Update 11/20/09
Well I haven’t had a lesson since the last one I wrote about because I did not get out to the barn at all last week. I’ve decided that I’m not paying for lessons every week if I haven’t mastered the things we worked on in my last lesson. Money is tight, and unless I’m frustrated or stuck, it just doesn’t seem necessary.
So, I rode Arizen yesterday for the first time in a week. When I don’t get out there on a regular basis, she tends to get a little distracted when coming in the barn still. So she was calling out to her friends and generally not paying much attention to me. Lovely. Not to mention it was raining and cold. Oh, how I just love days like these.
When I brought her in the arena, my trainer and another girl were riding two of the horses from Arizen’s old herd (the broodmares). That was all sorts of exciting for the three of them when I came into the arena. After she calmed down, I actually wasn’t too upset because last time I rode with these horses Riz was really good since she was with her friends. But they were almost done riding, and so they went to leave when I was only about halfway done riding. So Arizen and I were in the arena… alone. She felt abandoned and so naturally she started getting all worried like she does best. So I had to just walk her out and go back a few steps to get her out of flight mode with the neck bending exercises and call it a day. She really wasn’t terrible, but it definitely wouldn’t have been smart of me to try and get more work out of her, so it was a little disappointing.
Still, I got a few pictures of her to put in my photo diary of Arizen. She has lost a TON of weight. Just about all her baby fat is gone, and now she just needs to build up muscle. She has virtually none to speak of, but she still looks so good! She doesn’t look like a fat pony anymore! Here are some before and after pics:
May 2009 (just before foaling):
August 2009 (3 months after foaling completely off work):
September 2009 (one month of light work on the lunge 2-3 times a week)
Yesterday (November 2009, about 4 weeks back under saddle):
So I’m hoping to get some riding pictures soon because I feel like Rizzie is doing really great now that she doesn’t have a baby to lug around. She feels light and balanced and awesome. She only has about 20 minutes of strength in her at this point, but we’re building slowly. I cantered her today, and it was amazing. I can’t wait to be able to canter her around a course and fly over some jumps!
Yay, she is horse shaped again! Good job! And I agree with you on the lessons — I feel the same way, I want to at least be able to feel like I understand and can execute the skills we learned in the last lesson! And don’t feel too bad about your ride — I am learning that being able to work THROUGH things with your horse is just as valuable, perhaps more so, than having the perfect schooling session.