#til Check Your Tack, Fam

ZB and I moved barns at the beginning of December. I was trying to juggle a lot of travel commitments around winter weather, so I ended up moving her as a big winter storm was blowing in so I could be in town as she settled in vs out of state. 

rolling

Which is fine. 

We moved to a really lovely little place that fits our needs and goals. We gave up the luxury of an indoor, which meant there would be limitations on winter riding. 

Which again, is fine. 

rolling

I'm at a really cool place mentally where I can enjoy my horse every time I'm with her and there's no stress around what she should or shouldn't be doing or what anyone else is doing. I knew that winter/early spring riding was going to be weather dependent. I'm fine taking extra time doing stuff. I'm not riding 5 days a week and all is well. 

All of that, fine. 

she free jumped herself

This spring has been weird though. I've felt a little out of balance and disconnected. Things aren't quite clicking and I'm second guessing myself. I added a gut supplement and did a lot of ground work and everything I did was telling me that my horse was fine but my confidence was absolutely shot for some reason. 

That isn't fine. 

um hello shiny

I'm not about brute forcing things and I don't have a readily available trainer right now so I've just been kind of feeling it out. I needed a breakthrough. 

So I saddled up on a nice spring day, put my foot in the stirrup, felt the smack of my boob hitting the saddle horn a split second before my feet hit the ground and found myself staring at my slightly confused horse from next to the mounting block. 

Cough. 

there are a lot of buckles in there

This is a reminder to check your stirrup leather and make sure EVERYHING IS STILL ATTACHED before you try to get on. 

More importantly though--I'd been feeling a little out of balance and like I wanted my stirrups shorter, but western stirrups are a PITA to mess with and I'm not riding that hard so I just hadn't and figured I'd get used to the length that had obviously been fine before. 

And that meant I didn't change them. 

everyone say hi to this adorable muppet

Standing in the dusty arena seemed like a good time to address it, so I dutifully shortened that stirrup, then shortened and checked the other side.

And then I got on. 

I felt confident. Centered. In balance. 

I pushed the reins forward and trusted my horse. I owned my own balance. 

Since that day, I've been taking the leaps forward that seemed to be missing. 

also who thinks i need new stirrups

Just wait until you hear about the day I realized I was a Horse Training Goddess (tm). Full disclosure that one did not go the way I expected either.