365 Days of Domino

Yesterday, we moved to a new barn. Moving horses is something I’ve avoided in the past, but the experience thus far hasn’t been too bad. Domino is a little worried. He’s in a new place with new horses and obviously it’s all quite different. I’m just being patient with him and letting him take his time with everything - he’ll be back to his same old self soon. He’s already showing signs of it, after less than 24 hours.

The first few hours in his new home, I let him mosey around the indoor arena to stretch his legs a bit. After I’d filled out my paperwork and shown our negative Coggins, I took Domino outside to do some in-hand work in the arena. At first he was really worried about being alone and kept trying to bolt past me, especially on the “scary side” of the arena where there are tall trees and forest flush against the fence. We did a lot of circles and backing and yielding his hindquarters and front end, slowly and quietly, and eventually we got one nice, quiet, relaxed, polite walk around the arena without any issues. I stopped with that and let him go back to his stall, where he dove into his hay.

He got electrolytes with dinner to encourage him to drink. Now, he’s eating, drinking, and pooping normally - all great.

I wanted to let him be this morning and let him get used to me not being the only person who really handles him, so although I was up at 6am worrying about him, I made myself sit on my hands and hold off on going over. I made it until 9am before I finally couldn’t take it and headed over. He was just about to go out with the ponies, but since I was there I decided to groom him and walk him over myself.

He seems very fond of the ponies and very happy with his situation. After five minutes of absolutely no squabbles, he seemed to decide little Gypsy is his new best friend. He kept looking up at me like, “I’m fine! You don’t need to watch me. You can go away now.” So I left him out with his two new girlfriends and decided to leave him until later today. This picture was the view from the barn as I was heading out - I think he’s going to enjoy it here.

Posted 18 minutes ago

Day 100!

My friend and I swapped for a bit today, so she rode Domino while I hand-grazed her mare. He looked really good for her! The arena footing is awful so it was meh, but that’s fine.

I hopped on afterwards to play around a little. It’s nice to get on a pre-warmed up horse! Haha. Anyways. I just focused on walk work since the ground was so crappy. We did spirals in and out in both directions, then did a little leg-yielding between the center line and the quarter line and back again. It was really fun and Domino seemed to really get it. Then we did a few loops, stretched out, and called it good.

Posted 1 week ago

1 note

Domino’s got a floppy lip and a counter bend going on here, but I’m smiling in a picture of me riding which like never happens ahhhhhh!

Posted 1 week ago

2 notes

Day 99

Another bareback ride. I did mostly walk-trot work, but I focused a lot on our walk. I worked on showing the difference between our medium and free walks and really getting a distinct transition there. After that was going pretty nicely, I also played with asking for a little shoulder-in, which he was pretty good at. I wished I’d grabbed my dressage whip though, because it was hard for me to keep his hindquarters over on the track without it. Still, it seemed like a nice start and he definitely got the concept, it just wasn’t necessarily as pretty as it could have been. But that’s okay. He’s too cute.

Posted 1 week ago

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Picture from today ‘cause Domino is too cute being all trot-y and non-worried about hay baling shenanigans.

Posted 1 week ago

4 notes

Domino, pony, paint pony, paint horse, pinto, pinto pony, piebald, black tobiano, black and white, horse, bareback, summer riding,

Day 98

So now that we have temperatures in the 80s I think it’s fair to say I’m officially in a summer state of mind and Domino and I will commence riding bareback 98% of the time. Saddles are so hot and ick.

We rode bareback again today. Just did a little wonky walk trot work. It wasn’t very good - I’m tired and too lazy to ride very well today, apparently. I didn’t carry a crop either and evidently he’s not balanced or responsive enough to my leg to stay straight without the aid of the crop, so it was wobbly. But we also had a couple little canters and I was pleased he picked it up without a fight even without me carrying the crop.

They were still baling hay and Domino was still not bothered. Good boy.

Posted 1 week ago

2 notes

Day 91 - Day 97ish

Not much happened thanks to finals week. Oops! Forgive me.

Domino and I are moving to a new barn in 9 days. We’re having a countdown. My drama doesn’t need to be on the internet, but suffice to say it’s absolutely the right decision and I’m really excited and it needs to happen. Also really scared because I haven’t been at a “real barn” with more than 2 other boarders in… four years? But it’s time, and Domino needs it.

So.

Nine days!

Anyways.

It was really hot today. I rode bareback and did a little walk trot work. They were baling hay and had the tractor going in and out of the arena and all kinds of weird stuff going on. Domino was not bothered in the slightest. I was very proud. Didn’t stretch the ride out too long because I was really happy with how calm he was about the hay-equipment stuff, so we only worked for about 20 minutes.

Then I got him a new grazing muzzle at Tractor Supply. Mwaha. He seemed quite resigned to his fate when I hand-grazed him in it as a reminder-session to make sure he remembered how it worked and wasn’t going to have a tantrum.

Matchy match!

Sleepy face!