Wasted Week

Title is possibly a little more somber sounding than it should be - but sadly it is kind of true. I have had to work late almost every day this week (4/5) I only got out of the office on time on Thursday and thankfully did get to ride last night and snap the photos that accompany this post - apologies to those who saw some of these yesterday on instagram!

I can't really complain too much though as I have a job, my health and two thankfully (I hope) happy & healthy horses. Plus I do get to see them most lunchtimes (again 4/5 - the Guru did everything Wednesday) on my mad-dash to turn them out - so that in itself keeps me sane as I do get to see & pet them however briefly.

L (the Guru) had Wednesday off as she is working tomorrow, so kindly offered to do everything for the horses on Wednesday including ride them both as she wanted to jump. Sadly her mare can no longer jump as she was diagnosed with navicular last year :( She is comfortable with trail riding & hacking, which L does prefer over arena work but knowing her horse is on "borrowed" time is undoubtedly taking its toll - I am only too happy to share my girls when L has the time/desire to ride them. If not for her I am positive Kika & I wouldn't be where we are today!
(See posts between end of 2010 & a fair chunk of 2011 for more info)

Yep - that is my Kika gear in background

I got a funny text from L when I asked her how the girls behaved; she said Nancy was great (only her second time jumping since moving to Lux) & that  K was true to herself ...open for interpretation yes?
We discussed it last night and she said that she wasn't bad at all, didn't even threaten to stand up - which she is still prone to do with L as she has to work harder with her than with me and Kika takes offence & always has to have her say - but only threatens to rear now (knock-on-wood that i haven't just jinxed us) to see if we're really being serious in our requests and then gets on with things after potentially more discussions - chestnut mares eh?
Kika wanted to get to the jump at her own pace (aka warp speed) so L had her stick at it till she did it as requested, apparently K was white by the time they were finished almost an hour later...silly Kika - she will never learn and always has to try to have her say.
I am gutted that Wednesday are always my busy days at the office (didn't get out till 7.45 this week) as they are jumping days at the yard and I will be lucky if I can ever get there in time to have a spin over some fences! :(

Post-work #FoamFace

I did get some wonderful saddle time on Kika last night (Thursday), hence her tacked up pics & Nancys being of her 'modelling' her Amigo Lite sheet.
K & I worked in main arena with the wall of mirrors to help me and got some simplistic but good work done. We focused on transitions, keeping soft & balanced leading up to and after them as the transitions themselves aren't always as pretty as they should be - my fault undoubtedly but getting better when I remember to pay attention to what I my body is doing as well my requests to her!
Our trot work was good, any time she tensed after a change of rein or got fussy on a circle I remembered to implement the lessons I've gleaned from other bloggers of MORE LEG and she responded well. I mixed up our serpentines with walk transitions between changes of direction and we practiced halting, I knew from our Sunday session that the handbrake function worked as we avoided collisions with less-considerate riders (I seem to attract them);
* takeaway from halting, I need to maintain contact and help her understand that I don't want her to stretch her neck when we stop*
Our canter work was also good, well it got better - she cheated a bit the first time on each rein that I asked her to canter the length of the arena (bear in mind this is 65m long) breaking back to trot, but again my fault as if I had been riding PROPERLY she wouldn't have broken. When I remembered how to ride - we didn't have any problems with breaking to trot.

She actually looks narrow in this shot!
Angles & rug lengths really draw the eye differently huh, lol!

All in all, despite my sour mood at not getting the saddle time i had hoped in this week - the day I did get my butt in tack went well so I am a happy camper really. *nod*

Now one more thing before I sign off, I follow Noelle Floyd's updates on my blogroll and saw this one pop up today LINK - Horses in Central Park 18 - 21 Sept, I wonder how expensive it'd be to take a pre-Christmas trip to the big apple for some equine-related funsies!

Right - methinks I've waffled enough nonsense for one post, hopefully the pictures & NYC info makes up for the blabbering; it is after 8.15pm and I'm still in the office - printing like there's no tomorrow so that my colleagues who had today off don't have to face into it nest week...I think that makes me insane - but once started I couldn't finish half way through it'd just be too complicated to try and pick it back up on Monday!