2021 Q2 Goals Review and Q3 Goals

My 2021 goals went down in flames pretty early on in the year. I've never had a year where I made so many goals and didn't get anywhere close to achieving them so early in the year. 

I don't know if I should pause the goals for this year or just change them dramatically. On the one hand, I pretty much failed over half our goals. But I like keeping track of things so I guess we can just change them dramatically. 

We have had some good moments like this one

Q2 Goals:

TC

- stay sane and sound

Well, we did this one at least!

- settle in well at the ranch

Okay not doing too badly

- maybe move to a new boarding facility

Not necessary but we'll see! I want to get a new saddle and figure out a trainer before we move

- take 12 lessons

Welllllll I took no dressage lessons but I did take some jumping lessons! Not twelve though, I've got a lot to make up for when we finally get a saddle 

- continue to trail ride a lot

We haven't been off the property to trail ride mostly due to the saddle issue, but we have ridden in the hills behind the ranch a ton

aaaaaand all the rest of it was movements and championships and All Breeds and clinics and various things that I had to slash so let's skip those.

He is looking pretty fabulous despite not having
a saddle that fits right now

My Riding

- fix my left hand

Definitely been working on that but on my list after I get a saddle will be to do a lot of biomechanics lessons

- lengthen my front line

Working on it but again it's hard without riding very much 

- get my aids a little more tacky

Feeling much better, turns out he's slippery because of the saddle, so it's been better lately when I actually have ridden

Teaching

- keep on keeping on

yep, haven't gained or lost clients, one of my clients is now one score away from her Silver Medal so everyone think good thoughts this summer so she can finish it! 

- update my website

I think I did but maybe not lol I'm just holding tight with my business right now

Probably one of my happiest moments with him
being at the ranch: turnout with another horse for
the first time since he was four years old 

Msc

- get fully vaccinated

Yes!!!

- get the SO vaccinated too

Yes!!!

- stick with the gym plan

We had issues with this due to moving but we've been pretty steady the last few weeks

- move into yet another house, this time for good

Yep!! Can't wait to not move for a long time lol

- plant my garden!

I did that! It's going insane right now

- go on a vacation

We are in Tahoe right now!

- hug my friends maybe?

YES I have hugged so many of my friends recently and it's amazing

Lots of bodywork for TC this quarter

Well that was a bust outside of my non-horse life. Hopefully we'll have a saddle soon!

Q3 Goals

TC

- stay sane and sound

- continue enjoying the ranch or move somewhere closer

- when we have a saddle, work on TC's fitness

- when we have a saddle, start taking lessons and maybe find a trainer to work with regularly

- when we have a saddle, trail ride off the property!

- when we have a saddle, rebuild TC's connection and collection

My Riding

- continue doing my best until a saddle comes along

- when we have a saddle, work to build fitness in the dressage tack again

- when we have a saddle, work on my biomechanics with a biomechanics trainer

- continue jumping with Kate! 

- work on my breathing, especially over fences

- work on using my core over fences more effectively

- maybe school cross country?

Enjoying this SO MUCH 

 

Teaching

- get my student her Silver medal???

- pass ratings, do well at shows, everything else

- reduce teaching this fall when students go to school

Msc

- continue enjoying the house

- continue enjoying the garden!

- stick to the gym plan

- potentially see the doctor about my insomnia but I'm waiting to get on the SO's insurance in November so it may have to wait until then

- visit a few friends I haven't seen in a while

- maybe find a new job (ideally this fall or next spring but if the right one comes along, I wouldn't say no to earlier!)

Trying to fix my round back in saddles that hurt it
is basically a bust

This quarter is so up in the air. I've got emails out to SO MANY SADDLE FITTERS and am preparing to lose my mind trying to find something that fits him. Hopefully the SO will indulge me tomorrow and stop by a few tack stores on the way home to sit in some saddles, luckily I have TC's measurements on my phone now! 

I'm trying to keep up a decent attitude about riding and dressage even though it's been so frustrating to be saddleless and to know that he's right there ready to be better than ever... Fingers crossed we find something soon or that I can get someone to reflock my saddle and take a look at it to see if it can work again (he has packed on muscle and I mean it fit well until we started training in a different way sooooo fingers crossed?). 

Data Entry

 I'm starting a ridiculous data project and wanted to take a break from it and write a blog post about it. It all started when I was interviewing for a job and they asked me if I had a portfolio. I do not. I didn't realize I needed one but it was for a job that was very much focused on data visualization, which I love and would like to shift toward eventually. 

Much of my job is working in SQL to retrieve data from our database and then putting it into Power BI to make interactive dashboards. You can learn a lot from dashboards and it's way more fun to play with them than playing with raw data. I like pretty pictures. It'd be cool to be paid like, twice what I currently get and get to make pretty data visualizations every day. Plus I could stop teaching so much, which is a bummer but it'd be nice to focus on my own riding completely. 

I have some dashboards that are public facing that I could absolutely use in a portfolio, but I got to thinking... how cool would it be to make a dashboard out of my rated dressage tests (I have 113 of them)? To be able to SEE the data transform as I pick out slicers. And bonus, to be able to show the structure of the back end of the dashboard (I'm making a database) to potential interviewers without violating FERPA. 

My other great love, outside of riding horses and making data beautiful is ruining vacations for myself. So while we are in Tahoe this week, I'm doing tedious data entry. We are also doing a lot of fun things so don't worry, the SO is making sure I'm not completely ruining my vacation. 

I was going to bring them
with me but instead I
took pictures so I didn't
accidentally lose them

Here are some questions I'd like my dashboard to answer: 

- What judge likes me most? Aka who should I send some fudge to or something?

- What movement type (lateral work, transitions, mediums, stretching, counter canter, changes) did Rico consistently score the best on over his entire career? 

- Have I scored better on horses who were previously shown at the level (Rico showed Second with my trainer before me, Leo did every level before me with a trainer)?

- Have I actually averaged higher scores on TC or am I just kidding myself? 

- Judge analysis, I don't know if I have enough tests from each judge to do this on, but I'd love to do a cluster analysis to try to figure out types of judges (5,6,7 judges, judges that use the whole scale, etc) there are. 

My questions also get silly: 

- What's my lucky rider number? Is it better to have a low number or a high number? Even or odd? Prime?

- What time of day do I score the best at? Does that change based on the level or the horse I'm riding?

I'm also recording all the text (omg reading 17 year old faded scribe scribbles lol) because I want to do a test analysis to find out what words stand out the most. 

I sat down amidst packing to take
these pictures, here are the tests!

There are obviously a lot of things that are issues that will cloud my data analysis so this is mostly for fun. I'm only analyzing four horses, only one of which I've shown extensively (Rico). I've improved over the years. Tests change over the years (which is why I'm categorizing test movements so aggressively). 

Judges gain knowledge through programs (I rode with one judge in 2004 as an r judge and now she's an S judge!). I began to avoid judges I saw training in a way I didn't like. I went to bigger shows when my parents were supporting me when I was in high school/early college vs now I choose smaller shows. I also now wait until I know I'll score well to show vs before I just kind of went for it. Oh and I'm now a much better rider... I think... or should I look at the rider scores first before deciding that?

But I think it'll be fun even if the data isn't perfect! Still lots to learn at least about myself and my horses. So, I'll update when I actually have something to show for it! It should be an interactive dashboard that I can link here so you all can play with it. We'll see! And hopefully it'll help me get a new job. 

Does He Ever Spook?

I mentioned in my last post that my parents' house is going under construction. The way their property is laid out puts the house in the middle of the property, with the barn, paddocks, and pastures in the back (and the trails in the way back) and the arena in the front yard. I actually have to go through the front gate to get to the arena. 

I've been looking at other barns to move to that are closer to my house but am struggling to make that final decision. I know I can always move back but I don't want to burn bridges or barn hop too much. Plus without going into the office yet, I am able to arrange my drive to and from the ranch to avoid traffic and keep it to 40 minutes each way. I have three main reasons I'd like to find a barn before the end of summer and they are 1) reduce my drive when I'm in the office again 2) avoid the time of year where there is pigeon fever afoot and 3) avoid having to ride during construction. 

Not enthused about losing these
trails but one of the barns I'm considering
has AMAZING trails!

Well, I was too late for number 3 as they got permits a couple weeks ago and broke ground last week. I wasn't sure how TC would be as he used to be VERY SPOOKY: 

Things I Hate Because of TC

Outside Stimulus Control

Spooky

But also at the same time, he's also been weirdly not spooky: 

Bombproofing the Already Bombproof

Amidst Beach Ball Polo

And I've done a TON of work on his spookiness: 

Bombproofing Clinic

Bombproofing Clinic Take Two

2020 Bombproofing Clinic

But the construction... not necessarily something I'd expect any horse to not take a good look at. TC has never seen real construction. They were literally up on the roof, dismantling the front porch during my ride on Friday. This meant turning on and off an electric saw, turning on and off a drill (that would sometimes make horrific drill noises), yanking pieces of the roof and deck apart, and throwing them onto the ground, which more often than not made a loud clattering noise. 

The house is maybe 35 to 40 meters away from the arena across the creek where there are a lot of trees obstructing it. 

Look how sweet Ruby was last week

I rode past the house and TC didn't seem to care about what was going on. Granted, my mom told the guys that when they saw horses walking past the house, they shouldn't throw anything down or make any loud noises. But when we were out in the arena, it was a free for all. 

If TC is going to spook these days, it's going to be due to trigger stacking. So I didn't expect him to spook while we were just walking, but who knows what would happen in the arena when we started to work. 

Two completely bombproof horses who started out
less than bombproof

Nothing happened. My horse is insanely bombproof. Saws turned on and off, things got thrown off the roof, things got wrenched off of other things, drills made that horrible drill malfunction noise. At one point all this was going on and the neighbor had let her dogs loose to run down the road past the arena with her chasing them in her car, all of them going well above a normal speed limit on a dirt road. 

I can't emphasize how much he didn't do. Like he didn't even flinch, flip an ear, startle, or feel the slightest bit tense. He didn't acknowledge that anything was going on that was out of the ordinary.

Now, I, on the other hand, spooked a bit. When the dogs came running by, I gathered up my reins. When the guy turned on the drill, I looked over there. When the guy threw something down, I startled.

TC to me when I spook

I thought that was so funny. Obviously very early on there was no controlling TC's spooking/explosions. But then for a long time, he was manageable with a confident ride, if I could stay calm he would stay calm. But now it seems like anyone could ride him and be petrified and he'd be the one giving them confidence. I've felt like that for a while with him on the trail, but he's always been a pretty good trail horse. Now I feel like there's nothing he'd really spook at even in the arena during work. 

Except bird shadows of course. But that's less of a spook and more of a hilarious pouncing action. And I'm okay with it, it makes me laugh. I'll just have to fully disclose that to anyone else who is going to ride him. Beware the bird shadows.

Crystal Clear

On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to have a saddle fitter come out to the ranch to custom fit TC for a new saddle and let me try it out! I feel weird writing about it (you'll see), so I've decided to not disclose the company name. I might just keep company names out of this whole journey. 

I'm going to first talk about how much I adore this company. They asked me SO MANY QUESTIONS about both myself and TC. They had me take so many measurements and actually had me redo them because I didn't get it quite right. The price for the fitting was reasonable and not only did they let me keep the saddle for two weeks, they offered me a rental policy if I still wasn't sure after the two weeks. 

The fitter was just brilliant. I learned so much about TC and about myself and what I like in a saddle. She had me sit in the saddles not on TC and then on him. She was able to custom fit them to him and make adjustments during the fitting. Generally, I so strongly recommend this company. So why the secrecy?

He is a totally different shape these days. I mean,
he is kind of fat, but given that he's in light work,
I think he's got a decent topline on him finally!

TC. Hated. It. 

How did I know? See his reaction below. 

I can't tell you the last time this horse reared! 

I have never had TC react so poorly to something. And the saddle fitter, who has been doing this for a long time and is so unbelievably well respected all over the world, said she's never had a horse react poorly to the saddle. We were both flummoxed. TC is not a horse who rears, he is more likely to bolt or leap, but he does sometimes balk (but not with a rear). But he was PISSED. This was after a few attempts at getting him to trot and having him balk. 

That was the highest he went. He gave me ample warning, he did what Rico does actually, where he flips an ear on me to be like "really, do you need me to be more clear about my opinion? okay..." and then he planted both hind legs, rocked back and came up just like that, and then came back down and trotted off shaking his head at me. It was all very controlled and while it did make the saddle fitter a little worried for me, I got to sound like a psychopath being like "nah he's fine, he wouldn't hurt me" like an idiot who raised a bear cub only to get mauled by it. 

What we got after a longe

I got off to longe him just in case and then I got back on and he trotted around a bit. We called it there, but I kept the saddle just in case. I loved the saddle in the posting trot, I felt so secure and so close to him. 

My theory was that he was mad at us for taking too long and riding him at dinner time. The fitting was thorough and when we finally got into the arena, it was windy, the birds were going insane, and he thought the other horses were getting fed. He generally likes to work, even during feeding time (we did that a lot at my old barn), but maybe the standing around, the wind, the birds, the fact that there was a new porta-potty nearby the arena (my parents just started construction on their house) just drove him up the wall and he didn't want to play our game. 

He's got more muscle in his pecs
now too!

I came out on Wednesday and rode him in the trail saddle I've been riding him in that I know he likes. He was great at walk and trot but balked into canter. Innnnteresting. I got off and longed him again and did a bunch of trot to canter transitions, then just took him in. I started panicking slightly that maybe he's hurt, maybe he's sick, maybe his feet hurt, maybe maybe maybe. 

I chatted with Kate about it and debated whether to give him bute and ride him on Thursday to see if I could at least eliminate pain. I decided against that, but decided to take my clicker with me, longe him first, click for forward, and just try to ride in the saddle again. It's literally custom fit to him, he IS sound, he can give me ten minutes so I can see how it goes when he isn't annoyed at being taken out late or whatever. 

This all worked great, he was much more forward and only balked a little bit at the walk. I clicked for go and he was quite forward. We did some posting trot again and I was bummed that he had been balky because the saddle felt amazing again. If I could clone that seat and slap it onto whatever saddle I end up with, I'd do it. 

Way more symmetrical!

Then, and I'm so glad I did this, SO GLAD, I sat his trot. I don't sit his trot right now, he's too weak, I'm too weak, it's all bad. I don't know why I decided to do it. 

My back immediately was like NO WAY NOT GOING TO WORK. I sat the trot for maybe 8 seconds each way and my back did not like it at all. I have no idea why! I have some theories but don't want to get into any of them because it doesn't matter. 

My back is SUPER picky and obnoxious. If I knew this about my back when I first got injured, I could have saved myself so much pain. Just riding in a saddle where the seat is slightly different or the balance is slightly off can have me fucked up for weeks. 

So, it doesn't matter why TC was weird that day, we can't get this saddle. I still don't know why he's been a bit balky, I'm sure lots of people might be wondering about him holding a grudge about that first day but he just isn't that horse. I don't know and I don't care, we're back to being saddleless so I'll do some long lining work with him and some trail riding and figure it out later. He's gone through phases where he balks, it's not an unusual behavior for him. 

This is so exciting to me, this is his
right shoulder that was jammed down
and it's now almost the same height
as his left shoulder!

So I'm bummed. I love this company, I love the saddle fitter, I love their policies, it doesn't make sense to me why TC said no so aggressively and why my back hated it. 

Now I'm back to the drawing board. I've been talking to Jen a TON and do have the information for the saddlery she is using. I'm not two-years-into-looking desperate yet so I'll be trying some local saddlers first. 

So far, I think TC wants this: 

- lots of shoulder freedom (short tree points? or flexible ones? or angled ones? don't know)

- stability behind the saddle

And I definitely need this:

- super narrow twist

- more angled/horizontal thigh blocks

- stability under the saddle and behind the saddle (aka not treeless)

I'm going to start going insane and bringing everyone out to my barn. Everyone. And if anyone has any saddles they'd recommend, let me know! 

Breathing

I had a jumping lesson last week that was pretty interesting. Without a dressage trainer, I've been trying to utilize my jumping lessons as a time to get some excellent eyeballs on my position and effectiveness and then also to, you know, enjoy jumping. 

Kate asked me what I'd been pondering for the last two weeks (we skipped last week because Flounder was off being an adorable hunter pony) and I told her my core! I'd worked out the day before and the trainer had asked me if I was doing a bunch of core work. I said absolutely not, I have been doing probably the least amount of core work that I've ever done. Not riding TC much, only sitting the trot occasionally on my client's horses, not doing nearly enough working out between sessions. But he said my core looked strong. 

I thought that was interesting because a few weeks ago, Kate pointed out that I don't use my core over fences, I tighten my lower back and let my abs dangle from my back. 

The one picture I took that day,
Flounder's mane was cute

She had me warm up over a small course of cross rails and I was to growl/make noise a la Mary Wanless to make sure that my core was engaged. I could NOT make my voice particularly loud, like I thought I was being loud enough but Kate couldn't hear me. That and me having to take giant breaths to recover after a short and easy course made Kate ask about my breathing. 

This immediately brought me back to TC. My new bodyworker lady says that TC rarely takes deep breaths and I have been noticing that I, too, do not take many deep breaths, just kind of throughout my life. I don't honestly know why. I get enough oxygen, obviously, I have not passed out yet, but I breathe really shallowly. I've been working hard on breathing more deeply around him and praising him when he takes deep breaths, but it's really hard for me to focus on breathing in a different way than I normally do. 

Back to Flounder, Kate wanted me to canter on a circle over a cross rail and do box breathing with the canter. I was to inhale for four strides, hold my breath for four strides, exhale for four strides, hold my breath for four strides, and rinse, repeat. I was fairly successful until I saw... nothing. Flounder is great and will always jump even if the distance is terrible, but I immediately lost my box breathing. 

We stopped and chatted about that. How when I see things that I don't like coming, I hold my breath, and what that means to the horse. We started talking about holding breath during riding in general, something I see my students do in the dressage during movements (and then they get sloppy between movements as they catch their breath). Why does one hold their breath though?

He was running away from birds and looked fancy

Well, I squatted the day before and I always take a deep breath at the top and hold it during the squat. That increases my internal pressure and therefore provides me with stability because holding ones' breath does to the fascial net the same thing that engaging one's core does. That's super helpful in weight training. 

Except that my barbell doesn't care if I'm breathing or not. It sits heavily on my traps and doesn't think too hard about why I'm holding my breath. Flounder, and TC, and horses in general, DO think about why I'm holding my breath. If a horse is out in a herd and one horse gets super tense and stops breathing, the other horses are going to notice and might look around like "what is he worrying about" so there I am on the back of TC, breathing shallowly, wondering why he won't just relax and take a deep breath. Wondering why Flounder loses confidence in me when I hold my breath when I don't see a distance. 

We ended on a really great note with a short 2'6 course with me aiming to exhale as we took off from the fence and inhale upon landing. The best fences with the best stability in my position were the ones where I got my breathing to coordinate with what we were doing. Flounder felt amazing over the last fence in particular when I figured it out. 

We both need to breathe!

I then went to ride TC and found myself breathing shallowly through the first half of my ride. I stopped and did more box breathing, then went into the canter and did the same exercise I did with Kate. Upon coming back into trot, TC's stride opened up and I could feel his back swinging more and more. 

I must have looked absolutely absurd breathing so aggressively, but who cares, TC certainly didn't! And when we got back to the barn, he took several big deep breaths, one in the cross ties, one while getting hosed down, and one when I put him back into his stall. 

I'm definitely super interested in continuing to see how this affects TC. I've been clicking for deep breaths from him but I think I need to figure out how to get myself used to breathing deeply too! I think some yoga or meditation or something that forces you to think about breathing is in my future. And hopefully that encourages TC to find his breath too. Poor guy, I might have been low key telling him that the world is a scary place when I really was just trying to find stability in my position or trying to focus on something. 

Improved Ponying!

So, ever since I ponied Rico last week, every day that I've gone to get TC and take him out for rides or long lining, Rico has come in and stared me down while I tacked up. Then when I haven't brought him with us, he then walks slowly down to the pasture looking kind of bummed. After the second time this happened, I decided that Rico has to come trail riding with us at least once a week. And on Sunday, I took him out with us again. 

"See ya later, suckers" - Rico

This time, I put Rico in the rope halter, left his fly mask on, and fly sprayed him before. I figured that would help with my control over him and I was wrong, but we did have more times where he actually followed TC, so we'll call that a success. 

I didn't go down the road and back this time. I opted to do the pasture loop twice rather than head down the road. I definitely had a little more control with the rope halter but not so much control that I thought I could turn around easily on the road! Maybe we'll do that next time. It's a work in progress.

That's where you belong, buddy

The pasture loop went better than expected at first! I think Rico got distracted and stayed behind TC pretty well. He only dove for grass a few times and I found that if I put his rope under the opposite thigh, I could prevent my arm from being taken off when he went for the grass. 

But once we were heading out to the pasture, Rico caught up to TC, passed us, and dragged us along this other path we hadn't been on yet. It was fine until Rico decided to point TC into a giant hole, thanks buddy. I couldn't stop Rico so I leg yielded TC into him and TC, whose bones are twice as thick as Rico's, just pushed him nicely over so that he could get around the hole safely. Neither horse cared because they're the best. 

After that, Rico was a little better about not taking over! Thank you, TC. 

All Rico wants is to be ponied into
the pasture and then let loose

The only other exciting moment was when we were coming back down the back bridle trail and Rico went to bite at a fly and yanked the rope out of my hands. I have to hand it to both horses, neither of them cared. Rico noticed he was free and immediately started grazing. TC stood patiently while I jumped off, grabbed Rico's rope, threw it over his back, got back on, and walked over to Rico to grab the rope again. 

I was lucky that Rico had yanked free right near a stump so I could just leave Rico where he was, happily grazing, and just move TC over a bit to get back on him. Anywhere else and... I'd probably have still left Rico where he was, but it'd be a longer walk to get back on TC. There are definitely pros to practicing a lot in pasture before we try going anywhere else!

My best boys

I'm so glad that this is working out to do every week! I'm already sad that I will probably be moving TC for the winter (we'll see but it's what I'm planning on) and eventually for good. I'm cherishing every day I get to play with them like this, even if the actual ponying experience could still be a little bit smoother! 

Horse Expo

It's been apparently three years since I went to the Western States Horse Expo! I last went in 2018. Then I had mono in 2019 and COVID canceled it in 2020. 

This year though, I was able to go! I opted to take Friday off to go so that I could preserve my weekend plans (as I didn't think it'd happen so didn't find out about it until I'd already made plans) and so that I could go with friends! 

While I was at expo, the SO rode his bike to the
bay and took this picture! I can't wait to go sometime

I didn't have anything major I wanted to get except tan knee patch breeches for jumping. Kate was at a B rated hunter/jumper show nearby and Flounder was showing (he placed in the 2'6 hunters with his junior! Such a good fish), so she said I could come take him in a class if I wanted to! I was very tempted except that I have NO showing clothes for jumping, and I've also only jumped him like four times. I told her next time for sure!

I figure if I do the jumpers (I am not a hunter and I'm a pro so no equitation for me), I can get away with a polo shirt or my navy dressage jacket, but there's no getting away with white full seat breeches (or bright green, or navy blue, or dark gray, or checkered blue, I basically have no tan breeches at all). 

Unfortunately I did not find breeches, but I did get a few other things! I finally picked up a ball for TC, I also got him some Equifuse conditioner (omg it smells so good) and rehydrinse. Plus I picked up a Hygain supplement, just a two week trial size one. 

This helmet actually fit me so I took
a picture of it!

I also sat in some saddles! There was a brand that actually carried the Butterfly saddles, but I ignored those, they just don't work with my back, which sucks. 

The one that seemed the most promising was a company called MaxFlex. They have a special tree that allows more shoulder flexibility, so that's helpful. Plus they hand make all their saddles and they were beautiful (and reasonably priced! $3,000-$3,500 brand new), really good quality leather. I sat in one and it felt wide and the block put me in a weird place. We spoke about what could be done and they said they could change the block if I wanted. That sounded good! I decided to hunt for a seat that wouldn't feel too wide to me. I sat in another couple and they were also fine. Then I sat in the one that LOOKED the widest and it felt really good! So I wrote that one down. I actually loved the block on that one too. 

I wished I could have just grabbed it but I'm still waiting on the EQ Saddle Science people and have high hopes for that saddle. But if for some reason that saddle doesn't work, I'll bring the MaxFlex people out, they said they'd be willing to come down to me (they're just a couple hours north). 

This was my favorite one, it felt wide
but it wasn't! 

We watched a few of the presenters in the afternoon. The dressage person was a bit hard for me to hear, so it wasn't that interesting (I mean, I see dressage all the time lol nothing against the riders). But we went to watch the same cavalletti clinician who I rode with in February! 

That session was fun, it was the same lesson/presentation format as the clinic I was in, but I was able to watch rather than ride. They did a great job getting a variety of horses, there was a horse who was clearly a jumper (who jumped the cavalletti the first time and it was beautiful), a cute little western horse, a horse that was a little nervous and tense, a horse that was a bit lazy, you know, lots of sorts! 

It was fun to watch how the horses all changed throughout the ride. There was nothing entirely groundbreaking for me just because I've been in the clinic before, but it was still fun! 

I also liked this so I took a picture of
it, if it was navy instead of black I
would have got it!

After expo, I got to see my friend's amazing garden and it was so inspiring that I went out and bought more plants over the weekend. Just herbs but I also talked to the SO about planting more things in the actual ground (I'm out of space in my beds lol) and he's game. Our house is going to be like the produce section of the grocery store soon. 

And after that, I drove home and went straight to bed lol but it was such a fun day! I'm bummed I never found my breeches, but my bank account was happy I didn't buy all the stuff I had thought I might (except then I went to the plant store saying "I didn't spend that much at expo soooo"). I still need knee patch breeches and some show stuff for jumping, but that can wait!