Ok, Who Stole My Pony

She's not convinced that it's her color but I always
make her carry my jacket around after we finish.

Recently it sort of felt like someone stole my sweet, angelic pony and left a demon pony in her stall haha. Over the last few days I have even more reason to think that someone replaced Katai with a different pony.

A few days ago I went to spray, leave in conditioner on her mane by putting it on a brush and brushing it through. Anyone who's been following my blog for awhile will know that Katai has ALWAYS been terrified by the spray bottle. I've tried everything I can think of to get her used to it and over the past few months I gave up, deciding that it just wasn't worth the fight anymore.

She's the cutest

This time though when I went to brush the stuff on her mane she didn't react at all. Then I went for it and sprayed more on the brush when I was standing right next to her. Still no reaction, nothing, not even a twitch. I got so far as to spray it right on her tail which I've NEVER been able to do with her before.

Seriously weird.

Then today I tried it again, same thing and still no reaction at all. I again used the brush to put the spray on her but sprayed it right on her tail. I'm planning to work from her and maybe, just maybe, work up to actually spraying the product directly on her. That would be so fantastic!

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 :)