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Break…?

Worked a half day today, and left at lunch to head downtown for my appointment at the AT centre. My back pain has subsided a little this week, but it’s definitely still there. I still have an appointment with a specialist next week, but I went in to see my AT so that maybe I could function the rest of the week. She reassessed me, and (to my relief..sort of) said that she still doesn’t think it’s anything more then the little joint in my back and hip acting up. Which is what she first said 7 months ago. I agree with her. She also said that she really thinks I need to take a break from riding. Unfortunately I know she is right, and I’ve been in enough pain the past 2 weeks that I’ve been forced to.

This is so discouraging coming off of a show like I had at Beach. I have a lesson scheduled for Thursday night, and a clinic on Saturday this week. I consulted with my AT on this and brought up the point that it’s near impossible for me to take a full break from the sport when I’m working on two horses for sale by the time I move. That’s quite a bit of money and pressure- too much to sit on the sidelines. She understood and suggested that I try my best to minimize the amount of training I do. Ride in my lesson and clinic this week, but don’t go out and hack in between. And the week after, stay away from riding as much as you can but still be prepared for upcoming Heart of the Continent (a gold level MHJA show). I’m really not sure how I’m going to swing the next few weeks. I’m horrible at taking breaks- and obviously that’s why I come up with stress and overtraining issues.

I’m not so much worried about the fitness of myself or my horse being jeopardized as much as our progress sliding backwards again. I’d like to think that it won’t and that I could take enough time off to heal properly- but is that really the way life works? No. The world keeps turning just as fast even if it feels like your world has been stopped in it’s tracks. Yes I’m being slightly overdramatic. I know. It’ll all be fine and everything will work out eventually. I can’t help but stress a little bit over my progress as a rider/trainer and my horse’s progress as a competitive hunter and prospective jumper when I’ve hardly been able to ride since the last show. I guess we’ll see how my lesson goes on Thursday- and the Curry Clinic on Saturday. I’m determined to do both of these to the best of my ability and hoping that pain doesn’t conflict with my riding too much so I can get the most out of both sessions. I take my riding so seriously that I understand that it is very important for me to take the time to rest my back- because nobody can ride properly OR effectively under any amount of pain- it also effects your horse’s movement and comfort more than we know. So I’m just going to take it one day (ride) and a time and hope for the best results. That’s all I can do. Oh, and stretch. And ice..

PS Thank you to Kiirsten (http://prairienerd.wordpress.com)  for the kind words about my blog and what I’m trying to accomplish in the sport. It meant a lot to read her opinion on what I write, and it also re-inspired my determination to get better physically and within the sport. Us amateur’s gotta stick together- this is more of a team sport then most realize.

All This Beauty

It’s been a rough week. After the last show, my new back pain didn’t wear off like I’d hoped. It stayed around till.. now. By Thursday of last week ( a long week of not functioning at all for pain) I called my AT from work and asked her opinion. She said that because random stuff kept happening and I seemed to not be making much recovery progress that she was referring me to a sport med at Legacy. So my history was faxed over and an appointment was made with a specialist there. My appointment isn’t for another week and a bit- so I’m going in tomorrow to AT to see if that can help me function a bit better. To give you an idea of how much pain I was in last week, I tried to ride two horses in one night. I got through one session with Cash, painfully, and then drove to Sanford to ride my own horse.. got off after 15 minutes because of pain. So this is frustrating. I’m really hoping it’s nothing serious enough to jeopardize my upcoming move (48 days). That would REALLY suck.

I’m going to try aqua-fit tonight, and go easy with it, just to see if it loosens up any in the water. Doubtful, but hopeful. In the meantime I’ve been baking. Currently Oreo cupcakes. I plan on taking them to work tomorrow to share, and into the AT centre. I rode yesterday, or tried to. I am so stiff that I felt  bad asking Will to do any ring work because I knew my stiff back would effect him too- so I just went for a 4 mile hack on the dirt roads. It was like 35 degrees out without humidex- but we had a nice ride nonetheless. I’m hoping to ride thursday with Charlene and Saturday in another Curry Clinic. I really hope I’m not in too much pain for that. And yes I know I should take a break from riding and see if that makes a difference, but I can’t very well do that for another year or so as I have 2 horses to sell, and 9 months in NZ to be working my dream job. So.. back/hip/shoulder/body please hold out for a little while longer. Then I’ll try and give you a break. Maybe.

Work has been hot and slow for me. It was 37 degrees today and it’s supposed to be around that temperature all week. So that’s awesome. The UV was 10 today- also pretty fantastic. We make work fun though, and I’m blessed with fantastic co-workers. Couldn’t ask for a better summer job.

Build-A-Horse

Day three went very well! We started off the day with an Adult Amateur Medal equitation class. My course was all right, a little messy though. We didn’t place in that one- there was some big competition. I was very happy with him nonetheless though, and the flat portion (sitting trot) went SO much better then it would have even 2 months ago. Thank you exercise and conditioning. Our next class was Open Low Handy at 3ft.  We had a good round in this, and placed 5th in a class of about 12.  We placed 4th in the under saddle portion! Then it was onto the Hunter Classic Open Challenge class. I went into the 2’9″ division. This class consists of two rounds. The riders are told their score after each round and after both rounds the scores are added. There were three divisions, 3ft, 2’9 and 2’6. It’s a combined class, so all these divisions are judged on the same card. My first round was really good, except I had a wide turn coming into a diagonal six stride- and this caused me to add for the seven. The judge gave me a score of 68 for this round- Charlene said that the fact that she gave me over 65 with an add shows that the rest of my round was very good. My second round went much better! I fixed the turn into that line, and had beautiful distances to every jump. Except the last fence. I got a bit of an awkward distance because we had a bit too much pace coming home. Still very happy, and I got a score of 74. My combined final score was 142. Very respectable! The highest round score of the day was 81, so I was only 7 points off of that!

I’ve learned this weekend that anyone can buy an expensive horse, but it takes dedication and skill to take a horse you can afford and turn it into a quality horse. You build your own horse. It’s nice to finally see all my work coming out in Will. He’s becoming a very nice horse and this weekend showed he can be competitive in open and senior level classes against some quality competition. Hopefully we keep improving over the next couple of months!! 🙂

Day 1 and 2 at Beach

Day one:

We didn’t actually do anything till about 2, so a lot of wandering around and watching. Our first class was the Junior Amateur 2’9.  We had an excellent round. All our strides were right, and we had a nice flow. Unfortunately we didn’t place. There were quite a few people in the class, and a lot of nice horses. The judge was also slightly asleep. Our next round, Sr. Low, went alright. I made a mistake coming into a line. But everything else in the course was good.

Day two:

Today started off with a lot more wandering around and waiting. Once again I started riding around 2 with my J/A handy hunter. I have no words for how good this round was. Flawless. No joke. When I came out of the ring, Charlene immediately came up to me (she looked a little teary) and all she had to say was “Oh, I’m so PROUD of you!” over and over while patting my leg. I was all smiles. Two of her other very accomplished students also were very impressed.  It made my day to have impressed all three of those people. We won that class, beating out some very nice horse and rider combos. Thankfully the judge was not asleep today. I had two 3ft rounds as well. Open and Sr. Low Handy. They went well, but not as good as my J/A. I was still happy though, the improvements that I’ve seen not only in my riding, but in Will’s trust in me over the past few weeks are AMAZING. I’m so pleased with the progress being made, and how it’s paying off!

My back and shoulder aren’t doing too well at the moment, which is slightly frustrating. I’ve stretched and iced, but it’s not helping. I have one more show day left and then it’s monday. If things don’t improve I’m not sure how work is going to go next week. My body is impossible.

Beach Warm Ups

I left work at lunch today to head into the city for an AT appointment, where my back, both hips, and my shoulder were worked on. Feeling a bit better now. Earlier this week it hurt to put weight on my “good” hip, and my back has started acting up again. My ankle has been better, I think aqua fit might be helping loosen that up a little bit. I’m a little sore now, after riding and braiding, so I’ve got ice on my back, and probably do the same with my shoulder. However, I must say, usually I’m hardly moving after warm up day. So this is definitely better.

After AT, I headed straight out to the RRX grounds to do schooling rounds for Beach Party. Rush hour traffic was bruuuutal. But I survived. I chowed down a granola bar and some G2 and tacked up Mr Willard as soon as I got there and went out to the warm up ring for a quick hack. He took a few minutes to look around, but soon he was galloping around nicely, not too worried about anything, and I think quite happy to be in a sand ring with no annoying caulks in his feet!

Once we started some fence work, he relaxed even more. He galloped around to everything in the ring no worries, and we were able to find nice distances to everything. After doing all the lines with added strides, we did a course with the right striding, and a more opened up pace. It’s harder when the jumps are as small as they were, but we got good distances and a solid pace pretty quickly. It was definitely one of the better warm ups I’ve had! Even Charlene was impressed! 🙂 We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Sand Box

I’m really sucking at writing posts. What’s it been, a week?

Anyway, today we went to Cambridge Meadow Farms to work in a sand ring with Charlene and Mike, as our upcoming show, Beach Party, is in sand.

I’ll start off by saying, Cambridge Meadows is a beautiful facility. Privately owned, equipped with a outdoor sand ring and a good sized indoor ring. Lovely. We started out the day hacking around while the jumpers schooled. Katie and Lauren both rode awesome, and it was fun watching them! Then Katie hopped on her hunter, Stumpy, and schooled with me and Willard. We just did some basic stuff, a couple single verticals, to a diagonal oxer, to a four stride line. Nothing too complex or big.  Charlene just wanted the horses to get a feel for the sand, as we’ve been competing on grass all year so far.

Willard was having a bit of a fit with bugs today. So the nose flicking started. Which was a tad annoying. He got better throughout the session, focusing more on the jumps and less on what was touching his nose- be it sand, bugs, or air. At the beginning of the lesson, he almost ran right through a jump because he was busy throwing his head around. Hopefully he doesn’t do too much of this at Beach Party!

 

Lesson Day

Today I went over to Charlene’s for a lesson, and boy was it awesome.  We did some grid work, starting with a cross rail, one stride to a vertical. Charlene moved the vertical up to about 3ft.  After working with the one stride for a while, we added the next part of the grid on, two strides to (at first) another 3ft vertical. This vertical soon became a 3ft ish square oxer. After accomplishing that with no problem, the oxer got moved up. We ended that exercise with the oxer being about 3’3, maybe a bit bigger, very wide, and very rampy. Willard was awesome! He drifted left a bit the first few times, but we fixed that by adding a guide rail on either side of the big oxer. It felt so good to be jumping big jumps! I can’t wait for beach party in a couple weeks!

To improve Will’s jump over verticals, Charlene took the front rail off the big oxer at the end of the grid, but left the ground lines far out in front. This forced Will to leave the ground earlier and get a nice arc over the vertical. Will was loving it. He has so much scope, it’d be cool to see how high he can really go!

We also worked on a four stride line, and a single diagonal oxer and vertical. He was great to all of these too. No stops this lesson, not even any hesitation. All trust, and all awesome. It’s great to feel things coming together, finally.

🙂

Summer Smiles

The show this weekend went MUCH better then the Victoria Day show!

Firstly cause we got schooling rounds this time on Friday night. He was a tad bit fresh, but by the end of our warm ups he was galloping around on a nice stride, very relaxed.

Saturday we competed in 2’9 Jr Amateur and our Sr. Low division. Our 2’9 round was under paced, but smooth. We added in all the lines, but both myself and Charlene were okay with that. Our first 3ft round was very lazy. We got around the course, but even more under paced then our first round. It was still smooth, and not brutal looking. Our second round, the handy round, was very good. We had one rail, but almost everyone in the class knocked that jump over. It was a large white single vertical coming out of a corner. Both Mike and Charlene said it was much to vertical for a hunter course, and that’s why everyone knocked it. Willie had so much fun with all the turns in this course.

Sr. Low 3ft Handy Hunter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can really feel that my equitation is improving, because my lower leg muscles were very sore after this weekend. And I was much more stable in the tack, my upper body and core stayed straight and in the correct position the whole time, and I didn’t fall too far forward with my shoulders.

Sunday’s classes went even better than Saturday. My 2’9 handy hunter was good, I added in all the lines, but it was even smoother and Will handled the complex handy course with no problems! Our Open Low Hunter course went alright, but he was quite lazy and we added. Our Open Handy course was awesome. We got all the lines, and he jumped super cute! Charlene was very impressed, and only had good things to say when I came out of the ring. That was really encouraging! I can’t wait till Beach Party in a few weeks to see if his stride gets nicer on the sand, because I think it will!

One year.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how much things have changed in the past year.

One year ago I was finishing high school, and so concerned with the fact that I was graduating in 2 weeks. I couldn’t see how I would ever stop missing high school, and all I could think about was how life without high school sports and everything else I knew so well could possibly be any good. The craziest thing I’d done was enter the Miss Manitoba pageant as a joke, and although I had plans to move to New Zealand at this point, they seemed so far off and unorganized that all they really were a daydream. I was just starting with Charlene as a coach, and was naive enough to think that I’d be able to stay in shape by just riding and working.  I had problems with my back, but I didn’t see how it related to my fitness level, hips, or how much this would change by the end of July 2010.  Moving to the city from my small town home seemed like such a big change, and I couldn’t see how I’d ever get used to it or even like it. I relied heavily on my friend’s opinions and support and held the belief that I was confident in myself and my abilities. I liked to tell myself that I didn’t care what others thought or said of me, but really, I did. A lot. I hated being alone in any situation, and always felt left out in some way. I was a bit of a pessimist, to say the least.

Over the past 12 months, almost every thing in the above paragraph has changed, plus some.

The first 3-4 months living in the city and going to University was a big change. I despised the city, and the noise, and was bored with my classes. I decided to help asst. coach my high school varsity team, both for the experience and because most of my close friends from school still played on it. This is where I first started learning the difference between high school life and real life. I’m not going to say I did a lot of coaching, because really, I didn’t. I like to think I helped some of the girls with different things throughout the season, on or off the court.  I’m very glad I did this, because the things I learnt in the process of dealing with everything that went along with the basketball season from the perspective of the bench and the coach’s eye are lessons that will help me in the future. I think this also helped me move on from high school, and hs sports.  I still love team sports, and look forward to joining rec teams once I move home- but I can see now how much the teams I played on in high school helped me transition into who I’m supposed to be. That’s what they’re there for, a stepping stone to something bigger and better.

Asst Coach 1 and 2

Second semester brought new things for me. I started actually enjoying school, and a started going to the gym (and I started AT for the injuries that had resurfaced with a vengeance). By the time finals rolled around, and Winter Fair, I was starting to rely more on myself for things and less on others. I was also starting to gain more confidence in who I was and who I wanted to be. I credit a lot of this to my coaches, my profs, and my volunteer work at Kaayikayow. By the end of my placement time working with the adult education centre, I had designed a fitness plan and discovered how much I really enjoyed working with people who wanted to better themselves. I also saw the difference I could make in somebody’s life just by being there for them to ask a question, or even just chat for a few minutes. Seeing the gratitude you get from even the smallest thing you help with can really open your eyes to new possibilities. By this point in the year I’d also started seriously planning my NZ trip, found my dream job, and the day dreaming had gotten slightly more real. Only slightly.

As I moved back to Carman and started resettling I thought I would love it here again and I would get to see all my old hs friends, etc etc. While I did get to see some people more, it wasn’t the same. My life had changed so much. Has changed. I miss living away from home, where I don’t know everybody and everybody doesn’t know me. I want something more then my life right now, and I’m ready to take that big leap. High School, which was once the greatest thing in my life, is now just a good memory and something that got me where I needed to be.  But I don’t miss it. And I don’t find myself longing to be back. Actually, kind of the opposite. And, because of this, I’m much more committed to the things in my life that I seriously care about. Like riding, my health, and my future. I can see myself being a teacher and hopefully inspiring even just one person to follow their own dreams, like my teachers helped me do.  I can see myself doing whatever I want to do in life, because I know that with hard work and determination anything can happen.

Moving across the planet is exactly what I need right now. I’m completely ready for that change.  I feel that being away from everything I’ve known for so long and having to make my own way will help me further my understanding of who I am as a person, and who I can be. It’s time for me to take the next step in my life, and see what’s out there to discover. While I’m SO excited for New Zealand, and scheming for what is sure to be an awesome summer job the summer following my return (more to come on that one), I also feel ready to return to school next fall and get my degree(s) finished. I miss school already, and I can’t wait to get back into it.

To conclude, I’m the same girl I was a year ago.. except completely different and changed. For the better. I wouldn’t change one thing I’ve experienced this year, not one. Each and every experience has taught me something, and I’m so grateful for all of those little lessons. Good or bad.

In other news, 89 days!!

 

Lesson Night!

We trailered over to Charlene and Mike’s tonight for a lesson, and boy was it a good one! We started off with some flat work, as usual, working on Will’s frame and roundness. I was amazed at how well my back could move, and how well I could actually sit the trot! Maybe it’s the chiropractor’s work, or maybe my sub conscious took in a lot of info on monday night. Whatever it is, I’m loving it. After we got him going around nice and supple and bending off my aids, we moved onto some grid work. After a few warm up rounds, Charlene added another level.. No hands. It was probably one of the most amazing things I’ve felt in a while, and also the scariest. Definitely requires you to have trust in your horse, and your coach. It also helped me to soften my release over following fences, and get a feel for how he rounds and jumps nice when he has a good release. Day by day we’re turning my boy into a nicer horse.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150262144488086&comments

After the hands free grid work, we started jumping other fences. The first was a single oxer off the diagonal with boxes and flowers. We got over the first time, with some hesitation, but over all pretty good. After that the good jumps just kept coming. We found all the distances!

The next jump we worked on was a single vertical off the other diagonal, it was wide with lots of boxes and flowers in front. Will really shouldn’t have had any problem with it, as he’s seen jumps worse than this many times, but of course he had to stop and have a little freak out. We got over it the next time, and after jumping it a few times and raising it, he was flying over it pretty as could be.

The we started to work on a 4 stride line. At first we just jumped the first jump and turned out of the line, so we could concentrate on getting the right distance into the line every time- meaning a better chance of getting a good distance and striding out of the line later on. We were able to find our pace quite well tonight, so finding the distances was much easier. When we started working on the complete line, Charlene told me to just gallop down and push for the 4 strides, and to do whatever it takes to get the distance, no matter how ugly. So that’s precisely what we did. The first few times it definitely wasn’t pretty, and we definitely didn’t get 4 strides. It didn’t help that the tard was looking at the flowers.. again. After we got over that issue, it got a little bit easier to get 4 strides. I was still pressing him, but by the last time through I felt as though I’d be able to smooth it out without him chipping or hesitating. Charlene said that next time we would work on exactly that, smoothing it out and making it look show ready. This was a good lesson to follow up the show I had. I’ve got some of my confidence back, and so does he.

I really noticed a difference tonight in my riding, which is encouraging. My lower leg was better, my back didn’t hurt. Except for after a few quick stops and spins we had. My ankle is still a little jammed, but that’s no biggie. My hip/ass muscles are still not happy at all, but, one day at a time. Riding without pain is a whole new world, and I’m liking it. Now just have to rid myself of pain in all other aspects too and we’ll be golden. I was also impressed that I was able to ride as well as I did tonight after biking 9 miles yesterday and doing a pretty decent work out afterwards. It sure feels good to be working out again, hopefully this keeps working and I can stay consistent and build some solid core strength, which is super important for me.

In other news, FLIGHT IS BOOKED AND SPOT IS OFFICIALLY HELD IN THE FACULTY FOR ONE YEAR! !!! 104 days!!!