Let Down

This week I've been feeling intense pony withdrawal, missing my old pony, wondering where my next pony is going to come from, wanting to spend money I don't have on said new pony, questioning my need to live in a house instead of a box on the side of the freeway so that I could get a pony... this seriously sounds like an addiction that should probably be treated. But nah.

So today I FINALLY got to go down to the barn to ride Rico! Ah I was so excited. He was out in his pasture grazing when I got there, of course. I went out to grab him and he was unimpressed by me wanting to ride him. I always think that he'll be so excited to see me since I'm excited to see him but he's always like "oh... you" and turns away from me. One day I'll get something out of him.

He was thrilled to see me

I actually managed to climb on him in the halter from a stump in his pasture so I didn't have to walk in. He decided that he didn't know how to steer and tried to take me over to let him graze. Poor pony!

I took my time brushing him and picking all the mud out of his feet. He got lots of cookies too. I made him all pretty, chose my awesome saddle pad with the sunflowers, put on his boots, got on, and we went for a walk down the road. I was so happy to swing up into the tack, but that feeling went away soon after I got on. He felt kind of reluctant the whole ride. He seemed interested in looking around but wasn't all excited like I had expected him to be.

Look at how green everything is!

Yay!

I didn't think too much of it, it was warm and he has a very thick coat, I had taken him out of his beloved pasture... but then I turned around in a tight-ish circle (at the walk) to the right and he came up DEAD lame.

Trying hard to ignore it, I took him into the arena. I wanted to believe he was just tender on it on hard ground on a tight circle. Plenty of horses are hobble-y on hard ground turning but then are fine on soft ground with large circles. I cantered him first, because he's always a bit stiff and then came back to trot. He wasn't lame per say, but very uncomfortable. More so than what I had come to realize was his normal state of meh-ness these days.

I missed riding him in here so much

He wanted to work so badly though. He gave me passage without being prompted to, his canter was so collected and awesome, he was so sensitive to my aids. He gave me everything I wanted! But if I didn't pick him up off that right front, he would suck back and flinch whenever that foot landed. Still wanting to move forward, but in a very flat trot.

I put him away quite early into my ride and gave him prevocox. I talked to my mom and made the decision to start taking the steps to permanently retire him (pulling him off of his supplements, getting his hind shoes off and working to get his 3-week front shoe schedule out to 6 weeks). He's clearly uncomfortable doing any sort of real work. I'm still really hoping that maybe after this winter off, he'll be comfortable enough to trail ride, at least with some NSAIDs... But today he really told me that he wasn't excited about going out.

Wishing his pasture was as awesome as the neighbor's

I'm kinda sad. I was hoping to keep him going through the winter and spring just for fun until I had the money to buy a new horse. Now I'm feeling especially horseless, and I wasn't handling feeling sorta horseless very well before.


BUT I heard back from our family friend who has horses that I could ride. She offered me a young horse to play with, a three year old. That's SUPER young. I haven't ridden something that young in a while. But interesting things could develop with this horse so I will keep you guys updated.

I think I get to meet him on Friday unless the "storm of the decade" we're supposed to get on Thursday messes everything up for me. Fingers crossed! Can't wait to experience that slightly-out-of-control-no-steering-no-brakes feeling of riding a real baby again.

Rainy day at school last week