Life Changes

It was really cool to see on my last post that some people do in fact still tune into this blog, despite my extra long hiatus. I did not really intend to take a 3 week break following that post as well, but here we are. Unfortunately the reason for this break in schedule was that my mom passed away on the morning of August 17th, just a few days after I made that "I'm back" post. Thankfully, she passed very peacefully and my dad and I were able to be with her. 

The last few weeks have been filled with a lot of preparation for her memorial service (tomorrow) and figuring out what my new normal looks like. It is a strange shift of life when you are caring for someone on a daily basis to no longer having them in your life anymore. It can be hard to remember how to do the things you love, and we got into a routine where I basically needed 7-10 business days to try and make plans (although as an introvert, I still naturally prefer 3-5 business days to prepare for plans haha) but remembering how to be some level of spontaneous has been strangely tricky as well. 

Dream canter

My mom was one of the most fun-loving, full of life people that I've ever met, and she was basically the energizer bunny - just going all the time. Everyone grieves differently, but in my grief, I have really tried to honor my mom's memory by doing stuff, especially things that I enjoy or love. So in the midst of trying to prepare for the service, I've gotten back into riding semi-regularly and I also even made myself randomly pop in on some xc schoolings to watch (and brought V once) and showed up last minute to volunteer at a schooling show. 

Looking through red ears in the water jump
for the first time

I'm hoping that next week after the service preparations are over that I can get back into a truly regularly scheduled program with the ponies. But in the meantime, I've been doing quite a bit with V!

Best stretchy pony

Currently she's my easiest ride in a lot of ways actually, which sounds funny since she's 4 and super green, but Banner still has some post-lease baggage that is tedious to work through, and Charmer is still in some final "rehab" stages from whatever he did to his pelvis a few months back and he is not the most fun horse to bring back into work (although absolutely the most fun when he's in a full program).

Me in my natural habitat
(actually starting my equisense haha)
But such a levelheaded 4yo to not care at all

Since V is only 4, and a pretty physically slow maturing 4 at that, we have not been doing a ton of work in a frame or anything super high intensity. But recently she started offering it a little bit more so I played with asking a little bit more, and man the moments she gives me are super fancy. I'm crossing my fingers that in her 5yo year I'll be able to take her out to a couple BN horse trials to get her used to the environment!

First time I've actually asked for
a frame & so fancy!!

She just floats along the ground

Thinking I got pretty lucky with this lady