♣Ambitious♣

Since last year, I've been trying to find a running app that I like. I couldn't put anything on my phone because it had no memory, and I was limited as to what I could put on my iPod because it only has IOS 6. I guess the one perks of finally switching from Android to an iPhone is that I can actually do things with the phone. After visiting my aunt on Saturday, she recommended the Nike + Run Club. She uses it. My sister uses it. My cousin uses it. My cousin's boyfriend (who I am just now hearing about, what gives?) uses it. I probably have friends who use it, too, so I jumped on the bandwagon. It's a bit confusing to use, not gonna lie, but I'm also an old woman when it comes to new technology. My skillset peaked with the iPod Nano and whatever TV came before HD. I figured out how to set up a regular run and took it along with me. The app works just fine behind music and updates you every mile. First mile, the app pipes up "Time, 8 minutes 45 seconds, one mil...

So remember about a month ago when I tried out Vodka? Yup, riding that one now, too, lol. I decided that three days a week wasn't enough barn time, so I sent a very direct and probably kinda creepy message to Vodka's owner, but she was cool and let me ride him. Shout out to stepping out of my comfort zone! I decided to start out with a lesson just to get us on the right track, and I'm glad I did. Listen, guys, I've started to develop a pretty vague idea about what inside leg to outside rein actually means, but it's still kinda iffy. That being said, when I do it right, it works. Horse doesn't fall on the inside shoulder as much, less rushing, less tripping & funky steps. Stuff gets done all of a sudden. Doesn't mean it ain't hard, though. When you ask for a canter and just get fancy trot instead I lessoned on Monday, and Miss El made it very clear that in addition to pushing the idea of inside leg to outside rein I really need to do mo...

So this will be the last catch up post for last week. The show was a 3 day endeavor, and since Roman was leaving on Thursday morning, I opted for a Wednesday lesson just to make sure that he was set up well for competition. As usual, horse was very far away because if you live in a big pasture you might as well chill at the very back. Trainer had me do a lot of walking to encourage forward motion and get him loose. She said he ended up being really out behind, so I was interested to see how his movement would change. And change it did. No more sticky! He hopped right into his normal trot. There was still a bit of a warm up needed to get a good quality trot, but that's to be expected. It's looking like everything will be uphill from here (no pun intended). His usual post rinse ride sand bath The trot work was nice in terms of getting going. He was pulling down a lot more than usual, which is probably him saying "Contact feels bad, and my butt feels good, so let...

Last Tuesday, Roro got his hind end adjusted, and a lot was messed with, so my trainer said to give him the day off. Of course, "day off" only means I don't work him. Doesn't mean I don't get to give him the kind of unnecessary attention that I, too, constantly crave. Turn out is great, but my horse is so far away I mentioned a couple posts ago that Roman is always a bit sticky when we first go to trot. He eventually warms up out of it, but it takes an effort and some coaxing to convince him that yes forward movement is good. Welp, trainer decided to see if the chiro had any input, and long story short, he got his butt cracked a lot. Too cracked to ride. In any case, leasing gives me the right to mess with the lease horse whenever I feel like it . . . well, not whenever, but you get the point. I brought him in and gave him a good, deep brushing. Horse is very fond of deep scratches and sugar cubes. Also the hose. And my shirt collar, apparently. ...

So, we're up to last Sunday's ride. Um, yeah, it was pretty laid back. Tried and failed once again to beat the heat, so things were rather light. Roro is actually at his first show this weekend! Because of that, Miss El let me pick up an extra day of riding this week which I didn't end up using because the fam traveled up to Baltimore on Monday for my brother's 21st. Haven't even started and he's already exhausted Most of the ride was actually really good. Like damn good. Like horse is out here taking names good. We actually had a couple laps of completely relaxed inside rein with him holding himself, maintaining his pace, respecting my leg, and filling up my outside rein. We were even going to the right, so you know he was trying really hard. Truthfully not that bad for either of us Two struggle areas: the serpentine and the canter. Serpentine is meh because I'm still trying to be better about the change of rein. It's still kinda confusing,...

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Guess who's got two thumbs and has no idea how to make a timely blog post? After a super, stellar ride on Wednesday, I went into my lesson on Thursday feeling pretty confident. Wednesday was the first time my trainer has actually seen me on Roman since the first lesson a couple weeks ago. What a change, lol. Going places The very basics are definitely there. She had a lot of nice things to say about the elements that we've actually worked on. She's also happy to let him be more sticky at the start of the ride, but I'll have some more on that later. Rail work and circles are both looking and feeling pretty good, and the trot overall continues to get more consistent. Our hardest point was actually the serpentine, which pisses me off BECAUSE HE WAS SO GOOD WHEN WE DID IT OVER THE WINTER LIKE C'MON HORSE ARE YOU THAT OUT OF SHAPE. But anyways, I'm just confused as heck about changing rein and getting the new outside rein and it's hard and Dressage is d...

As opposed to quantifying. I think I've said this on here a couple of times, but I've never been one to spend a lot of time on the horse. I like my 5 minute rides, my 20 minute rides, and now I have my 10 minute ride. It's a simple quality vs quantity thing. Case in point, since it's been disgustingly hot, I've been forced to ride when it is much later. I basically mount up at sunset and make the best of the receding sunlight. Since last week's rides were in the good but not quite what I want them to be category, I decided to keep it really simple on Tuesday. It was 10 mins of pointed walk and trot asking Roman to seriously move forward, be soft, and then maintain that. Frankly, it took less than 10 minutes to put him together, but I wanted to go both directions because balance. The next day, when I went to do a longer ride, guess who was much easier and significantly more consistent in his movements??? Wild, I know. Miss El was out teaching, and ...

Held off on these until announcing the lease, but these are as of 6/30. Improve my equitation:  Huh, equitation actually got a bit worse this semester, but I feel like this was mainly due to stress. Regularly riding on 4 hours of sleep while also still having that obligation that is my education ain't the best idea. Continue to open hip joint and soften ankle: Tbh, no, not really happening that much at the moment, but again, much of the loss of skill can be blamed on lack of sleep. Strengthen my right side & continue to improve balance:   Ya girl has been  diligent . I'll actually be talking about this more in depth at a later point, but I still have some more exercises/stretches to try out. Exercise 5 times per week:  Didn't happen until I got home at the end of the semester, but I've been getting on myself. I'm back up to running 25mins consecutively without dying, and I've been pushing for 30. I also need to up my pace because I'm probably n...

So, I've got just under two months to work with Roman and turn him into a fit, respectable, and more or less marketable horse. The first part of that process will be to work off that gut because holy moly. Trust me, he's not pregnant, just fat. I've got quite a bit of raw potential to work with here, and fortunately it doesn't take much to make him look good. The biggest issue is him avoiding the contact which is 100% on me to correct. It manifests in either him going around like a giraffe (which I don't mind), hanging (which I don't mind too much and is the easiest to correct), or curling behind (which I H-A-T-E). I can deal with the head up or pulling, but hyperflexing makes my skin crawl, and it sucks to see him do it in the videos. Just like the other two evasions, it's my job to correct him, but ugh. I hate that it even happens. As always, forward is still a big thing and improving balance through building both of our right sides is a majo...

7/1/17 Started out on day one of the lease with a 9am lesson. I've never been too keen about waking up prior to 11am on the weekends. Roman was . . . well, Roman. Took an effort to get him going, but we had some fantastic trot work. When we went to canter, he got the right lead just fine. His issues from over the winter actually had to do with a bad saddle fit and not his on physiology. He'll probably still be weaker on his right side for a while, but not to the point where picking up the right lead becomes nearly impossible. When we went to the left, that's when the disagreements started. I only do trot to canter transitions with him for the time being. I was trying to establish a nice trot, he was too behind my leg, so I added some whip, aaaaaaand he took offense. We cantered, then I guess you could say we galloped, then we got back to a nice canter, then I couldn't get him to trot again. May have also exited the ring. In my defense, the reins on his bridle are sli...

Like a gift horse, but 3000% cuter.

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If I'm being completely honest, before I even went to try the last three horses, I was set on Hanz. He was the most experienced, he was well trained, he was safe. He had the potential to build my confidence without letting me slack. His owner described him as a horse that teaches, and he is. Teach me to not do that But after I tried him, I had doubts. They were based on nothing besides my undying fear of ruining someone else's horse. I was a bit out of it when I drove home and decided to go on a run to try to get myself thinking straight. Boy-o-boy, that did not work. I managed to convince myself in some backwards way that Hanz wasn't right for me and that it wouldn't work out and that the sun would beam down and incinerate me if I even tried to ride the horse again. Then I got home, started panicking again because oh no I don't know which horse I want, and ended up texting my friend in a bit of a frenzy to get her outside opinion. Prior to this conversation, ...

Just popping in to wish my American readers a Happy Fourth and to remind my British readers that America won!! me @ my tinder matches Jk, I love all of you equally. Even though the U.S. is currently in quite the rut, there are always plenty of things to be patriotic about. Such as McDonald's every day breakfast which apparently didn't reach Canada until March. Quick shout out to the journalists, bloggers, and news casters who continue to go into work everyday despite all the "negative press"! Politics over, on to ponies. Redbubble has 20% off sitewide with code FREEDOM20. Usually they only have apparel sales, so this is a nice surprise, and yes I'm getting another journal. I haven't posted much of my art on here lately, but I'll be honest, it's mostly not horse related. Such as these marbles that became more aggressive as I continued to make them . . .           Naturally, marble ponies were next: I also made the things below...