Bare minimum

I sacrificed my sanity and went to the barn both days this weekend to get media. That meant braving the indoor with potential lessons and /or hacks going on with no guarantee whoever was riding could steer. Fortunately on Saturday I squeezed in between two Haffie lessons, and on Sunday I finished up right as the mad influx of riders poured in.

I had Hubby take pretty much all video since winter indoor does not make for pictures, and I wanted a check-in on how things were actually going since I still can't comfortably swing lessons. It turned out to be super helpful as I was instantly like, FIX ALL THE THINGS.

However, as far as blogging goes, I won't get into too much detail. I'm having to really limit my screen time as once again my eyes are causing me a lot of problems. I definitely wouldn't recommend getting a concussion that knocks you blind because even a couple years later it's still fucking with me. Or I have vision cancer. One never knows.

would take literally cutting off my head to get rid of my eyes some days.

So I'm bringing you media, but it's going to be hastily edited video clips. Maybe once my eyes stop hurting whenever I use them I'll revisit them and write some more about the rides. For now, nah.

Saturday's ride wasn't the best. I was super distracted and wound up over the barn traffic that was causing my horse to be super distracted and wound up. We basically fed off of each other and things were sloppy. But we did get some counter canter practice in:

Not the prettiest, but getting steadier each time. Any time he doesn't face plant I'm happy. #smallwins

After looking through those videos Saturday evening, I asked Hubby to come back out again the next morning. I wasn't happy with myself and wanted to clean a whole lot up on my end. I pulled in right as Opie was getting turned out with his bestie which put both of them in full childish tantrum mode when they got separated. Opie got beat in the aisle and then put on the longe to get some of his rage out. Fortunately he was over it by the time I got on and we had a pretty productive ride.

His canter departs are getting steadier. The downward transitions are hit or miss on how badly he's anticipating the half halt meaning trot or walk instead.

But the canter itself is really getting somewhere despite me having no fucking idea what to do with my body during it.

And that's all I've got. Editing hurt my eyes so I did the bare minimum. And Hubby missed the lateral work which wasn't much that weekend anyway. It was enough to give me a good, long list of things to tweak for both myself and Dopie. Like for fuck's sake, make that contact steadier!

He got Monday off while I went down to PA to meet Riding Bestie's perfect newborn nugget, had a long longe in a halter yesterday, and then came out firing this morning. Hopefully I'll be able to write more next week!