Mare-ish

Well, I survived the Great River Ragnar!

From Friday at around 9:00 to Saturday around 10:00 I ran 11.8 miles in three stages the first being the longest at 5.4 miles. I truly would have told you beforehand that I was going to die so I'm very pleased to not only be alive but to have really enjoyed the entire experience and not feel half bad only a couple days after. 

Pre race at 4:30am on Friday (furthest on the left)

Post race at about 6:00pm on Saturday (in the middle)

So, for pony things.

I've posted a few times before that Katai is very into the boys. In the past, however, I haven't felt her to be especially moody or cranky when she's in heat but once I started riding that changed. On the ground she is her same sweet self with slightly more separation anxiety but when I try to ride her during that time she is impossible. At first I felt it to be behavioral because when palpating her back she had no reaction and she was only slightly more tense than normal. Recently though she's been getting so, so much better that I started to question whether it was behavior or pain and now I'm convinced it's the latter.

At a walk she is perfect. Her back is loose and swinging and she stretches down into contact but at a trot she becomes so inverted that she's almost gaited. Her feet fly in something between a canter, walk, and trot and she is so tense that she feels like a piece of steel. Most of the time her trot is better and has continued to improve but in heat she is impossible to work any faster than a trot and she has been in heat for the past week! Most of the time her cycle seems to be only a few days but this one's been a doosey :(

I finally decided it was time to do something about it and I've ordered a supplement to try. I've also got her back on a magnesium supplement since that is supposed to help loosen back muscles and is calming.

I will post more about my experiment as soon as I know more :)

Respect

I feel like we finally turned a corner in my lessons. J has had respect for me from the beginning but had none for Katai. I really don't blame her because Katai has been a little brat and has made my life more difficult that a more well trained horse would or just a horse in general since ponies are pure evil.

At my last lesson Katai was far from perfect but she listened and wasn't trying to rear or flip like she had been. She was relaxed, calm and sweet. I could tell that it changed how J felt about Katai.

This weeks rides have sucked. I've honestly been less motivated than I was for the past few months and Katai was back to being really tight through her back and resisting again. We were having some luck towards the end of my rides but I've felt like every time I had to go through the same struggle all over again. Of course this is why I have a trainer :) 

At tonight's lesson Katai started out horrible. I have no clue what was going on with her but half the time she was trying to bolt on me and the other half she just wanted to stop and stand or lazily walk around. 

I. Had. No. In between.

For about three seconds during my warmup before the previous lesson finished I got a nice trot so I quit on that and went into my lesson. J is a miracle worker, seriously. It's not that Katai wasn't horrible at moments it's just that she helped me change it, showed me what I needed to do next time and helped me get some of the nicest trot work that I've ever had with Katai.

I can't wait to go back now and try to recreate it!

In other news here is proof that we've been working hard.

I've been cleaning tack every couple of weeks and it's still getting this dirty. I can't do full cleanings more because I have to have pizza and every other week is more than enough pizza.

Yum :)

Next week I'm running in Ragnar and won't be able to have my normal Thursday lesson so I'm having a makeup lesson with a different instructor this Saturday. This is someone that I haven't ridden for or even around so far since she doesn't teach many lessons. I'm looking forward to having another person coach me and it is always good to get a different opinion. Sometimes one instructor just has a different way of describing something that will click with the rider.

It is sort of throwing off my scheduling though since normally pony gets Friday and Saturday off and I ride three of the remaining four days before my lesson. I'm still trying to decide what makes sense for a schedule this week. At any rate I'm trying to be better about blogging again and will post an update after Saturday's lesson!