mud season cometh

It’s still winter, y’all. Surprise surprise. But I sat down with the calendar last week to spend time sketching out ideas and possibilities, and am feeling pretty good about things.

sn*wy biscuit

Or at least, I’m feeling good enough to not be too too annoyed by recent little snow squalls lol.

lookie guys, i’m getting better at a no-pull method that **doesn’t** involve scissors lol

Tho one howling windy night last week, I figured that sometimes discretion was the better part of valor and opted to do spa night instead of a ride lol. Judge me if you want! Doozy’s mane needed attention, tho, and I’m determined to keep it tidy without resorting to trimming with scissors like I did for Charlie.

she’s teaching me lessons, y’all

A former barn mate showed me a ‘no-pull’ method using a SoloComb, wherein you basically go through the motions as if you’re going to pull the mane: keep hold of the longest strands while back-coming the rest. But instead of then wrapping those strands around the comb and pulling, you just get the SoloComb as close to the neck as possible, then activate the cutter. 

good girl #coped with some chaos this week haha

If done patiently enough, it basically has the same effect as pulling, but without… ya know… the pulling. Which Doozy appreciates. This mare, I swear. She has strong feelings. You couldn’t even snip her mane with scissors when I first got her — she’d be so indignant, like, Bitch did you just CUT ME??

Like. C’mon Dooz. I know you feel everything at an eleven, but does your **hair** really hurt??? 

we had quieter days too tho

Ahem. Anyway. Our rides this week have otherwise been more or less ok. Some kids were getting ready for the Loch Moy Derby this past weekend and every night seemed to be Practice Night lol. But they’re cute and sometimes a little chaos is good for Doozy, so meh, fine. 

ooooh and we had our first field trip in weeeeeks!!

We got enough reps in to FINALLY get back off property again for our first time since right after New Years — with a trip to see dressage trainer C, yay!

i set up my helmet cam too, tho obvi screenshots are pretty potato-y

Trainer C is always really good about asking how I want to spend our lesson time together. Bc sometimes we are looking for help getting a test ready for competition, and sometimes we just want to let her have her way with us, ya know? 

For this ride, tho, I asked for something sorta in between — not actually running through tests, but more structure and raised expectations re: promptness for both us of. 

the video is pretty meh overall, but i’m including a clip below in case you’re innerested

Our last dressage test of the year at Waredaca was a bit disappointing despite Doozy being relatively relaxed and quite good in warm up. It just felt like we sorta whipped through the movements, with me reverting entirely to survival mode vs any intentionality. 

My plan had been to squeeze in as many schooling dressage shows this winter as possible. But so far… Well. No dice there, womp.

it was a good lesson, and the video helps with #accountability

So for this lesson, trainer C tried to help fill the gaps a little bit, with having us do more rapid fire transitions and shifts from movement to movement. We also spent more time using the full long sides of the ring. Key takeaways include continuing to work on straightening my torso — keeping equal space between my rib cage and hips on both sides of my body, and keeping both legs down square underneath me. 

link to video here

I get especially crooked when I feel like Doozy is getting away from me, which presumably only exacerbates her balance disruptions. 

#SadMareDiaries

Overall, Doozy continues to get significantly more rideable. I didn’t have the metronome going during the ride, but you can still see enormous improvements there — which have a direct bearing on her ability to balance and hold herself together. 

such a sweetie tho <3

She was a little less steady on the aids for much of the lesson — but actually that’s basically exactly why I wanted to kinda practice pushing her buttons a little more. She’s learning to have really lovely soft moments of carriage, but it’s a bit fragile and delicate — and easily disrupted by like, turning or going straight, or transitioning or…. staying the same lol. 

I wanted to spend more (supervised) time going through the various motions while still having the accountability of Trainer C right there to remind me to slow down or sit up or what have you. 

arghhhhh muddy biscuit!!!

Overall, time well spent imho. And hopefully if things go to plan (which like, we all know how that goes), I’ll be able to get back over there more often through the rest of the spring. 

Doozy is so clever, she’s such a quick learner and seems to appreciate ‘tasks’ and patterns… It really feels like she’s in a place to really benefit from more regular lessons. Plus, getting her off property is so key for keeping her civilized LOL. 

We’ll see I guess! As always... First we gotta survive all this mud OMG haha….