Poneh Pick me up

Ponies are the best pick me up. After not falling asleep till after 3-3.30am the last two nights topped off with our team of 8 being whittled down to 4 yesterday & 3 this afternoon due to vacation leave and unforseen sickness. 
This normally wouldn't cause problems on a Thursday afternoon. But work is tripping over itself to be in the system before the Court closes for the Christmas break next week. 
I'm not typically a gambler, but i would put money on units being down to skeletal staff on Monday and Tuesday next as most people will have taken advantage of the weekend to skedaddle early and eke out some extra time with family & friends. I don't begrudge anyone that, I am just at a disadvantage as i don't have kids and I don't leave Lux for the festive period as (i am lucky my folks live here and have let me live with them for the last 4 years!!!). Just means most years I make up the skeletal staff that stays behind to hold the fort ;-)
Oops that went off on a tangent!

Coolest horse ever - dressing herself up.
Bringing Christmas indoors ;-)

I am whacked exhausted but so looking forward to seeing my ponies this evening to tuck them in for the night.
So i haven't sat on either one in over a week, the way Nancy greeted me at midday today was so cute. She was lying flat out again when I got there today, I think this might be a poor reflection on my ability to turn them out the last two weeks - she no longer expects me to turn up #sadtimes
Unlike last time, but more like normal Kika didn't make a sound so N got a bit of a shock when I popped my in and said hi. She was the epic multi-tasker as she made full nostril twitching whickering sounds while hauling herself up quick-fast. As much as it warms my heart to have her happy to see me, she is in such a hurry to get up I'm afraid she'll hurt herself some day.

Work may be cray but my colleagues are the best.

I interpret Kika's excessive grouchiness at rugging time as her jealousy at not getting enough me time.
Or I think it is as she has taken to clattering the partition between herself and Nancy the last three times I turned them out - totes jealousy at not enough Aoife-time and not rotten misbehaviour...I swear. (Okay so maybe my fingers are crossed as i hope really hard)

This was supposed to be a super short post as I'm doubling up on posts today due to 30 b4 30 excitement, but when have i not got verbal diahorea?!

30 b4 30 - WIP

This is a work in progress list as it is super hard to come up with 30 things that
(a) i want to do in the next 12 - ahem 10 months...clock is ticking eep!!!!
and
(b) striking a balance between challenging myself and achievability! (yes blogger this is now a word, deal with it)

All credit for idea & super logo goes to Lauren @shemovedtotexas

1. Meet as many blogger peeps as I can
(I will add to my Bucket List, not limit myself to a 10-12 month window)

LINK - not my image

2. Do 100 sit ups a day - every day!
A six pack for my 30th would be awesome! I found the above workout option on Google - will see if i can do half those things *squeals-with-glee/groans-at-the-work-involved*

My current uber-classy key situtaion

3. Get keys to my very own apartment
4. Furnish & move in to said flat
As you know - so far i only have a couch ordered...no other furniture sourced yet.

For more info - LINK - to blogpost in case you missed it

5. Ride more during the week
6. Go on a riding trip to Iceland

I have a brochure for this place - LINK (not my image)

7. Visit Aachen (Germany)/Saut  Hermes (France)/Hickstead (UK) and/or RDS (Dublin)
The latter two are consecutive weeks I might have to pick one or the other - because fincances *weep*

LINK - not my image

Link - not my image

8. Go to Badminton or Burghley for top tier 3-Day Eventing viewing awesomeness
9. Go to as many Global Champion Tours as i can get to (read:afford)

How class would this be - again not my image LINK

10. Start learning to drive Nancy
Ex-YO (current YO's father and a grandson) have carriage horses and often run driving clinics. I must inform myself on these and see what would be involved in such an endevour

Commissioned from the wonderfully talented @photosandsketches

11. Commission a sketch of Nancy to frame for apartment decor as i have two of Kika! #noshame
12. See my uni friends in Ireland - it has been way too long!
13. Take monthly conformation shots of girls to chart progress - if any (Starting January 2015)
14. Get professional photog pics of girls and/or actually learn to use my Canon properly

not my image - LINK

15. Do at least one Dressage Anywhere test on either girl, preferably multiple tests on both
16. Sign up for a weekly lesson once I get used to loss of mortgage repayment every month from my salary and other independence related charges #fear #grownupproblems

Not my media as i have ZERO art skills - LINK

17. Get car out of the garage & actually drive it!
#shame I may bought a car third hand (with my parents help) from a friend of mine in December last year and I may have had said car in my parents garage since then failing to sort out insurance until last month and now the car won't start so i have to find a mechanic that will come to the house to fix it so i can take it through car testing & get it back on the road. What can I say, out of sight out of mind - the garage is somewhere i rarely go! *blush*

18. Do driving requirement for full license (compulsory training day to "prepare" new drivers for adverse weather conditions etc in secure environment - happen to cost a pretty penny & did I mention it is obligatory?! What a racket!)

Gratuitous Baby Nancy pic - because why not?!

19. Research Kika & Nancy's bloodlines & siblings
20. Go back to Equitana Germany
21. Learn to put Polo Wraps on horses and then of course buy all the matchy-matchy thingz
22. Increase blog interaction by posting more
I love getting and replying to comments, which is why i moderate them - so that i see all comments coming in and I don't miss out on the opportunity to reply to someone. I am not sure if there was a captcha or something as well before a comment could be posted, if there was i think i removed it...if not please let me know and I will fidget with the things behind the scenes and settings etc again.
23. Contact Kika's breeder for baby pics and background info on her & siblings/family tree - Linked to #19
24 - to 30 TBD

I am open to suggestions to help fill the final few slots on my list. I know this is quite equine heavy oriented, but with the mahoosive expense of the apartment and furnishing the sucker from scratch I have to try to financially limit my expectations while keeping the goals achievable, motivational & challenging.
Plus with two horses being a substantial and established drain on my finances and time, yet 100% adored & needed for my own sanity and well being, it is really no surprise that they figure so prominently in my plans for my immediate future ☺

I have also created a new page to list everything more neatly and will update - tick things off there if/and when I achieve them...fingers crossed! LINK

Thank you so much to Lauren for coming up with this ingenious idea - it deff makes turning the big 3-0 less daunting and more fun...or maybe I'm weird.
Although as it stands i am not yet worried about turning 30 next year. I am still very much in the "age-is-just-a-number" camp and am yet to start worrying about it. Hopefully I don't have a freakout as I do honestly believe age is but a number...we shall have to see how long that feeling of serenity lasts as the day draws nearer ;-)
LINK - to my original birthday post where i announced my hope of compiling a list such as this.

Heartwarming

When I got to the stable at lunchtime on Tuesday Nancy was lying down napping. I rarely catch her lying down so i was trying to be super stealth so i could snag a picture.
Just as i was lined up, phone in hand, camera option open and ready to snap the photo. The usually silent Kika blows my cover by neighing at me, which led to Nancy leaping up whickering at me too.

Starting to rise

Honestly Kika I love that for once you seem to actually care that I am me & turned up, but you botched my photo op. ;-)
Perhaps she was jealous of my stopping to snap the photo & not preparing her for turnout or maybe she was genuinely happy to see me. #unusual

What happens to your socks inside boots
when filling haynets in the dark

Sadly I still haven't managed to climb into tack, hopefully Thursday evening as my pony time is super hampered this week - isn't it always the way in the lead up to Christmas. Or does this only happen to me. This evening (wednesday) is our unit Christmas party after work. So because i won't get back to bring them in tonight i won't go put them out at midday. Friday lunch break is another no-go  for barn time as I've another Christmas lunch and then MY SISTER GETS BACK FROM CANADA!!!!
Baby sister gets back from Scotland on Sunday for our first Christmas all together in 3 years ☺☺☺☺
I am hopeful of logging saddle time over the weekend before working Monday & Tuesday, but this may not happen as i still have no odea what to get my sisters for Crimbo - so will also have to fit in some shopping time somewhere! The good news is the office is shut till the 5th of Jan, so I WILL have plenty pony time then.

Poorly Personage

Due to some apparently dodgy food on Thursday evening I was rather incapacitated for the weekend and actually out of work on Friday.
Food poisoning is no bueno  :-(

New girl F bravely sharing with Nancy
while K photo bombs front haynet

Poor ponies were stuck inside from Wednesday evening to Sunday afternoon when I finally got back to the yard to put them out for a couple of hours yesterday. Turning them out and doing a quick clean of the stables wiped me out and meant I spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch vegging in front of the TV.

Kika playing nice with new girl...may have something to do
 with it being easier to have another head to counterbalance
swing of the haynet for hay access ;-)
Not stupid my ponios

It was super wet & windy those days anyway, so I think they'll forgive me for leaving them wrapped up warm & dry inside - happy coincidence really.
I didn't get out to them on my lunch break today either sadly as i was filling in for another person at the office, so by the time i got on top of their work and mine it was a belated home - time for me. 7pm vs 5.30pm - Admittedly i don't often get to leg it on the dot of 5.30 anymore either. Sorry ponies i won't be making it to see you this evening as me too sleepy as it'll be after 8pm when I get home. However all going well i should be able to turn them out at midday tomorrow.

Transition Time

Nancy's turn for some arena work this evening and before I even got to the yard tonight I'd decided that I wasn't going to let our lack of flexibility & bend get me down this evening. Tonight was going to be all about transitions up & down when I asked regardless whether or not we were arrow straight or if someone's nose was straight in front of her rather than nicely vertical to the ground.
I wanted to KISS - Keep It Simple Stoopid ... yeah I get it spelled differently cos I'm speshul

Yikes I look preggers in this pic O.o

We still had our sticky moments on circles although because i wasn't beating myself up about things not being perfect i probably wasn't tensing and bracing against her so all things considered they were much better than when I nit pick and generally harass her - who'd have thunk it?! *eyeroll*
We got some lovely canter work, even if i do say so myself. I tried to concentrate more on walk/trot trot/walk transitions as our downward transitions can be sticky and are typically where N gets quite strung out & heavy in my hands as we are not in tune enough nor sensitive enough yet to halt off my seat and she quite rightly takes offence to my hauling off her face to slow down and/or stop. I don't do that every time, not by a long shot, but she is a lot of horse and sometimes she needs a not so gentle reminder that when I ask for her to slow down and/products stop i mean now and not in 5 strides time.
She responds better to vocal cues than I give her credit for, I really need to get better at using vocal aids and not deaden my poor horses due to my abysmal riding ability.

The face of a Martyr = Saint Nancy

Things I need to remember next time I'm in her tack:
- support her better with my legs on turns/circles/changes of rein;
- keep my hands steadier on the reins, keep them level. Watch my inside hand, keep it up and in line with the outside one;
- maintain contact, don't favour my inside rein over the outside one!
- use my inside leg to bend her from the ribs into my outside hand ... this will be a long work in progress as for some reason I still have it completely arseways in my head.

Oddly i feel I can work better on these things with N than K, as Kika is almost too sensitive. Any slight hand movement or shift in weight on my part that is unanticipated by her and she hollows, scoots or her head pops up etc - she often tries to pre-emptively guess what is coming which can also lead to strops when I don't do as she anticipated from me, makes me giggle more often than not.
Although Nancy is longer striding and covers the ground better than K whose defense is to hollow and get choppy, I feel I have the luxury of time while riding Nancy to make slight corrections and adjustments which I don't always feel I have on K. That seems weird written down and is not something I have actively thought about before. I shall have to pay more attention when I ride again on Thursday and through the weekend to see what i can do to change & improve on this possibly mental block of mine.

Kindly Kika

I was beginning to think that I had jinxed myself with the Monster Mare No More post; but Kika stepped up to the plate and was back to being her new norm for this evenings spin.

For those who don't follow me on insta,
we have our second snow

We still had some sidestepping and tension with the odd eyes-on-stalks moments, but there was a lot more relaxed work in between. I even managed to slow our walk with my seat at one stage, by concentrating on my breathing and slowing my rocking in the saddle to slow her stride - talk about a light bulb moment as pulling off her face to try to slow her down when she winds herself up is just playing with fire seeing as she could very easily (and understandably) take offence and tell me to F off in her own lovable (sarcasm) way.

Sorry for darkness of captures but SNOW PONIOS
(i didn't want to use flash and create alien eyes)
 #sorrynotsorry

We just covered the basics, but as we did them well i called it quits after 20ish minutes. Walk/halt transitions with changes of rein thrown in and lots of vocal praise the few times she halted without stretching her neck and pulling the reins through my fingers. We also had no qualms today with approaching the side to rid ourselves of my coat & her quarter sheet. Nice soft trot work with 10m circles tossed in for funsies if she tried to s - shape squirm from the sides to reinstall our bend. She did those very well when also mixed into our serpentines, they actually had a relaxing effect on the pair of us. Somehow I manage to better maintain my outside rein contact when circling vs going in a straight line...am I complicated or what?!

Pre warm up mirror selfie as Kika giraffed at something

First bit of canter work on our bad side was divine, or at least it felt that way - what it looked like besides the glimpses i got briefly in the mirror is anyone's guess as i don't think anyone was around to see - thankfully in a way as i ride like a plank if i think someone is watching. A change of rein later and someone lost her marbles for our supposed good side canter. Not misbehaving scaring the bejaysus out of me marble loss - just hollowed choppy disconcentrated (yes I make up words) canter. So after 3 20m she wasn't relaxing for me so we worked on some trot/canter transitions till I got the soft response i wanted a couple of times before we went back to soft trot work serpentines.

Post-work satisfied companionship selfies,
I was glad of quarter sheet this evening to wrap around me too

I hesitate to hope this will return to the norm, as perhaps she was just in a more zen state after spending some time this afternoon running around the turnout like a looper with Nancy due to the introduction of the Guru's new mare. The new horse apparently stood out of the way bemused as my two haired around like muppets taking full advantage of the excuse to go a bit apeshit. Sadly no pictures as i wasn't there and L had to keep her hands free incase things got hairy and she had to rescue her new girl from my monsters.

Snowy-monsters...it might be time i add on the neck covers ;-)

It may surprise people to hear that apparently Nancy was the nastier of my two in "welcoming" the new girl in that wonderful way horses do by causing a fuss to establish the pecking order. Methinks Nancy was tired of being the bottom rung on the ladder and she has decided that this new youngster shall not be sneaking ahead of her now that she has gotten used to being Kika's #2 in their massive herd of 2 *eye-roll*
Horses eh?!

Semi-Silent Sunday

Top before heading into the woods
Bottom on our way back to the barn

The weather was beautiful this morning so I shelved the idea of arena work and went for another hack in the woods instead. So of course I snapped a lot of photos en route despite Kika trying to pull my arm out a couple of time & Nancy re-rolling us along a trail i had been meaning to try for a while, so I figured why not but almost regretted it as a house bellow us seemed to be doing some electric sawing of something and scared the usually rock steady Nancy as she couldn't see where the noise was coming from but kept her fear in check my jigging slightly but not going into full meltdown.

Special shadows

Now for a relatively silent photo dump.

No better view than between these ears

Best way to stay warm, wrapping the
 quarter sheet around my thighs

Homeward bound - i love the light

Hope the photo heavy post isn't too boring, the day was too nice to spend cooped up in an arena. The barefoot trimmer was out again yesterday evening and she mentioned that both girls could be a little foot sore so i opted to take it easy with a stroll in the woods.