Taking what’s not yours

Ride/life update- all good!

Slow chukkar- not me, but it’s a general idea. Photo by the Victoria Polo Club.

Dressage ride on Oats on Tuesday, to make up for my rather schedule-less week (no lessons, whaaat?). Transitions up to a ‘big’ or extended trot, and back down. Still not interested in listening when we are at the ‘spooky’ corner but overall a fairly good ride. A longer one, because on Wednesday…

I played polo! In the beginner’s slow chukka. And it was fun! I committed a huge foul (crossing my stick in front of another horse, which is dangerous because I could trip the horse if we were playing at speed) BUT I also got a goal- my first! 🙂

So, learning experience all ’round eh?

And after polo (it is short, 15 mins practicing and 15 mins of play time) I hop back into my car and drive to the barn to ride Oats. No rest for the wicked! We just toodled around in the field, my goal for Wednesday.

Today no jump lesson, so I was planning on schooling myself a bit in the jump ring outdoors (small fences) after work. Weather got chilly last night, and cool this morning but it’s looking pretty good for the weekend so fingers crossed.

After my very busy weekend last week, I am looking forward to a long weekend with fun times to relax! (ha, what is relaxing…I don’t think I know how to do that).

Everything is starting to make sense

Had a BUSY weekend. But a good one!

So, what did I, Oats, Ian and Gidget get up to?

Saturday I had rescheduled my lesson for this week so I rode two jump lessons last week instead- Thur/Sat. Saturday I was out in the field for my ‘brave girl’ jump lessons! And it went really well- though most certainly not perfect, ha.

Oats was on fire! He was charging off and it surprised the heck out of me. Who replaced my lazy as sin pony with Mr. Hot Pants? Wow. We had to work through some stuff (a few silly stops when I pulled my hands up before the jump, one attempt through the barrel jump that was basically a runout-stop-climb over it, I think he was feeling tired by that point, and one jump we crashed straight through in a -go-no-stop-no-go disagreement…Whoops! We circled around and jumped it fine the next time, so no hard feelings on that one.

We jumped a lot, ha. It was quite a warm day, so my husband and I then headed straight to Thetis Lake for some good trail running (9km slow) and then we picked up our swimsuits, got changed and went swimming in the lake! How perfect is that?

In the evening, we went to see a film- The Big Sick and it was pretty good actually.

Sunday I was on the go again- I volunteered as a flagger at the polo tournament (Victoria’s Lt Governor Cup) and it was a scorching day in the sun! I wanted to ride in the slow chukkar but didn’t get added to the tournament, so spent the day volunteering instead. Bummer! But oh well, there will be plenty of opportunities to play coming up.

It was VERY exciting, and I saw some really crazy plays- full bore gallop ride-offs, some neat backhand goals and some really intense gallop leads. WOW!

Then I hopped back in my car and went to ride Oats (dressage in the indoor, I was feeling completely fried by the sun. Ouch!! Even the next day my face felt tight and hot.). Silly me, too much sun exposure and no hat. I know better than that!

All in all, a good and busy weekend. 🙂

Get down, stay down

Jump lesson last night, and while I’ve had a really good week of some fun and solid rides, and even some slow chukka polo learning on Wed and field rides with Oats, I struggled with anxiety last night.

What gives?

I had my heart in my throat! Oats could sense my lack of commitment and he was so BLAH for jumping- I had to really pony up and ride to my fences. I kept them at weenie height because of this weird anxiety I was dealing with. It kind of sucked, but my ride in general was okay, I just wished I had been able to ride more effectively, braver and confident? UGH. Mixed feelings- I had some great moments but overall it was a trying course for me to manage and the jumps were so small!

I wish I could get it together, ha. But, lots of positives.

Oats was amenable but clearly not willing to put forward effort if I wasn’t. Fair enough horse, fair enough.

I have another jump lesson on Saturday and I have requested we jump in the field!! Time to exercise my bravery muscles. 🙂

Teeth for days

Not a busy weekend, but a good one. Friends dinner out on Thursday, games night with the barn girls on Friday night, and nothing but hanging out with the husband on Saturday night. Just the way I like it- balanced visits/hangouts with friends and some quiet time.

Fun in the field from last week!

Rode Oats Saturday and Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves riding in the field on Sunday (or at least I did, Oats seemed more interested in taking me back to the gate, ha when we were cooling out).

Oats jumps an imaginary jump (aka a ditch, haha).

No dressage lesson tonight, and I skipped riding last night to let my legs hopefully recover. They have been having a hard time with recovery- I keep getting a big knot in my inner thigh muscles and it’s threatening to spasm prettttty hard. I have recurring issues with charley horses, quite severe ones, so I’m trying to make sure that doesn’t happen!

I also went on a fairly long run on Sunday and was pleased with my recovery on that. I just need to be careful balancing riding and long runs, or else I will burn myself out physically!

My Reviews: Reese’s Creamy Peanut Butter

Yummmm

Just so you know the depths of my peanut butter/Reese’s addiction- you can’t buy these in Canada, not quite yet. I bought these from England via Amazon.

I know, I know. But still, I HAD to try them. And I have seen them in Canada, weirdly in Penticton at a candy store so there is always that option…Back to the peanut butter. At first glance and smell, it looks just like normal peanut butter- your Jif, Skippy, Kraft, et al. BUT on tasting it, it has a more intensely smooth flavour and texture.

Where the lesser peanut butters fail (oily, weird, bad mouthfeel and cheap tasting), the Reese’s Peanut Butter has a fabulous mouth feel despite what can only be a gazillion calories in palm oil, etc. However, you can’t fool yourself- it’s still peanut butter, not a Reese’s spread. It is lacking the gritty, delicious texture and taste of the Reese’s Spreads. So, it’s probably the best dessert peanut butter I have ever had, and yes there is a difference between what I think is ‘dessert peanut butter’ and more ‘savoury peanut butter’- see Adam’s peanut butter for an example).

I also went nuts on it the other day and I ate probably half a jar, so if that says anything about it to you…In my defense I prepared for this eventuality and ate a salad for dinner and then marshmallows with peanut butter for the main course.

What will we be

Jump lesson last night, and dinner out with longtime friends. A great evening! It was such a lovely night that I couldn’t fathom going anywhere but out in the field. Luckily my trainer was onboard, so she dragged out the cavalettis into the field and we had ourselves a nice little jump session!

How could you hate this cute face?

Marred only by one BIG spook where I swear I was going to eat it, Oats was really great! We schooled over the little cavalettis, and over the ditch too. Love that he was so calm and steady about doing stuff like that. And it doesn’t hurt that the jumps were teeny little cavalettis. Just my size, ha.

It was a gorgeous night to be out riding, and dinner with friends just capped off a lovely day. I had kind of a stressful afternoon, as I had agreed to join my family to pick blackberries and then make jam on Saturday, and when I got an email about the details, it ended with this phrase that instantly raised all of my hackles: ‘don’t bring your dog’

WTF

No. for one thing, my dog has a NAME. ‘Gidget’ is tiny, and if we’re going blackberry picking she is for sure going to be joining me. If there is a safety issue or something like, say a dinner party, then no she doesn’t come but give me an effing break. So, this is the stand they want to take now? After completely dismissing my sadness and grief after the death of my dear bunny Buster? They apparently now hate all my animals, who are my family.

Gidget likes taking part!

Forget it.

So I sent a response that basically said my dog is my partner and she goes where I go, so thank you and good day to you.

And the plus side is, now I don’t have to engage is awkward family dynamics, which I was NOT looking forward to (husband was going to come as an emotional buffer). It is too soon, and I need my space.

So, yeah…

Every night you’ve got to save me

So, polo not happening tonight- can’t get off early enough for it. Luckily there is a Sunday opportunity that I will be taking advantage of 🙂

Had a challenging but fairly decent dressage lesson last night, where we worked on transitions and MAN it was hard. HARD. Transitions upwards were great, but our collection sucked out loud and my transitions downward were…special. To the point that we are going to have to devote a good ride to only downward transitions. Oh well! Kind of does burst my ‘we’re moving up!’ bubble by feeling fairly incompetent during a basic ride. HA.

And I had an excellent equine counseling session on Monday- I had been trying to manage some strange emotions/feelings of anger, angst and disappointment when Buster passed away. I wanted my family to acknowledge my loss and my grief, and they didn’t. It made me very angry and I wanted to explore why, and why that was coming up so strongly in the wake of his passing. It was a good session that made me experience/feel the need for acknowledgement and be able to *mostly* let it go. (I say mostly, because I need the emotional peace it brings, but know myself too well to let things go entirely, ahh).

I’m a natural (wallaby) mother!

Anyways, it just made me realize that the only communication I need to have with family can be talking about my own very lovely family, which consists of (GASP) animals! My horse! My dog! (and the other animal, my husband, hahaha). And since they don’t care, I don’t have to care either= a natural limitation on our communication. It’s a relief.

They have made it very clear that once I came out (they forced my hand in the most ridiculous, emotionally abusive way) as childfree by choice, they could also choose to hate my animals.

So, feel free! I am living the life I always wanted- or close to it, I could always have a guinea pig farm with a mini donkey, and a mini horse to pull a cart; some riding horses, maybe chickens for my husband…Yeeps!

A life well lived requires no apologies.

Your Best American Girl

So, yeah. What happened was…

• I got deployed to assist with wildfire emergency communications in Prince George again. So, two weeks out of my summer were up there.
• When I got home, I was immediately on vacation, that started horribly and tragically. It wasn’t good.
• Got back from vacation, and still had some time off, so I mourned Buster, rode Oats, rode in a lesson, prepared for a dressage show on Saturday, and rode in a polo ‘slow chukka’
• And now I am back at work, with a dressage lesson tonight, a successful dressage show in the books, and a polo night tomorrow, with jumping on Thursday.

The show went super well, it was just a scored ‘ride a test’ where you ride the test, the judge comes out to run you through some exercises based on what she saw during the test, and then you had an opportunity to try the test again, maybe improve on what you worked on.

I did Training 2 & 3, and this time I finally had the correct Training 3 test (unlike last time, where I was kind of a disorganized mess…) and things went SO well. Oats was a tad spooky in the beginning but it was easily worked through and he gave me some really quality and consistent work.

And our tests were scored fairly, the judge was so nice and very complimentary. She said we should be doing First Level, so I am going to talk to my dressage trainer tonight to see what she says. I was immensely flattered! Just to think, Oats and I getting these kind comments!

I’ve really been basking in kind judge comments. Our first dressage show of the season, the judge even wanted to know what kind of pony Oats was! 🙂

For a girl that prefers jumping, I am starting to wonder if I should be taking dressage a little more seriously or what these days? I am seeing some real progress with Oats in it.

Oh No

Away for weeks at a time, and what does that tell you? What do I have to update?

Not all good.

Buster’s dead. He got sick when we headed to my in-laws farm to begin our holiday. I treated him but it wasn’t working, and he was going so quickly, dying in my hands. My father in-law put him down, and we went on our holiday. It was horrible.

I don’t even want to recap the trip, because I spent the majority of it feeling miserable. Wondering what went wrong with Buster consumed my thoughts. I cried the entire way, the entire trip. I still feel incredibly sad and have a hard time talking about him with people.