a week of things

Happy Friday, y’all. Let’s play a little quick catch up to get some photos off my phone before the weekend, yes? Yes. 

i swear she has a neck LOL

I took a whole bunch more photos from another recent hack with the intent to better measure the relative distances of our various little loops, and steepness of some of the hills.

mapping the farm, slowly but surely. gotta get that beta, right? also, look at that elevation chart, short steep 30m climbs, eesh. images and data from the AltitudeProfile hiking app

Mostly bc let’s be real… I’m just a junkie for gettin in the weeds on all the things, plus pictures obviously lol. At some point presumably I’ll want to find the best slopes (ie long ‘n gentle) for trot sets… But for now it’s nice enough just to have a clear estimate of distance and average speed.

hacking away from the barn around the little paddocks, bottom right side of map

And in the meantime, it’s kinda like a pictorial tour of the farm, sorta lol. Bc unfortunately I don’t have many pictures of the actual important things we did this week… whoops!

heading toward the Big Climb, top right corner of map

First on the docket was our much-anticipated saddle fitting appointment. As we suspected, the wool in my County Solution monoflap had compressed significantly over the last 6 months — to the point where the fitter could actually pinch the panel leather like you would a dehydrated animal. Yikes. 

looking toward the woods after following the top line (right to left) in the map, about to turn back down toward the barn

My plan at this moment in time is to stick to a somewhat more aggressive maintenance schedule for this saddle — probably having checks every 3 months or so for at least the near term. The fitter advised that narrow horses like Doozy tend to need more frequent adjustment anyway, since they lose wither/spine clearance faster than a broader backed horse. 

like so: indoor up on top of the hill, barn down below, then outdoor just barely visible beyond the trees to the right of the barn

We did a full fledged appointment this go-round, with tracings and a test ride and all the things, but will probably do what the fitter calls a “dry flocking” next time — just checking the wool without riding etc., and at a lower price point.

we love our pasture lanes

Theoretically as the saddle gets more and more worn in it’ll need less frequent attention. But for now I consider the expense as basically ‘cheap insurance’ given how strongly Doozy seems to feel about it and my general tendencies to overthink / worry / etc. Ymmv.

back home after a jaunty 2km

The most important bit for me right now is Doozy’s feedback — both under saddle and whether that weird little squishy bump reappears. Bc to be honest, Doozy is proving above and beyond a shadow of a doubt that… She’s not actually wild and crazy and fussy, she doesn’t actually have to leap around every few moments when the saddle isn’t pinching her. Goooo figure lol.

lol clearly we have our conditioning work cut out for us

And most recently, she impressed the pants off me by being honestly really super good for our first jump lesson in forever, including shipping out to a new-to-her venue. Good mare! 

mare demands payment for her exertions

The lesson was with yet another local 5* pro (there are so many around here omg) who’s been on my list for a while, and is now only about 35min away since we moved farms. For many reasons, the timing and circumstances are right, so we finally got on the books!

“garçon, this is not what i ordered!”

And it was a good one, guys. Like. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy, just good old fashioned tactical technical focus on rideability. Not super dissimilar from the work with did with Dom last summer, or from lessons with Dan back in the day (long timers might remember lol).

oooooh flash forward to our first jump lesson since september! and GRASS OMG

Good nitty gritty stuff like reminding me in real time, in the moment, of the stuff I *know* I need to be doing, but somehow don’t lol. Like catching that wayward shoulder, or bringing down the trot tempo, or proactively managing pace. 

aaaaand flash forward again, bc no pics from lesson. instead, here’s our fun bath time ingredients lol. i pledge to be better this year about rinsing with vinegar more often, but the chlorhex is there if we need it!

One big takeaway includes being more subtle in the contact variations between “give” and “take.” Now that Doozy is (slightly) more grown up, I can be a little less obvious. And she reminded me, much like Dan ten years ago lol, to not confuse “softness” with “effectiveness.” Her point was to basically not let Doozy train me to take the aids completely off. 

Another key note was to not rush through these exercises. We spent a fair amount of time trotting back and forth, back and forth, over a long line of ground poles spaced about 9’ — but with a higher degree of accountability for pace and tempo. And occasional utilization of a slight counter bend feeling to help straighten the shoulders. 

scrub a dub, mare!

The jumping portion itself was just a continuation of the flat work — keeping things boring, steady, unexciting. With circles to reestablish softness and straightness after every effort. More often than not, she had us circle to the left after each jump since our tendency is to fall right. 

Notes include a reminder to stay crisp and clear in my position (vs getting excited and making any big moves), and keep working on softening my hand. Normal Emma stuff lol.

all in a week’s work <3

All in all, she seems like a great coach and like she has that tactical technical style I’ve been craving. I’ll most likely still have to ship out for all our lessons, tho she mayyy be able to come to our farm if enough other riders are interested. We’ll see. 

Regardless. It’s refreshing and weirdly liberating to be at this moment in time with Doozy. We’re comfortable together, we know and trust each other even in challenging new situations… But I can still introduce myself as basically somebody who has been “away from the frontlines” so to speak for a few years. I’m rusty, I have some glaring imperfections, and my horse naturally reflects this. 

But it’s all good! The mare is such a trier, she will literally go as well as I can ride her, and it’s so rewarding to see those tiny incremental improvements from season to season.  

So anyway. That was our week, and we’re hoping for a fun and exciting weekend too! Happy spring, y’all!