Tuesday Evening Diary…why is it so hot???

Ok…I know it’s summer…but 3PM and it’s STILL 87, crazy high humidity to the point that as soon as you leave your air conditioned car and step outside your riding breeches become one with your skin. I wouldn’t feel the need to complain except this kind of heat has been with us since the beginning of JUNE…ok, little soapbox rant over lol.

Today is my lesson day with Martini. To give all my new readers a little background on Martini. He’s over 17 hands – way bigger than Alfie who is about 15.1 hands tall. He’s a warm blood draft mix who is a gentle giant. I started taking lessons with him about a year ago.

Let me back up a bit…I’m a former western pleasure rider who switched disciplines to dressage. It was a decision that I have no regrets about at all. It’s benefiting Alfie in so many physical ways. Martini is a well trained dressage horse. So what I learn with him I am teaching my Alfie.

I groom Martini and spray him with fly spray, oh the flies are so bad this year because of the heat and humidity. I get him all tacked up and off we go. The issue I was having with him at the mounting block wasn’t an issue today. Once I got on, he stayed standing, he didn’t try to walk into the arena until I was ready. Woohoo!! We go through our warmup and my confidence is really good today. We work on trotting over poles which again I had some issues with. So here’s the thing, sometimes when I don’t think I’m nervous, it turns out I am. I kept losing my right stirrup. No my foot didn’t come out but it wasn’t in the position it needed to be. So my wonderful trainer Kari says, don’t worry about it, let’s work on the half seat position.

For those that don’t know what a half seat is, it’s basically where you come up out of the saddle and hold a squat. Yes it’s as challenging as it sounds lol. When I first learned to do it, I could only hold it for a matter of seconds. Now I can hold it for an entire revolution around the arena. The benefit of this exercise, well one of the benefits is it helps your body feel secure in the saddle because your weight shifts to your heels. After we did that, we went back to trotting over the poles and I didn’t lose my stirrup. My confidence that took a brief disappearing act had returned.

We work on our pole work some more and my trainer sets up this small jump. Now if this were Alfie, because of his short size, he would’ve had to jump it. But Martini is so tall he wouldn’t waste a jump on something so short, he was just gonna trot over it. I pick up my trot nicely, we head to the slightly elevated poles, and we walk over it. I try again, good depart with the trot, momentum, here comes the slightly elevated poles…and we walk over them. I tell my trainer it’s me, not him. I’m too nervous and a little afraid he might try to jump it. As always, my trainer listens to me and says, no problem, we will try it again when you are ready. Although my confidence disappeared briefly, I didn’t let it ruin the rest of my ride. There’s no rush in this sport. I will get there when I’m ready.

We end our lesson with some cantering in both directions which is really becoming a favorite gait for me. Now if I can only remember to steer when we get going lol.

After our lesson, I bring Martini into the wash stall to give him a quick rinse, I put him in his stall and it’s dinner time. A wonderful way to end my Tuesday. ❤️🐴

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