The week in the life format is working for me at the moment, so I’m continuing it for another weekly recap. I present to you daily status updates, old school style via the blog-o-sphere:
Monday: It's getting dark by 5pm. As much as I'm ready for a vacation I'm very grateful to have a somewhat flexible work schedule and be off by 3:30 most days I work at home. 90 minutes is still a bit tight for the likes of me to do up feeds, ride, groom and fit an afternoon paddock tidy in, so this thing has been a lifesaver:
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| LED light, rechargeable via USB. They're everywhere right now. I got mine last year on amazon for $20 and would recommend |
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| Time for a ride! |
Tuesday: Have been watching Training The Spooky or Anxious Horse on Equestrian Masterclass and trying to be more conscious of setting everything up as a 'yes' answer and evaluating what pony I have in the day/hour/moment. I think one of my strengths is being positive and patient and setting up little wins for the horses, but Sophie can be very inconsistent and some days I get it wrong. Monday she was as happy as could be, today she was fussy and mare-y (she's in heat) so I added on a little (15min) hack around the block thinking that would be a nice way to stretch her legs without many strings attached. Things got over the top when we were just about home and she couldn’t be away from B one moment longer. Her brain returned to reasonable levels when I simply rode past the gate and kept going. When we finally came home, she got to do a few transitions in the ring (calmly, positively, work is not a punishment) so it wasn't an immediate home = Bridget, dinner, reward situation. She was fine and we ended on a good note, but this was one of those days we needed to quit earlier for the win or respect that she's feeling the hormones and not ask too much.
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| Still cute tho! |
Wednesday: Just a little groundwork/ light longe check in day. I'm conscious that she's not riding fit so riding is not an every day thing.
Thursday: Work travel day so ponies have a day off - I'm out the door at 5:30AM and not home until somewhere around 9:30PM
Friday: No work for me today! Knew Sophie would be a little wild, given she didn’t get out of her paddock Thursday. Wanted to give her something to think about rather than her just zoning out and zooming around, so what better day to introduce little jumps? Starting on the longe makes a lot more sense because I’m no pro and pony needs to figure out her own body anyway. Fun morning, despite doing all the green pony moves and looking less than inspiring in some moments. I think she could make a cute jumper some day, she’s naturally wanting to be quite careful and was enjoying herself immensely. I’ll stick to dressage goals but in my ideal world she’d be game for a little combined training or xc outing now and then.
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Cute pony enjoys trying a new thing
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Saturday: For some reason I thought yesterday was Black Friday so I was all ready this morning with my shopping list. Then I realized 1. It’s not till next week. 2. The couple of horsey items on my list are sold out already anyway. The waterproof riding coat I was coveting will wait.
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| Sophie: “Speaking of rain coats, mine is really annoying and the sun is coming out. Take it off me and let’s go do something” |
Me: “OK!”
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| After a week of walking, time to add little trot sets back in. It’s been a while and I totally cherry picked the non llama photo. |
Sunday: A quick ride, and a recap of square corners and moving shoulders over. S came to overachieve and interpreted any leg as “forward” and wanting to leap off, so it wasn’t the best ride, but also it was fine and we ended on the same page. We’re still walking a lot for fitness, and I’m finding it’s having the pleasant side effect of keeping her quietly thinking. Speeding up her feet speeds up her brain too, and she can quite easily get into flight mode where she’s moving and no longer thinking. In the future I think it might be valuable to keep a flatwork ride every week or two that’s mostly in walk, just suppling and stretching and checking buttons.
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| Is pro level at posing for photos these days |
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| I overachieved by cleaning tack. It was long overdue. |
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| Your weekly Bridget proof of life. She’s not been up to much, but I wouldn’t want her to feel left out! |
The clean saddles on the gate is such a satisfyingly beautiful photo! Sophie is super cute over the jump, how fun!!
ReplyDeleteThe satisfaction of the clean tack shines through :)
Deletelove all this. Do you like the wide stirrup leathers? Also Sophie is the cutest (wait Bridget is, no wait Sophie is) OKAY IT IS A TIE :)
ReplyDeleteI love them because they lay flat and they're way less likely to twist and pinch - I don't have to put my tall boots or half chaps on to be comfortable for a quick ride.
DeleteHa, ha! I laughed with the "totally cherry picked the non llama photos" and the "weekly proof of life" comments. Funny! I imagine that many horse bloggers' horses get pretty used to having their people with cameras/phones in their hands (or propped up on a PIVO device?). I've always been game to have lots of photos of my horses, but the self-imposed pressure to produce media for my own blog has added to the number. :-) I enjoyed hearing about and seeing your week!
ReplyDeleteI have so many pictures! It's fine, photography is a side hobby. B dislikes her picture being taken but I think Sophie's inadvertently been trained to pose. I do have a pivo! So helpful for video clips of lessons, or rides where I can't quite pinpoint where I'm going wrong in the saddle but video evidence tells the story :)
DeleteI used to get really upset when I pushed things. Now I am okay with it because sometimes the push and discomfort is required for learning to occur. I have that hat for when there's a power outage. I think it's great.
ReplyDelete