WW: I Want This Camera

I finally got to upload the videos from the soloshot and turn them into gifs! I'm already obsessively figuring out how to acquire this thing without killing my bank account.

Applications

After the Jeremy clinic on Saturday, I had a really great ride on Sunday trying to apply what I had learned. I'm always weary about doing this. TC has no idea that I sat around all day the day before thinking about all the things he was doing wrong and how I was going to change that. He just ate his hay and rolled.

I had a few take aways that I want to address that day:

1) More transitions
2) Be more "with him" in all moments

More transitions makes sense. We still don't have good transitions between gaits 100% of the time and that's an issue for many reasons. I mean obviously good transitions score better in tests. But they're also an indicator of throughness and strength.

Being more "with him" is part of the problem. Sometimes I feel like, for example, when I ride a downward transition from canter to trot, that I sort of stay out of his way and then pick up the pieces at the end. They aren't consistent, I sort of just ask and see what he does, then figure out how to fix it. My timing is quick enough where I can kind of mask it over, but that's not riding as much as

I'm getting itchy to show again but it's going to be a while!

On Sunday I started out with a ton of walk halt transitions, nit picking the hell out of them. TC often stops his hind legs before his front legs, which is not okay. He also weights his right front leg more than his left, which aside from making him crooked sometimes, also means that he is putting his suspensory at risk. Jeremy had one of the riders who was on a higher level and fancier horse than TC do some more abrupt transitions. The idea was to stop the front legs first and get the hind legs to step further under, vs dropping the back and stopping the hind legs, then walking the front legs out.

I did this with TC and realized that he was REALLY not very good at halting. At least, not the way I wanted him to. For a horse who bolts, that's a problem. So we did a LOT of them. He figured it out rather quickly, though I really had to be very accurate with when to ask him in the stride so that he'd halt square. Definitely going to add a ton of these to my warm up!

Wow already he's much better about flexing his lumbar/pelvis,
this picture was taken I think in August and his hind end isn't
nearly as powerful as it is now

In trot, I made sure to be more deliberate with everything. Every step needed to be a quality step and the connection needed to feel good immediately and consistently. I also put the pressure on me. I needed to be even quieter than I have been with my aids, insisting that one aid = one response.

After getting him a bit more in tune with my aids, I went to sitting trot and really focused on stillness. The thing about sitting a giant trot is that it's GOING to be bouncy. A lot of what riders do (including myself) is try to find a way to absorb the bounce. Floppy ankles and elbows, leaning back, bringing the hand up, bracing in the stirrup, gripping with the knee... all of those are designed to avoid having to sit the bounce. I've been really focusing lately on just being still and bouncing with TC. It creates a look of being much more still, you can't really tell how bouncy the horse is by watching. But man it feels REAL bouncy.

But that's just who he is and if I want to move past First (I do) with him then I need to be able to sit his trot. And if I want to score well at those levels (I do), I need to not be clinging to his back while I frantically throw him through movements. So we're starting now, even though my plan isn't to show Second until probably the end of next year.

Preparing for a downward transition by checking out for a second

Next, we worked on canter transitions. I did them in the same way I made one of Kate's students do them- from sitting trot and then into sitting trot. The way I've been doing the canter to trot transitions is setting them up as best as I can, throwing him into the black box of transitions, then cleaning up his trot afterward. Again, it's not terrible, and we've actually not scored badly at all on it, but it's still a problem. So I told myself I had to sit the trot after the transition and that helped a LOT. Turns out that if I make it supremely uncomfortable for me if I do it wrong, I end up doing it much better.

After a few transitions, things got much better, I felt like I was really WITH him in the downward transition and immediately had a trot I could work with. Because the downwards were better, the upwards were also better and took less time to prepare for. I really took that point of Jeremy's to heart- always be prepared to do stuff. Obviously with a green horse, I have to help him prepare for the movements that are tough for him, but if he's confirmed in the movement, he should be able to do it with minimal preparation.

Hopefully less of these moments this year

Overall it was SUCH a good ride. We didn't quite replicate it yesterday, but we did have a big breakthrough yesterday with me realizing that with my old habit of pulling on the left rein, I've been actually not asking for enough bend left (to avoid pulling on the left rein) and that's why the throughness has been so weird lately. That and my continued inability to sit on my right seat bone. I think something is going on with my SI joint again, since that usually shifts me around.

Today TC gets the day off because I've been feeling a tiny bit sick so wanted to take it easy with no horse and no gym in the same day. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have a really good long lining session, I definitely can feel a difference in his ability to push when he's been on the long lines vs not.

Auditing Jeremy Again

On Friday I took a half day at work and drove to Winters where I drank a delicious peppermint mocha and struggled to work without internet (made a powerpoint, answered emails from my phone, and did some fun stats!). Then around 3:15, I drove out to Peony's barn and from then on, it was just... shenanigans.

I had decided to put way too much into my weekend, and the first half is auditing the Jeremy Steinberg clinic on Saturday, which I'm going to talk about today.

First let me say that if anyone is in the area, stay at Peony's house. You get the world's most comfortable guest bed, the world's most stealable dog, and there's this breakfast buffet nearby that is amazing. Also pony talk. For hours. And pony videos. For hours.

Like soloshot videos (these are pictures though) of boring long
lining and riding sessions

We had an awesome night eating ramen and talking about plans I can't share on the blog yet, as well as looking at soloshot videos (and using their fast internet to upload them and make gifs for this blog, coming on Wednesday) and Andy figuring out a way for me to have a little microphone while I'm riding so I can tell the soloshot what TC feels like so I can improve my feel.

We then got to actually sleep in on Saturday (which I did not) before eating a delicious breakfast and going out to watch rides. After watching the morning rides, we went to go clicker train Spot, then came back for more rides!

Here are my notes from the clinic:

- In a freestyle, ride a bit off the rail. This way if you get ahead of your music, which is what typically happens in a show (practicing it at home when you're relaxed vs riding maybe more forward/quicker in a stressful environment), you can "make the arena bigger" by riding out to the rail. If you get behind the music, you can just cut off the short sides.

- In some ways, Grand Prix horses are easier to ride because you don't have to hold a horse together, but in other ways, they're much harder because you have 300 more movements to deal with. I a million times feel this with my horses. Rico is easier to ride because you can just get on and go, he's automatically into the bridle and pushing in the way that I want TC to be now. But TC is easier because he's still only schooling Second/Third on a good day and those movements don't come up very fast.

- Jeremy emphasized logging in hours. Log in hours and hours in the contact. Log in hours and hours and HOURS in the sitting trot. The horses need to lock into work. If I have one complaint about my students in the past, it's that they think that just because the horse CAN go into the bridle correctly means that it's a non issue. Logging in hours and days and weeks and months where the only thing you do is ride boring figures and put the horse into contact is the best thing to do. Do it for twice as long as it should take. But that's not fun and I taught teenagers so, you know.

I don't have any pictures of the clinic so here are more fun
long lining pictures

- If I want to bring the front end up and change the shape of the body, I need to be able to push the hind legs under. That has to come first.

- If you're going to longe a horse, make sure that you get good quality work out of them. Make the work hard so they learn to work hard.

- Make sure that every day you're logging time in the gaits you want the horse to go in. You have to build the expectation (and the strength) that this is how the horse goes.

- Think about exaggerating the movement in the lower back and pelvis (of the horse) in transitions.

- Ride your preparation within the canter, meaning to always ride the canter being prepared to do any movements. If you have to do a lot of prep for a movement, the horse will anticipate it and might drop their back (this horse did).

- When a horse gets too low in the bridle, they feel round when they aren't. Roundness has to include flexion at the poll. When you bring the neck up, the poll must flex and if it doesn't, the horse may appear on the vertical when the poll is low but in front of the vertical when the poll is up. This causes many horses to feel rigid on the contact up there and so people put the horses back down.

- Also when they're too low in the bridle, the contact isn't isolated so contact problems can be masked.

I love how attentive he is now

- When the horse gets quick, they don't have to swing the hind leg under the body and the lumbar spine doesn't have to flex. Slow the horse down and push the hind leg under.

- Trotting generates twist of the spine because one hind leg swings under at a time. Cantering generates flexion of the spine due to both hind legs swinging under at the same time. This means that a good trot covers a lot of stride and a good canter gains height.

- Haunches in on a large circle with lots of bend and a bit like medium (this was used on a VERY fancy horse so I think us mere mortals have to be careful that it's a true medium in an uphill balance vs just running) to develop sit and lumbar engagement.

- In a medium trot, the step needs to stay slow so that the stride can cycle through the body and the horse can use their back.

Flexing the lumbar spine

Overall it was super fun! There were a lot of different types of horses and riders, which makes for great auditing. Lots of horses were not TC's type, so that made it a little trickier to pick out things that TC would benefit from, but I had a couple takeaways both from what Jeremy said and from watching a couple riders.

- What I'm doing to get him to flex his pelvis and his lumbar area on the long lines is EXACTLY what Jeremy was going on and on about all day. So yay.

- I need to take more time to develop the medium trot so that he doesn't get quick. It's his tendency and I've sort of just accepted it, and that's not okay. The medium is going to directly relate to the passage.

- The last rider we watched was a really amazing rider. I mean, really amazing horse too, but the way this rider rode made a huge difference. Aids were very quiet, there was no force or holding or fudging of movements, when the horse went to try to make a big move the rider was right there, no resistance against the movement even if it was unexpected. You could tell that the horse was very confident in his rider. It was really inspiring to see. I can't really describe what it's going to do for TC, but I felt like watching Jeremy and the rider work together shifted something in how I'm thinking about TC's training and my riding.

Incoming Impulse Purchases

On Sunday, Kate and I hung out at her barn and then at my barn! She has a new horse in the barn who was previously in my barn and who I love, so I've been stealing rides on her (more about that later). I felt bad commandeering Kate's new horse, so I offered her a ride on mine.

It's not the same, TC isn't a Prix St George horse, but he is super fun and I love having Kate ride him for a few reasons. We have the same trainer, so I trust that she's not going to try weird shit on him; she's a GOOD rider, so I trust that she's not going to like.. saw him onto the bit or not; and she's a sticky rider, so she's not going to come off of him or get intimidated at all by him. He still does weird stuff on occasion and I don't want him getting it in his head that he can do anything but be a perfect pony.

Walking around

Kate surprised me by bringing her new Soloshot 3 out! I was so excited, but kind of stupidly nervous about riding outside for the first time in a while. My barn likes to preserve the outdoors when it rains, since we have a perfectly good indoor to ride in. So for the last month or so, I haven't had much access to the outdoors. Either I've been wanting to ride inside for the mirrors, or I've been riding inside because the outdoors are closed.

So I decided to take advantage of Kate's expert clicker training skills and have her watch me long line TC first. I figured this would help me decide if long lining before shows would help or hurt us, and I wanted to make sure that I was like... doing it right. I mean he is getting better, but if better than before was a good way of measuring how correct your aids are, then well, I'd have a lot more respect for a lot more people's really unfortunate training methods.

We put the soloshot on TC's surcingle for long lining and then Kate had my camera too, so I have a RIDICULOUS amount of media from Sunday. Like, enough where I told Kate that I could just stop riding TC all winter and still have media for blog posts until spring.

Slowwwly becoming more through in the canter

I smile a lot on this horse (when he's being a good boy)

The long lining went super well, I went over that in my post on Tuesday though. Kate confirmed that the clicker training was totally working. I'm super excited about this. I feel like clicker training has such a bad reputation for creating asshole mugging horses who just know how to do stupid tricks, but this is legitimately helping my horse use his brain and body better. This is a pretty serious bolter, even when the weather is better, and he's not going more than 2-3 steps, sometimes not even breaking into canter anymore. Bolting doesn't get clicks.

Anyway, I was super curious to see if the long lining helped if I did it right before riding. I know it helps a lot if I do it and then ride the next day. Like a crazy amount. He is much less likely to balk and is much more likely to be good about me sitting the trot. I think it really helps him stretch out his back.

I'm curious about using it before riding though. Not that I want to work him that much regularly (plus it's a pain because I long line with the surcingle and ride in a saddle so it involves a tack change), but at horse shows it would be SO NICE to be able to do something before getting on him. Sure I can longe him, but it's not the same, in the past it's just made him MUCH worse by putting his brain on fast forward because he inevitably runs off while longeing in a way that he never does on the long lines with the clicker.

Figuring things out

Wandering

Kate and I walked out to the outdoor where I haven't ridden for a month and set up the camera, then put the tracker on my arm. TC was FABULOUS. He immediately went to work out there like nothing was different. We're working on pressing him up into the bridle and adding impulsion to his gaits in a relaxed manner (to increase throughness rather than just making him trot all flashy) and he was there really quickly.

He's figuring out, slowly, how to really push himself through the back using his hind legs. He's really built to push, but he likes to get himself out behind and get tight in his back, which then propels him onto the forehand, which then causes him to lean into his knees/shoulders, which then raises his neck and he gets tight right in front of his withers.

Getting him to really push with both hind legs, but also to swing under himself and lift through his back and neck, is really hard. It was the main thing that we got dinged on at the last show at First. He needs to cover more ground and push more. But up until recently, that meant tension and choppy gaits. Or sometimes running very fast.

Good pony

I love his color these days, pls stay this way

The canter is trickier than the trot, which is true for everything with this horse. We're still working on throughness, which is definitely getting better. On the long lines I've been working to get him oscillating his neck more, which is key to getting him using his back. The canter naturally causes the neck to reach forward and lengthen in the down beat and shorten a bit in the up beat. TC doesn't trust the forward and lengthen, so he tightens up in his neck in front of the wither and his back behind the shoulder so that he doesn't have to really reach down and forward.

So that's been translating okay undersaddle. We still have SO MUCH to do before I've got his canter to the place where I want it, but he's coming along so well. And there was a moment as I went to do a simple change through the trot, where a relaxed flying change didn't seem out of the question. We've schooled them before but he gets a bit tight so I'm holding off until I get the canter to a better place.

And then in the down swing, TC, reach!

Quietly trotting

After I got my stuff done each way, Kate got on! Last time Kate rode TC, he was tricky for her. Because he just wasn't used to other aids. It wasn't that she did anything wrong, but at the time, I was trying so hard not to make any mistakes or being too casual with him. That may sound super ideal, but making mistakes is what makes horses rideable. If my horse only canters from a leg that is a specific length and in a specific location, other riders with shorter or longer legs won't be able to ride him.

Since her last ride, I have been a little messier with TC's training. Not in a mean way, but in that I insist that he canter on the correct lead even if my timing is off in the walk to canter transition. I've been quicker to flip the whip at him when he doesn't try hard enough to understand what I'm saying. And it's really paid off! He was actively trying to figure out what she was saying, and offering her all his stuff.

And they looked great! He's still not giving her everything he can, which just means that he needs more practice with other riders.

Look at them!

They looked so good!

And man, the soloshot, guys. This is bad. I'm going to own it one day. Soon, I'm afraid. I've put a few restrictions on me buying it (have to earn the money outside of my job job so I'm selling stuff and hopefully going to get a few lessons in over winter break) so that it doesn't become an impulse buy.

It's SUPER cool. It followed me pretty well, zoomed in and out, and gave me a great quality video. Kate says that over time (like she'll teach several lessons in a row) it gets better at tracking, and unfortunately it struggled with me a bit because I wasn't riding for long enough. So there'd be times where it was CONVINCED that I was going to go jump out of the arena and it would zip over there getting ready for me, then slowly zoom out and find me again. But honestly, even having HALF of my ride (it wasn't that bad) is enough for me. It was easy to set up, something I could do before walking around the ranch to warm up, and easy to use.

I'm really stoked to have it. I don't take nearly enough lessons, but I can look at a video of myself and know what I need to do enough to bridge the gap between lessons. Plus, I always lament not having enough video of Rico, and this would mean that I could record every single ride I do on him from now on.

So someday... and in the mean time, I'll be selling some stuff (will post a few things on the blog) and trying to teach some lessons!

Gym Update

I wanted to write an update about my gym schedule. I've been absolutely FORCING myself to go to the gym and it's working! I'm not on a regular schedule, but each week I look at my schedule and tell myself to pick at least ONE DAY to go. And I'm going to whatever classes. Last week I did pilates and TRX, as well as went on a hike with my SIL. This week I did TRX and hopefully will squeeze one more TRX in before the weekend, then another hike.

Initially I had quit going to the gym because I felt like going once a week or twice a week wasn't worth it. I really struggle to find two weeknights to go because I keep tending to ride six days a week instead of five. But that's such a stupid thought, that just because I can't do something in an ideal way (3-5x a week like I did at Crossfit), means I shouldn't do it at all. So I convinced myself that going however often I can, even if it's once a month, is better than nothing. And actually, I've been averaging 2-3x a week, so yay!

The view, kind of smoggy :/ but let's gut the EPA guyz

Things are sloooowwwly turning green in CA (if they're not
on fire... I hope anyone who is in or has family/friends in
Ventura is safe)

I've been feeling so much better too! I always forget how good exercising makes me feel. Less anxious and less stressed for sure. It's also really nice to have a day off from the horse, which is sometimes kind of unfortunate (like yesterday, I wanted to ride!) but if he's being a dingbat, it feels good to be able to take a day off of him and get stronger to deal with his antics.

It's definitely helping my riding. I can legitimately sit the trot first and foremost. Part of that is that TC is getting stronger and more through his back. But a lot of it is that I feel stronger. I also think the gym helps a lot with my willingness to work through feeling uncomfortable. I feel mentally uncomfortable regularly enough working through problems at work, so the cognitive restructuring around riding doesn't bother me too much. But physically when I don't go to the gym, pushing myself to that place where it becomes uncomfortable (so like, where progress is made) feels impossible.

Almost done!

I noticed that on our recent 5 mile "strenuous" hike. We did an easier hike a few months ago before I was going to the gym a lot and I was DYING. I complained the whole time. It was kind of pathetic. I'm glad my family doesn't disown me when I'm like this.

This time it was also really hard, but I didn't complain at all. Just one foot in front of the other. It also helped that the previous time I was with a big group who all walked a lot faster than my SIL and I do. We're perfect hiking partners because I like taking breaks and enjoying the scenery and being able to talk the whole time, and so does she! But I was so much less uncomfortable with being uncomfortable.

This hill wasn't too bad but then it turned into a bad hill

The bad hill was back there

It's not like I'm even going balls to the wall at the gym either. Like with riding this winter, I let myself off the hook with pushing myself. Just like with riding, if I let myself, I will push myself so hard that I HATE what I'm doing, but unlike with riding I will actually quit the gym.

I just go in, do the movements, try to push myself enough where I feel it but not so much that I'm trembling trying to hold a suspended plank in TRX and modifying/sitting out of anything that makes my wrist send shooting pains up to my shoulder. Some days I really push myself, like Sunday morning. Other days are kind of normal, like last night. Some days like a couple weeks ago at pilates I just can't, but I go anyway and I do the minimum.

Hopefully by posting this, I'll be shamed into keeping my schedule up! But I don't think it will be too hard. Once as I decided that it was okay to skip a week or two and that didn't count as "falling off the bandwagon" then I started going more regularly.

Improvements Via Long Lining

Friday morning before work it was too cold to ride. I know I live in California and can't complain about that, but I'm going to anyways. I don't like riding in the cold.

Luckily, clicker training + long lining has been proving to be a VERY valuable tool to have in my tool box for a few reasons. First, I feel like I can genuinely get a good workout in for him without getting on (which is good for days where I don't have that much time, where it's too cold, or when I'm not feeling like riding, or all three). Second, long lining has actually been improving his under saddle work. And third, the clicker training really gets his brain working. 

Nice job, pony

I'm getting better at long lining but am still not the best, luckily
he is patient/doesn't care as long as he gets treats

TC has come a long way with his long lining. It started as just something I wanted to teach him just to teach him, but now I sometimes feel like it's better for him than riding. 

Still though, every day starts out the same. Neck retracted, back tight and hollow, stride short and sometimes kind of uneven due to the tension. Luckily TC knows that clicks are involved and he will start trialing behavior. Early on I had to wait for a few circles for him to blow his nose or randomly put his head down so that I could click and treat, but now he tries putting his head down earlier in the warm up- usually within the first circle. Immediately I click and treat (I've upgraded to having grain in a fanny pack, which is incredibly attractive to wear as well as being really convenient) and he pretty much stays down there for the rest of the session.

Once as we have neck = down, we get forward-when-I-ask. Same thing, ask him to move forward and when he does, click. If his head comes up, no click though.

How we start out/how he would go without clicker training

End result

The main goals of long lining him is to work on the throughness and impulsion (so pushing through his back) and to work on him lifting his shoulders and keeping his neck long. He's really uncomfortable doing this. Very often when I go to send him forward, he gets tight in his back, gets tight in his neck, gets short in his neck, or loses his hind legs out behind him. He's visibly concerned about what I'm asking him to do.

This is to be expected, conformation dictates what will be easy and what will be tough for horses. TC is built to stick his neck in the air and fling his legs up and down. Taking his neck down and swinging forward is REALLY hard. Conformation is no excuse though, so we're working on it.

From the head down and go forward aids, I just keep clicking for things that are going well. Examples include him lifting his withers and reaching to the bridle, coming into the bridle better (I'm still working on this on my part with the lines), doing good transitions, oscillating his neck at the canter, pushing well from behind, swinging through his hips and lower back, etc. Any time I see his jugular groove relax or the ab line on his barrel or his hind legs over track, he gets a click and a treat.

I watch for his jugular groove to look like this- lifting as best he
can through his withers

The canter work has really improved on the long lines too. It's quieter than I want him to eventually be, but I love that he's feeling relaxed in the canter work. TC especially carries tightness in his back at the canter, which causes his neck to not oscillate. He isn't comfortable getting his head down and out at the canter at all and would rather carry tension in the neck right as it comes out of the shoulders and in his poll than really let his neck go and let those back muscles swing.

Once as I have the canter going better on both the long lines and undersaddle, I'll be trying to add a little more power from behind like we are doing at the trot.

Lifting in his shoulders while reaching with his nose, in this he
still can't carry any type of collection but look at how quiet he looks

Relaxed at the canter with his eye and ear on me

He's such a good boy, he tries so hard. And that has been really noticeable with the clicker training. After he gets a click, he wants to go back to work so much to get more clicks. He keeps an ear on me at all times just in case he does something right and gets a click. His eyes are softer because he knows what is expected of him because it's so damn clear to him.

It makes me feel better that I'm not having to tie his face to his body either, I've used side reins and the chambon on him in the past but I've NEVER gotten this. Weird that if you explain very clearly to them what they want, force isn't necessary. Hmmm. Not that I'm opposed to artificial aids, I just think that they are used far too often and many times for the wrong reasons. It's really cool that I can get him to carry himself without much aid at all (since let's be real, my timing with the lines isn't very good).

Not only is he going super well on the long lines, it's translating super well undersaddle. This plus me really focusing on putting TC into the bridle has made such a difference. But I'll talk about that more later...

Thankful for Good Ponies and Great Friends

This weekend was such a whirlwind and last week was such a whirlwind that I haven't had time to post about L's visit to Norcal! And this weekend is basically going to fill up this week's blog posts too if I have enough time to write. When are there going to be self driving cars? I could totally write blogs on the way to work if I didn't have to, you know, drive (taking public transportation would take me 4 hours each way, I looked, it still involves 20 minutes of driving too).

Anyway, the week of Thanksgiving, L was in town, and by in town I mean that she was an hour and a half north of here, but we're dedicated people so we coordinated for her to go to the train, take the train down as far as it would go (45 minutes north of me) and then I would come get her! So on Sunday after Thanksgiving, I started driving.

Friends, CHECK (Kate not pictured since she took the picture),
ponies, CHECK

Kate and I met about a half hour into my drive to get L, and soon all three of us were in the car talking about ponies. The pony talk continued all the way down to my barn, where we picked up my riding stuff and fed TC. TC ended up having the day off because it was the one day it was going to rain for like two weeks and TC hates rain. TC needs to get over his hatred of rain, but I also hate riding TC in the rain. Mostly I make myself do things that I don't like for the betterment of my animal, but sometimes I don't care to do it. Whatever.

Instead, we went over to Kate's new barn, which is ten minutes away from my barn! So much fun pony time ahead now that she's down in my area more (because I'm the worst at visiting her).

Kate managed to wrangle two ponies for us to ride. One a spicy little Morgan cross and one a seeing eye horse thoroughbred. I grabbed the Morgan cross first, while L rode the thoroughbred! It was super fun riding the spicy little thing, she's a bit green and a VERY different type of ride from anything I usually ride- a bit zippy and hollow at first, but then I sort of figured out how to slow her down a bit. Kate had shown me a video of her months ago and damn they've done some hard work!

Go pony go!

L rode the other little mare around and they jumped around over a couple of fences as it started to rain. I always love watching L ride because she's just so damn elegant.

Soon it was time for us to swap, L into the dressage saddle on the Morgan cross and me into the jumping saddle on the TB. I struggled a bit in the jumping saddle at first, but figured out how to get my leg under me, sort of. With L and Kate's encouragement, I jumped for the like... third time this year and the mare was PERFECT. Like, I love my Ginger pony but Ginger is a typical pony who wants to maybe avoid working if she thinks she doesn't have to. This horse was super game and I felt like I could actually ride over the jumps like I used to.

The worst screenshot but here's me jumping a tiny jump on a
very good horse

After riding, we wandered up toward the train station and got lunch/dinner at a poke bowl place. I had heard of poke bowls but hadn't yet figured out a time to try them. I love sushi though, so I was excited. It was SO GOOD, I feel like I've never eaten anything so fast.

Dropping L off was unfortunate but I know she's visiting again soon and I'll be spending even more time with her! And hopefully I'll make it down to see Dante soon too!