The Day Jobbe has been crazy. Crazy as in no writing At All this week. Which makes me grunty and growly but it can’t be helped. It’s….just not getting there. Other things are taking priority, and stuff that Get Paid comes first.
Medical stuff like finally Doing Whatever Needs To Get Done To FIX the damn hips as best as I can while we still have incomes also comes first. To wit, at the moment, acupuncture and Pilates. Things came to a head this week with the acupuncture, and I’m walking away feeling good. Took needles, cupping and acupressure, but here’s three things For The Win:
I smoothly threw the 35 lbs Western saddle onto 14.2 hh Mocha (58 inches) without hangup or struggling, though I didn’t quite control the landing as smoothly as I would like. But that’s a strength issue.
I threw my right leg over Mocha’s back tonight without any twinges, stings, or muscle aches. And it went up higher than it has for a while.
I got up from my mandatory acupuncturist and Pilates instructor floor exercises without using my hands. Well on my way to crossing my legs again…
Horse night was pretty good, as well. Nice schooling, let a couple of trusted barn folk take her for a spin (with many compliments to The Girl, she did well though she tested both riders immediately by trying to see if they’d give her a completely slack rein. But she settled right in when they took up contact and told her to knock it off, she was still working).
And!
WE WENT BRIDLELESS.
At the end of the ride, I had one of the trusted barn rats take her bridle off so I wouldn’t need to take it off, then remount. I forgot to tie a rope around her neck, but the first few bits were a bit weird and woozy. Then I looped a rein around her neck and we went on from there.
It was just five minutes at a walk. Both of us were fumbling around trying to figure out our cues. But we did lovely “whoas.” And at the end, we did a nice reiner backup. And a spin in each direction.
Mmmm. Yummy.
Lynn Palm says this is a good exercise for an experienced horse looking for a changeup in their training routine. While I don’t think Mocha loved the exercise as much as Lynn was enthusing about it with the horse she was training in the video (Mocha’s immediate reaction to having the bridle pulled off with me still in the saddle was the famed WTF?! turn of the head and glower), I do think the exercise of “how do we communicate with human still on my back in the saddle and NOTHING ON MY FACE” engaged her and got her thinking.
Good thing with this horse. FUN thing.
Keeps me sane these days.
