum's Status: Back to stomping at flies

My Status: Tank tops and flip flops

GFF: GG is now going to open a frozen yogurt shop in Germany and strike it rich

We rode horses for a client all day today, I rode Heartthrob, who I haven't sat on since my second day here. It was also the first time he's been ridden in 10 days since this flu began and he still wasn't 100%. I wish any of the trainers had been out there and not just the BO, but TGT is still sick, CPL is always absent lately and the last trainer is still on vacation. I definitely didn't do him justice, but I felt mildly better after the trainer who came down to check him out couldn't get him remotely round. This is when I want to shake people about riding them in draw reins and runnings all the time - he's good in the draw reins, if slightly hard to bend, but without them he was extremely hard to get round, almost Magnumesque but less reactive to the leg. The client was telling us about a horse he'd tried out the day before that was trained to PSG but completely ruined with draw reins, the BO immediately starting going on about the downsides of draw reins as well... no mention of the fact that all of these horses getting ridden in gadgets everyday. I also got to ride the grand prix horse again and he was wonderful - he made me look like I knew what I was doing and did perfect canter pirouettes and piaffe, the trainer fired him up and still got everything but it was much tighter but also much more elevated and fancier. The client was walking through the barns asking about horses and he asked what the price was on Magnum. Not for sale, but thanks for making me happy! He said he'd be back to look again when the horses haven't all had 10 days off, but I don't think we'll see him anytime soon - these horses are too much effort once the gadgets come off - he didn't have great rides on any of them. Then GG and I got to ride two more FEI horses just to get them out and work today, we videoed a bit and did party tricks.

In my lesson with TGT she told me that when Magnum spooks I need to bend him hard to the inside, soften WAYYY forward with my outside rein and pat him with my outside hand in front of his withers. It actually kind of works for things we are spooking at outside the arena, still no solution in side for the refusals at imaginary beings on the ground in front of us. 

I'm also getting really good at wrapping feet, I'm soaking and poulticing four a day now. These horses abscess like crazy here for some reason. 

This is why I would not put this in my stalls for the top half of the walls. I originally liked the easy airflow and the fact that it's probably fairly cheap - but half the time when we throw blankets on one of the belly straps catches in it, generally high enough that you have to climb to undo it. So I'm for vertical bars in my future dream barn and not any sort of wire mesh. 

                                             

Tacky Tack of the Day

This is the TGT's favorite saddle pad - I send it to the bottom of the stack whenever it appears. 

In addition to tacky tack, I uncensored my car yesterday, this is what it did look like - Magnum graciously shared some of his duct tape with me. I had to uncensor it because I heard someone on the farm say something extra religious.