Jack ‘Em Up

Have I made it clear enough lately that I’m obsessed with my horse? I want to make sure you all know this. It’s extremely important.

I’m coming off my third lesson since getting back in the swing of things and it’s going AMAZINGLY. After managing to hang on over a simple 2’6″ course two weeks ago, I joined one of the bigger lessons and managed to grab mane over some more difficult 3’3″/1m courses. I was certainly sore the next day, but it actually went really smoothly and the height didn’t feel like a question mark at all. Francis started out with a much smaller stride than I’m used to so I had to get after him to open up, but once he realized he could gallop a bit he was lovely and adjustable and forward to the base.

I hopped back on for another lesson this past Sunday and I am just glowing about it. We kept the courses fairly simple – the ends of the ring were a bit deep from some recent rain – but the jumps were up around 1m and there were some useful questions about striding (long five away from home to a short four towards home was a great test of adjustability). And it all rode So. Stinkin’. Well. I felt like I could see the spot I wanted for every jump and then actually ride to that spot. This is a revelation.

Not a revelation: the pure obsession I have with this perfect animal

I always assumed that I just didn’t have a naturally good eye. This has always been one of my absolute biggest weaknesses and I have worked super hard over the years to build that skill set. Plot twist: trying to see a distance was never the problem. I actually have a decent eye. It was the adjustability and responsiveness that were missing to actually get us to the spot I saw. Now that we have that I feel like we have so many more options open to us. Frankie definitely still wants me to tell him where I want him, but he is so much faster to say “yes ma’am” and allow me to place him.

So now that we’re comfortably coursing at 1m again, we’re jacking the jumps up some more to test the waters at 1.10m-1.15m. We have a grid lesson planned for later this week to (1) give me a chance to re-acclimate to the motion of the bigger jumps without thinking about a course and (2) use some placement poles to encourage Frankie to jump a bit straighter over his body. I’m hoping that will come back to us pretty quickly; it’s been 2+ years since we’ve competed higher than 1m but we’ve built a TON of strength and ability in the meantime.

HUGE shoutout to my friend Aimee for sharing her amazing Meeko with me lately. His big gorgeous movement has been a major core workout for me and has helped so much in the process of getting back in shape!

We also have our show coming up this Saturday to knock the rust off around the 1m. It’s less than 10 minutes away from the barn and we’re popping in a couple open jumper classes in the afternoon, and I think it’s going to be a perfect way to see how we’re feeling before finalizing our plans for Piedmont.

I also did a bad thing and bought these. My trainer is amusedly resigned. I told her to blame Holly.

GOBLIN BRAIN LOVES GOLD

Pride in the Journey

At this point I’ve owned Francis for over four years, and it has honestly been a total blast the whole time. Each incremental piece of progress has been a joy to tease out and refine, finding confidence together has built a true partnership, and even the inevitable setbacks haven’t seemed so bad when I have such a good-natured beast to go try again with. I often reflect on our time together and it makes me feel a lot of feelings: excitement about the adventures we’ve gone on/are yet to go on, awe at how much further we’ve gone than I ever hoped for, comfort in how well we know each other, joy in his own happiness in his work.

Always happy to march out of the ring on the buckle, knowing he did a great job

One of the strongest emotions I feel about our journey together is pride. I am incredibly proud of Frankie every darn day for his work ethic, for his kind response to hardship, for his ability to do his job. He is a very different horse than I brought home and the work we have put in together over the years has led to a strong and confident athlete who knows (and likes!) his job.

For the first two years, that improvement was primarily on me. Under the guidance of my trainer, I was really the only one who ever sat on him. No training rides or professional attention beyond our weekly lessons. With a lot of hard work and sweat, we successfully made it up to the 1.15m height together. We all know that the lion’s share of the hard work there was Francisco going out there and trying his heart out for me despite my many mistakes, but I was also very proud of myself for growing to that point.

Only amateur rides got us here

After that, I enlisted some help. I signed Frankie up for pro rides as part of his regular schedule to see how that might help him. And help him it did – I’ve mentioned many times that building this into our program did wonders for both of us. While the jumps didn’t go higher for us, our timing and abilities and awareness grew exponentially more quickly. I’m extremely grateful that I’ve had the opportunity and ability to take advantage of this type of program; I’m very conscious that it’s not an option for many.

I don’t have any less pride in this part of the journey. I’m just as proud of Frankie for learning and gaining confidence around the bigger tracks, even though I wasn’t the only one helping him get there. And I’m just as proud of myself for showing up and learning how to give my horse the ride he needs to feel good about his job as he gained these skills.

And then pro rides helped boost us to here

All of this is a self-indulgent and rambling way to say that I really don’t think there’s a single way of training that makes one a “good horseperson.” There is so much to be excited about when working hard with less support, and there is so much to be excited about when working hard with more support. There are opportunities to learn and grow no matter how we do it.

As long as we end up with happy, healthy horses at the end of the day, we’re on the right journey.

The happiest boy ❤

Jelly Legs

Francis and I survived our first lesson back together! I haven’t done a lesson since June, and I haven’t survived a full hour (albeit group) lesson since probably March-ish. My whole body is sore now and my legs were definitely getting shaky by the end, but it was sooo well worth it.

I have to say, credit for this lesson going so well lies squarely with my trainer and our pro rider. My muscle memory was there strongly enough that I could ask Frankie for what I wanted, but lack of stamina meant I lacked the oomph to back up the ask for very long. It’s thanks to the consistent solid rides he’s been getting that he was willing to maintain what he was doing until I got my act together to tell him differently. It’s really amazing to feel that and contrast it with how reliant he was on his rider not so long ago. I love that he’s confident enough in his job and fit and comfortable enough in his body to offer up the right answers so readily. Even his collections didn’t require as much holding together as usual.

I had tried to lesson the day before, but the skies opened up on us complete with extremely close lighting for a solid hour while I was supposed to be riding. We opted to postpone.

In all fairness, he is also VERY good at reading the room and is often a much easier ride for less experienced riders. We’ll see if he reverts back to some more “testing” behavior as I get my strength back and up the ante.

Another thing I’m grateful to our pro rider for is her work on his trot jumps. His trot jumps have historically been ATROCIOUS. Like, three people have fallen off him over trot jumps. PR (Pro Rider) decided to tackle this head on with him, and I got back in the saddle to find that my horse now has a delightfully smooth and easy trot jump. Literal point and shoot, no boundy canter step or stutter step or lurch. Just easy approach, power across, landing forward. It is witchcraft.

Most excitingly, we jumped our first full course in a very long time! It even included a bending line and a one-stride combo. Frankie was absolutely delightful: forward to the base, sat down and waited when I asked, easy lead changes when he needed them, and light in the bridle. I was super happy with that course not just because it rode well, but because it was a huge reassurance that while my strength is still lacking, my eye is still there and I still know how to make choices. I was most worried that my balance and technical abilities would be super rusty (and to be fair, they’re not as polished as they used to be) but I’m feeling much more confident that as I gain my strength back it’ll all come together pretty quickly.

We had a rainbow to celebrate the occasion of our first lesson back in the swing of things!

It’s lessons like these that make me truly grateful for the program that I’ve had Frankie in for the last few years. While I would definitely prefer to be a more hands-on owner and do all his rides myself, work and life and stuff has made it so that I rely on a whole team of people to keep Frankie fit and happy. It’s thanks to this whole team that I was able to hop on and jump around despite my own time off. They make the whole horse ownership thing not only possible for me at this stage of life, but fun for me no matter what is going on.

After such a promising re-entry to jumping around at 2’6″, the obvious choice was to plan for a nearby ship-in show in a few weeks at 1m. While this may seem a bit fast to put the jumps back up, Frankie is feeling fabulous and my strength is coming back more quickly than expected. He’s old hat at 1m so I’m not super concerned. Based on how that goes, we will decide what the plan is for Piedmont at the end of September: either 1m feels super easy and we will go for the 1.10-1.15m Highs at Piedmont, or it feels decent and we decide to stick in the 1m Lows at Piedmont. I’m happy either way!

Thrilled to be back in the zone and back sharing the ups and downs with all of you ❤

Francis carried his kid around the novice eq, along with the 0.75m and 0.85m jumpers in some big classes last weekend and was just perfect for her. My heart is bursting at how much fun they’re having together.

Ramping Up

I’m now in week two of the official “Get More Better At Riding Again” unofficial bootcamp, and I’m loving it!! I had gotten kinda used to my 1-2x a week schedule for the last year+ and I don’t think I realized just how much my barn time makes everything better. Getting to log off the computer and immediately head to the barn is an amazing feeling, especially since my barn commute is 100x better from our new place than it was from my office.

In fact everything about our new place is a vast improvement, including the sunsets and our happy lil front porch. We’re out there almost every evening. In the gap between the houses you see here you can actually see the horse farm across the road, and we often hear them talkin to each other.

Frankie is on his way down to Lexington for the show with his leaser, which means it is the Meeko show for the week. We had our second hack together last night and I definitely feel like I’m getting to know him better; where he wants more support from me, where I need to dictate a bit, and where he needs me to back off and let him do his thing. He’s very similar to Frankie in that he likes a lot of support from the leg, but his gaits feel so different and he’s more responsive off my aids. It’s really fun getting to know him, he’s safe and fun and I’m so grateful I get to hop on!

I’m also pushing the intensity of my rides more this week. Last week was dedicated solely to making it around the ring a couple times to start building up my sorely-lacking stamina. This week I’m trying to actually, you know, ride like I’m doing something. Tons of transitions and playing with some lateral work has my core VERY sore so I feel like I must be doing something semi-right. It’s making me super eager to get back into lessons when my trainer gets back from the show.

Unrelated I just wanted to show you that Maggie is a big weirdo. This isn’t a screenshot, she likes to fall asleep like this.

I’m also looking ahead to our (hopeful) next show in September. It’s about 30 minutes away and we’ll be shipping in and out, and traditionally it’s not a super crowded show, so I’m feeling pretty comfortable that we can do it in a safe way. I’ll be hopping on at our trailer after only touching my own tack, and I won’t have to touch anything again until they hand me my big blue ribbons – putting that out into the universe now just in case. I already have a decent selection of masks that I wear when I leave the house (which is extremely rare other than going to the barn), but after seeing some posts here in blogland and on social media about the gaiters people were using, I went ahead and got myself one of those for showing:

Bordered in navy, because obviously

I also may have bought myself a little graduation present because you know what, I was tired and stressed and wanted something nice. It’s a new show coat!! I managed to find this Equiline in my size for an absolute STEAL since it’s used, but it’s in perfect shape. Black with satin pockets and burgundy suede collar. At least I’ve stopped compulsively buying new breeches? That counts for something, right?

The black is blacker and the collar is a deeper burgundy in person and it’s SO PRETTY I LOVE IT

Anyway, I’m trying to get back in the rhythm of capturing the journey more often as I get back into the swing of things. Excited to share more with you as we start to figure things out again!

Adding the Letters

After 16 months of classwork, I am officially done with my MBA! It’s been a lot of work: I’ve taken at least two classes every term (and three this summer), all while working full time+, traveling to compete (in the Before Times), starting a new role at work, buying our first house and moving to a new state during lockdown, and navigating the chaos that is the world right now. I’m still waiting on the final confirmation of one class on my transcript, but the grades are in and I managed to finish out with As in all of my classes. It was definitely dicey in places and I wasn’t sure I’d make the grade I wanted, so I’m very pleased that I was able to finish strong and maintain that 4.0.

Taken directly after submitting my last assignment. Balloons and champagne courtesy of WBH (World’s Best Husband), world-weary gaze courtesy of Maggie

Not to be cheesy, but this whole school thing would have been impossible without the whole cast of characters in my support system. My barn friends, who have kept me entertained and kept an eye on Frankie for me, my trainer for keeping him fit and ready for the sporadic times I was able to show up (and even got us in the show ring way more often than I expected), my family and in-laws for sharing food and family and love, and of course my husband. He has dealt with more mental breakdowns, exhaustion, tears, absenteeism, and overall craziness than he should have had to in the first 18 months of marriage, and he’s done it all with his characteristic unflappable support. I don’t know what I would do without him.

Maggie also doesn’t know what she would do without him. Girl is OBSESSED with her papa.

To celebrate, I decided to take last week off entirely. I set up an away message at work, shut down my laptop, and turned off all notifications on my phone. I definitely have plenty to catch up on this week as I get back in the swing of things at work, but it was SO SO SO WORTH IT. And I think you know why: I spent literally every single day at the barn. Several hours. Every day. With my perfect boy. I feel like a different, better person.

What I also learned during this amazing week full of saddle time is that WOW MY STAMINA IS NEAR ZERO. By the end of the week I was comfortably trotting 6-10 laps and cantering 5-7. If that doesn’t sound like that much, you’d be right. It isn’t. I am just that out of shape. It’s frustrating because I have the muscle memory so my body knows what to do, I just don’t have the strength or tone to maintain anything for very long. I’m extra grateful that Frankie is fit and forward right now; I’m not sure I could handle trying to get both of us back up to speed.

My favorite view through my favorite ears ❤

The plan right now is to take this week to keep building my stamina on the flat and re-enter lessons next week, tentatively planning for a group jump lesson and a private flat lesson as time permits. We’re keeping the jumps low for 2-3 weeks to see how I survive and then I’ll move into another group jumping a bit bigger if we’re feeling comfortable. That will take us to the end of August, when I think we’ll have a better idea of how quickly I’ll be able to get fully back up to speed. While it seems crazy to think about now, I do still want to aim for the Highs at Piedmont at the end of September. I won’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work out – we can always go be the defending champs in the Lows – but I don’t see the harm in setting my sights higher.

Remember when we used to jump this height because I do and he has such better body awareness now and I have better timing now and I’d REALLY LIKE ANOTHER GO AT IT

 

I’m also getting to diversify my riding a bit this week which I’m excited about! Frankie’s leaser is taking him to their first away show to do the equitation and some jumper classes, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes. In the meantime, my friend has very generously offered to let me flat her GORGEOUS horse Meeko so I don’t lose any opportunity to get in the saddle. He’s of similar unicorn status to Frankie with the added bonus of being an absolutely lovely mover. I’m excited to learn more about his buttons and practice on a different ride.

v v v excited to learn how to manage and encourage his big floaty gaits

Moving forward Frankie still is in his half-lease situation, and I don’t plan on ending that any time soon. The kid is a super hard worker and the whole family has been wonderful to work with, and it’s been so satisfying to see them figure each other out. However, this does mean I’m only riding Frankie 3x a week which is definitely not enough to get me back in shape for the Highs. Feeling very grateful that between Meeko and some other options, I should be able to maintain a solid 5-6x/week schedule, and may even get to lesson on some of these other horses!

Sweet Meeko!!

Frankie recently got a massage showing no major hot spots and got his regular SI injection and is feeling super fit and forward. I’m beyond excited to get back into training mode with my bestest boy ❤

I promise he’s excited too.