Bridle: Camelot RCS Gold
Browband: Boy O'Boy Bridleworks
Things with Al are still going okay. I remain a bit of a chicken, and the universe keeps challenging me by having the most ridiculous things happen when I'm trying to lesson. I had scheduled a private for Friday with him. It had been very mild so we had the big doors open in the indoor. This usually is better for Al and it was... for the first half of the lesson anyway. The flat portion went swimmingly and Al was pretty relaxed. We took a short walk break before jumping because I was running out of oxygen by then. (Al takes a lot of... well everything. Core, leg, hand... mental acumen. All of it.) Anyway, walk breaks are fine with Al. He's not like Shiny who thinks she's done any time we stop for a breather. But then mother nature lost her ever loving mind. Out of nowhere, the wind came up and brought with it literal sheets of rain. Which would be fine being indoors and all... but the doors. They were open still! The wind and the rain came in like a damn tsunami. Al handled it pretty well and the instructors in the ring got the doors shut pretty quickly (the the poor things were DRENCHED in the process). But my chicken brain took over and I had to opt out of jumping. Al was feeling very tense, and all that drama happened at the end of the ring that Al's afraid of. (Okay fine. I am also afraid of that end when I'm on Al. WE are afraid of it. Collectively.) I stewed about my decision for awhile because I hate being a weenie quitter. But I also hate giving a bad ride which I felt confident was about to happen. To remedy my emotions about all of this I signed up for an early lesson Saturday morning. Gotta get right back to it so it doesn't fester in that chicken brain of mine.
Of course, it was cold first thing the next morning. I had chosen that lesson slot because the other people in the class only jump small fences and are relatively low key kinds of people. What I hadn't accounted for was that possibility of EVERYONE deciding to ride at the same time as this lesson. Seriously, the barn is always so quiet whilst part of the barn goers are in Florida. Except at this moment when I wanted a low key lesson. Always the way isn't it? Fortunately for me, Al actually prefers lots of buddies in the ring with him. So once my psychosis settled down, we were fine. I rode with the trainer who normally helps me with Eros and Shiny which was perfect. She's not easily offended so I felt like I didn't have to do anything I didn't feel ready for. (Ugh, my ammy is showing, isn't it?) After warming up over a little crossrail, she let me make up my own course. I still avoided most of the jumps by the scary end of the ring. But I did do ONE of them, so that's like a solid baby step. And I also jumped a bunch of the fill and even a little oxer. So we're working towards getting back to the old life. Slowly.
I'm taking the path of doing the thing as regularly as I can, so I signed up for both Wed and Fri lessons for Al this week. We have a built in service fee with board which can go towards lessons, so I have a good bank of them built up being that we pay three boards. Which is nice because boy do I need all the lessons right now.
Today's class went fine, though once again the universe was messing with me. So, the barn is situated across the street from an active rock quarry. Meaning that every now and then they blast. If you've never experienced rock blasting.... it basically feels and sounds like an earthquake. Or a bomb detonating... It's mildly terrifying. They are SUPPOSED to let the neighbors know when they're doing a big one, but they never do. So I was on Al, doing our warm up walk around the arena, when BOOM! Blasting. Fortunately, I wasn't at the scary end of the ring when it happened. Al was pretty edgy for the lesson today, but did settle a bit once another horse came into the ring. We jumped a handful of fences and an abbreviated little course, and then called it a day. Friday I am going to give him a lunge before our lesson and hopefully there won't be any tsunamis nor earthquakes for that one... Seriously. Please let it be uneventful. It's a semi private so he'll have a buddy too. Setting us up for success as best I can!
Eros is perfect as always. He was a little excited for jumping last week, but not full on torpedo mode... More like torpedo-light. And I think we exceeded his flatwork allowance beforehand. He's a funny horse. He's great for a flat lesson, but if I get him doing too much flatwork before we jump, he gets a little tired, and just wants to lay on his forehand and drag me around. We're going to do a little less on the flat tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. It's a working hypothesis... Will report back.
And last but not least... Shiny! She's still waiting for the vet. He's in Florida for a bit but she's scheduled for March 3. I'm still attempting our lessons, we just take it slow and let her tell us when it's enough. She isn't shy about telling me that, so I just have to make sure to listen. She's actually given me some great work lately, and is starting to come round again. She absolutely still needs some vet work, but I think the warmer weather last week felt good to her. Hopefully this return of winter won't last too long. For her sake... (Okay, yes, my sake too. I hate the cold.)
And that catches you all up! Hope things are going well with you and your horses!
Bridle: Joseph Sterling
Browband: homemade
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| Peep Al back there having some play time <3 |
Eros has been a perfect boy as always. I was a bit of a potato in our jumping lesson last week, and he just put up with me without running away. So that's a big A+ for him. He got a positive report from the body worker also. Our current loaner saddle, though not a perfect fit, isn't bothering him at all, so that's a relief. Al's new saddle should be here very soon, and our saddle rep is going to bring her entire arsenal of possibilities for Eros to try once that gets here. Hopefully we figure out exactly what he needs. I'd be happiest if she has that unicorn saddle already, but if we have to order, so be it. I'll just be happiest once I don't have to buy anymore saddles for a long while. Anyway... E has had a few days that he's come out a little less than perfectly sound, but works out of it well. I have him on the list to see the vet too in case he's about ready for some maintenance. I'm not really sure that he is. But I'd rather check and not need it rather than wait too long and have him be uncomfortable. He's getting older, so I want to make sure I stay on top of things for him. I can't believe he's 14 this year!
Things are going swimmingly with my boy Al too! I'm kind of waiting for the dragon to re-emerge, but until then, I'm very much enjoying the sweet horse that has taken it's place. I'm sticking to the lunge on Tuesday pre ride, and I didn't need another last week after that. We even had our first lesson in awhile on Friday! I asked for a private so my being afraid of the end of the ring wouldn't waste anyone's time but my own and my teacher's. In an effort to not overwhelm my anxieties, we stayed on the non spooky half of the ring. I got some help with the shoulder in that we've been struggling with and we even popped over a few fences. I'm excited to try again this Friday and hopefully build up to a real course and using more of the arena. We've been flatting on almost the full ring since our lesson, so yay for not being a total weenie? I'm hypothesizing that maybe his poor behavior was linked to his being uncomfortable. It all started in the fall when that quarter crack started to really bother him, and continued on as he struggled with the dermatitis and then the mystery right hind issue. But that could all just be coincidental and the real problem was just the cold weather. Hard telling for sure. I guess we shall see when the temps drop again which Al shows up under saddle. But he definitely gets extra cookies for being the best boy this week!
In other non horse news, I actually socialized this weekend! A friend of mine used to host a Galentine's Brunch every year the Sunday before Valentine's day. But with Covid, it hasn't happened in awhile. This year, she revived the tradition, and it was so nice to see everyone again and eat delicious food.
My last pair of Tredstep winter boots:
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| Granted this was overnight, but it wasn't much warmer come morning. |
And now you're all caught up! Hope you all survived the cold snap if you live where it hit (which is nearly everywhere I think). I know some of you had quite a rough week/weekend, and I'm thinking of you guys.
A frequent complaint I see from people is that their riding boots (or sometimes even their rubber rain boots) aren't holding up as long as they'd expect "for what they cost". They then go on to talk about how they've been wearing those boots daily for four years and can't figure out why they are falling apart. My favorite is when they go on to say well, yeah, I clean stalls and bathe my horse in them, but they should hold up to that! Lol. This kills me. Dude, they're leather boots. If you're traipsing through poo and getting them soaking wet and full of soapy bubbles that you probably don't rinse off, of course they're going to break down and rot! And four years?! Any boots I wear every single day and do chores in die after a year. Doesn't matter how much I pay (or don't). Want to know why boots lasted longer in the old days? Because there were more repair shops around. People had their boots FIXED on the regular. It's harder these days to find boot repair shops. It's often easier to just replace the boots. I remember when I was growing up (which was apparently a really long time ago, though it doesn't so much feel that way to me) having my boots resoled and restitched pretty much yearly. And sometimes stretched to fit my growing calves. (My feet stopped growing in the fifth grade, and I don't think my legs grew much taller after that either, just wider.) And the boots didn't have as many moving parts either. They didn't have zippers. We pulled them on! And bruised our friends' asses trying to get them off at the end of the day too. Anyone remember that? Pulling off your friends' boots? Or are you all too young? It was certainly a spectacle. Anyway, that's my rant for today.
My other "deep" thought is really quite silly but occurred to me while my mind was wandering earlier. I find people in the UK use the word "post" in reference to sending something through the mail. And their mail service is called Royal Mail. But here in the US we say we are mailing an item. (Or shipping, we use that word a lot too.) But our mail service is called the US Postal Service. So shouldn't we be saying post, and our UK friends should be saying mail? Sorry. This is how my brain works. Anyone else ever noticed this?
