Winter Doldrums

 Winter is kicking my butt. The lack of sunshine sucks the motivation right out of me. Plus it warmed up just enough to turn things into an icy mess. But we got some fresh snow and I checked the ring and couldn’t find any slick spots so I finally got some video for my saddle fitter.

The saddle is 98% there (we’ve decided I’m stealing the flaps off my old saddle to put them on my new one and giving my mom some other flaps for that saddle since she’s smaller and easier to fit out of the used inventory). The other little thing is the left right balance doesn’t feel quite right but I don’t know if it’s me or the saddle so I really wanted to get video for the fitter to see if she had thoughts.

It was cold and windy but Karma was a very good girl. Including when I ditched my long jacket and it flapped in her face because the wind caught it when I was taking it off. Not only that but I also asked her to canter for the first time.

She has offered me a canter a couple times in the field, but I hadn’t ever asked for it. The ring is tiny so I let her make the decision about cantering through the corner, but she is feeling more balanced and stronger despite the minimal rides.

My riding frustrates me but I’m only occasionally riding a green horse, I essentially didn’t ride the first half of last year and losing access to the gym at work has resulted in my fitness suffering. Not to mention the total lack of lessons. I keep reminding myself she is only 3.5 and we have lots of time to get back to it. Hopefully by the end of this year we will be more settled and can get into a more consistent rhythm.

Looking Forward

Life has involved a lot of stress for me over the last few years and has been a large reason my blogging has been inconsistent at best. I have had so many poor poor pitiful me moments and quite frankly I hate reading posts like that so I just don't write. But I have the shining light of Karma and I do want to document her training, so this year I am going to do better.

I highly doubt I will be able to maintain multiple posts per week, especially since riding this winter just isn't happening. My barn is open 8-8, daylight is 8-5:15ish (no lights), my work has meetings with Europeans so morning meetings are always a thing. I could squeeze a quick thing in pre meetings, but I have a firm policy of not working young horses on a time crunch. I hate feeling rushed and think it leads to poor decisions and having to end in a less than ideal place.

So, Karma pretty much gets left alone during the week and I am being a fair weather rider on the weekends. I am totally fine with not much happening, it just makes for boring blogging. And I am failing as a tack ho because I haven't been buying tack. That isn't entirely true. I bought a bridle off a friend and promptly forget. Today, she said something about it and I am not disclosing how long it took me to remember what she was talking about. I couldn't even remembered if I paid for it.

In the interest of creating motivation for myself. I am actually setting goals. Terribly boring goals, because I don't have a way to haul and moving to a new state just before a global pandemic isn't exactly conducive to making friends. I need a social person to adopt me and tell other people to be friends with me (cough Leah cough).

Karma:

1) Keep walking on the hills

2) As the weather improve and crops go in, work on road safety so we can graduate to road riding and I don't go insane because I got spoiled out west

3) Baby leg yields and shoulder fore

4) Increasing neck length

Me:

1) Actually use vacation days this year (I have 5 floating holidays, 3 weeks of vacation time, plus 5 roll over days from this year)

2) Maintain a basic level of fitness

3) Move into a permanent position

4) Blog at least 2x a month