Weekend update

First off, go win stuff! Thanks to Equestrian at Hart for offering such a cool prize.

Valentines Day started with a rather mellow night/day at work, followed by me coming home to roses and a card... only to realize I had forgotten to buy one for the hubby.... Had to make up for that one later ;)

Got to the barn for a 10am lesson, just about right time-wise other than it usually being a little crowded in the arena. Luckily it was busy but cleared mostly out by the time I was jumping. Groomed up a mostly clean horse and ran her around in the still muddy/nasty/huge puddled round pen. Ugh haven't even tried wearing my tall boots, I refuse to get them that nasty. Holly practiced her prancing, bucking and slide stopping until she was sufficiently warmed up (and nasty) and I got on.

Had decent trot work, she holds her head fairly framed up now if I am paying attention and there's nothing scary around. Had to do a few laps of two-point followed by no-stirrup work. That will definitely help my leg strength, ugh. Holly was pretty mellow overall. Went to canter work, really tried to relax into it without getting chicken elbows. I can stay relaxed for a few laps then my back just starts to tighten up... (hmmm BoT back brace in my future)?

Moved onto jumping. It so weird plugging Magic around little 2'-2'6" courses, then having to work so hard over a little 18"-2'3" vertical with my mare. Anywhoo, got my wiggly mare over it back and forth working on the dreaded lead changes....

Ok maybe not this bad...

Changing to the left is actually pretty smooth as long as I give her the rein/space to do it. To the right is still really rough. Had a few I kinda wimped out of once I was bounced around half the arena, even with a ton of rein she's just not as balanced that way yet. Need to find the right amount of leg before the jump, so we stop getting that little add. Overall, didn't die, figuring it out, slowly relaxing into it. Very slowly lol.

Saturday ditched lesson (hey I did have 3 already this week) and got up early for some (ok one little 10oz) Pliny the Younger, woot! Also had a decent brunch buffet, which is awesome when your toting a toddler with you.

The Good, The Bad, and Progress?

Ok, so I guess I'm behind, so I will try to keep it short....haha yea right...

So muddy- I want our arena back!

 Last Thursday had a good flat lesson. Ended up hopping right on Holly since she had been ridden pretty hard by trainer the day before. I was apprehensive, but she was super good, even with an arena full of horses, trucks circling the arena etc. A few baby spooks, but a very good girl. 

Friday she was a brat, we had a big spook at the side gate while cantering, she about tossed me off, I flopped about, got yelled at, and felt ashamed of my lack of riding ability in what was once again an arena full of mostly trainers and WS. Had another, why don't I sell this brat moment, felt really defeated (doesn't take much).

First course (I think, its kinda fuzzy by now)

Tuesday night trainer had me back on Magic, black schoolie beast. He had just finished a beginner jump lesson and after a few laps of "WTF lady I'm done" attitude he settled into the well schooled beast I really really appreciate now. 

We did some crazy jump patterns (for me anyways) and I was super stiff since I have barely jumped in the last several weeks, certainly not courses. Uh yeah, and like never oxers but at least she lowered the wedge to cross rails right? Once I relaxed a bit and figured out how fast you really need to look ahead with weird bending lines etc, it was more fun than scary, which is a nice change. 

(Left sound in for your entertainment)

Felt good to push my little chicken brain way past my comfort zone, and not die.

Cool sun halo

Wednesday had a morning lesson back on my princess. Trainer insisted I ran her around in the incredibly sloppy round pen. After a few impressive slide stops at the huge puddles, she mostly was good and figured out how to do laps around the edge, giving a little hop over the smaller puddle. She was not amused.

I finally was tired of running around in the mud, and decided to just get on. Holly wasn't horrible, she framed up if I kept contact and mostly only gave the hairy eye to things with a little scoot, not OMG we're going to die bolting.

I seriously don't feel like I will ever be able to comfortably site her canter and I don't know why. Its a big stride, but as long as you keep her moving forward its smooth. I just cannot get my legs/back etc to relax into it. Sigh.

Did a little vertical and worked on the dreaded lead changes. I get so tense expecting them to be rough, but if I asked quietly, she gave quiet changes, huh, imagine that. 

My big guy supervising

Pepper KITTY!!!

Gee, why'd you go way up there?!

Smiles

Today ended up being a hack instead of a lesson. I had work meetings in the am and since trainer's daughter just brought home her adorable baby, we were left to our own devices in the evening. 

Trainer suggested I should lunge Holly on the 'scary' side of the arena before hopping aboard. Since someone was running a very hyper horse around the round pen and the indoor was oddly devoid of riders, it was perfect.

Clearly my trainer had run some sense into her the day before because after a little bratty prancing and head tossing, she did some pretty nice laps, without making me work for it. I could see more lunging in her future :)

I got on before Karley or E made it into the arena. Holly was a little bright eyed, and had quite the speedy sitting trot the first few laps, but overall I couldn't be more pleased.

Lots of sitting trot then lots of posting trot, trying to maintain frame without losing impulsion. Not as easy without eyes on the ground. Holly barely looked twice at anything, and really overall was fun to ride. 

Cantered both ways throwing in some circles and transitions back down to the trot to keep princess guessing what was next. Another trainer came in with a beginner lesson, so since I didn't feel like playing dodge the pony, we cooled off and cleaned up. I love that she's shedding out, dried time has improved significantly. 

Was it a perfect ride? No. But I rode my horse and just enjoyed it. Very awesome.

More of the same

See, its kinda winter-like in Cali :)

Really haven't written because there just hasn't been that much going on. There's been lessons, and trainer rides, but mostly flatting, and really nothing special.

Mustn't forget to mention an awesome giveaway by She Moved To Texas :-) Because who doesn't love to win stuff. Especially in dreary winter.

Last week we included fun stuff like after a full lesson on the flat, going into the scary round pen and doing lots of sitting/posting/canter transitions, trying to stay in frame and not look like a giraffe when passing the side closest to the chickens (they live under a house!) which was uber scary apparently. I learned I really need to not raise my hands, get her head down, then just dump the reins back down. I am clearly not used to being in charge of maintaining contact.

Booooring stuff.... :)

This week the WS jumped Holly inside, up to 3ft and considering she just hopped on her, said she was bright eyed but good. I rode her Friday inside. She was pretty chill, very little spooking considering there was a ton of stuff going on outside (like big trucks unloading hay).

My trainer had me jump around  2'3", just a single vertical mid arena. We had to do some stopping before the jump so princess didn't rush the jump, but overall she is a quiet, willing jumper most of the time.

Out of the whole round pen,
she rolls next to the wall

Since my trainer wanted me to do simple changes (read: I suck at changes and she doesn't want me messing them up) so we got lots of bunny rabbit bouncing at the end of the arena as I tried to slow her down to a trot and Holly let me know she very was game to swap leads, even if I wasn't asking. Argh. I just worked on slowing her sooner before turning, so it was clear what we were doing. 

Of course my human child was running amok through the barn so no video from the hubby (boo). 

Um... this is winter?

Saturday morning chill quickly gave way to 50-60F (70F by afternoon) weather during our lesson. Near cloudless skies, slight chill to the wind that inevitably kicks up as we make our way down to the outdoor, but otherwise a glorious January day. Remind me how much we enjoyed this when its stanky hot and we have a severe water shortage this summer ;)

Anyways, as usual I was running late to lesson, but everyone seemed to be kinda mellow, so I didn't end up too far behind the group (BTW, I am 99.9% always early to work, I do know how to be on time when I'm paid lol). Tacked up Holly and took her down to the big roundpen. She went nuts, having had a whole day off, she bucked and bolted and hot lapped herself around for quite some time. Its why I love how huge the lower round pen is, it could nearly pass for an arena, so they can really stretch out a bit. 

Dragged a now tired looking pony up to the arena and hopped on. She wasn't fazed by the tractor finishing dragging the (hard hard) arena, (yay!) and we quickly got to work.

We did lots of sitting and posting trot while our trainer and a couple of the barn girls up from college set up and rearranged our mix of hunter and eventer jumps we now have spread across the whole arena. 

Worked on that thing called frame, and keeping her up into the bridle. Cantering I had to work on not letting her fall into the corners, tried to circle at random times to keep her paying attention. I don't know if I'll ever be able to sit her canter, it simply rocks me up and out of the saddle, even when I try to relax (and think things like be a sack of grain through my lower body), but its at least getting more balanced. 

Jumping! I didn't do anything big, apparently it was make Kat suck it up and work on lead changes day. We went back and forth over two different verticals (just L and I were jumping). They were at slightly funny angles in the arena which made me think a bit about where to turn in to get the right line. I finally felt comfortable on her again, even trying lead changes (ok I was still tense, but it was less tense lol).

If you want to see some cool jumping then hop on over to L's blog (I'm thinking her jumping video will be up Monday, Ramone got to do some fun stuff like bending lines). I'm excited to try stuff like that with Holly, and I'm even more excited that I'm excited to try jumping new stuff. :)

General consensus of the railbirds was I needed to just let go of her head and let her go forward more. Very hard for me to do apparently. Of course by the point we went into figure 8's for lead changes, there were a ton of other people in the arena, several just chilling on the ground (?!) and several others riding, making me a little paranoid about taking out other trainer's students.

I have been thinking a lot about how I feel about Holly lately. Two nights ago I looked at everyone's $100k posts, and thought, gee, I'd prob buy another horse. Then I read about other people losing their beloved horses and realized I really have been keeping a huge wall up between my mare and myself. I went to lesson yesterday morning with an intent to bond with my mare. And we rode better. Most of my problems are in my head (I know that much) and when I view her as my horse, who is trying her best for me, and that I am her rider, who needs to try my best to help her learn, I think it helped. I gave her more loving then usual after our ride, and realized I need to spend more time with her, more ground work and more relaxed, non-lesson time. 

Not sure that all makes sense outside of my head, but hey, even though I sucked at lead changes, and my back is killing me now, I still walked away feeling like I had a good ride, which is huge for me, I found the positives and moved on.