December 9 2007

Today was a wintery day to be certain. Snow on the ground and a high of 35 (which was lower than average). Heidi Larson came out to pick up Ollokot, she is his new owner now and a fellow endurance rider so it was nice to meet her and she was wonderful with Ollokot, he hopped right on that trailer for her.

Afterwards I picked up Lara's trailer and went back out to get Sinwaan for a ride at the arena. I attended the group ride time of 2-3 pm at the Fairgrounds indoor arena for the Blue Mountain Riders and there were 10 horses and 9 riders out today for this hour time slot. Mother KP came along with me for the company, although she decided not to ride today. I was very glad she was there as I needed her assistance on more than one occasion.

We had some complications from the start with the trailer. First it took us about 20 minutes to back up the Explorer in line with the hitch. We were laughing because it turned into such a riot that we just couldn't get it, it was silly. Then her area for the safety chains was too fat for the chain end clip so we had to get creative to hook up the chains. When we got out to the barn and tried to back up, the trailer brakes came on and I had to unplug the connector in order to reverse the trailer. Sinwaan gave me his usual trouble loading but mother shooed him in quickly. When we got to the fairgrounds we could not get the trailer door open. I know it sticks sometimes but this had me befuddled. Dee Dee was nearby so I asked her if she had any tips. She came over and opened it right up, for which I was relieved, but then it would not close. We finally came to the conclusion that because the trailer was at a slight angle on the pavement, the door was not lining up right due to gravity. When we were ready to leave I had mother pull the car forward to a level spot and then the door shut and opened with no trouble at all, proving our theory was correct.

Unloading, Sinwaan likes to turn around and walk out but this time he got his blanket caught for a half second on something. It didn't bother him, and didn't rip the blanket, so no harm done. I put Sinwaan in the building and tied him so he could have a little time to get used to the place again. He is ansty the first 10 minutes or so, calling out to the other horses and moving around. Matt stopped by with a taco for me from the taco wagon since the days events would leave me with no time to come home for lunch. I gulped it down and gave Sinwaan the last bite since he seemed interested. He started flapping his lips and spit out the bite and lifted his lip up into the air.

He wasn't too dirty since he has been blanketed but I did have a fair amount of grooming to do on his belly and legs. By the time I was done and tacked up, I entered the arena at 2:15. There were some loud noises today, later it was determined to be ice sliding down the roof of the arena building. At one point it slid and fell right in the doorway to the building, spooking many of the horses. Sinwaan jumped a little but was no trouble. What he really didn't like was man walking around the perimeter outside the arena with spurs a-clanking.

I walked him around about 10 minutes and then we did a fair amount of trotting and I worked him on transitioning again. When I asked for the canter he would throw his fore up and pin his ears and do about one stride before coming back to a trot so we worked on that too. This is something new he has started since the arena so I am guessing it has more to do with being arena sour than pain since today all his tack was back to the same he has been using all along.

We did some backing up and sidepassing (not as good as last time) and rode around in circles. When there was 15 minutes to go the BMR ladies decided to do a follow the leader drill. I paired up at the end next to Linda and we did a series of maneuvers like a drill team. It was ok, sort of fun except Sinwaan doesn't like to be that close to other horses. The things you discover riding in an arena. I had to keep my leg on him to stay up where he needed to be and then the last thing they tried was a pinwheel and he wanted none of that, but in all fairness the horse we were turning into was thrashing his tail and acting up a little so we called it a day and I took him out and untacked and got him ready for the trip home since the snow was already coming down again and I didn't want to get caught out in it.

I dropped mom off at my house and took Sinwaan back to the barn and returned the trailer (thank you so much to Lara for the loaner). The last bit of trouble I had was parking the trailer up on the curb and then having to back it up (unplug the connector) and straighten it out but I got it done and was proud of myself for getting a ride in today.