Stuck in the Middle With You

Ah those Winter Woes.

Sorry, really, my sympathies for those with real winter weather.

I mulled over posting this. Its kinda whinny. Be forewarned.

2 weeks ago, I was pretty frustrated with my horse and myself. She was jumpy, I was super reactive and letting it all get the best of me. I have zero confidence these days.

Perusing horse ads became a little more than idle time killing. I was curious what else was out there. Not that I totally expect to find a unicorn, lets be real the #1 thing my mare has been spooking at is other horses spooking. That hasn't been lost on me.

I told trainer come spring I would heavily be thinking of selling Holly, and if someone came out to lok at barnmate's sale horse, she could show Holly (insert instant guilt). She's damn pretty, smart, trained, and could take some serious ribbons, but I'm not sure what my 2016 goals are anymore.

 I rode a few times in a beautiful but absolutely wrong for us dressage saddle (Thanks N!). We don't need anything helping push me forward. It did feel pretty good to open my really really defensive hip angle. I relaxed a bit and focused on feeling the newness of the change in position. Then returning to my CWD I realized what I needed to do with my hips to ride her canter better. Now my knees hurt after riding in the jump saddle. NOT telling hubby my $$$ saddle causes me discomfort, he's already a little miffed at my wanting a dressage saddle too.. (poor hubby).

Not dying in the scary corner

Our last few rides have been good. I've taken less shit, she's given less. And that's the rub, she needs a regular, confident rider to shine; neither of which I am currently. I'm not quite ready to downgrade to the old plow mule, but something that mellow sounds kinda nice. I kinda want to have the steady horse of the pack. Most likely in a few years, that will be her, she has to acknowledge that QH side eventually.

Sorry this post is kinda scattered like my thoughts. I've looked back through my blog and realized we've pretty much struggled every winter and things generally get better as the weather warms. That feels a long time away, even in Cali.

Decision decisions... guilt guilt guilt....saddle shopping?

Ugh, chin straps are not attractive

Finally riding w/ Karley

Holly's opinion of work, such a lady ;)

Candy Canes, GM, and Naughty ponies

Freezing cold wind makes for rough Xmas photos

Trying to get back into blogging is proving to be hard. But at least now  I have a little help with a new laptop. So now I can sit here in bed, and type away. no kids, glass of wine... Hmm... this may not be super productive...


XMAS scored my another 2 sets of Piper breeches and assorted Under Armor tops along with said laptop and other wintery things like beanies and my beloved scarves.

I'm also on a major sugar binge, so hopefully I can clean out the candy and start some cleaner living with Nicku and her #goalbreeches





Anywhoo, I audited the GM Clinic with Karley, getting to watch L once again brave riding with someone who will tell you exactly how he feels, good, bad, and brutal. L and Karley did pretty good synopsis of the clinic already, so I'll keep it short.


Being the second time, but a few years removed, it was interesting to see what new things I picked up.

#1- Dressage
#2- Leg-hand, Leg-hand, Leg-hand
#3-Dressage
#4-Outside rein
#5-Dressage
#6-I'm never riding with him.
#7- Dressage
#8-If GM can make a horse engage his hind quarters in 10min without stirrups, I have no excuse for not demanding better frame/ uphill work.
#9-Dressage- No really, GM really pushes the power of sound flat work. Which makes me feel better about returning to focus on it.

Seriously, I need to do no stirrup work if GM still rides without them

I was so inspired by GM I even tried jumping a little bit a couple weeks ago, really thinking of riding in a "crotch seat" as he terms the proper American jump position. It really helped me think of the right spot to be in, and helped me not get ahead or left behind.

But ya know...
Its winter....

Naughty ponies do haunches in/out, shoulder in/out

I don't know why it catches me off-guard every year that the ponies all lose their minds when the temps drop and the winds gust. Well, at least my beauty does. To be fair, she isn't getting the same turn-out/ saddle time either, and she's a girl who needs to kick her heels up regularly.

Rode her the other day without lunging, since there really wasn't room in the indoor. Umm, yea, YeeHaw.

That was a learning experience to say the least. If you didn't let her channel that spooky energy forward, she gave me upward then forward. Nothing nasty but we caught some air, because she's wasn't keen on being the horse in the arena that got eaten.

Ok. Ok, we always lunge first, point taken princess.

Style points :) 

I have worked really hard at keeping my hands up and more leg leg leg since GM and have really noticed a difference in my ability to keep her in a nice frame. Not a lot of media proof since hubby isn't a fan of low-light indoor photography in 30F weather ;)

I leave you with my grumpy kitty

Been busy with the holiday family stuff, hopefully can get regular rides back into the mix, because not riding isn't helping either of us. Luckily WS had last two weeks off and has put some good rides into Holly.

2 Years

So 2 years ago, post baby#1 I decided that the money taking up space in our savings account needed to manifest into a horse. I wasn't satisfied with my lease horse (boy was I naive I was) and off I went on the hunt.

Enter Holly stage left.

Fresh 5 year old

She was pretty, she was smart, and she was the right price. Her owners were super nice, and I still talk to them. She just needed to stop playing WP pony, and learn to be a hunter...

How did I miss those overly perked ears?
Oh yeah, she's pretty...

So where do we stand today, 2 years later?

I think since I take more lessons than hack, I sometimes get too caught up in all the kinks that still need straightening. But really, like my hair, horses never get perfectly smooth, there will always be little issues.

Oct 2013

-She can be spooky. She has gone from running from the devil to stomping, and often she doesn't jump til I do, so its kinda fair.
-She still is downhill, but I can't fight genetics too much, its her build.
-She is hard to frame up. That's more me being weak legged than her at this point because she does it fine for trainer and WS.
-She needs someone to help her with distances to jumps. Um.. yeah so do I....

I swear I can fit one more stride mom...

 It wasn't until I was idly horse shopping on my 3am lunch break one day that I realized how far we had come.When my trainer gave me a price she'd start her at if I did sell, I thought she was off her rocker. Then I started reading ads in our area... Turns out I'm the one out of touch...


Holly can work in a frame (if you remind her that she's not a WP horse anymore),

June 2014

-she knows her leads, almost to a fault, she auto changes (when asked properly)
- she's picking up counter-canter easily  (ok, well typed that too soon, but she gets the idea anyway).
 -She leg yields, haunches/shoulders in at WTC, also turn on the fore/haunches (beautiful turn on the fore)
- She has a great, adjustable stride, and only I can't sit her canter well ;) (Seriously, everyone loves her canter but me)
-Her trot is smooth, and for us weenies, she's a push horse, she doesn't drag her rider.

March 2015

-She went from doing superman long or worlds tiniest chip to being able to consistently jump nice, Hunter-like jumps up to 3' (and a little schooling at 3'3"-3'6" with rider help). She even humors me by jumping over the little stuff we all know she could canter over.

Summer 2015

-She does all the ground stuff with decent manners, even when I throw new things like the vacuum at her.

Derp

Really when you add it all up, despite being owned by a crooked, nervous, semi-detached owner, she's a great horse.

As much as I often feel we don't quite match up (she needs a more confident, firm rider like our WS), the thought of selling her and starting again is daunting to say the least.

Now remind me to re-read this ny the end of the month when it's cold and windy and she's clipped and she's acting a fool.

I'm Baaaaaack......

So moving with small children (especially when you're a packrat) is well....just plain nuts...Seriously my worst idea ever...

My fingers go in these little holes right mom?

 But now we are over the biggest hurdle and slowly settling in. And we love our new neighborhood, and have great new neighbors (bonus!). House pics when it's not embarrassingly messy and the computer decides to work again (argh).

Ok back to horses. I'm barely making it to the barn once to twice a week, so really it isn't a lot to say. I've turned into a bigger weenie from being out of practice. Just in time for winter, yay.

Why hello, strange lady

Then on a whim while hacking with a few barnmates I tried a friend's saddle...

I could almost believe that I really don't want to jump anymore because I totally loved the dressage saddle. Holy easy two-point. I felt so balanced, and it's not even a great fit of a saddle for me. Holly was a bit confused but I liked how connected I felt with her....
But then I watch others jump, and I think well... When I got past the nausea and heart palpitations, it was kinda fun.... Kinda....

So despite my trainer's opinion that I'll be back to jumping soon, I'm on indefinite leave from jumping. Winter craziness sounds like enough to handle right now.

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!