No Stirrup November: Week Four

This year I have decided that I will be participating in the infamous No Stirrup November, but I didn’t drop the irons for every ride for the entire month. Instead, I followed my own rules for the sake of my horse and myself.

Week by week, I have been documenting my adventures in NSN. Check out week one, week two, and week three!

Welcome to No Stirrup November, THE FINAL WEEK!

Saturday, November 22nd

• Today was my first horse-show-free Saturday in a month so I was finally able to do whatever I wanted. Normally that would mean a day spent at the barn, but my school was hosting a trip to New York City for the day, so my boyfriend and I took advantage of it. It was a beautiful day and tons of fun, a horse-less day well spent.

Sunday, November 23rd – Day 14

• I felt a little guilty about skipping the barn yesterday, so I made sure I went up to the barn at some point today. I stuck with a short hack because it was pretty chilly and the indoor was in need of a dragging. I did my no stirrups over some canter poles that we had been having difficulty with last week and a short trot.

Monday, November 24th

• No barn today (insert sad face here). Today is dedicated to packing my life away into bags to take home for break. I would rather be riding.

Tuesday, November 25th

• I stuck around at school long enough to ride Ax in my lesson before leaving for Thanksgiving break. Because most of the school had gone home already there was only two of us, each on our own horses, so the lesson was pretty individualized. We started with some basic flat work before moving on to grid work again. Coach set up two trot poles to a 2′ bounce to a canter pole followed by a 3′ oxer to a raised canter pole. The goal was to get Ax to push off the ground and actually jump as opposed to canter over everything, and to encourage him to lift himself back up on the landing. Aside from being a little pokey going to the bounce, he was perfect. No NSN today, but the AMAZING lesson made up for it.

Wednesday, November 26th

• Home sweet home! And snow galore! The first Nor-easter of the season arrived at our doorstep today which meant no barn time for me. Unfortunately, winter storm Cato was not so nice. Not only did it take away my pony time, it also took away our power.

Thursday, November 27th

• Happy Thanksgiving! Day two of no power in the house or at the barn, so no riding or Thanksgiving for me.

Friday, November 28th

• Moving day! At the end of each semester, right before finals, Ax comes home from school, this way I can still take care of him and ride while I am at home on winter break. Today was the day my dad and I had planned to go pick him up from the college and trailer him to our barn near my house. Unfortunately, the lack of power at my house delayed our start and we didn’t get back to the barn until the sun had set. Since the power was out at the barn and I wasn’t about to ride in the pitch black, my legs got another day off. Thank you shout out to my dad for trailering Ax and helping me move him back home in the dark.

Saturday, November 29th – Day 15

• FINALLY, I could ride again. The barn was still powerless, but I managed to get there with a little time to hack before it got too dark. It was short and sweet, but better than nothing. I was feeling guilty about not dropping my stirrups for almost a week, so I warmed up without them.

Sunday, November 30th

• Today is the last day of No Stirrup November! I was feeling a little sore from having a week off, but one must power through. I warmed up without irons before moving on to some over fences work. I’ll be blunt and say that it was far from our amazing courses last week, but we ended our ride (and NSN) on a positive note.

-TC