Yesterday, after a particularly hellish afternoon at work in which I was on the phone with Quickbooks for over 2 hours, I departed the office with a massive headache. And I was SO CLOSE to skipping the barn in favor of going home to drink copious amounts of vodka red wine.
But I had spent a good hour setting up the gymnastics/course on Sunday night, and damnit, I wanted to try it. So I headed to the barn and tacked up my horse, while downing 800mg of Ibuprofen.
So we did a little warmup. ALL the transitions. Ya know, the works. And then it was time.
Here’s a confession: P’s seen a bounce exactly one time in his life. And he was, well, 4, so about 3 1/2 years ago. The first time we went through, he took the bounce as an oxer…which was super fun. NOT. And then we moved to the HJ barn where I was stuck with a permanent hunter course. All the gymnastics we’ve done at Trainer B’s and anywhere else have been 1+ strides. So I have a mental hangup when it comes to bounces.
Naturally I didn’t support him enough with my leg going in, but he broke to the trot for a second, assessed the situation, and kept going. What a difference. So we went through again off the left lead.
Much better, though my position left something to be desired. It all goes out the window when I’m unsure of how P will react to something. I’m trying to be better about that. So I asked Husband to stack another plank on the last jump and had another go-round.
And quit right there. There was just no need to do it again after that. He felt amazing and I felt pretty solid in the tack (except the last bounce when my shoulders were creeping forward). I was tempted to just keep going around the course, but my head was pounding and I still hadn’t made any of the jumps bigger than probably 2′. And it was P’s second day back after being off for ANOTHER week. So I’m erring on the side of quitting too early vs pushing for too much, which has been the name of the game with Trainer B and has obviously paid off in the long run. But holy smokes, that was fun.
He’s just one super cool dude.
Whoo hoo!!! You guys look so good! He was AWESOME through the bounce. What a good boy! And I always find that quitting early is so much better than potentially messing something up because you kept going. And he looks so pleased with himself in that last photo! (whether or not it was actually after the exercise lol)
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Right! Quit while you’re ahead and all that. That picture was taken last week when we had all the crazy snow but he always looks pretty happy with himself!
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nothing is worse than having a headache and trying to ride (or kickbox or lift weights etc). Ask me how i KNOW 🙂 lol. He looks great and so do you! Great job!!
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Bahaha methinks you know all about it 😂
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sinuses are a way of life for me. and they suck when they attack and you have to do stuff. Nothing hurts more than a helmet when your head hurts too!! AND thank god the OneK is comfy at least 🙂 HA!
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Soooo comfy! Boo about your sinuses!
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Woohoo!!!! Go P buddy!!! He’s like “I got this!!! Wooooo!!!!!!” And its such a great feeling to see all the hard work you e put in your horse to amount to something 😁
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I know, look at him go!!!
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Mr P is growing up!
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Finally!
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Wow he looks great!!! Super game and bold!!! What a good feeling!!! 😀
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Ohemgeeeee it so very much is!
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OMG look at him go! What a good boy.
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I know! He’s just awesome
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That looked so fun. I really need to get around to setting up something more gymnastic-y at my barn.
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It’s soooo time consuming!
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