The New Year

Okay, so it's a few weeks into the new year, but thought I was overdue for a bit of an update.

Design of blog needs work but the template designer was driving me nuts so I will tackle that another day.

Cody spent about three and a half months at the self care barn. I was able to get some weight on him and he was looking good--just one problem, nowhere to ride unless I just wanted to ride in a big field. Now, if he were further along in his training I suppose that could have worked if I didn't mind riding in the dark all the time. In the 3 and a half months he was there I think I climbed on him twice, maybe three times for all of five minutes.

So the hunt was on for a barn with an arena and lights! (Actual covered arenas seem very rare in south Florida). Looked into one place that had an arena but no lights and was sort of co-op type situation, but it was further away. Looked at another barn that was more than I'd really thought to pay in board but they had an arena and a round pen and best of all, they had lights! So I took a closer look at what I was actually spending on my partial board situation and when I added up the cost of board, feed, and gas (plus the time to go there twice a day) it actually came out to basically the same as the barn that had what I was looking for. So arrangements were made, a trailer ride was found, and on January 1st Cody moved to his new home.

He spends the afternoon and all night turned out (they are working on finding a good fit so he can go out with a buddy in a field with more grass), there is a fan in his stall, he gets fed well (no skinny horses here!) and I can go to the barn after work and ride!!!!

Now for the riding part. In the 4 weeks that he's been at the new barn I have ridden more than I had in the last 6 months. We can walk, trot and canter in the round pen, and I have walked and trotted in the arena (I know, I should just canter out there, but it's a big arena and I'm working up to it). We have been practicing one-rein stops, flexing left and right, backing, going over ground poles and all that fun stuff.

I am trying to find someone I can take some lessons from to help build my confidence and give me some direction with Cody but in the meantime we continue to plug along.

Now if only I could figure out my saddle dilemma! More on that in my next post :)