Finding Simplicity

It's been a few weeks since Thanksgiving came and went but in a lot of ways, it marks the official start to the holiday season. Well, at least in my mind it does. 

It's been fun watching Baby C take in all the sights and sounds. Though this technically isn't his first ever Christmas, its the first one where he is more than just a wiggling ball. Now there is holiday music, blinking tree lights, cooking food smells, cooler weather. 

His innocent sense of wonder is really something to behold and honestly his genuine reaction to the smallest things is the humble reminder I needed that sometimes things in life don't have to be big, huge, expensive, or fancy to be memorable, enjoyable, or emotionally satisfying. 

That mantra has been running through my mind whenever I spend time at the barn. It's been a few weeks since Quest and I did our last ride together and I was itching for the trails this past weekend. 

Before going to the barn, I stopped to buy a set of nippers to give mareface a quick trim. I've been having difficulty coordinating with the farrier I had used at the previous barn so I made up my mind to do what I could in the meantime. The nippers were a godsend and then the rasp made quick work. It helped that Quest stood nicely for me in the crossties. Good mare! 

I debated doing a full tack trail ride at first but in the end, I opted for bareback and bitless. We got tacked up with the little S-hack, my like-new Toklat Coolback bareback pad (which I got for an absolute steal of a price from a local horseperson), and made sure to wear my orange vest. 

The weather was cool and Quest was full of sass. When we got into the WMA, she immediately asked to move out. However we had seen a few trucks and a couple hunters in the parking lot so a speedy ride was probably not the best thing for that particular day. 

After a few reminders to slow down and chill, Quest did settle into her big walk and we enjoyed a lovely 3.5mi ride done in about 50mins. We could have done more but it was a little unnerving hearing all the dogs and rifles in the training area. We were in no danger at any time as the two areas are completely separated and inaccessible on foot but it was tough not to be on edge. Despite all that, it was a good ride and Quest felt 110% after her trim which I'm very pleased about. 

Happy birthday to me.
I promised myself a real bareback pad someday and finally got one!

I'm in total love with the Coolback and feel utterly spoiled by actually having a real bareback pad after making due with my DIY pad for the past 6-7 years. I think I need a neoprene girth since the girth that came with the pad is a little too slick and I could see that the pad slid back a little after our ride. Though for the price I got it at and knowing how much use I'll definitely get out of it, I'm not complaining at all and its an easy fix. Can't wait to do more bareback rides this winter!

Two Birthday Rides

The month started off with two wonderful rides that mean so very much to me. This time last year, I was quite pregnant at full term/40 weeks and unable to enjoy my traditional birthday trail ride. A full year later, it absolutely made my birthday to be hopping on my favorite mareface doing what we love together again. 

A few days later I went back out to the barn, this time with little guy in tow to celebrate his birthday with his own birthday ride!

My husband had to work so this was the first ever 100% solo outing with just me and baby. I worried if I was trying to attempt too much by myself, but everything went well. After grooming and tacking up Quest with the bareback pad and S-hack, I strapped C into the baby carrier and we headed to the outdoor arena. I swung up with the mounting block and off we went. 

Quest was a saint. Little guy was babbling and laughing. I was grinning from ear to ear. 

"Little human, can I have cookies please?"

Giddy smiles!

Quest is so incredibly gentle with him.
He was petting all over her nose and face.

It's hard to put into words how happy I was to share a birthday ride with my little boy, and maybe start a new tradition with him - the fact that he enjoyed it was the icing on top. 

It is certainly curious how different my emotional state was a year ago and sometimes...still is. While I've physically healed, I'm still not 100% emotionally fine and...honestly, that is okay. It's been good to find support from other parents who have gone through a similar journey and to realize that is is perfectly okay for my mental health to take its own path and time to recover. 

Having Quest so rock steady and ready when I need her the most has been an incredible gift to my emotional wellbeing though. Through long hours alone on the trail, I've given myself that quiet space to sort through a maze of thoughts- realizing the need to prioritize what actually matters to me and to stop caring about what doesn't and to intentionally surround myself with good, supportive people. 

And even though the year of distance riding didn't quite happen the way I had wanted it to....Rides will always be there and my family, our small little growing family, will only be as it is for a short time. Maybe it'll be next year, or the year after that. I'll take what ever catch rides I can fit into my schedule.

 In the meantime though, I'll continue to enjoy my little slice of personal heaven - riding with my little guy and my best mareface.

Barn Photoshoot Outing

I got my hair done all fancy a couple weeks ago and stopped by the barn for an impromptu photoshoot. Quest was so compliant despite being surrounded by the world's most tempting grass salad buffet haha

And rest in peace pink plaid blouse...I did laundry, retrieved it from the wash, and found a huge rip along the arm ):

Everything about this photo is love, esp Quest. She's so pretty.

Easy relaxed canter with happy ears (: 

Best mareface <3

Hello 2019

Wow, I can't quite believe we're already halfway into January. But yes...happy belated New Year everyone! I hope you had a great end to 2018 and a wonderful start to 2019 so far.

Quest and I are doing well though there have been some big changes at the barn recently. Last weekend, A moved Mel back to the Dust Bowl barn. There were a lot of things that factored into the decision but bottom line A was never quite happy at OF. Also our barn schedules didn't coordinate for us to do as many rides together as we had hoped so Quest and I were solo 90% of the time. Oh well. 

With Mel now gone, Quest has been without a pasture mate for the past few days while the barn staff figure out a new arrangement. Hopefully whoever they decide to place with her will be a compatible fit with little to no drama so fingers crossed!

Asides from that, Quest and I have been getting in some good solid rides. The weather has now become bitterly cold so we've been doing pretty much all bareback rides both on the trails and in the arena. Gotta make use of the fuzzy butt heater lol

Trail stuff is very limited and we only go out in certain conditions though due to the melting snow or rainfall that freezes right into ice, making the roads EXTREMELY dangerous. In fact, I had to emergency dismount once a few weeks ago when Quest took misstep and started slipping on a hidden patch of ice. She didn't go down and I hopped away quickly to safety. We came out of it totally fine but that was a reminder to exercise more caution.

That being said, the indoor arena has been our usual fare so far this winter and fortunately, it is not all that bad. My goal this season has been collection and better seat communication. We have been chipping at it slowly at our own pace doing simple dressage stuff and fundamentals. Quest is getting the gist of it and looking pretty good for our efforts I daresay.

The undersaddle work has seem to transfer to a better relationship out of saddle as well or for whatever reason Quest has been surprisingly more snuggly with me. When I fetch her from pasture, she often leans her head against my arm and just breathes me in. In the arena, she follows me around while I toddle back and forth with a laden manure fork cleaning up after her. It's also good to see that she's maintaining her weight too. The whole lack of pasture-mate thing might set us back due to her running around and worrying but I hope that will be resolved quickly.

As for riding/event plans for 2019, things are VERY much in the air at the moment due to all the big life things that will be taking place this year. W and I are in the throes of wedding planning and also just restarted our efforts in looking for a home together. We'll also be attending 3 of our friends' weddings before ours in July and have several trips to do all before summer happens. Things are chaotic lol but it'll be fun.

Its in the crazy moments that I fully realize how lucky I am for Quest being as steady and constant as she is. While mareface does have her Arabian moments, being able to just swing up for a quick, no fuss bareback ride on the trails or arena when I need to get away from life is a immeasurable gift of relief and solace itself.

Endless Winter

March really did roar in like a lion. The weather has been extremely uncooperative the past few weeks and rides with the mareface have been sporadic at best.

During the arena sessions that I have been able to sneak in, Quest was all over the place movement-wise and it felt like what it looked. To be fair, it has been a quite a few months since we actually tried to do any "real riding" thanks to the weather and time off from the injury. In terms of baseline fitness though, I think we'll be okay. Quest came through the worst of winter with good weight, all rested up, and her feet are doing well. She's still unshod at the moment but I'm planning to get those front shoes back on next month when we'll be hitting the trails in earnest.  As for me, I might be in the best cardio-endurance shape I've been in awhile thanks to the miles I've done at the gym over the past few months. I'm excited to see how I fare running outside- it'll be quite a happy change from the treadmill.

Physically, mareface has proven time and time again that if I train and ride her accordingly as the terrain dictates, she can physically handle whatever is thrown at her. Mentally though, I feel like we are stuck in the never-ending and infamous "two steps forward and one back" dance. There are improvements to be sure but progress just feels painfully slow and when she decides to liven up a mundane trail ride by engaging her jigging hellbeast mode. The latter will be solved by on-trail training with trail partners but most horses at our barn literally can't keep up with Quest. She walks so fast and briskly that we leave everyone in the dust after a few steps. I've found ways of dealing with the behavior though but we need those miles. Once the temperatures and trail conditions improve, we'll be back at it in full force.

Crossing every digit for favorable trail riding weather soon because cabin fever is hitting me hard.

There are moments of good in the arena though. My sister and 8 month old nephew T are in town visiting my family for the entire month (babies are seriously non-stop work...wow) and they came up to the barn a couple weeks ago to see Quest. I hopped on for a quick bareback ride first and my sister asked to get some pictures of T with the mareface.

We ended up also walking a few circles in the front third of the indoor and Quest was perfect. She was so tolerant and patient the entire time with T; even when he grabbed her nose, she just snorted and gently moved her head out of his reach. No fuss, no drama.

This mare <3

Bareback Boot Camp

The cold and dark winter months have become synonymous with what I call "bareback boot camp". It first started off as a way to get in a quick ride during the week while making good use of  a bay butt warmer but over the past 2.5ish years, riding bareback has become something I make a point of doing every so often for a quick self tune-up.

When I first started as an adult beginner, bareback riding played a huge part in helping me develop better balance and seat. Looking back, I really do think it was the biggest thing that got me to improve as quickly as I did. Nowadays, these rides have been honing in on straightness issues that sometimes creep back into my riding. My biggest physical limitation still is tightness that I have on my left side and shoulder which causes issues going clockwise in an arena and some general lopsidedness. It's not horrendous but it is obvious to me. When I do manage to straighten myself out, Quest also straightens out underneath me and I can feel her move out a lot more freely, like she's clicked into a more comfortable gear. This is something that I'll need to keep working on myself and commit to muscle memory.

A few of the canter sets we did earlier this week felt really good though and it is obvious that Quest was enjoying the faster gait. Smart mareface has already figured out this will now be a consistent element of our rehab rides and asked me to GO a few times during that night. We are still in rehab mode though so I had to tell her no but wow, the sass was strong- it seriously felt like she was on rocket fuel lol

Although bareback riding is great and all, I am really looking forward to having daylight when I leave work- we will finally be able to fit in some trails during the week.

Pony Pool Day

No better way to escape the summer heat than a nice swim in the river! Since discovering the boat launch ramp and after a handful of visits to the river, A and I tossed around the idea of taking the horses for a real swim sometime during the summer. I had plans in the morning with family this past weekend so barn time was in the afternoon. Downside to being at the barn later in the day was the high noon heat and it was hot. Pool-weather hot.

So I texted A to bring her swimming stuff and down to the river we went with ponies in tow. The handwalk over was very warm and I definitely worked up a sweat. When we got to the water, no pretense spared as everyone waded right in.

Me and the ponies. The water came up to belly button height in the deepest sections.

The water was SO refreshing and the temperature was perfect. It was my first time taking Quest this deep into the river. She was totally fine and quickly figured out how much fun water can be. She stuck her face into it up to her eyeballs, blew bubbles, pawed, splashed. In the middle of one of Quest's pawing/splashing sprees, I splashed her back. I think she actually looked shocked and indignantly pouted at me for a moment before going back to splashing again haha

I was happy to see Quest's interest with water but her enthusiasm was annoying (not her fault) when the lead rope proved to be too short for her to do much without almost yanking me off my feet while sand sucked at my flip flops and I had to fish them back a couple times. After losing my shoes for the millionth time, I said "Screw it, I'm riding." I tied the lead rope on the halter into makeshift reins and scoped out a good place in the river to mount up. After some VERY careful position maneuvering in the water while making sure no toes were stepped on, I belly flopped on. I couldn't help but squeal aloud because I nearly slid back into the water from her slick back and my wet behind but somehow managed to swing myself up and over on the first try. I have only ridden Quest truly bareback- without a bareback pad- maybe twice since I've had her and she tensed for a moment and wiggled. I stayed on. She very quickly realized oh, this is fine and went back to exploring the water.

I was much happier not having to deal with the ouchy rocks on my feet and trying to keep my balance while managing a playful horse at the end of it. We spent a couple hours cooling off before heading back to the barn. I was still mounted up and decided to have my horse carry my lazy butt home. Quest was perfect and walked quietly all the way home with no antics. Good mare <3

Good start

Bed gravity was unusually strong the Friday morning after New Year's Day and unfortunately the lethargic-ness followed me through the whole day at work so my plan for that night was to trim/touch up as needed and do a bareback ride session to work on my balance at the canter since I've been feeling a bit off-center lately.

After the usual free lunge warm up, we tacked up with the home-made bareback pad and got to work starting with walk/trot working up to canter. Quest was a superstar and gave me the best western jog ever so that I could really focus on my balance without feeling like I was about to break in half afterwards. I have mild scoliosis- it doesn't bother me for the most part but it does get rather painful when the weather gets humid (and keeps me from ever living in places like Florida). My back used to get sore when I first started riding but as I've gotten more proficient at using my core muscles, I've been pretty much pain-free for the most part.

After doing a ton of trotting we moved into cantering, first on my better side then switched to my weaker side for the majority of the workout. This session was the second time that I ever cantered bareback so I worked on moving with the initial beats when sitting the canter since I often bump around for a couple steps bareback until I catch the familiar rocking motion. My typically very opinionated and fussy mare who has a certain time-limit tolerance for arena work was remarkably patient with letting me figure things out as we did what felt like a million circles in the indoor section of the arena. I did finally get the hang of  it and ended the night being able to canter bareback with one hand on the reins AND on my bad side, yay.

The next day, A and Smokey decided to visit us from the main barn so we could all ride together. We were due to get some snow later on in the morning so we opted to stay indoors and do a group bareback arena ride.

I was half-expecting Quest to get super testy about doing two arena days in a row but she was just fine. She continued to give me world's best western jog and we cantered a bit as well. I also got a chance hop on my friend M's horse Calypso, a spicy 16hh TB chestnut mare. Caly is known around the barn for her grumpy faces when people and horses walk by her stall and mare-ish tendencies. She was a delight to ride bareback though and didn't put a foot wrong. Her trot was huge with lots of movement- I didn't want to tempt fate cantering bareback on a strange-to-me horse either so we stuck with just a walk and trot. M rode in a drill team during college so Quest was in good hands and plus it was fun for me to watch someone else on my mare. It started to snow soon after we swapped horses and started accumulating pretty quick so we all called it a day and parted ways. I went home, showered, and curled up under blankets streaming TV shows and baked Chinese sweet breads. A decent start to 2015 I'd say.

DIY Bareback Pad

Once I figured out that Quest was fine with bareback pads, I started researching everywhere for the perfect one. I tested out T's pad last month with the intentions of purchasing it if it worked well after a test ride. While the pad functioned as intended, jerry-rigging the straps once was incredibly annoying to deal with (I don't want to imagine doing it again) and the pad itself was much too long for short-backed mare Quest. I could foresee a bad rub a coming.

Options on hand exhausted, I decided to go shopping. Good news was I found a ton of options, the bad news was I found too many options. I needed more time to shop but wanted something temporary to use...being the craft-sy person that I am, I decided to make my own. Convinced that I wasn't the first person to think of this idea, I scoured the interwebz for a tutorial and surprisingly I found NOTHING at all. Only thing I read was someone using stirrup leathers to strap a regular AP pad to a horse- it didn't seem comfortable nor safe. Not to be daunted, I came up with my own design!

The materials for this are minimal. All you need is an AP English saddle pad (I picked the thickest one from my pad stash- it's thicker than the normal cotton pads and has a waffle cloth so it breathes better), nylon webbing (I used about 2 yards), needle, and thread (I suggest upholstery/nylon thread- it's the TOUGHEST stuff you can buy). I used chalk for making marks on the pad and webbing to know where to cut and make billet holes- it rubs out easily and doesn't stain materials. The lighter was used to burn the edges of cut webbing so it doesn't fray. I won't bore everyone to death with every minute detail but the construction is pretty simplistic once you have everything planned out and stay neat with your hand stitching. Yes, this was done by hand. I think the entire thing might too thick/cumbersome to fit through a sewing machine! I had some leftover nylon from a previous project that I was able to attach as a grab strap.

Most of the bareback pads sold nowadays use a cinch with latigo straps. I wanted to make billet straps that worked with the girth that I use on my saddle so I used two separate pieces of webbing. The holes in the nylon were punched with a stove-heated nail. I preemptively made some fleece covers to slip over the billet straps and buckles in case of rubbing but they turned out to be unnecessary and the pad was fine just as is.

I've got quite a bit of experience working with nylon webbing and sewing but this project is definitely within range of crafty beginners. Hopefully this inspires others to try and make their own bareback pads!

Ups and Downs

The past week has been bitterly cold and the freezing temperatures have created cement-like conditions in the outdoor section of the indoor/outdoor arena. Being limited to half of our usual riding space and plus sharing the arena with 1-2 other riders, we were much too limited on space to work comfortably and safely on things that require more room to maneuver, e.g.; flying lead changes. Not to be daunted, I decided to tackle another goal I had in mind. About a month ago, I had hopped on Quest bareback and just sat there for a few moments before getting off. While she did not do a single thing wrong the entire time, her confusion was obvious. Not knowing her history with bareback, I decided the only fair thing to do was to transition to her it slowly using a bareback pad first. My friend T was awesome enough to bring her pad to the barn for me last week for us to try out.

I introduced the bareback pad to Quest, letting her sniff and explore. Once her curiosity was satisfied, I tossed it on her back and took it off several times with zero reaction from her- I wasn’t surprised but hey, you never know. When it came time to girth up though, I realized that I had NO idea how to do up the straps. I’ve used bareback pads before and they have always been pretty straightforward nylon buckles. T’s pad had one extremely long nylon girth strap with D-rings; there was no cinch, nothing. After repeatedly trying to decipher how the straps worked and even enlisting the help of a western-savvy rider who was a regular bareback pad user to no avail, I resorted to use A’s pad instead that used a normal cinch and latigo set-up.

All cinched up, we walked into the indoor where I tugged, yanked, pulled at the pad. No response. I moved over to the mounting block and leaned over with my weight, wiggling around. Nothing. I hopped on. There was an ear flick and nothing. Cued her to walk forward, and off we went cruising along like old bareback pros. Once we both got comfortable, we had some fun with a set of ground poles in the arena that we walked and even trotted over. I was super happy to note Quest’s ears were pricked forward and up, she’s taking to working poles well so far. We ended the ride with a calm Quest and a happy me- will definitely add bareback sessions to our winter rides. Now to go shopping for a pad!

On Saturday after our usual lunge warmup, Quest and I headed out for a handwalk on the trail while A had a riding lesson. It was the first time that I had taken her out on just a lead since her meltdown about a month ago and also our first time doing it solo. We couldn’t go too far due to time constraints but were able to get quite a distance away from the barn to see tremendous improvement with zero calling out and minimal fuss. Quest got worried when she heard some roofing workers banging and nailing away on a house in the adjacent neighborhood. We stood there for a bit until she figured out nothing was about to eat her. After we got back to the barn, we tacked up and met A and J for the trail ride. We decided to do a trail around a lake that I had never been on before but was familiar to our trail escorts.

Quest and I started off in the back at first then moved into the middle behind J when we started to trot a couple stretches since Smokey tends to be a little meh at first. Quest was ratable and responsive and walked nicely when asked. The path to get to the lake crosses a parking lot and Quest walked briskly and seemed quite eager to lead so J let us take the lead and we did a bit of trotting along the lake. We paused for a moment to wait for A who was doing some walk work with Smokey. While waiting, I could feel Quest telling me she was ready to GO. A caught up, she gave the okay for us to all canter and we headed out. I'm not sure exactly what happened next but one moment A was in the saddle, the next she was on the ground. She wasn't hurt fortunately but we all dismounted to wait.

When I got off, Quest did NOT want to stand still at all. She wanted to move but of course we weren't going to do that. She started to get into my space to try and move forward. When I reprimanded her and made her back up out of my space, she got more worked up. When we finally mounted, Quest's energy was still up and keeping her at a walk was a challenge. I did not want to keep hauling on her mouth so I did half-halts and sat deep. She tried to jog off several times so I put her into tight circles and only let her straighten out when she settled into a ratable walk. Back at the barn, I took tack off of my lathered mare (she did have nice sweat patterns though) and got out the rope halter and lunge line to review groundwork until Quest remembered that staying out of my space REALLY MEANT staying out of my space and I had a much calmer and happier mareface at the end.

While things ended on a positive note, Quest's pushy attitude when waiting on the trail was definitely not permissible. Granted her bundle of nerves could have been due to fact that it was her first time on that particular trail, being right by the highway with all the traffic, seeing the lake for the first time, etc...I don't think it's ever a good reason to allow for bad manners. On the bright side, I don't think I have to worry about Quest being lazy on the trail, we do need to work on getting her energy down and relaxing more. The tight circles worked really well while I was in saddle but when I'm out of the saddle, I was thinking about unclipping the reins and lunging her if there is enough room on the trail (I have a halter-bridle so there is a ring to clip to so it won't be on her mouth/bit). Plausible? Any suggestions for things I can do with her on the trail?