Bad hair week
Monday was the bad hair ride of the week for everyone. Christine's still having saddle-fitting woes with Keane's big bro Irish, who has withers like Everest and an ever-widening body that's muscling up as he matures. Katrina forgot to pack Clover's english bridle, and tried to tough it out with the western bridle, which has a copper mouthed Tom Thumb bit on. The only good to come of that was Katrina noticed the western bit was a little much for ring work. You think? I've been so preoccupied with Mico, and the eventual arrival of The Colt, that I've stepped completely away from Clover and maybe need to think about keeping better tabs on her. At least now with Katrina campaigning Clover this season, I'll have more knowledgeable feedback from that quarter.
Despite my attempts to resolve not to grind my riding down, I've remained in a mental pit of woe as I fight myself and by extension, Mico. I still feel weak from the back injury, and one position flaw leads to another and I continue to struggle with Mico, who requires a tactful, accurate ride. Katrina got off Clover early as she wasn't having a good ride with the heavy bit, and tried to give me some coaching, but I wasn't receptive to it, and I could see her just shut down when I let her know. I decided I just wanted to focus on gaining strength back instead of worrying about what Mico was doing in reaction to me. I thought I needed to be stronger before I could "ride right," again; it hadn't occurred to me that in order to regain strength and retrain the muscles, I had to ride right. Vicious circle.
I rode again on Thursday, and Christine came over and coached me when the latest saddle she tried on Irish wasn't working. Katrina was riding Clover and graciously added encouragement in between her own up and down transitions. I felt bad about how I'd rejected Katrina's coaching on Monday, and told myself before this ride that I was in no position to refuse assistance from anyone who was willing to give it--every rider in the world can use an eye on the ground. Christine showed me step-by-step exactly how she got past Mico's resistances and into better work. Once I caught on--it was so simple--I realized how much of the basics I understood, but failed to apply in a consistent manner. I'm on the road to recovery with Mico, I feel like I was handed the key. Mico is not a difficult ride, he's an honest horse that puts out exactly what he gets from the rider, no more, no less.
Then last night, we had yet another snow "event"--it's still snowing, even now--and I didn't want to haul. But, we'd planned to ride again, Christine was going to whip us into shape since she's been temporarily grounded by saddle woes, and I felt like I was letting them down by bailing out. Given my state of mind all week, it was no big surprise that I managed to convince myself that everyone was disappointed with me because of it. I don't know why I let myself waste so much energy guessing wrongly what people think about me, in order to convince myself that everything's falling apart, but there it is. My usual tendency to catastrophize, shrunk down to modern day proportions, instead of the histrionic epic disasters of my youth.
So today I'm thoroughly enjoying a nice, quiet snow day while Tony snowboards up in the Whites. I'm loafin' around, enjoying the quiet and chilling out.
Despite my attempts to resolve not to grind my riding down, I've remained in a mental pit of woe as I fight myself and by extension, Mico. I still feel weak from the back injury, and one position flaw leads to another and I continue to struggle with Mico, who requires a tactful, accurate ride. Katrina got off Clover early as she wasn't having a good ride with the heavy bit, and tried to give me some coaching, but I wasn't receptive to it, and I could see her just shut down when I let her know. I decided I just wanted to focus on gaining strength back instead of worrying about what Mico was doing in reaction to me. I thought I needed to be stronger before I could "ride right," again; it hadn't occurred to me that in order to regain strength and retrain the muscles, I had to ride right. Vicious circle.
I rode again on Thursday, and Christine came over and coached me when the latest saddle she tried on Irish wasn't working. Katrina was riding Clover and graciously added encouragement in between her own up and down transitions. I felt bad about how I'd rejected Katrina's coaching on Monday, and told myself before this ride that I was in no position to refuse assistance from anyone who was willing to give it--every rider in the world can use an eye on the ground. Christine showed me step-by-step exactly how she got past Mico's resistances and into better work. Once I caught on--it was so simple--I realized how much of the basics I understood, but failed to apply in a consistent manner. I'm on the road to recovery with Mico, I feel like I was handed the key. Mico is not a difficult ride, he's an honest horse that puts out exactly what he gets from the rider, no more, no less.
Then last night, we had yet another snow "event"--it's still snowing, even now--and I didn't want to haul. But, we'd planned to ride again, Christine was going to whip us into shape since she's been temporarily grounded by saddle woes, and I felt like I was letting them down by bailing out. Given my state of mind all week, it was no big surprise that I managed to convince myself that everyone was disappointed with me because of it. I don't know why I let myself waste so much energy guessing wrongly what people think about me, in order to convince myself that everything's falling apart, but there it is. My usual tendency to catastrophize, shrunk down to modern day proportions, instead of the histrionic epic disasters of my youth.
So today I'm thoroughly enjoying a nice, quiet snow day while Tony snowboards up in the Whites. I'm loafin' around, enjoying the quiet and chilling out.
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