Butt Imprints

The weather lately has been a joke. It has either rain or snowed every week since probably September. While I’m all about getting enough rain to keep things alive there comes a point where you’ve gotten to much- we’ve passed that point and nothing ever seems to dry. But we did have a few glorious warm days that helped the ground dry out a little bit! This also meant that I got to RIDE MY DAMN HORSE!!!!!

Marley decided she wanted to wear mud colored eyeshadow. Yay for grey mares...

Oh man it was a glorious feeling!!! I hoped on him Monday afternoon after work and it was like coming home. My butt imprints from riding countless hours in my saddle over the past 5ish years welcomed me back like an old friend. My muscle memory just relaxed into it and I felt at peace. For about 2 seconds that is!

Missed these ears!!!

I didn’t ride for long because the sun was starting to set but I rode long enough to think “oh shit, I’m so damn unfit” Chimi felt good though. His nasty habit of curling was back in full force so I had to remind him to stick his nose out but other than that it was a really nice first ride back!

Somehow the warm 60* weather continued on into Tues and I thought YES! I will ride 2 days in a row!!!! What what?!?!? As soon as I got on though my body protested! Gone was that warm hug from my butt imprints and instead there were all the pressure points screaming at me. Ouch! My legs hurt from the stirrups leathers! Ouch my inner thighs hurt! Uggggh!!! Why does everything hurt?!?!

did lunge him for a few minutes to make sure his back was warmed up enough before climbing on. He was perfect though 

I ignored the sore spots and headed to my little ring. After walking around and loosening up my muscles I asked for the trot and proceeded to flop onto poor Chimi’s back like a sack of potatoes! Wtf legs?!? Why won’t you work?!? So I quickly pushed through it and got my balance back but it was a struggle. My legs tired quickly so it was a short ride (plus the sun was setting yet again… looking forward to the days getting longer!)

Sun setting and the security light comes on...it's close enough to the area I can sort of call it  an arena light? But just barely... only shines in about a 20meter circle so only kinda helpful in the winter months

My good luck continued on into Wednesday and even though it was a little bit cooler it was still warm enough to enjoy a quick ride! I hoped on again and thankfully the sore spots were kinda dulled and it felt like a normal day getting back into the saddle. We headed down to the ring and after warming up I started to trot and about 2 seconds later I thought “holy crap- I feel like a rank beginner!” My balance was off, my muscles sore, and I couldn’t make my body do what I wanted to to help Chimi out. He motored on around the ring like a good boy but I didn’t have the coordination to really do more than let him poke around as I fought to stay with his big bouncy trot. I even tried to slow him down and he was like “walk? Ok… oh slow trot… ummm, no” I gave up on that quickly bc his big trot was really nice and forward but I knew he wasn’t using his butt to push off the ground. I figured I’d let him motor around bc it was still a controlled trot and I’d work on the push after I got my riding legs back!

Sunsets from the ring

I started to quickly fade and then thought about KC and Pilgrim’s trot sets to getting him legged back up for his suspensory. While Chimi is fine, I am not so I figured that those trot sets would be a good way for me to get started! I set the timer on my phone to 2 minutes and off we went! It was terrible. Tracking to the right I thought the 2 minutes would never end. My poor wonderful horse was such a trooper and just marched along while I got my body back in place. When the 2 minutes were up we walked for 4 minutes and then changed directions. Going to the left wasn’t to bad and I found myself stopping at the beep instead of thinking “when will this end!”

Chimi wondering when I'll stop taking pictures and bring him inside so he can eat

So basically I am going to trot set myself back into riding fitness. That and join a gym. Living in the middle of nowhere has it's perks but also it's drawbacks. Gyms aren't exactly on every block and even then they're kinda small and expensive for what you get. But for right now a gym is better than no gym especially because the weather has yet again turned south and it rained all day Thurs and is supposed to rain on and off today. We've gotten so much rain already that my phone keeps reminding me to watch for areal flooding. My arena is back under water after spending a week covered in a foot of snow. Oh well!!!! Chimi doesn't mind an extended vacation after his 3 days of work!

And we've MOVED!!!!

A lot has been happening behind the scenes over here and my terrible blogging skills have left out a big detail that is pretty significant as far as riding goes... but as of the Sunday after Thanksgiving Chimi and the gang have moved!!!! To say that I'm excited is an understatement. I was dreading another winter in my old barn, especially if it was going to be a wet one. I've written about the woes of my barn in the past and the major stall flooding that goes on during a big rain and so far this fall/winter we've has a lot of rain...and now snow, and more rain on the way... basically the move could of happened at a better time!

After 2 days of melting there's still so much snow!

We didn't move far, just 20 minutes from our old house and we only moved because a neighbor had approached us about buying our house b/c her daughter and son-in-law were looking to move to the area and neighbor wanted to be close to her grand children, aka our house! So after discussing the pros and cons with husband we packed our bags and off we went!!!

The horses approve of their new pasture

My list of needs were very small but important. Working lights in the barn, stalls that didn't flood, and more pasture. After that I could make due with anything. My guys are pretty easy to take care of and live out most of the time anyways so the barn is mainly a place for them to eat and shelter from shitty weather. This past week I have enjoyed my barn more than I could ever admit because we got more snow than we've ever gotten since I moved to the area. We easily got a foot of snow starting Saturday and through Sunday. Up into the mountains they got over 18" which is insane! I'm sure it's nothing for those in snowy areas but we get excited if the snow is over 3"...especially for December! (though side note- it takes to damn long for 18" of snow to melt! it'd be gone by now if we only had a nice dusting and I'm over snow if it's been on the ground longer than 3 days!)

You have no idea how much of a luxury it is to be able to be at the barn at night  with lights!!!!!  Also my farrier can come in any type of weather or at any time b/c he'll be covered AND will have lights to see by!!!!!!

Anyways enough about weather! Here are a few pictures of the new barn (well barns! There are actually 2 small barns- hopefully will rent out the 2nd barn for self care so trying to not use it as storage...or will use it to feed when they move to the back pasture b/c it's just a simple shed row, no tack room but you can use one of the stalls as a feed/tack room and be quite happy)

Oh and there's a RING. I haven't had a ring in 6 years!!!!!! It's not very big, just a little bit longer than a small dressage ring and 10 meters wider? Honestly I suck at measuring but it's big enough to ride in but not big enough to do a whole course in. I'll still be trailering out for lessons.

And it has a cute little tack room!!! My Dressage bridle was the first piece of tack that got to enjoy it's own private space. 

Overall I'm pretty excited about the move. There are some things that are better about the new place and there are other things that were better at the old place. Trailer parking is really difficult here and I'm going to have to learn how to back up while turning and not run off a very steep hill. Also in some ways I have less storage here. I'm really going to have to keep myself organized b/c I don't have  the same storage space. I do have an inclosed tack room so hopefully can keep my tack from molding in 3 days during the summer. Feeding the horses is going to take a bit longer b/c I can't just open the pasture gate and let them walk into the barn. They actually have to wear a halter to go out to the field b/c it's a longish walk to the different pasture gates (nothing bad, just not right next to the barn) Poop management is a bit more difficult too... still working on how I want to deal with that. But overall the pros out weigh the cons and I'm pretty excited to be here!!!!