Work is pretty crazy right now. Not bad crazy, but more like “I’ve been in meetings for five hours and I still have 3 items that need to be done by EOD” kind of week. Haven’t been out to the barn much, but am planning on going tonight. I’m also in the middle of my 1st week of doing the South Beach diet, which is essentially kicking all carbs and sugars. One more week and then I get to re-introduce…
Gimmicks. I hate gimmicks. Specifically, training gadgets to get a horse’s head down. I hate it because I feel like I lived it, although no one would have ever accused me of rollkur or tying my horse’s head in the stall or anything like that. German martingale? Used it. Draw reins? Used them. Different bits? Oh sure. I never abused my horse, but I am guilty as charged for using training gadgets improperly before I was taught properly to ride leg to…
Had a good lesson last night. I rode Winston again, the small but angry OTTB. My trainer gave me some more insight to his extreme head tossing and aversion to contact, so we worked on him moving just off my leg and keeping my hands low and quiet. Once he trusts his rider to not rip his face off, he actually settles down quite nicely for cross rails and 2′ type stuff. I had an enjoyable ride, and want to…
My blog got severely hacked on Friday night, so it’s been pretty interesting around here. I had to delete a ton of plugins and stuff, and it’s not 100% up to snuff yet. There’s no security risk for any visitors though, so don’t worry about that. I’ve also installed a bunch of security stuff to WordPress, which means it shouldn’t be happening again. Ah, the life and fun times of a web designer. Now today’s challenge might as well be…
Rode a new school horse at the barn last night. He was owned by one of our riders for several years, but that rider decided to lease a nicer jumper and couldn’t have both… so Winston, a ~6 y/o OTTB is owned by my trainer now. He was actually very good for me to ride, because he is completely opposite Simon. Very behind my leg, short strided, and upsidown. Acts like he’s never been ridden leg to hand, and severe…
Though I’m not a subscriber to Sidelines (I might get a subscription though!), I love their Social Media presence, blogs and Facebook page. Their photo contests are fun, and since I used to take a lot of photos at horse shows, I enter whenever I can. This past contest finally paid off! I entered a photo of my former trainer’s Mom, Lydia (who also braided for us), and my trainer’s horse, Artie. It’s a sweet candid moment, and made even more…
Had a nice lesson on Adora last night. Thanks everyone for the kind comments yesterday – they made me feel better. I absolutely can learn a lot from every horse – even a schoolmaster like her. It took me a bit to get used to her bigger jump and longer stride, but when I made myself sit up (one of my really bad habits is leaning forward) things went much better. Hoping to ride another new school horse on Wednesday….
Productive weekends have not been my strong suit lately. For whatever reason, I’m overcome with the need to cocoon myself in my house and have lots of me time. Usually I need quiet/me time for a few days out of the month, but lately I can’t stop craving it. Not sure what’s up – maybe just the winter blues. On Saturday I made it out to the barn to see Simon and have a make-up lesson from Monday. I rode…