I was supposed to have a lesson on Sunday but it was coming down pretty hard in San Diego and I used that as an excuse to cancel so I could spend a day relaxing. Plus, while I’m very confident in my driving skills and the intimidation factor of my big car, with my hands and eyes not working 100%, I didn’t want to put my trust in the other drivers on the road for over 160 wet miles. Not that my Sunday was totally uneventful. I had to muscle Valeria and Catalina into a barn stall because they were wet and shaking when I went out to check on them. They have a 12’x24’ shade on their outdoor stall and chose to not stand under it. I can’t even get mad at Catalina because she’s just following her mom’s stupid lead. Lol. I only wish I had gotten pictures of C looking like a drowned rat. It was adorably pathetic.

He wants to cuddle with them so badly.
My view all last week.
It took all my will power to do anything on Monday. I woke up with a lot of pain in my hands, despite being on a prescribed anti-inflammatory. Anti-inflammatories seem like a bunch of bullshit to me. They don’t seem to do anything other than make it worst (edit: this is exactly what my research has found! Justice!). My back was hurting in the same place it was when I hurt it back in January, thank you anti-inflammatories! Also, my feet felt a lot like my hands, stiff and swollen and achy. To top it off I had a headache that developed while sitting in traffic. Before this sounds like I’m just bitching and complaining, I was very much looking forward to seeing Aria. She was definitely my ‘all this will totally be worth it’ motivation. Our last lesson was so great I couldn’t wait to ride her even though I felt like I was moving through molasses to get anything done.
There was a lot going on when I got to the barn. I changed into my riding clothes and found out that my lesson wasn’t until 5:30pm and it was 4:40pm. Yes! I’d go take a nap. Haha, yeah right…P asked me to get a pony named Cracker Jack for her next lesson. I made it all the way out to the ponies before I realized I didn’t know which one was Cracker Jack. I knew he was a gelding. I thought he might be a red or brown pony but the only ponies in that color I recognized as Poptart and Tabasco. I stood there for a moment knowing if I just spun my rolodex for a few seconds I’d remember which pony was Crack Jack.
Nope! I trudged back to the lesson arena and asked which pony I was looking for. After snagging Cracker Jack the buckskin pony, I brought him in to the arena to get groomed and saddled. As I passed off his lead rope I was given two sets of reins with a request to return Hashbrown and Tatertot to their pen. I haven’t seen the fjords in a while so I was more than happy to trek them to their turnout. Plus Smallfry came up to great me as well. It was a potato reunion!

Is this as great as I thought it was?
I used to hate lunging but now that I have a purpose behind why I’m lunging, not just to burn off energy, I actually spend a good amount of time getting Aria supple for a ride. She was playful but P told me to ignore that because lately she had been having fun on the lunge line but it wasn’t transferring to her rides. That would prove 100% true for this ride. I got on and flexed her. I’m not sure what has changed her but she didn’t screw around during flexing like she’s prone to doing.
We walked a little on and off the contact. I had her changing between shoulder in/out and then I asked for some turn on the forehands which were not great compared to our normal efforts. But her leg yields were nice and kept forward movement which has been really difficult for us to accomplish together. I picked up a trot on her good side and we worked on our geometry a little. Making a circle will forever be our issue until I can figure out what I’m doing wrong. My plan this weekend is to really focus on riding a circle every step. I think I’m not really riding when we’re along a fence line and it shows when we pull out towards the centerline. Maybe some 20 meter circles with X as the center would help so that we only touch the fence line at E and B?

I mean…I’m not saying I wouldn’t want that brand on my fancy Andalusian stallion…
We were on the right lead, passing C and instead of continuing down the long side Aria cut diagonally M to K. My fault for not navigating, so we tried it again. Sure enough in the corner between C and M she headed for X. I nudged her to the rail and got a very wobbly line. Apparently P has been schooling the counter canter and Aria was anticipating crossing from M to K to pick up a counter canter from K and then at F shooting over to H, making one big figure 8. So then I spent a few laps keeping her on the rail before giving her a walk break (not because she needed it, but let’s pretend she did).
I picked up the trot going left with the goal of getting her flexed and working well to work on some left lead cantering because I really suck going left. We suck together at it, so at least we struggle together. It wasn’t meant to be though. The longer I worked on circles the more she would bulge. P kept telling me ‘you have to prep ahead of time. When you’re at K you need to be thinking about A’ to which I was internally saying ‘but I am! …Or I think I am.’ It got uglier and uglier every time, even with breaks, because my energy levels were totally gone.

Me: This should be our speed. Aria: Okay.
Despite the end not going as planned, she did really well, I enjoyed every moment of that ride, and I think she did too. I’m hoping this fatigue will eventually end but I don’t think that will happen until the reason for the mystery pain in my hands is resolved. Until then, maybe some vitamin B supplements are in order? For now I’ll just coast on the high I’m getting from these awesome rides. 🙂
The weather this weekend really derailed a lot! I’m glad you were able to still lesson though!
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I really should have sucked it up and gone on Sunday. I would be regretting less today. Lol
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The lesson sounded like it was a definite improvement though. Don’t you love how they freaking anticipate? I can’t ask Scarlet for a simple change figure eight and actually have him wait for the cue. He will just do it himself.
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Yeah. When Aria starts anticipating I throw in halts and back ups. She’s not far enough along to throw quick changes to direction but eventually that will be part of the anti-anticipation method 🙂
Also, I really want to start ride her in straight lines along the rail to stop the major corner cutting she’s currently doing at the canter (obviously only with me, my trainer would never put up with that shit lol).
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Horses know exactly how far they can go with each of us don’t they? XD
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It continues (still) (bc I’m still not doing it every time) (which is ridiculous bc when will I learn?!?) to amaze me that with my green horse I need to guide him to my desired line of travel *every stride*. Bc…. He will just leave the rail. Or go crooked. Or weave and wobble hither and yon. Or decide the exit stage left (always left. Always. Unless it’s right. Idk). Like. We get so so so used to horses that like…. DONT bump into walls that…. At least for myself, I kinda forget that some of that is a learned skill. And the greener they are, the farther in advance we need to be planning that line of travel. Apparently. (So says the girl who had a judge write “Practice” on the accuracy and geometry portion of a recent test lol). Good luck!
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Omg yes! I just told P that it’s so hard to go from an automatic to a manual. Riding every step and remembering to ride every step is so difficult. I personally didn’t know that a green horse wouldn’t just go in a marginally straight line in the direction you last pointed it in.
And yes, weave and wobble higher and yon pretty much hits the nail on the head.
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