Hunter Pace

On Sunday, I did my first ever hunter pace. It was originally supposed to be on 11/18, but we had a solid week of rain and it got postponed for safety reasons. All of the school horses are finally sound, no need to change that or chance anyone getting hurt in sloppy conditions! It did rain for several hours the day before, but luckily they didn't postpone again!

Winslow and I waiting for our turn, after we warmed up with a lot of walking and some trotting

My ride time was 10:10, but true to form on every show or horse event I've ever been to, it didn't take long for them to be running 10+ minutes behind! My team and I left around 10:25. We walked out to the main field and then once the ground felt less squishy, I asked Winslow the trot and the 2 girls with me followed suit. It didn't take long for us to get to the first obstacles, but the ground looked really sloppy/muddy around it, so we opted to trot by and head to the next one. That one look better and they both jumped it, but I kept going to the next set of logs, which Winslow and I popped over at a trot. We stopped for a boot adjustment on Rocky and then continued on. After that, the markers led us back onto a wooded path which was sloppy, so we came back down to a walk. 

A line of gates that didn't bring up any memories of breaking my arm when I fell off of Promise over a gate!

All in all, we mostly walked and did a little bit of trotting and cantering, mostly around the jumps that were set up. Most of the fences (aside from the first 2) had pretty decent footing around them, so we jumped several. I noped at a "brick" wall (it was actually wood but I wasn't feeling it) and opted to do the crossrail after it. After that, I noped at a log that was not a cleanly cut jump, but rather an actual fallen tree. 

I think I would have been a bit braver with the fences if it hadn't been quite so wet, but I honestly don't know 😂 either way, it was a fun outing. I do wish it had been drier so we could have trotted and cantered more, but (especially given the footing) we were under strict orders to not come back with lost shoes or lame horses!

Waiting our turn to jump the gates

Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted! I don't have much media, and we had a few weeks where the horses were doing IEA shows, so a few lessons were mostly flatwork or ground pole courses.

Those things are a lot more interesting to ride, than to write about! 

Lately, I've been riding Winslow and when we jump, I find I am struggling with a little bit of anxiety that I think stems from Winter Riko last year. In my head, I know Winslow isn't going to drop his head after a fence and start bucking. But, my body doesn't seem to realize that same thing, so there's been a bit of an internal battle going on. 

Also, I've been struggling with leg cramps again, which is super annoying. The only thing I can figure out is either I'm not drinking enough water because the weather is cooler/cold or it's something with my winter boots (I mean, they don't feel uncomfortable, but I guess they could be looser on my upper calves). 

To remedy this I started working out again last week (I always take advantage of the time change to get back in gear!), I am trying to be very diligent about my water intake during the week, and I bought a foam roller because my calves do sometimes feel cramped when I get out of bed or go up and down the stairs. Maybe I just have a deep, lingering charlie horse or something. 😑 Anyway, no cramps during my makeup lesson yesterday, but definitely had some during my regular lesson on Friday.