The weather has been terrible for the past week, so the barns been closed for lessons and lease rides, but it was -17 on Monday so we could ride again!
Unfortunately I got there a bit early, right before my coach was going to feed the horses, and it's far to cold for Tommy to miss out of food. So I helped her bring in the indoor horses and take of blankets and such.
So I brought him in later and he (or one of his pasture buddies) ripped a big hole in his blanket, luckily we had a replacement in his size. During his week off, he lost a bit of fitness, but wasn't as crazy as I'd expected. We didn't do much for flat work, I didn't want him sweating and after eating so soon before I didn't want him to colic or anything. He was back to carrying his head up in the air again, but on our Tuesday lesson he started to extend his neck and bring his nose under again.
Tuesday was a jumping lesson, and it was only -5! We did a small cross pole bounce and a long line. The exercise was for controlling stride length and practicing getting them straight before and after the jumps. Small jumps again, nothing exciting, but we did well. The first time through the line, we chipped and got a seventh stride, (it was meant to be done in about 6). The rest of the time we did get six, but while the take offs worked well, they weren't ideal. Over the first vertical we tended to come in a bit short and then took of long to the second. Not his typical crazy longs he seems so found of.
We have another lesson on Thursday, not sure if we will be doing the same exercises or not.
Sadly he still seems a bit underweight, and the cold certainly hasn't helped. He gained a lot back after he was moved away from Edgar, but not all of it. So he's getting his teeth looked at on Friday to see if that could help. He had them done a while ago, I think just under a year or so. Hopefully that will help. If it stays warm that would be even better, then he won't be burning so much energy to stay warm, but this is Alberta, and the weather doesn't like to play nice.
More sad news. The barn cat has been put down today. He was such a delight, so friendly and loved to be around people and be showered with attention. This last week it sounds like his health has greatly deteriorated, he was taken the to the vet and diagnosed with feline aids. It can't be cared by dogs, horses, humans etc only cats. So that's sad really sad.
As for losing weight/working out, my next 13 week sessions has started, so I'm back with my trainer and running a lot. I've recently discovered the Nike + thing on my iPod, and really like it. It's awesome for tracking work outs (if your workout equipment has an iPod adaptor), you can set challenges and goals. Right now I'm two runs behind my target and 230.67 calories burned behind my goal. Which is to run 5x a week and burning 4000calories in 4 weeks. However, I may not always be lucky enough to get one of the treadmills with the adaptor, which makes it a bit difficult, because I could be right on track, but Nike+ doesn't know that because you can't manually add workouts, they have to come of the iPod. Oh well, as long as I know how it's going that's the important bit.
Another big thing that will help is if I can stop eating when I'm bored and eat less carbs. I eat so much bread and pitas and crackers and not enough fruit/veg. So I've been making smoothies with frozen fruit and yogurt for breakfast, and more fruit and veg at lunch, and wraps instead of sandwiches. Dinner is hard because I don't have a lot of say, mostly my parents make pretty healthy meals, but I'm going to start making salads for myself as well. Start weight this time is 175lbs, and for some that's only 5'3", that's a lot. I've been told I don't actually look that big (thank god) but, I want to be healthier, I think it will really help when it comes to riding as well.
Hoping to post pictures soon, both of Tommy and my holidays in Australia, now that I've found my cameras USB cord and can actually download them on to my computer. =)
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