Accomplishing Goals

aim high

One of my goals from when I first brought ZB home was to canter bareback through the pasture with flowers braided in her mane. 

Which probably doesn't sound that hard. 

But. 

To make that happen, these things had to come together:

• Let baby zb grow up with enough proprioception to move across uneven ground safely
• Develop her canter to something balanced enough to do on uneven ground safely
• Learn to feel confident and relaxed enough riding bareback that I don't just slide off
• Show up to the barn when the sun is up

And maybe to most people, those things aren't insurmountable. 

tiny barn dog not stoked

Ms. Zoebird is a lovely trotting horse. It wasn't until she spent the better part of this year in pro training and can comfortably do a first level test that I actually felt confident enough with her canter that I wanted to take it out in the field regularly. Prior to this year, she required such a high level of fitness to do it that yeah I didn't make it happen. 

It still never felt like something I wanted to do tho. I'm not about forcing my hobbies anymore. I can have goals, but if I don't get on and immediately think "this is a good idea", I just don't do it. Let's just say that when I sat on my very round horse in exercise tights, cantering never seemed like a super great plan.

I'm a long ways out of the trendy horse world right now, but I have a fabulous group of friends who kept saying "brockamp pad" like it was some sort of voodoo that would help me. 

I'm all in favor of voodoo, but 0/10 do long lead times on non-custom items. 

And then I found this:

Relevant points: PURPLE, less than half the price of name brand, can be at my house in 3 days. Sure, it's not the "THE PAD" but let's be real. I've never seen a real one so I won't know the difference. Worst case scenario, I end up with a pretty purple bareback pad. 

So that happened.

O HAI MUM

Naturally, I dragged Alyssa out to the barn with me immediately. 

warm weather

Hopped on with zero prep and went straight to the field.

don't mind if we do

And rolled straight into the canter

<3

It was the most natural thing in the world. 

cold weather too

It's my new favorite thing. We have a long, dark, cold winter ahead with a cheery purple bareback pad and a whole new toolbox unlocked. 

i am a leaf on the wind
watch how i soar

Mares are the Worst

I swore off all mares and especially black mares after the Hellmare. Mares were supposed to be loyal and personable and perhaps hormonal. I mean, I guess you could say she was personable in that she definitely hated me and made every day hell.

But now I have a black Zoebird mare.

What's better than a champion dressage baby mare? 

ZB <3

Having that same baby mare be the sort of superstar that you can also hop on bareback and toodle around on because you're working late and it's dark and cold and saddles are the worst, man.

I've never had a horse like her.

Now I wonder how I ever lived without her.

and how it took me this long to get her a nameplate

I tell myself that toodling is to keep her brain fresh and give her developing body a rest, but it's as much for me as it is for her. I love sitting on her comfy back and just letting all the tension from the day melt away. I can't get over her wide-eyed, enthusiastic enjoyment of the world around her.

O HAI ZB

We've only known each other seven months now, but time loses a lot of meaning when you just fit together. I'm excited for our plans this year. I love showing up at the barn every day. It melts my (cold black tiny) heart when she whinnies at me as I walk up.

#messyhairdontcare

She's everything the Hellmare never was.

I've never been so happy to eat my words.

Sagebrush Over Satin

I'm not feeling it on the horse showing front right now. I'm just not. I love riding Zoëbird at home and I'm excited about doing a series of clinics with her and I'm thrilled that I'm able to keep her in part training and that's all well and good.

But like. Nothing about a horse show sounds fun to me right now.

Oh and I've been watching Westerns lately and like.

godless. watch it.

I live in the west. And I have a ranch bred horse.

And that is a literal thing I can actually do.

SO WE'RE DOING IT. (Soon. Snow melting off the mountains as we speak.)

guys she's not even trying yet

Don't get me wrong here--ZB is a talented, good-minded, hard-working lady and the progress she makes in her dressage training every day is phenomenal. And yeah long term I want to get my bronze medal on her.

This isn't me abandoning those goals.

A huge part of getting Zoë to me was finding a horse that I could just flat have fun on. And y'know.

Whether it's our first outside right lead canter....



Or just hanging out with friends on a gorgeous day...



She makes me smile every day.

It's not a sayonara to horse showing. We'll get back to it. There are just so many other fun things to do right now.

I'd be silly not to.

A Very Smooshy Christmas

Good news internet: I officially have a barn friend who is down for random photo shoots. (I guess that's bad news if you hate totally adorable Zoe photos, but I sort of don't believe that person exists.) 

d'awwww

I also have officially the cutest Christmas pictures of all time.

SMOOSH STOCKING

Prepare yourselves to be spammed.

oh and happy holidays! 

Newton's a Bitch

Let's just take a moment to appreciate how I rode through C's antics for FOUR YEARS and never really even came that close to falling off.

hm that's sky

Cough.

Well.

is it douchy to post screen shots? maybe? 

So. 

After the clinic that completely kicked my ass, I spent a day crippling around not going to my barn. Then yesterday I thought a fun idea would be to toodle bareback (despite clinician being like MARCHING WALK NOT TOODLE NO) (whatever) (#toodle4lyf). 

So we toodled and chatted.

Helped trainer teach lessons.

ZB NOSE ON TRAINER LADY YAS

I was feeling all happy and confident and comfortable and like lalalala not paying attention.

Annnnnnd I thought Zoe saw the nice lady walk up to the arena gate, but she did not.

So she stepped slightly to the left like O HAI LADY I IS ZB.

comfy comfy couch

And between me having zero tone in my muscles and Zoe being roughly couch-shaped, I slid off the side.

Landed on my feet.

Grabbed mane to catch my balance.

Tripped over a ground pole.

Fell on my ass.

shame selfie. Zoe not impressed.

Giggle.

The lady was absolutely mortified (for existing, apparently) and I was dying laughing.

Zoe was pretty confused why I was not on her anymore. I smooshed her smooshy face, then got back on.

U HOKAY MOM

ZB WILL GET ON THIS

So there you go. Apparently bolting OTTB doesn't begin to unseat me, but slightly side stepping baby draftie is my undoing.

And yes, if I was sitting up and riding and MARCH NOT TOODLE and ONETWOTHREEFOUR, I probably wouldn't have fallen off. Oh well. Had to happen sometime. 

Doing It Different

Possibly you remember last month, when I ran my first ever half marathon with, uh, "limited" training and had some takeaways. 

Don't worry! This is not going to be a fitness blog, because that seems like a super boring thing to write. 

That said. Since said race, I actually have been training (better late than never, amiright), so it was less of a terrible idea when Nadia was like "let's do a 10k!" 

i love medals. also stella needs to up her selfie game.

I hope most of you are familiar with blogger Nadia--she's a badass distance-running, animal-welfare-working, TED-talking, all-around-awesome person with her own super cool baby horse that is basically Zoe's super-talented little sister. 

Anyways. 

I love how connected all this is--last time I ran, I talked about emotional awareness for myself as a rider and how my (lack of) training affected me. And see, this time, I trained. It was not enough, but it was more than before. 

def wore blerch shirt

When I knew what to expect and I knew that I was ready to take it on, the whole race was so much smoother. 

And I know that sounds like a super dumb thing to say, because like... obviously? 

It's the same philosophy I used with Zoe--go slow. Do tiny increments. Set her up for success. Never, ever surprise her. Just simple, methodical horsemanship.

one toodle at a time

 The difference the preparation makes is monumental.

I can't overstate that.

Anyways.

Because a 10k is such a friendly distance (SO SHORT) and because I (omg) actually trained, I finished and only felt about a quarter like death so I was like OMG LETS GO PLAY WITH ZOE WHAT A GOOD IDEA.

And Nadia is like "but I have no riding clothes"
And I am like "soooooo?"

post race stretches!

Because one of the absolutely coolest things about Zoe is I can literally show up and put a bridle on her and we're off on a toodle.

and that's how we did a whole weekend in like half of one day

Because she knows I'll never ask more than she can give. 

And she knows that because I set her up to succeed every single day. 

d'awww

I have bigger goals for myself than just finishing a given run and I have bigger goals for Zoe than just "getting around" a show.

Our path to get there is slow.

Methodical.

And so, so deliberate.

Life in the Death Haze

I'm lucky I don't live in the parts of the US that are being wrecked by hurricanes, however, I do live in the part that's drowning in smoke from burning something in excess of a million acres this fire season alone. It's basically like living inside a chain smoker's lungs.

don't you seen the downtown skyline? the mountains? i swear they're over there

Like.

The sun doesn't rise.

The smoke just gets a lil brighter.

And since neither I nor Zoe wants to die of emphysema, we've been exploring things to do that don't involve increased respiration.

so round!!

Toodling is always on the agenda. Bareback toodling, even. I can say we're being productive and working on my balance and staying in the middle while building trust and developing Zoe's walk/halt/walk transitions.

Or I can be real and say while those things may apply, I'm loving every minute of having a cool baby mare that I can just pop on bareback with no prep and toodle with.

she's getting a bridle a month at this rate. 

And this is me we're talking about, so naturally there was some very-appropriate tack shopping.

(Me: I need to spend less money.
Me: I will not buy a specialty saddle for a baby horse.
Also me: HEY THATS A GREAT DEAL)

I'll do a better write-up when things arrive. Promise. The stress shopping has been a bit... intense?

Cough.

And.

My smoke will go on, or what have you.

Which is why we took another day to keep it low key and play in the previously spooky indoor arena.


Question: what do smooshy noses not go on?

Riding Light

My apologies for the somewhat random absence this past week. I kept trying to do mobile posts and I can only conclude that the blogger mobile app is possibly the most useless thing ever created. It. Doesn't. Work.

So anyways. It was a busy week and lots of things happened, almost none of them horsey.

However, in between trips out of town, I squeezed in a photo session with Ellie. Here are a few of my favorites.

Loving that sunset light

We see you

I really can't pick a favorite

He looks like a stock horse

Always wear a helmet when riding your ottb bareback for the first time

 Not only are they beautiful shots, but I feel like they really capture where Courage and I are right now. We've been together over a year, but it's just now that we're really connecting and learning about each other. I trust him enough to hop on for a quick bareback spin and he trusts me enough to not freak out when I climb on from the fence.

 I was excited about Courage last year, wanting to see how much he could do and how soon, and feeling like some sort of failure if he wasn't doing things unexpectedly early. Now we've settled into a comfortable rhythm together and instead of pushing the limits of his ability, we're just exploring what life together looks like and having a good time.

Never Take for Granted...

Not without precedent

I thought we'd pinned down Cuna's on/off-ness, but on Wednesday he was not doing well.

I came out Thusday after work. It was hot enough that changing into stretchy pants didn't sound like  fun, but cool enough that I did want to check and see how he was feeling. I pulled his wraps off, threw a bridle on, grabbed my helmet and hopped on bareback.

Or at least, I tried to.

My leg was halfway over his back when the turnout horse galloped STRAIGHT AT US and the wind picked up. Cuna took off leaping and bucking through the barn area. I stayed semi-on for about three jumps and was unceremoniously deposited in gravel right in front of some guys doing work on the barn. Cuna made a few more leaps, then stopped to eat grass.

Guess I sort of deserved that.

I walked up to Cuna and caught him after convincing him that I hadn't, in fact, fallen from the sky and it was ok to let me close. Of course everyone in the immediate barn area had seen him rocketing around and they all came running because it was sooooo not a Cuna thing to do.

I was deemed "too unwell to jog" so my trainer jogged Cuna out. He looked oddles better than Wednesday (ya think?), but still not sound. She handed him back to me as I spit dirt and sand out.

"He's old and smart enough that he didn't learn anything from this, right?" I asked.

"Yep," said my trainer.

"Good. I still don't want to change and put tack on."

The rascally rapscallion!

We made a plan to move forward with and I fed Cuna cookies.

Yes folks, I just got bucked off my lame geriatric horse.

Riding Ninja Results Post!!

I know you are all super excited to find out who won the contest for the Riding Ninja tshirt. Before we discuss that, let me share some shots by the indomitable Alyssa who documented the supermodel and myself with our Ninja gear.

Guess she was right.

We got all crazy and did a bareback shoot. Cuna thought it was an incredibly horrible idea and I was about in his camp, but Alyssa thought it would be cute.

It was not as uncomfortable as I expected and Cuna looks adorable.

So classy.

Sporting our Riding Ninja garb. How classy are we?
















Cuna checks out the ninja hoodie. He is impressed. 

















We plan the next shot together.











This one is my favorite.

So there you are! Authentic Cuna photos modeling the sweet Riding Ninja hoodie. Want this exact model? It's a limited edition, but there are lots of other sweet options at the Riding Ninja store.




Drumroll if you please.... thanks to a truly random process*, the winner is... Katie of 'My Huck Friend'. Please contact me, Katie, and we'll get you set up with your sweet prize.

Thanks to everyone for participating! I am going to wrap up the 'Tis the Season (for April Fools) contest this week, but first I have to do another post so SOMEONE will quit withholding a Cuna pic from me.

*I made a list of entrants, assigned them all numbers, randomly drew three numbers, and had someone who had no idea what I was doing choose 1,2, or 3.

Progress!

After two horrid and barn-less days, I skipped out of work this morning because I HAD to ride. (Ugh. Life sucks a lot sometimes.) Anyways. Izzy was a superstar. As always.

I lunged her first to see what she would be like. As usual, she wasn't super forward and didn't think she needed to respond to my voice commands for upward transitions. Grr. I told her to trot, and when she didn't, I jumped at her and yelled. She took off bucking, but also got the message. Much better pony after that.

I was actually nervous about getting on, partly because I haven't ridden for (gasp!) 2 days and partly because of other sucky stuff (that I will talk about in a future post when it is figured out) that is going on in my life. Fortunately, Izzy is now a pro and totally took care of me. She was quiet, relatively attentive, and so, I don't know, comfortable.

I could really feel a difference in my riding even with just two days of walking bareback. My thighs were loose and relaxed instead of clamped down. My aids were more clear and soft and I actually felt quiet secure. I was acle to distribute my weight through my body instead of just bracing against my irons.

We didn't do anything hard. We just w/t/c both ways and did some figure eights and then reinforced the halt/back without any hand that we'd worked on bareback. The most exciting part for me was that because I was actually able to relax my body, I had a great time and wasn't totally out of breath at the end like I've been lately. YAY!!

I needed that ride.

Bareback Round 2

Izzy and I went for another bareback ride yesterday. We used our spiffy new sidepull with cool white roping reins. Funny thing: I don't think they planned for a 16.0 HH warmblood when making the reins. They are just barely long enough for her. It's probably a good thing.

Honestly, I don't think she's wild about this whole experiment. She's been ok, but she just seems to prefer the solidity of a bit and saddle. She likes structure, what can I say?

Her objections have been somewhat minor so far (some head tossing and anxious moving around) and I think she's adjusting. Next time I ride, which won't be until tomorrow or Thursday unfortunately, we'll use the bridle and dressage saddle so we can do some actual work. I admit, I'm too chicken to trot bareback yet.

I felt a lot better riding yesterday. I was much more stable and able to stay balanced. I'm still working on really relaxing through my whole body and actually trusting Izzy more. It's a work in progress. I've noticed that when I apply my outside turning aids, I tend to also clamp down with my inside leg, so instead of saying "please step sideways", my aids are saying "BHWAAAAA!!! DO SOMETHING NOWW!!!"

No wonder she was having trouble with me.

So. I'm trying to simplify my aids, relax, and clarify what I mean. To do this, we worked on figure eights with intermittent halts. I tried to keep my body (especially hips and legs) loose and relaxed. I did my best to apply my leg without tension--which is hard to explain. I tried to be conscious of what my whole body was doing so that when I did something, it actually meant something.

Overall, I'm quite happy with our progress and I look forward to continuing it throughout the winter.