Who else had a sinking heart this morning when they looked outside? Last week’s snow was inconvenient yes but at least it was beautiful and I had a nice day off! Horrible as the rain was, I still had that Friday feeling. The motivation to get out of bed every Friday is that it isn’t too long until 3.30 when I can drive to the yard and be with Pea.
Arriving at the yard was even more exciting than usual. Yesterday, I picked up my saddle from the saddlers where it had been to get new LONG girth straps put on. I have been wanting a dressage saddle for a long time but realistically can’t justify the cost. I have been thinking for a while that putting dressage girth straps on my saddle might be a good compromise. Anything to help me be more effective with my legs sounded good to me.
It was less exciting when I realised Pea was literally as far away as she possibly could be in the field and when I had finally reached her she was also absolutely disgusting!
There was a lot of flowing and standing water in the fields and we appear to have a new lake that wasn’t there yesterday!
Has anyone else fallen into an extreme comfort zone with their tack? I feel like I’ve been using the 5th hole on both sides with my double ended elastic girth and saddle for my whole life (it is actually only about a year and a half). Anyway, I had to put that to one side when tacking up and try to get the right balance of girth tightness. I got on and honestly felt an instant difference. My saddle felt narrower purely from the lack of bulk that a normal girth brings – mental!
Pea was quite entertaining for the first ten minutes or so of the ride, she spent the whole of one long side with her head up in the air, turned to the side, staring out the donkeys who have recently moved to the paddock next to the school rather than at the end of it. It was as though she had never seen them before!
I went through my normal routine to try to get her working over her back and becoming more supple and to my surprise, it worked fairly well. Each time she softens I am shocked that I’m actually getting her to do it! I feel like I’ve just about got my head above water with this ‘riding properly thing’ (excuse the water reference!)
She was really good on the left rein but on the right rein she seems to want to bend to the outside which isn’t great. She is definitely harder in the right rein. Now would be a great time to see my instructor and get her to help us with the next steps but due to the equine flu situation, I’m going nowhere for the moment.
I didn’t last long tonight, my left leg muscles felt weird (probably due to the slightly different position as a result of the new saddle set up) and I called it a day after about 25 minutes. I hopped off and led her round for another 10 minutes to cool off – she always needs an extra bit of walking to get her breathing back down and since we don’t have a walker, I do it myself!
How was your Friday?
Young Hip and Horsey 
Well I didn’t have to get rid of mud off Biasini like you did off Pea. Saddle looks nice. I had a lesson today and we worked on exercises for the pirouettes. Biasini grunted a lot and said it was really hard. 😎
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