October 1st was a big day for me and Katai since in 2012, 5 years ago on this day I brought her home :) Since I don't know what her birthday is I just use this as her birthday too so along with our anniversary it was her 8th birthday this year.
To celebrate she got a bunch of carrots and an apple (her favorite) and I decorated her stall. I really wanted to spend some quality time with her but had to get Veggie dropped off with his sitter and then get to the airport right away.
I ended up playing with her and doing some free lunging which was fun too. It's really cool to see the relationship we've built in that way and how she's happier with me than away from me in the arena. It also gave her a chance to stretch her legs a bit before she went back to her pen.
Although I will miss this view
I'm hoping to get out there tonight once I get home and then finally we're going to have a few months of consistent work without travel breaks. I'm so so so pumped :)
More Katai pictures soon but for now Lake Union will have to do
I wanted to share a bit about how amazingly wonderful it is to be back but I'm not sure it's enough for it's own post at this point so I decided to add it here. I got back Friday evening after the most horrible plane ride I've had. We got stuck on the runway on the way to Minneapolis and for about 20 minutes the child directly in front of me SCREAMED as loud as it could. The parents were doing everything they could but it just wasn't helping. I was already anxious and really stressed out for some reason and was getting a stress migraine so the screaming put me over the edge.
Somehow I made it through the flight and the very slow Uber ride home in Friday rush hour traffic but pretty much just made it to the couch and crashed, sort of wishing I could die, for the rest of the evening.
Morning rowing practice
Luckily I feel completely better today and was able to wake up early, drive the 3 hour round trip to pick up Veggie from my parents and then make it the 1 hour round trip to the barn to ride. Funnily enough that means I spent more time in the car today than I did driving from Seattle to Portland.
Katai was great, if full of energy and VERY wiggly to ride, and I feel like my body sort of remembers what to do after two weeks off.
I do think the vacation was really good for Katai who was calm and happy the entire time and really tried to be a good girl despite having extra energy early on and then wanting to quite after about 20 minutes haha. I ADORE this pony (if you can't tell) and she's so perfect for me. After two weeks without any rides and a major drop in the temperature (it was in the 60s when I rode today) she was foot perfect, stood quietly in the cross ties, and was basically just a perfect princess pony.
This AirBnB was adorably decorated with a travel theme. Bonus points if you can id the movie ;)
She did gain a bit of padding but nowhere as bad as I thought it might be. We just did lots of nice forward trot, some canter (which really felt good), a bit of leg yield, a very small amount of sitting trot, and much to her dismay lots of work at the medium walk.
It was so good to see her and I missed both her and Veggie so much!
Little tough to tell with the tinted glass but you can sort of see the space needle from the office I borrowed for the week plus the blurry skyline from the smoke
July Goals:
Ride Longer: Yep! Unless I had a really good reason I rode at least 30 minutes each ride with many rides being 40+ minutes. So much better than the 20-25 minute rides I was doing.
Continue Outdoor Rides: Yep! So much better than I've ever done with her in the past and our outdoor rides have been fun :) Jane even commented on the last outdoor ride I had (the week before I left for Seattle) how relaxed and happy Katai looked.
Practice, Practice, Practice (or Sitting Trot): Yep! Still struggling but it's getting better and I "get" it at least some of the time each ride. Those moments are still few and far between and I lose it quickly but it's getting there.
So hot for Seattle! I was there for both of the really hot days but it was the smoke piece that was new to me
August Goals:
Continue to Ride Longer: I feel like this one will continue to be important. I'm not looking to necessarily increase the time for most of my rides just to do at least 45 minutes more often or tack a trail ride onto the end of a shorter arena ride to lengthen it but still provide some variety.
Continue to Practice the Tough Things: More sitting trot and anything/everything I struggle with or that Katai struggles with. It's always been tough for me not to take these things personally/emotionally but after watching the video below (for some reason) I've been able to practice something without drilling but still enforce correct vs. just accepting what's not and moving on. Scott Brash is just so relaxed, calm, and no nonsense about trying it again with his horse in this video that I feel like I understand how simple it can be. It's obviously important that Katai know what the right answer is so this is a big one this month especially with transitions and picking up the contact at the walk.
Have a Successful Show: Successful for me will mean that Katai is more relaxed and rideable at this show than she was at the last. I'd like for her not to have any meltdowns but mostly I just want to finish feeling like I rode to the best of my ability. We've got all the movements down for each test (although the 15 meter canter circles are still not as correct as they should be) so I really just want it to be fun and hopefully get decent scores because that's always a good goal :)
