Goals?

Going to the funny memes since this is a heavy blog post

I'm doing something a little different this year and not setting traditional goals per the Jane Pike way of doing things. If you're curious what I'm talking about you can check out the podcast where she specifically talks about this here. 

However, that doesn't mean that I'm not going to talk about plans and progress for the year, it's just that I'll be sharing my action steps rather than larger goals, or dreams as Jane Pike talks about. I'm planning to outline the action steps I'm working on now and update the blog with progress on them on a regular basis throughout the year to make sure I'm not losing ground.

In thinking through those action steps for the year and how I can structure my to do list in order to be successful I'm going to have include an update on this blog. Even if you don't read the rest of this wall of text make sure to check out the last item.

This year I'm going to really work to maintain focus on doing what I can do and not putting time and frustration into things that I know aren't going to be possible. With that in mind, here are my current action steps that I plan to carry through the year.

Action Steps:

-Managing My Anxiety: I'm going to be working through the materials from Jane Pike and practicing the skills I learn there. I'm still working on finding a therapist that I gel with so that may happen this year as well. This also involves practicing the skills I'm learning with Katai which will hopefully help with her anxiety.

-Build A Good Team: I've recently found a body work professional that I think is fantastic and we have a vet I really like. I'd like to find someone who does Chiro that I can schedule with as needed and I'm curious about trying PEMF. I also need to find a saddle fitter who can check her saddle and back on a regular basis. You'll note I don't have an instructor on this list and that's because my only instructor options would be a trailer ride away. I'm going to take advantage of any opportunities I have this year but otherwise it's our year for me to get us back to where we were which I'm confident I can do.

-Work Outside: One of the big things I can do to help Katai's anxiety at shows is to spend a bunch of time this year working on getting her more comfortable outside. I finally have access to a wonderful outdoor arena and so many trails. This is our year to really focus on working outside. Plus this is completely free lol

-Continue to work on my Finances: I've made such huge progress with following a budget over the last year or so and I want to continue to work on that. I'm putting a lot of focus into paying down high interest debt and sticking to my budget. I've been pretty good but still go over on food/coffee on a regular basis. I don't go way over but ideally I should have some left at the end of two weeks so my goal is to start to get to that point.

-Build Fitness for Myself and Katai: The main thing I'm going to do is increase what I'm already doing. I'm going to increase my average step count, track calories, ride 2-3 times per week, and do short, easy workouts on the other days with focus on building strength. Specifically for Katai she'll be getting ridden 2-3 times per week (for now) and lunged once per week. As the year goes on I'm hoping to increase the number of rides/works to 5-6 per week. One item I'm really going to be focusing on is building strength and time at the canter.

-Showing up: This is a big one and that's to just keep showing up. To this purpose, one of the things I learned about myself when I was going every day is that I need to just go whenever I can and not to try to stick to a set or specific schedule. That's not to say that I'm only going to go when it's convenient, just that  especially during the winter when the weather could prevent me from going, I need to go every day that I can even if that means that I go 10 days in a row since then there might be 5 days in a row where I can't go. It also means just going even if I'm not feeling motivated or if I'm tired etc. because once I get there I can pretty much promise that I'll feel better and get something accomplished. To hold myself accountable, and share with friends (which I enjoy) I'm going to do two things.

The not funny media, this has just been so helpful!

The first, I'm going to be journaling every ride, body work session, and anything else in the Equilab app. I REALLY wanted to find a way to do something on paper since I enjoy the process of writing but the problem is that it's too easy for me to not have my notebook or journal available when I have the time to write the entry where I always have my phone on me. In addition, there is so much other information I can capture through the Equilab app such as ride data.

Posting a picture of my sister's adorbs cat, Gritty, to signify that
the next paragraph is important since everyone loves cat media ;)

The second, for the next month or so (till the end of February at least) I'm going to experiment with letting this blog sit and doing more with Instagram. That isn't to say that I won't blog anymore ever, just that I'm going to give this a try. It also doesn't mean that I'm just going to keep doing Instagram the way I have been, instead I'm going to add more text, update more often, and add more media including photos and videos. I have friends on Insta that do this really well and I'm curious if this social media platform will work better for me. The reason? I've been struggling to find time and/or motivation to sit down at my computer and put together a blog worth of content. I have things throughout the day that I'd like to update everyone on but not enough to make a whole post. At first I thought it was just because I didn't have content but now, even when I've had more content I'm just struggling to put together a whole post.

If you aren't already following me on Instagram and you're reading the blog please add me to stay up to date for the time being! My Instagram account is @kataipony

If you are following me already or choose to follow me I'd love feedback on this experiment so please let me know what you think. Again, this isn't me ending this blog for the long term, just me trying something else for a bit to see if ti works better for me while still being a good platform for me to keep all of you up to date with all of my pony and personal happenings :)

Moving

I was hoping to have more photos but alas, I’m bad at remembering to take them.
 Instead we’ll do a photo tour of previous barns starting with J's Barn

These have stopped being exciting adventures at this point and are more like slightly annoying necessities lol. With that being said, I have been trying have the mindset of using this move to continue to prep for trailering to shows or as traveling practice in general. I actually talked about it with my therapist and she gave me some homework as far as keeping my anxiety low. She also reminded me that something that’s super scary for both of us like trailering is not the place to focus on others and instead to ask for what we need and focus on our relationship. While my therapist isn’t a horse person it was EXACTLY what I needed to hear and continues right along with the theme of really focusing on the relationship and trust that Katai and I have built.

Temporary "escape from J's barn" barn

A lot of the anxiety with moving Katai comes from knowing that she’s not always a great loader and then feeling embarrassed and guilty that she isn’t better. In all honesty I work hard on it and try to utilize resources (such as others offering to let me practice loading her) whenever I can. This summer alone I practiced in two different trailers, one a few different days, and we made some progress. I also really hate feeling judged. As I told my therapist horse people can be extra judgy and part of why I moved was that the people at my previous barn were super extra special judgy which definitely increase my anxiety about everything including getting her loaded.

Crazy people barn

That morning I actually was managing to keep my anxiety low on the drive to the barn. I was working through some of the homework I had from my therapist specifically for pony moving. When I got to the barn though I saw that two of the judgiest people (and most forceful handlers) were there and got scared. One of the two (miss nosy) was the person who was bullying me when I first moved in. We have an understanding but I still don’t trust her to help or handle my pony at all and knew that she’d try to insert herself in getting Katai loaded. She had also seen me doing trailer practice with Katai on a day when I’d neglected to use a lunge line and, because of that, Katai got free and spooked her horse. I felt super bad about it but horses will be horses and humans will be humans and it was extra unfortunate since that literally hasn’t happened since I first got my pony and of course that was the horse that she spooked *headdesk*. I apologized to her that day but she didn’t handle it very well.

Lovely barn, I only moved because it got too expensive for my living situation at the time

Anyway, on Sunday I was at the barn early so I picked up the last few things. After a while the new barn owner, who we’ll call M, showed up with the trailer and I was relieved to see that it was fully open in the back and had a ramp since I knew that both things would help Katai load quickly. I ignored miss nosy inserting herself into the conversation and walked up to M and let her know how she could help which was basically to stand off to the side, wait for me to walk Katai in, and then hold the doors shut so that I could fasten her up. M looked doubtful and my stomach churned but she heard me. I went and got Katai and led her back to the trailer and could tell that as I walked up miss nosy had been telling M what an awful loader Katai was. I marched right up into the trailer, Katai followed, pulled back once, and then walked right on and turned around. She proceeded to stand fairly quietly next to me while M pushed the doors shut. I tied her up, fastened the slant, and then walked out of the trailer. The whole thing took less than 3 minutes and miss nosy was nowhere to be seen when I walked out of the trailer.

Jane's barn <3

M locked up the trailer, I hopped in my car and we had an uneventful trip to the barn. Very nicely M asked me if I needed anything when I went to unload her. We basically reversed the process, Katai unloaded nicely, and then we walked her to the pasture and let her go to start introducing herself. The whole thing including drive time took no more than 35 minutes and was another good experience to include in the growing list of positive travel experiences.

Weird barn, rough trainer, extra long commute

I like M so far. She hung out watching the herd go through the initial integration for about 15 minutes even though it was raining. We chatted but also she was keeping a careful eye on everything and was ready to break up any fights that occurred if needed. There were definitely a few scuffles which I was surprised to see. Katai has definitely matured and seems to have decided that she needs to be top mare which is so weird since I’m used to her being bottom of the pack. We eventually decided that they were quiet enough and she gave me a tour and I got to know M and the rules a little more. I like her combination of no nonsense but also no superfluous rules and can tell that it’s all about trust which I like since I know my stuff and hate being micromanaged (looking at you previous barn). I got my stuff unloaded into a beautiful and luxurious feeling open sort of tack locker/compartment in the room for the pasture boarders. I really like the setup! I’m looking forward to eventually moving Katai into a stall but I’m certainly going to be spoiled even with pasture board. The barn is set up really nice and feels cozy and like home again which is so super nice.

I’m planning to go out tonight and do my first lunge or ride with Katai even though it’s a Monday. Worst case scenario we’ll just do ground work and get her used to the new facility, best case scenario we’ll do a nice ride in the indoor. I’d like to do groundwork outside but it’s supposed to be raining out and it’s only in the 50s-60s this week so I’d rather not get that cold and wet. I can’t believe it’s almost blanket season again!

Current barn, defending herself from the other frisky mares :)

Snowmageddon

Not the snow falling outside, which is happening, but this particular 13.2 hands of snowy white fluff.

Don't let her cute looks fool you

She was a PILL yesterday for my ride. I had really low expectations for that ride and just wanted to do about 15-20 minutes of stretchy, bendy, walk and trot work and just a simple canter each direction of the arena. Basically the only reason I was going to ride was to stretch her out and help her feel better after the hard work of the lesson on Tuesday.

Unfortunately all Katai had planned was to do the exact opposite of what I wanted. I asked for a trot and got a canter, asked for a leg yield (again with the trying to help her work out the stiffness) and got a lengthening, I asked for a canter and got a halt and so on and so forth.

Supremely frustrating but I'm proud of how I rode it which was to just keep trying to find a mutual solution to the disagreement and yet I wasn't coddling her.

I think the main reason for the fussiness was that she's using different muscles and likely a little sore. Combine that with a pony that likes to get the right answer but now is being asked to change what the right answer is and she was both physically and mentally locked up and crabby.

Therefore our ride turned from a 15 minute easy prance to a nearly 60 minute tough, mental, sweaty workout. However, we did get somewhere. Recently especially I've really been a diplomat. I know we're changing things so if I can get even 75% of what I'm asking I'm going with it, probably to the detriment of our riding goals, but it has helped to mitigate our riding related meltdowns. Yesterday was no different except I wasn't even getting 25% and through pushing to get at least that much I ended up getting closer to 100% by the end on certain things.

I did end up letting a lot of things go, she was still VERY tense but was letting me at least bend her and help her try to loosen up. I also had to let go of the stride length because about the only thing she seemed capable of was tiny itty bitty strides. Instead I made those strides fall at the tempo I wanted even if it meant that it took us forever to make our way around the ring. The real victory was that she actually was letting me put my leg on and was accepting it in both directions and was moving away from it equally in both directions. She also was taking contact on the right rein which was what initially started the meltdown (although I started out asking for about 25-50% of what I needed and at the end after all that fuss I ended up with closer to 100% of what I need).

I was good for the ride and after I was still pleased with how I'd handled but also emotional at how far back this step is. I dealt with this pony (or a slightly worse version to be honest) for over 2 years and she's been SOOO good recently that it's painful to be back here. We're still along for the ride and I know this is just a blip but it's a really painful blip right now.

In other snowy news, the weather man was actually pretty accurate.

I took the picture above a couple of hours ago and a lot more has fallen since then. It's still 33* and the ground is still warm enough that it's melting on the roads and just wet for driving but it's really sticking around more than I expected on the grass.

Also, here's a picture of my new little snowball!!!!!!!!!!

Already practicing the side eye

I'm dying over here wanting to just snuggle her so bad.

                          

Alas, I have just over a month to wait. It sounds like the breeder is aiming for the last week in November/First week in December and is working with the airline right now to arrange travel.

As to the details, she is a long haired Chihuahua. One part of my decision is that I really have wanted a dog I can bring to the barn and, while Veggie is the perfect dog in every other respect, he's just too keyed up by visual stimuli to be safe there. However, because I love his personally so much (he's an Italian greyhound/chi cross) I've really been wanting a Chi. Add to that the fact that a LOT of my horse friends have Chihuahuas all of whom are really nice little barn dogs and I decided to go with it.

I looked around for a long time for a breeder I liked that was producing happy, well adjusted dogs (especially important for toy dog breeders in my opinion) and finally found this one. I got first pick of litter, however, one thing I was inflexible on was that I wanted a girl and, wouldn't you know, this litter only had one girl. However, she is exactly what I wanted so all those positive thoughts I sent to her mom must have worked :)

Now I just have to somehow make it through the next 4-5 weeks and I'll get to finally welcome her home!!

All The Mares

                         
                         
Oh my goodness I've been bad at blogging this month. Last year it was my seasonal depression, this year it's just that I've been enjoying the fall weather, getting chores done, and enjoying some down time after all the travel this year.

I've worked my way back up to riding 4-5 times a week and had a couple of make up lessons so I think we're back on track. I had a couple of amazing rides last week and then a decent ride on Monday this week. Tuesday evening I had a lesson with Jane that was sort of meh. Honestly I think we're in for lots of meh rides and lessons right now since we're really starting to change things up for both Katai any myself.

Whole bunch of new lights in the arena <3

For my lesson we started with a square of turn on the haunches. I struggled with keeping the correct bend and Katai didn't want to stay in front of my leg. It's the first time we've done them beyond really just basically introducing them to her so we just need some more practice.

                            
                                                Now if only her owner could help her stay in balance and 
                                                     still change the bend so she doesn't trip and/or loose the big stride

Then we did some warm up at the trot with some leg yields. Despite originally feeling like we were NEVER going to be able to properly do a leg yield they're looking pretty sharp now :) They still need to be able to have a bit more angle when I ask and she doesn't love to cross over with one hind. Each time though that hind leg but that seems to change. I'm not sure if it's because she's fairly ambidextrous or if there's something else going on from a riding perspective.

Old vs. new stall fronts

After that we went right into canter and that's where the wheels fell off a bit. Recently Katai has been REALLY good. She still almost never has a tantrum but that evening she got as close as she has recently. She was really just very jazzed up and didn't want to stop cantering dammit! When I would cue for trot she'd take one trot step and then go right back to a canter and refuse to go back to trot. She wasn't a run away and was taking direction well but she just didn't want to change back to trot.

                       

Practicing our counter canter

We took our time with it and got a few good transitions in either direction but also something we need to work more on. After when Jane and I had a chance to debrief she mentioned that it's likely that we're just asking for so much more and changing how we're asking (we were asking her to keep her pole up more at the canter) that she just didn't quite understand and wanted to run.

New fencing being installed

Then we worked on trot a bit more and did a bunch of SI. That was fantastic and we're both really starting to get it. There were still more moments where she was sucked back and tight through her back than there have been but we had a few magical moments and I was able to identify part of the problem when we switched to the second direction.

Hot water!!!

Wednesday she had off and then I was going to ride today but she ended up having her feet trimmed. My previous farrier would just show up every 6 weeks, trim them without me there and then bill me or I'd keep track and leave him a check. This farrier, who's amazing and used to be president of our farrier society, really wants me there. I do actually appreciate that but unfortunately the last two times have been during the morning on busy work days. This morning I sort of somehow made it work with lots of phone meetings in the car but it's far from ideal. Also because of that since I just can't justify driving that distance twice in one day it meant that she won't be ridden (also ok since I'd rather give her a day off after a trim).

Also this is exactly what my farrier looks like, complete with mustache and tattoos.
He actually used to be a body builder and he's in his 70s now.
He's a really interesting guy and his son actually dances with a big dance company in NY.

Hopefully she won't be tender tomorrow and I'll be able to ride again!

Also, in other updates at least a couple of my friends are moving!!!!! I know that two of them gave their 30 day notice at the start of October so they'll be moving in on November 1st :) I'm so happy and can't wait to have more boarders at the barn. I haven't heard from the third person but at this point I still think she may be moving as well. All three of them have mares and it's all mares at the barn now so we'll be full up on sassy females.

The sad part is that I may need to consolidate my tack a bit.
Possibly having three saddle racks to myself isn't very fair ;)

500th Post!!

I just can't believe that this is my 500th post! I was going to do a recap of my past posts but I'll do that for my end of year posts instead.

This is really more of a celebration of this blog :) I was hoping to have some nice new media, I don't really, but I did get some screen grabs of a ride I did outside at the neighbor's arena.

It would appear that I've posted an average of just over 100 times each year since my 5 year anniversary with this blog and Katai is coming up in a out a month and a half. Stay tuned for more celebratory posts!

So happy with that hind leg!

Starting to feel like I can share canter photos. Also, I really need to listen
to my trainer when she tells me to shorten my reins haha.

Again with that hind leg :)

Slightly BTV, her favorite go to when she's tense in a new place

She's definitely starting to get looser through the shoulder

Flying :)

Love this pony so much

Also, I don't remember if I mentioned that this neighbor has a pot belly pig. She'd warned me that horses are typically terrified of it and the last couple of times I've ridden over there she's put it in the barn. This was the first time it was out when we showed up and Katai made a beeline straight for it. I teased that they bonded over their similar love of eating all the things. She was fascinated and curious and just wanted to hang out by it, not nervous at all.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

Pony Beast Mode Activated!!
She's fit and getting some muscles. Plus look at how uphill she's gotten!

It's so tough to get confirmation photos by myself since she doesn't want to stand still but today she stood herself up in the cross ties fairly well. I haven't been able to capture a picture of how much taller she's gotten in front/how her withers have come up but this represents it pretty well.

Unfortunately the angle still isn't good and she's standing pretty far under herself in front which isn't doing her shoulder any favors but still, not bad at all!

Worse angle but cuter since you can see her head

 Both Jane and I are so happy with her weight and now just want to make sure that she keeps getting enough groceries to keep putting muscle on. She's completely on alfalfa rather than grass hay right now and getting quite a bit of it to keep up with her workload. She's also on no grass, or no more than she can pick at in her small paddock and what she gets when I hand graze her. We may actually end up adding a bit more grain here at some point if we continue to increase her workload so that she can actually keep at least this much body condition.

It continues to amaze me how much the work we do with them effects their body.

She was so cresty and fat here!

Fall 2016 right before moving to Jane's barn.
Yes, there really has been that much of a change to her withers

Can of Worms: Lesson Recap 7/11

I'm calling this next couple of weeks #summerbootcamp since we have two (now more like 1.5) weeks to really work on things before I'm out of town for 6-11 days for work. Very appropriately we had another lesson on Tuesday.

The previous Sunday we'd had our makeup lesson from the 4th of July Tuesday and then this was my regular lesson. I hadn't ridden on Monday because I needed to do #adult things such as laundry and grocery shopping. Plus it was hot and Katai had a tough ride the day before for my lesson and was going to have a tough ride the next day for another lesson so a day off didn't seem like a bad idea.

My cell phone photo library tells a
story of what I've been doing recently ;)

I always deal with a lot of rush hour traffic and since I'm driving directly North I spend it sitting directly in the hot sun in a car that doesn't have strong enough ac to deal with it. In addition, this week I got to the barn a bit late since I'd forgotten that my normal way to the barn was right through a road closure for construction #summerinMN. Then the detour had a bad car accident that had the road down to one lane and meant more time sitting in the hot sun in my car. By the time I got to the barn I was already hot and crabby and I hate being late so was feeling a bit stressed as well.

After tacking up in record time we got to the arena the bugs were HORRIBLE. I was being eaten alive and I couldn't get more than a few steps of walk from Katai before she was stamping and bitting at them. We didn't walk for too long before we went to trot since that keeps the bugs at bay.

At least better than the fly spray that I'd coated both of us in...

Again we started with getting her moving out around the full arena. After she was moving well Jane had me ask for a lengthening down the long side. At first we just got rushy steps and then Jane asked me to get her more round. 

Most of the time pony goes around like this.

Blurry but you can kind of see

She's soft through the poll, has good contact, and is very ridable but not especially round. Typically we're happy with this but on Tuesday at least she was faking the contact and not really through or using her back.

Jane had me get her way more round and get her neck lower (not overbent, just rounder than she was going). She said it may look too round from above since it's not what I'm used to but she wanted her there and for me to keep her there while I did the lengthening. The next long side I started to figure it out and then the second time I tried it that way it felt like magic. She was really pushing, her back was up and she was really carrying me along. We gave her a break and Jane said "well that really opened a can of worms". I looked up at her wondering what the heck I'd missed and she explained that now that we know she can move that way, she needs to do this more of the time. 

Veggie had a great time at the doggy daycare lady's house this past weekend.

He's good at supervising the big dogs...

I had a huge smile on my face. Apparently this pony can really move now that she's getting stronger and Jane really didn't expect it. I didn't either haha.

We switched sides and did the same thing. A bit of trial and error later we had a very similar trot on that side and then Jane had us move on to 3 loop serpentines and try to keep/get the same sort of movement. Honestly it was a hot mess. It was a lot for me to keep track of and Katai was trying to just rush through it rather than doing it appropriately. It's new for me to feel that much power from her and to push her appropriately without just making her run. In the end I was at least getting my serpentines right, the bending right, and not letting her rush with bigger movement than normal but we weren't really getting enough trot still. It's going on the list of things to practice.

My 4th of July project was trying to recreate my favorite cookies in vegan form
They turned out better than the original and after this picture was taken I added chocolate frosting on top of the marshmallows. 

By that point I was quite hot and getting tired myself and Katai was also feeling pretty done. Because of how much we'd asked at the trot, and how much we'd asked at the canter on Sunday Jane just had us do a bit of easy canter using the full arena and doing some 20 meter circles. We continued to work on getting a nice, slow, steady rhythm and also on trying to get her rounder at the canter. For this Jane had me focus on lifting the inside rein rather than pulling back. It was tricky for me to get the right feel but I started to get it towards the end. By then Katai was DUN done so we did just a tiny bit more stretchy trot and then called it a day.

She got hosed, I got splashed on and drank some water and then got my stuff put away and headed home for the air-conditioning and lots more water. In the end it felt like another amazing lesson even if my evening didn't start out that way. This tiny mare just continues to amaze me and Jane and I just can't wait to see where we go together.

An Ideal Day

I'm sure that many of us have ideas of what our ideal day(s) would like like. There are so many things that I think would make up an ideal day. A beach in Greece with a Mimosa would certainly be an ideal day for example ;) This past Saturday though was the most ideal day, especially horse wise, that I've had recently.

To start off I got to sleep in and then had some of my homemade cold brew coffee with my favorite vegan creamer. I pulled Youtube up on my tv via ChromeCast and watched a bunch of riding videos.

I had a delicious lunch and then took a break to bring the Vegetable out for a walk. Around 12:30 I headed to H's barn for a Janet Foy clinic! What's really cool about this barn and these clinics with Janet is that it's a really small audience and most of the people watching are also riding. I think I was actually the only auditor on Saturday. They aren't advertised beyond an occasional Facebook post by the owner (H's trainer) and with the small number of people watching (2-5) every time I've been there Janet really interacts with everyone.

The other thing that makes it fun is that this barn has the highest concentration of upper level riders in my area. Around here there aren't many people riding above 3rd level but on Saturday I watched two riders that were competing at Prix St. George, one at 4th, and one that was training Grand Prix movements on her baby horse that still isn't showing at that level. She did a couple of PERFECT one tempis and I got to watch as they introduced canter pirouettes, and worked on getting better piaffe and passage.

Ignore my inability to get a good canter picture, this pair was AMAZING!

H was the last ride of the day on her pony and it was really great because they worked on stuff that I can (for the most part) do even if we're not as good or consistent at it yet. They focused a lot on straightness since he's wiggly and then did some lateral work and ended with counter canter. H did a great job and it was great to be able to learn from Janet while watching someone riding at a similar level to me :)

Hungry pony after a great ride :)

I'd worn my riding clothes and went out to ride my pony directly from the clinic, after stopping for my favorite Starbucks drink (which I got to use my free drink stars for!) and stopping at Chipotle for dinner.

I got to the barn and the weather was so perfect that I decided to ride outside. I've been using the extra oomf from riding outside to really work on canter since Katai doesn't keep trying to quit on me. I really focused on maintaining the rhythm in the canter and getting it slowed down while maintaining the jump and longer stride length. I also did my 5-10 minutes of sitting trot and started to feel like I was actually getting somewhere. After another little walk break I did some walk/canter and canter/trot/canter transitions. She did so well! She was more hot about the walk/canter on Saturday and was launching more. I'm curious to check with Jane to see if it's good launching (powerful and engaged) or if she's launching so that she doesn't have to step under and carry herself up into the transition. As it was, since I didn't know if it was good or bad I just giggled and carried on. The canter/trot/canters across the diagonal were beautiful as well! She did fewer trot steps and maintained her rhythm better. Plus we got the correct lead every time!

These gifs aren't from Saturday and she's been getting better and better outside so I'll need to get some new footage soon but I realized that I'd never shared these.

The trot is getting so much bigger and more uphill! (I was pushing her sideways in the second one trying to get her off my left leg) 

Since she did harder work and spent a lot more time in canter along with needing to work harder with the uneven terrain I kept it shorter so our total ride was more like 35 minutes than 45 but that was still an improvement so I'll take it!

Slowly but surely getting more strength at the canter :)

It was an amazing, relaxing, but productive horse focused day :)

Progress!

Well, not anything especially different at my lesson this week so not much to share. I did get some video of my ride on Thursday so I'll share some GIFs. The arena door was open so the lighting was slightly better but still not good.

I should  have more interesting blog posts to share soon! I'm hoping/planning to make it to the outdoor arena at least once this weekend and will do my best to get some video. I've been quiet blogging but riding at least 4 times a week and at the barn at least 5 so we've been making steady progress. Katai is in a phase where she's slowly building strength so we're just keeping on keeping on at this point.

I've been quiet with blogging because I got some slightly stressful news about a last minute work trip to WA next week which resulted in lots of prep work this week. I'll be leaving Tuesday and back on Friday but originally thought I'd be gone at least 7 days. I'm happy that it will just be 4 and may even possibly be able to ride still on Tuesday so it will just be a nice three day weekend for the pony.

Without further ado, some progress GIFs :)

Pretty happy with this walk she gets tense and lateral quickly so this is pretty good for her.



Her trot is getting a bit more active!



I'm slooooooowly starting to figure out the alignment for leg yield



Sloooooooowly Katai is starting to gain the strength to not run in the canter :)
(ugh though, can I really stop leaning already?!?)

Well Now We Both Need Chiropractic...

A lot more like this than the other but I wanted to share the bad parts too

Not trying to pull her down, I know that's a no no.
Just keeping a gentle steady pressure until she walks forward.
It doesn't look gentle because she goes up so quick that  it takes me a second to go with.

This is her go to when she doesn't want to do something

 We got to a much better place by the end where she was standing quietly with her shoulders in the trailer and she was actually giving to pressure and stepping forward when I asked but we have a long way to go.

Also, #mindyourmelon when loading a fractious beast haha

Crabby

Photos from our less than stellar ride tonight

Recently Katai has been crabbier than normal. Maybe not even crabbier as much as more consistently crabby. When I was riding a lot earlier in the year I was contributing it to the increase in her workload and likely some sore muscles. Then we had #mareproblems so she had that reason and a week off, then a week off when I traveled for work, Then almost a week off when I was in Omaha, and now less work since I've been having trouble getting to the barn.

Last Saturday she got shots so I knew she wouldn't be feeling her best, then she got a massage which could have made her feel a bit tender, and finally got her hooves trimmed so that could have made her feel a bit off as well. She got a quiet week but I rode (just a nice light training ride) yesterday and today (slightly more work but still I kept it short).

Pretty cool that this is now a less than stellar ride. Also, you can clearly tell that
she's thinner than she's been recently. Not unhealthy skinny,
I can just barely feel her last two ribs, but still it's a big change from before.

I was hoping she'd feel different, and there are some differences, but she pretty much seems to be sensitive in the same places. Namely she's been crabby, not as forward as normal, doesn't want me to touch her near her flank, has become girthy, and has actually lost weight to the point that she is right on the edge of her ideal weight. This is a BIG change since she's always been an extremely easy keeper and she's certainly getting enough hay and the hay is great quality. She has been getting worked more so I'm thinking of adding some additional calories but it also could be a symptom

Tonight I did some digging/research and I'm fairly certain that she's got ulcers. The statistics would support it with 60%-90% of performance horses having ulcers. Also, I've always sort of wondered since she's just a horse that stresses easily and likes her routine. Now she's also living in a stall and has her own private paddock so she's not around other horses much and doesn't get much movement. In addition, all that time where I wasn't working here meant she was moving even less than normal, we gave her some bute after she had her shots, and she had a crazy week this past week where we certainly weren't letting her follow her normal routine so her stomach might really be bothering her.

She really just wanted to retract her neck but
I'm really happy with the amount of crossover that we've been getting!

At this point with all of this adding up I've gone ahead and ordered some UlcerGuard. I'm going to give her that over the four days and if I notice a difference I'm going to add a supplement to support her gut. If I don't notice a difference I'm going to call the vet and have her tested for Lyme disease since that's the other most likely option.

I'm really hoping it's not Lyme but I also think it's unlikely. Not that it couldn't happen but I've NEVER pulled a single tick off of her. In addition I've seen horses with Lyme and they are extremely sensitive to being touched to the point of kicking their people, rearing, biting, and flipping out completely. Katai is a very sensitive flower so if she were feeling anything like that she likely wouldn't even be letting me touch her but she's been enjoying her grooming on most of her body.

Bit of a head tilt here, mare was definitely still a bit stiff.
Chiro may also be in order

I found some additional info on Vitamin E deficiency and Selenium deficiency but neither of those match as closely and when I checked her vitamin supplement it actually contains a decent amount of both so I think that's unlikely.

She's also due to be dewormed and apparently that's something that can occasionally cause similar symptoms so I'm going to get that taken care of as well.

At any rate, I've ordered UlcerGuard, a supplement that supports gut health, and some dewormer for this year and I'll post an update once I receive it later this week and have a chance to try it out.