Oh Gingersnap! Blog Hop: Change

I was going to blog about my lesson yesterday but honestly it's pretty boring to blog about. K, my fellow boarder's, horse was having a bad day so she was riding Jane's baby horse that evening which meant that we had a slightly different lesson than is typical. I was actually appreciative since my brain felt like mush and the relatively easy (mental) work was good for both of us. Especially since we just did a LOT of bending and stretching which was really good for Katai after two weeks off.

Anyway, on to the blog hop.

I LOVE this picture!

T asks: Have you at some point moved on to a different horse, trainer, stable, etc with the purpose of advancing your progress? What made you realize the time was right for a change? Or did you opt to adjust your goals in order to stay with what you know is working? How did either choice work out in the long run?

For me the short answer is yes, I've sort of done both. The last time I really needed to make this decision with a horse was with Loki. 

Loki was pretty much the perfect horse. He was a 15.2 hand percheron/arab cross gelding that was probably around 5-6 when I got him and around 14-15 when I eventually sold him. However, for pretty much that entire time we disliked each other. He was a good boy and I tried to make him happy and was really sweet to him but we just never were a good match. 

I was probably 19 or so here

Eventually I ended up selling him to a beginning rider who he was perfect for. I wished that I'd made the decision sooner and now I feel very strongly about having a horse that I really love and connect with as my primary mount. This was based on just never really connecting with him though and not on whether or not I could continue to make progress with him as he was certainly talented enough for me to have made progress on at the time.

There used to be so much sass with this one!

I've also made the decision to change programs (a couple of times). I'd say that the majority of the first couple years with this blog were trying to decide if Katai was the right horse for me or if changing trainers/programs was what I needed to do. Of course you all know where I've ended up now.

How at least 90% of my rides used to look

In this case, with Katai, it was the program (and having one that put the focus on me) that made the difference. J and L were honestly both top notch trainers. J has her gold medal and is a USDF certified instructor with some very successful students. Just because I don't like her methods doesn't mean that she doesn't get results. 

Too bad I don't have more of these pictures because this was Katai's way of going all. the. time. before
Or, of course, she'd just stop and rear or run sideways. Oh boy was that ever fun...

L is also a great instructor and gave Katai and I a great base to work with as well as taking Katai from pretty much unridable to just unreliable. However, I didn't actually start having fun and making progress until I found Jane who, arguably, is the least well known instructor that I've ridden with. 

and she's going even better now!

I'm also a HUGE proponent of owning a horse that you really enjoy because we just spend way too much time and money in this sport for that to not be the case. However, I never really struggled to connect with Katai it was just that she seemed like such a work in progress that I couldn't really see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I would say that these moves and or change in horses were never made specifically so that I could make progress up the levels but were more so that I could have more fun or connect to the horse I was riding. Early on with Katai I also let my doubt nearly get the best of me a few times (it didn't help that J flat out told me that Katai wouldn't ever be worth anything) and really had myself convinced that Katai was going to fail at dressage. However, with some more patience, more work on my position, more consistent riding schedule, more strength for Katai, and a different mindset now that's no longer a concern for me. Of course this is helped by the fact that I don't have lofty competitive goals and don't participate in a sport where a certain level of athleticism is required just to participate at the beginning levels.

I guess I'm not advocating that anyone keep a horse that they aren't enjoying or that isn't meeting their goals. Just sharing that sometimes that journey can take a little longer or be a little bumpier than others.

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. 

Steady: Lesson Recap 8/6

As a princess it's important to admire oneself in the mirror

This amazing princess pony is so perfect for me and my lifestyle that I don't quite know how I got so lucky. Of course it's not just because Katai is amazing, I'll owe Jane for the rest of my life for making the changes she has in my riding.

Sure Katai may have matured and maybe other things changed in her lifestyle that helped but whatever I was doing with my riding before wasn't working and was leading to at least one blow up per ride. Most rides we couldn't even consistently trot nicely on a 20 meter circle. Then Jane comes along and this pony becomes steady, happy, relaxed, consistent, and starts to love her job so clearly Jane made huge improvements in me, my riding and, of course, my mindset.

On Saturday for my first ride back I didn't push Katai much. As mentioned in a previous post we did lots of stretchy relaxed work and I was impressed especially since it had been 2 weeks since I'd ridden and the temperature had majorly dropped.

Sometimes dealing with the paparazzi gets old though

On Sunday though I had a make up lesson and I still sort of expected that she might have a minor tantrum since it was her second ride in a row, we were going to push more, and the temperature was still quite cool. I needn't have been worried since she was relaxed and happy and everything felt easy.  We still did keep it pretty easy, took lots of walk breaks, and just focused on rhythm, relaxation, and bending. We pushed more at the canter and leg yield than anywhere else but didn't get even a minor pony melt down.

Jane complimented me on Katai's nice steady rhythm right from the start (something we've both majorly struggled with) and I was also really happy with her especially with the long break.

Not a bad confirmation shot.
Also she's sort of glowing blue, should I be worried about Grues in the arena?

Katai was very wiggly, didn't really want to give when trying to bend to the left, and I lost a lot of strength in my core so my seat at the canter needs some work but overall things were amazingly good.

Perception

I've spoken before about how travel (especially for work) really puts things in perspective and this last trip especially. I think it was both because of the length of time and the way that this trip went that made it feel that way.

It's so good to be back and so amazing to have all my things even the small things like my preprogramed car radio stations, or the foods I like, or my favorite vegan ice cream (Ben and Jerry's!!!). Living out of a small carry-on roller bag for two weeks was tough...

Not sure who this is but he seems like a cool dude

Mainly it's the big things. I missed my Veggie dog sooooo much and I can't even express how great it was to see Katai again. Having the freedom to go to the barn when I want to is fantastic and I'm really looking forward to continuing boot camp with Katai for the next few weeks in preparation for our show on the 26th.

However, it was also the trip to OR that really helped. I had whined mentioned earlier this year that I was wanting to move someplace else more permanently. I've been firming up my plans over the past few months and right now my goal is to start applying for jobs in different cities, to take the next step in my career, in the next 2-3 years. The problem was that I didn't know where I most wanted to go.

After all, who wouldn't want to live near this

Portland has been at the absolute top of my list since I was 18 but I'd never actually been there. I'd been along the coast of OR with my mom the summer before I started college but never to Portland. It was that trip and many of the things I'd heard about Portland that interested me in living there. Recently though I've heard more things that made me not want to necessarily settle on that as my top option and of course I wanted to visit it before I decided for sure. I was disappointed when that trip fell off the table earlier this year and thrilled when it became an option again with this work trip.

Now that I've had a chance to visit it's not at the top of my list anymore. Not that it wasn't an amazing visit, it's just that in the meantime I've fallen in love with a different place that I never expected. I'm honestly sort of relived and happy that I can move that place to the top of my list. I'm still going to apply for jobs in a few different cities/locations but I know where I'm going to focus my applications now. Of course things could still change in the next couple of years but for not it's nice to have an outline of a plan.

July Goals Recap and August Goals

More Katai pictures soon but for now Lake Union will have to do

I wanted to share a bit about how amazingly wonderful it is to be back but I'm not sure it's enough for it's own post at this point so I decided to add it here. I got back Friday evening after the most horrible plane ride I've had. We got stuck on the runway on the way to Minneapolis and for about 20 minutes the child directly in front of me SCREAMED as loud as it could. The parents were doing everything they could but it just wasn't helping. I was already anxious and really stressed out for some reason and was getting a stress migraine so the screaming put me over the edge.

Somehow I made it through the flight and the very slow Uber ride home in Friday rush hour traffic but pretty much just made it to the couch and crashed, sort of wishing I could die, for the rest of the evening.

Morning rowing practice

Luckily I feel completely better today and was able to wake up early, drive the 3 hour round trip to pick up Veggie from my parents and then make it the 1 hour round trip to the barn to ride. Funnily enough that means I spent more time in the car today than I did driving from Seattle to Portland.

Katai was great, if full of energy and VERY wiggly to ride, and I feel like my body sort of remembers what to do after two weeks off.

I do think the vacation was really good for Katai who was calm and happy the entire time and really tried to be a good girl despite having extra energy early on and then wanting to quite after about 20 minutes haha. I ADORE this pony (if you can't tell) and she's so perfect for me. After two weeks without any rides and a major drop in the temperature (it was in the 60s when I rode today) she was foot perfect, stood quietly in the cross ties, and was basically just a perfect princess pony.

This AirBnB was adorably decorated with a travel theme.
Bonus points if you can id the movie ;)

She did gain a bit of padding but nowhere as bad as I thought it might be. We just did lots of nice forward trot, some canter (which really felt good), a bit of leg yield, a very small amount of sitting trot, and much to her dismay lots of work at the medium walk.

It was so good to see her and I missed both her and Veggie so much!

Little tough to tell with the tinted glass but you can sort of
see the space needle from the office I borrowed for the week
plus the blurry skyline from the smoke

July Goals:

Ride Longer: Yep! Unless I had a really good reason I rode at least 30 minutes each ride with many rides being 40+ minutes. So much better than the 20-25 minute rides I was doing.

Continue Outdoor Rides: Yep! So much better than I've ever done with her in the past and our outdoor rides have been fun :) Jane even commented on the last outdoor ride I had (the week before I left for Seattle) how relaxed and happy Katai looked.

Practice, Practice, Practice (or Sitting Trot): Yep! Still struggling but it's getting better and I "get" it at least some of the time each ride. Those moments are still few and far between and I lose it quickly but it's getting there.

So hot for Seattle! I was there for both of the really hot days
but it was the smoke piece that was new to me

August Goals:

Continue to Ride Longer: I feel like this one will continue to be important. I'm not looking to necessarily increase the time for most of my rides just to do at least 45 minutes more often or tack a trail ride onto the end of a shorter arena ride to lengthen it but still provide some variety.

Continue to Practice the Tough Things: More sitting trot and anything/everything I struggle with or that Katai struggles with. It's always been tough for me not to take these things personally/emotionally but after watching the video below (for some reason) I've been able to practice something without drilling but still enforce correct vs. just accepting what's not and moving on. Scott Brash is just so relaxed, calm, and no nonsense about trying it again with his horse in this video that I feel like I understand how simple it can be. It's obviously important that Katai know what the right answer is so this is a big one this month especially with transitions and picking up the contact at the walk.

Have a Successful Show: Successful for me will mean that Katai is more relaxed and rideable at this show than she was at the last. I'd like for her not to have any meltdowns but mostly I just want to finish feeling like I rode to the best of my ability. We've got all the movements down for each test (although the 15 meter canter circles are still not as correct as they should be) so I really just want it to be fun and hopefully get decent scores because that's always a good goal :)

Sunday Photo Share

I don't have too much to share beyond that I had an AMAZING time at the beach this morning and really enjoyed my meal at Native Foods. I was going to spend more time in Portland but the traffic even 30-40 minutes away from Portland was nuts and it was hot so I just didn't feel like driving into the city mainly just to eat lunch or dinner.

Instead I'll share the pictures that I took over the past few days!

Space needle from the Uber on the way to Pikes Place Market

Planning to go back tomorrow to get some produce!

Schilling cider bar in Fremont with a colleague, we had two flights and
ended up finishing everything except the hot pepper cider. It was spicy!!

This cider from Moonlight was our favorite.
Over 13% alcohol and sweet and toasty going down :)

Only at an AirBnB would you have
cherries waiting for you in an antique bowl

I passed Devonwood on the way to my AirBnB. I would have LOVED to have gone and checked it out but there were signs posted that it was private and I know they wouldn't appreciate me poking around. There was supposed to be a schooling show scheduled this weekend and I would have loved to have gone but it was canceled :(

I was hoping to see some horses but didn't. On the way
back to town I saw SOOO many trailers though!

Proposal rock

Had to get a picture of the mountain. Not a common sight for me!

I ended up having an interesting experience at Gallops. I walked in and said hi to the sales people and let them know I was just shopping, when they asked, all said with a smile. I grabbed a bunch of stuff to try and asked about where I could find the fitting rooms. The woman who was working made a face and said "you must have not been here before?" Thinking she was just curious I smiled and laughed and said that no, I was from MN. She looked at me sideways, not teasing, and said "well everyone who rides seriously has been here before". I sort of laughed it off but it was awkward and seemed rude to me. Then as I was going to get more stuff to try she caught me and asked if I was moving to OR or just visiting. I said visiting, again with a smile on my face, and she just nodded at me and didn't say anything else.

Just so weird! I probably would have bought something (I still want a hot pink C4 Belt and they had one) but I just couldn't after how weird it got so I tried on a few more things and then left. Really cool place though and I'm sure that's not normal. Maybe my accent scared her off haha.

Nice saddle selection!

What a Summer

Alternate title could be All the AirBnBs since I'll have stayed at 6-7 by the end of the year 4 of which are for this trip.

This has been a crazy year for me travel-wise. In the past going to Lexington for the Pony Cup and doing a couple of work trips (of one week or less) to WA were about all I did. This year that has not been the case.

Certainly can't argue about the accommodations

 First there were a couple of long work trips to Seattle early in the year. I went out in January and again in March for a week. Then I went to Omaha for World Cup which was amazing! After that, I ended up with another trip (this time stressful) to Seattle in June. I had a chance to recover from that and then got to travel to Lexington for Pony Cup again :)

And of course got to hang out with Jen and Connor!!! Photo credit: Jen's mom

I've known that I'd have a longer trip at the end of July for work (mildly stressful) but then that turned into a longer and more stressful trip that was going to be 8-9 days. However, plans changed and it's now going to be 12 days. Yikes...

Puget Sound outside my bedroom

I do get to go to Portland which is a trip that I'd previously wanted to do this year but decided not to do for financial reasons. However, work is paying for the hotel and since I can drive down there from Seattle I don't need to pay for a flight so I'll have 2-3 days in Portland this weekend (for the cost of a rental car) and then back to Seattle for the following week.

The day before I left I was feeling the stress and didn't want to get
into an argument with her so we just cuddled and played in the arena.
She did think I was unfair not getting her Starbucks

I'm also in Seattle long enough that I'm getting to do more exploring than I have in the past which is awesome but... I really miss my pony and I miss Veggie. I'm probably going to go slightly crazy between not being able to see them for 12 days. Not getting to ride means that I'll need to remember what I'm doing when I get back along with likely being sore. All of that with just about 3 weeks to prep for our show at the end of August.

Opportunities like this just don't come around that often and even though it's stressful it's fun to explore and get to spend more time on the west coast. I haven't seen the ocean since I was 18 and I'm SOOO excited to get to go back in a couple of days. I've also had Portland, or OR in general, on my list of places I'd like to live so it will be nice to get to spend more time there so that I can decide if it stays on my list.

Missing this nose soooo much right now

I do have two more trips planned this year. One at the end of August to Rochester, NY (can't wait to hang out with my sister and BIL and meet Bobby!!) and one more for work in October/November but hopefully that will be it. I'm also really hoping that next year there will be less travel. I'm really a homebody but I haven't been able to travel that much in the past and I don't think next year will have as many opportunities for travel so I'm going to enjoy this while I can and pray that I don't fall off or completely forget what I'm doing when I get to ride my pony again.

T minus 8 days and counting until I get to fly back home.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

Pony Beast Mode Activated!!
She's fit and getting some muscles. Plus look at how uphill she's gotten!

It's so tough to get confirmation photos by myself since she doesn't want to stand still but today she stood herself up in the cross ties fairly well. I haven't been able to capture a picture of how much taller she's gotten in front/how her withers have come up but this represents it pretty well.

Unfortunately the angle still isn't good and she's standing pretty far under herself in front which isn't doing her shoulder any favors but still, not bad at all!

Worse angle but cuter since you can see her head

 Both Jane and I are so happy with her weight and now just want to make sure that she keeps getting enough groceries to keep putting muscle on. She's completely on alfalfa rather than grass hay right now and getting quite a bit of it to keep up with her workload. She's also on no grass, or no more than she can pick at in her small paddock and what she gets when I hand graze her. We may actually end up adding a bit more grain here at some point if we continue to increase her workload so that she can actually keep at least this much body condition.

It continues to amaze me how much the work we do with them effects their body.

She was so cresty and fat here!

Fall 2016 right before moving to Jane's barn.
Yes, there really has been that much of a change to her withers

Crazy Week and Crossed Wires

Well I tried to make this past week productive and sort of like boot camp but it didn't really turn out that way.

As mentioned I had two lessons last week, one on Sunday and one on Tuesday and didn't ride on Monday to give her that time off. The plan was to lunge on Wednesday, do a longer tougher ride on Friday and an outdoor ride on Saturday morning (still work but not as focused) when I could ride outside without the bugs being too bad.

On Wednesday I lunged as planned and Katai was clearly tired but was a good girl. She got Thursday off and then on Friday I showed up ready to work.

Pulling out all the stops in the bug battle this year.
The farm is in a marsh so they seem to be particularly bad.
These boots are working really well!

I'm a bit OCD about my horse things. I'm not that way with anything else in life but everything at the barn has a place and I put stuff back the same way every time. I was surprised to see the crank noseband on my bridle fastened differently than normal. However, since I'd lunged last I thought maybe I'd done something different than normal when I put it away and just didn't remember or that someone was checking out my bridle which I never mind.

However, that night Katai was REALLY weird to ride. Very unlike her normal self and very tired and behind my leg. She kept stopping and spooking at the end with the door and she never does that, or almost never, and never this bad. I kept it pretty short but was nervous that she wasn't feeling well. Because of that I decided to do another quite day on Saturday and gave her a bath and hand walked her down the road and let her graze a bit. It was really good for both of us but not really the way I pictured the rest of our week going. With that being said I still got to the barn 5 days so that felt good.

All geared up minus her fly mask :)
For a $25ish fly sheet this one has been doing great so far!
Please ignore the horrible angle, she's not nearly this downhill.

Sunday I got to the barn in the evening and planned to do a ride outside. Jane had put together an arena outside and I really wanted to play ride in it. While I was tacking up Jane came out to feed and walked straight over to talk to me. I found out that we'd had our wires crossed and she'd thought I was out of town last week so had my fellow boarder K ride Katai on Friday. Jane felt so bad but I wasn't worried about it and honestly was just glad that I had a reason for Katai's weird behavior on Friday.

the new arena!

I then went on to have an AMAZING ride! Katai has SO MUCH FUN riding outside and I need to remember to do it more. I played around with transitions and asking her to be consistent in the trot but we didn't ride for too long. In the span of about 5 minutes we had attracted a nice little herd/flock/murder of horse flies and they were plastered to her ears. I seriously don't know why she didn't just buck me off and run for the hills but she didn't. Instead she was a princess pony and just kept listening and playing along. I didn't want to make it a miserable experience for her though so after a couple of really good transitions I called it, we went for a little walk loop past the outdoor "arena" and then ran for the barn. I was covered in biting flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes so I was ready to be done as well.

Sort of working but I'm going to try a different type of lotion next time.
This would all be easier if spray bottles were a thing...

Next time I'll use her cute little fly bonnet but it's bad enough out there that I'm not even sure if that will really fix it. At any rate, she was a total princess and I had so much fun!

Now this week I've already been prevented from riding tonight (I'd planned another good long ride) because it's in the 90s and extremely humid again with impending storms. I had wanted to at least go spend time with her but an hour in the car just to go rinse her off for the second time in three days just didn't seem like the best idea. It looks like it will be cooler for the rest of the week so I'm planning to continue my boot camp through Sunday and then I'm off to Seattle and pony will have a few rides from K but mainly a vacation :)

Summer Reading List: Favorite Horse Fiction

I've been wanting to do a post like this for a LONG time now but it feels like a lot of work to do a book review for some reason. Also, I have SO many fiction and nonfiction books and I was going to try to put everything in one post but it just got too long so I kept giving up.

Instead I've decided to do a couple of posts. In this post I'm going to share my two favorite fiction horse books/series for summer and some of the runners up. The reason that I classify this "for summer" is that these two books are light and fun, easy reads so perfect for summer.

The House at Worlds End

This is my second favorite summer horse book. Even though it isn't specifically about horses the main character is a horse crazy girl and most of the book is focused on horses. It's also just a fun read about four kids who end up living on their own on a farm and they all have lots of fun, animal related, adventures. I love the writing (which is a bit dated in places) and there are lovely quotes like;

She had always wanted a kitchen where there was a saddle on the back of a chair and at least one bridle on the knob of a cupboard door.

Which is exactly how I dream of my kitchen. Unfortunately I think this book is out of print but if you can find it, I HIGHLY recommend it. Oh, and yes the author is Charles Dickens' great granddaughter. 

Another Kind of Cowboy

My absolute favorite horse book of all time and one of my favorite books in general. I'm not sure what makes this book so perfect but there are a few things that stand out to me. First, it's one of the few fiction horse books about Dressage. The only other books I'm aware of are the Dressage Chronicles (which I also really like) but most seem to be about jumping or racing.

Second it's a YA book but  I never feel talked down to or pandered to by her writing style. There's a lot of depth to the writing and her humor is dry and absolutely perfect. It's also a stand alone and fairly short so it's a perfect summer read.

Third, she NAILS dressage culture, absolutely nails it. Her description of the dressage clinician is humorously accurate and  she really seems to get dressage and the people who ride it.

Fourth, the location is in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I haven't been to Nanaimo but I have been to Vancouver Island and it was GORGEOUS and I'd love to visit again some day. The location of the book and her descriptions of the boarding school and dressage barn are fantastic.

Honestly I don't think I can accurately sum up what makes this book so perfect so I'll just highly suggest that you read it. (Now I feel like LaVar Burton "But you don't have to take my word for it")

Runners Up

The Dressage Chronicles - I LOVE this series as well but Another Kind of Cowboy is just a little better (and a little lighter) in my opinion as far as a dressage book and The House at Worlds End is just such a fantastically light summer book about adventures and farm life that it beats this out as well. 

Star of Shadowbrook Farm - This one is another YA book and isn't nearly as strong as Another Kind of Cowboy but it's also really good. It's written by Joanna Campbell (who started the Thoroughbred series) but this is a standalone and about jumping rather than racing. I also think the writing on this is stronger than the Thoroughbred series. 

Shadow Horse - This one is by Alison Hart who apparently also wrote some of the Thoroughbred series books. This is the first of a two part series and is also YA and also about jumping. This one is a mystery with a great twist. 

Other Books

Ambition, book 1 in the Eventing Series - This one is a bit darker and the writing is very suspenseful but, for me, not in a good way. I felt like I was going to freak out because it kept feeling like something really horrible and dark was going to happen and it just KEPT NOT HAPPENING. Well something really bad does eventually happen and then it gets worse, and then it gets a little worse, and finally everything is ok and there's a happy ending. 2/10 do not recommend.

Riding Lessons (and subsequent book(s)) - This one is also really dark. I read both books awhile ago and then picked up this one at a Half Price Books so that I could have my own copy. This one isn't suspenseful because bad things just KEEP HAPPENING and it's only a page turner because you keep waiting for things to get better. Spoiler, they don't really get that much better but somehow there's a happy ending. Great book, but not a light summer read.

The Mare (only partially a horse book)- my mom got this for me for Christmas this past year and I finally got through it. It's not a bad book, it's really well written and the parts at the barn and about the horses are fairly interesting but it's also fairly dark and it's written from different people's perspectives where it shifts back and forth all the time. As you can maybe tell I like light happy books where good things happen to nice people so this just wasn't my favorite. It did make me think though and was very well written.

Home to Woefield (not a horse book but written by Susan Juby who wrote Another Kind of Cowboy) - I also LOVE this book. It's a bit different, not about horses, and I don't think it's YA although technically I guess it could be. It's another light, fun, positive book about a young city girl who ends up on a farm. There's some suspense and some dark parts but it's got the same great, dry sense of humor and overall it's a really quick, fun, positive summer read. Think Another Kind of Cowboy crossed with The House at Worlds End ;)

Can of Worms: Lesson Recap 7/11

I'm calling this next couple of weeks #summerbootcamp since we have two (now more like 1.5) weeks to really work on things before I'm out of town for 6-11 days for work. Very appropriately we had another lesson on Tuesday.

The previous Sunday we'd had our makeup lesson from the 4th of July Tuesday and then this was my regular lesson. I hadn't ridden on Monday because I needed to do #adult things such as laundry and grocery shopping. Plus it was hot and Katai had a tough ride the day before for my lesson and was going to have a tough ride the next day for another lesson so a day off didn't seem like a bad idea.

My cell phone photo library tells a
story of what I've been doing recently ;)

I always deal with a lot of rush hour traffic and since I'm driving directly North I spend it sitting directly in the hot sun in a car that doesn't have strong enough ac to deal with it. In addition, this week I got to the barn a bit late since I'd forgotten that my normal way to the barn was right through a road closure for construction #summerinMN. Then the detour had a bad car accident that had the road down to one lane and meant more time sitting in the hot sun in my car. By the time I got to the barn I was already hot and crabby and I hate being late so was feeling a bit stressed as well.

After tacking up in record time we got to the arena the bugs were HORRIBLE. I was being eaten alive and I couldn't get more than a few steps of walk from Katai before she was stamping and bitting at them. We didn't walk for too long before we went to trot since that keeps the bugs at bay.

At least better than the fly spray that I'd coated both of us in...

Again we started with getting her moving out around the full arena. After she was moving well Jane had me ask for a lengthening down the long side. At first we just got rushy steps and then Jane asked me to get her more round. 

Most of the time pony goes around like this.

Blurry but you can kind of see

She's soft through the poll, has good contact, and is very ridable but not especially round. Typically we're happy with this but on Tuesday at least she was faking the contact and not really through or using her back.

Jane had me get her way more round and get her neck lower (not overbent, just rounder than she was going). She said it may look too round from above since it's not what I'm used to but she wanted her there and for me to keep her there while I did the lengthening. The next long side I started to figure it out and then the second time I tried it that way it felt like magic. She was really pushing, her back was up and she was really carrying me along. We gave her a break and Jane said "well that really opened a can of worms". I looked up at her wondering what the heck I'd missed and she explained that now that we know she can move that way, she needs to do this more of the time. 

Veggie had a great time at the doggy daycare lady's house this past weekend.

He's good at supervising the big dogs...

I had a huge smile on my face. Apparently this pony can really move now that she's getting stronger and Jane really didn't expect it. I didn't either haha.

We switched sides and did the same thing. A bit of trial and error later we had a very similar trot on that side and then Jane had us move on to 3 loop serpentines and try to keep/get the same sort of movement. Honestly it was a hot mess. It was a lot for me to keep track of and Katai was trying to just rush through it rather than doing it appropriately. It's new for me to feel that much power from her and to push her appropriately without just making her run. In the end I was at least getting my serpentines right, the bending right, and not letting her rush with bigger movement than normal but we weren't really getting enough trot still. It's going on the list of things to practice.

My 4th of July project was trying to recreate my favorite cookies in vegan form
They turned out better than the original and after this picture was taken I added chocolate frosting on top of the marshmallows. 

By that point I was quite hot and getting tired myself and Katai was also feeling pretty done. Because of how much we'd asked at the trot, and how much we'd asked at the canter on Sunday Jane just had us do a bit of easy canter using the full arena and doing some 20 meter circles. We continued to work on getting a nice, slow, steady rhythm and also on trying to get her rounder at the canter. For this Jane had me focus on lifting the inside rein rather than pulling back. It was tricky for me to get the right feel but I started to get it towards the end. By then Katai was DUN done so we did just a tiny bit more stretchy trot and then called it a day.

She got hosed, I got splashed on and drank some water and then got my stuff put away and headed home for the air-conditioning and lots more water. In the end it felt like another amazing lesson even if my evening didn't start out that way. This tiny mare just continues to amaze me and Jane and I just can't wait to see where we go together.