Flying High

This year has been the hardest one yet after losing both my grandmothers and hitting rock bottom health wise. But I have an amazing support system in my family, friends and my online cheering squad. So I am skipping the year end review and focusing on the recent high points.

First I felt a bit lost when I received my blogger gift exchange person and she did not want stuff. For the last five years my sister and I have done a framed cross stitch. So we had to think of a way to still give our person a personalized gift that did not fall in the category of stuff. Fortunately I remembered my sister gave my mom and I shirts with heads of our horses painted on them. My person had a cute picture of her two horses wearing bows, which sparked the idea of putting Christmas bows on the painted heads. My sister was the mastermind for this project and she really pulled it off and even made her own ribbons using an infant sized ribbon. The best part was when our person asked if it was okay to frame a t-shirt.  Of course now I have a ton of Christmas movies to watch since I did not have late nights cross stitching.

Painted Portion

With external bows

Second riding has been at a minimum due to the weather. The times I do ride I enjoy fully. On New Years Eve I did short rides on the three older Cobs. Roscoe volunteered to go first. I nearly regretted the choice to ride bareback. My core was screaming, but having muscles to scream was refreshing. We are not perfect, but I feel like the move to first level is doable.

Up next was Rosemary. She has come so far in the nine years we have had her. I was pleased she did not have any hind end issues after all the mud we have had. She is always full of drama, but also willing to try. We made her day today by taking her for a drive. Her heart is really between the shafts.














Then it was Comrade's turn. He is still recovering and healing his tongue wound. His weight has improved and he looks healthier. I was not sure how much he could do since like me he lost a bunch of muscle. Surprisingly, we walked, trotted and cantered. He had a literal bounce to his step, that again had me questioning the bareback pad. I think he was really happy to work.

I was totally glared at by Ember, but since I was solo I could not ride him. He had to wait until today.
Which brings us the the third point, my awesome baby boy. On Christmas we did another ride offline and he was better. He still had some stops and our steering is nonexistent. He had some spring in his trot and we actually did one stride of canter.

 I shared a bit of his trot and a Cob breeder said it was "suspended and reachy." The next day was the first time we have been able to work in twice in a row. He was even better and listened mostly to me instead of mom. At the end we opened the little area and walked him into the bigger side of the arena. He stayed next to mom and was pretty brave.

Today it was all me and Ember. Mom took video while we walked and trotted. I carried a whip for the first time and used it to keep him from falling in and to encourage him to keep going. Man I was so happy with what he was giving me. I decided to try for canter. Mom had to help so no video. Ember once he picked up canter was actually pretty smooth. I am flying high with how good he is doing. I can't wait to see what happens next time.

Bring it on 2020!