Changing the Routine

This is mostly going to be word vomity with some pictures from recent rides thrown in for good measure. But I need to word vomit in order to make sense of things and organize my life.

Waiting for lunch and VERY unsure about me coming to get her with no lunch in hand.

 Jim and I decided on lessons every other week. We found a barn that will allow haul ins (at $20 each, ouch) so Cortney and I can meet him centrally with an indoor for these dark months. I can't wait for it to get lighter so we can go back to Bridle Trails because that is included in state park tags.

But still listening to the 3 year old. 

Given the snow recently, Cortney is snowed in fully so I had a solo lesson on Monday. It was the second day of snow storms so maybe not the smartest decision I've made to haul in, but the roads were mostly okay. I just took it slow.

 Despite wearing spurs during this lesson, Gwyn was still dead to my leg. As it turns out my half chaps are muting the signal (because in order to get appropriate calf width I have to get ridiculous length #fatgirlproblems)

I either need to treat myself to custom half chaps (yes please) or start wearing my tall boots for dressage work. I don't think my spurs will fit on over my half chaps.

Fussing about that other horses are getting fed lunch while she has to be lunged.

 So that's brain vomit 1. 

Hazel helpfully 'blocked' the entrance to the outdoor arena with the cones, LOL

 Then, my previously planned ride schedule was going to be Monday lesson, wednesday ride while Hazel has preschool in the morning, then a weekend *thing*.

Except I've gotten a new job now so riding will be relegated to evenings and weekends, which is more time away from family and relying on Eric to do majority child rearing in the evenings. That doesn't start until the end of the month but I'm really going to need to figure out a new schedule that will fit with work now added.

Finally getting lunch

 I'm not sure how much my schedule will fit into what they've told me is M-F 8-5. I'm very much looking forward to this job though because the pay is amazing, it's work that's right up my alley and specialty with a minimal commute.

Forward, down and out

 I still need to find childcare. And figure out how to add in the exercise that I've been enjoying lately like yoga and walking/jogging.

 I have paid for and been following Noom, with success so far. I'm hoping it will remain successful. It's working well with my ADHD.

 But yes, things from the lesson...

She's looking so good lately. 

 Working on shoulder in and half pass, also renvers/travers will help strengthen her weak hind leg. Having more effective spurs/leg aids.

 I need to remember shoulders touching for my own posture so I stop hunching.

Still using up my old colorstreet 

 There are other things that I need to physically write down, like things I'd like to have, rewards for milestones to treat myself, but those don't need to go here

The snow arrived.

 There's just a lot I'm mentally trying to organize plus I've got Girl Scout cookie season starting Friday so that's just one more thing on my mental plate.

So we went sledding

 So if you want girl scout cookies, my kid is selling them. I'll post the link on Friday when it's active and you can order them and ship them to your house directly, if you need to be enabled that way.

The arena for my lesson. It felt narrow but might actually be exactly dressage court sized. Also on a slope big enough that it's noticeable on horseback.

 I have lost 8 lb so far, so at least in that case I'm seeing success. I think with my first paycheck I'm going to get myself an actual fitness watch so I'm not relying on my cell phone to be my pedometer, which is what's currently happening. Any recommendations?

No actual lesson pictures. Just an almost fully untacked Gwyn who I was racing to get back in her blanket because the snow was picking up.

I took the kids to the YMCA yesterday to swim and the sun even came out.

Lessons Update

Lessons have been more sporadic lately, though I did get a lesson in the Sunday after Thanksgiving at Bridle Trails. Traveling all the way up to me for Monday evening has been wearing on Jim and Cortney and I think we'll be rearranging lesson day to be daylight hours. As much as having them come to me was nice, I totally get that it's a rough drive to do weekly, at rush hour. Traffic is horrendous out here.

Combining the sporadic lessons with the holiday and then some mystery gastric thing I had, I haven't ridden much, and the last time I rode Gwyn I felt like a stiff board getting on and boy was that discouraging and I didn't make it out more. The Sunday lesson was early afternoon and a new friend, Robin, joined us. She's also an endurance rider that Cortney met and I definitely like her, she's a great person to hang out with. She came to Thanksgiving too!

Her gelding has been cleared for light riding after an injury, so she joined us at Bridle Trails. We planned on a 1pm meet time that of course I ended up biffing when I found my truck tire was low on air AND there was a line at the gas station for using the air pump.

Because I'd been so stiff last time I rode I made sure I stretched my hip flexors before getting on. Note to self, do that before putting on spurs. Lesson learned.

Gwyn recognizes the sound of Cortney's truck, LOL

 Gwyn was a bit sassy to start off so I made sure to lunge (see aforementioned over a week off and nice cool weather). Lunging I found she's able to maintain a balanced canter for a lot longer, which is really encouraging. It doesn't even get strung out and flat. I'm really excited for when that translates under saddle. Her brain seemed relatively well screwed in so I hopped on.

 Jim's lessons involve theory as well as practical application. So we have occasional huddles to talk about why movements are useful and how different aids work. Gwyn and I even did some canter under saddle and her good direction was really good!

He and I discussed her weakness in the canter is because we need to strengthen the hind leg that pushes off into the canter. Her weak direction is to the left/counter clockwise, so that's her right hind that needs strengthening work.

Turns on the forehand work on strength in that same leg as you ask them to step under themselves. This is reflected in how her better turns are when we turn counter clockwise because it's the left hind stepping under itself.

Additionally, I need to think of exercises like turn on the forehand as a weight lifting exercise. I shouldn't be schooling it endlessly because like with weightlifting, eventually you hit exhaustion where the muscles just can't perform anymore. I need to come into it with a sets and reps mindset.  So do a quarter to half turn, then move forward to reward, relax and encourage the downward stretch. Then repeat a little bit later.

 We also practiced our square halts and feeling where the horse is standing without looking and once identified, fixing the halt stance. If I focus on it, I correctly identify her stance 9 out of 10 times. I found that since we were in a dressage arena, if I practiced my halts as though I were in a dressage test by going down the center line, it gave me a target point to halt at and my preparation for halts were much smoother. We ended with a really good, square halt and I was really proud.

 After our lesson we hit the trails together. It had been raining through the lesson but the trails are amazingly well groomed and had minimal mud. We kept it to a walk and did between 3 and 4 miles in about an hour.

She had the biggest, swingiest walk as soon as she realized we weren't done and were walking trailward.

Time in the woods, even if a bit wet and cloudy, was so good. And it was in the best company. Cortney told me she had friends waiting for me, and she was right, hahah. 

This park is surrounded by encroaching city. It is a gem.

I didn't get home until after sunset (4pm this time of year, lol) Then I just hung out at the barn chatting with folks. I like having this social aspect again. That was definitely something I didn't realize I'd miss as much when we got our own place in Michigan.

Elbows

My nemesis, apparently. And by extension my hands, which seems to be a thing going around blogland today (as I distract myself from writing this by catching up on my feed...)

"Mom, I have not finished eating. Do you see all this wonderful soft hay right here?"

 I resolved this week to work on my hands (and elbows) both on and off the horse. Jim suggested I toss balls and catch them with my elbows bent and practice the give and take with that. So I've been doing that. But I also wanted to incorporate something intentional into my gym trips as well.

"I'm suspicious Mom... why do you have that bucket?"

 So I added a half hour before my T/Th yoga sessions to go run on the elliptical at the Y (thank you included childcare...)   I kept my hands gently, closed fingers on the swinging grips, not the heart rate monitor grips, and focused on maintaining steady contact as my legs moved them.

"It's okay, I'll just stand on my hay before my hoof armor cures, guaranteeing that the hay will bond to my hoof"

 I did this T/W/Th. Wednesday evening I went out to ride after my Monday lesson. I gave myself permission to ONLY work on my hands. I wasn't going to try and maintain pace through seat only, I wasn't going to really focus on my leg. Just on keeping steady rein contact. I felt like my hands were EVERYWHERE. And I'll need to check in next Monday to be sure, but I think that's more what I'm supposed to be doing?  Just by keeping my hands in motion with Gwyn she started dropping and carrying herself more. Probably because I wasn't banging her in the mouth anymore.

UGH. Hands.

 Then I had the shortest ride ever this morning because after getting a coat of hoof armor on I only had about 20 minutes before I needed to start untacking and leaving to pick up Hazel. For that ride the rain held off just long enough. I started to notice that my WHOLE body was moving instead of just my arms and elbows, so I practiced stillness in my core while keeping elbows moving and giving.

 We also walked up the slight hill on the property twice. And I made her trot over those cross rails in a 'course'. She does not jump them. They are too small. For a super short ride, I was pleased that she was walking around with her head lower, and not giraffing. In fact, she was fairly lazy. But also dropping into contact, which I tried VERY hard not to jab her in the mouth by stiff hands.

Pretty pretty colors

Snuggles while I listen to the rain on the roof.

Glorious glorious tail right now. She's gone back to blonde. Let it be known, that mane USED to be the same length. 

Lord Hill and Lessons

We played DnD on Saturday and that evening Eric told me, "So, you're going trail riding tomorrow, right? For your birthday?"  I was confused, it wasn't originally in the plan for me... but yes. I can pick up what you're putting down, husband.

I went for a trail ride.

She's gotten trimmer, I need to buy a new girth... 

I decided to hit new trail from previous just so I could reacquaint myself with the trail system at Lord Hill.  I also wanted to do as much as the pipeline trail as I could because hills. Hills are good for horse butts that need to be strengthened for cantering and climbing more hills for endurance.

Dear folks on foot, you are NOT allowed to use the horse entrance >:[

 It was overcast but not raining (that's today and the next 8 days). Pretty great weather, and ended up warming up more than I expected and the sun even came out a little bit!

Happy Ears

 The colors, while not as dramatic as the northeastern part of the country, were still in good form for the area, so it was a great fall trail ride. I also wanted to test my scoot boots with the gaiters I bought.

 One thing that always eluded me was finding the river access point within the trail system. There's talk of removing horse access and count me selfish, I wanted to get on that trail before that happened. The trail was pretty much all down hill to the water. The parking lot is at the top of Lord Hill so there was a lot of downhill. The blackberries were trying to overtake the trail and it's not rider friendly since nothing is cleared well at my torso height.

Salmon spawning season. 

 But it was a nice sandy shoreline on the river, which is pretty impressive given most of the time it's a ton of glacial till.

 Gwyn wanted to go out deeper but I wasn't willing to let her. She got a good drink of water though.

 Then it was climbing back UP UP UP, which had Gwyn suddenly going "wait a fucking minute..." She tried pulling the stop and act tired on some of the minor stuff and I wasn't amused. She got short breaks and then we continued. There were nice peekaboo pops of color.

 We did encounter quite a few hikers and bikers! Everyone was incredibly polite and followed the yielding rules, which I appreciated. Gwyn did really well with the bicyclists. We pretty much encountered them while they were climbing up hill so going quite slow, which helped her. She wasn't nearly as nervous about them as she's been in the past. She did seem to expect that everyone on the ground would have treats.

This is the Quarry. It's a meadow and steep steep bowl 

 The pipeline starts from the quarry. I remembered that there was a side trail to avoid the first, steep part of the pipeline, and technically, while the trail is physically there, the maps have you take the side trail to get up the initial hill. I looked at the hill and thought, That looks doable.

Narrator: It... probably shouldn't have been doable.

Standing above Gwyn on the pipeline.

 Gwyn gamely started up the slope. She had to stop and blow, but with my urging would take a few more steps, then a few more. Then I started feeling her legs tremble. I looked up, I looked down. We were about a third of the way up.  At that point I realized this was likely not the best idea I've ever had but going down seemed more risky than continuing forward. So I hopped off Gwyn. We climbed that damn thing together, a few steps at a time. But by god it was amazing when we got to the top where it finally leveled off.

I'm on foot, Gwyn is behind me, believe it or not. 

 This horse is amazing, y'all. She was willing to try because I asked. She's a trooper. Some wonderful soul made sure there was a bench at the top of the hill so I sat on the bench because MY calves were protesting the thought of being in stirrups and I let Gwyn regen with the very nice grass all around us. The bench also served as a pretty good  mounting block.

It's like looking over a cliff.... 

 I did realize though that I was running behind the time I'd told Eric I'd be done in so my other plans to do the whole pipeline were tossed and I just oriented to the most direct route back to parking. This, unfortunately, meant more pipeline climbing (but on less aggressive slopes...)  Gwyn was unwilling to trot at this point and I hadn't brought a whip. We made it back and I think she was pretty well recovered by the time we got near the trailer.

 She was a sweaty girl and worked hard. I was pretty pleased with her. The scoot boots worked well too. I don't like how bulky these particular gaiters are, so I've ordered some DIY gaiter supplies that will be more targeted to the problem area. After a consultation with a scoot boot rep, it seems the rubs I did see were typical. We'll have the winter to dial in everything and make sure that a 15 mile ride won't cause issues (compared to the 6 I did on this ride)

Biiiiiig booty

 Then on Monday I had my dressage lesson. There was a hot air balloon just taking off for a sunset/twilight flight as I was crossing the valley.

Looking east toward the Cascades. Lord Hill is just off frame to the right.

I got close enough I could see the flame igniting every so often.

 I was a little more frustrated with myself in this lesson. Pragmatically, I know I'm working to break my bad habits. And once I get it correct Gwyn moves wonderfully. She's fully capable. I just need to be more consistent. I just hate that I'm not better at it.

I need to ride from my seat more and get out of her face, like hauling on her face to slow her down. Doing that immediately causes her to giraffe. UGH. I need to practice. Though reading some other folks who have friesian crosses and seeing them work on similar concepts but at a higher level is oddly comforting. And knowing that if I can work on this now it will be better for us later makes me more determined to improve.