Those Lessons Learned...

.. The hard way....always the hard way.


So right after my last post I had a few flat lessons. Challenging (read hot-mess awful) lessons where my horse reminded me quickly that staying on the flat isn't easier. 

We were alone with trainer on a windy day, and there was horse eating monsters everywhere. Holly was sure we were going to die. Homegirl has some serious self-preservation issues.

Sadly a less reactive rider would have this crap all fixed by now. Because she isn't like this with others. Sigh.


Then trainer put me back at baby jump height.

I could so be a 2' Long-Stirrup Hunter Princess. Excluding this last lesson, I've been calm, relaxed, and mostly confident.... 

So I guess it was the height. Sadly I'm just not mentally a jumper. I tense up whether I consciously know it or not. I will probably get myself up to the 2'6" or so range again, but I'm going to stretch Long-Stirrup Princess thing as long as I am happy and trainer lets me.

Last night I wasn't feeling great and after us nearly tumbling into the ghetto rope arena divider, we did some mediocre jumping. 

This included us getting really discombobulated and going crooked, long and me clicking heels over Holly's back. Then I rode her neck for awhile into that non-existent core strength kicked in.

Wish you could see more of my splendid neck-riding
(now I know how to make .gif's let the games begin)

Glad English saddle don't have horns and that Holly isn't prone to bucking. Because she thought about it. She's so tolerant of me, she will be such a packer... eventually.

Figured ourselves out

Bad pic, but better my elbows aren't out like a chicken for once

On the housing front, our house is sold as of tomorrow (yay for rent-back). The first house we fell for went for like $23K over asking. Um, yeah no. So just when I was at total despair, praying for a sign that I hadn't seriously messed everything up by uprooting the family, our realtor called after digging around and finding an off-market house that she knew wanted to sell last year but hadn't. All goes well, we should be moving in a month. Yay.

Also my 6 month old decided she needs to stand and try to cruise a bit already. Um, no, mommy's not ready for that yet!

Quitter

So obviously I haven't updated in awhile. Really conflicted and it makes updating hard.

I may just be a little overwhelmed. Or I may be having another ADHD life moment and ready to mix things up a bit. I tend to do that. Dramatic hair style changes, car shopping, house buying... The last one being my current large headache.



Um, so if you haven't ever had to stage a house to sell it, don't. Tell your realtor to use their awesome powers of persuasion to sell it, because if you have lots of hobbies and/ or kids, it really sucks. I currently have people cleaning my windows, cleaning up the yard, and coming to do a deep clean of the house later. We already had the why the hell does this take a week  house painting event.

Bright side, I've found a lot of stuff that I don't care enough to save, and will likely find plenty more to throw out as it comes back out of boxes too. Damn packrat gene runs strong in both our families.

On the horse front,  I'm having a mid-30's crisis. I seriously don't want to jump anymore. Which is kinda lame, because I've actually been doing well.

Of course I tell trainer I don't wanna jump and she says tough, she says she'll make it easy. One 2'6" oxer, yeah, totally cake for weenies like me. Then I do well and its back to rollbacks to the skinny wall and bending lines that makes us fall on our forehand. 

At least this oxer was small

Not wanting to jump is like a 90% truth for me, cause a little part of me likes that I conquered that fear enough to even try it, and feels kinda badass when coworkers give me props for hurdling 1000lb animals over large wooden poles for fun.

Jumping really isnt scary at 2'3" and below, and Holly isn't super happy to exert effort over such insulting jumps, but I've figured a lot out on her recently making it a lot easier. 

Sitting up and keeping my hands higher like I'm jumping bigger jumps keeps her off the forehand and me in control of our pace. Like waaaay better. 

Right now I just wanna be putzing bareback or hacking nice shady trails... Two things that really aren't an option with Holly and my current barn.

Trying to not make any rash decisions while doing the whole house selling thing. Because really I need to see where my finances and feelings land when life stops being quite so turbulent.

Topsy-Turvy kinda life

Well, guess I'm a bit behind. Its been so long, my update drafts need updates, so here I am starting fresh...


Lets just hit the bullets:

 1. I missed Holly's Birthday. I'm a bad horse mommy. It was April 25th and I totally had May in my head. I now have a 7 year old. Such a big girl.

Happy Birthday Holly

2. I had one of my best lessons ever a few weeks ago. Actually saw distances and nailed them. Nailed them. In the indoor. In the like 40mph wind (which is now a new norm around here) making crap blow around.

Holly happy her bf Henry is with her

3. Then I got all into my head and had a series of crappy, land on neck, barely squeak over the jump, just plain in your head crap-tastic lessons because I told myself my riding well was a fluke. D'oh.

Sigh. Still love her most days

4. Despite still being a weenie, and unmotivated to jump big, I have been back up to the 2'3" and maybe just 2'6" ... slightly less weenie height.

Big girl panties... big girl panties...

5. Our first adventures in NQR land.  It was always once she was a few laps into trotting, where you spend like two laps trying to figure out if its real or in your head. It started after a rough trainer ride 2 Tuesdays ago, she was so slightly off that night.  And the next day. And the next week.

She earned herself some bute, and new shoes all around, and a mini vacation. Then it was gone.

NQR but still pretty

6. Hives. Because being NQR wasn't enough for the month, Holly now has hives. Mainly on her neck and belly. More bute and a shot of dex and more time off. Sigh.

Really mom, pictures now?!

Then there's all that non-horsey filler life stuff:

-I'm now a mother of two.
-We are trying to clean our house to sell it. Good lord, I'm a packrat I have a lot of hobbies.
-We are house shopping in a very competitive area. Which will mean paying more per month to live in a better area (I do that for my horse-child, I kinda owe the human ones the same).
-I'm back to working nights. Ugh. Actually I missed many coworkers, and that whole using my brain for more than measuring how much milk the baby is drinking, but still, Ugh.

Future pony clubber :)

Rough rides and Redemption

After Thursday's lesson, Holly was in the dog house. She had been spooky, and bratty, and I'm way too outa shape to fight all that. By the end, we had circled everything that might kill her a million times, jumped until we didn't totally suck at our distance and lead changes finally smoothed out (that one I take most of blame for), and if I hadn't watched one of the toughest little girls I know come off not once but twice, I would have been really bummed at my lesson.

But I had stayed on, and stayed with it. Back spasms galore, but as much as I wanted to hang up my spurs as soon as she revealed her Sassy side, I put on the big girl panties and rode it out. Small victory. Friday WS rode her and she was again a beast, refusing jumps (albeit a skinny ramp looks scary to me too) and general springtime shenanigans.

Feeling the burn

Yes Holly, this height is insulting

 Apparently she was thoroughly worked through her issues and today she was pretty mellow. WS hopped on first and warmed her up and jumped her over the respectably tall stuff. Then I got on and after some more trot and canter laps did some baby jumps. I find old habits are quick to resurface. She goes long, I sit up too fast and hit her mouth, then she's cranky and gives me nasty changes.

Need to work on my release

 

    

Thank you for flying Backseat Airlines...

Luckily since the height of the jump isn't scary I can recover myself and did ok most of the time. I even asked for a few more so I could get a little video. Immediately jumped horribly, because that's how it goes, but hey, I did ask for more.

(shout out to my hubby who got pics/video while holding 

a small infant and watching a 3 year old).

Hopefully, my broken car isn't too broken and I can put her back into full training for a month for a tune up. I don't have the time/energy/stamina right now to put in more than 3 days/wk.

Jumping on the crazy train

Wind+ 2 data off + stall life = Hairy-eyed giraffe horse.

Miss Holly was kinda a pill to ride. Despite plenty of other horses being present and not dying  by trotting by the open and of the arena, Holly was pretty sure there were horse eating monsters lurking in the corners. Sigh. This was not helped by the gusting wind, and shoer who was banging things around and playing heavy metal music right in the corner by the arena.

I need to find my inner zen and not react. Going into fetal crouch and getting in your mares face only leads to fun things like feeling her get light up front (no m'am, not OK) and lots of getting yelled at by trainer. When I did succeed on getting my horse's butt and shoulders and head properly aligned, our ride wasn't bad (at least for 3/4 of the ring every lap).

Then Karley and I warmed up over a little cross rail on a figure 8 back and forth. Then I had to do a bunch more laps alone til I fixed... Well if you can hear the plethora of things I get yelled at for in the video.

Enjoy the awesome audio cause I'm too lazy to edit ;)

Big thanks to a friend for getting me video. Amazing how much faster it all feels in the saddle. When I didn't hold her until we were near chipping in and let her figure it out, she was getting great distances. 

Its not pretty but its progress.