Well, I did it.

I swore last spring that all I wanted to do was to be able to ride, walk/jog,  And to have fun on a horse again and to not hurt after every ride.

Since then I've started Actemra and I've found a new chiropractor.

This winter I started loping again and thought about showing a little.

This spring I got a horse going well enough to go show western. 

This summer I've finally ridden in an english saddle again.

I found an old but great condition German made close contact saddle for sale in a price range so close to perfect I couldn't walk away.  ($240 including fittings!) Its got both front and back blocks (which I LOVE) and a semi-flat seat.  Its not the same brand as the German saddles I rode in when I was working for the jumper, but its got everything about it that I loved about his saddles.  And its about the same age as me!  It was recently re-stuffed and from the sweat patterns on Lucy tonight it fits her really well.  I wont ride in it much but its fun to have something different to work on.

Oh and I should have done a ton more rising trot last winter!

As a PS - Lucy is wearing Lucas' "fat girth" a 54 girth with elastic on both ends....  But she is pregnant!

Back from the show

We had a good day, Ill do a more detailed post tomorrow, but we did very well in some classes and did ok in others. We won halter and showmanship, had a disappointing run in the HUS stake class (too many horses, and a bunch of horses freaked out which caused a chain reaction which Lucas was part of). We did a decent pattern in the hunt seat equation (my first equation pattern in 6 years in an english saddle) and got a 3rd in decent company. We got 3rd in the Sr HUS but he was worried the entire class about several of the horses flying by him. I love the cost of the open shows but the behaviour of some of the other horses is questionable.

He's ok in a good group, that is well behaved but cant seem to handle other horses being out of controle. And we need to work on our canter transitions as he was raising his head during most of them... more than likely due to my new habbit of looking down to check his leads. However this weekend we got all of them right! Silly of both of us really, I should have known how I was asking incorrectly, and he knows how to get the right lead most of the time on his own.

English Saddle!!

Well on Sunday, my friend came over and did a video of me riding in my English saddle (for the second time...) which was much better than I thought it would be. Im still a little wobbly occasionally during the transitions, but once were going it is OK. Lucas looked good under saddle, I need to allow him to move out during the walk, and I need to let go of him a bit more at the trot (are we seeing a trend??) but other than that we wern't too bad for not having much eyes on the ground.

The chiropractor was out that night and Lucas only had to have a slight adjustment on his sciatic nerve, and only one rib out! He also had a vertebrae pushed in slightly (under the saddle but not a pressure point on either of them) which puzzeled him, until he put both the rib (which is the 1st or 2nd rib) and the vertebrae together. Looks like someone tied him under with just a knot tied in the reins that if he resisted could have pressed into his back and done damage there and to that rib... sigh... On a good note he was very pleased at both the quality of his feet, his weight gain and on how much muscel hes put on.

I rode in my western saddle on Tuesday night, and then in my English again last night (yes two days in a row!!) I managed just to lunge for about 5 min each direction just to warm him up before getting on last night and he stayed good! Today Im off due to the IV drugs but I hope to get out to ride or lunge tomorrow. Karen Evens Mundy is doing a clinic in the area on the weekend that me and a couple of people are hoping to get too, hopefully I'll get a couple of good ideas to work on.