♣Ambitious♣

So, we're one ride post my most recent Destello adventure. Some extra context is needed. The week that I didn't ride Fuego, he ended up being ridden lightly that day by the same boarder that I took a lesson with a couple weeks ago. After that, he had two rides that I know of. The first was with one of the younger riders who I've seen show Destello. She's very competent and confident. I assumed that the ride would be fine, but she, unfortunately, pulled too hard on him one time too many, and Fuego absolutely lost it. Being soft with him is a huge learning curve ; if he was a little bit more forgiving, I likely wouldn't have learned that lesson as quickly as I did. He was giving her sideways approaches and just in general not wanting to go forward to the fences, especially to the right. The day before my lesson, he had a flat lesson with another student and was foot perfect, as usual. They jumped a teeny tiny line of crossrails a couple times, and he was apparently g...

Onto the actual lesson. Destello has been oddly sluggish lately, and Trainer T has been trying to brainstorm why. Mustangs in general tend to be more conservative and behind the leg, but this has been a new development for him. Like, I literally had to beg him to canter. She tried him on an energizing supplement that she's had success with on other horses, but both Destello and Vali (the other mustang at our barn) showed no change on it. I personally feel that it might be a metabolic thing for wild horses. Would be interesting to see if others have had similar experiences. Besides earning the award of least motivated horse of the century, Trainer T commented that the flatwork looked pretty nice. He was soft and amicable. The lack of momentum tho came back with a vengeance over fences. Riding Destello means that I can both jump higher and do more complex courses with rollbacks and bending lines. Fuego has gone through a couple of the short, bending lines, but I don't even know t...

This lesson is getting broken into two posts because it would be a mouthful to have in one. If you're into weight lifting, you've probably heard of "training to failure." This is a method where you continue an exercise until you, quite literally, fail and your muscles give out. The idea is that you push yourself fully as far as you can go to ensure progress. It's a controversial method, to say the least. Alternatively, many experts suggest training up to the point of failure but never actually reaching it. This is the philosophy that I was taught with weight lifting. If you're struggling through your ninth rep and have the potential to fail at ten, this theory says to stop at rep nine. You've still pushed as far as you can go, but you've completed everything. Personally, as someone who has awful recovery 99% of the time, hitting the point of failure ain't worth it. Additionally, the psychological benefit of quitting right before failure works well ...

Merging these two lessons into one because they kind of build on each other and will roll into my next lesson, which will be separated into two posts. I had a late afternoon lesson a few weeks ago that was slightly time-crunched because we were trying to make it to the Grand Prix up in Wellington that night. Fuego was a tinge spicy to start out but channeled it into some great trot work. I showed Trainer T how the extension was looking. She asked how much I had to use my leg to get it, and I told her it wasn't especially hard once he got into a good rhythm. On that particular day, he was stiffer through his neck and jaw, so we didn't get the suppleness that I wanted, which my trainer made a note of. It's certainly something that can be developed over the next couple of months. From what I remember, the canter was unremarkable. He's a complete couch. Over the jumps, things just kind of fell apart, I guess. Not on his end. He was calm and steady through everything. Me on ...

January was crazy fun! Looking forward to what the rest of this year has to offer. Song: "UMI - Remember me [S L O W E D + R E V E R B]" by Jasmine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-ItnHRO6MA https://soundcloud.com/jasmine-323498271

These bad boys are still kicking I have lots of riding boots. Too many. And most of them are plain black, so it's not even like I'm creating different outfits or anything like that. Most were purchased for a specific purpose, but they're all pretty versatile. I'm very happy with my collection, and it should go without saying that I'm experienced when it comes to buying boots. It's a simple process. It's straightforward. Anyone could do it. Right? My smartest dumb decision Let me set the scene: the year is a distant 2019. It's summer in Miami. I'm a fresh college graduate. I have no idea what a Tiger King is and, frankly, still wish that was the case. My tried and true Ariat paddock boots were on their way out, so I purchased a pair of Wish boots partially for fun and because I thought they'd be a good alternative should the Ariats quit sometime soon. Much to my luck, the Ariats lasted through grad school and finally met their end at the beginnin...

So I hinted from my lesson a couple weeks ago that Fuego definitely does have an extension somewhere in his big, gangly body. Additionally, I have milked this image enough which makes it clear that homeboy 100% does have an extension, and it's quite nice, even if this was taken as he was amped up heading to a fence. After convincing him to move forward in that lesson, he came into our hack the next day and was game from the very beginning. I opted to use the Dressage whip because there was one lying around in the cross ties and I was too lazy to go grab my crop from my car. It was a cold, windy evening too. The thing about Fuego is that you can genuinely never tell if it's going to be a crazy day or not. He's certainly taught me the meaning of riding the horse you're on that day. Even as lots of brisk, cold weather has come through Florida lately, his behavior hasn't changed consistently with the weather. Even at the start of this ride, he was pretty spooky and look...

So I'm very behind on ride updates, but instead of doing that, here's a recap of a hunter derby that I did not even ride in and only attended to be a photographer and moral support. This can also be a little peak into what my photos look like prior to editing as I'm writing this post same day as the derby. I rarely share raw files anymore. Consider this a treat. One of the local circuits holds a derby a couple times per year. It has three sections that run both a first course and a handy with big ribbons each time. This is in contrast to how the derby was run when I was younger; we had an open card throughout the whole season. You could go at 2'-6" or 3'-0" with options set 6" higher than the rest of the course. There was always a high point for the day, both horse and pony, but you had to accumulate enough points to qualify for the finals, which were held the same day as all the medal finals. This circuit runs without a derby final, which bummed me a...