Promising

Friday was another excellent ride, and thankfully my mom was again willing to take some pictures. It was the second time we’ve done the pole exercise, and I think it’s starting to look very promising. She’s very smart about her feet, and I love some of the expressions on her face as she’s concentrating.

She’s been showing some real progress, able to turn in better balance and understanding what we’re starting to do. I’ve let her figure out her feet and she’s been very relaxed when the striding hasn’t been perfect. Before she would get pretty nervous about it, and I really think those cavaletti sessions really got her more comfortable with needing to use the different parts of her body.

Since she’s been settling better this past week, she’s really come around to being more like her old self. I think it’s safe to say the other place didn’t fit her fancy, but I really think she’s starting to enjoy this different work. I love these budding expressions on her face. She looks ready to go!

It’s so great to see these pictures, how she’s starting to use her body differently, as well as looking at her face. It has felt like she’s been enjoying these rides, enjoying the new things we’ve been doing, and it’s really nice to see from pictures that she really is enjoying it!

I will probably start to include those other few poles into a type of pattern and see how she does with just a few more things added to the days, but I think we’ll be having some fun doing it. My hands seem to have a 1 in 10 chance of being correct at any given point, and my elbows are still atrocious but again – goals to check off.

After our really good ride, I packed everything up and headed down to Phoenix. It was a pretty uneventful drive, but it really really good to see the best friend again. We went to see Wonder Woman (which everyone should see btw because it’s the shit) and just had a very chill weekend.

After driving back I was able to get her out for a short time. It was just a lunge, but I think she was happy to get out. I also noticed that recently she hasn’t bucked as much when I lunge her, and I had the thought that perhaps it had been from her twisted hip. She’s gone from pretty lit, to being business-like yet with plenty of energy as she had been a while ago. I know I keep saying this but I’m really glad she seems to be feeling so much better and we’re actually on track as to why she’s just not been herself.

I know we haven’t done much, but I’m so proud of my girl. She puts up with my shenanigans and she really seems to be taking well to our start so far. I’m sure the jumpers, albeit little courses, she would enjoy, but I’ve been really hunting around for potential places to take her that may have xc courses. It’s few and far between, and most I’ve seen are 4-5 hours away, but I’ve potentially found two places to go. I just need to contact them. It may not be for a while because I’d like to get her comfortable with approaching fences and jumping, but xc is the crux of eventing, so I’m crossing my fingers those places work out!

So, it’s not much of a weekend recap because honestly my friend and I just chatted and looked up funny gifs, but Amber and I had a great ride, and hey – there’s tons of pictures!