Farewell Port Townsend

And what did we do on our last day, other than me joining the race? Well, we did a lot of hoofing around, ahha trying to get to a brewery (The Pourhouse). We finally made it AND they took a few bucks off my drink when I showed them my race bib – I had brought it just in case 😉 and it finally worked!

SO good

I enjoyed a sour, and then a truly incredible salted watermelon-apricot sour and wowza it was so tasty, I couldn’t believe it!

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We cruised around, ate ice cream, drank beer, enjoyed the sunshine again and then ate dinner at the local greasy fish’n’ chips joint, Sea Jay’s and headed out to see the drive-in movie. That’s right, they have one of the last drive-ins in Washington State! OMG it starts so LATE though, wow. We got there after 8pm, and watched Sonic the Hedgehog #2 at like… 9:30am to 11:30am. Got back to the hotel after midnight. Phew, I was exhausted haa and my legs were starting to bug me, aching a lot I guess due to sitting too much!

Luckily we didn’t have to get up too early in the morning and it’s a quick and easy sail back home.

I would definitely revisit Port Townsend! I do recommend it 🙂

Want a weekend do-over

I feel like this whole weekend (ok, mostly just Saturday, but Sunday had a challenge as well) was the Universe just shitting on me. The whole day Saturday,  I was like, oh ok, so what next, Universe?

Am I exaggerating? Well, let’s hear what happened to me exactly on Saturday:

I woke up Saturday to wine flooding my front closet… had to clean it up, it soaked shoes, wall, internet modem. The place smelled like a freaking brewery, and I was greeted to it when I walked downstairs in the morning…stick-stick…hmm why is the floor sticky? Oh right…. Shit! 

Spent the morning mopping up wine, and then went downtown before riding to pick up some stuff, and a bib number for my race on Sunday and it started pissing down rain…i was rushed, and ran around a corner and SLAMMED into a wrought iron garbage can.Bounced off it, hurt my leg. Literally a ‘BONGGGGG’ sound when I ran into it. EFffff! 

After that, went riding, and Oats had a big oozing cut on his leg- thankfully not lame. But still, something I have to clean and watch out for! It was just pouring rain at the barn. 

In the evening, Ian and i went downtown to see John Wick 3, *and it did not disappoint!  and walking to the theatres, I slipped in a PILE of dog shit. Yay, thank you Universe- a literal pile of shit. So, how my day has been going right? Bingo. And it even gets better~ While I was trying to clean my shoe on the grass, I look back and Ian is literally getting grabbed by the front of his sweater and screamed at in the face by a very aggressive crackhead who just kept screaming in Ians face about rape?? it was scary.

The crackhead was totally psychotic!!! Ironically I was telling Ian that I avoid that corner because there are always crackheads and crazy people who are howling at the moon- and what do you know, the Universe heard me and all of a sudden one is assaulting my husband?!!!!

UGH🤔 I am over it. Just…terrible. I deserve a weekend- do over!

Back on track and back to the grind.

Christmas holidays came and went and I was blissfully away for TWO whole weeks of it!! It was very worth it, and I had a great holiday. Highlights include…

Barn Christmas party featuring the best Secret Santa ever!!

Taking the horses up island to Hi Point to take part in the Christmas by donation Jump Day for Cowichan Therapy horses, and the Hoof ‘n’ Woof that I had a BLAST at!

Going to Ucluelet for a little downtime with my husband and dog, and we enjoyed a cool wood cabin, wood-fired pizza, wine, a hike and some running trails.

A massage at Bear Mountain’s Sante Spa. Worth it!!

A movie- we had free tickets to go see Molly’s Game. Recommend, even if it was a bit long for my liking. All movies are though, ha.

Christmas eve at my in-laws farm in Cobble Hill featuring- SNOW! That’s right, a white Christmas on the island. We never get that!

Christmas day party at my parents, where I was the designated driver- went well, better than I thought it would actually.

Jump lesson with Oats- pretty fun!

Dressage lesson with Oats- toughhhh workout!

Working equitation- ease of handling- clinic with Oats. We had a great time and Oats was really good at it! I want to do more of this!! Everyone was really interested in the Working Equitation after we posted a video of it to my Facebook.

Hiking at East Sooke Park- New Years day, and a fun activity to do with the husband and dog.

Seafood for New Years Eve- a classic!!

And I loved all of my presents, I got some great ones even if my husband went wayy overboard on my gifts this year (Blundstone Boots, cool horsey socks, Back On Track knee brace, winter gloves, a neat book) I got everything I could have possibly wanted. I even have my SAD lamp plugged in at work now.

 

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. 🙂

Weekend Wrap-up: The Great Detachment?

Had a nice weekend, actually. Nothing much got done, but nothing much went wrong either, so I’m gonna say it’s a win!

Weather was good, times were fine with Oats. My husband and I went for a short jog Friday night before dinner, which was ok, but I have trouble really getting in the ‘groove’ per se on runs around 5k.

A spunkier Oats on the weekend. Photo courtesy of Hannah R.

Saturday I hauled myself out to the barn, and galloped Oats over some fences! (I’m starting to see a theme for the outdoor ring= jumping only…) and it was FUN! I headed home and changed into my run clothes, and jogged out to the ocean and back for a fairly reasonable 12k.

We went to go see a pretty good movie, ‘the Green Room’ Saturday night. I liked it, a tough, gritty and extremely violent flick. Well done in a very spare, tight and concise style. Nothing wasted with that movie.

We don’t have these crazy things anymore, too bad!

Sunday I was up and at the barn, and Oats was being a total prick. He was soooo up, and neighing frantically- a new horse came to the barn and his routine was being disrupted!! He rode ok, we galloped over some small fences again, and then I worked on some flatwork. I quickly learned that jumping= yay! Flatwork in the outdoor arena= sucks! Yikes, his balance was off, he was heavy on the forehand, dragging me down a bit, and breaking into trot (due to the balance issue). UGH. This again…

Well, something to work on I suppose. The jumping is just so much more fun!

It was HOT, well for us, here? Like 23 deg!? We were both soo sweaty by the end! I hosed him off, and he did his jerk move of trying to run out of the cross-ties…Lovely. I can’t believe he was doing that again. Jeesh.

After finishing up at the barn, I met my husband to check out an open house (liked it, but for the third attempt to put an offer in that will probably go nowhere, I’m not holding my freaking breath…) and then we drove to the beach for some sand time!

It was really nice, but the wind was super chilly. Husband still got sunburned though, whoops! Later at home we put back on the runners and did 5k worth of hills- 4 hills I run twice, for a total of 8 tries. It was pretty hot…and I recovered by drinking a beer when I got home. Ha..

So, a good but nonsignificant weekend. That’s ok though!

Surf sisters!

This weekend we went surfing in Tofino (yes in January, ha) on kind of a whim.

Surf sisters!

I’d been looking to kind of ‘escape’ from the hassle of everyday life, and what better escape than surfing? It’s literally the activity that makes you focus SO HARD on what you’re doing- so you can’t think/obsess about anything else.

I had a great time, my friends is very good at surfing so she gives me pointers when we go. I asked for a beginner-friendly soft-top this time, because last time I kept falling over the front of the nose of my board! I figured I could get up better if I had the bigger board, and I was right!

I achieved my goal of standing up, and even rode it through a few times- very briefly- before either falling or stepping off. Success!

I think they keys to that success were waiting more- instead of jumping up right away, I felt like I could ‘sit chilly’ and then get up without flinging myself up and falling over the front of the board. Also, the bigger board was helpful too.

We had a barbecue on the beach, and then I started getting cold so I took off my wetsuit a bit earlier and changed into sweatpants so I could do a bit more beach exploring. The peeling off of the wetsuit was like a 30-minute ordeal…Jesus.

I was sweating and swearing and fighting trying to pull the damn thing off! haha.

I had a great weekend, and a super busy one. It felt really good to ‘leave my life’ for a little while and get out of my normal zone. I think it’s important you make time for that in the winter, because it’s just too easy to get ‘stuck’ bored and depressed.

I did even ride Oats on Sunday when I got back (he was good and cute to see again!) and I even went on a quick run with my husband, and we went to see Interstellar at the IMAX theatre. Very neat. Still confused…

I guess that’s why I have a super fun filled winter season ahead of me- the run series, a vacation in Hawaii, auditing a clinic with Jim Wofford, Olympic eventing coach/rider, and other fun things coming up. Winter has never been busier and more fun!

I also think it’s important that I do these things to kind of distract myself from the real-life drama right now. Otherwise, it’s very easy to get dragged down and sad all the time.

Here’s to going and DOING IT!!

Holiday Countdown: T-3 days (struggling!!)

Gah, my cold has definitely made it’s presence known. Work is a struggle, my cold is a struggle, I didn’t feel well enough to go to the gym today (so tired and stuffed up, and coughing up gross stuff, yes I didn’t want to be that person at the gym!!).

Me right now

I went to this new sandwich shop ‘Meat and Bread’ for lunch and got a porchetta sandwich and Fentiman’s ‘Curious Cola’…It was good, but the porchetta was super fatty. I really dislike fatty bits of meat, so I was a bit blah on that. Sauce- salsa verde, was good. Overall…Not sure if I would go again, just because I’m a bit ‘blah’ on sandwiches.

Riding lesson last night? Oh man, I was not feeling super optimistic as I was going through the ‘blahs’ with work/cold/tired and true to my predictions…It was a challenging ride. QUITE challenging.

We were trying to get more contact at the trot, and through his right rein, he FOUGHT. He struggled! He was tired! He hopped up and down! He balked!

It was pretty tough. Not gonna lie, it was really mentally exhausting for me. I was constantly worried- is this enough? Too much? Am I headed for the big EFF YOU of an Oats mega-buck??? (seriously, that is what it felt like, oh jesus, it was difficult).

His hops up and down didn’t lead to the mega-buck though. I got clutchy and anxious, and raised my hands up when he did that…Even though his reactions didn’t go to a buck, I started reacting like he MIGHT buck. Every time!

Apparently what we are asking is tough- really hard for Oats. He was having a tough time reaching forward with his right hind, so he reacted by ‘hopping’ into the canter, and pulling his head forward, saying ‘I need more length! My neck can’t move!’ and of course the hops.

So, while it was very difficult and mentally tiring, he never got to the BIG TEMPER TANTRUM point that he has *often* done with me. True he got fussy and jumped up in the air about three times, but we more or less ‘overcame’ those and worked through it…And he didn’t get to do the BIG EXPLOSION at all!

Apparently this is a positive direction, what he is offering isn’t correct, but it’s not his nasty ‘eff you!’ either…

I do recall reaching this point earlier a few weeks ago, and then we kind of plateaued, and then he got nasty, and then he plateaued…So I don’t think this is ‘nasty’ it’s more like this is tough, tricky!

I got off, and felt fried! But, also like I still managed to accomplish something, which definitely does NOT happen every lesson. Also, I didn’t fall off so that is accomplishing something in my mind as well 🙂

Oats got a new rain sheet for his Christmas present, and also he is enjoying candy canes after each ride. No ride tonight- I’m exhausted and am going to see a movie, but we do have a lesson tomorrow.