The past few weeks have been.. in one word... insane. I took my last final on Saturday morning for my Statistics class (working on getting my MBA...) and I have felt like a new woman since then! Now we're down to 1) working full time 2)being a full time bride (now that the BIG day is less than 2 months away and 3)working on Irish.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks with Irish. He has gone from a boring little scrubby pony to a horse with a 'personality' sometimes and a growing body. The day that I can run my hand over his sides and not see feel bones we are slashing his grain (not really, I'm smarter than that... but figuratively!). I am attributing his attitude with the 9 lbs of grain he's getting a day plus 2 lbs of hay stretcher (ie: fiber). I think I would go a bit crazy too if I was eating that much.
The horses were moved into the pasture with lots of grass, however he has developed a girlfriend and this is not good for our sanity. One of the bad habits I'm trying to correct is this stomping thing. I don't know where it came from but he's like a little toddler. When he doesn't get his way he stomps. I'm kidding you not. He actually stomped one day so hard he tore off his bell boot. I figured next time I ride I'm going to carry a bat and hit him on the shoulder with it when he does it. It mostly comes on when I make him stand still and then put my leg on a bit to get him to give a little or move his hind, etc. He gets so frustrated because he thinks this means "go fast backwards". Uhhh... no. It's a slow process but we're trying hard! The other day a couple of people were watching us ride and it was like you were caught in the grocery store disciplining your child. Not a pretty conversation but it needed to be done.
Despite all this Irish shows tremendous potential seeing how far he has progressed in the past 3 months. I can't wait to get to our new barn where there will be less distractions (only 3 horses vs. 20-something) for both of us! No shame in the trot sets that will be happening on the American Tobacco Trail either!!
Til next time!
Dana & <3Irish
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