When Paper Attacks

I arrived past the Mason Dixon line around 4 pm on Friday. First stop? You guessed it-to see Mr.B! Armed with fresh stud muffins, 5 pounds of english mints and maple leaf embroidered polos, my husband and I walked around the corner to see B's sleepy face in the corner of his stall. "B!" He immediately nickered back. I gave him a molassasy muffin and all the "you neglected me for a week" bitterness melted away. Apart from a bit of mud he looked fantastic. The cut on his fetlock had healed up completely and he had his slight belly back. Yahhh B! Wearing flats and jeans I was not quite up to riding, but I gave him many guilt-ridden carrots, mints and apples.

After a long, but enjoyable, day of teaching at my other farm I was only able to muster up enough energy to groom B on Saturday. When you think of the square footage on a 18.2 hand horse it's practically like cleaning a studio apartment. With that, he once again received his bucket full of treats, a kiss on the nose and was tucked back into bed.

Sunday was our first ride post va-k. My trainer said he had been really good for his in-hand work during the week so that made me smile. As I brought him in from the field I knew he definitely needed to get back into his normal routine. I forgot to mention that yesterday while I was grooming him it was crazy windy. I had him on the cross-ties with the lead rope around his neck while blankets were rustling and dust flying. I thought, well we're going to be at a horse show one day and it's going to be crazy windy so he might as well get used to it, right? Wrong. ha. Actually, he did pretty well until this giant, horse-eating monster came to attack him. That was B's version. In reality, a fluorescent-green piece of paper escaped from whence it came and blew right toward B. I didn't notice until B's eyes grew as big as saucers. I tried the useless, whoa but he proceeded to back up at warp-speed and break the cross ties just to cower in the corner by his stall while the paper blew by. I heart babies. The rest of the grooming session was cross-tie less. He stood still all by himself in the whirling wind. Good pony.

Back to Sunday. B certainly had a quality "edge" on him. There was no lowering of the head on the cross-ties and the usual ear rub seemed only a nuisance to him today. Fine. He ended up being a pretty good solider in the arena although one end of the arena was totally off limits for the first 10 minutes. I did my best to use his excess of energy for good instead of evil. We did our usual exercises and had a soft, uphill canter at the end. Once back on the cross ties, B was back to his usual self: back leg cocked with sleepy eyes. 

Entries are due on Friday for our first schooling show, which happens on May 23. I'd better start memorizing my tests now...I've heard there's more than one circle in Intro B. ;0)