La Paz- better than it looks? AKA first impressions sometimes are worse

After our time in Loreto, which I really enjoyed, we headed up to La Paz, which is Baja South and right on the border of the rest of ‘mainland’ Mexico. Leaving the Baja means more paperwork (for our car) as they do not want you to sell it when you are travelling in MX.

My first impression, after sleepy Loreto? NUTS. La Paz was gritty, busy, gross, scary and I did not like the drivers- they seemed more than ready to kill you, and anyone else who messed with them. Yikes. But…once I refused to stay at the gross ‘Hotel Prison California’ and re-booked us at a better place, went for a few runs on the malecon, and we went swimming with sea lions, I was ready to re-evaluate La Paz. Nicer than you think, but can be a gritty, tough place as well. Many facets here!

Would I go back? Not sure. It’s interesting and easy to navigate for sure. I did like Loreto more on the whole, but La Paz had a lot of really intriguing options too! You grew on me, La Paz, good job 🙂

Week that wasn’t

Continuing on the theme of general ‘blah-ness’ for the week, I ended up missing my jump lesson last night due to getting stuck in a major traffic jam that didn’t even end up resolving until god knows when…The highway was shut down for hours.

This was exactly a year ago- and we are going to Hopoxia on Saturday! Sadly the weather seems committed to be lousy…

After two hours, I though for sure I was just around the corner from the barn (about 1km) and then home free- turned the corner and BLAM! Cars were parked and people were out walking around. Nobody was going anywhere 😦

That was that. I managed to turn around and went grocery shopping instead of riding. That means Oats gets three days off in a row (highly unusual) because I have evening plans tonight (Music bingo at Moon Under Water) that I really didn’t want to cancel.

I really dislike being off schedule and struggle with it. I came home yesterday in a really bad mood, and decided to take my dog to the beach – it was 8pm by the time I was home- to shake off some of my residual traffic anger.

So that was nice, but I am missing riding and Oats!

BANG! A week of bad luck?

I got rear ended yesterday, not that hard but still hard enough to make it a scary, frightening event that left me in shock and crying at the barn.

I was on my way to watch my friend do a jump lesson on Mr. Oats (for fun, for me to watch him do more challenging work, a training ride for him) and that’s when I got nailed. I got a headache instantly, and the person who did it drove away?!!

I was so frazzled and scared and felt powerless. It only takes 1 incident like this to make you realize how fragile you really are and how little it takes to rock your comfortable life. Anyways, when I called the cops about it later, they said there was pretty much nothing I could do unless I got a license plate number, and I didn’t (see in shock, frazzled, shaken)…So yeah…

I have a bit of a headache today and feel stiff.

Everyday

The lesson itself went really well, Oats was moving. He was a bit like WTF? And was breathing hard, with his little nostrils flaring out! He got worked, and hard. They went through a gymnastic after a short but very forward warmup, and the gymnastic went up to 3′! I have never ridden him that high, and watching it was funny- he is very economical with his jump, he jumps ‘just’ enough but NO higher!

Then they worked over a course that had some bugs- a runout due to a bulge (he can be very tricky with his bending, so not a surprise there) and 1 awkward jump due to striding (again not a surprise with Oats, these are all common things). It was very good to watch and I was very impressed at his pacing through one of the outside lines- they got 6 in a line that pretty much everyone was getting 7? Oats is a pony! haha.

Then the jumps went up to about 2’6” I believe and they really shone. Go pony go! It was great to see him step up to the plate and give his rider that much. Even when things got bumped a bit- she gave him his head, and he was like no sweat I got this! Even when he TOTALLY could have taken advantage and been a jerk. He didn’t even seem to think about it! He was totally locked-on to the jump, and seeking the next fence in the course.

It was good to see and makes me feel more confident in his abilities as a partner. Now, to get this pace thing figured out…

Ugh. Feeling physically fragile and stressed still today though. That car thing really shook me.