Friday and Saturday trail ride

Friday was what I like to call a no nonsense ride. One where I don't have a huge amount of time but want to get in a good workout for us both. My hubby and I were on our way up to Wisconsin to visit a Christmas Store in Fon du Lac and a sewing store in Beaver Dam. The barn was on the way so it worked out perfectly for me to stop for a ride. Rode in the indoor and worked on my basics. Position, aids, transitions between and within gaits and cantering a cavaletti.

Saturday was another story, I had all afternoon and it was a beautiful day! I got up to the barn around 1pm. The sun was out and no winds, about 45 degrees. Just a wonderful day, the outdoor arenas were too wet to ride in so I started off in the indoor. It was a little crowded. Brenda was over from the George Morris clinic showing horses to a client from Texas, Michelle and another trainer were both teaching lessons. I did my basic ride and then added in a bunch of 2 point work and no stirrup work. (I must get my fitness level up!)

I then decided to head outside and walk around the grounds a couple times. On my second circuit I was thinking about working on the scary wood plank bridge when we saw a barn mate walk out from the trail head. We rode toward each other to say hi and she asked if I would like to go out on trail to take a walk. I eagerly said yes! She is very familiar with the fields and trails and I was not going to turn the opportunity away.

My shadow horse and rider.

Headed towards the show barns at the back of the facility.

The scary wood plank bridge is straight ahead, the dressage barns and main entrance on my right. The entrance to the trails to the left past the paddocks.

(the strap of my camera in the way)

In the woods, enjoying the surroundings and the company!

We were out on trail for about an hour. First we went through the fields. Lots and lots of hay fields. We were so busy chatting that I forgot to take a picture :) then we came back around and headed through the woods. This time we headed past the giant wood pile from the opposite direction and he was a bit nervous and actually side passed by it. What a silly boy.

On the limestone path back to the barns we came upon a hunter in bright orange swinging his cross bow as he walked. The path only about 4 feet wide and is through a marsh so not much room to maneuver. Both horses stopped dead in their tracks as did the hunter. There was a couple of seconds of dead silence as we faced off. We asked the hunter if he wouldn't mind putting his bow down and if he would just talk to us for a minute. As soon as Fawkes heard 'human' voice he practically sighed, let out his breath, relaxed and walked on. It was a good experience for him.

When I got back to the barn I realized we had been out for almost 2 hours! Time sure flies when you are having fun.

Mel Rides again and some video clips of me

The day before Thanksgiving, Melissa and I headed up to the barn for some mother/daughter/horse time. It was quite nice. My Melissa

She had not yet been up to Sunflower so this was a great opportunity to check out the facility and get up on him for a few minutes. We did have to dig out her riding gear, luckily dear old mom (me!) knew where everything was and she still fit into her old items.

Melissa and Fawkes

I had my little Sony digital camera with me and since it has a video function we took a couple short video clips of each other. The quality is not nearly as good as my regular video camera but for my purposes of wanting a good position check it worked just fine!

Mel hoped up on him first and rode for about 10-15 minutes warming him up. She looked awesome, she has not really ridden in 4 years and her position is just so natural that it makes me envious!

Mel rides again!

My position on the other hand leaves much to be desired! I really have a lot to work on. That is why I was glad to have someone there to video me, it helps for me to watch the video and correlate what I am seeing to what I feel when I am in the saddle and to what Brenda is telling me.

If you notice in the video of my trot, my upper body is quite stiff, my elbows are frozen and my hands are moving all over the place and I look a bit out of shape, which I actually am! My heels don't look terrible, especially the left one. The canter is a little better I just need to work o nmy fitnes.

I suppose that my lack of fitness combined with the recovering left ankle has me compensating somehow with my upper body leaving me a bit stiff. I think the issues will clear up with time in the saddle and me being aware of them and try to relax some. And I think as my ankle gets stronger and more flexible I will be able to soften the rest of my body and not be quite as tense in the upper body.

Flatwork clips of me.

I am trying to be kind to myself and not be too self critical (it's not productive) but let me tell you some days it sure is difficult! I will get my Melissa to video me again at Christmas time when she is home. This way I can visually check on my progress.

I took a Thanksgiving Hiatus

And did not even turn my computer on for 4 and 1/2 days!

Pretty incredible when I think about it and it was also quite a nice break to not be a 'slave' to technology all the time.

Now I have a ton of catching up to do, oh well. I will give you the mini version here and then do a more details later.

Wednesday before Thanksgiving: Melissa accompanied me to the barn and she even rode Fawkes for a little bit. (I think it has been at least a year since she was last on him!) I took some video clips.

Thanksgiving Day: AN awesome day! Just me, my hubby and Melissa. Good times :)

Friday: Hubby accompanied me to the barn (he did not ride!) and then we spent the day out and about.

Saturday: I spent the afternoon riding.... indoors and out for a nice trail ride.

Sunday: I spent almost 9 hours at auditing the Chicago George Morris Clinic. Always, Always a great treat, He is simply full of wisdom.

Stay tuned for more details!

Another great lesson and colic update

OK, so I think that sub consciously I am feeling that I have to make up for 6 months of lost rides and lessons as well as the fact that I am actually boarding at a real training facility and that I feel compelled to take advantage of this as much as possible!

Foggy and cold morning.

Endless road construction cones :(

Road to the barn, I really like those trees.

Whatever the reason... I had another lesson today and this one was another good one. I always learn something from Brenda and that makes me feel good.

Today's lesson was a looooong one. I was on for almost an hour and 45 mins. Luckily not all of that was solid lesson time. There was a good 10 minutes walk warmup, followed by 35 minutes of flat work, a 15 minute break (Brenda had to load her horses for the George Morris clinic on the truck) then almost 35 minutes of jump work and a 10 minute cool down walk. All of this was preceded by Brenda, myself and another rider setting the jumps up in the arena. The arena had been freshly dragged after they removed a little of the footing, it was too deep in some spots. All of the equipment was in a huge pile in the center. Teamwork really made quick work of setting up a course of jumps.

Flatwork consisted of working on being precise with the aids while making smooth transitions both between gaits and within gaits. By the end of 30minutes of solid hard flatwork both Fawkes and I were sweating! It feels great to be able to really work with him again. The work was both mentally and physically challenging. Brenda is a hard taskmaster (which is one of the reasons I love training with her!) and I find that I really want to accomplish the tasks that she asks of us. Some things we worked on were changing speed within trot and canter while making it smooth and staying properly balanced, working his hinds end in shoulder in and haunches in followed by asking him to power through in a nice forward posting trot. Lots of circles of various sizes keeping him between my hands and legs and following the correct bend of his body on the path of the circle, and keeping a feel of his mouth with both hands.

After a 15 minute break we worked on jumping exercises. Started with cavaletti, which for some reason the first couple of trys were horrendous. I was looking down, leaning and basically trying to hard. I took a minute to stop, take a couple of deep breaths and re-group, I just focused on how smooth I know we can be and tried again. The next trys were much, much better. I was breathing, letting the feel of him run through me instead of against me and the energy flow was much better. I counted every stride and adjusted my turns a little, I switched to inside leg to outside rein to make my turns instead of just trying to pull him around with my hands which just made him fall on his inside shoulder.

Next we moved on to a course of cavaletti, them added in some jumps and ended with a complete course of a mixture of cavaletti and jumps. Still nothing higher than 2'6" and no oxers, the widest thing we have gone over is the green boxes. (Brenda is taking it slow and easy to give my ankle time to adjust)

The final course is diagrammed below... sorry for the crude drawing :)

Trot into jump 1 (2'3" vertical) canter out in 6 stride to jump 2 (2'6" vertical) around to the end jump 3 (12" cavaletti) left turn to jump 4 on the quarter line (12" cavaletti) roll back to jump 5 (12" cavaletti) roll back to the left to end jump 6 (12"cavaletti) down to the center line and straight across jump 7 (2' Green boxes, small cone on top in the middle, no standards) then right turn and roll back to jump 8 (2' green boxes with flowers in front and pole on top).

We did this course and varieties of this course several times. It was great fun and technically challenging. Even after all that time Fawkes was pretty keyed up and did a little prancing around before he cooled off in a walk, he was having fun.

There was another line of jumps down the long side that I did not jump so I did not diagram them.

In other news... I spoke with my friend Rita today and Lady is doing much better. She has a history of liver disease/damage after accidentally ingesting pesticide several years ago. The vet found that Lady has permanent scarring of her bile duct and it seems that is has become infected and blocked. No bile has been reaching her intestines and this has been the cause of the colic, she has no impaction. She has been on long term medication for her liver and now the vet would like to add a permanent low dose of SMZ's to combat any infections in the area as well as periodic testing of her liver enzymes which will alert them to any issues that may sneak up.

Rita thinks they should be letting her come home on Friday, so good news for them!

Hi MOM! Got any treats for me?


Showing off the little bit of mud he managed to find and roll in.


I love his soft muzzle, how it feels on the palm of my hand or against the skin of my neck and how sweet he smells when I give him little kisses.

His kind eye.

A colic scare

My good friend Rita, sent me a text message Sunday evening that her TB mare, Lady, was on her way to the clinic. She coliced again.

They have been able to stabilize her and have been running some tests to determine what has been causing the repeated bouts of colic. We are all praying that they will not have to do surgery and can find the reason and hopefully will have a good medication that can fix the problem.

Lady at the clinic with an IV.

Please keep my friend Rita and her wonderful mare, Lady, in your thoughts and prayers!

sore muscles today

I woke up this morning to some pretty sore muscles! I guess that really is to be expected, it was a pretty physically tough lesson and I am getting back into shape.

I did 15 minutes of stretches first thing this morning and then had to head over to physical therapy. I told her I was a bit sore from my weekend activities and she was quite delighted and told me to keep finding ways to work hard.

I am up to 30 -40 mins on the treadmill and was doing this 3 times a week plus riding. Gina, my physical therapist told me that I needed to up that number to 7 times a week plus if I could tolerate it. I will do my best! Besides, my waist line is demanding that I do my best and take off this extra weight I put on during my injury before it becomes a permanent fixture! I have no desire to but or make any larger sized clothing...

I jumped an entire course!

I had a lesson this morning and it was just plain old good! I had a big ole smile on my face.

My lesson started with getting him to move up in a nice forward working trot with me concentrating on keeping my hip angle closed, elbows bent and hands up. This was a big energetic trot that required me to work to keep him going. After a couple times around he was moving nicely and did not require as much use of my leg. (good thing... my stamina is still not back to where it was before my injury) While I was trotting Brenda was setting up a course of jumps, she'd set a jump, watch me, set anther jump, etc... At one point she told me to get in my 2 point position at the trot. This position is the one that taxes out my ankle the most. The stretching position combined with my weight on it and the stretch turns into a burn along the nerve. My doctor assures me that it is not anything bad or dangerous, that the nerve was stretched and snapped taught in the injury and that it is a sensory issue only and may never go away. Keeping this in mind, I get up in my 2 point position and go around once, (feeling good) around twice, (starting to feel the burn but doing good) around a third time ( oh damn, feels like a hot wire going down the outside of my ankle) Brenda looks up and says now separate your hands as far as you can and go around again. (seriously! I will NOT complain) I make it one more time around before she tells me to walk, catch my breath and give my ankle a break. I wonder if she could see the look on my face, was it a painful look or just one of grim determination?

Either way, within about 15 seconds the burn was completely gone. Whew. Pain can be such a distraction even when you know it's just a sensory issue. We moved into posting trot on the short sides and then down the first half of the long side a sitting trot and shoulder in to get his hind end working. A couple times in this exercise then into a canter. Worked on getting him to move up (cluck and stick and a reminder from Brenda that if he kicks out at all that he gets an immediate smack with the stick) canter with no problem what so ever, no sucking back and no misbehaving kick outs. She than had me do an exercise of canter forward in a 2 point for 6 strides then into a collected canter for 6 strides repeat going twice around in each direction. It started out a little messy the first couple of time I tried to move into collected canter he fell apart and broke stride. I asked Brenda what she was seeing from the ground and it turns out that when I was going from extended canter into collection I was putting my hands low and pulling him down and onto his front end and this is where i would lose the back end and he would break stride. So instead of dropping my hands I just lifted them, brought my body back up to vertical, sat softly and tightened my entire core to absorb the energy and within in 2 strides he was in complete collection with his front end rocking of the ground. It felt great and was much easier to use my core to move him into collection rather than just pulling him down with my hands.

Onto the jumping. Started with a cavaletti no stride on one of the short sides. Then onto a bending line that was a trot in vertical coming of a short diagonal to a five stride bending line vertical and back around to the bounce. Did that a couple times to make sure that I could repeat it consistently before adding on. Then added on a vertical all the way at the end of the long side (had about 14 strides coming up to that jump, lots of time to play head games about a good spot!) I just counted my way down to it, added a little leg 2 strides out and hit it dead on. Next added on a roll back to a green box that brought us back down that long side in the opposite direction, back over the bounce and finally to an in and out to finish up. The jumps were not high at all, I think the second jump of the in and out was at 2'6" so the rest were at about 2'3".

Brenda my ride was excellent! She is forcing me to take things slow. Which I know is a good thing even though sometimes I feel like I have been setback by years worth of riding, She absolutely says that is not so, my technical riding abilities are excellent that we just have to work on building up the physical aspect. OK, OK. I understand that and I appreciate it. :)

At the end of the final course that I did today several of the other riders cheered me on. Knowing that this was my first course since coming back from my injury. I did a great big woohoo and smiled for the rest of the day!!

A trip to Philly and a Saturday morning ride

This week my work took me on a 2 night 2 day trip to Philadelphia. I arrived in at dinner time on Wednesday and was back home Friday late afternoon.

It was a good work trip. I like Philly for all of it's history. Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, the mint, and the old city area are great places. But when you spend a little time in the city you quickly realize how much of the area is poor and depressed. Large areas of ghetto housing and disrepair. Driving through areas like these and visiting hospitals in these areas are always a reminder to me as to how good my life is. And for that I am very thankful!

My Saturday ride was a good one. I headed up to the barn in the afternoon, the sun was shining and the weather was quite warm for nearing the end of November.

Brenda had Sarah ride Fawkes fist thing in the morning so she could work off some of his excess energy. Brenda is taking no chances on me re-injuring my ankle! I must say that it is making me a little spoiled.

I was glad for having a nice quiet horse, still had tons of energy, but I was able to work on me without having to worry about him acting up. I really worked on stretching my ankle down. Lots of standing, 2 point and balance exercises like up-up-down, up-up down at the trot. I also worked on keeping my hip angle closed slightly more than I am used to with my elbows bent and hands up. This is my perfect posting trot position and the position that allows me to keep my hands still and effective. Once I fall out of this position I am too close to vertical and my hips end up thrusting forward and up and my hands move all over and then my legs start sliding around and if I look as I bad as it feels then yuck. (I guess that is what happens when you don't ride for 6 months!!)

Anyway, I rode in the indoor arena for 20 minutes and then headed outside to the large arena for another 20 minutes and then out for a walk around the grounds. I did not have time to go out and hit the trails but I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather at least a little bit. I decided to head over to the wooden bridge. There is an area of ponds and across several of them is a full size wood plank bridge. He did not even want to go near it and was doing his silly back up evasive maneuvers. Just was I was about to hop off and walk him across on of the facility managers saw us and came over and asked if we would like a walk across. Sure thing! So he just walked next to us and quietly talked to Fawkes as we walked up to the bridge. The combination of my leg and the fact that the person next to us was not swallowed up by the wooden boards allowed him to be brave enough. He put his head down real low, did a couple of snuffling snorts, tentatively reached out with his left front. Front foot down and he froze waiting to see what would happen... nothing. a little more leg and a couple tentative steps and then he was just fine. What a good boy :)

A big thanks to our walker and we headed back around to the barn.

Tuesday Lesson

My boy was a goof ball today.

I arrived at the barn early for my lesson so that I could take some extra time warming him up. It was chilly and damp and since my joints were aching me a little I figures his would be too. An extra 10 minute warm-up would be good for us both.

But no... the wind was blowing the sides of the coverall and it was a bit noisy. Normally this does not phase either of us. However, today he was just plain old spooky and irritated by it. His head was sky high and he was a bit prancy. I asked him to march on in his walk and he did a little half hearted kick. Oh boy, it's gonna be one of those days. I had visions of me in my lesson going over little 2 foot jumps with him bucking wildly and me hanging on for dear life and then flying off and smashing my left ankle into bits and not riding for another 6 months. Nope, I did not like that vision one bit. After 10 minutes of trying to get him to settle I decided I needed to hop off and grab a lunge line.

Brenda was just coming in for our lesson so she lunged him for me and he just ran and ran and ran. Cantered for a good solid 10 minutes with some brief jaunts of crow hopping and bucking thrown in. She just let him go until he was ready to stop then turned him and he did it all over again the other way.

I got back on again, and he immediately started prancing. ugh, sometimes there is a thing as too much energy! So now we decided that I just needed to ask for a nice strong trot and just trot him for a bit to get him to settle. Sounds good, except he was being so pissy that when I asked for him to move into a more forward trot he decided to kick out. He sometimes gets a little pissy and sucks back when he has too much energy, almost like the overload of energy causes his brain to short circuit. Deep breath, again I asked him very, very gently to move forward, this time he did. The first 20 minutes of the lesson was spent just getting him to move forward and stay in front of my leg without letting him mis-behave or get away with not working. We did this at a trot and canter in both directions. Brenda had me move him up into a hand gallop little by little and then just hand gallop around the arena several times in each direction.

By the time we were done with this exercise he was pretty much back to being his normal self and listening to my aids and moving off my leg when I asked him. whew... he really made me fight for that one.

We moved on to some jumping exercises over cavaletti. Starting with a large figure 8, then onto bending lines with straight line halts and then different bending lines with her telling me the number of strides she wanted. My job was to keep his pace the same and achieve the correct number of strides by adjusting our line or track only. It was a great exercise and harder to do than it looked! We called it quits after that.

Brenda believes that his mis-behaving may also be due to the fact that his hind end gets a little sore from arthritis and it is his way to say that it is bothering him a little bit and the work is hard. I am slightly more inclined to think it is more to do with the fact that he was not ridden much for the past 2 weeks because I was gone for a week and then sick for a week so he had excess energy. Most likely it is a combination of things. If he continues acting up with regular work than we may talk to the vet about increasing his dose of naproxen for a bit to see if that helps.

All in all it was a good lesson, it really taught me some ways to correctly deal with him when he is acting out without getting frustrated or aggravated with both of us. And that is a good thing!

My Sunday ride

Fawkes: Carmel colored after his body clip.

Luis: vacuuming Bear

My Sunday ride was nice but not quite as wonderful as Saturday... It was a good 10 to 12 degrees colder and a light wind and overcast sky's just made it feel downright chilly! Chilly weather along with the fact that I was feeling tired and congested from this darn cold just made for a not as pleasant day. Nevertheless I ALWAYS enjoy spending time with my horse... just makes me feel like me, takes away stress and all the stuff of life just melts away for that bit of time.

My ride was a good one. The left ankle was a bit stiff from the long Saturday ride and the chilly weather so I started with a bit of standing at the walk to let my ankle sink down and stretch. I warmed up for a bit and then decided to head outside for a little work in the big arena. Work for the day consisted of lateral work at the walk. Started with shoulder in and haunches in and then circled around and worked on half pass at the walk in each direction. He is much, much better when half passing to the right. Nice even bend, no stiffness and no loss of impulsion. Going to the left is a bit harder for him. He tenses up, throws up his neck and hollows his back. I kept at it until we had a couple nice steps. Alternating between moving forward for several steps then half pass for 2 or 3 then back to forward.

Then into some trot work, I worked on getting him to extend his trot across the diagonal. My goal was to really feel him push off his hind end and come through into my hands. The first try he was a bit strung out, 2nd try got a couple good steps before he broke to a canter, 3rd and 4th trys felt great, we came through the corner, half halt, squeeze my legs and I felt his power surge through. NICE! Bet it would have felt even better if I was in my dressage saddle!

Onto some canter work, I let him canter long and low a couple laps around to stretch out with me off his back in a 2 point, then I softly sat back down and up and asked him for a medium canter, he was good. I could feel his frame shorten up and his front end come more off the ground. Did a couple circles in each direction this way and then worked on keeping a counter canter around a bend. I made a large circle, came off the circle across the diagonal and asked him to keep the counter canter around the bend and back across the diagonal until on the correct canter. (So a large loopy figure 8). Did this twice and then I was just tired... time to walk and cool down and head back inside.

Today he and I both have off and tomorrow a lesson :)

A wonderful day at the barn!

I made it out to the barn today and it was just a perfect day and I am all smiles!

I left early and stopped and got some morning snacks for the grooms and Brenda as a thank you for body clipping Fawkes for me while I was home sick this week. I think I owe them much more than just morning snacks! My boy is just not the best with clippers, in fact this is the first time that I have ever seen him with a full body clip, he looks amazing! I will get some pictures tomorrow. They clipped over a 2 day period and only had to use a minor sedative when getting to his legs and face. This is a major improvement. Every time gets easier and easier for all parties involved!

After arriving with my goodies I got ready to ride. A little cough syrup in me and tissues in my pocket, small pull on ankle brace and I was good to go. Luis gave him a quick 10 minute lunge before I got on. Brenda still will not let me lunge him, she is afraid that he may pull me and cause me to twist my ankle. She is right, no reason for me to take a chance when there are others around to help.

I started my ride in the indoor coverall. A nice 10 minute active walk then another 10- 15 minutes of trot and a little canter just to make sure he was listening to me and then we headed out to the big outdoor arena. I must point out that the exertion of that 10=15 mins had me sucking wind and I had to take a couple walk breaks to keep from having a major coughing spell. Once in the big empty outdoor arena (all the jumps have been removed for the winter) I used the space to really ask him to open up in his trot. He felt wonderful. I just kept asking gently for bigger steps and more energy and was able to keep him from getting quick and choppy with some gentle half halts. I think we were just both so happy to be outside riding in the sun and 50' weather. Again I asked for a canter and just let him go around a couple laps at his own pace. I could feel him stretching out and loosening up, he even gave me a couple happy little head shakes and snorts. Then I brought him back to a more collected canter and circled over a pole a couple of times in each direction until my chest called it quits!

I walked him for a little while and was lamenting about getting off. The day was beautiful, he was feeling good and just because I was still feeling a bit under the weather with exertion seemed like a silly reason to call it quits. So, off I went around the property making sure to keep him in an active walk, alternating pressure of my legs in time to the swing of his body. I do this for 2 reasons, 1. it keeps me actively riding and not just a passenger and 2. it gives him guidance and assurance from me when he is a little nervous outside of the arena.

Circled the property once and I still did not want off, so I decided to circle back around and head down to the trails. And ohhhhh he was such a good boy! and I had such a wonderful ride. The active walk and my gentle chit chat with him was enough to give him the extra boost of courage to make it into the scary unknown. Down a limestone path that went through some wetlands with rushes and green algae covering the water then up a little hill to a large field. We trotted the edge of the winding field. Field to the left and wetlands to the right. Then into the woods and we trotted along a beautiful wide path. Of course I had no idea as to where we were going so when the path turned and narrowed considerably I turned back and headed down another wooded path until we came around a bend and to a rise and ran into an entire army of chattering squirrels. There must have been 2 dozen squirrels chattering and running to and fro into this giant wood pile lurking over the hill. He stopped dead in his tracks. I though oh boy here it comes he is gonna spin and take off. I consciously decided not to tense up, keep my legs on, keep my hands up. And no spin just a couple evasive backing steps. Again not knowing where I was going I decided that I was not going to push the issue and make him walk up there but I did make him walk forward a couple steps and then stand still for several minutes before I asked him to turn around. Back through the woods we went, found the field and trotted a bit more, such a lively trot, then back down the limestone path through the wetlands around the corner and we could see the first of the barns. At this point he did such a big sigh and stretched out his neck and walked all the way back to our barn on the far side of the property on a loose rein.

I was so proud of him :) and it was so delightful to have such a nice ride even when I was not feeling 100%. All told we were out for about 2 hours.

It sure made up for the bad week I had... no off to soak in the tub and try out the new hot water heater! (thanks for the suggestion!)

Have you ever wanted to just call 'do-overs!'

This week has been in an absolute 'do-over' week for me!

I was sicker than sick for 6 days and yesterday was the first day that I thought OK, I am alive enough to get up to the barn and groom Fawkes and maybe do a little riding. I was not planning to push it since I was still feeling a little weak. However I was really looking forward to it... Until I headed down to drop in a load of laundry before heading out and I encountered a huge flood.

Oh boy, I wanted to just cry as I stood looking at an inch of water on the rug. I opened the little door to the room with the water softener and the hot water heater and there was water just pouring out of the bottom of the hot water heater. Great.

Too make a long story short... I spent the day with a rented rug doctor machine, sucking up all the water and waiting for the plumber to show up. $1000.00 dollars later, the mess was cleaned, the rugs looked like new, a brand spanking new hot water heater in place.

So, I want a do-over for this week! no being sick, no busted hot water heaters, no huge messes!
although... I do like the clean rugs ;-)

It was a beautiful weekend and I missed it

Can you just picture me pouting????

I still have the crud.

I did make it up to the barn on Friday and actually had a pretty good ride. Guess the full crud had not hit me at that point. I rode with just a pull on ankle sleeve not the regular ankle brace! WOOHOO!

I figured that I did so well with my ankle at the trade show that I should just go for it in the saddle and see how it felt. It felt pretty good, I even popped over a couple of cavaletti's and had no problems. I rode for about 45 mins and Fawkes was a good boy for me.

Saturday, it was beautiful, and I head up to the barn in the afternoon thinking that after my ride I would take him out and about the property and maybe some trails. Yeah right, it was a struggle just getting to the barn. I was giving myself the 'pep' talk all day long that I was feeling just fine. Despite the heavy limbs and underwater feeling. I rode for about 30 mins and thought 'oh boy' I am done! No nice walks around the property in the beautiful weather, no last chance in the outdoor arena, nope...

I headed home, got in bed by 3pm, stayed in bed all day Sunday and got up this morning around 8. And i still feel sooooo crappy. I am off to the doctor. Maybe she can give me something to ease the congestion and the cough and never mind the GI stuff...

Hope everyone else is staying healthy!

Back from my week long trade show and now I have the crud!

My 6 night, 7 day trip downtown Chicago for a work trade show was a whirlwind!

Lots of catching up with friends, late nights, good food and drinks (and sometimes too many drinks!), long hours on the trade show floor and dinner with customers, and not enough sleep! I was a bit worried about how my ankle was going to hold up. However, I was careful ro put it up when I could and brought chemical ice packs with me to the trade show. I did have some swelling which was to be expected but, overall it went just fine.

The show was very successful for us as a company. On the personal front it was nice meeting up with co-workers that I never get to see and lots of old friends. Although I must admit that after 6 nights going out I was soooo ready to get in the cab Wednesday afternoon and just head home!

I was fighting off a small cold before the meeting and I guess all the activity just wore me out, now I have a full blown head and chest cold. blah... I hate having a cold.

Me and some friends, Jennifer and Greg at Carnivale a Latin fusion restaurant.

View of the Field Museum from my hotel room at The Blackstone on Michigan Ave.

Big group of friends on our last night at Francesca's in little Italy.


All dressed up for the Halloween Benefit Bash at Union Station

New footing, a little jumping and one CRANKY horse!

A quick update on my lesson today... (I am trying to pack for my week long conference/trade show that I leave for in the morning)

I arrived fro my lesson a little early so that I could have some time to check out the new footing and time to warm up my ankle.
For the first day of new footing in arena it was not too bad. Of course it is a bit deep and soft but oh so much better than what we had before.

I hoped on Fawkes and immediately could feel how different he was moving in the deep footing. His hind end literally felt like it was sinking. Very much like when we walk in soft sand at the beach.

Warmed up at the walk and trot. I tried to not think about my right hand and was just 'aware' of my whole right arm and was just letting it stay relaxed and keep my hands up and a bend in the elbow. This seemed to do the trick, Brenda said it was much, much better today. yay!

I asked him to move into a canter and it was like moving through sludge. Ugh... come on buddy move it! Got moving and stayed in a canter a couple trips around going to the right. Caught some single cavaletti's set on the 12" height at both short sides and had to keep my leg on him all the way to them. This new footing was making him work! Did those 4 or 5 times and I was huffing and puffing, time for a walk break.

Brenda asked if I was up to doing a little more today, heck yeah!! She kept everything super low, maybe the highest thing we jumped was 2'3". Picked up a trot and did a diagonal line of trot in canter out in 5. Had to push for the 5. The jumps were set low and had some bright flower boxes in front of them. Second time to it she asked me to canter it. I could not get him to pick up his canter!! And this was going to the right, his super easy way, what the heck. I stop, take a deep breath, reorganize and ask again. Again... nothing, so I squeeze harder and nothing, I use my spur and squeeze a little harder and he jumped up into a canter and gave me a pissed off buck to go with it.

He just did not want to work in that deep footing anymore, it was hard for him and he has been getting away with murder due to my recovery, but not today! I was feeling strong and good and the jumps were low. He could buck his way over the jumps for all I cared but he was going! and going we went. Down the diagonal in a canter in 4 stride around the corner and back the down the opposite diagonal over a green box.

I was grinning ear to ear!! My ankle felt good, even though I did feel when he gave that first good buck but that's to be expected, my form felt good and I was having fun even though I had Mr Pissy under me. Another walk break and we tried again... ugh again I had to get after him, this time no buck but it was so slow starting like climbing out of a hole, this time it was down an outside line a 2' natural vertical 5 strides to a natural gate. The vertical had some green ferns in front of it.

Squeeze, squeeze, eyes up count my strides to the first fence I feel him take off and then a split second later with his front end up he spooks at the ferns! What a DORK! and this time does do a buck over the fence... kudo's to me, I just lifted my hands and squeezed my legs and murmured your OK lets get to the next fence and we did. I landed and Brenda yelled for me to come back around to it. Back around, I sight the fence, get straight, close my legs to support him and this time he goes over a little on the high side but no buck, land 5 nice strides to the gate gets over that one and then decides he's having fun and tosses his head around.

Mission Accomplished. By that time I am done, sucking wind. Man I need to build up some cardio endurance... And enough for Fawkes as well. The new footing was a little deep and he had to work harder than normal, no reason to push either of us to far.

I had a great lesson and was so nice to play over some jumps and enjoy our selves.

I am off for the next week and will update once I get back from my conference... it's going to be a long week!