The Ides of March

 Technically my run of bad luck started in February, but hopefully we can break it now. After Cinder's Voltaren induced burn started healing and she was cleared for under saddle work, Trainer A rode her once before cruelly abandoning me going to CA for a horse trial for a week. She reported that Cin was a little spooky for the ride, but when I came out two days later Cinder was foot perfect for me. 

Would this creature ever be naughty? Yes, yes she would

When I rode two days after that, a Friday, the weather was horrible with strong winds and hail that started about 30mins into our ride. I wisely chose life and ended the ride when Cinder grew about three inches with the start of the hail. I don't blame her, it was miserable out and I've never run up the hill from the arena to the barn faster. I rode again on Sunday, and after having a little conversation about proper upward canter transitions, had a decent ride. 

On Monday I rode during my normal lesson time (Trainer A had just gotten back from CA and had cancelled lessons) and Cin was spooky as shit. She was convinced there were monsters at the far end of the arena. I kept riding her through it and actually got some nice canter work out of her, when bringing her down to the walk she spooked at nothing, dropped her shoulder, and spun me off. It was a slow fall, and I realized I was coming off as soon as I felt her shoulder drop out from underneath me. I landed on my hip and rolled to my back, hitting my head slightly. I sat up and cursed for a minute as Cinder stood five feet away looking guilty. I wasn't hurt so I got back on and walked for a few minutes to reassure both of us, and to dry the tears of frustration on my face. There's a boarder who makes a big deal of out everything who was there that day, and I absolutely did not want evidence of my fall to be apparent and for her to make a thing out of it. 

From the day she was perfect

I texted A and told her what happened and asked if she could put an extra training ride on Cin for me that week. She agreed and texted me the next day saying Cin was still pretty spooky. She had also been a little crabby while getting groomed by both me and A. We think these transition months in the spring and fall, when the weather is bipolar and she's transitioning into/out of heat are hard for her. We started her on Mare Magic and I ordered a calming supplement to see if those help. If not, we'll ask the vet what she recommends. 

Destroyed a four month old bridle that is now sold out

I was only slightly sore after my fall, but three days later on Thursday of last week, I came down with a nasty cold. I had to cancel my lessons on Friday and Monday because I could barley leave the house, let alone ride. Trainer A has been putting rides on in place of lessons, before she leaves again today for Ram Tap. And of course Cin had to be naughty. Yesterday after A rode, Cinder made a dive for the feed cart before A could untack her and stepped on her reins, breaking her bridle in two places. Then this morning A was working her before leaving, and Cinder pulled a hind shoe. FML mare. 

Not the pictures you want to get from your trainer

I guess Cin gets more time off till I can get a farrier to put her shoe back on. Trainer A will be back next Monday, I think, so hopefully we can settle back into somewhat of a normal schedule.

Pride Goeth Before I Fall

 After owning him for 5 years and 11 months, Peebs finally dumped me last Friday. To be fair, it wasn't his fault at all. I'm sore, but no permanent damage and thankfully Peebs just stood there while I crawled around on the ground trying to find my glasses and phone that went flying.

So, to set the scene, I had gotten off work at noon last Friday for a doctor's appointment. I was slightly worried going into it, but got really good news so I was in a great mood heading out to the barn. I pulled Cinder out first, lunged her lightly, then hopped on. We've been working over ground poles lately, mainly so I can get comfortable with her canter and train my eye to her much larger than Peebs' stride. 

She was being super good, so I was brave and set a cross rail. I've only trotted her over two jumps outside of lessons, so this is a big deal for me. We also hadn't jumped in almost three weeks, since the show on Halloween. But being the good girl that she is, Cinder didn't act like she hadn't jumped in three weeks and our canter to the cross rail was the exact same as it was to the ground pole. While not every approach was perfect, hello drifting to the outside tracking right and dropping her inside shoulder going left, I was able to fix our issues and had reasonably good distances every time. I was able to see those distances as well, which is a huge win in my book. So I was on a huge high ending the ride on her, and moving onto Peebs. 

We've also been working on walking through and standing in puddles which Cinder is learning to tolerate

As per our usual, I hopped on Peebs bareback. We putzed around the arena for about fifteen minutes, me mostly checking social media, before doing our seven minutes of on contact walk, before I dropped the reins again and let him wander. I returned to my phone and was scrolling IG when out of the corner of my eye I saw his head shoot up and felt his back tense. The next second he was spinning sideways, and I wasn't. I don't know exactly what he spooked at, but when I came off he stood stock still, more upset about me on the ground than whatever it was that scared him. I landed on my left hip and rolled to my hands and knees and stayed there for second to make sure all my body parts were ok before crawling around to find my glasses and phone. He did walk over to me as I stood up and nuzzled me. I could tell that getting back on wasn't going to be a smart idea, especially bareback, so we limped our way into the barn and I put him away. 

Despite landing on my left side, my right hip/butt has been hurting worse. All weekend it felt like there was a flaming rock in the middle of my right butt cheek. I did manage to make it to work this week, and got back into the saddle (I am riding Peebs with a saddle from now on) last night. I still don't feel 100%, so Cinder is getting time off till I do. She might be a very good baby, but she's still a baby. 

Catch Up Part 2: We’re Going Down

 In preparation for moving Cinder home this week (holy shit still not ready to wrap my head around that) I bumped up to two lessons a week on her instead of one. Last week I had a flat lesson on Tuesday and then a jump lesson on Wednesday.

Cooling off with a walk down the road

Our flat lesson was pretty good. I’m able to get her consistently put together at the trot, but the canter is still a work in progress. We did attempt our first walk-canter transitions and they were surprisingly decent, considering upward canter transitions aren’t our strong suit. 

For jump lesson, we did a quick warm up then Trainer A had us start by trotting into a line. We jumped the first fence fine, kinda fell apart in the line and trotted the out fence. It felt good, I stayed with her and kept my leg on, but Cinder tripped on the landing. And she kept tripping for about 30-40 feet. A said it looked like a cartoon where their legs are spinning circles but they’re going nowhere. She finally went down to her knees and rolled onto her right side. 

My poor, poor saddle

I got tossed clear of her, landing on my right boob (possibly hitting it on something?) and my right knee. I looked over and saw Cinder down on her side. She stayed down for a few seconds before deciding that rolling would be a good idea. I tried to crawl out of the way while yelling at her to get up but thankfully A made it over to us and was able to get Cinder up before she rolled on my saddle. 

A handed Cinder off to one of the barn kids while she went to grab some ice boots. Cinder had scraped up both of her knees and I was still down in the dirt with my banged up knee. Both of us got about 5 minutes in the ice boots before I felt ok to get up. I gingerly walked around before pronouncing I was ok to get back in the saddle. Once I got on it was clear my knee was not happy when I put my foot in the stirrup so I ended up dropping them. We walked around for another 10minutes or so before I gently slid off of her. Cinder, thankfully, didn't seem too upset by the ordeal. 

A rode Cinder on Thursday and said she was little anxious approaching the first jump, but once she made it over she was fine. Cin has a little scrape on one knee, but otherwise just missing patches of hair. I had given her a gram of bute Wednesday night, but A said she felt and looked perfectly sound Thursday. I, on the other hand, was taking the maximum dosage of ibuprofen and took Thursday off of work, alternating keeping my knee up with ice on it, and walking around to loosen up some of the stiffness. I also have one hell of bruise on my boob. I'm feeling much more normal now, just some stiffness when I first get up in the morning, but we'll see how I feel once I get back in the saddle later today. 

It Happened!

 I had my first ride on Cinder yesterday. And my first fall on Cinder. Also, my first fall in 6yrs. All within the space of about 10 seconds. 

So, I have been under the probably wrong assumption that Trainer S was riding Cinder. After a week of ground work and lunging at home I scheduled a lesson with my Trainer, J. We showed off our lunging skills to J, and then proceeded to the mounting block. J held her while I put weight in the stirrup and laid across her back. No reaction from Cinder. 

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With my heart beating out of my chest, I got on. My saddle shifted a little, but other than putting her head up Cinder seemed fine. We took a few steps away from the mounting block, J leading us, when I felt Cinder's back come up and then was flying through the air. J let go because I was coming down on top of her, and we both landed in the dirt. 

I sat in the wet arena sand for a minute, not really hurt just so mad and upset. I already had the feeling that things weren't going well at boarding school and this seemed to confirm it. Cinder should have been fine with being ridden, or if she wasn't S should have told me. Both J and I think Cinder acted out of not being ready for me on her back, not maliciously trying to dump me. Its possible she wanted to see what she could get away with, but if she pulled these moves with S, I really need to know about it. 

I messaged with S a little bit last night, but she hasn't answered my questions about Cinder under saddle. We tentatively have a plan for her to come out to TCF on Saturday and work with Cinder, and I really, really want to see her be ridden and get some answers.

Ass Meet Dirt

It was bound to happen with a baby at some point.  McKenna dumped me on Saturday.  She reared and spun and I didn't.  Not too much worse for wear, landed on my butt, but my lower back is not super happy.  Luckily she was easy to catch and after quite a bit of lunging I got back on.

We had been trotting around for 10 mins or so and she was high as a kite.  I had already lunged her, and I was going back and forth in my head about getting off and lunging some more.  She was getting bold down the long side so I went to circle. She protested, I got stronger with my aids, and she went up and sideways.  While I was super pissed at the time, I can't really be mad at her.  Between the change in weather (getting into the 30s-40s at night), lack of turnout, not being ridden in the outdoor in more than a week, and general baby OTTBness, I should have seen it coming. She might have a trainer ride on Wednesday and we have a lesson on Sunday so hopefully we can get some help. 

Three Years in the Making

Buddy dumped me for the first time in the 3yrs that I've owned him today.  I was riding him bareback and decided to jump a bit.  I jumped him for the first time in 6wks on Tuesday and he was good.  The first few jumps he was a bit forward too, and didn't want to balance on the offside but settled down well.  I ended our ride by dropping my stirrups and trotting x's and he was great.

Today we was lazy in warm up and was pretty laid back to the first few x's we did.  He was much more balanced and together on the landings and even gave me a nice lead change.  I decided to take him over an 18in vertical and apparently it looked a lot bigger to Buddy.  He launched over it from a stride out and I got sent flying over his shoulder.  I landed on my tailbone and rolled to my left side.  It did take me a minute to get up, my right leg was hurting more than the left. 

To add insult to injury, the other farrier at our barn and his wife (who were Buddy's former owners who didn't treat him well) were there working on horses.  They saw what happened and came over to help.  Buddy had stopped and wasn't moving but they lead him into the barn for me.  I untacked him and put him back outside.  By then my thigh was screaming so I crawled into my truck and went home.

I barely made it into bed and took a few Aleve.  I rested for a few hours, trying to move as little as possible, and iced my leg.  I was supposed to go out with barn friends tonight because its my barn owner's aunt (who actually owns the property and acts as an aunt to all of us boarders) 90th birthday. I had gotten up trying to see if I could go and it had taken me 10mins to walk from my bedroom to the kitchen to feed my cats.  I was crying and sweating and texted Connie that I wasn't going.  She asked if I wanted someone to take me to the ER and I said yes please.

I could barely move but managed to hobble out to the car and then into the ER on my own.  Two hours, and one pelvic x-ray later, I'm back home with vicodin and directions to ice my thigh for a couple days.  They said it's a deep bruise and to stay off my feet and not ride for a while.  I won't be making my lesson tomorrow, but come hell or high water I'm showing next weekend!  I have a ton of sick hours at work and already left a message for my manager telling her I won't be in on Monday and will let her know about the rest of the week. I have no problems taking the week off to recover.