If the Broom Fits

Well, I didn't end up dressing up for my Halloween lesson but if I had I would have totally dressed Katai as a witch...

This year

Goals for next year

She was just as bad, if not worse, for this ride with Jane as she has been for the rest of the week. I was SO GLAD that I had Jane there to help me and make sure that it wasn't just me. I knew that some of it was me but I also needed to know what to change and how since I had run out of tools.

Jane was able to be really helpful but even she commented on how horrible Katai was being. Honestly if I didn't know better I'd say that she'd run out of Magnesium because she's acting more like she used to when she wasn't getting that. I suppose it wouldn't be unheard of for something to be off with her supplements but I trust Smartpak so I really doubt it. Both Jane and I are thinking that it's the change in the weather combined with a bunch of new horses in the barn and a new routine.

I'm really hoping that it is just that and that she decides to return to normal sooner rather than later. I won't even go into much about tonight since it wasn't as though we really made any progress beyond ending with a slightly looser pony than we started with. Very telling was that she was really sweaty around her ears and on her neck despite the cold and the fact that she really didn't work that hard or for that long. I really think it was just where she was mentally tonight.

She's looking cute since she got a spa day yesterday but that's about all I have that's positive about where we are with our riding and dressage progress at this point haha. Along with the spa day I had a challenging (but better) ride yesterday only because I literally didn't ask for anything and just bombed around while my new fellow boarders rode around with us.

Just as I hoped it was great to have them there and is still motivating me to go to the barn despite current pony/human relations being so challenging :)

Also, more puppy pictures for your daily dose of cute!!

I can't believe that she'll be 5 weeks old this week! Only about a month left before she comes home :)

Hollow-ween: Lesson Recap 11/1

I have not been feeling motivated to do any blogging recently :-(

I have been riding regularily and still making great progress but just not writing about it. This week however I didn't get in as many rides as I wanted to. I took Monday off as usual and then had a bad headache on Tuesday and decided that it wouldn't be too big of deal to take that evening off. Then, of course, we were getting some rain/snow on Wednesday so after driving a couple of miles I turned around when it started snowing more heavily. I rode Thursday in Drill Team (more on that later) and Friday but then wasn't able to again on Saturday due to the clinic taking place in the indoor and the rain outside.

Today at my lesson, however, Katai was brilliant! We've been able to start off almost immediately  in a good place recently and although she was a little anxious since the other door on the arena was open she was listening and moving well. We started off with a bunch of changes of direction and L quickly diagnosed that she wasn't taking contact on the left rein. I realized pretty quickly once we started working that I've never had real contact on that left rein and it felt good to find another hole and start filling it in.

L had me start out by getting her on a 20 meter circle at the trot and getting a really good bend. Then she had me straighten her and finally move her into counterbend. We did this going in both directions and then worked on getting the correct bend going to the right and giving the contact forward and quickly taking it back on the right whenever she was leaning on the rein.Then we did the same to the left only now it was the outside rein that I was now giving forward and taking back. It wasn't that I didn't allow her any contact, I just was gently asking her to carry herself rather than just leaning on that rein. Once she had lifted more through the shoulders and wasn't just pulling L had me keep the contact steady on the right as long as she had equal contact on the left rein.

It was amazing how much of a difference this made! It was amazing to me how I've been limping along with her never taking real contact on that side and how after my ride today so many things were easier. Now to just get it consistant!

We did a quickly canter depart in each direction and L started to work with me on how to cue properly when we ran out of time and the clinic was ready to begin. I will do a clinic recap as a separate post soon!