Back in the saddle!

I told Eric yesterday that I wanted to ride. He was home today because he's been taking every friday off to help give me a break adjusting to 2 kids at home. I had basically reached all regular indicators of healing after birth so I was ready to get back in the saddle, even if it was brief. My goal for May was to at least sit in the saddle and I definitely got that today!

Hazel has been napping somewhat consistently in the afternoon and for a long length so I was hoping that would continue today. It didn't but I didn't let it deter me! I got her asleep, put her down, and went to get my boots and half chaps on. I was already wearing my riding tights!

Gwyn was excited to see me. I brought both her and Saffron to the back pasture to minimize behavior issues and separation anxiety.

Hazel apparently woke up not long after I left. Putting her down can be a bit of a crapshoot, so Eric brought her out so I could breastfeed again. I sat on the hay feeding her in the barn while Eric helped Kaylee put on boots, because she suddenly wanted to ride. Gwyn got a good lesson in standing patiently in the cross ties.

Then I lunged.

She got away from me almost immediately and went wild. Hence the trailing lunge line. 

But damn, look at that trot! All four feet are suspended!

Once I caught her we did a lot of groundwork that I learned from Dani and Gwyn's brain fell back into place. We did lots of changes of direction and I made sure to control her feet. 

Kaylee had nice pats for Gwyn.

And then she rode!  0.27 miles

And then it was my turn! 

Lots of smiles!  We didn't do much, just walk/trot but I did 0.68 miles before deciding to be done. We'll ease back into things and get both of our fitnesses up. I'm much lighter than I was, which is awesome but definitely out of riding shape and not off the blood thinners yet. But I'll get there and it will be awesome when I do. 

Gwyn has frosty ear tips! They're blonde!

She got decently sweaty so I hosed her off and when I put them back out in the pasture, she had a good roll in the grass. 

Then I got dinner for everyone (no hay while they're on pasture)

It was a great evening! And Eric did wonderfully managing Hazel. When I came in, sweaty and covered in dirt, I told him I wanted him to go for a run. And every time I went riding, I wanted him to have time to go out and do something too. He looked surprised, but really grateful. I think we both deserve this time for ourselves.

Goal Revisiting: April

To recap:

April
Avoid going into labor during Distance Derby dinner
Introduce new baby to Gwyn

I did not go into labor during the DD dinner. In fact, I ended up missing it since we were dropping my mom off at the airport at the time. Alas. I did meet up with Heather (DD organizer) later to collect what I would have gotten at the dinner. In fact, I wasn't even close to labor, I ended up induced 8 days later. 

I did introduce the new baby to Gwyn in April! She was born on the 25th and I had a couple days left of the month to achieve the goal, lol

April 27, 2016

For this month, a reminder:

I think this is reasonable. I'm already pretty healed up and I think I could manage a short ride while Hazel naps if Eric is home to manage Kaylee. 

May
At least sit on Gwyn
Alt goal- teach second trick to Gwyn/teach to highline in prep for camping

0.11 miles for Kaylee and 0.15 miles for me!

Kaylee was in her princess gown and helped me groom.  It was a gorgeous day in the high 60s, felt like 70s F. With all the sun my pasture is finally drying up and the mud is going away!

Saffron was hanging out with us the whole time too

Kaylee chose to ride first. Gwyn was perfect. I haven't done anything with her (bad bad me!) since the beginning of February and she was calm as could be despite the garbage truck coming to empty the dumpster and some deer running in the woods!  She's become so levelheaded! That or she was super sleepy in the sun, LOL

We are always safe!

Hugs for a good girl

I rode around by myself a bit then hopped off when the garbage truck came by. No sense being too dangerous given my due date is in 2 days. When I went to get back on, Kaylee INSISTED that she lead Gwyn around while I rode.  It was adorable.

It was also really good practice to follow a random path by a nearly 4 year old around the arena at a very slow pace. And by golly, when Kaylee started running, Gwyn picked up the pace to keep up with her! Good girl!

Having a snuggle with Saffron while my mom looks on.

When I first got on Gwyn, she twisted around to look at me, like "Mom? Really? We get to do this? FINALLY!!!"   I think she missed it.

Soon enough, Goober, we'll be back riding more.

39 weeks 5 days pregnant with my princesses! Kaylee found some feathers from an unfortunate victim. But it's a pretty cool collection of feathers from a bird of prey!

So funny story. I told my Mom yesterday that I was going to ride today. She immediately was worried.  "What if Gwyn bucks you off!?"

"Omg, MOM. She will not do that."
Skip to today and we're standing around while my Mom took these pictures and suddenly she goes, "Oh my goodness, Amy, she's falling asleep!"
"And you were worried she was going to buck me off."
Pfft. I know my horse. And I'm REALLY going to enjoy exasperating my doctors when they ask if I've ridden and I'm honest. HAHAHAHAH!

February 3 2016 4.24 miles

It was too nice of a day. I couldn't resist!  Especially for February. So Gwyn and I went to the Polly Ann Trail while the kiddo was in school.

Happy Pony

Happy Me!

We made it all the way to town! 

Goals for 2016 by Month

The Distance Derby has monthly events and for March, the participants were challenged to come up with non-distance related goals for each month of the rest of the year that involved your horse.

I think that was an excellent idea and took it to heart. We only had to do one goal each month, but I do have some back up and multiple goals, because goals! Part of my goals involve getting back into shape after having the baby for both Gwyn and myself. Ideally, as Hazel gets older I'll be able to condition more and more. I'm also trying to keep in mind Eric's time as well, since he'll be primarily responsible for childcare while I ride. 

The tricks that I mention are things I can do while babywearing Hazel or while she naps. I plan to have a portable crib that I'll bring out to the barn to leave her to chill while I do things with Gwyn. They're also weather dependent. I.E. I'm less likely to ride when it's cold, or want to spend time outside while it's cold with Hazel. 

March
Teach Gwyn one trick! TBD

April
Avoid going into labor during Distance Derby dinner
Introduce new baby to Gwyn

May
At least sit on Gwyn
Alt goal- teach second trick to Gwyn/teach to highline in prep for camping

June
First post partum trail ride!

July
Ride once a week

August
Endurance ride at Kensington, novice 15 mile
Ride twice a week

September
Ride three times a week
Go to a hunter pace or local dressage show

October
LD endurance ride at silver Creek
Polly Ann trail fall ride

November
Ride three times a week

December
Ride on new year's Eve
Teach third trick to Gwyn

Training Fail

I had a complete and utter brain fart when it comes to training Gwyn. Thankfully things were not bad, though they could have been catastrophic.

When you introduce new things to horses you want to make sure you break it down into component pieces. As an example, you don't hook a horse up to a cart without making sure they're familiar with all of the little pieces (harness, something moving behind them, ground driving, pulling weight, etc)

In my excitement about having both snow and my skijoring harness, I figured I'd introduce Gwyn to weight.

I neglected to introduce her to something sliding across the snow when she moved.

Ah.

Taking a nap in the snow. This has all since melted.

Looking good! We made it through winter fat and no ribs! Thank you LOTS of hay!

Anyway, I put the harness on her, I wasn't even planning to ground drive her, just lead her around the pasture with a slight amount of weight in Kaylee's sled and the sled hooked up to the lines of the harness.

We took maybe too steps and my mistake kicked me in the ass. She absolutely flipped out. And it's definitely my fault. She went flying up the hill, the sled flapping behind her, then down the hill and into the front pasture.

Saffron and I kind of looked at each other like... "Uh... maybe we should go after her..."

The small amount of weight I had used (my grooming box) was remarkably undumped, a testament to how quickly she bolted. I trudged through the snow, Saffron at my side, to find the sled in two pieces, and thankfully no longer hooked up to Gwyn. If I had attached it differently, it might not have broken the way it did. 

I left the sled and approached Gwyn and apologized. She was snorty but calm. The harness was still on her. I led her over to the broken sled and let her sniff. I took the harness off and did what I should have done first. I put the harness in the sled and pulled it beside myself while leading Gwyn back to the barn.

She calmed down immediately, gave it a side eye, but didn't do much more to be scared.

To further reduce the damage, I piled hay on top of the sled and led her with the sled into the arena. She was eating off of it as we walked. I think the damage was reduced...

We walked around the arena for a while and then, to salvage some of the time I had, I did some ground work to get her focused on me in the 'scary' side of the arena. 

So, thankfully the nightmares that flashed through my head as I watched her race up the hill did not come to pass. It's salvageable.

And there are no more sleds for sale and the snow is gone. We'll work on dragging a 2x4 board instead. And we'll do it properly this time.