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| Dawn and Pepper! |
Monday, March 16, 2015
Group Lesson!
Group Lesson tomorrow night! Usually I get a little stressed in groups- all that pressure to perform and horses cantering around. There's a small adult ammy group at 6pm on Tuesday nights that I'm going to join and I'm super excited to be riding with my adult ammy friend, Dawn! She has been rehabbing her friend, Pepper, and seem to be having the same challenges getting our fabulous horses to canter for us. I am not alone!
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Stay Cool Wilbur
More often than not Wilbur is happy to accept his treats and promptly wander off to hang with friends and graze. Saturday I found him staying cool in the shelter and when he spotted me, walked right up to the gate. I grabbed his halter and decided today was a good day for a walk around the farm.
Poor Wilbur ends up getting very little of my time. I check on him at least once on the weekend, usually twice, before heading over to ride Ellie. He's such a "people" horse I know he does enjoy the visits- however short they might be. One of the trainers is lined up to start working with him in April which makes me happy- I'm looking forward to getting him back under saddle. Paul is going to start stopping out after work maybe once a week or every other on his way home. Plus there's a gal who comes after school and does odd jobs so I may pay her to groom/ hand walk him here and there. Big plans in store for this guy- he's not going to know what hit him!
But back to our Saturday walk. Short and sweet. My newfound confidence with Ellie has translated to Wilbur as well. While he doesn't bolt, buck, or rear- when something startles him, like a random girl walking out of a barn for example, he gets this really worried look on his face and then jumps a little on all fours and plants his feet, snorting like a freight train to boot. It's challenging to not have some level of anxiety when clearly your horse is anxious about all the things.
Saturday I said, "just keep on walking buddy."
And he was fine and I was fine and we had a fun time!
Poor Wilbur ends up getting very little of my time. I check on him at least once on the weekend, usually twice, before heading over to ride Ellie. He's such a "people" horse I know he does enjoy the visits- however short they might be. One of the trainers is lined up to start working with him in April which makes me happy- I'm looking forward to getting him back under saddle. Paul is going to start stopping out after work maybe once a week or every other on his way home. Plus there's a gal who comes after school and does odd jobs so I may pay her to groom/ hand walk him here and there. Big plans in store for this guy- he's not going to know what hit him!
But back to our Saturday walk. Short and sweet. My newfound confidence with Ellie has translated to Wilbur as well. While he doesn't bolt, buck, or rear- when something startles him, like a random girl walking out of a barn for example, he gets this really worried look on his face and then jumps a little on all fours and plants his feet, snorting like a freight train to boot. It's challenging to not have some level of anxiety when clearly your horse is anxious about all the things.
Saturday I said, "just keep on walking buddy."
And he was fine and I was fine and we had a fun time!
Thursday, March 12, 2015
I Smiled All Day
I realized after my last post that I hadn't provided much context outside of the fact that I was SUPER nervous about jumping.
While I don't keep a daily training journal here I did look back through some old posts and realized I actually haven't jumped Ellie since somewhere around mid-October. Why? A number of reasons really- work and work travel playing a huge role in the amount of saddle time I was getting. But beyond that we were going to battle in our flatwork on every ride. As we all know, with great flat comes great jumping. So it seemed a little counter intuitive to carry on over fences when we couldn't produce a nice collected trot or a flowing medium canter.
Since I've been home for now the third week straight I've been busy riding five times a week and noticing a huge difference in the strength of my leg. Having three private lessons a week certainly hasn't hurt us either and we've been able to achieve a lovely, collected trot. Cantering....well? It tends to be either bucking while she is trying to break to a trot or galloping at this point. She has my number in this gait but today when she bucked in order to break I spurred her on, rode like a cowgirl, and laughed about it. I take progress where I can get it.
Oh yes- and we jumped. Not a full course but 2'6" nonetheless. Actually just one trot fence (orange) and came around to the black at a canter. She was perfect and I felt great. So we called it quits there. And guess what? I'm excited to jump on Saturday!
I have been so enjoying my lessons, the progress we're making, and feeling accomplished!
While I don't keep a daily training journal here I did look back through some old posts and realized I actually haven't jumped Ellie since somewhere around mid-October. Why? A number of reasons really- work and work travel playing a huge role in the amount of saddle time I was getting. But beyond that we were going to battle in our flatwork on every ride. As we all know, with great flat comes great jumping. So it seemed a little counter intuitive to carry on over fences when we couldn't produce a nice collected trot or a flowing medium canter.
Since I've been home for now the third week straight I've been busy riding five times a week and noticing a huge difference in the strength of my leg. Having three private lessons a week certainly hasn't hurt us either and we've been able to achieve a lovely, collected trot. Cantering....well? It tends to be either bucking while she is trying to break to a trot or galloping at this point. She has my number in this gait but today when she bucked in order to break I spurred her on, rode like a cowgirl, and laughed about it. I take progress where I can get it.
Oh yes- and we jumped. Not a full course but 2'6" nonetheless. Actually just one trot fence (orange) and came around to the black at a canter. She was perfect and I felt great. So we called it quits there. And guess what? I'm excited to jump on Saturday!
I have been so enjoying my lessons, the progress we're making, and feeling accomplished!
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| Emma and Brook say they're 2'6" and I'm going to take them at their word here |
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Just a Little Jump Around- NBD
Emma keeps "suggesting" that I just pretend that Ellie is Polly and go jump a fence already.
Sometime last week I told her that I thought it would be a really good idea if we jumped a course in our Thursday lesson. And let's not piddle around. Best if we skip a warm up fence and just do a nice 2'6"/ 2'9" hunter course.
WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!?!?!?!
On the eve of my supposed jump around I'm a bit of a wreck. And by wreck I mean- every time I think about it my palms and feet start to sweat! My heart might actually be racing as I write this post (it may also be the multiple cups of coffee consumed today).
I know that there will be one of three outcomes here. I will wuss out entirely and just work on my canter (frankly a legitimate need), that I'll panic riding up to the first fence and scare myself, or I will channel my nervous energy into a lovely course and then call it done.
I'm going to work on visualizing number three and hope for the best. And look at calming photos of Wilbur who lives in his field and who I hand walk around the property. Ah- the easy life devoid of all expectations.
Sometime last week I told her that I thought it would be a really good idea if we jumped a course in our Thursday lesson. And let's not piddle around. Best if we skip a warm up fence and just do a nice 2'6"/ 2'9" hunter course.
WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!?!?!?!
On the eve of my supposed jump around I'm a bit of a wreck. And by wreck I mean- every time I think about it my palms and feet start to sweat! My heart might actually be racing as I write this post (it may also be the multiple cups of coffee consumed today).
I know that there will be one of three outcomes here. I will wuss out entirely and just work on my canter (frankly a legitimate need), that I'll panic riding up to the first fence and scare myself, or I will channel my nervous energy into a lovely course and then call it done.
I'm going to work on visualizing number three and hope for the best. And look at calming photos of Wilbur who lives in his field and who I hand walk around the property. Ah- the easy life devoid of all expectations.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Shellfish
My Dad will sometimes inadvertently type "selfish" when trying to caption his "selfies."
In this case I'm going to typo "shellfish" because we're both crabby. Ellie is not a morningperson horse.
In this case I'm going to typo "shellfish" because we're both crabby. Ellie is not a morning
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