Inner Peace

Way back in the day Carmen was very very spooky when she was in heat. Now I find that she's a bit grumpy, tight and not so forward.

horses are in their happy place- the back field

 Old me would have gotten after her to be forward.

New me works with how she feels and focus on getting her to stretch and soften before I ask for forward. This can mean a longer warm up.

And I don't even care.

I was listening to a Jane Pike podcast on trusting your intuition when riding. I really enjoyed this one (truthfully I enjoy most of them) because it was about giving yourself permission to explore what would work with your horse and be okay with making mistakes.

My inner dressage diva is slightly horrified.

But my inner horseperson is fist pumping and yelling wahoo.

We are having much fewer arguments these days. Not that we are having none. I am not afraid to draw a line but I'm not flustered as easily and I simply fix and go back to work. 

Don't get me wrong, I am definitely taking my lessons and listening to Shanea. 

But I'm giving myself permission to play with her and see what helps. 

Ed is making a chicken coop. Exciting times on the farm. 

Fun fact- since that time Carmen tried to bolt and I said 'cool, let's go' she hasn't bolted since. I feel her thinking about it and then, is like, nope, screw it. 

random photo of the little grass snake I found on my walk. 

This week Carmen is having the heat from hell. If you touch her flank she gives the high pitched squeal and pins her ears. Despite this  I decided to ride after work. It was a bit breezy but lovely. Carmen was quite up in the barn so I figured I would lunge and see what happened. She was definitely tight and even gave a big scoot during the ground work. However, she was trying really hard and I decided to mount. 

We went on to have a 25 minute ride at just the walk. I wanted to play with what she needed to respond to the lightest of aids for transitions, SI/HI, leg yields etc. I quite like walk rides. It is very similar to yoga- I am asking her to stretch and bend and use her core but slowly. 

We did the whole ride with only a few jumps from Carmen. By the end she was soft and supple and really relaxed. I hopped off quite happy with this mini ride. Carmen is much more willing to listen to me and rely on me to give her good information. 

I started on this journey with Carmen with my destination, route and plan all mapped out. We have taken a lot of side rides, ended up in a ditch (figuratively) and I've almost quit a dozen times. And I still don't know where we're going. Not really. But at least now I know we're both going in the same direction and that is something. 

coming to say hi