When the wind blows

Everything away, including my lesson. I was very disappointed. The lady did have Sunday open, but by the time we rushed in the car to drive up there because the wind had died down….. It started back up again. So the lesson was cancelled, which was probably for the best anyway. It’s not fun to ride in sustained 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. So boo no lesson, but we’re planning another one when our schedules sync so I’m excited.

There are many days where I wish I didn’t work in an office, or that my job was a little more exciting, but the people are why it’s seriously the best job. Because honestly, my Friday consisted of wrapping presents for our Christmas party and figuring out our new office buddy – Poo-nicorn.

Yup. That’s what I did Friday. Wrapped presents and then a coworker and I bought 3 new Poo-nicorns. One for her, one for me, and one for my boss’s daughter. I mean, isn’t that just the funniest thing you’ve ever seen? We had this huge discussion on the Poo-nicorn, too – we are now the Poo-nicorn Tribe, we are going to get shirts with Poo-nicorn on it and the back will say “it’s hard to be unhappy when you’re farting rainbows”, and we are making Poo-nicorn his own Instagram page. Definitely best. Friday. Ever haha.

Saturday was a good ride day. Amber and I only did walk/trot, but I was super pleased with her. She’s been doing very well, but it’s a little hard because I think the fact that she bucked and smacked her front leg hasn’t helped the stifle recovery as much as we’d like. But, we’ve been playing with haunches out/in and a teensy bit of shoulder work at the walk so that we’re not UBER BORING since Amber thinks walking just to walk around in an arena is silly lol. So, I figured it was time to start working on haunches in/out at the trot. She has a tendency to tilt her butt to the right both ways – which I think is latent from my riding since she’s never been ridden by other people – but I’ve been working on getting my hips as even as I can and it’s helped her right canter a lot and I think it’s all coming together to help the both of us have a better ride.

I do think she felt much better that ride. There was no rushing, and the few times that she thought perhaps I’d ask for one thing (canter), but I just said “easy” and kept the pressure, and it took her a second but then she went I know this! and really tried to perform it. We practiced on the straight first, letting her get used to the feeling – especially down one long side where she really tends to tilt her hip inside so we practiced pushing it out. Going into a circle was much harder for her, but she was on it and kept her shoulders pretty straight as I pushed her hip out and then in, then matched her shoulders to her hip track. To the right she was a bit sticky (I’m not too surprised) and I think that was mostly just a lack of understanding until the light bulb clicked, but to the left she felt confident and knew what I wanted the first time.

We did all of the 30 minute ride in a stretchy trot, just asking her to reach down a little, but still maintain some energy and getting back into the lift I’d like. As the injections really take effect, I think doing this work is helping her realize that she really is more supple, it’s easier for her to do these things, and that I will help her as much as I can to be confident in what I’m asking. She was definitely much calmer this ride, and I think it’s becoming easier and clearer for me to recognize the difference from her being excited to go and her going faster because she’s uncomfortable.

For the rest of the afternoon my friend and I hung around, visited my sister, and watched some Netflix before getting ready for the party. It was a blast. And unfortunately, I was a bad blogger and didn’t get pictures of hardly anything there. As for the menu, course 1 was lobster bisque or veggie soup (3 guesses which one I picked) accompanied by rolls, then course 2 a house or Caesar salad (I chose the Caesar), and then course 3 you could choose the steak with cheesy potatoes, the salmon with cheesy potatoes or the grilled chicken. Again, 3 guesses which one I chose (omg YES steak lol)

The party was at the very top of the Stratosphere, so you could occasionally feel the rides bumping around (ps I did NOT go on those rides. Heck no. Nothing is slingshotting me off the side of a giant tower). But it was a good party, I helped give out all the presents and definitely enjoyed my 2 free drink tickets. And I had to very quickly eat my dessert since I handed out presents at that time and we had to get out in 10 minutes of me finishing. So, here’s a picture of my half-eaten dessert lol. It involved a very good cake pop, some delicious mousse, and my fav – blueberries and raspberries topped with cream and served in a white chocolate bowl. So yummy!

By 8 am Sunday the wind was horrible and no one really wanted to be out in that so Amber didn’t get out nor did I have my lesson. But I worked later this morning, so I had time to get Amber out and at least lunge her. She had a blast, ran a bit too fast (I still worry about the leg, the knee, the stifle, the SI – stop giving me a heart attack, Amber!), but otherwise walked and jogged fine after she had fun running around so that eased the worry a bit lol. She’s still looking good, and I’m excited to get her out all this week. The swelling on her front leg has yet to go down even though I’ve iced it and gave her bute for a few days, so that puzzles me, but it’s feeling harder so I’m still thinking she has a bad muscle bruise.

She also thought she was sooooo sassy again when we started lunging. Then she REALLY gets into it, but at first, it’s like she has to work herself into it lol. And then she was like “it’s 40 degrees and breezy and omg I AM RUNNING HOW AMAZING” lol. But like I said, she looked okay, so we’ll continue the gradual work back into fitness and hopefully jumping her soon and not just a lesson horse!