Pictures From Two(!) Blissful Rides

Yesterday, I'll be damned if I could get him to look at me for our pre-ride picture. However, aside from the few play-nicks on his coat, and a general layer of dust that is permanent until he gets a bath, look how good he looks you guys! My 'lil beefcake!

Siiiiiiigh....If you're just going to stand there cooing at me and holding that little black box that makes boop bee boop bop noises, I'm outie.

HERE, genius. Get on this thing, then get on ME so we can get to work and I can get back to my dinner already. Oy, it's like pulling teeth.

Miles was a bit looky-loo yesterday, but it had been awhile since our last ride, and over a week since I actually made either of us do any kind of work whatsoever. Also, no lunging, again-apparently he lets me get away with it every once in awhile; he was so great. We did more right lead canter work and it's getting more and more consistent. He's teaching me so much. Far more than I'm teaching him.

Wait, we DO look good together. I forgetz what I was looking at and feel like strutting my stuff suddenly!

Two right leads in a row and she won't shut up about it. Something about being the cutest and smartest pony ever. I dunno, sounds about right to me.

Today I rode AGAIN. Two days in a row! That hasn't happened in a ridiculously, embarrassingly long time. I decided to switch it up and do some ground pole work and jump a small cross rail. It was WINDY, and it didn't help that I decided to lunge him (due to the weather) and dropped the frigging lunge line like a moron while he was cantering. Poor boy did a couple of panicked laps as the evil line pursued him, until I got wise and stepped over to the rail where he then halted. Still, between that and the wind he was UP. I lunged him again over ground poles and the small cross rail and his brain came back when he realized the line wasn't going to start chasing him again. I rode him for only about 20 minutes since he worked so hard on the lunge, and took him over the cross rail twice. The 2nd time he cantered away! I love how this horse tries, and forgives my own mistakes. It's a pretty nice partnership we've got going.

Milez favorite-green spring grass nom nom nom. Is Milez crack cocaine-it ain't medicine but it'll eaze mah pain..(ps- one sloppy wet Milez' kiss if you can ID the song and artist I lifted this from:)

So, they weren't the most ground-breaking of rides, but pretty great considering our inconsistent schedule of the last few weeks. The important things are that he is SO happy, and healthy (and BEEFY, hello!), and I am feeling a confidence when I ride him that I haven't felt since I was in my late teens and riding my sweet appendix QH Chami. What a great way to head into Spring-you know, the kind with warm temperatures and whatnot. We've had the April showers thing covered for awhile now. Good job, Bubs.

Moar Clinic Pictures

Moar than you ever wanted to see, I'm just warning you...

I had about 2 minutes to lunge Miles before we started-he travels like this alllll the time on the lunge if I don't push him (which I never do at first). It's a good stretch but I'm pretty sure he just likes to sniff sniff sniff.



Picking it up...he is not amused.



Walk walk walk while Cheri and I talk about our history and what I'm looking for out of the day. Miles is very "meh" about all of it.



Trying to fix blasted hand/wrist/arms avec horizontal whip. Felt soooooo awkward.



Looking slightly better, beginning trot work.



Miles is relaxed but not so forward yet.



Working on holding the outside rein. Miles is not a fan.



Cheri approaches us for beatings! Forward Miles, forward!



Forward win, collection fail.



Getting there!



Across the diagonal, I think, or a circle. Hello LeanyMcLeanerson. Look at mah baybee reach though!



Oh my hell was I getting tired now...Miles was too, from the looks of it.



Sweet precious air, and a walk break.



Time to fail at turn on the forehand work!! No more pictures of this.



Miles says, "You wanna hit me with that whip now, muthaf%#*er?" Meanwhile, I am apparently trying to stand straight up in my stirrups, oy.



Trot Trot Trot



Spiral-y circles



Kinda sorta like this one. Finishing up.



Sneezy says we did it!



Judy put the black and white and framing effect on this one. Still, it is my favorite of the day...we are both tired and happy:) I was so proud of him.

Clinic Review

Despite earlier protestations that this would not become a weight loss blog, I have some serious thinking to do after seeing 2 pictures from the clinic-thinking, mind you, not anything crazy like taking action just yet;) Yes, I was heavily padded because that arena was fricking COLD on Saturday, but still, I don't like the way I look on my horse, bottom line. Only 2 pics for now; I know Judy took more, but she's a busy girl so I'll post them as I get them.

Headless! I really like the light here, though. Early in our ride, before Miles' engine went full speed ahead.

Still, if I work even half as hard on a semi-regular basis during our rides from here on out as I did on Saturday, it will help tremendously. Miles just tries so damn hard and is such a sweet boy, I want to make our work as pleasant as possible for him. Though, he looks pretty happy here, no?

Grrrr, still working on those arms/hands. Smiling like a goober, for sure.

He's so damn cute I just want to put him in my pocket. He is happy in his work, he tries hard for me, he's very sound and sane and really, everything I would want him to be. Throughout most of the clinic, I felt balanced and effective as a rider...the best was hearing Cheri's corrections (post to your hands, hold that rein, half-halt NOW!), executing them, and getting immediate feedback from my horse that it was all working. I was so HUNGRY for feedback! She said she saw real potential in Miles as a dressage horse and myself as a rider, and encouraged us not to throw out the idea of using a bit yet (she recommends KK bits; hello $$ we don't have!)-even if it takes a year or so. She also said we would "make an impression" (ha ha!) if we wanted to show, but of course you can't show dressage in a bitless bridle:( I loved hearing all of it, naturally. Yet, we have real work to do, oh yes we (I) do. A summary:

Outside rein-though I try to ride "inside leg to outside rein", I've not been doing it correctly. The outside rein anchors us to the rail, and allows us to ride our corners and circles with wonderful stability and connection. I've been throwing it away too much and once I rode effectively with it, our ride improved 100%. Though we never got to do any canter work, he felt so wonderful and straight and connected I feel sure there were times during our ride when I could've asked for that right lead (we worked a LOT on our right side) and we would have had no problem at all. Something to try this week.

Oh my broken wrists. I need to double check myself every so often and ride holding my whip horizontally with both hands, to train my muscles what straight wrists, thumbs up feels like (damn hunter training). I also need to close my fingers, and I knew this-particularly in the beginning with Miles, I kept my fingers very loosey goosey, as he was most comfortable this way. Now that we are working into contact, I need to not do that. Also, my whip is not ideal-I dunno how long it is (longer than a jumping crop yet not long enough), but I probably should invest in a proper dressage whip. That's IF I want to carry one at all-I actually was much more effective with my hands without it, and Miles does not need it to go forward (Whee! Such a motor he has!). What we may need it for?

Lateral work. Our couple leg-yields we attempted were absolute crap. When Cheri learned we've never done turns on the forehand under saddle (Oops-honestly it's not really occurred to me) we worked on those. This was....challenging. Between the bitless bridle and my stubby leg, Miles had a hard time giving me even a couple steps at first. It's 100% my fault, as I've not done this sort of work with him before. So, we sort of blew his mind and I felt like a shit, backing up my leg with the whip when he wouldn't move. Of course, because he is a smarty pants, he got it after a little while, but when I finally asked him to go forward he was very tense and...yeah, he was freaked out. I've never hit him behind my leg before. I hated it. I don't want to do that anymore-yes the instruction was coming from Cheri (and she's right-he needs to take my leg seriously in all instances, whether we are trotting or at a halt), but I wish I would have prepared him better. So, I'm going to do more groundwork on this with him, and use my fist as my leg to help him understand what he needs to do, and work on it under saddle as well.

After our turn on the forehand work, I allowed Miles to walk forward; his head was high and his steps were short with lots of tension-there was that sitting on a powder keg feeling I loathe. Cheri recognized it right away, of course, and immediately had me send him forward into the trot. After a couple minutes, this turned into our best work yet:) We spiraled in and out, 20 meter circle, than 15, than back to 20, than 10-I've never felt so connected to my boy. I'm so glad he forgave me and let the past 10 minutes go, to work with me and for me.

When we were done, he was sweaty and tired, but happy. He hammed it up with Cheri, totally charming her, and she called him a golden retriever:) I felt great.

Yesterday I gave him the day off, but he was fine-no soreness or anything (wish I could say the same!). We took a walk around the barn property and I let him graze for a bit. Can't wait to get back on tomorrow.

Danger: Extreme Smooshyness Ahead

Y'all, I love my pony. I love him so much he makes me say y'all, and I was born and raised in Michigan. Some days I feel like I'm 14 again and am constantly high because my parents just bought me my first horse. Even better, because I'm a grown up (ahem, despite a previous post's evidence to the contrary) and I'm doing this all on my own.

Miles was a superstar on Sunday...really, another one of those "top 10" rides ever. What made it even better was I had witnesses. Normally I hate hate hate riding in front of people (not the same as riding with other people, which I normally love in the right amounts), but it was a gorgeous day and I wasn't about to retreat to the indoor ring just because a few ladies were chatting rail-side at the outdoor-it's my own insecurity, really. So ride I did.

Best view ever. Wish I had a pair of forward ears, but I'll also take the floppy, listening kind.

We (well, Miles), got some very nice comments about how soft he is, how relaxed and how happy he is in his work. One person said she never really liked Thoroughbreds (!?), but she likes him. Okaaaay....Miles can be the ambassador of the breed, I guess, helping to change one mind at a time. While I think he is super-special, more OTTBs are like Miles to one degree or another, and less like the fire-breathing stereotype.

There's those forward ears! Also, this is me turning sideways to take a picture, with my arms up. Not me wearing a hood with gigantic boobs. Kyle assured me no one would think that but apparently I'm worried enough about it that I need to add a disclaimer. Plus he's a liar, proven fact:) I say this with love.

I also have a new farrier trimming Miles' feet now...and he's wonderful. He's correcting a lot of things our previous farrier ignored (and I fully blame myself for not seeing the imbalances sooner). As a result, Miles is moving much easier and freer, and I'm able to ride him without using his Simple Boots. Before, he would trip all over himself without the boots, and now he's just fine, thankyouverymuch. I'm excited to try him over ground poles and maybe a cross rail or two (eek!! I am SO geeked to try that!) now that he is being properly trimmed to see if he doesn't pick those feet up much easier.

After our ride I snapped one more picture, just because he's so dashing under tack.

He really is, even if his mom sucks at photography and can never get the angles right.

The cherry on top of my Miles adoration sundae came Monday night, after literally dragging myself to the barn (time changes are always hard on me, whether it's spring forward or fall back). Miles and LaShore were at the far end of their pasture, and for once didn't see me pull in or walk up to the gate since they were up the hill and behind their shelter. As soon as I called "Miles!" I heard the loudest neigh and a thunder of hoof beats as the boys appeared, cantering happily down to great me. It made me laugh hysterically...and then start waving the lead rope like a lunatic as they got close and weren't stopping, yipe!

Stop they did, though, in a cloud of dust and tossing heads...it was so, so adorable (I have got to get a video of it one of these days). If I could bottle that feeling I had...well, in the equine world, there's just nothing like it. When your horse greats you like he's the Black and you're Alec Ramsey, like something out of a novel, it just doesn't get any better. I love the bond we have, and after over a year together I'm still discovering new and awesome things about him. Miles is an amazing gift...sometimes I think he's the whole the reason I was a horse-crazy kid. Maybe I've been waiting for him all along.

Hmmm, so where's the "Masarin-Miles", famous OTTB Breyer model? I think I need to start lobbying.

End smooshyness! Thanks to everyone for reading, and for letting my inner goober run amok for awhile. Just try to imagine what Miles deals with;)

Gulp...Here Goes Nothing

Miles is boarded at a barn with some of the nicest horse people around. No joke.

I was finishing our ride tonight (our mojo from Saturday carried over, for the most part-Good Miles!), and Amanda (go visit her blog and say hey!) walked in with her camera and offered to take some photos of us, since we have exactly Zero of me riding. What could I say? I've been dying to get some, if for no other reason than I need to critique my own equitation and have a gauge as to where we both are, position wise.

Of course, today we were again in the indoor ring, which has not the best lighting, Miles was dusty as all hell from the rush grooming job I gave him (to be fair, he was COVERED in mud from the rain we had last night), and we were both a wee sweaty and tired. The cherry on top? My gray Tractor Supply Company t-shirt, in size XXL, which doesn't billow about me and make me look like a Stay-Puff marshmallow AT ALL. Ah well. I'm still thrilled to have any pictures of us, and it was so, so sweet of her to offer.

Unfortunately, apparently most she took of us, particularly at the trot, were too blurry. These 2, however, I'm not totally embarrassed to post (the others are for my eyes only, because of me, not her picture taking:). Obviously I'm not the slim, legs-that-go-on-forever ideal type of rider. My butt, hips and thighs have always been, ahem, ample, no matter what I weigh. Still, I think we fit each other fairly well. Miles is happy in our work. And I hope this is just a starting point for both of us:)

I know, this doesn't show much. Still, I like his expression here. Toes in, Sarah!



Relaxing...again, not much to say. Still, here you have it...photographic proof I ride an OTTB!! If you had told me I'd be doing this 2 years ago I would have laughed in your face.

Now that I have the first scary pictures out of the way, I might even try to get either Amanda or someone else out at a planned date and time to take some photos for critique, or at least for fun. We will see...my bravery about this sort of thing waxes and wanes. Want a picture of my horse? SURE, anytime, anywhere! Pictures of me, either with my horse, husband, dogs, or hanging out with friends? You got it! Pictures of me riding?!?! Hmmmm....

Anyway, here we are! I hope it inspires any of you out there struggling with the same thing. It's actually quite liberating!

Also, Miles makes me look good (or passable, anyway). All you really need is a handsome steed:)