Choosing to Stop and Smell the Roses (a sort of blog hop)

This is a loose blog hop based on Emma's post here. I'd advise you to go and read it- it's well written and spot on.

hey, got any carrots?

What I loved about this post as it kind of hit on what I've been thinking about these days. This year I'm really focusing on letting go of the 'I should's. You know what I mean:
I should ride more/longer
I should be working on our groundwork
I should be .....

It's not that I shouldn't be doing those. But I realize that as I think of the 'shoulds' it's because I don't feel like it at that moment.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't lost my desire to ride. But I'm trying to not force myself. Carmen, for one, doesn't respond well to it. Also, I am far more likely to become frustrated because I really don't want to. Which we all know, she doesn't respond to well at all.

So when I am spending more time puttering, grooming, and just frigging enjoying my horse.

I'm liking this move from the Type A person to the Type B one.

Now when I ride and work her, I enjoy it more. I'm also enjoying the grooming and just being with my two horses.

Carmen: grooming is always good

And things are feeling different with Carmen and I. She's choosing to be with me more and more when I'm out puttering.

On sunday I fell down the stairs and bruised my tail bone (it really hurts). I figured I could be okay. Turns out I was wrong. I realized as soon as I settled in the saddle that there was no way I could ride effectively.  So I spent 5 minutes walking her on a long rein and encouraging her to be brave by going toward the things she was worried about. I then hopped off and she gave me a curious look Wait, that's it? 

I took her back to the barn and untacked her. I then put on her halter and we did some walking around the house and back. I let her out into the paddock and then refilled the hay bag. Irish dove in, but Carmen kept following me around blowing in my ear. It was kind of adorable.

Today I really wanted to ride. Julia joined me too. Ed came into the barn and asked if it would be okay if he went around pounding the fence posts (a chore that has to happen every spring as they get loose with the frost coming out of the ground). My gut said 'no' but my mouth said 'sure. It will make things lively but that's okay'. 

the downside of increasing confidence- far more
likely to tear the tractor apart. 

I realized I wasn't worried at all. If we couldn't work on 'dressage' things, we could work on being okay with seeing a tractor and a man wielding a large mallet. It was an opportunity, not a barrier.

And you know what?

She was fine.

Like fine. Curious, a bit looky but nothing major. On the Carmen spook/tension scale she was 1. When she was tense I gave her rein and invited her forward. Every time she answered my ask.  

My tail bone was still sore and so I was riding carefully.

Call me crazy but I think she was looking after me.  She was so steady in the bridle. Our trot was really slow at first (think western jog). But we warmed up into a nice, soft trot. The walk-trot transitions were easy. I also had 3 trot poles out and she was reaching and stretching over them.

After 30  minutes my butt was done so I stopped. I am not sure what this all means for my riding/showing/horsemanship. I am still in love with dressage and will keep pursuing it. But not with the same intensity or drive.  I am curious to see where it takes me.