Working on Stillness

Saturday morning I got up and decided to drive most of the way down to possible future far away barn and see Rico. I had texted my mom the night before to let her know I was coming and sort of jokingly said "add horses to my list if you want" and I was assigned all three horses.

Such a fun Saturday

Up first as always, was Rico. I love riding Rico. He's just a breath of fresh air sometimes.

Most of my day with Rico was spent brushing the caked mud off of his body. He was super gross. It took so long that I just threw the bareback pad and hackamore on him again. No point in taking the time to put on riding boots and a saddle and a bridle.

It was warm, so the ride was kept short. He let me play with the pirouettes again. I don't know why he's letting me. It's either that he thinks he has no choice, or he realized that they're easier than they were because I'm letting him do them a bit big and crappy. Once again the left was great and the right is blocked by his right hind not liking to take weight- most likely due to his new fun ringbone that I found a few months ago.

So unnecessarily dirty. Also this is Rico with no muscle, still
better than TC with no muscle!

I played with twos, and once again he offered me ones so we did a few couplets. I noticed that since I had been schooling changes on my students' horse, I was not as invisible with my aids/body as I usually am. Rico couldn't give less of a shit about what I do on him, but I like to use him to fix me up a bit. It's nice to be able to work on myself sometimes.

So I did a bunch of transitions just working on my upper body staying perfectly still throughout. It's something Tracey taught me that I assume she learned (or maybe not) from Mary Wanless because Mary does it in this video. I worked really hard at the walk canter and canter walk, only getting slightly in front of him a couple of times in the canter to walk. And not at all behind or ahead in the walk to canter, woohoo. Then we went on to the changes and my body was completely still. Yay!

If TC moves to the barn near Rico, I totally want to ride Rico twice a week (if I'm not totally exhausted from the commute, which I probably will be) so that he can stay in a bit better shape. It's been so fun to work completely on myself and just play with the fun movements. I'd love if he stayed a little fitter so I could really ride him.

So hairy

Riot was also on my list. We had fun working on transitions between what I can only describe as a makeshift collected running walk and extended running walk. I really want to get him covering more ground in the running walk and then being able to slow down without pacing.

After that he was really leaning on my left rein, as he always does, so we did some leg yields and spiraling out, then tested the bend on a figure-8. I had a lot of control over where we were going and in what bend, which is not something I could have said at the beginning of the ride.

We kept it short and sweet, because afterward, I dumped Stretch off my list (Stretch thanked me for that) and stole my mom's dog, Ruby, to go on a run!

The worst running partner

The last time I was on that particular trail was when I had a very sound baby horse over Thanksgiving. Luckily trail running with a dog hell bent on chasing squirrels is quite enough to take my mind completely off of the baby horse.

We did the shortest loop, which is 4 miles. We clocked in at just over an hour, which I thought was good since most of the time I was walking and wheezing and then stopping to take pictures. I did run probably 1.5 of the miles though, mostly on the flat ground or when it sloped slightly downward. Too steep uphill and I couldn't make it more than a few steps but too steep downhill and my joints were hurting.

Come about 3 miles in and Ruby was super done, she laid down in the grass to take a nap. Uh no. She was a sport getting back though. That's totally going to me when I can get back to running. Officially signed up for the 5k yesterday so the money is paid and it's happening.

Check out my rescue baby friend! She's two and has a really
nice shoulder if you ask me... Once as she can be handled, I want
to see how she moves ;)

That night I bribed L with a ride (so my entire weekend of driving wasn't entirely boring) and we headed up north to get delicious Thai food with Nicole, Peony, and Andy!

So much fun, we need to do these things more often.

Trail Running

One of my main realizations this past year is how important fitness is to my riding. Not because I physically need to be super fit to ride. I mean, I did when I was riding Rico, he's an exhausting ride physically. But TC is young and not a very physical ride, so I didn't get worn out riding him in the same way that I did riding Rico. The rides were shorter (30-40 minutes versus 60+) and I didn't have to do as much (TC is much straighter, not as lazy, and most importantly- I didn't sit his trot).

Love it up here

So when I had to quit crossfit and the regular gym and riding became my only form of fitness, I thought it'd be fine for a bit. Eventually after my wrist was fixed, I could start up crossfit again, probably around the same time as when TC was further along and I was starting to sit his trot.

But when TC moved and my confidence was challenged when he didn't settle in well, I started having problems with it for the first time since I was a teenager. I'm not the world's most bold rider, I'm careful what I get on and that list of horses has been getting smaller over time. But I never had this kind of frozen-in-the-tack fear in my adult life. And I was so confused about it! Sure, TC was being a brat, there were things he was doing that, while I wouldn't classify them as dangerous in the least, were unnerving. But I was reacting to them as if he was on the brink of flipping over backwards all the time.

I realized this early on, but felt constrained. I didn't have much time to work out, work was kicking my ass, my apartment gym isn't well stocked, my wrist was (still is) injured, and I hate running. And you know, laziness and excuses.

It was this catch 22, where I'd be so emotionally exhausted (never physically) from dealing with TC that I'd get home and just want to sit down and relax rather than go to the gym, when the gym would have helped me reduce how much TC managed to unnerve me.

Would kinda love to live in one of those houses!

Amidst all my poor luck with TC's injury came a chance where I had extra time in my schedule and wasn't as drained on a regular basis. And I've been using it to the best of my ability so that my confidence won't be a problem this summer on a nutty rehab baby.

First, I signed up for a 5k (it's an awesome one). I'm fairly capable of doing a 5k even without working out that much, there's no penalty for crawling or crying walking your way through it.

Second, I invited my super fit running friend (we're talking half marathons in the mountains, she's amazing) to come with me. She knows I'm slow and doesn't care, she's just really supportive because she's awesome. But the idea of wheezing jogging alongside her while she doesn't break a sweat and I feel like I'm going to die is pretty motivating. The more I run now, the less horrifically embarrassing it will be.

This is as far as I've been going recently- 2.5 miles or so

So I've been running. I primarily trail run right now (when it's not raining), which is good and bad. It's good because I LOVE the trails behind my house for several reasons. First, you get way up in the air and can see soooo far. I love stopping at the top and trying to figure out what I'm seeing and taking a lot of the same picture of the valley. Second, almost no one is out there, I see people who live right near the place walking with their kids sometimes, and every now and then people are up at the vista point, but especially now that it's been muddy (destroying my running shoes, woops), there's no one out there.

The downside is that the length I can run is less because I'm basically running up a steep hill the whole time. Luckily I found a flat portion along the ridge of a trail and ran a lot more the last couple times I ran it. But I'm not really working on running for long periods of time (except that I do run all the way back down the hill ~ 1 mile, but that's gravity-assisted), nor am I working on running very fast.

Should have taken this in landscape mode but
just so tired

So that's where the gym comes in. I mostly used the elliptical, then would do the three exercises I can do without hurting my wrist and using the limited equipment. Those exercises are: kettle bell snatch/thrusters, kettle bell swings, and weighted lunges with dumbbells. I have more exercises, but apparently they removed the 15 and 20lb dumbbells, so I'm stuck using the 10s (does nothing) and the 25s (can only get those to my shoulders).

Instead of the elliptical, lately I've been using the treadmill, making myself do sprints (my sprint is probably a regular running pace at this point lol) and run for longer distances.

Once I'm fitter, I have some longer runs I'll be doing, including mapping out a 5k around my neighborhood to do closer to the race. The race involves obstacles, so ideally I want to have a solid month of running 5+ miles in my neighborhood and 3+ miles in the hills before going. I'm at 2.5 miles on the trail (but only running probably 1.5 miles of it) and this week I'm going to probably try 2-3 miles on flat ground and see where my fitness level is. Obviously this just assumes that it won't be raining all winter, so I may be doing this on the treadmill.

So pretty

I've been at it for a little over 2 weeks now and I'm already feeling better. That's the nice part I think about having a body that was so fit for so long, it doesn't take much for me to get back into it. I wasn't as out of breath on my client's horse the other day, despite riding maybe twice in the previous two weeks. My back is feeling better due to the kettle bell swings. I've already increased the weight on all my exercises by about 10lbs or so.

I'm still looking forward to quitting running starting crossfit again, but I still need some time to get my wrist fixed. Appointment with an orthopedic surgeon is scheduled for early March. I hope that if I do need surgery, that happens soon after that appointment or TC may be off to training while I recover, and that would be frustrating.

If only I was using my extra time for what I REALLY need to
be doing...

Unlocked

Job interview went well! It's an interesting position, not one that you'd think of when you think of my degree (experimental/research psychology), but it definitely seems like a really cool place to work! It's in PR/Marketing and I would be doing "data correlations" (so like data analysis using zero order correlations?) for various clients hiring the company to do PR for them. I am primarily looking into more researchy positions rather than JUST the data, but the data part is my favorite part! So that could work, plus let me tell you, zero order correlations are super easy, they'll be getting a lot more interesting things! But I have no experience in PR or marketing soooo we'll see what they think. I emailed them to thank them today so that should get me extra points. I've also applied to maybe 15 positions since then so now we just wait and see (and apply to more positions!).

Today, after crossfit murdered my wrists with some overhead squats, I headed out to the barn to see little TC. I've been taking it easy on him all this week, mostly because of the horse show and my questionable mood. I basically just wanted to have fun with him so that I don't risk transferring my (now only occasional, yay) crappy feelings to him. So he's been getting extra pony cuddles, extra easy work, and just plain having fun.

Who loves progress pictures? Our second ride ever in January

Same day

We started at the trot and I worked on my position a bit while he stared at a blanket on the fence much of the time in warm up. I keep getting way way too far forward with my shoulders because he's so unpredictable with his balance and sometimes I get left behind. Well, a slightly closed hip angle is no excuse for leaning forward, looking down, and piano-ing my hands! I miss taking lessons and not sitting at a computer most of the day. 

Back at the walk, we really drilled the leg yields. He's getting much better, especially when I have a whip! I need to make sure not to hit him too hard, Rico needed a good wolap with the whip and I tend to over-whip horses sometimes (that sounds so mean! But it's just muscle memory). The one time I did smack him a bit more than he deserved though, he just shuffled sideways a bit faster and I prasied him and he was much better after so it doesn't help that my behavior is being reinforced. I need to ride one of my clients' mares with a whip a few times. She tried to launch me when I smacked her once. Good. 

First ride in the field (I think in February some time)

Same day

Same day

We tried a few leg yields at the trot but he's really not ready for them just yet. Good to know, he just kind of went faster and got confused, he wasn't upset at all, which made me glad that I could push him a bit harder and not break his confidence. Definitely couldn't have done that a month ago. 

Back to the trot, he was super super forward and wanting to canter, so I let him. 

And let me just say: DAMN.

Suddenly, over the course of like, two days since I last rode him, the horse has started to unlock his back and neck while cantering. For the first time ever, we had some sort of neck oscillation. The canter was MUCH less lateral and much more rocking horse than washing machine. He was better balanced than he had been in the corners and happily half halted (first half halt ever at the canter!) before the corner came. 

With the unlocking of his neck/back, the true quality of his canter is really starting to show. I KNEW it was in there. I always said "well his trot is nice, he'll make an okay third level horse for an ammy, his canter isn't good enough to go further" and I really believed that. 

Maybe in March? I'm not good with keeping track of these

Same day

BUT a few weeks ago, my mom (who knows a fair amount about dressage just by listening to all my lessons as a kid!) pointed out "but Megan, isn't his walk good? Doesn't that mean his canter should be good too?" and that is when I really started to believe that deep inside this horse is a good canter that was being stifled due to tension and lack of topline. Usually the walk and the canter are connected like that. So the other day, before the show, when I really let him gallop at the neighbor's, I could feel him start to change a bit. And now I'm feeling it in the small ring! 

Ahhh yes, I can just feel the stretchy fabric of my shadbelly all around me now! Or maybe he should learn to leg yield at the trot first... But damn, today is the first day that the fog truly cleared and I could actually see where this horse could really go. 

Back at the trot, we drilled the stretchy circle. He stretched better forward and downward than he did during our last ride, and was much more consistent! Love it. He tries so hard. Now that he knows what I want him to do, he basically just works on it on his own, I don't have to do much, just say "good boy!" when he gets it right and ignore him when he doesn't. He's a freakishly easy horse to work with. 

I ride again Sunday, and if I don't have to go into work, I'll be riding Monday afternoon too! 

First show (early April)

Same day, even though he was tense in these, he is SO much
better than the other pictures!

In other news, I've started running (for realsies) again. I'm mostly doing about 30 minutes of running, which at this time is an embarrassing 2.5 miles, about 3x per week. But my future sister-in-law offered to do a 5k with me, as long as it involved running at a 12 min mile pace and a fair amount of wine afterward. I thought that would be great! So we're looking into the Dionysus runs at local wineries and maybe some color/mud runs too. Even my intense runner best friend offered to jog quietly with us at a 12 min pace and talk at us (since SIL and I will be heaving and not talking haha) while we ran and join us for wine after. Fun!

For those of you who hate running, I highly recommend the (paid, but not too much) app: Zombies, Run! It keeps track of all your stats while also making scary zombie noises at you to get you to run faster. There's also a nice storyline about fighting the zombies and you end up "gathering supplies" as you run and then can build up the base. They have the regular app (which I use now) and the couch to 5k app (which I used a couple years ago), both are excellent. I always said that I would never run if I didn't have something terrifying chasing me, so there you go. It's entertaining and gives me incentive to run so there ya go!