A Ride So Good We Could Scream!

Like we've already mentioned there's a virus going around our barn so all the horses are in a 3-week quarantine: nobody in, nobody out. And until yesterday everyone was stall-bound for a few days, which for Big G. is like trying to contain a hot nuclear reactor. Last night we walked him around the outdoor arena in hand for about 45 minutes. Actually, it was good exercise for the human contingent and while Guinness didn't get any aerobic activity it was one of the few sun-breaky moments we've had here in the Seattle area. The pasty-whitest among us appreciated it. Although it was harder to appreciate the vast amounts of liquidy mud splattered about as the silly guy pawed the giant puddles every time we walked past. (But we're trying to foster his bold cross-country love of water!)

After the leg-stretch we gave Guinness an extremely thorough grooming in his stall (not an easy task given the massive amounts of mud in every orifice).  Everything has to be done in their stalls these days (rather than in the cross ties in the aisle) to minimize the spread of any potential germs. Thankfully no more horses have gotten sick since the original two and we are all being really careful it stays that way.

We learned recently that Guinny is able to think more clearly under saddle if he's allowed to get his ya-yas out first on the lunge line or in a round pen.  He prefers the lunge, as do we. So he cruised around flinging his limbs about and we giggled, thankful to be flat-footed on the ground while he performed his rodeo maneuvers.

Once that was out of his system Erin climbed aboard to get down to work.  We've got a new super-special saddle pad that helps his back stay warm, which helps him focus better and be more supple while we work.  His lateral movements are delicious and he's as responsive as a Maserati.  SUCH a fun horse to ride, even when he's a bit of a handful!

Everything we asked him to do, he did with gusto. It's hard to tell who was happier, the horse or the humans. He is getting much better with others coming up beside or behind him in the arena, and since our facility is under quarantine there are 3 barns worth of horses who have to get worked without intermingling. That means that arena time is at a premium and that it's generally pretty crowded.

But Guinness was a rockstar and it was the most satisfactory ride we've had yet. His previous family calls him Lucky Guinny, but we're pretty sure WE are the lucky ones!

Guinny's Gotta Work!

It's been a great week of work for us and every lesson brings us all closer to working like a well-oiled machine.  Our trainer, Rachel, is fun to work with, and she is effective at pointing out our bad habits and helping us create new ones.  AND she digs our horse, which is always a plus!  Each ride brings forth another "A-ha!" moment and we're so eager for the nice weather to arrive so we can ride more consistently to practice these things.

This week's biggest learning was that it's really not fair to Big G to ride him without giving him 15 minutes or so of free movement either in the round pen or on the lunge line beforehand.  He tries so hard under saddle but we realize it's hard for him to concentrate with all that excited energy coursing through his veins. So we'll let him get his ya-yas out before the ride so we can get right down to business (and by then some of his limbs are warmed up too)!

When we're in the flow, we're really in it.  Guinness has such a huge heart and he tries so hard. And he's clever as hell, which is a plus and a challenge.  But Rachel is helping us learn his quirks and adding tools to our bag of skills.

This week Guinny got a new dressage saddle!  We've been trying it for a week and since all 3 of us really dig it we just bit the bullet and bought it.  It's quite like riding on a cloud...  In addition to a new saddle, he also got a new light-weight blanket, a new stall name plate and some yummy biotin supplements for his already-healthy feet.

There's a lot of rain in the forecast next week, which sucks but isn't a huge bummer since there's a bug going around our barn and we're all trying to be careful about keeping our horses healthy. The two who were sick have been isolated and though it's not a dangerous virus it's still a pain in the ass.  So everyone's taking precautionary measures and it's a little complicated about who's riding when. But we'll get it figured out, and this too, shall pass.

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos Shanna took of Erin's lesson the other day.  It was a lovely day to be outside with our handsome fella, learning from a very competent teacher, and trying to ignore the very scary wind chimes nearby....

It wasn't easy to get him to this moment.....

Proud Moms of a Canadian Sport Horse

Established in 1926, the Canadian Sport Horse is Canada's oldest indigenous sport horse breed with horses successfully competing in the English Olympic disciplines of eventing, show jumping and dressage.

The aim of CSHA is to ensure the production and promotion of a sound, solid horse, with a good disposition, capable of competing successfully in the Olympic Disciplines at all levels of competition.

Since we can't seem to find any CSHA logo wear for purchase on the web, Guinness has been asking us to create a personal line in his honor! Send an email if you'd like any Guinness/CSHA apparel.

Guinny gets new shoes!

Historical Fact: "During the American Civil War of the 1850s, the Northern soldiers' use of a horseshoe manufacturing machine gave them a strong advantage over the Southern armies." Undoubtedly, some of Guinny's ancestors were revered mounts in the Austro-Hungarian Army, but Lucky Guinny's only adversaries are wash mats and fake flowers!

David Barron, proprietor of TomCatForge, met Guinness on Saturday for a new pair of custom shoes. David is skilled in traditions of iron age blacksmiths, and also a gifted performance horse farrier. While materials have changed (Iron and leather are now european steel bars and Nails Swedish), the art is still apprenticed, practiced and perfected. David shoes both "hot" and "cold" but chose to make four individual hot shoes to match the specific outline of Guinny's feet providing maximum protection.

Here's a a video of David forming a shoe:

After the shoes are shaped, they are tested against the foot while still hot to create a perfect fit and validate the shape. This practice creates a lot of smoke, but Guinness was not phased!

smoking hot

After 2 hours, all four shoes were complete and Guinness, delighted with himself as usual, pranced out of the barn to enjoy some spring grass.

Fancy footwear indeed

Getting to know the Neigh-bors

Theo & Guinness

Energy to Spare

The weather was cruddy today and the horses were only turned out for a few hours, so this afternoon Erin decided to give Guinness some exercise on the lunge line.  It wasn't all fun and games, though, as lunging is serious work.  Side reins and all.  But poor Guinny was feeling his oats, so to speak, and just couldn't help himself.  He was his usual goofy self in the cross-ties, very eager to get to work. It's a rare horse who gets truly excited at the thought of hard work, but he does!

So we started out (tried to) slowly with a nice brisk walk, but Big G hard a hard time containing himself.  He really preferred to careen around the arena like a madman, kicking up his heels and farting a lot.  But eventually we managed to get in a fairly respectable workout.... until another woman and her spazzy horse decided to lunge at the opposite end of the arena.  Guinness used that as an excuse to act like a maniac again, spooking and crow-hopping at least once per circle for several minutes.  He's quite nimble, that big fella, and it was definitely a sight to watch him leap up into the air and dive back down through his front legs.  Thank goodness the lunge line is very long so it wasn't too hard on his legs carrying on like that in circles.  We're not huge fans of lunging but sometimes it's the best we can do. It was hard to get him to calm down and just find his center, but we worked on it until he eventually did settle in and calm down.  Both horses were feeding off each other for awhile, and it required some pretty focused human energy on our parts to keep them from firing back up again. 

It was the first intense work that Guinness has had since he's been here in Seattle, and he's fitter than we thought.  We both have lessons scheduled for next week, the start of a work routine for all of us.  He seems to have worn himself out today, though, and we all feel better for it.  Because he was such a spaz he literally worked himself into a lather so we added a nice, warm bath at the end of the workout.  Of course today was a good day to spook multiple times in the wash stall -- the hose was potentially deadly, the rubber mats threatened to eat him, and the shampoo was visibly vicious.  But somehow we both survived and while Erin got soaked Big G got mostly clean.  And we both smell like Bigel Oil....

Old and New Friends

Yesterday dawned lovely and warm so we played hooky and headed to the barn for a ride in the sunshine. Guinness was happy to see us (and the carrots) and was lounging in his outdoor paddock when we arrived. He's such a ham in the cross-ties and his faces keep us laughing.  Guinny the Goofball....

Shanna enjoyed a ride in the huge outdoor arena, both of them soaking up the sunshine. We're both excited about our lessons next week and can hardly wait to get all 3 of us into a training routine. The excitement of a schooling show is building!

But the best part of the day was when Big G's two favorite Aunties showed up to visit him later in the afternoon. "The Other Erin" and her mom were en route from California home to B.C. and they stopped by the barn for a few hours to visit the Handsome Fella.  He was delighted to see them and basked in their love and affection.  One of the things we dig so much about this horse is that he has a healthy sense of self-love, and there's no end to the amount of affection he's willing to both soak up and give back. Erin and Susan loved on him and he ate up every ounce of it.

We're so thankful to them for the obvious love and respect they have for Guinness, and the countless hours they spent doting on him and keeping him happy.  We look forward to seeing them again soon, maybe at Guinny's first show next month!