Stag, You're It!

Today's ride was interrupted by 3 large bucks, first lurking outside the arena and then briefly venturing into the arena!  Cupid was surprisingly well behaved with them lurking around, and when they came in Cupid thought it was a fun opportunity to use his cow skills.  I didn't want to get too close, so the deer don't run into the mirrors or something.

I think Cupid was a little startled when they ducked back out through the fence, cows don't do that! 😂

I'm glad I happened to have my camera set, even though this was a bit of a Soloshot fail.  I'm not sure why it loses me for so long when I wasn't even close to the camera.  

After the deer left, we practiced some transitions and ran through the T1 test.  Even though the deer were still lurking in the bushes behind A, Cupid was not distracted.  I had the german martingale on for some extra help keeping the contact steady, hopefully to help build the muscle memory. We have a show coming up this weekend, our first in quite a while at a new to us venue so we need all the help we can get!

Pasture Wars

For me, the mental and physical  benefits of group turnout outweigh the risks.  Cupid is in a large, slightly sloped pasture with 5 other geldings during the day.  Most of the time they just eat or stand around, but occasionally one gets the notion to run which usually results in the whole herd taking off.  

Just over a week ago Cupid came in with a scraped up leg.  The barn manager texted me a picture and cleaned it up.  It seemed superficial, though there was a bit of swelling the next day.  My vet happened to be in the barn so took a quick look, but said it should be fine if I just clean it and apply ointment.   Cupid was not lame on it, and by the next day the swelling was gone.  I walked around the pasture to make sure there weren't any loose boards or nails but didn't see anything out of place.

Injury on right front, above his old puncture wound and popped splint

 

A fair amount of swelling for a surface level scratch

All bandaged up

Then this morning I didn't get to the barn until after the horses were already turned out.  As I was walking towards Cupid's pasture I saw and one of the retirees grooming each other and thought, how cute.  However a moment later apparently the other horse had enough (or maybe was embarassed to be caught, lol) and just turned and kicked Cupid!  I thought maybe he didn't connect, but unfortunately there was a fresh wound on Cupid's other front leg!  Since I didn't see the first injury I don't know for sure it's a kick, but they are pretty similarly placed.  

Second injury, on left front

My barn takes precautions, like horses in group turnout are not allowed to have hind shoes and new horses are introduced gradually, after a few days in an adjoining pen.  But horses will be horses, and even an established herd of mostly easy going gelding get rowdy every now and then!  Luckily these injuries were mild and I still believe the benefits outweigh the risks.

Best Laid Plans

I got the brilliant idea from Amelia Newcomb to create this shirt (with masking tape) to help me easily check my alignment if I video myself.  I was really pumped to try it, and managed to execute a proof of concept but unfortunately had my tracker turned off for all but the last minute of our ride, when we were just walking around.  Whomp whomp.  

Here I'm turned sideways talking to someone outside the arena, but it gives an idea how it will look.

Now here I'm basically just neck reining Cupid on a long rein, at least my shoulders are level but there is really no reason for my spine to be that curved.

And after that turn even going into the corner I'm still holding some of that crookedness, making us counterbent going into the turn.

I think this will be a helpful thing to try a few times - assuming I'm not a total dummy with the camera again.