Anniversary

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 :)

Baby It's Really F'ing Cold Outside

So, after my last post on how motivated I'm feeling I was all excited to ride every day this weekend. I took Monday off, to celebrate my birthday, and was looking forward to a good three rides in a row. Then I woke up on Saturday, put on my riding clothes, looked at my watch and realized that it was 2* out. I looked at the forecast and the high was around 6* with a windchill of -2* all day.

I just about cried. I could probably suck it up, put on my warmest clothes, and with the help of the "hopefully" heated arena I could possibly stay warm enough during my ride haha. However, I just don't think it's fair to Katai to ask her to work in the cold like that. It's not easy on tendons and ligaments or her respiratory system. At the very least since this was our very first really cold day and it was a major drop from the 30s that we were getting just about a week ago I felt like I really needed to at least give her some time to adjust. Then at the very least I could just do a lot of walking. In the end I stayed home and made myself a vegan birthday feast instead.

I was excited because Sunday had a forecast high of 23* so I figured I'd ride then. There was some snow forecast but the weathermen rarely get that right so I figured I'd be ok. However, We ended up getting at least 6" and since it was still quite cold (it never made it up to 23*) the chemicals they put on the road weren't working very well and it was extremely slippery. I made a trip to Target in the afternoon and felt like I was taking a risk with my life. I love my tiny, itty bitty car, until we get weather like this. So, I stayed home. The snow finally stopped around 9:00pm and after shoveling our driveway at least 3-4 times we still ended up with more snow overnight.

This was part way through the day, we ended up with at least another inch.
At least it's pretty!

Then, I was all excited to ride on Monday, my day off. It had been forecast to be 18* (remember that thing about the weathermen always being wrong?) but it was 3* when I woke up and the high today is still in the single digits with a wind chill around 2* as a high. Plus we're supposed to get more snow later.

Even for MN this is usually cold and snowy which is what the Farmer's Almanac told us it would be like this year. I honestly don't quite know what I'll do if the whole winter is like this and since historically January and February are our really cold months I'm really starting to wonder how much worse it will get.

This was last year on my birthday.
Not a bit of snow and I'm wearing a sweatshirt

I am still planning to head to the barn this afternoon as long as the snow doesn't start until the late afternoon/evening like they're forecasting (remember that thing about weathermen) but I likely will stick to walk and possibly a little trot depending on how stiff she is and how warm the arena is.

Christmas Shopping List 2016

I've discovered/realized over the years that however amazing the intentions of my family are, they just don't like to get horse stuff for me (at least not any form of tack) and it's just better if I get that stuff for myself and let them get me things that they enjoy shopping for more.

With that being said, most years I get myself something for my birthday (December 11th) and something for Christmas, usually after Christmas with any money I got for Christmas.

This year though, thanks to aggressively paying off debt and putting some money in savings I've got a nice little chunk of money to spend so I'm having a great time shopping! There are so many options and since I don't have an limited budget I'm having fun picking out what I can put together that's fun and purely gifts for myself.

The Item(s) I'm Getting for Sure:

PS of Sweden Flying Change bridle - 

I've been talking about this one for a long time and I finally get to purchase it!! 

Broadband

Throat latch

Then, since I'm ordering the bridle and having it shipped I"m going to also get the throat latch so that I know I can show with it and of course I need a sparkly broadband. They're out of stock on the one I really want so I'm hoping it will be back in stock when it's time for me to get it.

My plan is to try to get it during their Black Friday sale so that maybe my money will go a little further!

The Tentative List:

Total Saddle Fit Girth:

I've already got a TSF girth but it's brown and it's always gapped at the front. Katai has never been girthy with it so I haven't worried much but now I'd like to fix that, plus to get a black girth that matches my saddle. Also, my current girth is a 24" because of how short the billets on my brown saddle were but my Prestige has normal dressage length billets so I want to get a shorter girth as well.

White Breeches:

I'm slowly putting together a show outfit. My goal is to do a rated show by the end of the year so I'm trying to pick up the things that I'll need as I go rather than waiting until I need it this summer. I'm planning to get a decent but not extremely expensive pair of white breeches I just have to figure out which ones!

Show Shirt:

I'd also like to get some sort of show shirt. The one in the picture is only $35 from Horze which is about what I'd like to spend on a show shirt at this point so I may just go with this one. I'm also going to pick up a couple more cheap ($10ish) polos from Old Navy for schooling shows but that's not what I'm getting myself for Christmas.

Other Stuff:

I'm also shopping for other non-horse stuff but most of that will probably end up on my christmas list for my family since they'll appreciate having some stuff to shop for.

Anniversary

Baby Katai was a baby

I can’t believe that today is my 4 year anniversary with Katai! Four years ago today I actually, after nearly 3 hours, got her loaded in a trailer and home to the place I was living/boarding at the time. She proceeded to run through every wire fence on the property and even visit the neighbors within the first 20 minutes that she was with me. She also came up to me, let me catch her, and that whole adventure didn’t end in any sort of disaster because I feel like we already had some sort of connection (all of the treats I’d given her when working to get her loaded probably helped).

The next year and a half were a lesson in patience for me since she wasn’t completely convinced that she wanted to be a riding pony, or a pony that listened to people in general. She was rude, pushy, jumpy, naughty, aggressive, couldn’t be tied, couldn’t be blanketed etc. I kept on working and seeing small glimpses of how amazing she could be and only once in a while lost hope that she would be an amazing dressage partner. Then during our second year together we started working with a dressage trainer that ruined her relaxation and my confidence in my pony. I nearly sold her and doubted that I had ever seen any real talent in her but for some reason I couldn’t actually ever list her for sale and so after about 6 months with that trainer we “escaped” to a temporary barn where I painstakingly started to put things back together. Katai was still anxious and didn’t trust me on the ground but I very slowly started to get my pony back under saddle.

Then during our third year together we found L. I started to take twice monthly lessons with her and eventually went back to weekly lessons. She believed in us and started to help me believe in us again as well. She slowed things down, helped teach me how to get Katai more relaxed, and fundamentally changed the way that Katai moves and the way that I ride. Katai and I slowly started to get our connection back on the ground and under saddle.

After a tough year of work and slow improvement I needed to move Katai for my own financial reasons. For some reason the universe conspired to get me to exactly the right place at exactly the right time and I’m now working with an absolutely incredible instructor who not only is continuing to improve my riding and Katai’s way of going but is also actively working on our relationship as horse and rider. She’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever worked with including the professors I worked with as I was obtaining my BA and MA and all of the music teachers I had from when I was 5-24.

Here’s to another 4 years with this amazing little mare.

She doesn't look it, but trust me she's enthusiastic about this

Trainer Ride: Lesson Recap 12/13

My sister drew this on our whiteboard for my birthday on Friday. In other news I need to change my bio from a 20 something to a 30 something.

 

Today L rode my pony and it was amazing!! So far L hadn’t ridden my pony for a couple of reasons. One was that Katai had been such a wild card that I don’t think either of us thought it would be especially helpful. She was so wild, resistant, stubborn, and just untrained that having L climb on just seemed like a waste of time and energy especially since I’ve been making good progress with her help from the ground. More recently though that’s been changing as Katai gets more broke and more rideable. She’s becoming more consistent both with the good and with the bad and L has been mentioning that she has wanted to put a ride(s) on her. I’ve sort of been waiting for L to say "Today is the day!" but based on an interaction with a different student last week I decided that I should set it up and ask her to ride instead. L is very collaborative and I think that if she thinks that I want to ride she’s not going to say anything. So instead I got to the barn a little early today so that I was there before L was in a lesson and asked if she’d like to ride. She agreed that it would be a good day and gathered her riding gear. I tacked up Katai in time for my lesson and then climbed up for a little to warm her up while the other person was riding. Then once she was done with that lesson L mounted up and started Katai at the walk.

I think that both of us were surprised at how differently Katai acted with L. She had a completely different reaction with her than she does with me and didn’t try to race off at all despite L riding with way more leg than I’ve ever been brave enough to try. However, because of that L found out that she’s insanely stiff to one side and just is not comfortable bending to the left. I’ve known she’s stiff but not that it’s an unusual amount so pony is going to be scheduled for some body work. She already has a chiro appointment at the beginning of January but now she’s going to get scheduled for a massage as well.

Both L and I also agreed that we were surprised that she didn’t have more of a tantrum. She had pretty much given them up but for the last few lessons she’s been throwing one at the beginning and then getting down to work. With L, although she was resistant, she didn’t do anything like that. L did work a lot on the walk, which is Katai’s least favorite gait, and then went to the trot. She was good enough at the trot that L didn’t do much and then it was my turn for the second half of the lesson. I couldn’t believe how good, and how different my pony was when I got on. This is why you have your trainer ride your pony! It was an amazing lesson just riding her for those first 10 minutes before Katai went back to more of the way that she goes with me. It was like riding a different horse, one that was in front of my leg, on my aids, balance, and listening to what I asked rather than just running through everything.

L said at the end of my lesson, during my ride I basically just tried to feel her out and not "ruin" anything which was a lesson in and of itself, that she wants to ride at the beginning of the next few lessons and I heartily agreed. I’m also planning on asking her to do a training ride or two in January while I’m in WA for work because I think that would be helpful.

Also, on a slightly unrelated note, remember how I said that one of my qualifications for an instructor was that they needed to be able to be small enough to ride my pony? I knew that L was shorter than me but we ended up shortening my stirrup irons three holes and she rides with a longer leg than I do. She and Katai made a really nice pair and it was so nice to see my pony being so well ridden. I really think Katai has got some talent for this dressage thing!!!

 

One of my friends got some video during my ride and that will be shared once she gets it posted :-)

 

Being able to ride outside on my birthday in December was amazing!