Back to Work!

After a very seasonable winter for the first time in 7 years, the weather has finally given way to spring. With it, returns footing that is more welcoming for workouts!

Yeehaw, good footing and jompies!

Unlike many, I do not have an indoor riding space where I keep my horses. There is a 30-foot round pen, but that's it. All of the training I put in at home is performed in a field across a creek from the main pasture area and that field has been inundated with water for a very long while. Every footfall would result in a very unsatisfactory squish, squish, squish these past many months if the temperatures weren't cold enough to freeze it.

There may be riding more but there is definitely not more sharing, sorry Taiga!

But finally, at long last, things are drying out, the water table is returning to a more normal place, and riding can commence again!

We started the month by heading to the annual vaccine clinic where I saved a ridiculous amount of money getting all three horses vaccinated and cleared for out-of-state travel for the year. As per the norm, the day of the vaccine clinic was cold and wet. I swear, if we're ever in a drought, people could pay my vet to schedule one of these clinics and be guaranteed rain.

Stan celebrated his 17th birthday by going to a vaccine clinic and getting stabbed repeatedly! Wee! But really, he got to eat a bunch of hay and wear seafoam green and chill with Q all day.

Following our exams, Chelsey and I spent some time riding in the covered arena. Griffin was on HIGH alert due to a particularly terrifying parade float (and a not-terrifying firetruck) that was parked in a far corner of the arena. I had no desire to ride a horse kite, so I just set him loose to burn off his energy and calm down.

Grif: ATTENTION THERE IS A HORSE EATING SPARKLY THING OVER THERE!
JL: Well, okay. If you insist...

He was more animated than he's ever been and it was hilarious to me. Eventually though, he calmed enough to trust me to lead him to the float where he nudged and snuffled it with his nose. He was a cool cucumber once he realized it couldn't eat him!

Originally, I'd planned to set up some jumps and jump, but unfortunately they're storing the jumps in a different location unknown to me (currently) and I had to switch gears to practice some flatwork. It was disappointing as I'd really wanted to jump on good footing for the first time in months, but riding Griffin away from home was the most important thing for the day.

From dressaging to teaching Griffin the cloverleaf barrel pattern! Kid picked it up REALLY FAST and I think I may need to find some fun shows in the future. I definitely understand why you'd want a longer stirrup for this... I felt rather unsteady in my short jumping stirrups when he really started scooting his butt around the turns!

The energy he had when he was scared dissipated into some lovely trot work during our ride. Overall, he was excellent for everything we worked on at the arena. I could tell that all of the lessons from last year carried over in both our work product and his mental game. Such a damn good horse.

And then I had to jump something after bringing our jumping attire. So we flopped the barrel down and tackled it.

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A week later, after days of sunshine and wind, the footing in our back field was finally to a place where I felt more than comfortable putting in a solid jump school. We hadn't jumped much of anything in MONTHS. In fact, if I'm being completely honest, we simply haven't ridden much in months. (See note about seasonable winter above.) I was psyched to get out and work over real jumps and was even happier when Griffin showed up to work on the same page as I.

Not too shabby for many months off. I'll take it!

I'm really pleased to report that 2'9" feels like nothing to us now. I mean, it felt like nothing to Grif before, I'm pretty sure, but I had a mental block with it quite often. Fortunately, after months of working on my own weaknesses both physically and mentally, I'm on the same page with Griffin.

It also helps that I'm not underestimating the height of my jumps anymore lol! For years I have been miscalculating the height of our jumps, underestimating them by 3". Not a huge error in the grand scheme of life, especially when you consider I only have 4' standards and haven't pushed the envelope above 3' more than a handful of times in the past many years. All the same, I'm grateful to have recognized and corrected my error.

With accurate height measurements and renewed mental fortitude on my end, jumping is all the more exciting. I have so much trust in Griffin and my own abilities. We're not doing anything crazy (yet?), but what we are doing feels GOOD.

There is absolutely room for improvement, but damn am I happy with this new baseline going into a new season. Griffin meets me at the gate daily now, so I know he's just as happy with the work.

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I'm heading east to audit a dressage clinic this weekend. I'm confident it will light a fire in me to get to work with even greater renewed focus this year. I hope to get some lessons scheduled with a relatively local instructor in May and then get to a trainer in Virginia by June.

April 2014 to April 2018. Dirty but oh so hunky - and he isn't even in shape right now! *swoon*

Finances will certainly limit the amount of lessons I'm able to take and the number of competitions we're able to enter. Still...this year just feels GOOD. I'm so in love with this grey horse (and Q and Stan!) and really, really excited with where we're at and the possibilities that lie ahead.

He makes me so damn happy <3

But mostly? It just feels good to be out there riding and working toward improvement goals, one step at a time.

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How about you! Do you feel good with where you're at going into this competition season? Perhaps you live in an area that has facilitated an early start to your season - how do you feel with what you've done so far? Or maybe you're still waiting on some things to fall into place in other areas?