Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Spring Break



Why yes it is halfway through spring break and I'm JUST NOW POSTING.

The arena is finished! I have yet to play on it due to time/weather. But today is the day! I had so many plans and grand ideas for this week and yet..I've done none of them. Today is my only day off from work besides the weekend and I do have some lofty goals!


Also, I am still catching up on blog posts, but I've made it to January at least! It is my goal to be less than one month behind at the end of the week, so I better start reading.  


School is trucking along, but I'm 100% over it. I'm working with HR to make an internship so I only have three classes to take next semester before I graduate. I have final projects galore that need worked on this week, but man all the time I thought I would have somehow is no longer there. 


Time to spend my day playing ponies!

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Weekend Warrior


YAS MOVE THE SAND


So many good things have been happening! Like the above picture. The arena work was started! It is about 2/3 of the way done and we have pulled out a metric crap ton of excess sand, that has been happily dumped into my once crappy paddocks that were down to the base! Life is going to get so much better out here!

Anyways, I had quite the intense weekend! 

Saturday

Saturday morning after completing horse chores I drove over to CJ's to ride. This was everyone's first ride of the year. She had a light lesson planned for Sunday and wanted me to hop on both Aragorn and Tess (potential new lesson pony!). Aragorn was surprisngly great. You remember me calling him the mule headed thigh master? He was definitely SLOW but took some encouragement quite nicely! I forgot how much fun he can be, his big warmblood gaits are so unique. 

Thats about 2' deep at the center


Tess was a wild card. We haven't done much with her since CJ got her and this would be her first ride under saddle. I knew she had experience with lots of kids riding her but was more of an all around horse. As a QH and 13 I expected to be pretty safe. She definitely acts SUPER green but overall seems safe. She was very insecure in the contact and either bobbed her head down or latched onto the bit and yanked it down. We kept it basic with just a few strides of trotting here and there and she wasn't mean so so far she seems like a good candidate. 


Next I hopped on Evita and I was kind of nervous to ride her. I've mentioned her spooky/bolting behavior in the past and wasn't sure what horse I would have under me after a few months sitting around. Surprise to me, she was PERFECT. Definitely weak and out of shape but nearly the same as what I left off with. It felt like home being on her back again <3


I also got Mae out who presented with some soreness behind and opted to put her away. She was such a good girl though, but tweaked something while being an idiot in turn out. 
Later I went home to show my cousin my place; I haven't seen her in probably 10 years! She has kids now and overall seemed disinterested but oh well. 

Such a good mule head <3

Once they left I hooked up my trailer, loaded Merlot, and hauled a few minutes down the street to Jannae's house (who I just recently learned blogged! Go follow her, shes an awesome person and has kickass pones). Jannae was kind of to host me and my green bean since we are arena-less but the weather is so nice. Mer was kind of a basket case to haul and was extremely apprehensive to load but hopped on like a good noodle. He got himself in a tizzy on the trailer and was shaking like a leaf when I pulled him off. Once I tied him to the trailer though, his little greenbean brain was like "oh tying. I can do this" and cocked a leg and relaxed. 

So hairy but still the best <3

He was on edge again when I lead him the short distance to the arena but once I set him out on the line he got pretty comfortable. Being an adult is hard but I really like this guy is a diamond in the rough. He wants to try so hard, he is just terrified of the world. 

Sunday

Sunday I woke up and kind of felt like death physically. I had TRX Friday night and combined with all the pony shenanigans on Saturday my body was TIRED. However, I did have a personal training appointment with my favorite horsey-themed personal trainer. It was also her birthday so I had an excuse to buy her coffee and a piece of cake from the local cafe. She loved it and gave me a great workout. 

My cousin fed him a carrot and he just played with it in his mouth


After feeling like death warmed over again, I went home to do some homework and house chores. Luke and CJ were continuing work on the arena and moving sand into the paddocks. 


In the afternoon (yay DST even though I love sleep), I went back to CJ's and even though her lesson was canceled she asked if I would hop on the ponies if she tacked them up. I agreed because I can't pass up an excuse to ride. Aragorn was still being fabulous. With Tess we worked more on actually asking her to get on the bit with inside leg to outside rein. She got steadier in the contact and we avoiding some of her anxiety by riding lots of figures. 

Proving we can tie like an adult

Evita was an angel again, but got a little excited when we asked her to canter. Even though she can be a strong and intimidating horse, I actually smiled because it is refreshing to see a horse love their job so much. We got her relaxed and ended in some nice stretchy trot and she was so freaking proud of herself. That mare is becoming my second horse love (behind Ries of course). 


I'm really really excited to see where the year is going, but I'm trying my darnedest to kick ass.
SO FANCY! I think hes going to be a great dressage pony if he hates jumping

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Feb review, March goals



February Review

Fitness-Work out 6 times! Make it to the gym at least once. Prioritize 10k steps a day. Joined a new gym! Its all classes and you wear a heart rate monitor that displays on a monitor during the class. Its really fun and exciting to watch. I worked out 6 times. Goal met.

Horses- Ride all of my horses at least twice. Get started on Z's groundwork. Fail. Weather and other priorities got in the way. No rides. Managed to lunge Mae twice and was about to start riding both her and Evita and then a winter storm came through.

Financial-  Buy hay, use leftover money for credit cards. Avoid buying anything new. Whoops. Fail again. Bought a lot, what else am I supposed to do when I cant play with ponies? 

Mental-
Do one week straight of daily self care. Read a book (that isn't a text book). Color. Overall did better. Blue and green stars are water and self care.

March Goals 

Fitness- Consistently work out 3 days a week. Go to yoga. 

Horses- Pray that my arena gets finished (or even started at this point). Send Z off to pony boot camp. Get horses started back for the year and then kick butt.

Financial- STOP BUYING STUFF. Start saving again.

Mental-Balance my plate better. Even though I want to be a straight A student, just focus on graduating and spend more time with ponies or doing things just for me. I also downloaded an app to help me remember my daily things like vitamins, now to really see how well I keep track!















Overall some big progress in the fitness, but everything else kinda sucked. Even if the weather isn't perfect, I need to say no to spending time indoors on homework and yes on walk work in wet footing.