Hills, and a Little Blasphemy

Saturday I got Blaze out for some quick hill work from home. It was a warm, gorgeous day for a ride, and sure to work up a healthy sweat for the little guy, though he is rapidly shedding winter coat like the others. My husband was around so we actually got a fun picture before heading out :-)

spring in the 'hood, green at last!

Blaze always goes barefoot in the back, even in LDs, due to an old scar/knob on his hind fetlock that any hoof protection causes him to interfere on, but because of a weird, scarred front right heel I had booted his fronts obsessively for the last few years. Recently I've been riding everyone barefoot and enjoying all the trimming work that is taken off my plate by doing so, and after giving it a shot with Blaze a few weeks ago I suddenly realized how much better and less sloppy he went without front boots! The Renegades are undeniably bulkier than their other main competitor on the market, and as Blaze was going better without them, the next natural step was to put him back in a more slim-line boot. But BOY, it took some serious internal (and external) whinging on my part to make me actually drag out the Cursed Box of Easyboots again. I spent all of 2012 trying to make Gloves work for Desire and they just *didn't* which eventually led me to discovering (and loving) Renegades. The Gloves always worked okay for Blaze though, and I always eventually go back to what works for the individual horse instead of what my various internal hissy fits say, so here is a photo of a small Blasphemy committed, and yes, the damn things worked fine:

Yesterday morning my husband and I managed to fix our Dodge truck ourselves, but the little car had to go into the shop for a starter. It was shaping up to be one of those days, so upon my grumpy return home from the mechanics I saddled up Scrappy and took the same 6 mile loop up the big hill that I had on Blaze on Saturday.

up up uppp we go!

Scrappy was undeniably a sassy, fit horse being ridden from home, and it was hilarious. We all know our charming beasts can display some of their worst behaviors not just at rides, but when riding to or from the barn, or say, in an arena, in most of my horse's cases. Still, Scrappy is a cool customer, not one to get fussy or excited about, well, anything, and this was the first time he clearly knew he was riding out from home, and had something to say about it. 

 Frankly, the photo above is how I feel about that. Sure popping his head and trying to jig and being a little shitty isn't ideal, but then again it tells me that my otherwise quiet and polite fella is feeling mighty good and has opinions to express. No worries, mate, but never forget who's boss! He got a few reminders, yesterday, that's for sure! My big grin is also related to the huge, swinging, straight downhill walk that Scrappy exhibited heading towards home, a walk that I could barely hustle my little legs to keep up with. I am very sensitive to how my horses go downhill since the whole Desire/hocks thing and it was just fabulous to see him trooping away with ears pricked and solid enthusiastic strides.

The time has changed, the ponies are shedding, the grass is green, and 2014 AERC Season is almost here for me at last! Can't wait :-)