In His Natural Environment

Friday morning, I headed out to see TC. Yep, morning!

I ended up taking the day off on Friday for a few reasons. One, I had stopped accruing vacation time, which surprised me. At first I was like "meh horse so expensive, can't afford to go anywhere," but then I realized that with my crazy driving schedule, I should take days off when they help me reduce my driving. Taking the day off actually saved me two hours in the car.

Want cookies

Thursday was my dad's birthday so we were all (minus brother who was on a work trip) getting together on Friday night for dinner, then had family coming in from Michigan for Saturday.

This meant that if I wanted to see TC (I did) and wanted to make it to dinner on time, I had to get up SUPER early to start work early, hope beyond hope that nothing was assigned that day that had to be done that day so I didn't get delayed, frantically drive in traffic out to TC, then turn around and drive straight down to the south bay from the rehab place in traffic.

Or. Or... I could just take the day off. And go see TC in the morning, come home and pack everything up, eat lunch at home, relax with my cat a bit, and then head down early for dinner to avoid traffic. That sounds a lot less stressful!

He's so narrow still

Coincidentally, on Wednesday I got a text asking if I could skip my visit on Friday because the owners of the facility wanted to head out early. I told them that I could come in the morning or on Thursday afternoon (was sick, sick of being an adult that is) and they asked whether I wanted to come watch TC swim. UM YES PLEASE I WANT TO SEE IT!

I got there in the morning after a leisurely drive (this weekend was so amazing). TC smelled really great, so it was clear that he'd had a bath recently. He's basically all shed out and is looking really good. Quite strong, although his topline isn't very impressive because he's simply not using those muscles.

LOL fuck you TC, we'll wait until your vet check
to look at that bump

I gave him carrots and hung out with him for about twenty minutes, and then the guys came to get him to swim. It was fun talking to them while they haltered him and picked his feet. The main guy is really enthusiastic about TC, though speaks only a little english. I said that I heard TC liked swimming and he said "yes he charges into the pool, very fast" and then I told him about going out on cross country, saying we had a pond that we played in once and he gestured like pawing and said "I bet he did this, he loves water" and then he said TC was very strong. He kind of said it in a way where he was impressed yet kind of scared. I say it the same way.

And we got to see that strength come out as my baby horse freaked the fuck out about nothing walking over to get his hose down. They hose the horses down before letting them swim, I think mostly just to get them used to the water so it isn't such a shock.

OMG THINGS ON THE LEFT

OH WAIT NO MISTAKE

OMG THINGS ON THE RIGHT
(look how much he can bend his hocks!)

Here's some video of TC going in, he does seem quite excited. I think if he were a kid he'd have done a cannon ball.

He swims about 5-6 laps at this point, which is a LOT, he came out of the pool quite amped.

Then after swimming he goes in the walker for a while. The guys were telling me that he's normally calmer, which made me feel better and worse at the same time. Better because phew I'm glad he's not THIS crazy all the time, since if that was the case, it'd be a miracle that he didn't kill himself. But worse because ugh he definitely acts up more around me. I'm really not sure why.

Stress these days is piling up so I've been crying about everything (I cried because my photographer friend offered to come take pictures of TC and I when he comes back- oh and I'm getting teary right now writing about that lol cortisol, it does a body good). Obviously after that I had a good childish cry session on the way out thinking that I just bring the worst out in this horse.

But the reality is that I take things too personally, it was also windy so that could have contributed to it. And he's an easily distracted horse and I'm not normally there when he swims/walks and he probably sees me as a carrot machine. I mean if a vending machine full of cheesecake was bustling around the office telling me I was cute, I probably wouldn't do my job very well either.

Excuse me walker, I would like to walk faster

okay he shouldn't be cantering but look at how slow
he can canter now!

 After the walker there was one other big spook where he ran sideways but once as he was back in his stall, he was fine. I slowly gave him the rest of the carrots doing carrot stretches and just generally having him be a little more polite about things. This horse is freakishy flexible. He can now reach on both sides back past his flank. Eventually he will be able to literally put his own head up his ass, this fall he could only figuratively do that. Progress, tangible progress.

He's such a sweet fun horse. I left feeling a bit split about him. I was thinking when he was spooking and being over-reactive that I just need to sell him- he isn't the horse I bought and that's okay. It's not admitting defeat, it's a fact that we're probably not a match. I don't like unpredictable horses, and he's a big strong guy with a serious flight mechanism. But then back in his stall he's so sweet and I go back to the amazing rides over thanksgiving when we were having so many problems and all it took was being at the right barn with the right trainer.

Ugh he is so good at this move, I'm going to have to start over
with teaching him to reach downward with his neck again

And this weekend more plans were solidified to guarantee that I can keep him at the right barn with the right trainer long term. And I reminded myself that I once had a much scarier horse who reared and spun and launched me into arena fences. That horse took me to Grand Prix with the right trainer, the right barn, and a lot of hard work. 

Five Years Old

As of yesterday (April 10th), TC is FIVE years old!

It's bittersweet, really. I'm so glad that he is going to grow a brain now, this is the year they get brains, right? But it's also a reminder that he was injured as a four year old. That he still has so much to prove to make all that we're going through worth it. That we still have so long to go before he's the horse I know he can be.

I wish I had known him when he was this little and cute!

He's a little scary looking IMO

He grew up to be only slightly less awkward than this

And it was a reminder that I've now owned TC for seven months. Four of which, over half the time that I've owned him, he has been injured and unrideable. I got three precious months of riding my own horse (and two of those months were terrible at the new barn) before I was paying for vet bills and rehab. A new record!

But I try to stay positive. He'll come back and we'll be at the barn I want to be at anyway. We'll be riding with the two trainers I KNOW can make a massive difference both in our relationship and our capabilities together. I've got a full plan for groundwork, bombproofing, trail riding, and dressage, so that we don't run into the problems we had this fall. This whole winter and spring of rehab has been amazing for his mind and level of experience. I'm so proud of how he is handling everything that he has been presented with.

Sundays I can't go visit him, so we celebrated on Friday.

Uh, thanks.

I got there and the first thing I saw was his bare ass legs. Also two standing wraps and two track wraps were covered in shavings, he was even standing on one set. Nice.

So I looked at his leg and it looks GREAT, slightly filled in as it will always be, but only Megan the Obsessive (who is here to stay apparently, she convinced me to clean my closets out the other day) would notice it. I rewrapped his wraps and was putting them back on when a worker walked by and said "he took them off already?!" so apparently this happens regularly. I assured him that I would put them back on and he seemed relieved.

He got an apple for his birthday. I told him that if this vet bill was his last vet bill other than routine stuff, he could have whatever he wants for his next birthday. I think he'd just request more carrots, which is fine. I'll buy him two tons of carrots if he never makes me write "TC again" in the subject line of an email to my damn vet.

I always seem to make my horses' grain into a "cake" and put their age on it in carrots or cookies. Unfortunately I don't feed TC grain so he got his carrots lined up in a 5 on his hay. He was NOT amused by me laying out carrots and taking a picture of them before letting him have them.

Carrot cake?

He's beginning to really love his grooming time. Not sure if that's because he has no dirt or sides to his stall (he basically lives in a padded clean room) to rub himself on, or whether he's just learning to love being brushed. He was much more polite about grooming this week too- not threatening to smush me into the wall to get scratches- which was nice.

He also learned a valuable lesson. TMI ahead, but you guys are all equestrians. Whenever he gets groomed, he drops, which is fine. Although it occurred to me that he's never had his sheath cleaned so I figured there was a bean in there. I've been trying to get it for a while and he always picks up his foot like he wants to kick me. This time he took a swing and got TOLD. After that he was totally fine and didn't try kicking at me again. A really nice reminder of why I love this horse- he's sensitive but he's not neurotic.

Can only get decent pictures when he's going
through my shit

or eating, he's good at standing still while eating

The rest of the time there was just normal. We hung out, then I talked to the owners. We have a date for the ultrasound! April 26th! That means two more visits and then we have the ultrasound. And after that ultrasound, probably about four or five more visits until he's home. We're in the single digits here, it's almost over.

Hey this was a boring post. I'm excited to read all about what you guys did this weekend, so many people had shows and clinics! I promise I'll be entertaining later when I actually have a horse to ride. Just a few more weeks until "oh my god my horse is crazy I hate baby horses why do I drive so much someone please save me," buckle up.

A Closer Look: Prix St George

The Prix St George is by far my favorite test. It gives you a taste of the fun movements like stringing pirouettes into a pattern and riding tempis with a real count (assuming you skipped 4-3, which is a reasonable decision and I commend you for it) and riding a zig zag.

Our last PSG

But it's pretty family friendly for an FEI test, as it should be, since it's the first one.

Starting at the FEI levels, there is no longer a purpose of the level. You made it. You're here. Your horse is collected enough, connected enough, straight enough. You've won dressage.

Ahaha I'm just kidding.

But seriously, no purpose, but that's not to say that a PSG horse could prance into a GP test with the same extensions and collection and straightness and get the same scores. What it does mean is that we can jump right into what comes up at this test! Aren't you glad that we only have ONE test to go over this post? Writing about Fourth level was a doozy.

Best part of this jacket = tails flying behind you

Prix St George

We start out with a nice medium as we always do, followed by a very kind trot pattern for an FEI test. Shoulder-in down the long side, a volte, to a half pass that ends on centerline. Honestly, the volte is the hardest thing about this if you've been doing okay on your lateral work (you should be, you've been doing these movements since Second and Third, right...?). A volte is an 8 meter circle so it's quite small for some horses. Depending on your horse, this might be fine or this might be a death sentence for your half pass afterward when your horse strikes off the rail a little dizzy.

You do a very normal walk pattern, a couple of walk pirouettes in the judge's lap, an extended walk, then a canter transition. For added difficulty, there is no collected walk after your extended walk. Obviously you don't just pick up the canter from the extended walk with your nice long reins. But it adds difficulty as you don't have very much time to prepare within the collected walk. Good thing that transition happens in the corner so you have a nice short side to realize that your reins needed to be 2 feet shorter before getting to your first pattern.

Such kind trot work

The first canter pattern is a counter change of hand, exactly like the 4-3 pattern with two changes. One on centerline and one on the rail. This movement is only difficult if you can't control the steepness of the half pass. Too steep and you get to the centerline too fast and have to worry about waiting. Too shallow and you are going to have to switch leads and dart back to the rail quickly. But if you have clean changes (obviously you do by now) and a rideable half pass (you should), this is a really easy movement. Especially since you literally just did it at 4-3. You did ride 4-3, right?

The next pattern is the pirouette pattern. You start across the diagonal, then between H and X, half pirouette to the left and hold your counter canter back to C, flying change, and do the same thing the other way immediately, across the diagonal, between M and X, half pirouette right, hold counter canter to C, change. First, just a note that this is your first "canter pirouette" vs "working canter pirouette" which means that you need to make it smaller.

This pattern is killer for a lot of horses. Rico, who struggles with laziness, pirouettes, and counter canter, found this difficult. In the old 4-2 and the now 4-3, your half working pirouettes had a nice gallop down the long side in between, so this PSG pattern is a test of whether your horse can stay up in front of you with a lot of collecting movements. The Grand Prix test tests this quite a bit in the canter work by going from zig zag to ones to the pirouette pattern, so get used to it.

Counter canter

After that pirouette pattern, it'd be nice if they gave you your extended canter across the diagonal, right? But you immediately do one diagonal of five 4-tempis and another diagonal of five 3-tempis. THEN you get your extended canter to change before heading up centerline to halt.

The tempis are what they are since you're stuck with them forever, no skipping out on those. You have five of them now rather than three, which does add a level of difficulty, though for me at least, once I had three, I had as many as I wanted because Rico's changes were pretty decent. I've noticed that this seems to be the case on other horses too, but I'm no FEI trainer.

Collectives are both trot half passes, the collected walk, the extended walk, and both half pirouettes. Seems reasonable.

Enthusiastic tempis

Overall

This test just feels like an FEI test (because it is) from the tempis right after one another, to the endless canter work, to the return of dumb old movements like counter canter and throwing embarrassing movements in front of the judge like changes. Ah, nostalgia.

I think this is an excellent test, giving you a lot to do to prepare you for Intermediare I and the large tour. You can kind of see how each movement was prepared for at the USDF levels- from the progression for changes ending in the 3 tempis at PSG, to the progression of lateral work down to the leg yield zig zag at 1-3 to prepare you for the counter change of hand in canter at PSG, even to the slow progression of the length of all the tests.

Pirouettes were never our strong point... 

I love this test. I think it's the perfect amount of cool (look at that cool canter pirouette pattern, those cool tempis, that cool fucking jacket you FINALLY get to pay for wear) but without the same level of stress that the large tour tests offer you (will my horse get his ones, will my horse piaffe, will my horse passage- the answer to all of those being: not reliably) and without the pain in the ass full pirouettes at Intermediare I.

Speaking of... tune in next week maybe.

Rusty Old Garbage

Saturday morning I got up early and headed down to the ranch to see Rico and do some home projects. First, I've been gathering things for my patio, so my mom invited me down to go to an estate sale where they had a lot of outdoor stuff.

Cat not for sale. Well, this is Xena, my wonderful kitty that
my mom stole because she calls her a "ranch cat" 

This place was AWESOME and completely random. It was a very old house filled with a bunch of really amazing stuff. We spent almost two hours there, which was not excessive, there was seriously that much stuff to look through.

The first thing I saw that I desperately wanted was this weird metal bird with rocks for its body and face, but it was overpriced for something that I just *wanted* vs something that would actually add to my patio. This would actually detract from my patio, so I left it alone.

I picked up a lot of pots, which is helpful since my aunts gave me a plant stand, and I have a plant stand in my house that is doubling as a bookcase (so now need a bookcase). I also grabbed a few things for a table outside (now need to get a table for outside) and another plant stand that was an old rusted bicycle.

All the while the rock bird stared at me with its creepy eyes.

I finally just asked them whether they'd take less and they said yes, so into the pile the weird bird went and it's now sitting on my patio, totally adding to the decor. Be glad that I don't have unlimited money to spend on my place, because there'd be some really weird shit in there.

Meet Rocky the creepiest bird ever, who is now living on my
patio. I fucking love him.

My parents got a bunch of really cool stuff for the ranch and we even ran into the farrier there who agreed to make my mom a welcome sign out of horse shoes that she had seen at the estate sale but couldn't get because it had been sold. My dad kept referring to all the stuff that we got as "rusty old garbage" but he was found staring at a rusty old fountain and a rusty old grill soooo...


Upon getting back to the ranch, I took Rico out and we looked at his back and started to measure him for his custom western saddle. We're going to continue trying to measure it this weekend since it proved to be a little bit tricky. But the saddle should be here in the next couple of months depending on when we actually get it measured and send the measurements off.

I decided to ride Rico in dressage tack, which was the first time in a while. It'd been raining and I had been busy. But he runs around enough where I'm not worried about his fitness for a 20 minute dressage ride every now and then.

I tossed on TC's snaffle bridle since it was the only english bridle put together. Rico is generally not the most fun to ride in a big fat snaffle, but since he hasn't exactly had a bit in his mouth for almost a month, he was actually totally fine.

Looking pretty good for a tubby retired horse

We started with some brisk walking (whip assisted) and then cantered around. He was really great on the aids and surprisingly forward given that he hasn't had to work in a while.

Immediately I noticed that he was uneven behind. I've been riding a lot of different horses recently, but they're all super sound. I'm always torn with Rico between "he's always been uneven so obviously he's going to be uneven when you take away his supplements, fancy shoeing, and injections" and "he's clearly uncomfortable so maybe he shouldn't be working at all." But Rico is always enthusiastic to go out on a ride and he gallops around his pasture. So I'm thinking that he's fine. I think as his hocks fuse, he will get better. But again, he was uneven behind when he was eight years old, some of this is that he's just very much left handed.

He kept offering passage, so we did a bunch of it, as well as some piaffe. The canter felt great, he was willing to sit down and collect but also moved forward when I asked him to.

I worked mostly on myself again, trying to tie in things from my ride on BFF horse the day before (except this time not almost falling off). My position does feel better, though with Rico's unevenness it's hard to sit down on the right seat bone without falling into the hole he makes on that side. Probably the reason why I tip off of that side- there's no place to plug in so it's hard to know when my pelvis is even, and I get used to riding with no contact on that seat bone.

So tired

After my ride, I gathered wood from the woodpile and then went to harass my dad for his DIY expertise. I had seen a potting bench at their place a few weeks before and noted that I wanted one on my apartment patio since I now have a ton of new pots and really want to be able to do some planting out there. But I didn't really want to go buy one, since they're surprisingly expensive.

Luckily my parents have a huge wood pile from the barn construction that they're slowly using but generally just sits around. So I came up with a quick design and we got started.

I didn't do much. But I did do some drilling and sawing. My dad has done a lot of building projects, but neither of us are experts. In the end it turned out really awesome! I don't mind if it's a little crooked here and there, it was free and an excellent opportunity to hang out outside all day.

I've already used it at home a bit! It's a great place to stick my computer/ipad while watching netflix, although I need a chair or to figure out how to get my hammock up out there first. Damn this patio is more of a money pit than the horse!

I might paint it but I'm not quite sure what color
just yet

And I got my Raspberry Pi in the mail too, but that's the subject for a different post (once as I figure it out). But it's going well and has already turned into a little money pit as I needed to order a hub to power my external since the little RPi isn't powerful enough to run a 2TB hard drive. It's fun though! And it's letting me binge watch Fixer Upper already.

Yay! 

Realistic Awards

L and I were talking one day about awards. And how we really should just steal them rather than earn them, since they're hard to earn (she make it look easy though, earning three championships this last weekend).

Or maybe just embroider our own. Like you could just order a cooler and embroider your own award onto it. Or you could make your own ribbons. I hope you see where this is going.

I'll just make my own

After thinking briefly about the possibility of a cooler that read 2016 Champion of the Universe, we delved into realistic awards that we were more likely to win. So I came up with some awards for TC that, if I had the money (luckily for him, I do not), I could present to him in the form of a saddle pad. And then show in it. And see if anyone noticed.

In 2014 all that happened was that he was broke and I met him and did like three rides on him, so his award is pretty basic.

2014

Didn't Murder Anyone

While Being Started

In 2015, TC got a couple of awards. One for being my next horse, which comes with a lot of pressure to be really awesome.

2015

Biggest (Therapeutic) 
Shoes To Fill

And obviously he gets the award for the stupidest thing ever done to a leg.

2015

Dumbest Injury

Ever Sustained

He did not earn the award for most seamless transformation from horse to monkey. Definitely fell short on that one.

In 2016 he's already gotten a couple of awards, some of them are quite specific-

2016

Most Money Paid To Vet in 

First Six Months of Ownership

And of course-

2016

More Ultrasounds Than

Typical Pregnant Woman

And obviously he got an award for swimming-

2016

Most Effective Transition

From Equine to Hippopotamus

I'm really hoping that he'll earn this award:

2016 (and 2017, 2018, etc)

Soundest and Sanest Horse Ever

Or at least this one:

2016

Least Dramatic Rehabilitation 
From Serious Injury

Hey I mean Rico won that like six years in a row.

More than likely though, we'll get this one

2016 (and 2017, 2018, etc)

Most Stressed 

Out Owner

I'm basically ready to get all of those embroidered onto saddle pads, coolers, director's chairs, etc. And maybe make up a whole bunch of ribbons for all the little things too to hang outside his stall.

Like he can get a ribbon for "Cantering Like a Horse" when he finally can canter without running off with me. Also looking forward to him earning "Wasn't an Asshole When Horse Left Arena" ribbon too. Oh and "Finally Made it to a Rated Horse Show" should happen in 2017 too. Maybe we'll get a real ribbon there though.

I need awards too

Down the Backstretch

This week was NOT a driving nightmare. At least not as much as it usually is. During the week I only drove across the bay once for my last chiro appointment. This theoretically means that my back is better. Though on Friday my sciatica was back and Saturday I was limping again. Damn.

His nose is so small, but it's cute

But Friday with TC was great, as it always is, even if pain was shooting down my left leg. I stopped to talk to the owners before going to hang out with him. He's up to 25 minutes of walking twice a day. They also said that he looked like he was really bulking up. I mean he turns five this weekend so I guess he's turning into a real live horse, right?

We also talked about when to get the ultrasound. My vet said to get him in between 60 and 75 days since the last ultrasound, the owners think he's doing so well that they want to get him in earlier rather than later so that he can start trotting. I'm nervous since I'm typically the sort of person who wants to wait and drag out rehab. But if the cannon bone at the origin site isn't quite healed yet, I want to get another steroid injection and maybe switch to a more effective supplement. So I was cool with 60 days-ish.

Official date not quite chosen yet but it will very likely be the 19th or 26th of April. So that means that I have two or three more visits!

Only going to be in jail for another couple months

TC was really happy to see me, he whinnied at me as I walked over. He does look good, not muscular in the way I'd prefer him to be, as he doesn't have much topline. But his back is actually looking really great. He might not be developing muscles in front of the withers, but the difficult hole to fill right behind the withers is completely filled in. The connection from his back to his little friesian butt looks good too.

He showed me all his tricks, including the new command "back" where he reluctantly takes a step backwards while leaving his face in my face so that he can get a carrot. So talented.

His version of "stand" is getting ridiculous. I appreciate that he doesn't move his feet anymore and isn't on top of me all the time, but he does this-

"Stand"

I brushed him all over and he did something weird. When I got to currying his belly, he lifted his back leg as if he was going to kick me. I know the horse doesn't kick (except at boots), so I just ignored it and kept brushing. When I got under his leg he stuck his little nose out to wiggle it. He was just showing me that he wanted to be brushed there.

On the other side, he nearly pinned me against the wall to show me that he wanted to be brushed THERE ON THE SHOULDER RIGHT THERE GET IT NOW. He got told to be patient. I love how much he loves grooming though. It really makes spending time with him fun. I'm going to make sure that on the days where I have extra time, I take it to brush him. This way he can make up for how shitty he's going to be undersaddle.

He's getting these weird bigger white spots all over him now!

One of the things I'm planning on doing is putting him on a magnesium supplement. I had wanted to wait until we were further out, but decided to do it sooner rather than later. Stretch is on Mag 5000 and it's really helped him, plus it's a bit cheaper than all of the others. I decided that, because of how important it is that TC stay quiet when he comes home, I may as well experiment with supplements while I don't have to deal with him. The people at the rehab place know him well enough to know whether it's working, so they can tell me how he's doing.

If it doesn't work, Stretch can have the leftovers and I'll put TC on something more expensive. I thought I could get it this weekend at the feed store nearby, but couldn't, so it's being ordered from Smartpak. I'm also hoping to stick him on a hoof supplement, but that's less pressing so it's being pushed out.

Can't wait until he doesn't need those damn bandages

Damn horse wasn't supposed to be expensive to maintain! Oh well, he's already cost me well over what I expected to pay in the first couple of years of ownership. He had better be worth it!

Next steps: talk to BRH trainer and the BO about moving TC in (since if they can't accommodate him, I need to figure out another barn ASAP) and start shopping for trimmers. Almost through this nightmare of a suspensory injury, just (hopefully) two more months.

2016 Q1 Review and Q2 Goals

What a freakishly boring quarter in terms of baby horse progress. I can't believe I made it to April without going crazy and stealing a horse. I certainly made plans to steal a horse, several actually. But I never acted on those plans and that's what counts, right?

I got this horse stolen from me this quarter...

2016 Q1 Goals (Jan/Feb/Mar)

TC
- survive the first three months in rehab
Done, it was hard but it's done

- (me) visit as much as I can
I have been awesome at this! I went every week

- get a good result at his 2 month check up (2/23)
pretty good! 

- (me) make regular sacrifices to the horse boarding gods so that I can get into ideal barn exactly when I want to and not a minute sooner
DAMNIT, I got in too early (Jan) and had to turn it down, then decided to move him to WMF anyway so this doesn't matter as much

At the February checkup

 My Riding
- ride Rico 1-2x/month depending on my schedule
Nothing like having no horse to make driving 2.5 hours round trip to ride one cranky retired horse seem totally worth it!

 - ride for trainer friend each week
Not as often as I planned at first but now I've been averaging about once a week on BFF!

 - figure out other riding opportunities if these aren't enough
I did a fair amount of catch riding this quarter including riding Ramone, three different horses at trainer friends' barn, my own horses (Rico and Riot), and several client horses

 - jump something!
I jumped a lot of puddles on Rico! TC's vet bills have kept me from being able to take a jumping lesson unfortunately.

 - even out my diagonal aids
Definitely getting better at least at recognizing it and making attempts at changing, especially in my hands and seat bones. I can still feel two problems: the tendency of mine to grab the left rein when I get nervous and the weakness in my left leg.

- even out the weight in my seat bones
Yes, turned out to be my SI injury being a jerk again

- work to strengthen my core and stretch up taller
Definitely getting better, my core has slowed down because of recovering from my SI problems but I have been running. I need to figure out how to fit in some core work to my workout routine. 

- get my leg down and work to lengthen stirrups back to non-baby length
YES! I'm riding in normal length stirrups on most horses now

 - when possible, work without stirrups
Not as much as I should have, though I did ride bareback a lot, does that count? lol

 - talk to possible future trainers and audit lessons, get barn tours, etc (maybe nail down a place?)
I will be talking to BRH trainer and the BO soon, no auditing/barn tours necessary

 - audit a few clinics
This could have been better but I audited Gail Hoff-Carmona in January and the bombproofing clinic in February. This quarter will be better. 

Not a riding picture but I visited this amazing place this quarter!

 Msc
- go to the specialist for my wrist and get a damn diagnosis
Went to the ortho in March and basically nothing happened, working on getting another appointment with doctor number four soon. Being pushed out for no reason, just ugh doctors.

 - go snowboarding!
YES IT WAS AWESOME

 - hike as much as possible
I have been trail running so that counts, right? I want to do more real hikes soon

 - teach as much as possible (rain is a deterrent, driving across the bay in the rain sucks, so does standing in it to teach)
Doing a good job with this, the rain derailed my lesson schedule a bit in March but Jan/Feb were good

 - figure out a fitness routine that works for my wrist (even if it's just wheezing up the hill behind my house)
Doing okay at this, signing up for a 5k was a great idea but every now and then I skip a week or two, now I'm in hyperdrive running every day to get ready for the 5k!

 - finish my thesis?
Progress has been made but I'm looking at a summer finish date at this point, hopefully I can do that and not have to push it out until fall

Trail running! I went on Wednesday :)

A lot of these goals are dependent on when TC comes home. There's a chance he'll be home as early as early or mid-May, or we could be waiting until July. I'm hoping/planning on June 1st though.

2016 Q2 Goals (Apr/May/June)

TC
- get a good update in April at what is hopefully our LAST ULTRASOUND for a while
- continue to do well in rehab
- no more injuries/re-injuries
- continue to visit as much as I can while he's there
- (if home) don't buck me off, if I don't fall off in June I'll buy myself something pretty (like lessons)
- (if home) ride 4+ times per week and have BRH trainer ride if I can't make it
- (if home) take one lesson a week at least
- (if home) regain amazing connection that I've been dying to feel for six months
- (if home) work on channeling energy in positive ways, learn to ride the hot horse

 My Riding
- continue to ride Rico regularly until TC comes back, and maybe even continue if/after TC comes back
- continue riding for trainer friend when possible
- continue teaching more, this will be hard once TC comes back
- (if TC home) stay confident and in the back seat
- work on the unevenness in my seat, leg, and hand
- audit a lot of Tracey lessons
- audit more clinics

Msc
-(if TC home)  survive the commute to the barn, just three more months of living an hour away once as these goals are up
- run a 5k (22 more days!)
- continue running (sign up for another 5k?) or find another way to exercise
- continue working to fix my wrist
- make progress on thesis

Say cheeeese, and get ready to come home, baby horse!!