Preferring the Pasture, State of the Fitness, May 2022

Fit To Ride

Awareness of the outside world. UN: World Bicycle Day.

~~~

Losing my enthusiasm for walking elsewhere, even if I am already out running errands.

One. No new walks. If I am simply walking around in circle, I might as well go home.

Because …

Two. I really like to walk at the close of the day.

Except when it rains for entire week. Still trying to keep my knees happy by staying out of slippery conditions. Early in a rain event I can squeak by on the flat area of the pasture. After it gets muddy, I go somewhere else.

Places

Stepping Stone Farm, after loading [October Walks]

Birmingham Zoo [A Walk in the Zoo, A Sprint for Sloths, A Semi-Virtual 5k]

To voting on Tuesday

Corporate office park [Another Lakeside Stroll photo]

Counts

Walking – 22 times in 31 days. Three were Virtual Tevis warm-up walks of one lap, so 19 regular walks of one mile or more. [Different Ways of Walking]

Online Tai Chi – 10 times in 22 weekdays, plus one Saturday morning. Turned out to be the last exercise for a while.

Bike – 2 days.

Exercise days – 24 days. Math is wonky. Some days did two, some days none.

Non-exercises days – 7 days. Horse activities, 3 days. Rain, 1 day. Resting after failing to stick the landing off of a stool, 3 days.

Mileage Logs

Walking [Virtual Mississippi River]

Walking, warm-up laps [Virtual Tevis]

Biking [Virtual Great Ocean Road]

Onwards!
Katherine

Horse On Course

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. More time to consider the outside world; less energy to cope with it.

~~~

Jump schooling two weekends in a row!

Kept in mind the ideas from last time. [Back Into The Ring]

One. Do not buy into his anxiety. A slow start to schooling does not mean the entire day is doomed.

Two. Be clear and certain about path and pace.

At the beginning, Rodney was in a good place physically, but mentally wired, which was a weird feeling for both horse and rider.

Lots of trot poles.

He started to get concerned, almost as if he was anticipating the questions becoming harder and harder. (… and harder and harder and it’s going to be impossible and I won’t able to do it and … and … The only one I know who can get spun up from a standing start as fast as Rodney is me.)

A walk break does not help. Had to do trot circles to get him actively thinking about something else. Coach Courtney calls this ‘changing their brain.’ [In Which We Learn Things]

We ended with a short course of tiny jumps. Crossrail from last week, pole and tiny vertical for a quasi-related distance, second tiny vertical. Two trips.

He actually relaxed once we got to the course. ‘Oh, this is the question of the day? Okay, I can do this.’

Did a cute little jumper turn at a trot the second time around. He can dump momentum if I cut the turn too tight on the flat. This time he whipped (metaphorically) around.

A little hop over last that felt like him showing off. Good Pony!

~~~

The plan was to take advantage of the long weekend and go back on a second time. Didn’t happen. [Bored]

Onwards!
Katherine

Remembering How To Ride

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama News Center: Alabama quilters escape to Lay Lake for ‘Building Better Quilts 2021’, By Meg McKinney, October 12, 2021.

~~~

At some point, I will expand my repertoire to riding a wider range of ASBs at Stepping Stone Farm once again (small shudder). For my lesson last week, I deliberately asked to ride Optimus. I wanted to see if I could take less than three classes to remember how to ride saddle seat. [Switching Gears]

Get ready. I tried to consciously consider the fact that I was wearing jods and using a different saddle as markers to put myself in saddle seat headspace before I got on.

Get on. Remember where to put body parts. [Gears]

In motion. That’s the hard part. My understanding(?) is that one is constantly asking the horse to compress the stride and lift the feet. Therefore, I figured that if I was asking the horse to do this, the rider should be doing analogous things with their body. [Learning From Youth]

Overall, successful. I was not perfect, but I was not perfect within tolerances for a saddle seat rider, rather than a rider orbiting in from another discipline.

Which raises the question if the riding style I revert to is actually hunt seat or simply a collection of sloppy habits and real hunter/jumper/dressage/eventing is closer to the things that trip me up in saddle seat, i.e. sit up, sit back, constantly gather the horse, etc. etc. Isn’t all riding about the center of gravity? But that’s a post for another day. [Center of Gravity, Notes From A Lesson]

~~~

Well, done with that for a while. [Bored]

Onwards!
Katherine

Delay of Game, Week 8, Virtual Tevis 2022

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. A reminder that progress is possible. Your Local Epidemiologist: We can reduce gun violence in the U.S. Article talks about tobacco & car safety. To this I would add the rapid – in societal terms – reversal on drunk driving. Are you old enough to remember ‘One for the road’?

Pause to remember those for whom progress would come too late.
~~~

~~~

Total. 56 miles, 30 rides, 24 hours 41 minutes, pace 26:27 min/mile.

This week. 1 mile, 1 ride, 30 minutes, pace – walk

To go, 44 miles in 48 47 days. Still ahead of game by four three miles. That will change. Update, corrected for date of post rather than date of draft.

Notes

Rain at the beginning of the week. A quick stomp thru the mud. Rider vet delay at end of the week. [I’m Bored Already]

Although lessons and schooling are out for a while, I hope to be able to wrap the ankle, hop on, and log a few easy VT miles, sooner rather than later.

[The Good Way To Have Ups And Downs With Horses, Week 7, Virtual Tevis 2022]
[VT archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

I’m Bored Already

Not Riding

I’ve taken up this new hobby of cage fighting …

One of the ER nurses suggested that sounded better than what actually happened.

Stepped off stool in barn. Ankle twisted underneath me. I went splat.

Not broken. Sprained to the point that the treatment is similar. Ligaments are apparently hard to heal b/c they are not well vascularized. Reminds me of equine lower legs.

Wear boot. Take it easy. How long depends on whether I stretched or tore the ligaments and how badly. Recovery could be up to 6 weeks, depending on damage.

Onwards!
Katherine

Barn Cat With Fern, Guest Photo

Images

Ricky surveys his domain.

Photo by Courtney Huguley.

~~~

Note. Writing to you from Friday evening. Since this post is for a Saturday, I had a fiction post planned and partly written. Lesson today. Tired, as much mentally as physically. I think both from lesson itself and from the excitement of being around people.

Note to self. Have lesson-day posts done ahead of time. I will not have the energy. No matter how perky I promise myself I will be.

Onwards!
Katherine