Baby Steps

Siting here feeling extremely guilty for blogging since I skipped the gym this AM and working Bacardi...so many excuses, so little time.

GET IT TOGETHER MONICA.

Luckily I can workout at home after the day job...but unless I want to ride in the dark, I kind of dropped the ball on that one.

Its really hard to be motivated when there are no shows coming up. I try to tell myself this is the "training period", but when you have no arena and the ground is shit, you really don't get much done anyways and I'm like why even.

Just one of those weeks I guess.

I shall do better tomorrow.

The three times I worked him last week were amazing at least. Going back to my last post about connection, he really was a total gem and I guess 3 weeks off did him well.

I have this theory that OTTBs need mini vacays to let things sink in. When they come back they're all refreshed and wonderful and perfect until the next time they have a meltdown.

That means Yankee should be wonderful when I finally ride him again -_-

He's coming up on his 7th week off....and I'm cringing at those words. I look at him and see an EXTREMELY fat horse with no topline and it hurts my soul deep inside. I keep telling myself he needed it after all the fuckery with his feet, but it still hurts me.

Some randomly placed pic of B being AWESOME

For those of you that asked, the hay thats outside is a round bale. My massive square bale lives inside. Its a BITCH to deal with, but its super good quality and should last me forever. At $55 I could NOT pass that up. And the horses are LOVING their round bales.

I've been attempting to clip the beasts. I say attempting, because after 5AM wake-up times,  6Am workouts, 8 AM rides, 10 Am report to work, 8 hour days, 40 minute commutes and getting home at 7:40 PM leaves me WIPED the FUCK OUT and all I want to do is sleep when I get home. I have a pile of chores to do, and tasks to complete and the list is never ending and always growing. Does anyone else have difficulty getting things done after the sun goes down after a long day? Yeah.

Also. fun fact, Bacardi does not clip very well. Spastic and explosive could be terms used to describe the fun that is clipping him. I ended up twitching him, which put him to sleep but one can only do so much ALONE holding a twitch in one hand and clippers in the other. Meaning B has his neck and shoulders clipped but nothing else. He looks like an idiot.  Yanks has his butt design and his neck and chest shaved for now. If I ever get him back into work I shall remove his hair clothes fully.

Liek I said though, besides being an idot about clipping, the red nugget has been brilliant. Last time I rode I worked on loosening him up a bit. 3 weeks off did wonders for his brain, but not his body. Talk about riding a 2x4

must..not...touch

prolly the cutest pic on the internet

I started off with some trot poles. Which he obviously cleared with feet to spare. But hey, got all those joints loosened up aye?

I love this

hock action

New fav

Then I asked for some really nice and round, but active work in the trot and canter for about 10 minutes. He delivered quite nicely. Love this guys leg action all around. He tries so hard!

I love this...relaxation!

working on perfecting those 20M circles

can you see the baby clip?

I kept the ride short since he's been out of work, but it was productive. Afterwards I let him stretch through the bridle in the trot. Mildly surprising he did it considering all the tense weeks I've had with ihm in the past. This is the FIRST time he's EVER stretched down for me.

Started off looking like a hunter princess

To some awkward, yet nice stretching

I always think horses look like theyre diving down to the ground when they stretch, but at least he was keeping his hind legs active. And reaching forward in front. When Yankee stretches, the hardest thing for him to do is keep on truckin with the rhythm. Glad the baby gas some basics.

Maybe one day I will perfect this schedule, but right now I'm struggling to swim. Glad the horses don't care and enjoy pasture lounging on the days I can't motivate my lazy butt.