What Do Wednesday: Planning

WHEW.

I have reset my human button and feel recovered. I had such plans to work out and ride yesterday AM after not doing either for almost a week, but woke up and saw the temp was 25* and said HELL NO and went back to sleep.

Wise decision.

With that information, I know you all are highly intrigued for whats next, considering its Wednesday and you know what that means...

So after feeling incredibly guilty for not even touching my other horse for a week (yeah, I never even made it to the barn once just to stuff his face with food), I started planning out what this week would look like with school, gym, OT and now, stall cleaning.

Kill me.

I love Yankee and missed his sweet face, but god bless it I did not miss barn chores and keep forgetting they are here sometimes.

Anyways. Bacardi. Other horse I own. Neglected. Suffering.

"Feed me cookies I'm dying"

I am sure he enjoyed his time off, and hopefully its helped him stay sound. He pulled a shoe last week while riding, which is still a mystery how and when, but he did. Jerk.

BUT, show season is upon us and I will go broke trying to show this lil bitch. Hashtag life goals amirite?

This week I have planned to ride 3 times and lunge once (tomorrow). That sufficient right? But then again Ohio is fucking insane and decides its going to be colder than a witches tit after a week of gorgeous, sunny, 70* days...and snow 3/7 days in the week and then thunderstorm randomly and then get cold as balls again.

So who knows if that is actually how many times I will work le red horse.

Anyways, what I realized while carefully planning out my week to the minute, per usual, is that I never actually plan on WHAT I will be doing in my rides.

Like ever.

Maybe Sundays, where I usually jump since no one is ever there and I can jump in peace (read: everyone doesn't have to deal with my spaz pony) and quiet and force my slave boyfriend to video.

Older adorable pic as a text break

Other than that, I don't plan. At all. Never. This practice actually has stemmed from my insane overplanning I used to do in college, and my best laid plans always went to shit because horses. Seriously when do horses ever cooperate? Why don't they just know our plans and stick to them?

I had special calendars all color coded and labeled with exact movements we would work on and what tack I planned to use etc. I am a crazy person.

Obviously

It always seemed that when I planned to flat and work on halting/transitions/whatever, horse would instead decide that galloping madly was a better way to spend our session. Or if I planned on jumping, someone wold have recently removed ALL the jumps and dragged arena, or horse would come up lame or missing a shoe.

So now, I just don't give a fuck.

Drinking, riding, & not giving a rats ass; the best way to do shows

I show up,  step one. Then I see what the lesson schedule is like, if there are jumps in the arena, how B is feeling (snazzy or less snazzy), if its cold, raining, sunny or how tired/sore I am. SO many factors.

Generally I do one hack, 2 flat and a jump sesh, but sometimes the ring is too full of jumps and I just jump every day that week because why not. Or I WANTED to hack, but its pouring. Or I wanted to flat, but there are too many horses in the ring/hes feeling too fresh and I just don't ride at all.

So, no plans.

Maybe this is why we have only done 2 schooling shows in our 2 year career together and I was stuck at training with Yankee for 5 years but whatever, details. Planning my rides don't work for me and only lead to disappointment.

One of our million rides at training level

So dear readers, what do? Do you meticulously plan your rides? Or do you wing it like I do? Feed me your secrets, I must know!

Home to Roost

Last Saturday Bangor and I went and picked up Bragg, who already has me wrapped around his little hooves....

Corgi Cop not mine

He was the chillest all week by himself, mostly begging for attention & loves and also getting noticed by all the neighbors (we haven't had horses here in a while). He is also quite a large animal (I think he may be bigger and taller than B, and B is almost 17.2hh). B#2 has been a joy and was SO excited to have The Yankee arrive.

This weekend was an exhausting whirlwind, almost quite literally. Bangor and I headed to MO on Friday at 6AM, arriving around 3PM and ate and visited my friends until we passed out at 3AM. Like, wut. Then we turned around and gathered Yankee and drove home in the INSANE winds on Saturday.

If anyone lives in any state  from MO to OH you know what winds I am talking about. Like 60 mph, whipping, relentless winds. I had people texting me all day asking if we were OK, wondering why we didn't just wait to come home Sunday.

Because reasons, people. I had them.

LET ME LOVE YOU

SQUISH

But seriously the drive home was harrowing and I was nervous to let Bangor take the wheel for more than a quick 70 mile drive/rest from driving for me. I drove the remaining 400 myself. I legit woke up Sunday with sore hands from how hard I was gripping the steering wheel trying to wrangle the rig around the highway for almost 11 hours.

ELEVEN.

We stopped often because I was SO nervous about how Yankee would travel. He was rather chill for most of the trip, ate hay like a champ but refused water every time I offered it.

We stopped about every 80 miles to check on him and for me to pee because I was chugging energy drinks like they were going out of style.

In between the energy drinks and getting out of the truck so often, I actually felt great physically on the drive despite my hands cramping up a bit. I have made the MO to OH drive about 30 times, 4 with horses now and it never feels good. All the body parts hurt. I don't know how people drive horses to FL...I would literally die of anxiety or a blood clot.

Half way home, we stopped at a truck stop to let him out to graze and stretch his legs. It also dropped about 30* so I blanketed him to be on the safe side. I cannot stress how much I was stressing about his health and how he was doing and if he was too hot or too cold or too hungry or too tired or too stressed...

not stressed in the slightest

It was HILARIOUS, all the truckers were dumbfounded watching me walking my horse around like a dog. We did several laps around the park area and he nommed on the grass a bit. He was quite embarrassed that his wraps, blanket and lead line were all DIFFERENT colors, but he survived and after 25 minutes reluctantly got back in the trailer when I loaded him up.

the non-matching HORROR

Hours later and much karaoke to myself because Bangor fell asleep we finally arrived. It was 1 AM when finally pulled in and Yankee let out an audible sigh of relief when he stepped off the trailer. Drank a few huge gulps of water, made out with Bragg and tucked in to his hay pile in his stall for the night. 

The next morning (Sunday) I fed early, and went back to bed to snuggle with the dog and Bangor because it was fucking freezing again. It was like 70 when we left, so I don't know what Ohio is doing, its drunk.

Around 10 I let Yankee and B#2 out of their stalls into the dry lot to meet and frolic and Yankee surprised me with some airs above the ground shenanigans. 

wheeee I'm a horse!

Kite horse

While amusing and impressive, I was like no; don't; stop it horse, thats not safe, you're supposed to be taking it easy!!

After 5 minutes though he got it all out and settled into scrounging about for grass, completely ignoring my hay piles. 

While cleaning stalls and tidying the barn I tossed my remaining hay cubes out into the paddock for the boys to hunt and they took to it for the rest of the afternoon.

Hay cube hunting

Yankee is sequestered to the paddock for another month with free choice hay and hand grazing time, but no pasture yet. Bragg is allowed to do whatever he wants, but I want to find a spot where Yankee won't be stressed if Bragg is on pasture. We have 3 pastures, so I am thinking B#2 can go in the middle right while Yankee stays in the top pasture paddock. That way B#2 can have grass and shelter and Yankee can still see him and not go cray.

What I find amusing is that they both crib. I have not one, but two cribbers, when most people won't even let one around...haha whatever, their loss! They are both darling creatures and the sweetest horses you will ever meet-not exaggerating!!

Just being adorable OTTBs

Yankee trying to make out and Bragg playing coy

Yankee is not as excitable as Bacardi, but Bragg and his weirdly calm self being around should help him stay calm and finish healing so he can get big and strong again. His coat needs some work, and he probably has another 150lbs to put on on top of the 100 he put on this month, but he seems happy to be home!

Enjoy this ADORABLE video of the dumb dumbs this AM!

I have to look at his schedule again, but I do believe we can ride at the walk in 4 weeks time!! Cannot wait!

Struggle Bus

As always I enjoyed reading your responses to my last post! I try to respond individually, but this week time got away from me. I’ll explain everything once its over, maybe, but its just life outside of horses.

· 

I rode exactly twice this week and both times were incredibly lackluster. He got a quick lunge one of those days inbetween too. Monday he was a giant brat, but it was weirdly freezing cold. Then it was warm. And then this weekend it was REALLY warm. So I don’t blame him, but he was still a touch difficult.

pic not from Monday

We flatted on Monday and the best way to describe it was distracted. He warmed up well on the lunge but I was absolutely exhausted from barn work that weekend and will honestly say I was riding like hell. He wasn’t zoomy or disobedient, just rather meh. As in, his nose would poke out during a transition, he needed a reminder to step under often and we couldn’t quite get that canter transition down smoothe. It was just blah. I will say he was incredibly calm, so I will take that over anything else. We can work out the kinks we had Monday, just disspointed in my riding mostly. I did get a compliment from one of the boarders who just got back from FL, stating he looks a lot better than he did when she left, so that was awesome to hear.

Then I sadly got overwhelmed with school (my last week in this class), work issues and getting ready for Bragg to come home. My sleep schedule has been thrown off completely with my shift change at work, and I will take sleep over gym or riding right now because I know how important it is for my overall health. So he got most of the week off, minus a quick lunge mid week.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, 68* and sunny and I wanted to jump since I had Bangor with me to video. He truly deserves all awards since we had spent the entire day getting Bragg, and then I drug him to the barn to video for me. A++++

Bacardi was feeling FRESH and I honestly had a hard time holding him back. He is a strong horse and despite how small he looks under me, he is massive. 17.2 hands of pure power and if he doesn’t want to whoa, he doesn’t. We spent a good 15 minutes in the god damn arena using pulley rein and learning that bolting indoors after fences was not cool.

He eventually got over that, thankfully, and jumped everything beautifully.

EME got a new XC fence and I decided to be brave and put it on the lowest setting and pop over it with B. I fully expected him to refuse the first time, but instead just got thrown out of the tack by an incredibly exuberant jump. I think he thought it might eat him because we jumped it 5 times and everytime he snapped all 4 legs up and jmped the moon, haha. It was adorable.

not sure about this....

....must not touch

 I really wanted to jack the jumps to 3’3 but I figured with limited riding that week, it was unfair to do so. He had a blast regardless and ate up the course we practiced. It was super tight but really fun to ride. A bit zooomy, but hes learning and I was more than pleased that he was so excited about jumping. Last September it was a battle to get him to jump and now he drags me around. I’ll take the latter.

ATTACK

Then we went out to the field to frolic. He was a biiiiiiit strong & sassy, and we had a few discussions on half halts and why trying to bolt is not acceptable. 

Sassy...

....less sassy

Still had fun though and he nailed his changes nicely and uneventfully. I've been working really hard on being through to the bridle and not just curling his neck and acting lackluster through his back and hind end. As a 7 year old, he's finally settled a bit and can actually do what I ask without a melt down. Its really lovely to ride, even when he wants to run because he tries so hard! I have also been working on the changes since he hs them installed. Its funny that my superstar eventer Yankee has some sort of brain block where he can't do them and then weirdo B has been doing them semi flawlessly since he was 4. 

He still does them incorrectly, front to back, but he does them, does them on command while flatting, automatically while jumping and they are chill. Which I love.

I have also been incredibly conscious of MY position and have been trying really hard to get used to this saddle. I feel like I swim in it, since I've ridden in a 16 for a decade, and sometimes my leg swings around and I jump ahead or get left behind. I also have a tendency to revert to le hunter crouch, as I call it and subsequently curl my wrists and look down. Old habits die hard man.

Body, what are this. LOOK UP. The struggle is so real. 

Also he pulled a shoe at some point in our ride so thats lovely and mysterious. 

Love this hind end action doh

We have big plans for him coming up, but I’m keeping those under wraps until its finalized. MWUAH HAHA

Upcoming in the next month we have Yankee coming home (THIS week), races at Keeneland and then Rolex! Woo! Also, stayed tuned for the 600^th post giveaway (coming up soon!)

My good boy

What Do Wednesday: Health and Fitness

This post is inspired by me sitting in my bed, force feeding myself oatmeal and a protein shake at 10:14 PM. This may seem like insanity, and it is, but I think we have deduced that we are all mad here anyways.

Another thing we have all established is that horse health and fitness is pretty important. But do you ever think about rider health and fitness?

I know I sure didn't give a heck in college and I ballooned to 200lbs (45lbs over my normal) because I was a slob, ate whatever was handed to me, usually pizza and literally never set foot in our million dollar fitness gym.

Tipping the scales at over 200lbs

Then I moved home, got dumped and felt bad about myself and started working out.

I won't go into it much, as you can read more thoroughly above in "Crossfit Journey". Long story short, I started Crossfit and it changed my life forever.

I could ride without getting tired. Sitting the trot was easy. I felt strong. I was confident. I didn't feel like a slug in the saddle. And ultimately, I felt like a better rider overall with a stronger core, stronger seat and better cardio. Also I started to look good in breeches.

Thats what crossfit is all about, functional fitness!

The key is finding a good box (CF gym) and sinking into your niche. I tried a few boxes before I found my CF family, and they're a lot like your barn family. Supportive, encouraging and with you every step of the way!

For me, I want to maintain my fitness level to be strong enough to ride complex movements. Go from being in shape, losing it, and come back and I TELL YOU HWHHHAT, its hard. Harder than you think. After I got over Bronchitis I struggled to catch my breath for a month.

I truly believe that CF has changed my body, my mind and my riding in a positive way. CF is not for everyone, it can be intense and sometimes after a WOD (workout) I want to die. But in that sense, WODs are like shows or riding goals, you want them so badly, and sometimes it sucks, but getting there is the reward and the success is so sweet!

Generally I TRY to get to the gym 3-4 times a week for a WOD. Because of my limited time, this usually means at 6AM before work.  If I can't, I run at home and lift heavy, usually squats or deadlifts. I am also doing a Tough Mudder in May and I'm attempting to train for that. Some weeks though, I just don't have it in me to go to the gym and I'm learning thats OKAY.

Now, I've morphed into a true "kool-aid" drinker and embody a lot of CF practices. Two of these practices are Paleo dieting and counting macros. Normally two things that don't work together well, but I will try and break it down quickly.

**ALERT NERD ALERT**

Paleo is eating natural, fresh and whole foods. Limiting dairy and processed food as much as possible. Here, you can go as extreme as you like. I really love yogurt, so I still eat it, but this is considered "not paleo". WHATEVER YOLO. But I have cut out bread from my diet completely. Grains and nuts are OK, but processed bread I only allow myself on Saturdays (cheat days). I think its incredibly important to allow yourself cheat days or meals, otherwise you go crazy and WILL fall off the wagon. I eat a fuckload of veggies and fruits, as well as lean meats like chicken and fish. Beef is a treat. I eat so much chicken sometimes I think I might die. I "break" the paleo rule when I use protein powder and creatine, but both of my supplements are non GMO, natural all that shit. I stick to this diet 6 days a week generally.

Counting macros is quite different and most call it 'flexible dieting'. It helps to get your measurements first, as in, body fat and weight. From there, your macro formula can be made. It all depends on activity level and goals. Do you want to lose weight, gain muscle, do both? Then you get daily set goals. Protein, Carbs, Fats and Calories.

I try to not look at calories unless I'm not meeting them (harder than you think). For me, its hard to meet protein macros and not go over on fats. I consistently hit my carbs macros daily. This is all done on a smartphone app. Takes about a week to get used to, but if you're like me, I generally don't deviate from my diet and eat the same thing everyday (UNLESS ITS SATURDAY).

Usually, I have to drink a protein shake at the end of the day to get my protein without the added fat of meat. Its fun, but difficult to perfect, and I like a challenge. But anything counts. Anything. Did you eat fries and a burger for lunch? LOG IT.

Most likely you've just eaten your fats for the day and need to eat really lean the rest of the day. Its helped me shed the remaining 5lbs and accentuate my abs a bit more. Or look more "shredded". LOL. Anyways people swear by it and I am people, so.

I also have a fitbit HR and might legit be obsessed with that thing. OBSESSED.

Okay, I nerded out for a minute...but this is what I do to stay healthy for my sport. It means a lot to me to be able to workout and finesse my diet, and I could be considered a wee bit of a freak about it. I know that route is not for everyone, its just made a difference for ME. This is what works for ME because I am a lazy sack of shit that needs an app to stay on track and CF coaches that force me to complete workouts I otherwise would give up on, everyday to be healthy. WAH.

So dear readers, what do YOU do? I want to know! Do you walk? Is riding enough? Do you run marathons? Do you not care like I didn't, haha! Tell me, what do ??

**no judgement by the way, at all!

Meet Braggles

So, things are changing around here. And as someone suggested, I think I might need a time turner to make it all work. I kind of feel like I'm back in college, surviving off 5 or less hours of sleep a night and living my life by my planner, and the horses aren't even back at the homestead yet.

I enjoy work, and being busy and actually get bored being lazy.

Its about to get too busy though. And THAT I don't know about.

Boarding  Bacardi has opened up my life, literally, in so many magical ways. I am able to sleep again 7 hrs a night, you know, normal things people need to survive and I finally got my health & anxiety under control. I was able to go back to school and work on my dual masters degree. I had opportunities to work OT at work for extra money. I got to work out consistently AND ride my horse. It was wonderful. WAS.

Then, a month ago, my spoiled white girl life was shattered when Yankee had colic surgery and his lease ended.

If you don't know by now, he is coming home April 1 (meaning I am driving 9 hours to go get him) and I will have horses on my property....again.

So of course, Yankee can't be alone right?

RIGHT.

So I found him a friend.

His name is Braggles and he's adorable and looks exactly like Bacardi and it works out for all parties involved that he comes to stay with us until Yankee is well enough to be ridden and hopefully leased out again.

Because mama aint got no time of' dat.

I spent the ENTIRE weekend getting sawdust, hay, fixing fence and pastures, cleaning and prepping the barn and I can 100% admit, I am not exactly the cheeriest about my situation.

Barn is prepped

Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, go read Amy's blog. She states everything so wonderfully and summarizes all the reasons I HATE having horses at home. Color me spoiled. I don't care. I work hard for my money, and money is time and time is money. Without time to work, I don't have the ability to ride at all. And caring for horses literally eats all my free time. My slight, minuscule, tiny small amounts of free time. Boarding saved my life, social, mental and physical and I am legit terrified I will slip back into a dark mental state, get fat and lose everything I've worked for. Seriously though, its a possibility.

Regardless of all my worries, I am very grateful Yankee is alive and well and that I am lucky enough to own 2 OTTBs....but truly, I need him to get better fast so I can lease him out, or I will have to sell Bacardi...and I would really like not having to do that.

Anyways, here is Braggles and I go get him Saturday and I am super excited to have horses at my house again, even if I do hate it at the same time. He's also an OTTB that currently cannot be ridden and is a magical unicorn that gets fat on air. Its awesome. Plus his face. So cute.

UH-dorable. Just wanna smush his face.

We Have a Bit...Of a Problem

Thats actually a really punny title. You'll find out why if you keep reading.

How to make your 17.1 horse look small : be me

I have no fun show updates like the rest of you, but it was a pretty good week/weekend in term of riding. But I do have several other small updates to make. Try to pay attention.

So all last week and the week before, while my beautiful new dressage bridle was at the tailors, because Bacardi is a superstar at breaking shit....

...I was using my jump bridle/bit to do flatwork because thats all I had. Poor planning/I might need a spare bridle set for future reference.

example

He was absolutely stunning all week. No tantrums (those are rare these days) and even better, no giraffe resisting. I was pretty confident and happy with how things were going.

I then got the precious back and went ahead and rode in the correct tack.

Cue head flipping, literally every 87 seconds.

Um, ok.

So we revisited the standing martingale and the lunge line of discovery. Much shorter lesson this time at 10 minutes and then he was like, FINE.

Not from this week, haha

Then I thought about it. He is ALWAYS perfect in my jump tack. Rarely flips his head in the middle of a gait or transition, unless he wants to RUN through a fence and I have to half halt. Even then its a sideways head toss and not a half rear type deal. In his dressage bit he isn't bad, he just literally flips his head every transition, or mostly I notice in the trot.

I think B hates his dressage bit.

Before we revisits saddle fit, I've ridden his dressage bit on the jump bridle, and also his dressage bridle with his jump saddle, the common denominator here is the frenchlink. LE SIGH.

Which sucks, because he also REALLY hates anything ELSE that isn't a french link. Like literally, good luck walking forward because he will be spending his time flying backwards trying to spit offending bit out.

Which poses an even greater problem for competition. HE LOVES his waterford. Waterfords are not dressage legal. WHY WHY WHY though?? They are such nice bits. Yankee goes in one for XC and he adores it. They are so mild and my boys prefer the several breaks in the mouthpiece.

The Gina Miles version of a Waterford loose ring

So what am I to do? He obviously goes super nice in his waterford, and resists the frenchlink a bit. Anything else is out of the question.

Any advise would be helpful....

I thought I was done with bitting problems, ugh.

Anyways, besides that, he was great this weekend. I was absolutely destroyed from shoveling an actual half ton of sawdust into my barn for the boys (arriving next week!!) and stacking the expensive fucking hay I bought their precious selves, so riding was hard.

He was VERY excitable and really wanted to jump and my body was like, no.

I had fully intended on jacking the oxers up to 3'6 to get some height in, but I was too sore to really tolerate his constant pulling so we schooled *trying* to maintain a nice, huntery canter in between jumps. Tried.

He was actually a very good boy, but I simply didn't have the physical ability to really ride well and cut the ride short. I was pleased though still, even with a few minor wtf moments, he was lovely.

This week I am interviewing for a part time medical billing position so along with grad school, gym, and full time insurance job, in addition to picking up Yankee's companion horse this weekend and bringing him home....we will see if we ride much.

Also, stay tuned for a cool giveaway for my 600th post!!