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 ;)

Upward Trends and Downward Spirals

Recently I've really noticed how some of the things I used to spend a lot of time on are swapping with some of the things I didn't spend as much time on. I just thought it was sort of interesting but if this is boring feel free to skip!

Upward Trends:

Who else thinks that most clipart is funny

• Riding: It's crazy how a year ago I was averaging 3-4 trips to the barn a week and now I'm at 4-6. Prior to a year ago I was likely averaging closer to 2-3 trips to the barn a week which seems insane to me now!
• Grooming: I'll admit that when I was growing up with horses I didn't even pick hooves most of the time (unless we'd just ridden on our gravel road) and typically I probably brushed the dirt off under the saddle and girth. Even as recently as a year ago with Katai I wasn't doing much for grooming and was typically just using a stiff brush to get the dirt off. Now I'm using multiple brushes each time I work with her and brushing every part of her body. I also do more with her mane and tail than I used to.
• Bathing: Sort of in the same bucket as grooming but I'll call this one out separately since it's a bit more work. I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I'd bathed Katai up until this year. Now she's already gotten a few bathes this year and I'm planning at least 1-2 more this month to get her ready for the show. 

Downward Spirals:

For example, who thought of this?

• Shopping: Not that I'm not shopping but I used to spend a decent amount of time admiring things like saddle pads, bridles, halters, polo wraps (things I didn't really need), etc online or shopping at tack shops and now I spending more of that time riding. I think it's a combination of now owning things I really love (so not feeling like I need to shop) and actually spending more of my time riding.
• Cleaning Tack: Again, now that I'm riding more I'm just not feeling like I need to fill my time cleaning tack or doing other horse related things to feel fulfilled :)
• Lunging: I was lunging or grooming for at least 1-2 of my trips to the barn before. Now because I'm more effective riding I ride for most of my trips to the barn. This wouldn't necessarily be the "right" answer for most horses but because Katai can get so locked up through her back it's way more effective for me to ride most of the time.

Overall I feel like because I'm actually riding more and feeling like we're making progress I'm feeling less need to fill my time doing other misc things. I think that those things used to help me feel like a rider when I wasn't actually making progress with my riding. 

Twisted: Lesson Recap 4/3

This week was tough for trying to schedule rides so I ended up with a Tuesday evening, Thursday evening, and Saturday evening. Every other day isn't good for me or for Katai since she always has too much energy when we start our ride and then never really settles in. This week the plan is for five rides (again) and I should be able to stick to it so that should make everything better!

At any rate none of my rides ended up being stellar and Saturday was no exception. Pony was hot and didn't want to settle. She was using any excuse to become extremely offended and then letting off a huge buck. She must have bucked seven times that evening, sometimes little ones, and it just makes me giggle every time. It's frustrating but just not really her fault, she just has energy to burn because I'm not riding enough days in a row and we're both bored of being stuck in the indoor doing circles.

Apparently Myshla taught her a lot about bucking

It actually wasn't a bad ride, I stuck with it long enough to get some great work, unfortunately that meant that Katai was tired for my lesson today and certainly wasn't all there. We did have some great moments and Katai was really through for most of the ride after we convinced her that she did actually need to work. We did get more bucks when I cued for the canter but otherwise we were just trying to take it easy on her.

After lesson tack cleaning with The OC

I think that's why L was paying more attention to me and noticed how horribly I've been twisting my body around. I felt like every time she correct me I could almost feel Katai sigh with relief, no wonder she's been having trouble falling in to the right.

Because no post, including a mention of The OC, when my name is Katlyn and I own a pony is complete without

After I finished riding L and I were talking about how I can work on un-twisting out of the saddle and she mentioned that I haven't been doing this for very long. I guess at first I thought that she was just noticing it for the first time but she thinks that it started right before the Suzanne clinic and after the month break. That does make sense that I lost strength and time in the saddle and then started to compensate.