The Breakdown

 

 

To accomplish the big goals I need to lay out smaller items to fix, improve and correct. The following are my goals for the rest of February.

1. Lots of Miles – Both of us need time together mostly riding. She is weak, I’m still weak and I’m getting used to her movement and figuring out the communication between us. My goal is to ride her 4 times per week through the end of February.

2. Strength – I need to specifically address her weaknesses which will require more than just time in the saddle. For the rest of February my goal is to do carrot stretches before and after each ride and to introduce more cavaletti work.

3. Communication – Katai is doing really well and figuring out some of the more refined cues at this point, at least refined for a green horse :P, but I need to do more to introduce lateral movements since everything is built on that. My goal is to introduce some lateral work to every ride as well as doing some work on the ground to help her figure this out and figure out how to move laterally without a rider on the days that I don’t ride.

4. Trail Riding – I would LOVE to have nice enough weather to get her out of the arena occasionally in February. If we have reasonable weather my goal is to get her out at least once a week for a quick ride down the road.

During my ride on Sunday I really felt like I’m starting to trust her. She still has spurts of naughty behavior but I know exactly how far they will go at this point and I’m comfortable with how to correct her and move on. I feel like we are starting to become a team and that she is becoming a riding horse rather than just a baby/green horse. I think the main difference for me is knowing that I can do what I need to when I need to rather than needing to change my routine or actions to accommodate a green baby horse and it is a wonderful feeling.

Progress

 

Pictures of a very tense, inverted pony mare. Yes there are sidereins but they are long enough that she was actually nibbling on grass at one point before pictures so they are not causing her to carry her head like this. Besides, you can see the tension in her legs and body as well.

Fast forward a few months of proper work, carrot stretches plus ground poles and you get this.

 



Plus, that's in the cold with very little warm up and she is pretty weak still from lack of any real consistent work. I am seriously getting excited about where we can go. Is there a bronze medal in our future?

Pony Withdrawl

I didn't get to see my pony tonight and I'm missing her badly. It's just too cold though. I blanketed her yesterday after our ride so she should be reasonably comfortable and it was going to be cold enough again that there wasn't a good reason for me take it off so she'll wear it until tomorrow or even Wednesday morning.

I did spend some time working on my goals for the year and although its nowhere near a complete list I think it's time for me to start writing them down for the world to see, or at least the world of horse bloggers :-)

 

Goals for 2014

 

1. Attend at least 3 dressage shows

 

2. Get out of the arena

 

3. Try an endurance ride (if I can find one that is local enough)

 

4. Take as many lessons as possible

 

 

I am seriously serious about accomplishing these things this year with my girl come hell or high water. I am already working on plans for transportation and figuring out who, where and when I can get lessons from. I see 2014 as a jumping off point for us and a way to get to bigger and better things. I think that a nice, fairly simple year of just accomplishing tons of miles and sweaty saddle pads together will leave us in the perfect place to get more serious about lessons and competing next year. This plan also runs concurrently with my career goals. I see myself at my current job for about two more years. I am hopeful that at that point I can find a new job with a higher wage as I am seriously underpaid now. Hopefully this new job will either be in or closer to the cities and at that point as I am looking for new boarding barns I will need to know more about my competition plans since the facility I move to will depend on where I want to take things.

 

 

All I know is that at this point the world is our oyster.

 

                 

Winter Update

So its been way to long since I posted anything on my blog. This is due to a few reasons including this polar vortex thing and how busy my life seems all of a sudden. I swear, a few years ago I never would have believed that I would have a busy social life but suddenly that is exactly the way it seems to be. I am figuring out how to balance it all and starting to demand more horse time rather than just dealing with being busy and putting Katai last all of the time but it is a work in progress since I've never had to do anything like this before.

I have been working with her fairly consistently its just not as often as I would like, hasn't been as productive as I would like and I've had no time to blog on what has been happening. However, I decided that it is time to stop making excuses. I've had this thing that I've called a "100 Day Challenge" where basically I wrote out 100 days of things that I wanted to do I wanted to accomplish such as cantering Katai for the first time, eating healthier and making more time for myself. I've been doing fairly well meeting the challenges every day with the exception of missing a few riding days due to weather. One of the challenges is starting to blog more consistently again so that is what I'm working on now.

Today I was out at the barn for awhile despite the cold and rode not only Katai but another large draft cross named Durango. It is wonderful to ride a horse that has more experience and to have the chance to work on myself. His owner has asked me to ride once in awhile to do some dressage work and give her some tips. Today we worked on turns on the haunches to start to try to lighten his front end a bit.

Durango with his owner riding 

 



The real star of the show was Katai though. She is slowly getting better and better and our biggest hindrance right now is her lack of strength. Just like any young horse she is weak especially going to one side and that makes the work hard and her frustrated. It really doesn't help that with this extremely cold winter all of the horses are just standing around in the pen. Today she was clearly sore from our last workout a couple of days ago when we did a lot of trotting. While I don't like seeing her sore she did get more comfortable as she warmed up and got working again and I am glad that she is building muscle. I gave her easy work today and we did a lot of walking with just a small amount of trotting. Tomorrow she will get just a grooming and some grain. I may try to liniment her but honestly with how long her coat is right now I think it may be a lost cause. I will do some carrot stretches with her though and some walking to just help her stretch out.

Eating grain foods in a stall.

 



The Year of the Horse

Tonight when I went out to check on Katai, pull her blanket off and make sure that she was in one piece underneath and she looked like this ->

but I think she thought that she looked like this ->

Or this ->

 

I am really liking her new blanket. It's my first ever heavy weight blanket and a few years ago I NEVER thought that I would be using a heavy weight blanket on a horse I owned much less a PONY I own but she was actually loosing weight from the cold weather and now she is maintaining nicely.

She is just so cute! Once she had her blanket off and had been thoroughly inspected I free longed her for a little while which is when she turned into fire eating dragon pony and then put her blanket back on, fed her grain, and brought her back to her pasture.

As far as 2014 goes it has been going great so far! My old car died on the last day of the old year and I got a new on on the 1st. It is so nice to be confident about my car again and to know that it will go where I want it to!

I am also very excited to be taking part in the 2014 Twelve Week Horsemanship Challenge!! It is on Facebook and the challenge is;

Pick 1 horse and in 12 weeks: Spend 40 horsemanship hours and ride 30 times. Any rides count towards your 40 hours. (5 rides can be bareback the rest need to be saddled. No minimum ride time but 2 hours minimum between rides.) To throwdown in this challenge you must post a picture of you and the horse you choose by midnight PST Saturday January 4th 2014. The challenge starts on Sunday January 5th 2014 and finishes midnight PST March 29th 2014. Choose your horse wisely, get ready to grind it out rain or shine dark or cold. Posting updates is not required but is a huge support, inspiration and service to everyone else. Complete the challenge and reap the rewards in your horsemanship. Are you in??

I think it will be just the thing I need to encourage me to continue to ride through this cold. I will be tracking my progress on here to keep me going. I'm so excited to get started!!

Christmas List

Well, its getting to be that time. I am working on my Christmas shopping which mostly consists of my mom, dad and siblings this year as well as the three woman in the HR department at work. They are all tough to shop for, except maybe my sisters because we think very much alike, and I feel like I should be so easy to buy things for since absolutely anything for a horse would make me happy. Things like horse treats, brushes, or medical supplies don't have to be a specific color or style or size and would be great gifts but whether its just tough for non horse people to know what to buy or if they are still trying to quell my horse crazy habits but I never seem to get horse gifts.

I always adore what they get me of course :-)

but if I could just ask for what I REALLY want (from someone with unlimited funds cause its fun to dream) it would go something like this;

These treats because they are made from reasonably health ingredients and are small and hard so they would fit in a pocket well.

One of these bridles because I've heard some horses love them and I would love to see if Katai would. Plus, I LOVE the way they look.

One of these blankets in lightweight. Katai has a heavy/medium blanket and a sheet but I would love something in between and these last forever and just fit right.

Some of these awesome, warm breeches because it would nice to not freeze at the barn this winter :-)

A nice, quiet clippers since at some point I'd like to be able to at least trim up my pony's summer coat.

One of these cool European style saddle pads, bonus that this one is navy and pink :-)

So, to anyone reading this, what would you ask for?

Material Girl

Sometimes I feel materialistic when it comes to my pony and I feel the need to explain even though I know I don't need to.

I do love my pony for my pony and even if I had the same worn English saddle with a towel under it as a saddle pad and a mismatched bridle like when I was growing up I would love her just the same and would enjoy riding just as much. I am not into horses because of products or as a shopping opportunity they are simply a part of my soul.

However, I don't buy much for myself and when I do its normally practical. I love name brands but I can rarely afford them so I almost never buy them and while I do have a weakness for Victoria Secret I rarely buy myself anything fun as far as clothes or shoes go.

I also don't have any other expensive hobbies and even my computer was a good deal and relatively "cheap", in fact the only thing I have that is really nice is my iPhone.

When it comes to Katai though things are different. I save my money so that I can buy her nice things. Mainly its because her comfort and health actually depend to some extent on my ability to buy and use things that fit her and are comfortable and well made. I'll be fine if I wear work clothes from Target but my pony's back won't be ok if I buy her a cheap saddle.

Its also because its fun. Not only is it fun to shop for cute, nicely made, adorable things for her but it is so nice to see her in nice things and to feel proud about how she looks. Probably this isn't so different than parents buying their kids nice things but since I don't have any my pony gets to be nicely outfitted.

I bring this up partially because I did some shopping on Cyber Monday and bought another weight of blanket, finally I think I have the different weights that I need, a new girth and a pair of socks for myself. Partially though its because reading through posts it seems I have a lot of things I want for her. Most of them are things I need for example the girth I just bought was because neither of the ones I have right now really fit her. One is too short so she keeps hitting the buckles with her elbow (ouch) and the other is too slippery and doesn't have enough elastic so I slip all over the place. Having a unique sized and shaped horse means that I'm constantly searching for things that fit and work for her small frame.

And there is the fact that I can finally afford some of this stuff.

Growing up, as I said before, I had almost nothing that I wanted and very little that I needed to actually be able to outfit a horse properly and comfortably. Much of it was a quick fix or was borrowed from a friend and I always felt like I needed something or wanted something. It is so nice to finally have a good job and to be able to afford the things that we both need to be able to function together as a good horse and rider team :-)

My Thanksgiving

I think that oddly enough this will be one of the first posts with pictures of me in it! Its tough when you aren't around people when you work your horse to get any pictures but today my dad came up to my new apartment for our Thanksgiving meal and I took him out to the barn to show him where Katai is now being boarded.

The meal was roast chicken, green bean casserole, and mashed potatoes and gravy. It was just right for two people and extremely tasty, I know I'm looking forward to leftovers! After dinner we had a chance to talk and then he mentioned that he wanted to get some pie so I suggested that we go check out the barn and then stop at a local diner for homemade pie, since that is one thing I have not mastered.

I so love this arena! My dad was very impressed with the whole set up and it was the first time that he had met Katai in person.

I think she won him over :-)

I had planned on riding but after the large meal I just felt more like a nap and I didn't want my dad to have to wait too long so I just lunged and fed her her grain.

 

Love this one!

I feel like a marshmallow in this coat but at least its warm. Katai is partial to the nice large "treat" pockets.

Thankful

The things I am thankful for this holiday season;

First and foremost friends. Lisa, the person that I rented from for while, not only has been extremely supportive this week (and always) but also knew that my family wasn't available today on Thanksgiving so she invited me to her family's Thanksgiving meal. She also gave me two pairs of winter breeches which is soooo wonderful since I have been freezing when riding but just couldn't afford winter breeches.

Secondly I'm thankful for a good job, a clean place to live, and a working car :-)

I am also extremely thankful for a wonderful barn and boarding situation which is easily the best I have had so far. I know that my pony is being well cared for and I adore the facilities.

Finally, for now, I am thankful for my wonderful pony and buddy Katai and everything that she does for me every day.

My Anchor

My boyfriend broke up with me yesterday on my way home from work, the week of Thanksgiving, by text. I'd had a gut feeling for the past two weeks that something was going on but I never thought it was that. I feel completely blindsided especially because I truly loved the guy and there was no indication that he didn't love me. He was still looking at me with gooey eyes, holding me close, kissing me on the top of the head, pulling me onto his lap on the couch when we were watching a movie together and we were having fun in bed.

I really didn't see it coming.

I did get him to admit that he "bumped into someone else and just went crazy" so whether it was someone he knew from before or just someone new I'll never know. I'm completely positive that he broke up with me because the relationship wasn't new and exciting anymore.

I'd rather never pull my outside life into my horse blog but this relationship has been so important to me and such a wonderful thing that I need to address it and mostly I needed to say that Katai is truly my anchor.

Tonight it was cold and dark out and I was sad and wanted nothing more than to go home, curl up in a little ball and cry but I wanted so badly to see Katai's fluffy ears, to hear her high little whinny when she sees my car because she knows that I'm there for her, and to put on her nice warm blanket to protect her from the cold. I even missed my turn on the way home from work because I was too lost in thought so I went the long way to the barn and sure enough she greeted me with a whinny.

I love her so much and this actually came at something close to the right time, if there is such a thing, because things have been going so well with her. I have been spending so much time at the barn that when I saw the text one of my first thoughts, after how could this be happening, was that at least I would get to spend more time at the barn with my pony.

I don't really know what to do with myself right now other than spend time at the barn. I didn't just loose my boyfriend I feel like I lost my best friend, or at least my best human friend.

Tonight I had nowhere near the mental capacity to ride. I brought Katai into the arena, out of the wind, and free lunged her over some jumps. She was full of herself and snorting smoke in the cold air, doing her best to make me laugh so for a little while I forgot about stupid boys and enjoyed my girl. When she was done I fed her her grain, put on her nice fluffy blanket and cried into her mane for awhile. She was calm and patient and wise way beyond her six years and wrapped her neck around me.

I needed my night with her tonight and I'll need my time with her this week more than every. I'm so glad that I have such a true friend.

Spoiled Pony

I had the second half of the day off today and I fully planned on riding and spending some quality time with Katai at the barn but on my way into work this morning it started raining and kept it up all day. I still thought that I would at least work with her but then on the drive to the barn the rain started to freeze on my windshield and when I got there the horses were all eating so I got the hint and decided to save the ride for a different day.

I did put Katai's blanket and, for the first time, blanket liner on so now she is nice and cozy. It is supposed to get down to the teens tonight and into the single digits tomorrow. She is still getting fed separately  since she isn't fitting in with the herd quite well enough to be comfortable eating off the round bale but hopefully soon they will all get it figured out.

I planned on giving her tomorrow and Saturday off but now that today ended up being an abbreviated visit I may try to make it out on Saturday which would work out because they will be doing poop control to send in for fecal egg count testing. It would be nice to get to hang out with more people from the barn,...

even if it is to collect poop.