What's Up Wednesday

 

As is the norm for March, we've had all kinds of weather lately. 70 degrees, 40 degrees, rain, snow, THUNDERSTORMS! Currently it's 25 degrees outside. So our triumphant return to work is rather intermittent. But that's okay. I know consistent riding days are coming. So close I can smell them! In the meantime, we do what we can when we can, and we're happy with that. 

The snow is pretty much entirely gone except for where the snow plow piles were exceptionally big. I feel like I have so much more space to move around. I hadn't really noticed how confined I felt by all the snow until it as gone. Everything feels better with it gone!

I shared last week that we got to start riding, but we've been taking things slow so no one gets too sore (me included). And then weather made it more slow. So we rode Tuesday and Wednesday, and then didn't get to again until Sunday. A mix of reasons really. Mostly rain, but also wind, and occasionally the cold. 

I'm trying this new thing this year where I base my decision whether or not to ride on what I feel is best for my horses AND myself in the moment. And NOT on whether or not I could be perceived as wimpy by some outside third party. I don't think I need to prove how tough I am, or how brave I can be anymore. After this winter, I know I'm both of those things. I'm also approaching 46 years old, and the body doesn't work the same as it did ten years ago. After not riding for so long, I'm weaker and my balance is probably less good as a result. It will all come back the more we ride. But on days where the wind is gusting in excess of 40 MPH, I don't need to test my ability to "ride through" spring tine shenanigans. 

Which doesn't mean I chicken out of every ride that they seem spicy. Al came out very attentive on Sunday but after some ground work he settled and we got our ride completed as planned. But it does mean that if I decide not to ride one day I don't feel guilty about it. The horses have survived the winter with lots of no riding, and are none the worse for the wear. So if sometimes this summer we have 5 day work weeks instead of six, I'm going to be okay with that. And so will they. At least I hope. That's the plan. I'm Jewish, so guilt is instilled in me very strongly. Not sure if I can just turn that off. But I'm going to try!

Anyway, our rides right now are walk trot rides. We're doing three laps of walk each way, then trotting two laps each way, and then finishing with another three laps each way at the walk. It's about a 20 minute ride. I plan to add a lap of trot each week. Once we're trotting five laps each way we'll add in some canter. I figure we'll be to full work in a 4-6 weeks depending on how much saddle time we get. 

I am very much looking forward to getting back to full work. My plan to keep the weight off this winter has failed miserably and I have 15 lbs to get off. To be fair, I gained about 8 this winter, but I already had some excess to start... (See above, approaching 46... The struggle is real.) It's interesting to see how bodies work because I stayed very active this winter, but more so with strength type exercise and less so cardio. As a result, despite my weight gain, my blood sugar and A1C are still great, but with the lack of cardio my cholesterol has gone up. Could also be the level of cheese consumption... Both of those things. Ha! Anyway, hopefully once I'm back to fully riding three horses a day things will get back to good. I have my annual physical tomorrow so we'll see what kind of lecture I get... (Also, why did I schedule an 8am physical?)

I don't have too much else to report. We took yesterday off for wind, and today we'll be off due to frozen footing. But the rest of the week looks promising for rides every day. Fingers crossed!

Any tips or tricks for weight loss that won't make me cry? Share away! 

What's Up Wednesday

 

We are getting into a groove over at the winter home, and I got to lesson on everyone this past week. Only once each since the clinic was happening both weekend days, but I'll take it! 

We talked about Al's lesson last week already since it was on Wednesday. But we had another today, with one of the juniors. Her mom was there to watch and she was so sweet and videoed all my jumps too. Barn moms are the best moms. I haven't had a chance to make clips yet, so no video to share but I have some grainy screen shots at least. 

Al started the lesson being Al. He was spooking at pretty much life in general, but for whatever reason (which I really need to figure out) I was had my big girl pants on and just rode him through it. It wasn't easy. He was making me work ridiculously hard. But I did it, and I'm very proud of myself. If only I could do that every ride. Maybe he'd get better? 

(Side note: I ride with my physical therapist and we were chatting the other day about things that are a hinderance to our confidence. And I mentioned that my knee makes me more anxious because I worry that I'll do more damage if they spook and it wobbles like sometimes happens. She reassured me that since it is in fact ruptured I can't damage it anymore. She said unless I fall off, things like that won't cause any more damage to it. So that did give me a little more bravery anyway.)

Okay, back to the lesson. I just barely survived the flat portion because Al was really making me work for it today. But that's okay. Next came the jumping. 

Spoiler alert: we jumped at the scary end!

The course was still set from the clinic, so the outside lines were up against the rail. Which I think worked in my favor for jumping toward the scary end. Al's afraid of the doors in the center of that short side, so jumping against the rail meant we were facing into the corner and not so much at the doors themselves. So that was nice. Trainer wanted us working on the add stride today, and the courses were very basic. The junior riding with me is currently working on keeping all the strides the same length in the lines, so the add stride made that extra tricky for her. For Al and I, just jumping around the full ring is a pretty big challenge, so we don't really need super hard courses at the moment. Plus he was so behind the leg today, the add stride was pretty welcomed for me. I know Al has plenty of stride (when he feels like it...) so I'm not worried that I can't make the correct numbers. 

While I had to work pretty hard to keep Al moving throughout the course, I was pretty happy with our ride today. We used the entire ring, and I didn't have trainer get on and do it first. I did it all myself. Like a big girl. With big girl panties. The jumps stayed on the smaller side, but like the distances, I know Al can jump a big fence. Sometimes that's not the most important part of a lesson. Actually USUALLY that's not the most important part. 

I hope you enjoyed these blurry screen shots from our lesson today, because unfortunately, Eros and Shiny have lessons early in the day when no one is around to video for us. So I have pretty much no media for the rest of this post... Sorry! Enjoy the wall of text to come! 

Eros was my first lesson on Thursday. I was in a group with two other adults who are super fun ladies. One of them has a horse in his mid teens who has the same sire as Al. And he can be a bit Al like too... But at his age, he's starting to settle down. The other horse in the class is an older gentleman who actually belonged to a friend of mine before his current owners. The horse world is so small. Anyway, we're all in the same place fence height wise, meaning we max out around 2'3 with these horses. Eros CAN jump a little higher, but he doesn't need to all the time. So it's a great group for us. The only tricky part about morning lessons is that we're trying to lesson while head trainer and assistant trainer are doing their training rides. So it's kinda busy. Sometimes we have to circle mid course and what not. That's just how it is when it's winter and we're all stuck indoors. I have a hard time in traffic because I worry about where everyone is all the time and don't focus enough on what I'm actually trying to do. But despite all that, I had a great lesson. Eros mostly kept a lid on the zoomies and with his freshly injected hocks we had no trouble getting the correct number of strides this week. 

Shiny's lesson was right after Eros'. We had a private which was perfect since she's just kind of getting back into a groove. Also, it had warmed up enough that training rides went outside, so we had the indoor to ourselves. She's feeling great after her maintenance. (PLUS, our favorite body worker was out later that day, so now she's feeling even more extra great.) Anyway, we did some flatwork that really pointed out where she's weak, and I felt the same things carry over when we were jumping. This was really useful information for me, so we have some homework to get her stronger behind. I don't think there's any real problem, I just think she needs more muscle. 

We moved on to jumping, but we kept things small. I felt like she was ready to jump bigger, but she was also a wee bit spicy, and I had a feeling that if we put the jumps up we might also be turning up the sass. So, we stuck to cross rail courses for this lesson. She was happy to be jumping for sure, and after the first four fences of each course, she really started to take me to them. Once she starts taking me to the jumps, she becomes much more adjustable and it feels like we could do pretty much anything- move up, wait, roll backs. Whatever. I just wish I could get her there sooner in the course. She's just such an opinionated mare, you have to kind of make it her idea. And I have to figure out how to make that happen sooner. I think a stronger hind end will help though. Time will tell. 

On our ride today I reintroduced collected canter to Shiny. It's something I've been avoiding when I knew she needed some vet work because I knew it was very hard for her. But now that she's feeling good, it's time to bring it back. And it's still hard for her, but she did it! Both directions! Not only did she do it, but she was able to lengthen both into and out of the collected canter. It was hard to get her collected from the lengthen, of course, but once she really understood what I was asking, she was right there for it. She's really smart. It's just the opinions that sometimes get in our way. Thankfully, she kept those in check today.

In non riding news, it's been fun back at the boarding barn so far. They have a kind of happy hour on Fridays which I don't always attend, but we've had some birthdays to celebrate so I do try to show up for those. And yesterday we did a barn Thanksgiving potluck which was really fun. So it's nice to have a kind of social life lately. 

So that's pretty much the rundown on this week. Things are going well, and I'm happy with how the horses are going. How are things with all of you and your horses? Getting lessons in this time of year?