Showing Progress

Thank you all for your comments on my last post. It means a lot knowing that so many of you are following along and supporting me and Katai :)

Running in the background this whole summer has been a really stressful few months at work. Two tough trips out west weren't the whole of it and things haven't really gotten any quieter. I never really got a chance to de-stress when I got back from my last two week trip and it's wearing on me. My mom showed up for a surprise visit yesterday just to stop by and initially because I wasn't expecting her and just wanted to crash on the couch in my pjs and maybe have a glass of wine or do some whining I wasn't very nice. To all of you who are parents I commend you for all the crap you put up with from your kids. My mom just stuck around, I apologized and got a hug and some time to talk through what was going on. I've told other people about it but there's nothing like having a good cry with my mom to make me feel better. It surprised me how much lighter I felt after especially since all she did was listen but it did help so much.

After that it was back to show prep and I finished cleaning my tack and assembled my bridle to show by adding the throat latch and plain browband.

While I was cleaning my boots I also got a reminder of how much my position has improved. I'm sure some of you remember my rouge right foot.

If not, here's a picture for reference and this was a good day.

This was one of the first things that Jane tackled and while that leg is still a work in progress since I have a tough time sinking weight into my heel, Jane no longer has to tell me to turn my toe/knee in.

Picture from this winter, also a good day and not very consistent

However, I hadn't really realized how far I've come until I saw the wear marks on my boots. Previously the left boot had a wear mark fairly far back on the upper calf and the right boot had no wear marks since it was the back of my calf that I most often had contact with against Katai's side.

Now they look like this :)

Left boot, the wear mark toward the front is completely new

Right boot, not as much wear towards the back since
I skipped to more wear toward the middle/front

I'm really happy with how even they are! Also happy that I'm riding enough to cause this much wear to my boots. Those fancy boots may be closer than I think haha.

But back to show prep!

I got the majority of my stuff packed, located my coggins paperwork (whew!), and have a shopping list of stuff to pick up tonight/on the way to the barn tomorrow morning. Unfortunately the forecast has continued to show all day rain so it looks like we'll be getting wet. I'm still glad that it's going to be chilly and wet rather than extremely hot and humid but we'll see how quickly I start complaining tomorrow ;)

Bounce: Lesson Recap 9/20

After my ride with Katai on Friday last week I started feeling more positive because everything Jane was telling me to do was so clearly working that I just kind of let go of my need to try to figure this all out and was able to convince myself to just sort of go with the flow. Because of that I was relaxed and feeling really positive on Tuesday which isn't normal for me since I normally have a good amount of lesson anxiety.


We started off working on my position. I've always had a really tough time keeping my leg back and my conformation hasn't been helping me. We spent around 10 or so minutes at a halt with Jane putting my body where it needed to be and then explaining to me where I should have tension and where I shouldn't we talked a bit about some stretches and exercises that I could do.

Then we went to walk and after a bit of walk in each directly, mainly working on me, we went to trot. This lesson was pretty much more of the same as my last lesson with some additional specifics and just focusing on giving me more time to get things right. I'm still really struggling with getting my body turned enough to the right. I feel like I'm turning all the way around but Jane says that I'm still barely turning. Plus, my right hand has always been better at releasing than holding and I'm having a tough time keeping an appropriate amount of contact when I turn her in that direction.

Playing with running water in the tank is better than Netflix

Katai REALLY likes the new rider that I'm turning into. She's moving SOO well through her back, I've got good connection on both reins and I'm starting to have proper bend about 90% of the time. Because of her amazing new relaxation she's moving so, so well. It's so fun to ride her and feel her so traveling so through, it's a good step up from what I've ever felt from her before.

Then we went to canter. Jane is such an amazing calming influence on me. I'm not that nervous about cantering but Katai is such a little firecracker and add the fact that I want to do a good job in front of my new instructor and it makes me tense up which certainly isn't good for actually getting a good trot/canter transition. One of my friends always refers to her instructor as "her Yoda" and I feel the same way with Jane. Initially there were some fireworks and Jane was working on describing to me how to sit differently. We had talked about how I push my right leg out in front of myself in the canter so we worked on that first and then went the other way. Jane was trying to get me to sit differently and I kept trying different things and then I got it!

She wanted me to stop moving my torso as much and allow myself to feel like I was bouncing straight up and down. As soon as I got it I felt it and Katai's canter slowed down, she re-balanced herself, and it just felt magical and amazingly controllable. I felt sort of like I was sitting on a yoga ball (her hindquarters) and there was this light unweighted yoga ball in front of me that I could have steered anywhere. It was the most amazing riding moment that I think I've had.

Jane got all excited and we quit there. Now I just need to try to replicate that during my rides this week!