What's Up Wednesday

 

The weather is FINALLY getting nicer here. It's been overcast and/or raining forever. It's also been pretty cool (high 40's low 50's) and insanely windy. Seems like for forever honestly. 

ICE! On the ground. In May.

But today? Today it was finally AMAZING out. It got up to the low 70's and the sun even came out for part of the day. Felt amazing! Despite all the crummy weather though, we've been plenty busy around here!

Al had his usual two lessons last week. Friday wound up being a private and we were able to be outdoors for it. He was mediocre for the flatwork but was pretty fantastic for the jumping portion. Well... we were after we got the first course out of our system, lol! Nothing terrible happened the first time around, but I had his stride a little more open than I realized and we closed the lines up a lil' too much for some ugly jumps. But the next time around we got it all together and it was lovely. I was most excited for the last course though because we actually jumped a 3'6" oxer! It was out of a line I'd already jumped so I wasn't too likely to mess it up. (I appreciate being set up for success!) It's been many years since I've jumped anything at that height, so I was feeling pretty proud of Al and myself! 

Random screen shot from another day

Unfortunately, for Sunday we were back inside. It was barely 40 degrees out, and the wind kept blowing all the jumps over outside. Al is still hating the far end of the ring, which was an added challenge for the fence work. It was also kind of a chaotic morning in general. The horses were all pretty sassy with the cold weather. During the course of our 45 minute lesson, one horse spun someone off, and another ran off with it's rider... The most perfect animal in the barn actually stopped at a fence... It was that kind of morning. Al wasn't especially wild, but he was being ridiculous about the end of the ring. The fences themselves were all pretty good, it was getting to them that was tricky! But by the end he was a bit better and we all were happy to call it a day. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can be back outside for this week. 

Pammon is plugging along still too! We finally ventured outside one day last week when the wind wasn't too crazy and he was perfectly well behaved. We've mostly been inside since, but I'm hoping tomorrow we can head out there again. He's cantering three laps of the indoor each way this week, so things are getting pretty serious! 

Eros is currently annoyed with me, but I kind of think he just really needs a free lunge. The first few days at home he was downright lazy, but I didn't argue about it too much figuring he deserved a few days to settle back in. But he wound up having Sunday and Monday off this week, so now he's full of sass. He's not especially spooky, nor is he acting overly wild... But he's HEAVY and has zero interest in actually working. When I ask for bend he locks his jaw. When I ask him to lift his back and give at the poll, he grabs the bit and throws his head down to the ground. Like little temper tantrums! I know he needs his hocks done, which is part of the problem, but honesty I just think he doesn't want to get back to real work. Once I get a little tough with him, he does what I ask. He just wants to argue about it first. Teenagers. 

We have popped over some little jumps a few times, and he's been rideable every time, though not as relaxed as he was the first day we jumped last week. Still more quiet than he's been all winter though, so I'll take it. Please enjoy this fail video to hold you over until I get Pivo charged and running again:

Shiny's been getting back to work now that she's had body work done. Which doesn't mean that she's magically willing and forward and easy... but today we cantered both directions without kicking out so I'll call that a win! The leg is looking better too. It still fills some at night, but after our rides it's nearly back to normal. She's also gotten over her fear of the ice boot and I'm able to use the bigger one again which is nice. 

In non horsey news, I finally started PT for my knee injury from that tipped braiding ladder incident last year. I've never actually done PT before. I've been told to a few times, but as a younger, more naive person I never followed through. Since I'm old now, I figure I should try to preserve this vessel of mine so I can keep riding horses into my old age. Anyway... It was interesting! The assumption is that I have a torn meniscus, but either from compensating for that, or possibly just additionally, there are two other parts of my knee that are kind of messed up too. Both the lateral AND medial collateral ligaments are a bit angry. Who knew? It makes sense to me given how it felt when the injury first happened... but I hadn't noticed any pain in those areas recently until the therapist was poking around. Nothing too major though, and we think it will all be just fine if I do all my exercises religiously. So I'm gonna try my best to do that. The exercises are not especially difficult, but they sure do leave my legs tired! Probably stuff I should have been doing my whole life. I'm terrible at working out. 

This heating pad thing inside the towel was pretty amazing.
Also yes, I wore breeches to PT. I was riding after!

And that's about it from here! How was your week/weekend? Have you ever done PT? Was it helpful?