Actual Riding Updates!!

Yes, that’s right and they’re positive :)

This whole social barn thing is really helping my motivation to ride. At the old barn I’d be the only one there, literally the only one on the property a good chunk of the time and so if Katai was at all anxious or spicy I’d lunge partially from a self-preservation perspective and partially just because I was anxious and didn’t have any reason to ride. It was tough always being alone.

Here there are always people around and there have been at least a few times when I’ve arrived at the barn with no motivation, thinking I’d just lunge, and then changed my mind when I got there because there were lots of other people riding. Part of it is that this barn has a recommendation (I won’t call it a rule because they’re flexible) of no lunging in the indoor when someone else is riding. They’re fine in the outdoor, because it's bigger, but if there are lots of other people riding I’d still prefer to ride rather than lunge since I still feel the risk of accident is higher. Mostly though it’s just that when my friends are tacking up to ride I’d prefer to tack up and ride with them!

That meant that this week when I went out on Monday I was still feeling like crap and thought I’d just groom and lunge and maybe work in hand outside a bit. When I got there though my friend M (who was the reason I moved here) was there and just finishing up grooming and there were lots of other people riding. I had decided I might ride and then I saw another friend drive up. When I asked she thought that she’d ride in the outdoor. I figured I’d see how Katai was, since she’d been a pill the previous few days, but she was so good and quiet in the barn that I decided to join my friend in the outdoor. I didn’t have a death wish though so I decided to lunge first. At first Katai was a little tight and spicy but she calmed down pretty quick and before I could second guess myself I led her over to the mounting block and hopped on.

Long story short she was SUPER good. She acted like she’d been riding in that outdoor her entire life. She wasn’t spooky even with some construction happening at a nearby pole building, or the foal that was being weaned running around in a neighboring paddock. We walked for a while so that I could make sure she was really tuned in and then did some trotting and finally cantered. I let her run into the canter and just kept it nice and forward and low key but with that being said she never put a foot wrong. The arena is huge so she had lots of room to navigate and not feel like she was losing her balance which I think helped. She fell into trot going right at one point and I wasn’t going to ask for more but she went back into canter and the transition was gorgeous and she was listening to me so I just went with it for another circle or two.

I kept the whole ride pretty short because the arena footing is way different than what she’s used to at this point and we’re still acclimating. I was so proud of her and stuffed her full of treats when I hopped off and then hand walked her to “cool down” for a while even though she wasn’t sweaty at all. I think that part of what was so different was that she was out there with a horse that she knows well. I’m ok with that being our method of helping her understand that the outdoor is a safe place though and plan to ride out there with friends as much as possible until the weather dictates that we only ride inside.

I’m up north at a cabin with my bf this weekend so probably no updates for a bit but I’m hoping to post more soon!

Riding Update

I haven't really done an update on my rides recently, partially because I didn't end up having a lesson this past week and the lesson before that I did briefly recap.

Since that lesson I've been working on getting the impulsion 100% of the time like Jane wants. At the first show Katai was slow and sticky because she wanted to quite like you saw in the video. At the second show she was really using it as an evasion and was working so differently than at home that I was really getting backwards in trying to get the bend. Jane wants this to be more established before we do anything else.



Until recently we couldn't ask for more without just getting lots of rushing footsteps but now that she's understanding the concept we just have to ask for it more of the time. Of course it's not like a switch just flips so she still gets rushy sometimes which means that I'm really having to remain solid in my core and keep my posting as consistent as possible. It's tough, and our rhythm is all over the place at times but we are getting more active steps with her hind legs.

The other thing we've been focused on is doing lots of canter and increasing the sit while getting it more rhythmic. Katai has been working really hard and getting tired but we're pressing on. Building muscles is tough sometimes.

I've also been trying to work on the other things on my list. I made a ton of progress with the spray bottle yesterday afternoon and we've been working with the hose and wash stall. I've also been working on riding more outside both in the grassy space outside the barn and down the road. We had our first solo road ride this year (or ever?) yesterday and it was fun but SOOOO mosquito-y that I'm pretty sure we both have malaria. At any rate it was beautiful and really nice to get out of the arena for awhile.



I've got a lesson scheduled tomorrow morning and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Jane thinks of our progress!

Yesterday I also got to go watch H ride in a lesson again. She had a great ride and she and her pony have made tons of progress since I was there last. They really looked great and it was fun to be able to talk horses with her. She's got a few busy weeks but I'll be looking forward to seeing her at Pony Cup!

Looking so good! Plus, her barn is so ritzy :)

Monday/Wednesday Ride Recaps

As I mentioned in my lesson recap I rode on Monday this week which is really unusual. My normal schedule has me riding Tuesday – Thursday during the week and both Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes I change my Thursday/Fridays depending on my plans and every once in a while I take Wednesday off and then ride Thursday – Sunday but I almost never ride Mondays. It’s the day after her lesson ride which is normally more intense and I appreciate the quiet evening after my first day back at work on Monday.

However, because she was so full of energy on Sunday and because of some plans that I had this week I went ahead and rode. It also worked out well with my visit to a local tack shop to special order some items. I just found out that this tack shop orders from HKM and that I could join in on an order and thus save shipping from Europe so I jumped on it. HKM is one of the few places that offers pony sized dressage saddle pads and other items. I had planned to order a couple of saddle pads but it seems my saddle pad obsession has recently turned into a breeches obsession and so I got one saddle pad and one pair of breeches to try. I’ll let you know what I think in a future post!

 

Checking to be sure my phone is still recording.
Look at what a powerful princess she's getting to be!

My ride on Monday was kind of a mixed bag. I had planned on doing cavaletti in the indoor or possibly just lunging over cavaletti in the indoor but once I showed up one of the other dressage people invited me out to ride in the outdoor. It’s funny because on trail rides or in the outdoors in general Katai is so brave and so calm (like during the hunter pace when I don’t think she spooked once) but she HATES the outdoor. All I can imagine is that it’s because it means work where a trail ride is something she thinks is fun.

At any rate, while riding out there more and getting her used to it would be idea the footing is a little deeper than I’d like and trying to lunge her just turns into her running around like a madwomen which makes me worried that she’ll hurt herself. Because of that I usually only ride in the outdoor now if someone else is out there because then I have my nice, calm, workable pony and I just don’t ride too long in the deep footing. This particular night was VERY windy. I thought we were going to blow away and everything was moving around in the grass and trees etc. so it was especially spooky. 

Look at that inside hind!

I hand walked her around and checked everything out (we startled a deer family so I was glad that I was on the ground) until our fellow rider showed up. Then her horse (who I later found out had only been in that area a couple of times) was spooky and about to lose his mind. Katai and I worked a bit and then spent some time babysitting him until his rider threw in the towel and decided to end her ride in the indoor. By then Katai had done a lot of canter work and a good amount of trot work so I called it, especially since the footing was more work and she had been worked hard the day before.

That inside hind though.
My pony is seriously Gumby if Gumby were good at dressage
I however am collapsed to the inside (hearing L in my head telling me that my pony needs to bend, not me)

Then on Wednesday I did a ride where I was going to really work on Cavaletti but she came out very, very stiff and not wanting to work through her back so we mostly worked on that and then did the cavaletti just a few times. Unfortunately I’m back to riding in my normal saddle and oh boy does it put me in a bad position. I had no idea until I rode in the other saddle how badly this one puts me in a chair seat but it’s bad. I almost flopped right down on Katai’s back the first time because I couldn’t keep my legs under me to keep me airborne for the extra moments at the longer stride. It’s frustrating that I’ll have to deal with it until the new saddle comes but I’m so excited that I’m getting a new saddle that will make it easier! I’ll probably just do more lunging sessions until it gets here and maybe do a low key bareback ride which would be good for both of us.

Down and Out Again

Yep, still sick. Or sick again, not really sure which but it’s been a miserable week and a half.

Last Thursday when I rode I was feeling mostly better and mainly felt like I was getting over a cold then when I went on my date on Friday I was still feeling pretty good except that I was tired and didn’t have much of a voice. Normally with colds I work right through them and the only concession I might make is to not go to the barn the first couple of days or if it’s especially hot or cold out.

On Saturday I went out to the barn right away in the morning and had a great ride on Katai. As mentioned I’ve been really motivated to work on riding her outside so I took her out to the arena and started off by lunging her. I put the neck stretcher on her, which unfortunately was too loose, and really focused on making sure that I was the center of her universe while I lunged. Any time that I couldn’t get her attention I brought her in on a smaller circle where I could reinforce the bend and slow her speed and then when she was going well I’d let her back out on the circle. This worked really well and there were only a few shenanigans.

Then, once she was walking calming on the lunge I pulled off her lunging stuff, had to adjust the saddle but more on that later, and mounted up. She was still pretty up and since it was quite hot and humid I had kept the lunging to a minimum. Once I made sure that she was listening to me at a walk I put her right to work at the trot. I did my default when she’s tight and tense through her back which is lots of 15-20 meter circles with exaggerated inside bend getting her to really stretch down into the contact. As soon as she stretches down I reinforce the correct bend and keep the forward but focus on keeping her balanced. I also do LOTS of changes of direction She really wanted to canter but listened and after only several minutes I had her back up and swinging and she was soft through her jaw and goobering on her bit. Because it was so hot and humid and she was already sweating, and since she is still coming back into work after a week and a half off, I moved to the real plan for the day which was riding her out of the outdoor and directly into a trail ride.

It’s embarrassing but this is the first time I’ve done that since the entrance to the outdoor has demons (according to Katai) and I have to ride past a “fairy” garden that belongs to our BM and a couple of dumpsters which all the horses hate. She did that part well but was dancing around by the time we got to the beginning of our “trail”. Then she stopped dead and I realized that there was this brand new bug catcher thing. It seriously looked like an alien and was making tapping sounds from the bugs hitting the edges so I didn’t blame her at all.



Thanks for being amazing BM but my horse thinks this is an alien





Size Reference.

I let her stand and look at it until she was willing to go past on her own and then she was good. Until she saw the purple flowers. They were clearly out to get her, or the butterflies around the purple flowers, or the wind that was moving the purple flowers, or, well something was going to eat her. I had to make her trot at one point so that she didn’t spin and bolt but otherwise she really did quite well and I was pleased.

I got her past the scary trailers and back to the beginning of the trail and dismounted. I then led her back to the bug trap and we both touched it and looked it over and it wasn’t as scary then. Overall I was really pleased with both of us.

Then, because this isn’t already enough of a saga, I got REALLY sick on Sunday. I was in the bathroom all day again and just miserable. I had a really bad fever and was dying just laying still even though my roommates had the air conditioning turned down to 70 and I should have been freezing. That meant that I gave up my last chance to ride L’s horse which was extraordinarily disappointing.

Then on Monday I was still pretty miserable and after making it through work for most of the day I crashed pretty hard in the evening. This morning I still felt pretty icky but started to feel WAY better as the day went on and now I’m as close to 100% as I’ve been in over a week. My stomach is still not my best friend but I can think, my fever is gone, and I don’t have a cough or congestion so doing pretty well. I’m SO excited to be able to get back to the barn tonight!

Spinning Like a Top

Our weather is finally turning nice!! It made it to the low 70s today and that was a great reason to get Katai outside for the first time since last fall. I have taken her out for a couple of walks and some time to hand graze but otherwise she hasn't been out since last year.

The goal for the next few weeks is to get Katai outside as much as I possibly can so that at least that part of the show at the end of May won't be too odd for her. I'm getting her out every day that the weather holds whether it's to ride or just to take her for a walk.

I felt like we had a 50-50 chance tonight whether she would be calm and normal or completely lose her mind. Spoiler alert...

It was the latter

During grooming she was really quiet and sleepy. I'm so happy to say that this no treats thing is working really well and she's quiet and pleasant and seems to enjoy my company. Katai was also really quiet and reasonable about walking to the arena which would have really made her hot in the past. I was still sort of thinking that there might be a chance that she would be calm and reasonable but when I got her in the arena on the lunge line she went right into a canter.

I could tell by her glazed over eyes that there was going to be no reasoning with her so I decided to just let her run it out. I tried to gently re-direct a few times but mostly just moved her around the arena and left her as far out on the line as I could so that she could make nice large circles. Eventually she calmed down and I was able to get her to make some walk/trot transitions. Finally I got her switched to go in the opposite direction and she got herself going again.

Eventually she wore herself out in that direction too and after a couple more walk/trot/walk/halt transitions I called it a day. She had run hard enough that she got herself slightly sweaty but nothing bad. I could tell that she didn't have much energy left but I have the feeling that she just needed this and that next time she'll be her normal calm self.

Honestly I was just really happy with how I handled it. I never got frustrated or tried to make something happen that just wasn't going to happen tonight. I was just calm and relaxed and let her do what she needed to and in the end that meant that her running didn't last as long as it likely would have and we had a nice calm walk back to the barn. I'm proud of myself for not getting wound up because even a few months ago that's what would have happened.

The plan for tomorrow is to ride inside but take her outside for a walk after. I'm fairly certain that Katai will be stiff, sore, and a little tired after her run today so I won't be too surprised if I get some fireworks. Hopefully though I can get some pictures!