Where are we at?

So Allie has had about 4 rides and one lunge over the past week. The weather has been cooler so I have been able to ride while Evie naps in the pram by the arena in the middle of the day. So far, she's going well. Dressage rides I'm concentrating on her being through and swinging through the back, with nice up and down transitions and not rushing anything. The last two rides in particular she's been awesome.

She's had one jump school/fitness work (half hour all up, only jumped three jumps).

The last ride, today, she started dragging her hind toes a little, but she had the nicest swing in her back going to the left. I'm going to get some body work done, get the dressage saddle refitted too, and just keep doing what we are doing until she either goes properly lame or she doesn't. The dragging is only in the deeper sand in the arena and her toes aren't squaring off as bad as they were last November, so hopefully I can keep her sound.

Breathing wise, she has handled the super dry dusty weather better than I expected. She's not on any meds, and is coughing maybe once per ride, if at all.

I decided against doing the Camden hunter trial this weekend and the SIEC event mid February in case she isn't sound (plus she isn't fit enough to go xc this weekend). If March comes along and she's stayed in enough work, is fit enough, and isn't lame, I might do Berrima in March and almost definitely Equestriad in April. We'll see.

Unfortunately Andrea isn't able to continue the lease due to her new job so I'll be doing most of her riding and Natalie will help out when I can't make it. Luckily we actually have some decent hills at the current agistment so we can do slower fitness work, instead of canter/gallop sets in deep sand like at the last place. I'm hoping to get three rides in a week, sometimes 4.

So that's where we are at right now. I'm a little more optimistic after her time off. Next week it's meant to be stinking hot again so I don;t know how much riding I'll be able to get done but I'll go with the flow for now.

Oh My Heart!

Evie rode Allie yesterday and it was the cutest thing you ever did see.

She "helped" me groom and tack up.

As you can see, she is a pro and doesn't need my supervision, apparently.

First I rode (Allie went lovely, I'll update next post) and then Evie hopped on to cool her out.

Happy pony, happy kid!

It was her third ride on a horse ever. She really really loved it this time, laughing and squealing the whole time. Allie was an angel.

Skip to 50 seconds if you don't have time (or patience) for the whole video.

She's going for Heath Ryan hands.

After the ride, posing for Daddy.

:D

Starting again

I'm finding it really hard to get going with Allie again. She's not lame, but she's also not in work, so I think subconsciously I'm avoiding dealing with it.

She's happy, but looking a bit bleached out after some very hot weather. There's another excuse, because the only appropriate time to ride is early morning or late evening and both those times my husband makes me feel guilty for leaving him with Evie.

It's also been quite dry and the arena is dusty. The dust might be a trigger for her RAO, so avoiding riding in the dust is another excuse.

Despite all this, I did hop on late on Sunday evening. Allie was exactly how you would expect a horse to be after 5 weeks mostly off (I've ridden probably 4 times over the last month and a half). She was rushy, inconsistent in the contact, and she pulled a mole stunt where she decided one part of the arena was impossible to canter over, and would stop, prop and rear. We ended up working on it again and again and it got dark so I was cantering in the dark and still trying to sort that shit out. She was a stubborn bitch about it too. All I wanted was one circle of canter each way, but apparently that's too much. We finished on a good note, but the ride left a sour taste in my mouth.

I arranged for Linda to come give me a hand the next evening (Tuesday) but my husband had a whinge and my nan went into hospital and it was all a bit too much to deal with. I'm definitely letting him get to me.

I scratched from the cross country clinic this weekend. It's not fair on Allie who is maybe-lame and definitely not fit enough. Neither am I to be honest.

The lease is suspended at the moment until we figure out if she really is lame or not, so Andrea hasn't been riding either.

So we are stuck in a bit of a rut. I need to sort it out ASAP because if I don't, We are going to miss out on the eventing season.

What do you do when you're in a rut? How do you find the determination and motivation to get started, and to keep going?