Riding Recap: 1/25 – 1/31

Back when I did No Stirrup November, I chronicled how my rides were and what I worked on. I have decided to do the same thing each week to work towards my monthly goals and hold me accountable to actually accomplishing something during my rides instead of just hacking around on the buckle every day.

Sunday, January 25th

• I was a little apprehensive about riding this day. I had noticed what we later figured out to be Ax’s SI joint being a little funky a few days before and wasn’t sure if I really wanted to work him. But he was completely sound, flex-tested clean, and wasn’t sore so I decided to give it a go since the next few days were going to be barn-less. He was amazing. It was easily one of my best “hunter” rides in a while, meaning we stayed away from too much collection and lateral work and focused on coming over his back and his extensions.

Monday, January 26th

• Day one of Snowpocalypse and the temperature being a balmy 19 degrees meant no riding. Bundling up Ax for the storm was enough barn time for me. Blankets on blankets on more blankets.

Tuesday, January 27th

• Day two of Snowpocalypse brought 30+ inches of snow with it. Being the only person who lives in New England where Nor’Easters are a common occurrence and drives a rear-wheel drive, extra-long banana/truck, I was not about to plow my way through blizzard conditions to try to ride my horse. Ax was toasty warm in his blankets and so was I.

Wednesday, January 28th

• Sixteen degrees and the barn being closed because of the day before’s storm didn’t allow me to get to the barn for the second day in a row. The cabin fever set in quick.

Thursday, January 29th

• My afternoon meeting was cancelled so I got to the barn after class and it was still light out and no longer snowing! Knowing that he had a few days off, I checked for any soreness at his SI and found none; a good sign. I decided to ride and focused on canter and counter-canter work. Because of his “auto-changes”, every time we came to the corner on the counter lead he would swap on me instead of holding the lead which is obviously an issue. An issue that we have been working on for a few months with no improvement. Until today. For the first time since I have been riding him, Ax held the counter lead through the corner like he had been doing it his whole life. Yay!

Friday, January 30th

• Getting to the barn was an adventure. After trying for a good fifteen minutes to get up the slush-covered hill, I had to call the BM and have her pick me up in the Kuboda at the end of the driveway. We were soreness-free again so I decided to work on cleaning up our changes some more and ended up with four clean changes out of six with one of them being almost perfect. Pretty good for Mr. Bucky Lead Change.

Saturday, January 31st

• Too cold to ride. Sometimes I hate living in New England.

 

-TC