As Good As It Has Been...

First of all, sorry for the lack of blogosphere activity, crazy busy here. I've been reading but not commenting, mostly because I've only had time to read on my phone.

Anyway, big changes coming to Gali and me in the next month, but I'm not going to say more until I know more.

Gali got his feet trimmed early Saturday morning, but I had to head home before I got a chance to ride.  I did get to spend some time grooming him and he's shedding out so nicely.  It makes me happy, because I am fairly certain there will be a time when he doesn't shed out so well and is a cushings horse, and since he's turning 16 this year, every winter that I get a good shed, I appreciate.

I had no time to ride Sunday or Monday before I drove back out to school, and have been swamped with work for school this week, so I don't think I'll have a chance to ride until Friday.  I'm disappointed by the fact that I seem to have no time to ride when I'm at Rutgers, but I know that'll change this summer, and I'll be at the barn nearly every day.

In other news, since I've been at Rutgers I've been looking for ways to stay fit without killing my knees.  When I'm home I have the barn - but here, it seemed I was limited to machines, which give me a good workout but leave me in pain for days afterwards.  Last night I overcame my "I don't know what I'm doing here!" anxiety and swam laps at one of the school's pools, and I've found my solution!  I didn't look too ridiculous among the swimmers, with their fancy caps and fancy not-needing-to-breathe, and really enjoyed the workout.  I'm not sore today, but I am exhausted, and I look forward to swimming more as the weather gets warmer.

Spring Break Reflections

I've come away from my Spring Break with a few revelations.  The first is that if I find a place closer to school that has pasture board and that I can afford, I would move Gali up here with me.  I miss him too much during the school year.  That's a huge "if" though, and I doubt I'll find it.

The second is that he is terribly out of shape for the first time since the summer.  I didn't push him this weekend, but I've got to really revamp my program.  I wanted to show him 4/15 at DVHA's draft show, but I am going to hold off until 5/20, because he is so unfit.

I'm going to do some reading and think about my training program this week, and begin it next week.

A bolt is the cure for every evil.

Alexis, Lynn and I had planned a full barn day yesterday, and it ended up being the best weather we've had all week.  The plan was for Lynn and Alexis to both jump Max a bit, and Alexis and I were going to swap rides on Gali and play dressage pony.  Gali's been very well behaved this week, but I guess expecting him to be good three times in a row was asking a bit much of the pony Gods, as he was strong and avoiding outside aids for both Alexis and myself.  He's certainly been worse, and if this is his new "bad", I'll take it in a heartbeat.

DERP I RIDE A HORSES. DERP.

I really was no help to him yesterday - my paddock boots are out of commission (ahem, Lynn!) and I've been riding in my muck/lake/yard boots - which, while perfect for our swimming adventures earlier in the week, are really not the best to ride in.  They're slippery and lightweight, and I'm used to riding in my sturdier Blundstones and half chaps.  I know it isn't any excuse, and for hacking around and trail riding the lake boots are great, but I do think they contributed to my awful position today.  I had no base of support in my leg, and the instability combined with my natural tendency to be tense when Gali's got attitude, and his tendency to get tense when I'm tense, led to me looking like I really shouldn't be on a horse in the first place.

Gali was happy, though, for the most part.  His favorite thing in the world is jumping, and while he's not allowed to jump regularly because of his ringbone, I can pop him over a crossrail once in a blue moon.  Today, I let him walk over a few as part of his warmup, but I guess he doesn't see the point in crossrails if you don't jump them, because he just walked straight through the second one.

Figures, it would be one of the first days in a long time that I had Jason out to get pictures of my ride.  Oh well, it really illustrated what I need to work on (Sit back, have elbows and GTFO Gali's face, Kim!) when I have days where I get nervous and let myself get in our way.  As Alexis repeated from the ground all ride "Check yourself, before you wreck yourself!"

I hopped on Max for a little while today, too.  He was acting lame and Lynn wanted to see it from the ground instead of his back.  When he was on the forehand he looked worse, and it could be foot soreness.  Lynn's putting front shoes on him this week.  The good news is that when I half halted him, did some transitions and got him back on his hind end, the lameness disappeared and he felt great.  More position failture: I wanted to be off of his back so we could see if it was back soreness that wasn't letting him come through, and I was in a jump saddle.  I was in some awkward combination of half-seat and just a forward riding seat the whole time I was on him.

Getting some good work out of the big dumb.

Alexis rode Gali for the first time since the winter.  She's not a huge fan of him, because he's big and dumb and tends to take off with her.  To her credit, she does get on him and has gotten much better at bringing him back from his canter-bolts, which was something she had trouble with when we boarded together at Nouveau.  Her position has improved tremendously since she started riding at Centenary, and she looked a lot better than me today.  Gali responded appropriately and looked much better for her today than he did for me.

Lynn hopped back on Max and while Alexis coached her over some jumps, I flipped through the pictures Jason was taking and told him that I wanted one series of canter shots where I didn't look awful.  Famous last words.  I hopped back on my horse and walked him over to a spot in the ring that has very good footing and isn't too cluttered with jumps, and decided I'd do one or two more canter circles, try to look like I have been on a horse before, and call it quits.  Gali was getting tired and I wanted to end on a fun note.

Leaving.

I trotted a circle to get myself together a bit, and Gali immediately sucked back and played his "I'm done!" card.  He tossed his head down, threatened bucks, tucked his chin to his chest and braced against my hands.  When I was done laughing at his antics, I sat down and booted him forward.  He went forward.  He grabbed the bit and launched us out of the circle and up past the shed.  I had to laugh at him, though, because his "bolts" have gotten so much less serious in the time that I've owned him.  I did recognize that his fit was an "I'm tired!" protest, and after I made him trot a circle and down to the jumps and back (and he cooperated), I let him be done.

Oops.

Right about this time, Alexis hopped on Max to jump him over some crossrails.  He was a good boy, and because the theme of the day was "Let's not know when to quit", Alexis decided to take Max over an oxer than he dumped Bekka on a few weeks ago.  Alexis took him over a crossrail and cantered back around to the oxer, and the usually-brave Max put on the brakes.  Alexis didn't let him run out, and made him sniff the jump so he would see that there were NO tigers hiding behind the gate, and took him at it again.  Twice more he refused, and she came off both times.  It was the type of "fall" where you just end up over the horse's shoulders and land on your feet, and Max seemed perplexed both times when she was on the ground but still attached to his face.  In the end, she got him over the fence twice, and he leapt it like a deer both times.  It might not have made for the best jumping lesson, but I got some good pictures out of it, and Alexis did a great job sticking with his jumps despite how... well... you see.

More pictures and captions behind the jump.

Taking advanage of the great weather...

Photo-heavy post ahead!

Alexis, Bekka and I drove out today to play with Max, Katie and Galahad.  After a very nice short workout from Gali (that included some more great trot work and a slew of lovely walk-to-canter transitions) and some work from both Katie (who was on-point today) and Max (lazy pony), we took the group around the track.  I cantered Gali on the track for the first time in a while, and he was loving it.  When Bekka and Alexis decided to step it up and go for a gallop, I cooled Gali out and grabbed my camera.  After they raced for a stretch (with Katie solidly annihilating the lazy quarter horse), we put Katie away and untacked the boys, and walked them down for what was just going to be a splash in the lake.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on here, but Gali had other ideas and began to throw himself at the bank on the side of the trail.  Bekka and Alexis let the boys have their fun on the bank before taking them into the water.  While I was shooting, they switched horses a few times (because Max was more excited about the water than Gali, at first).  Bekka and Gali had a good conversation about a scary mattress at one point, as well.  Everything is illustrated behind the cut.

Spring Break!

My spring break began yesterday, and after a much-needed catch up dinner with some good friends last night, today was my first day spent at the barn in a full week.

My goals for today were small.  Gali is just two rides back from his month off, so I wanted to work on conditioning.  I wasn't expecting him to be Mr. Dressage Horse, but after our long and low warmup, he gave me some beautiful trot work.  We started off in the small ring to the side of the barn, but after feeling how nicely he was moving at the trot and canter, I walked him over to the larger ring to let him stretch his legs.  For some reason, he was more reluctant to open up in the big field, but he was still offering me lovely trot work, and I wasn't about to say no!

He was definitely testing me in spurts, though.  He'd be lovely for a circle, and then grab the bit and pop his shoulder and try to drag me out of the figure.  Luckily, I remembered to actually ride for the most part, and when I'd get after him with my legs instead of my hands, he responded well.

He got tired more easily that I would have liked, though, and a few times he actually started chomping his teeth.  He's not usually one to complain in that fashion, though I'll write it off to the heat and a "but I was dooooone" protest unless it crops up again this week.

I also took Max over a crossrail twice today, and looked like crap both times.  I recently oiled my boots (which aren't really the best for riding, anyway) and my leg was nowhere to be found.  Oops.

The weather is supposed to be lovely, and I'm going to be riding every day until I have to go back to Rutgers.

Call out the instigators, because there's something in the air.

It was either the wind, the coming storm, or a combination of both that had both Max and Gali in a tizzy this afternoon.

Gali turned up sound this weekend, so I hopped on more than excited to ride.  I really focused on riding every step and not letting him disable my outside aids, and after a few reminders about what an outside leg means (GIT. OVER. HORSE.) he began to make circles, instead of eggs.  His head carriage was a lot more stable tonight, and his back was most definitely up in the uppest of ways - I lost count at 8 bucks during our canters today.

This is more a quick note to myself than anything else, because I want to remember to keep my inside leg from sliding forward - when I could feel him underneath my calf, he was more likely to step up and stretch out.  I also need to get quicker on my releases when he gives at the trot, remembering the advice from Lendon that if I need to use my reins, use them in bumps, not constantly.  I tried to remember that tonight, and there was a clear difference in Gali's performance when I asked instead of nagged. Oh, and as always, both of us need to slow the tempo significantly coming back from the canter.