Gody

It was actually a couple weeks ago now that I rode Gody, it's midterm time at university, so I don't have much time for anything fun.

I was spoiled with Java, I thought I'd actually not lost that much fitness... JUST KIDDING! I was dying on Gody, my legs have never hurt so badly from riding before, it was exhausting! He takes soooo much work and K's instructions are sometimes conflicting, so you have no idea what the hell she wants you to do. Fun. So we didn't have much success with his lengthened trot or keeping a nice canter, got to start doing some squats or lunges.... We did have a good jumping round however, so that slightly made up for the crap flat work. I would like to have another opportunity to ride him, but we'll see how it goes.
I'm hoping to go see him tomorrow but I have an exam on Friday and because I'm a model university student, I've gone to about 3 or 4 of those classes. Yay. It could be interesting but the prof is so terrible, I always fall asleep so its better to just use the text book.
But once these terrible exams are finally over, I shall hopefully be back out at the barn and will have sometime to start working out again and will not feel like dying when riding a horse that actually require some effort to work with.

First Incounter With The Red Ball

I rode Java again on Thursday and it was the first day that we rode with the ball in the ring. So it could have been very exciting, but it was not. She could not have been less fazed by it. She didn't care when we walked up to it, she'd sniff it but that's it. She didn't even look when it was next to a jump we went over. Percy would knock it around with his nose and Zander was not even remotely pleased to see it. It's probably going to be a bit of a challenge to get her to play with the ball when she's so uninterested in it.

She was much peppier for me that she usually is during the flat part of the lesson. When we did the warm up exercise of  trotting an X rail, land cantering, trot before the cavaletties, she would not trot. We did it about five times in totally and she could canter the whole thing every time! It was incredibly frustrating. When it came time to do the course (yes! A whole course in a winter lesson! Most rare!) she did spectacular! We got all our distances, didn't get popped forward or left behind and didn't catcher in the mouth! It was a lot of fun, and she did really well! I also can still count strides accurately up to a jump, so I'm pleased not to have lost that ability!

Java 2

I rode Java again tonight, and she was delightful again.

She started off her normal self, relaxed but still energetic. She has such a nice trot and when she actually goes on the bridle, it's fantastic but every once in a while, you'll be going along great and then she'll tuck her head right to her chest and you lose contact with her mouth and then five seconds later she'll bring her head back up. She did this fairly often a couple years ago and her owner has worked with her a lot and gone through loads of different bits to find one that's comfortable for Java. She actually has a ridiculous number of bits, they bag they're in weights at least 5lbs. I think she now has her in a french link snaffle (I've already forgotten even though I just saw it tonight) and she goes very well with it.

So even though she started out great at the walk and trot, she was way peppier than usual at the canter. Much more like she is with L, where she'd just rather keep cantering and you have to work harder to keep her at sane pace so that you can still circle and not be out of control. Once we started jumping she really settled down though.

Today we had a bounce to a one stride along one long wall and some pylons to weave through on the other long wall. We started with just the bounce and later added the one stride and after we completed the jumps we brought them back to a working trot and weaved through the pylons. The one stride was adjusted to be an easy take off for the horses and then it was made to be slightly long, and then slightly short and we had to adjust depending on length. It actually went much better than I thought it would and I'm quite pleased that I can still count strides to a jump (to the whole grid, not just the one stride ha ha).

Next week we'll be doing a full course and have the big red horse soccer ball in the ring at some point! The end goal is to be able to play horse soccer with it but only a few of the horses are not scared of it right now, so it should be a very interesting lesson.

Java

First ride in four months and I had the choice between Gody and Java, so obviously going to pick Java! She's my friends 8yr old quarter horse/paint mare and she's always so much fun! She picks up on the personality of the rider and reacts to it, for me and K she's nice and relaxed but for L and the girl who leases her have much "stronger" personalities so she reacts to that as well.

She was really good today but we didn't do a whole lot since I haven't ridden in so long and it's cold and snowy so we didn't want to get her sweaty.

The exercise was to go over 6-8 trot poles in the two point and just let the horse do whatever they wanted and you just stayed still. It's meant to build trust, especially over jumps. You don't get in their way and they don't have to worry about it. For the jumping part she made the middle X rail and then we did that a few times, added on the second one behind it and eventually the third in front was a vertical. For the most part things went really well but at the same time it hard to really judge that since the jumps were so small and there was only three. But it was a lot of fun and I'm happy to finally be back at the barn!

She's not sure who I'll ride next Saturday since the girl leasing Java might be back by then. In which I'll probably be stuck with Gody and he takes so much work to get going haha. Hopefully I won't be  stiff tomorrow.

Saturday Lesson

Heard back from K and there is an open spot for a jumping lesson this Saturday and next Saturday and then Thursday evenings starting in January, although she isn't sure who I'd ride in the Thursday lessons but that she would work something out! =D

Riding Again!

 Or so I hope.

I've contacted K about riding again and just doing a weekly lesson rather than leasing, at least for the winter term, so I just have to wait to hear back if she has room in the lesson times I can make and if she even has a horses. I'm hoping for Rocky, but since Kokanee usually stays inside in the winter, I wouldn't object to him either. No standing around trying to towel dry him after lessons! We'll see. I'm not sure what I'll do if she doesn't have room/a horse, I could go somewhere else for a few months I guess. There's a place actually like a 30min walk (yes, walk!) from the place I live at in the city during the uni terms but 1. it's more expensive 2. you can really only walk there when there's no snow since there's a very steep hill that's rather dangerous to walk down during the winter 3. it's kind of falling apart (or it looks like it from the outside) 4. I'd feel bad riding somewhere else but maybe there isn't going to be a choice 5. i don't know anyone there

To Show or Not

Hoping to be back at the barn by the middle of November if not sooner! Not leasing yet though, she has changed the prices for pretty much everything so we are just going to do the "pre pay for 5 lessons" (which costs as much as the lease did originally), then when April comes around and exams are finished, I'm hoping we'll be able to start leasing again until September or so. Since I'll probably still be at the liquor store I should be able to get a few days completely off so that I can ride, and with any luck show.

If I do get to show this summer depends on a few things, like the lease price, I can't remember what it is now, but it did increase significantly. So whether or not my dad still wants to help out paying for shows and for some of the lease since there's zero chance he'll pay for the whole thing with what it costs now. At least if I'm thinking of the right price.

It also is going to depend on the horse. Showing Kokanee is not an option. He's a sweet horse, with a great jump, but he looks lame!!  His back left hip muscles are really stiff so when you're trotting/warming up he kind of hobbles along until he loosens up, so it looks like you're going to try and   make your lame horse go around a 2'6" course. ...You'd probably be disqualified in some shows actually...
Rocky, I don't know if K even wants him to be shown since he's like 18. Which is another good reason not to show him! Light jumping lessons are fine, but a whole day at a show... if you did one class I suppose that would be okay, but even then, they have 3 divisions, which I suppose would be like a lesson if you had three go's around a course.

I'm not even sure if I want to show regardless of the horse. Maybe if it was Pony or even Spencer (without W messing him up of course) then it would something to consider, but clearly that is not the case. Most of the time I don't mind not doing a lot of showing but then you go to Amberlea or the River Valley Classic to watch/help out a friend who is competing, and it's like wow, I wish I could ride in this too damn it. But for both of those shows you kind of need a certain type of horse, which Kokanee isn't and Rocky isn't quite that anymore.
Rocky actually could do pretty well, despite being old and having bench knees and being a pony, because he will jump anything from nearly any angle and has these fantastic sharp turns....I do miss him!!

So I guess we're going to have to wait and see what happens over the winter, next term does look a bit better for riding time...sort of. Usually it's work that gets in the way, not school and I'm not sure how much she can move shifts around when you only work 3 days a week, there's not a lot of options. Plus, I don't really want to give up my already limited number of hours because travel isn't cheap and neither is university abroad...and possibly showing now to haha. We make surprisingly good money at the store, well over minimum wage, but when the max time you can work is roughly 22 hours, it kind is not enough money...because I also like to shop and buy way to many books!
On an excellent note though, I am down about 3lbs this week, so hopefully I shall be able to keep this up and see an improvement in my riding ability! Whenever I make it back out to the barn that is....