Four Mares. No Money.: When Beastmode Means Riding Two Days In a Row

Monday, February 16, 2015

When Beastmode Means Riding Two Days In a Row

Pony love.

Before I head off to my CT scan today, I will let you know that I RODE. Twice. IN A ROW. Now, for me, this is big news. I don't recall that last time I rode two days in a row. I think maybe October. And I didn't pass out, nor did I need to climb/fall off my horse because I felt like I might pass out. I got my heart rate up, and got some nice exercise in. Just so you know, another obstacle of Lyme is exercise intolerance.

Streeetch down dragon.

What does this mean? It means that I am unable to physically do things like I should, and after I try, I experience negative side effects. Things like pain, extreme fatigue, nausea, dizziness, etc. It also doesn't help that I have exercise induced asthma. But it could be worse, and so I will deal with it and do my best to not end up in the hospital.

My fav trot picture from the ride.

Enough of that. We are tired of hearing "woe is me". Let's see some pony pictures!

I had an itch. And I really don't like seeing those ribs.

Day one: Bacon had morphed back into a dragon. A racehorse dragon. That didn't know what being relaxed and slow meant. I knew this was coming, as I have increased her grain and supplement rations and she hadn't been turned out that day. I proceeded anyways. Cause I'm a honey badger.

Good job horse!

She was snorty and looky and pulling. Not my regular Bacon. But that's ok, I was riding. We did get some good work in. I tried to remember what Linds was having me work on last year. Posting slower and larger to kind of try to get her to relax and slow those legs down and hopefully increase the stride and power. When she wanted to pull too hard, I tried to remember to not fight back and give her some more rein. She attempted to chill the best she could, and I appreciated that. We also threw in some cross rails and a jump or two over the barrel. She seemed to like that.

Jumping off one foot again. Darnit.

Day two was a different horse. Calm, quiet, sleeping as I tacked her up. I was feeling sad and she must have known maybe. I wanted to keep it short and sweet if she was good. And she really was. We had some nice transitions, did a little lateral work and I rewarded her with lots of breaks and then some jumping.

Pastels for spring!

Nothing like riding around in the yard.

Ho boy she was happy to be jumping! The problem we were having last year was falling forward and flat towards the jumps. Her head would be down and we would almost always take a long spot. Soooo, this year, the goal is head up at the jumps, butt engaged and getting deeper into the jumps. As my husband would yell at us as we would be coming up to the jump: BALLS DEEP! Thanks hubs, Whatever keeps you clicking that camera.

Sexy horse.

Look at that mane!

Oooo a PS Bridle....

Compared to the day before and last year, she already had improved. Weight was shifted more towards the hind end and she was just so damn excited to be jumping. It made me happy. That's not to say we didn't have any ugly jumps, because we still did, but we had more that were better. And I'll take it!