OTTB Charm

Okay so this is a better review of my lesson the other day without me being entirely focused on the few minutes of galloping racehorse I had. And giving myself a little more of a break than I was giving myself the other day. Because we actually did get a lot of great work done in our lesson. To understand why I was so proud of how this lesson went, I've gotta give you a little recap of our first lesson from 4 months ago. Really pushing him out with that inside leg So this is in my last lesson. On the flat, my trainer told me to have him consistently bent around my inside leg, and he needed to be on a 3 track, because any time I stopped the bend, he either started bucking or running. Every. Single. Time. Constant bend We had a good ride if he was three-tracking. But every time I would ask him to two-track, it didn't end well. Not my finest moment This is him deciding whether to buck or run. Tough decisions. But in this lesson, we graduated to straigh...

I have a tendency to ride how I expect my horse to be. Sometimes that means I ride super defensively because I am expecting to be riding a rocketship, and I end up having a quiet, controlled horse. But I don't adjust my riding accordingly. Other times, I am coming out expecting the actual broke horse that I know he can be, and I get a very unfortunate surprise. This would be the broke horse, that I like to ride. He is the one that I can send forward and bring back and I can jump. This is the horse that I was expecting in my lesson today. I got him for maybe 30% of the ride, when I expected 70% of the ride to be riding a broke horse.  Needless to say I was a little unpleasantly surprised when I got this instead:  I came out expecting to ride my fairly broke horse and get some serious tips on my own riding (because I need it). Well my baby ex-racehorse decided he didn't want to be an ex-racehorse anymore. And after one of the jumps (a freaking crossrail no less)....

So many things to be grateful for. Its hard to even know where to begin. Last year, the biggest thing I was thankful for was walking, being alive, and being back on a horse. After not being able to walk for a while and the knowledge that had one little thing been different in my accident, I wouldn't be alive right now, the little things that you take for granted start becoming the big things very quickly. The first day I was back on a horse was one of the best days of my life. I cried at how happy I was. I was incredibly thankful for the best baby horse around and the ability of my body to heal itself so I could be riding again. But aside from that, I was so so thankful for all of the little things in my life, like walking and breathing. This year with the memory of not being able to walk being a little more in the back of my mind, I am able to broaden a bit of the things I am thankful for: My Family My family is incredibly supportive of what I do and they have been f...

For the first like 6-7 years of my riding career, I did not do enough heavy work or riding that any of the horses I rode ever had to be clipped. So I had basically zero working knowledge on the subject. But the last couple of winters, I started to get more familiar on the subject and read up on it more and more, because, well, after you ride a sweaty horse and spend equally if not more time cooling them down than you did riding, you start being very interested in clipping. Two winters ago, I started realizing that the sweaty horse thing was frustrating and exhausting, so I began researching it. But I didn't have the blankets, clippers or knowledge to be comfortable trying my first clip. Then last winter, I started collecting the blankets to keep my boy as toasty and warm as he could possibly want to be. Then I finally got clippers  and was ready to attempt my first clip. The kicker was it was going to be Charmer's first clip ever too, so I was pretty sure it was pro...

Every now and again, I get this silly little idea in my head. "Lets try dressage!" Because when dressage queens do dressage, it looks fancy and fun and actually enjoyable. And sometimes we can actually look like we halfway know what we are doing. These moments give me a very false sense of "we can dressage". Those moments lie . When we pull it together and do dressage. I actually enjoy it. Kind of. I have gotten significantly more comfortable in a dressage saddle with those evil long stirrups, that reach straight into hell, than I ever thought I would be. And now when my horse throws silly fits such as this: I actually can sit them fairly well. Although I would still take my nice jump saddle, and its wonderful short stirrups and security, over this ridiculous long stirrup debacle. So anyways last night, I decided to use dressage tack. After my horse had a week off. And we have taken a dressage hiatus for the last like 2 months. Yeah I don't always make...

Getting all nostalgic over the goals that Charmer has brought me (and him too) to accomplish over the last year and a half(ish). July 4th, 2015 So for starters here is the first day I went and met Charmer. I was skeptical of his solid-bay-boringness. But then his personality won me over. He was incredibly quiet, despite normal racetrack antics from other horses. He didn't even have a stud chain on, which I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't need. And then he had this pretty, floaty trot that I knew I could work with. July 8th, 2015 This was the day after he came home. I forgot to get pictures (silly me) on the day he came home, but got lots the next day. July 30th, 2015 He got a couple weeks off. I had to have tonsil surgery so he got the two weeks off while I recovered to adjust to his new life. Then we got to work. He had a decent walk, trot, and left lead canter. Right lead was a struggle (since he is off the track, wasn't all that surprised...)...