What's Up Wednesday

You guys. It was such a nice week last week! It felt like summer over the weekend, which as you know is totally my weather! Of course today we're struggling to hit 50. Oh New England. You're so cruel.
I rode Jampy almost every day last week, and I alternated days with Rio and Romey, though Rio was just lunging not riding.
Jampy has been pretty good! He seems to be on a pretty consistent schedule of really good one day and leaving his brain in the stall the next. But even when he's having a bad brain day, he's still making an effort. And I can't fault that. Saturday we even started jumping a little!

I mean sort of... if you consider that little X and the pile of cavelleti's jumps. But after the whole winter off, I think it counts.
I'm trying really hard to keep my elbow loose to the jumps. I have this really terrible habit of locking up my elbows and opening my fingers to fake softness. And you know what? That's not soft and your horse knows it. You know what else? When you've ridden your horse that way for a solid seven years, he doesn't really know how to handle it when you don't. So the first time I came to the cross rail, and I didn't lock up and grab his face, he actually stopped at it because he had no idea what I wanted. Oops. I let him sniff it, though I knew he wasn't afraid, more to let him know I did mean for him to go over that thing in front of him, and we came around and tried again. He was perfect. We kind of figure eighted over the two little jumps a few times and called it a day.

He's still carrying that little bit of shortness on the turns that we've had since last year, but also not any worse for the wear. I'm excited for our vet appointment next month to see if we can make some progress with that. I'd love to do some shows with him this year if we can get him a little more even.

Romey is walk trotting along okay. I'm only doing him every other day so I don't hurt him. He's had some trouble with his one foot that has a low heel (farrier is working on that) and too much work seems to make him sore. And when Romey is sore, he's not a very nice guy. He also acts a lot like Ducky and throws a tantrum if I ask for trot. How do I keep getting these horses?!

Fortunately the current plan seems to be working out ok. He feels alright, not perfect, but better than last year. He will also get looked at when the vet comes in May.

And of course Rio... Rio's perfect. He's been lunging like the champ that he is and seems really happy.

I think switching his anti-inflammatory and giving him that steroid shot really did wonders for him. So much so that this happened on Saturday:

I lunged him first to see how he looked. It can kind of be day by day with him, and I'd rather see what he looks like before climbing aboard after the winter off. He looked pretty great, so I decided that was the day! I didn't do much; we walked for awhile both ways, and then we trotted around just one time going his preferred direction. It's hard to explain the feeling when I picked up the trot. It just feels like coming home when I get on him. No other horse has compared to him. His trot feels SO BIG, even with the little shuffle he has from the epm. He's very relaxed with a great big trot and happy perked up little ears. I don't ask him to get back on his hind end or come into a frame. He kind of does it anyway, but I leave that decision up to him. As long as he's not tripping or trying to kill me, he can do whatever he wants. I'm hoping to get on him again this weekend. MAYBE this week, but we have a lot of rain in the forecast, and it's pretty chilly. He's happiest when it's warm out, and I only want to ride him when he's happy. So we will see.

As for running, I haven't been doing it. I'd been feeling really tired, and caught a bit of a stomach bug Friday night. I had planned to get back to it on Saturday, but being up half the night Friday kind of killed that plan. Hopefully this weekend I'll get back out there. I just registered for a 5K on May 6th, and it would be nice to not walk the entire thing... I do have a little bit of pride. Just a little. Hopefully I'll actually go!

The puggers have been working really hard lately lounging around like a pile of bums lately. Which sounds like their sad or depressed, but really that's what they enjoy doing the most:

If reincarnation really happens, I think I want to come back as one of them.

I spent Easter Sunday with my dad, step mom, and my little brother's grandma. (Mom of my deceased step mom, not the current one. It's tough to follow.) While my dad (and my actual mom) and I are Jewish, my step mom and step grandma are both Catholic. So it was nice to share their holiday. Especially on such a beautiful summery day. I won't lie, I was wishing I was home riding for a lot of the time, but you gotta do those family things too. Occasionally.

Monday I went to yoga class which totally kicked my bum after missing last week for Passover. It felt great to get some good stretches in, but ugh, I'm still feeling it today! Note to self: even if you miss class, do the stuff! I drove home as fast as I could to squeeze a ride in on Jampy. The other boys got a second day off, but were back at it for Tuesday.

And that's all that's up this Wednesday. What's up with you? Anything exciting happening? Shows coming up? tell me all about it in the comments!
I'll try and get some media this weekend so you can see more of the ponies. In the meantime, I shall leave you with an adorable photo of the baby Badger getting curried in sunny Florida:

(No I'm not in Florida yet... Soon for the last trip! But not yet. I stole this photo from a Facebook friend.)