My Daily Routine

I am also stealing this idea for the "unofficial" blog hop.

I work, full time M-F from around 8:00ish - 4:30ish. I have always done better in the morning if I keep my perp to a minimum and then pretty much head straight to work so I get up around 7:30 (I'm lucky enough to have a 10 minute commute) and that leaves me from around 4:45pm-12:00am in the evening so that's when I ride.

Normally my routine is to take a day off riding on Monday and Thursday to just to do other chores at home, spend time with friends, veg out, and/or work out,.

On Tuesday I have my lesson at 6:30pm so I get home from work, eat a quick dinner and then drive the 35 minutes to the barn (45 if rush hour traffic is really bad) which means that sometimes I get there just with enough time to groom and tack up quickly.

The way the barn looks in the evening

Wednesday and Friday I leave the house around 6:00-7:00 after playing with Veggie, eating dinner and changing into my riding clothes.

Weekends are my favorite (really who can say differently) but I sleep in a bit normally until around 8:00-8:30, make myself some coffee, grab breakfast and then head to the barn. I usually get home by noon which includes the extra time that I spend at the barn over the weekend.

Not my pictures but my weekend cold press looks very similar :)

Since Katai is in full board my time at the barn, other than when I have a lesson, normally consists of pulling all of the stuff I need out of the tack room and putting it on hooks/saddle stand near her stall. I  grab my helmet, grooming bag, saddle, saddle pad, saddle shims, girth, pink dressage boots, and bridle. I put my boots on and then get the pony. During the week she's already in her stall so I just lead her the 5 or so feet from her stall to the crossties but on the weekend I pull her out of her paddock. I get her groomed and tacked up, boots, saddle, I put my helmet on, and then put on her bridle and finally put on my gloves. Then we go into the arena where I normally ride for 30-45 minutes but sometimes more if she needs it.

Katai would like everyone to know that she would prefer
to be doing this on the weekends

I usually don't lunge before I ride unless I have reason to believe that she's uncomfortable or going to be especially naughty. For some reason the lunge is both of our happy place and even if she ends up being naughty under saddle it almost never shows up on the lunge so I'd just as soon hop right on since it doesn't seem to make a difference and where if she is naughty or tight I have more tools to correct it.

Part of my current riding playlist

Normally I listen to music on my iPhone speakers while I ride. After we're done I pick up poop and hand walk her for at least 5-10 minutes (thanks to my first instructor when I was 12 and reading Jec Aristotle Ballou) since I believe in walking to cool down and I may as well join her and walk next to her rather than staying on her back.

Then I crosstie her, untack her, and turn her out or put her back in her stall. I love cleaning up after my ride and after putting all of my tack away I sweep, grab any empty supplement baggies, and then head home. On the weekends it's usually around lunch time and I'm hungry so I normally stop at Taco Bell, since that's the only fast food place in the area that has vegan food,  and then head home. On the weekdays I get home right around 9:30-10:00pm so I usually watch a movie and play with Veggie or do some work and then head to bed.

I'm lucky(?) to have very little going on in my life outside of work and Katai. I have friends and we hang out enough for me to get all of the social interaction that I want but most of them are in a different place in their lives (married with kids) so that doesn't happen as often as it did. I have to admit that selfishly I'm happy to be able to spend as much time as I want doing the things that I enjoy most.

Full Moon Mares

You'll never guess what Katai did, first thing.

Well T might.

I led Katai 5 feet from the front of her stall, put her in cross ties, and she pinned her ears and bumped me with her nose. Yep, she and B are very clearly on the same wavelength. Good thing we live pretty far apart or I would seriously be concerned about the impending pony apocalypse.

The pony psychic force is strong in this one

She got in trouble and then I went back to grooming and wondering if she'd try it again, she didn't. I was honestly laughing the rest of the time as I groomed and got her tacked up. She'd even made herself especially muddy, normally she's a very clean princess pony, just to mess with me.

However, despite the fact that I'd planned to just lunge her at the first sign of sass she was actually very, very good. She was a little tight during our trot work but she never lost it and only threatened to rear once. Then we easily had the BEST canter transitions and canter work that we've ever had!! I was just focusing on doing the right thing with my body and it's amazing how that means that she can do the right thing herself. Then she was nice and relaxed and stretchy, and balanced, and her canter rhythm even slowed down considerably and her stride opened up.

I've never gotten her to that point before and it was magical. She got all of the pats and was clearly proud of herself once I hopped off. Even more impressive, the rest of the horses were fed partway through my ride, before we started our canter work, and she stayed with me and kept right on listening.

I decided after our ride that really she just wanted to confuse me. Well mare you won, I didn't expect that.

Wavelength: Lesson Recap 9/13

Further proof that Bridget and Katai are on the same wavelength. T wrote a post on Tuesday about her lesson on Monday and my lesson on Tuesday (I hadn't read T's post before that lesson) was almost exactly the same.

Katai was wiggly, bendy, sucked back, and basically just being a naughty pony. Learning of course isn't in a straight line but she's been SOOO good this whole time since the move and recently with L as well that it just felt especially tough that she was so naughty. I guess I sort of figured that she was going to take a big step backwards once we started calling her on some of the small stuff she's doing but I didn't think we'd be back to tantrums.

We started off working on getting a good trot and actually got some REALLY nice trot. We also worked on leg yields and I easily did the best leg yields of my life, probably just because Jane doesn't realize how completely uneducated I am as a rider, just expected me to do them perfectly, and just kept telling me what I needed to do to get them perfect until I did.

It was an AMAZING feeling to get them right and the only reason Katai was able to do them was because of all of the work over the past week or so and based on the info that Jane's been sharing with me.

So far I know it doesn't sound rough but then, after a walk break, when we went back to trot she had a few pony tantrums and she hasn't had any in a long time. I was already feeling a little like crap about that and then Jane said that we were going to work on canter. I've known that when we address canter the first time it would be a bit of a disaster. Our transitions have never been pretty and with her in tantrum mode I was concerned. Then between the new way we're working with her, my own ineptitude and crookedness, and her being in that mood it was very interesting.

To her credit she never bucked (even though bucking is more normal) and she didn't seem to get as tight and tense through her back but it was a hot mess. A really hot mess with her trantering, gaiting, throwing herself against the wall, etc. I was trying not to be too negative about it after and Jane just said, she's got some tension but we'll work on it, but for some reason I just felt really negative about the whole thing.

In fact, over the past couple of days I've been having a tough time with it. I'll deal, it's not a big surprise or anything, but it's just felt more negative than it should. I think it was more the return of the tantruming, wiggly, pony mess and the fact that she was threatening to rear than anything else. It's been MONTHS since she's done anything like that and after how good she's been it just seemed like a big backwards step.

Oh well, I have a pony and a mare and this is pretty much what I signed up for. I adore her even on her bad days even if it is frustrating :)

My Event-ful Weekend

I had some tentative plans with some horse friends for this weekend that I hadn't shared previously because I wasn't quite sure if they would happen or not.

First though, on Friday I went to my tack shop to pick up my HKM stuff!

So pretty!!!

I also went back and looked at their consignment section since Jane wanted me to get a pair of regular irons and found a great deal on a pair for $10. On the way I saw this.

Brown and padded with sparkles!!!

I didn't get it but I sure wanted to. Katai's halter is starting to wear out and after our recent trailer loading experience I noticed that theres a hairline crack in the ring you attach the lead rope to which probably isn't safe for long term. It's not in the budget now but over the next few months I plan to replace it.

I then went to the barn to ride and had an AMAZING ride on my incredible little mare. She was really tuned into me and was behaving so well that I was able to really focus on myself. There are so many things right now that I have to focus on that it was nice that she allowed me to do that.

So gorgeous :)

I also got this, sort of, confirmation shot where you can see what a little beefcake she's turning into!

Sport pony goals

Then on Saturday I got to go watch eventing and groom/cheer on my friends!! They were doing a schooling show at Roebke's Run which holds 1* and 2* events. It's just under 2 hours away from where I live and easily the closest facility for eventers in my area. I had never been there, love eventing, and was looking forward to spending time with friends so when Allie and Vanessa (both of which I went to the hunter pace with) let me know that they were going I was excited to be able to go with as their groom.

This is from the stadium ring at the show office and kitchen

The facility is absolutely gorgeous and there is not a bit of it that's imperfect or untouched. They've done everything so well and the cross country course is amazing, along with everything else.

You know you're at a fancy place when you pull up and see this rig

Both Vanessa and Allie were doing starter. It was Allie's first event and Vanessa had brought her greenie that was on the hunter pace. Allie would have had her green horse as well but he, of course, turned up dead lame two days before the event so she was riding a horse that one of the other boarders had lent her who is a champion hunter (over fences).

Course walk

Water complex, it was optional for starter

I spent most of the day carrying stuff, cheering them on, keeping them on time, holding horses, and bringing snacks as well as taking pictures on Allie's fancy camera so these are just a small number of the total pictures I took. Once they share some on Facebook I'll have more to share on here hopefully because it was an amazing day for photos and they both had a great show.

Look at that sky!

Both did Dressage and did really well, especially for having a green horse and a horse that had never evented before and both scored under 40. Other than circling back to a fence for a second try both made it through stadium clean and then it was on to cross country!!

This tiny pony was named Hotsauce and I just about put him in my car.
The starter jumps looked like Rolex height jumps for her but she made it through the entire course!

Allie was first and my heart was in my throat because up until that moment no one had made it past the 3rd fence and the previous riders had all fallen. Allie however went in and owned it! She jumped the entire thing clear other than, I believe, one circle. I was able to go down and check in with her before running back out on course to take photos of Vanessa and cheer her on.

Watching show jumping

Vanessa also went clear up until the last fence but got her mare over and they made it through!

Ironically this is the only jump that I took a photo of during the course walk and it's the
one where the first few riders came off.
Apparently I'm not the only one that thought this fence looked interesting ;)

It was amazing to see both of them so successfully complete their first/horse's first event and on top of that it was an absolutely beautiful day. It was in the 70s and sunny with an amazing breeze so I couldn't have chosen a better day to be there.

Allie and Dream walking back from the wash stall with HotSauce and his rider.
Too bad it's so blurry!

Then today I went out to the barn and had another amazing ride! Katai was great and was almost listening as well as she did on Friday. During the second half of the ride she did get a little speedy but the great thing was that I was able to slow her down and adjust her stride with my posting so that almost made it better just because I was glad to be able to practice my new skills :)

Since I didn't ride on Saturday I'm planning to ride tomorrow and then I'm really looking forward to another lesson on Tuesday!

Special

I adore my local tack shop. They’re great and the owners are amazing and board at my last barn. They’re very active in the local horse community and put on the large schooling show that I participated in. I shop there and support them whenever I can, however, I don’t always love the clothes that they have. They, like any business, need to reflect the local community and in that community my tastes are underrepresented.

There is another small, boutique, tack shop on the other side of the city that has more of the brands that I like such as Asmar , B Vertigo, Equiline etc. but the owners of that place aren’t amazing and charge a higher markup on their stuff so I don’t like to shop there as much. Recently though my tack shop got in a bunch of stuff from HKM.

I loved the breeches and saddle pads that they got but wasn’t shopping for anything at that point so I passed on getting anything. However, I started to wonder if they would let me do a special order through them and thus save on shipping. One of the people that I did the hunter pace with actually works there and so I finally brought it up and found out that I could!

HKM is one of those places, like Horze, that has pony sized saddle pads and I’ve always loved their breeches. As I’ve mentioned I’ve sort of moved my saddle pad shopping “addiction” to breeches but I couldn’t say no to ordering and adorable European dressage pad. The best thing is that now that I have a European pony saddle I’m not worried about whether the pad will fit.

So we "scheduled" some time for me
to stop by and for us to shop together

So, I went in and spent too much time trying to make up my mind on what to order. I was originally going to order a couple of saddle pads but when I started looking at the breeches I couldn’t say no so I ended up with one pair of breeches and one saddle pad. Unfortunately I didn’t know the total going in since the tack shop needed to determine what the markup was going to be so it ended up being more than I would have probably spent.

Gotta love having a friend at the tackshop ;)

I’m going to sort of call these my Christmas present to myself which works since buying some European stuff is kind of what I was planning to do for my Christmas present. More pictures and a review to follow!

Real Deal: Lesson Recap 9/6

I had my first scheduled, normal lesson with Jane this past Tuesday and, no big surprise, it was AMAZING af. I'm going to list bullet points of the items we worked on since I feel like that's the best way for me to journal all of this and for me to not miss something. So, without further ado here is the massive list of what we're working on!

- My way of thinking about training/riding Katai is something that Jane has made big changes with. For some things, such as proper bend to the left, she wants me to realize that it's really difficult and probably uncomfortable for her. This has made me think very differently about how I ask for it and she wants me to give time for her to accept it rather than "making her" where for things without the same limitation I might expect a more immediate reaction. The other changes in my thinking are in thinking like my contact like a hug rather than an aid. I'm very demanding of myself and it's easy for me to be the same with Katai and not be as gentle and respectful of her as I should be. I'm really enjoying working with a coach that takes that into account.

- Leg contact is another big thing we are working on. Jane is insisting that Katai accept that contact right from the beginning of my ride and it's meant that she is way less resistant to it throughout my entire lesson. Again I'm focusing on the hug feeling and trying to keep it as pleasant as possible. She wants it to be pleasant most of the time and very gentle. No thumping her in the sides, no pushing her, no unpleasantness at all for right now. Firm yes but for the time being we're focusing on it being pleasant.

- We are also working on slowing me down. I function very quickly as a human being, I rush through a lot and have a tough time stopping and slowing down. I can be in the moment and still rushed but I've been trying to slow things down. I'm the same way with Katai which was made worse by the problem she had with rearing. I got used to feeling her suck back and having to really push her forward. However, that rushes her, makes her tense, and makes her feel like running away. Jane has been really emphasizing that even if she breaks into a walk its ok. It's ok, where are we going in such a hurry, why does she need to keep trotting, this is fun, it's a slow process and it can be a slow process and I need to just take a breath and slow down. I feel like she's good for my life in general and not just my riding :)

- She also found something that I've been unhappy about in my riding but never really knew what was causing it. I think we all feel like we look awkward when we see ourselves in videos and pictures but there's been this thing that seems off but that I can't really identify and Jane saw it the moment she saw me on a horse. She says that I perch when I'm riding particularly at the walk, but it effects my trotting as well. She wants me to really release my hips and sit down on Katai's back. This is really, really tough for me. Not that some of the things above aren't but with those I feel like I have moments where I REALLY get them and just need to make it more consistent, with this I feel like I kind of get it for a second or two but haven't been able to consistently get it when I'm trying.

- I also found out that I've clearly identified that we're still struggling with bend. With the help of the arena mirrors and Jane's coaching I was really able to see just how bad it is sometimes when it still looks good from above. We're at a point where Jane won't accept me not having Katai in the correct bend. Poor Jane needs to yell at me for it a lot but we're going to get better quick! Lot's of practice in our future.

- She's also making a couple of minor changes in my equipment. She loves my new saddle (I had my first lesson with her in back in July in my old saddle) but wants me to get regular fillis irons for the different feel they give and, I may have mentioned, that she wants me to use side reins instead of my neck stretcher because she doesn't like the way that the bungie pulls down on their poll. I still have my side reins but unfortunately I sold my old irons. Oh well, they'll be easy to pick up at a used tack sale!

Summer Favorites

I don't have a lot of favorites for Summer. Mainly because I hadn't been buying much and have pretty much reviewed all of the items that I would consider favorites already. Recently I've picked up a few more things so I should have a better fall favorites.

Oh, and lesson recap to follow. It was AMAZING but I wanted to get this post out since I've been siting on it for a little while.

Horze Slow Hay Feeder Net

When I was moving to my previous barn the BM sent an email to everyone moving in that she would only do hay nets if they were like this one because then, tough to tell from the picture, but you can just dump the hay in the top and don't have to take it down first. They're also nice and big and are slow feeders, however, they cost $99.

I headed over to my favorite website, Horze (no they don't pay me), and found this one for $23.

Yep, looks the same to me too

I wasn't sure how the quality would compare but having now had one for a full year and being able to see the Freedom Feeder hay nets at the barn I can say that they are very comparable. The biggest difference is that the top of the Horze one is nylon strapping and the top of the Freedom Feeder is the same nylon rope. Katai did chew a hole in one side of mine after about 9-10 months but I just turned it around so that the hole was against the wall of her stall and we were back in business! I'm not sure that it would have lasted another 9-10 months since it was wearing but still, 1 year out of a hay net is pretty damn good and seems to be similar to the name brand one. I did buy a new one to move to the new barn since the other was on it's last legs but I'm hoping to get at least a year out of this new one as well however, at $23 it's certainly less painful to replace them than to replace the name brand one.


SoloComb

I have no issue with pulling manes and spent a lot of time making it pleasant for Katai so that she wouldn't be bad about it. I would pull a little at a time while she was eating her grain or hay and make sure that, within my power, she didn't object to it. However, I started to realize that I was needing to pull about half or more of her hair to actually get it thin enough and that I'm just not ok with. It's too much time and way too much hair pulling for either of us to deal with it.

Instead, thanks to a conversation with L who's from Sweden originally, I discovered the concept of braiding on both sides of the neck.

Not sure that mine will ever look this good but
I am going to spend some time practicing this winter 

That meant that I didn't need to thin but just to trim so I got a Solocomb to test out using it to backcomb and trim instead of pulling to make her mane look pulled and natural and get a nice short length. I've gotten pretty good at it so I think it looks pretty natural now. I just start similarly to how I would if I were going to pull only instead of pulling the hair out I back comb it and trim. By doing that all down her mane it has a nice natural look. 

Not a great example of how her mane looks since it actually looks a bit chopped off here
but there's a good shot of the hay net in the background

Generous: Lesson Recap 9/5

Gotta make sure that the other horses haven't forgotten about their princess

So if you're confused about why I'm writing a lesson recap post about a lesson on Labor Day when its a holiday and I mentioned that I'm taking lessons on Tuesdays I was pretty surprised as well. People who knew Jane mentioned that she likes to give feedback when you're riding and that the extra advice is nice but that's pretty common. I'm used to instructors stopping by if I'm riding and giving some suggestions and moving on. I figured this would be the same.

However, today while I was grooming Katai Jane showed up and I was incredibly impressed when she came to me, told me that she'd been thinking about some of the things I'd mentioned about Katai and she had a couple of ideas. First, the fact that she trusted my opinion about my horse and didn't just think "oh this girl doesn't know anything about dressage, I'll just see what they actually need to work on in our lesson" meant a lot. The fact that she'd been spending time making a plan and then talked it through with me meant even more.

We chatted about both Katai's reluctance to give to aids and not just be extremely resistant and then about her weight. I think that Jane thought that I would be offended that she thinks that Katai is heavier than she should be but I was just very thankful and happy that she sees it as well. She wants Katai to lose 50 pounds or so and I'm completely on the same page. We agreed that it's both diet and exercise so I've got an additional reason to be motivated to ride/work her at least 5 days per week.

Then she followed me to the arena. I figured she'd stick around for a few minutes and then go back to doing barn chores but instead she sat down on the mounting block and proceeded to give me a 30-45 minute lesson. It was so amazing that I actually lost track of the time.

Oh, and Jane really likes the new saddle! Both how it fits Katai and where it puts me
Ignore the saddle pad, I'd put it back too far, it's not the saddle's fault

We're going back to basics for both me and Katai and I'm really, really happy and impressed with how Jane was systematically adjusting and fixing things that I had no idea I was doing wrong. I had a few big light bulb moments when she explained thing including how to actually, properly do a downward transition. It's not that L hadn't, she just explained it the way that you would to someone who already understands the concept but the last time I had an instructor actually teach me how to do a downward transition, back when I first started riding, the explanation was to basically pull on the reins.

My favorite thing that we worked on, besides just identifying a few more things that I'm doing incorrectly with my body, were walk/trot transitions. They've been ugly so I've been avoiding them and just had absolutely no idea how to "fix" them. Jane gave us a good start today!

Basically she wants me to slow everything down, no more pushing Kati forward, just ask her to be in the gait that I'm looking for and then let her figure out her rhythm and speed. We also worked on having leg contact and having Katai just accept it. She told me to feel like that, as well as the contact on the reins is a nice hug. If Katai pulls against my hands I shouldn't let her but as soon as she's soft again I should go back to the hug. It was a good description and meant a lot to have her really get me and Katai and figure out where we struggle with our partnership and to start working on that right away.

I thanked her profusely after and asked if she still wanted to have a lesson tomorrow and she sort of laughed and said of course! She said that all of her students get lots of extra lessons. Still, I couldn't believe that she took all of that extra time, on a holiday to sit and help me. I'm so happy to be here! I'll recap my lesson tomorrow as well although I suspect it will be similar.

Riding At The New Barn

Katai loves looking at herself
I have to admit that I like to admire her as well

Today was my third day (I think) riding at the new barn and my second ride in my new saddle. I LOVE the new saddle. It's just making me more and more happy every time I ride in it. It just puts me in a much better place than my old saddle and I can tell that Katai likes it. Plus, today I cantered in it and with the small shims I'm using it didn't shift forward at all!

My main goal for this ride was to work on my posting. I found this amazing video that was really helpful for my understanding of how to post correctly. It's almost exactly what L has told me to do but explained in a different way that somehow made more sense to me.

 

At any rate I basically just focused on doing this during my ride today. It always has been VERY hard for me to post at a consistent temp and not just go with the horse. Jane is a huge classical music fan so when I told her that I just follow along with the tempo because of being in an orchestra and needing to follow a tempo for so many years as a cellist she told me that I needed to be the conductor. True haha but easier said than done.

Focusing on really doing an Up-Down-Up-Down-Up-Down rather than U.Down-U.Down-U.Down was good but very, very tough. I did make some progress but I need many more rides like this to get anywhere near being competent at it. I was really happy with myself though and pleased with my progress because it was easily the closest I've gotten to doing what I'm supposed to. Funny how that also makes Katai's job easier.

At first she was very resistant and didn't want anything to do with me controlling her tempo at the trot. It didn't help that she'd had an e/o day schedule this past week and it was really cool this morning. She's also still kind of feeling off and I think she's just a little tight and sore through her muscles. Who knows what kind of running around she's been doing as she meets her new neighbors.

My pony would win all of the gold at the mugging olympics

However, after just focusing on myself and making sure that I really was posting correctly she sneeze/snorted a few times and seemed to let go of some of the tension. Later, once we were cantering in the second direction she really sneeze/snorted several times in a row and then felt much better. I'm also going to schedule her a massage, as mentioned, for this month so I think that will be great for her as well.

Despite her being resistant and just tight today I'm really happy at how far I've come as a rider and how I'm able to get her to a good place every ride even if it takes some time. That wasn't always the case and I feel like my effectiveness as a rider is so much better after all of my work with L.

It’s Here!!

Veggie was hungry

For some reason this feels like a way more momentous occasion than when I got my custom. I’m not exactly sure why because that was a really big deal for me. Maybe it’s because I knew that this saddle would fit both of us and with the custom I was just crossing my fingers. Maybe it’s because it’s a name brand saddle or maybe it’s because I think it’s completely adorable. Who knows. 

Nicest saddle cover I've ever owned and it came free with the saddle
It has nice plush fleece as a lining

Love their logo

At any rate I was interested to see some differences in this saddle vs. the trial. First the cantle on the trail was that cool carbon fiber type material. I kind of liked it but it did sort of pull the leather funny where it dipped into the back of the seat. 

 

SOOOOOO pretty!!

On the new saddle this is a very soft calfskin type leather with the prestige stamp in it. I like that it’s still unique but without the possible risks of the carbon fiber since I wasn’t sure how it would stand up in comparison with the rest of the saddle plus the little dip into the seat is now much nicer looking.

Is it crazy that I sort of miss the carbon?

 

This looks much better than with the carbon though

The other is in the rear panel configuration. You may remember that I had storage plans for the trial saddle. 

 

I don't have a great picture comparison but I think you can see
how different the panels look than below

These look over stuffed to me

This saddle looks completely different with way more contact along the back and it looks more like other prestige saddles look to me. I’m actually wondering if the trial got relocked by a saddle fitter or something since it seems odd that they would change how they put their saddle together. The carbon fiber makes sense (may have gotten negative comments on it) but this seems odd. It does still fit, if anything it fits better, so I’m really pleased with it. 

I don't have a direct comparison but I think you can tell how much taller these sit.
Where will I ever put my snacks now...

I'll be using my brown stirrup leathers because some amazing prestige leathers came with it for free but only in child's size. I got the longest I could but they're still too short. Oh well, it'll be fine until I can get some nice longer black ones.

So sad these don't fit, they're the nicest leathers I've ever had

I'm also planning to get a black PS of Sweden bridle for my birthday present to myself this year so then at least my bridle and saddle will match. So exciting!!

August Goals Recap

This whole summer has felt really hit or miss for me. I’m not sure if I’m just that much more motivated and working that much harder than I have in the past on my goals or if it was just a weird summer (I sort of think it was) but I feel sort of like when I look back the whole thing was in a fog.

August Goals:
1. Work Outside
Meh - I honestly hated the footing in our outdoor. It just felt way too deep to me and really changed Katai’s way of going. Still not sure if I was just being a baby if it’s actually too deep but I didn’t want to risk it. Because of bugs and riding schedule I didn’t get out much at the barn but I did go to the Hunter Pace!! She clearly showed that she can do that well so now I just need to do more work at the barn and make it a more normal thing.

2. Stretchy Trot
Not bad, I didn’t specifically focus on this as much as I’d planned but I did more lunging with the neck stretcher and she is pretty confirmed in stretching down when I ask for it.

3. Massage
I’m not as far as I’d like to be in this book so I haven’t done much with Katai yet. I’m going to keep plugging away!

4. Strength
Yes!! I’ve started working out again and have just been more physically active going on more hikes and doing my work out at home more regularly. Also, see below.

5. Ride More
Yes!!! Really happy about this one. With one big exception I’ve been out to the barn consistently about 5 days per week. I can tell in my strength and Katai’s ridability.

September Goals:

1. Continue to Ride More
I want to continue to get 5 rides/Lunges in per week for the entire month!

2. Work outside
Reading about Megan’s work with TC over at Enter A Spooking and how she’s been showing him around the new barn has inspired me to do the same with Katai at this new facility. I think that it became a bigger deal that it needed to be at the last barn because it was an exception rather than the rule that I rode outside. Here I don’t have an outdoor arena but there is a space to ride/work and a quiet(ish) dirt road that I can ride on so the plan is to start taking her out for hand walks to explore after our rides. I think it will be good for both of us!

3. Massage
Since I’m nowhere near being ready to do a good massage with Katai yet I’m going to schedule one for her over the next month or so. Between the hunter pace and her shenanigans at loading to come to this new barn I think she’s carrying some extra tension.

4. Adjust to my new coach and the new facility
I’m going light on the goals for the rest of the month because I know that Jane, based on my previous lesson with her, will do completely different things with us. Apparently she already has plans for us at my first lesson with her (next Tuesday) which is both exciting and terrifying haha. Mainly I’m just going to do light stretchy work with Katai for the next week to make sure that she’s feeling as good and loose as possible for my lesson. Plus, honestly, you pretty much can’t do too much loose stretchy work with this pony.