Winter Blues & 2012

It's amazing how quickly one's body hates you after exercise. My body is so sore, it's almost like I haven't ridden in years, not just missed one lesson.

Last night's lesson was intense. All my lessons are intense, but they're getting increasingly so. I'm getting not so much into harder stuff, or more complicated, I'm just having to USE more of my own energy to help motivate and drive Tiffany into her collection. We were working on 20 metre circles, and how to measure one. I've never had to learn that before, as in Western we aren't as exact with our circles. Large and Small circles. Not 10m or 20m. It was really cool to learn. Dressage also has more letters on the wall than Western, which takes some getting used too. Debbie's always like ok at P... and I have to look to see where the hell P is. So as we are working on collection, at a 20m circle, and making square corners, I'm also trying not to slowly fall apart as my energy starts failing. It's hard work, moving your core, keeping it tight. It really works to help keep the horse together, and it'll give me amazing abs. My thighs, they burn, but in a good way. I probably shouldn't have worn heels to work on a Wednesday because all through my lesson my toes kept cramping up. Very unusual feeling. It's like you have no control and your foot feels like it's stuck in the stirrups.

It's an amazing feeling when your horse starts to get it and work on it's own. By the end of the lesson, I had her doing some amazing circles, collected, flexing to the inside, and it's just like "Wow, this feels (almost) effortless". It took effort to get there, but once there, she's holding the frame, and your just driving her forward. I hate missing a lesson because I love that feeling. The feeling of accomplishment. Not to mention even though it was -20 outside last night, I was sweating. It was a great feeling to know that I can actually get a work up and build a sweat. In Western, I do have to say that unless it was ridiculously hot outside, I never actually felt like I was working hard every lesson. Sometimes, yeah. But every lesson? Not at all. I never in the winter would work enough to make my toes hot. Yeah, toes. I always had to wear double socks. Now? One pair. No long johns. It's crazy. **I am wearing winter boots and breeches, so I'm getting extra warmth that way.

Also, the barn cat had 2 kittens, and they look exactly like her: super cute, all white, and super blue eyes. Also they don't like their pictures being taken, they walk away! Sigh. I tried my best with these pictures, also with my phone that has no flash. There are only 2 kittens, it just looks like four because of the mirror!

On a slightly different note, it's very exciting because there are lots of cool "horse" stuff happening in the next coming year. Mirvish has released their 2011/2012 theatre season and there is a horse related production coming in February 2012! War Horse, is coming to Toronto. I'm very, very excited about it. It looks fantastic, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to cry like a baby throughout the entire thing. Another thing that might be coming to Toronto is Cavalia 2! That should be amazing, just like the first one. I will definitely go see that, as now I have a new appreciation for the dressage work that they do.

War Horse preview!

Planning ahead to 2012,
xoxo