Stubbornly Surviving

Saturday night, this poor person just gave up and sort of drove into an alley

This past week or so has been tough. We had a blizzard last weekend that started on Friday evening and didn't stop until late on Sunday. I also wasn't hearing from the amazing person who's willing to trailer my pony, probably because of the snow but it's stressful enough moving her without adding the stress of not knowing when. I've also been struggling with motivation which has been made that much tougher with all of this snow and crummy weather.

But we're still here! Luckily I lunged early last Friday prior to Katai's vet appointment since I already had that time off work. I was glad I did when the snow started earlier than planned on Friday evening. Then I was stuck at home on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily the bf and I got to spend some time hanging out with the puppies, playing Zelda, online shopping, and occasionally heading out into the snow to help rescue people.

From Sunday

Monday I worked from home because there was still significant ice on the roads and several huge snow drifts between my car and work. After a nice sunny day of melting though the roads were clear enough for me to get to the barn that evening. Unfortunately pony was still stiff from her shots and in no mood to play along. She was also extraordinarily reactive.

I took some time to think through it and realized that I'm learning (for the umpteenth time) that pony NEEDS to be on a fairly significant dose of magnesium or she goes out of her mind. Tiny things that would never phase her had her flying backwards or sideways and trying to lunge her only ended in her bolting around with absolutely no sense in her eyes. I had reduced her recently as mentioned based on the FeedXL suggestions but clearly her magnesium needs are slightly outside of what FeedXL is accounting for.  I realized that's what was going on Tuesday and ordered some through Amazon with 2 day shipping so it will be here Thursday in enough time for me to give her a couple of loading doses before she travels to the new barn.

Tough to tell from this angle but it was at his withers on Saturday

I did end up having my lesson on Tuesday but she was stiff and sore still through her neck so we  kept it pretty short and sweet. Unfortunately that will likely be my last lesson with Jane unless I'm lucky enough to cross paths with her in the future but the tools she's given me are things I'll be able to use for the rest of my life. It's continued to be bittersweet to think about leaving and I'm excited about the new opportunity.

In other news I've continued to try to focus on what I can accomplish vs. what I can't and have made more progress on my list. I also took care of a few things that weren't even on the list such as picking up the new hay net (a nibble net) and purchasing new brush wash packet so that I can get my brushes cleaned again prior to the move

Early on Saturday, almost to the top of my boots.

Plans for last week were to;
-clean all my tack including Katai’s leather turnout halter - partially done ahead of schedule
-post an update on the farrier/feet situation
-re-subscribe to feedxl since there’s a new ration balancer at the new barn that I need to figure out - Done
-ride at least 4 times - almost made it
-make sure I get at least one lesson in - Done
-try to wash Katai’s legs (which should have happened when it was warmer but oh well, at least this way she won’t go back out to mud since it’s all ice again) - May not happen with the state of the wash rack. If not, I'll take care of this at the new barn.
-wash blankets and make sure that all of Katai’s clothes are clean and ready to be used (moving to a more heated barn so we’re going to need different blankets than we do now) - Almost Done

 Plans for moving week (Week of April 15th):
-move pony to the new barn - Scheduled for Friday
-move stuff to the new barn
-confirm show plans for the summer/at least the next few months so that I can request PTO
-ride at least 3 times and make use of the move to practice for riding in a new space - rode/lunged twice so far this week. I plan to be out there Thursday, move Friday, and ride this Saturday
-schedule lesson(s) with S2

Follow Up on Feedback

I really need to get better at taking pony pictures but here's a cute,
sleepy puppy picture for some media.

Thank you all so much for your feedback. Instead of responding to each of your questions I thought I would just write a quick follow up and then I promise I’ll get back to pony updates next.

After reading through all of your feedback and suggestions I decided to make a spreadsheet with different options and the costs. I think I’ve had sort of an idea about what different things would cost but hadn’t really laid it out until now and I’m really glad that I did. The main problem isn’t whether I could get a trailer over the next few years it’s how I’d pull it. Not only would there be a fairly considerable amount needed for the trailer (new or older with maintenance) but I’d also need to pay to rent a truck to pull it. Buying a truck or having any second vehicle is completely off the table right now since I only have metered (2 hour) street parking. Trying to rent both things also just isn’t on the table right now because it would take way more coordination etc. than I have available. It would also be way too stressful especially for someone who’s pony already causes a lot of stress with traveling.

Long story short, after looking at it all laid out, the sheer expense of even buying a cheap trailer and renting a truck is just too much on top of the new car payments with a single income for it to happen within the next few years and I don’t want to wait a few more years to get out on trails, do clinics, or show more than 2-3 times a year.

Moving still isn't something I want to do so I'm still chewing over my options, making lists, and trying to figure out how all of this fits with my current needs as well as my long term goals. Hopefully I'll have an update soon because I'm so tired of being in this place and feeling stuck.

Not Linear: Lesson Recap 2/21

First time I sat on baby pony's back!!

Clearly learning isn't linear but sometimes it's easy to be slightly frustrated about how up and down things can be with my pony right now. Lately it's pretty much been an e/o week thing where one week is amazing and the next is a struggle. I think it's more strength related (or maybe a little bit of resistance when Katai feels like it's been hard) than anything else. This mare picks things up so quickly that she certainly hasn't struggled to understand the work, just to get her body to do it or sometimes to do it appropriately :)

The lesson this week was definitely a struggle week. It wasn't nearly as much of a struggle as we've had in the past, it just hasn't been as much of a struggle since I started with Jane. Now a struggle week is where our canter isn't as nice rather than that Katai wouldn't stop threatening to rear which certainly used to happen.

This lesson I was also feeling a little emotionally sensitive which is odd for me. I LOVE direct feedback and that would always be my preference. I didn't get emotional in my lesson but just left feeling pretty down.

This lesson we focused mainly on lateral work and also tried to get a canter on a smaller circle. Unfortunately for us Katai didn't want to play at the canter and didn't want to work on the bit. I think she was just a little tired from Monday and since we continue to increase the difficulty each week I think she was just feeling a little like this was tough work and she didn't want to play.

Poor pony, oh well we'll be having a toodle/bareback day soon.

On the way home (even though I wasn't that down, just feeling less positive than last week for example) I was thinking about how far we've come from the beginning and thought it might be fun to go back to my first lesson recap and share the first riding video I have of Katai.

This video is from May 2015 and I have to apologize for the blurriness. It got transferred to a few different phones before I ever uploaded it so the quality is pretty bad. At this point I'd been riding Katai for about 6 months (but I'd hesitate to call much of it riding and I wasn't on her back more than 1-2 times per week for that time).

Then here is our first lesson recap! This was from September 2015 and we were working on changing directions on 20 meter circles at the trot! I was still getting lots of pony tantrums and sass and some days I could barely ride because of how stiff, tense, inverted and stubborn Katai was.

This is exactly why I have this blog. To be able to look back and see the net change rather than feeling like I need to make positive change each day :) It's fun to do this when I'm feeling down and since I don't have much to share about the lesson since we did a lot of the same thing and struggled the whole time I thought it would be fun to share!

Tough Stuff

I’m finally starting to feel caught up in life a little after being out of town and sick for so long. I’m slowly catching up on the “non-essential” part of my life such as this blog so expect more content soon!

In the meantime I wanted to share my rides last week because it’s been an interesting roller coaster ride over the past month. Katai hadn’t been wanting to play either in or out of the sandbox after her adjustment for the first few rides. I don’t blame her, she’d just had a great vacation and prior to that had likely been in some pain so riding was just not at the top of her list of favorable activities.

However, that changed on Friday when we had an epic ride. The pony I had for my ride that night is the pony that I’ll have consistently in 3-4 years. She was so balanced and was allowing me complete control of her shoulders. She was relaxed and forward and really listening to my leg rather than just reacting. She was so balanced that I was able to ask her to do anything and she just quietly maintained contact and the same energy. Her transitions within gaits were on point. It was the most amazing and addictive feeling I've experienced so far in my time riding dressage.

I was so impressed with her that I did a small amount of walk, a bit of trot and canter in each direction and then called it quits. It was really spectacular and I didn’t want to push her past her willingness to work that night so we ended on a high note.

Saturday our heat index was in the 100s with +70% humidity that made me drip sweat just getting Katai tacked up. I hadn’t planned on doing much but the high humidity decided me and so I just lunged briefly at walk, trot, and canter and finished up before I got her sweaty at all. She got fly sprayed and put in her nice cool stall still bright eyed and bushy tailed. What I was really thrilled with was the relaxed forward energy that Katai had even on the lunge. Her trot was awesome, floaty, and just so relaxed through the back and her canter was spectacular.

We’ve had a tough month together and I’m truly looking forward to continuing this type of quality into July which I’m sure will be a better month for us!