On a Roll

Whew! It’s been less than a week, but I’m so pumped about the switch to summer hours. It’s totally given a rocket boost to my motivation ❤ love it!

Also watching these sassy little munchkins frolic keeps me smiling any time I'm outside. 

Tuesday morning everything was a bit soggy from some unexpected (but very welcome!) rain on Monday afternoon/evening, so I opted not to ride. Instead, I focused on making some progress on Cinna’s very, very pathetic and dingy tail. For a Spanish horse, she’s a bit lacking in the tail department – mostly because she is forever stepping on it and ripping out chunks…. Ugh! I spent some quality time with purple shampoo, heavy-duty conditioner, and then some Gleam, while she stuffed her face with clover. It’s not instantly white-bright overnight, but it does look quite a bit better. I wasn’t going to undo six years of neglect with one wash, so this will be an ongoing project this summer, haha.

Real funky angle but someone was being a good girl for her scrubbing. 

Progress?

Tuesday night I ended up checking out a Zumba class offered by our local parks and rec department, which ended up being pretty fun! It was hard, but not so hard that it was discouraging – I’m not super coordinated, so I could either follow the instructor’s feet, OR her arms, but not both at once. It was definitely a good workout though, so I think I’m going to sign up for the 9-week course they’re offering this summer. Clearly just chores and riding (not that I was doing much of that this winter and spring) just aren’t cutting it in the exercise department, and I hope that paying for a class will keep me motivated to go, lol. We’ll see how that works out for me!

You don't get to see the horrific sweaty post-Zumba selfie I sent to my friends as a joke haha. 

Wednesday morning was Cinna’s turn to get ridden. I will admit to being a little apprehensive when I made the switch to summer hours about always riding when no one is home – it doesn’t bother me as much with Ruby, but Cinna can be a bit of a wild card. Earlier this week I set up a system with my two closest coworkers where if I don’t make it to work by a certain time, they’ll call DH. That won’t help if I get dumped and break my neck and actually die (except they’ll find the body earlier? Haha) but if I’m lying unconscious in the arena, finding me in the morning vs. the evening will be helpful from a medical standpoint, right? #safetyfirst

The face of a mare who can't believe I don't trust her! ;)

I debated about setting up the Pixio – I knew I had time, but the sky looked a little sketch and I could hear thunder. But my weather app said 0% chance of rain for hours, so I risked it. I also decided to get everything set up and dialed in while I still had Cinna in cross ties, that way I could just turn on the watch and get on, vs. my previous bumbling attempts to get everything set up while I also held the horse. It worked MUCH better, with one small glitch – the camera automatically shuts off if you don’t start recording within a certain time (to preserve battery) which is fine, but I didn’t realize I needed to “wake it up” when I attempted to start recording. So the entire first half of my ride I thought it was recording, but it was not. Womp womp. Totally user error though, hopefully once I get more used to riding with it every day I’ll be less likely to make these kind of silly mistakes!

Which is actually kind of okay, because the first half of the ride was an absolute shit show, lol. Cinna was LIT and there was lots of jigging, breaking to the trot, being reminded she did in fact know how to walk, and then when I was finally ready to trot, lots of zooming around flailing her head like a giraffe. During a walk break to try to reset her brain, I finally figured out the Pixio wasn’t actually recording me, so I hopped off, fixed that problem, and then climbed back on. (little did I know there was a bigger problem, haha).

Sweaty mare #postride

When I got back on for the second time, she was much improved. Much more willing to let me set the tempo, and not rooting quite so much. I actually remember to ride with a whip yesterday, which came in handy for two minor corrections (when my leg was ignored), but then she was good as gold. We did a lot of trotting, and by the time I asked for the canter, she was pretty tired. She made a valiant effort, but our canter transition was rushy, and then she really struggled to hold it. Once I got one circle each direction, I quit. We had a nice long coolout, then I hosed her off and finished up chores. I started the video uploading to YouTube while I got ready, but I was really disappointed to review it and see that most of it looked like this.

Hey look, most of us in the frame!

Nope, gone again. 

Clearly I had my beacons set funky/camera not correctly lined up, so I’ll have to try again. Lest anyone be discouraged about how much trouble I am having with my Pixio usage, I’m 99.9999% sure that it’s just a lot of little random user errors – the system is only as good as the person using it, and clearly I’m not patient or thorough enough to be good at this the first few times. Hopefully it will get better :)

Today is Ruby's turn to work, but also Cinna's birthday! We're not going to go all out like last year, mostly because I don't think I'll be able to strongarm DH into helping me, and I also can't remember where I stashed all the birthday decorations? But anyway, happy 6th birthday Cinnamonster! Where has the time gone??