Oh we gonna work, work, work, work , work

I am a little behind on Bacardi updates, so I am going to do my best to recall the two rides I had last weekend.

First, they were beyond wonderful.

I really needed some uplifting rides, life has been stressing me out and running me into the ground. Why did I think double masters grad school was a good idea?

So Saturday ride first, which was flat work.

It was a mucky gross day, but I rode outside anyways, sorry Supertrainer, don't hate me.

Really, I just wanted a few good videos to take some stills from. Indoor fuzzy pics are getting old.

B was incredibly chill and we got to work right away. The ring was atrocious, so I kept our ride mostly on one end in a 20 meter circle, and theres only so much one can do on said 20m circle before one gets bored.

SIDENOTE, I rode in my bargain FITS breeches I got off ETT for $60, They look like jeans and they're amazing. I wish I could afford MOAR

However, He was working quite well. So well, I didn't really know what to do with him actually. I was like, oh okay, trot transition perfect, forward in trot, tracking up, relaxed, lets try canter, OH OKAY no sass today? Um alright, lets collect? Oh snap that feels great. Ok, flying change here, BAM wow okay then, lets do another, WOW okay B stop blowing my mind, lets trot, Extended trot? okay fine, you're being amazing we can walk.

Fancy trots left

Fancy trots right

Canter right

Canter left

flying change

NBD

So after a few flying changes and some more trot transitions I just sat there and was like welp, I don't know what else to do, he's being perfect. Soooo, lets end it there.

So productive, I know.

So heres a few more pics of our very excellent, uneventful ride. Enjoy. Also don't judge the jump bridle, my dressage bridle/bit are in the leather shop getting fixed.

FAVORITE

Such uphill. Very canter.

Then Sunday was jump day. I think I am going to try and make early Sunday morning rides a thing now and work on jumping that day specifically. It just works out with my schedule and barn slave videographer schedule.

There was a very unique exercise set up, one I had not done in a while. If anyone has every heard of "thread the needle" you know it can bring about feelings of anxiety and claustrophobia.

First, we just dabbled with the outside lines of the exercise. He was a smidgen strong on Sunday, but I wasn't mad about it. This time last year he was refusing fences left and right so...not mad.

But he did about haul my left arm out of its socket. I was sore until Wednesday!

After that we increased the height to the smallest verticals and I ran through the outside lines a few times, then switches it up to angling them. You can't really tell in the video, but I did. He handled the angle jumps easily too, which made me a happy momma. Then, we worked on threading the needle, which means we jump all four jumps, with only about 2 feet of room. its hard to explain...watch the video.

Talk about anxiety. I don't know why but riding that made me so nervous and B was just like um, r u ok? I got this ma.

After that, I added a boxy oxer on the outside line to test his scope a bit without going too crazy. I still have a healthy fear of anything over 3'3 and Supertrainer prefers we don't jump over that while she's in FL anyways. Happy to oblige.

I was pleased with his efforts and also cut that ride short.

He has really been making improvements in leaps and bounds (literally) and it makes me so happy to finally have a horse that shows up to work everyday. He is beginning to feel like home. You know what I mean? Like when you sit in the saddle, you know thats where you're meant to be. Yankee has always felt like that to me, but I am beyond happy that Bacardi is starting to feel the same.

Teamwork