Kick Start

This week started fabulously well with a new phone. The old one was brilliant and did so well, but it had taken four years of abuse and my spare one had been hijacked for farm use. Since my contract was up for renewal, I indulged a tiny bit in something with a fairly snazzy camera. Which, you'll see, I enjoyed massively this week.

Sunflowers pop up in the horse fields at this time of year since there are sunflower seeds in the muesli we feed. They were my wedding flowers and I love them.

Obviously Wynnie and Thunder had to be some of my first subjects. Their summer coats are metallic right now. Thunder was naked for a day after destroying his fly sheet, as one does during the first week of January when there are endless shipping delays, but he survived.

Thunder had schooled nicely on Monday morning, and Arwen worked on Monday afternoon. She is always a bit barbaric to lunge but I nonetheless enjoyed being dragged all over the arena for 18 minutes.

Tuesday morning Thunder enjoyed some pole work, the fact that his mother is useless at pole work notwithstanding. I bought these glitter boots for him from Bridle Boutique because I had no good reason not to. 

 Then he got dressed up in all of his new things. The gorgeous halter was only R300 including lead from Bridle Boutique and his fly stuff is Capriole.

Lancey also got a new fly mask to protect his lil pink nosey. He's great in hot weather but that poor lil nose sunburns worse than any other horse I've seen.

Tuesday was super busy in hindsight. Our lessons started on Thursday and we were busy getting the yard ready. Old man Carnegie had his fortnightly spa day, although not after galloping away from me for fifteen minutes when I dared go to catch him, DSLD or no. One of my favourite retirees ever. He's in his twenties but don't tell him.

Then another new retiree arrived, and the same box took Dawn to a lovely new home. Diablo is 24, used to jump the highest pony grades, and has arthritis and only one eye. I would die for him. He's really cute.

Then I cleaned out the tack room, which was basically a nuclear war zone after pony camp. This took the ENTIRE afternoon.

It was worth it even if Lancey missed his schooling session.

We made up for it on Wednesday morning with a long, long ride with EM on Magic Tree Farm. She took Flashy, and the intense heat hopefully helped the little bugger to shake off some of his megachonk.

Lancey was a superstar. We fit in lots of trotting and some fun collected cantering while Flashy trotted along. Anke was in hospital so poor EM was glad to get her horsy fix.

Afterwards I took advantage of the crazy heat to paint the tack room door with blackboard paint, a lovely gift from EM.

Things got hectic for the rest of the day so Thunder had a little break, but we started bright and early on Thursday with a nice lunge. Skye supervised.

E2, our work rider, rode Faith because K is on holiday. Faith has come back into work absolutely gorgeous and really mature in body and mind.

Renè  is still holding her baby hostage. She'll be vet checked next week but seems quite happy. I thought the day had come last week when she had a sweaty, uncomfortable episode, but it passed. Last year she caught me off guard so who knows what will happen this year.

The blackboard worked great once I'd written up the schedule. We're pleasantly full but not too busy. Grateful for the balance.

Friday was a super exciting day. Coach J came over to teach at my yard for the first time. I've been out of lessons for a long time and there was a lot to work on, most notably on letting the boys keep their necks up and open. With Thunder, that meant letting go of his face and seriously focusing on pressing him up to the bridle from behind, especially in creating a collected canter. "More canter for collected canter, not less". We got a few steps where things started to click for me, and then in typical Coach J fashion, we called it quits as soon as the penny began to drop for me. One of my favourite things about riding with Coach J is the lack of drilling. It has never worked for me and I hate feeling my horse get exhausted and demoralized under me.

Then I hand grazed Thunder and iced his legs while one of the lesson kids rode Shaila. Coach J, ever salty with me, was, as always, super kind and sweet with the kiddo, who utterly blossomed during her lesson and had a really good time. Shaila went home to kiddo's farm for the holidays and spent several weeks climbing mountains and galloping across open fields, and it really shows. She's fitter and stronger than she's ever been.

After this I saddled up Lancey. J was originally quite impressed by the sight of Lancey, saying that he looks good, even though I feel like he needs a little weight. He did show some signs of dismay when I admitted that Lancey didn't really do any dressage for the whole of 2022, just a lot of trail riding. Still, it wasn't horrible once we got started. Once again I needed to work on carrying my hands and pushing him to the bridle instead of pulling incessantly. My feel is a bit off - I kept trying to "make him round" when he was already connected. J also had us do a ton of transitions, both within the gaits and between gaits, to help me keep him more balanced and responsive. It started out as a bit of a hot mess but the transitions really smoothed out after a while. I put highlights of both lessons on Instagram @ridingonwater with music if anyone wants to look at them.

It was really cool having J at the yard, and I'm looking forward to regular lessons with him this year. I've been riding with him since October 2017 and I've always loved my lessons, even the hard ones where there was some crying in the tack room afterwards right in the beginning. He LOVES Thunder and I don't think anyone has ever believed so fiercely in my horse (and me) as he does, and that makes it feel easy to make corrections and do things. He really trains us as though we are Grand Prix prospects even though I'm an ammy on a farm horsie, and that's the attitude that's gotten us to Medium/Advanced already.

I schooled Arwen on Friday afternoon just briefly, and she felt fantastic. She is still really stiff, but feels nice and strong now.

Wynnie is at the tail end of a major growth spurt. She got a little ribby during this, but I let her, mindful of letting her grow naturally and not buggering up her feet and legs with too much concentrate at this stage. She seems to have evened out now and is putting some weight back on again, just in time for HOY.

That wrapped up the first full-work week of 2023, leaving me with plenty of dressage homework: carry the hands, ride back to front, push the bum down in collection instead of pulling the head down, and allow the horses more up and open in front.

I am massively grateful for the lifestyle changes that let me ride as much as I want to now, without the endless pressures of mounting piles of work. I'm also hugely enjoying a study of the Bible chronologically again - it was so amazing in 2021 that I couldn't resist doing it again this year. I'm following The Daily Grace Co's reading plan and podcast, which is always full of interesting insights, and currently in the Book of Job. I'm always astonished by all the hints of Jesus in the Old Testament, and Job is also such a powerful message on how NOT to treat a friend in suffering.

Wynnie kisses!

God is good!