Friday and Saturday:

Can you spot the pony?
I took this partially because it's very much a case of which if these is not like the other lol

(Posting a second since I was so late in getting these up and want to get through them so that I can post more current stuff)
I was going to do these separate but I don’t have much to say about spa day so these are getting combined as well.

On Fridays I have chores planned which I’m calling Spa Day because it sounds like more fun.. This could be anything from trimming Katai’s bridle path or tail, clipping her (once it’s that season), or trimming her feet to picking up supplements or other necessary horse items. This will eventually likely be planned with lunging day just because lunging is less work intensive so I’ll do that and then take care of these items.

Saturday is currently the only riding “work” day I have planned. This could be anything from working on collection, to building endurance. As Katai gains more confidence outside I may even do canter sets or something outside and then adventure day can be a low key trail ride.

Sorry for the Instagram repeats. I figured repeat photos are better than none.

This past Saturday I did some collected work just because she was really into that on that particular day. I started out with some stretching and walk work and then I moved to rebalancing her through half halts and working on longitudinal and lateral flexibility. Once she was really in front of my leg we did some SI and I started asking for smaller, but still active, steps within the same rhythm. For the first time she really got it and did a few really cool, in rhythm, small but very active and bouncy steps. Once she did that I stopped the trot work and just did a bit more walk work.

Next time I’ll probably do some turn on the haunches and potentially HI at the walk. I also want to work on canter but right now we’re focusing on canter on the lunge since it was causing some blow ups under saddle. The other thing I’m avoiding right now is sitting trot so even though it’s not “proper” I’ve been posting the SI. Once we’ve both built back up some fitness and my core workouts have started to pay off more I’ll bring that back in as well.

Updated Goals

My new coach made this adorable name plate for Katai's stall

I think it’s safe to say that I pretty much failed/will fail all of my 2018 goals. Rather than ignoring that and coasting for the rest of the year or feeling defeated by goals that are no longer appropriate I’m going to make some new goals.

October:
My goals for October are to get back to more consistency. I don’t really care what I accomplish but I at least want to go through the motions with the following things.

-Get to the barn 4-5 times per week
-Groom better
-Dress like we mean it (both me and Katai)
-Take two lessons
-Have barefoot trimmer friend check my hoof improvement work (third week in October)
-Build up to Katai wearing the BoT sheet for longer periods

November:
For November I’m hoping to get pretty much back to where we were when I left Jane’s
-Get to the barn 5+ times per week
-Make sure at least 1-2 of those times are not riding and work on other necessary things such as ground work, trailer loading(?), etc.
-Take two more lessons
-Continue with grooming better as possible with fluffy pony

December Goals:
For December I’m taking the pressure off both of us since I know it’s going to be tough to accomplish much while we adjust to the cold at a non-heated barn and with the holidays
-Step back a bit and have some fun including reducing to going to the barn 4-5 times per week
-Teach at least one “useful” trick such as targeting and/or stretching
-Focus on varying fitness with poles etc.
-Keep up on trimming Katai’s feet even with the cold
-Adjust to the cold in a non-heated barn
-Take at least one lesson

It's important to inspect inside one's nostrils 

Big picture goals for the rest of the year:
These are my bigger goals that I want to work on through the rest of the year
-Work on the following to strengthen the canter
                -Use square corners (at all gaits)
                -Straight rein backs, lots of them
                -Strengthen the walk to strengthen the canter. Focus more on walk and making sure that it’s mechanically strong and not just the gait that we do when we’re tired.
                -Canter/Walk/Canters -Get her stronger on the outside rein
-Re-address half halt (as a horse that has a tendency to rear my tendency has been to push her forward and rush her. In addition she’s a very forward horse. At this point though she needs to understand and listen to my half halts and halting aids and reply promptly)
-Start yoga on a consistent basis to gain strength and flexibility. My funds are short for the rest of the year so I’m going to follow in other bloggers’ footsteps and start following YouTube videos. Let me know if any of you have any suggestions for good ones!
-Lose some weight again. I swear there’s a thing with being in a relationship that’s as bad or worse than the freshman 15. I’ve put on a decent amount of weight and I’d like to lose it again. Luckily we live in an apartment that has an amazing, free gym!
-If the opportunity arises, ride in a clinic

Hard Work: Lesson Recap 5/2

First off, thank you all so much for your help on my last post! I'm going to go ahead and get Katai her HID this year since that doesn't need to be renewed but otherwise  I'm going to stick to opportunity classes. If for some reason she blows me away at these first two shows I may reconsider but otherwise it will be a nice cost savings.

Then, at some point here I may change the lesson recap posts just because there's enough similar information that I might do every other lesson or something. Not sure if people are enjoying reading them but I'm getting bored writing them ;)

At any rate this lesson felt like a lot of work. I'd skipped a couple of weeks of core workouts and then done one the weekend before this lesson. Then Jane had me work a lot on sitting trot and do a lot of canter AND she was making me use my core correctly... I'm pretty sure that's why I was dying by the end of the lesson. Katai also got a good workout and had slightly sweaty ears and some good sweat on her butt muscles.

The themes were that Jane wanted me to keep the bend and roundness really consistent (certainly not my specialty).

SQUIRREL

and make sure that she really stepped and pushed forward with her hind legs. Typically I can do one or the other but not both however in my lesson this week I was actually getting both as long as Jane didn't want me to do anything else.

Jane really pushed me to challenge Katai's balance again. First with much steeper leg yields in sitting trot where we did a zig zag from quarter line to quarter line which meant Katai going very sideways with her short little legs. I messed this one up royally before getting a good one. Then we moved on to shoulder fore and shoulder in. Jane wanted me to really focus on keeping her active in the trot and giving her space to move forward with my reins while keeping her round.

It's really tough with Katai because as soon as I use my legs to ask for something she tightens up through her back and completely loses the roundness which is a tough balancing act for someone who's just learning how to do some of these movements. We're getting there though and I'm still feeling steady improvement with each lesson which makes it fun.

Finally we worked on shallow serpentines at the canter. We've worked up to doing them to the center line rather than just the quarter line and as long as I remember not to cross my inside hand across her withers to "help" her get back to the wall we were doing pretty well. We also worked on trying to get some 10 meter circles at the canter. By the point we got to those Katai was already pretty tired so she struggled a bit but I'm so happy with how much longer she's able to maintain a decent canter!

It was a really good lesson even if I did feel exhausted by the end. It certainly made me realize that it's time for me to keep upping my fitness game and to do the same with Katai. I REALLY need to get her comfortable on the quiet(ish) gravel road so that I can get her out and work up to more trot and canter sets. It would be really good for both of us!

Consistency!!

Yes ladies and gentlemen we have it! I've always known that if I had something regular to work towards (like lessons) that I would be able to manage some of that consistency that I was lacking (plus lets face it, the weather has been reasonable finally) but I couldn't know until I tried! Since my lesson last Thursday I've worked with her or ridden every day including tonight and she has been great! She had her hooves trimmed on Sunday and they are looking way better and less thrushy. Our biggest struggle now is in gaining some strength, both of us. She isn't blowing or sweating much at all but she doesn't want to keep trotting and I can tell by the way she moves that it is still hard work. Luckily I know what to do about that :-)

Tomorrow I'm going to work her at a trot and canter on the lunge and then she will get Thursday off since I have a riding lesson set up for that evening.

I also managed to make some progress with clipper desensitization and was able to clip some of the hair on her shoulder with my itty bitty clippers. Next step is to work with her on the big girl clippers. I've been holding off on that step because she's got a vet appointment next Saturday where she is not only going to get her spring shots, and coggins but will have her teeth floated and her wolf teeth out. That's going to make riding out of the question for a little while and a bit out of the question for a long time. I'm planning on letting her recover for awhile and then will proceed with lunging and riding her in her halter until her mouth has completely healed but I will have plenty of time to work on clipping

Honestly the timing sucks but this needs to happen and it might as well be done sooner than later. Unfortunately my previous vet had told me she didn't have wolf teeth or I would have had this taken care of earlier but luckily a vet that was out for a different horse at this barn did me a favor and looked at her teeth to see if they would need to be floated and said that she did have small wolf teeth that should be removed.

Oh well, we will get some good bitless bridle time :-)

Another Personal Fitness Post

Since my last post about gaining strength and loosing weight I've lost another 10 pounds which means I've lost over 40 so far. I have a bit more to loose and definitely want to continue to improve my fitness level but it is amazing how much easier everything is now!

When I was trying saddles on Katai I found out that my 16.5" niedersuss that fit snugly now almost feels big to me. I can also really tell the difference in my core strength. Then there is the fact that I have removed nearly the weight of a bag of grain from my girls backs. I am now well under 20% of Katai's body weight which is an awesome feeling :)

I will continue to work out at the gym and I'm hoping to do a mud run or two this summer to help me continue to work toward my goal. Bronze medal here we come!