All The Feels

Thank you for all the well wishes for G, he's feeling much better. Fingers crossed the rest of the tests come back somewhere in the realm of normal and we can come up with a good plan and keep on living our lives and not worry about anything for a few more years :)

Anyway, horses. This blog is about horses.

I opted out of my normal lesson last night because they were jumping and I need to practice some dressage for our show this weekend. I joined in with some other adult ladies later in the evening, which was a nice change...I love the teens, but the adults are more my speed as far as goals and progress. I still sat and watched the jump lesson and actually got quite a bit out of it - it was interesting to really be able to watch the others tackle the courses and see that we really are all working on similar things. I sometimes feel like I'm the only one struggling out there, particularly as the kids are so brave, and I'm...not!

I ended up having a fantastic ride. Everything just felt smooth and flowing, and B was that wonderful combination of forward and relaxed. We did a bit of work on keeping the pony straight while being able to flex her neck and poll, in all three gaits. Perfect exercises for unlocking her and stopping the Gumby pony routine.

Until I wrote that, I forgot Gumby actually had a horse, Pokey. Missed naming opportunity right there...B pretty much IS a real life Pokey.

 EC tends to very blunt and honest while still remaining encouraging.It's rare that she makes any big generalizations about your riding or your horse, good or bad, preferring instead to just take whats in front of her on the day and discuss goals and plans and exercises to help you feel and improve what she's seeing in the moment. Unconditional praise is extremely rare, because let's face it, there's always something to improve!

So, imagine my surprise when some really, really nice compliments were thrown my way. I'm terrible at accepting compliments, because I'm my own worst critic. But, just this once,  I'm going to take them at face value, believe them and not overthink it.

B is very talented at rolling. Just kidding, right now for some reason I have 50 pics of her rolling and zero pics of her being normal (or clean), so here you go, rolling pony pic.

Of course, the Law of Pony Averages pretty much states that I have to pay for a good ride with my soul or something. The timing of this good ride, right before our "big" dressage show?...slightly concerning, lol. Add in the fact her vet ordered diet has been further restricted (although I got great feedback on her fitness, yay!), and well...the Pony Apocolypse is likely imminent.