yo - real quick

Pinoeer Woman is on Netflix, and if you are the type of person that gets excited about anything that has even the tiniest b-roll of horses in it...I'm telling you, this lady is living the homestead dream. She has such a cheerful disposition, homeschools her 4 kids and shows love for her horses. While it's hard as a city girl to prioritize baking a pie for the husband/boyfriend/whatever over climbing the corporate ladder...I enjoy the glimpses into her life. And her recipe for sweet potato fries was dead on.

Here is a funny post from her blog about her son finally being big enough to get off his horse by himself.

More squeeze, please

In yesterday's lesson I got what I would have previously considered a "lazy" horse to trot on command whenever I asked. I think I've just learned to build up my requests, from squeeze, to squeeze more, to kick, etc. as well as probably gotten stronger at squeezing! We worked on avoiding dropping a shoulder at the corners, which I guess I must have totally been doing this whole time. It wasn't so hard, just an extra squeeze of the inside leg. We also worked on circles, and I was surprised at how much I had to pull on a rein to get the correct circle. A lot of my lack of confidence comes out in "not wanting to hurt the animal" either by pulling or kicking a lot. I think this is a good idea in general, but I am realizing there's pulling and kicking without being clear and then there's pulling and kicking because you WERE being clear, and they're just not listening. In any case, I always apply more force AFTER my instructor tells me to do something. Because, heck, I don't know how it feels to a horse, but I assume my instructor has the best intentions...

Canter fears controlled!

 OK, so I wasn't ALWAYS afraid of the canter, because I learned on some slow, trusty steeds, where the canter was like floating on a happy cloud, but after my fall and riding a horse with more go than woah now, I was having trouble staying in control and I'd be holding my breath through the whole thing. Last night's lesson I learned how to slow down, but keep the canter going. Get the horse (Colonel) to canter and then keep the leg on while bringing the head up by tightening the reins. I'm SO bad about tightening the reins. I only did one show in my life and it was a walk-trot class and the judge's criticism was that I looked like I was neck-reigning on a trail ride. Anyways, I was seeing the value in pulling in those reins as I got a nice, controlled canter.

I hosed Colonel down after my lesson because he was super sweaty. It was very muggy out with negative effects: An owner was walking her colicky horse around the riding ring. After Colonel had done lessons all day, I admit I lingered a little by his stall to see if he would drink water. Of course he just munched on hay and looked at my curiously like, "Aren't I done with you for the day?"

My instructor also promised that next week I will be able to do a little trail riding after my lesson, which is pretty exciting. I've actually never done a trail ride except for the touristy kind. At my previous places there was either nowhere to trail ride on site or they were just too busy to make such suggestions. All in all, I'm so happy I'm at this barn now.

Colonel wondering why I'm still staring at him.

Throwin' Elbows

So I started at a new barn yesterday because the other one couldn't accommodate my schedule, which is kind of a sad reason to leave. I didn't even know them well enough to say goodbye, nor do they have strong enough communication skills (answering emails or listening to voice mails) to notice I'm gone.

I was very nervous about last night's lesson. All told it took me 2 hours to get from my desk at work to the horse. I'm going to try another route next time, but that's pretty much what we're looking at for travel, folks. Getting home at 8pm took under 45 minutes, of course.

In any case, my eval ride was kind of an eye opener. This was a push button horse with a lot of go. I don't think I've ever been on one of those? (Except for my friend's flying couch of a Percheron, but she's a little all over the place). So when the instructor told me to keep my elbows at my sides to control speed, I was like, "Wow! This is how you slow down the trot to sit it?!" Because of this, I wasn't slumped over, either. I was amazed that I could keep my elbows at my sides and ask for a walk with a gently squeeze from a standstill, get a canter right off the bat, and transition more smoothly down to a walk. I think the most important thing was, that because I wasn't giving my arms forward to the horse, I kept control, I was less scared and I became more relaxed as well. I guess these are the "Aha!" moments people look for.

To throw up something for debate, however, I was feeling weird about switching to a new barn because I haven't had a consistent instructor since my first, 2 years ago. But this new instructor found major flaws in my equitation that no one had pointed out before. So, I guess there is something to be said about trying new instructors.

In any case, my boss gave the go ahead to leave a few minutes early on Tuesday, so it looks like I've found my regular thing! My only regret is still being unable to do group lessons because of scheduling. My instructor recommended it so that I could see others ride and play games to get comfortable around other horses, but ultimately we decided on the half-hour private lesson. There were some older ladies in the ring (Note I said 'older' NOT old!) who after were giving me words of encouragement, so I will get to see them show their stuff and learn to move around their courses, and generally bond with them! I mention that they are older only because they seem to be more consistent in their attendance...and I could use some consistency in my riding situation these days!

Filling the lesson gap: 30 days of yoga

I started a new job and am not able to get to that 5:30-on-a-Friday lesson anymore. I was never before able to find weekend lessons with that (or any) barn, but just this evening something must have changed, because the online appointment schedule for my barn had a couple 1-hour beginner lesson slots open on Saturday. I'm not sure if summer freed it up, or it's a new instructor (I didn't recognize the name) or what, but I'm praying my request is accepted. The level of desperation is pretty high for me right now. Did I mention that this is a 1-hour private lesson? I'm not going to type, even on this semi-anonymous blog, what that sort of thing goes for in our beautiful Boston suburbs. But then, I gave up my more flexible, lower paying job for a more time consuming, higher paying job, so I'll be damned if I'm going to let an extra $20 get in the way of my riding.

During the 3 weeks of zero riding I seem to be stuck in, I started doing the 30 Day Yoga Challenge. I'm on Day 17! Ok, I may have missed a couple days here and there, squeezed two videos in a row in an attempt to catch up...In any case, I'm hoping it will help with my back, which has been finicky. I also figure it's good cross training while I'm out of the saddle.