We’re Back!

Back from Japan!

I love going on vacation but it’s definitely nice to be home again. After traveling for almost two weeks I missed my bed, my cat and -of course- my horse!

Jet lag is a powerful thing and it definitely hit me like a hammer. To top that off, I had gotten sick on the fourth day of our vacation and it came back on the plane ride back so I spent the first couple days back from vacation trying to recuperate from that.

Thursday, I was feeling good enough to go out and see Scarlet for a bit. I took him out, let him eat some grass and curried him. He did not obey what I told him to do before I went on vacation. He did not finish shedding by the time I got back. Oh well. It was too much to hope that he would be able to shed his whole winter coat in two weeks. I got a lot of hair off of him just by currying. Some parts of his body look pretty smooth and like his summer coat already. Those parts also still have a few long hairs stuck to them which looks funny.

Saturday, I got on and rode for a bit in the evening. Scarlet was very distracted and unfocused but that was okay. It was the first time out for him in quite a while. He wasn’t being naughty at all. He was just excited to be out again. It was a short ride, just walk and trot, since I’m still trying to get better.

I definitely am happy to be back and be with my horse. I’ve got a lot of things that I want to do with him and now we can work on them again!

A Brief Hiatus

I am not going to have posts for about two weeks. I am going to be out of the country on my honeymoon. (Japan!) I had planned to write a backlog of posts regarding Scarlet and my past together but time got away from me and I only half finished them.

I will resume posting on March 27th. It will be an extra long posts, maybe with bonus pictures from my trip!

Horse Sounds

I’m not the only one who thinks that the sound of a horse ripping up grass if the most calming sound in the world right? Or the only one who loves horsie grass breath? I hope not! I’ve really enjoyed the moments after rides with Scarlet where I just stand around and let him eat grass. It’s nice to just be with your horse without doing anything occasionally. Since it is no longer wet and mucky, it doesn’t seem like an issue to stand around for twenty minutes after a ride letting Scarlet stuff himself with grass.

We rode on Monday and Tuesday. I didn’t really do much. I was looking for a relaxing ride with just a small focus on some type of exercise. On Monday I focused on leg yielding. Its so much easy for Scarlet when we do it at a trot rather than a walk. On Tuesday I focused on transitions. We got those fairly well. We also did a few simple changes over a figure eight while cantering that were pretty good considering I hadn’t asked for simple changes in a while.

One thing I did change this week was to shorten my stirrups one hole more than I normally ride at. When I had shortened my stirrups for jumping, I felt much more secure in my seat. So I thought that maybe my stirrups are too long. I definitely felt like my lower leg was more stable and that I was better able to grip with my thighs. Since I don’t have a person on the ground, I can’t really get feedback on if my stirrups are too short for flat work. So I decided to stick with the shorter stirrups for now since I feel comfortable. It does have the unfortunate side effect of making me sore as my muscles work more in this new position. One small rain cloud in a mostly good situation.