Rainy days for girly girls

I've found that being a horse girl, I make certain sacrifices in the appearance department. We have perpetual helmet-hair-the flattened, sweat-clumped frizzy look, which, let's face it, is never in style; broken, dirt-caked nails; dust and grime everywhere in fact, and we don't always smell the best. Being a very girly girl, this is often a disappointment. I love to look pretty when possible, and while living in LA I always made sure I had awesome hair. Now as I sit here writing, I'm simultaneously doing a mask to try to unclog my poor pores. I found a cheap and very practical way to freshen my look-acrylic nails!! Before you go all judgy on me, let me just say something. If you've ever jammed your finger in a stall door, or under a saddle, or in the chain on a lead rope, you will understand where I'm going with this. I find that since I can't actually cut my nails on my right hand, mine are always breaking when I handle horses, and the worst part is that they break way down in the quick. Then it hurts for weeks for me to do anything at all with the only working 5 fingers i got! Solution? I saw an advert for a $20 manicure, and I thought let's just try this. I got nice clean french tips, very very short-the nail doesn't even extend past the end of my fingertips. The deciding factor was that I recently split my thumbnail when a foal jammed her chain on it, and it kept snagging on everything which was agony. Now, I'm pleased to say I have a full set of finger armor. And they look FABULOUS!! Very unassuming and simple and yet so sophistique! And, I've already banged them plenty and not even a chip. voila!
It's the simple pleasures.

Now for the riding portion of our program: 

Now we've established that I rode on Monday. Brendan's barn manager, Brian, rode Ringo (the TB) yesterday. We have it set up so that I will ride 4x/week and Brian 1, sharing the schoolhorse. 
I'm all about positive thinking, but I don't expect leaps and bounds of improvement between the initial ride and the second. It would seem though, that this is what occurred. 
Today, I began again with lots of changes in direction, loops and different sized circles, and the minute I took him to trot, he not only accepted my leg, but stopped fussing with his head so much. Brendan's first comment was that we looked much more solid as a pair; more together through turns etc. Ringo was still very stiff, but moved away from my legs better without throwing a fit. 
I am very proud with my lack of soreness (knock on wood) because I feel that is a testament to my fitness level. Usually the first and second rides after a long break are brutal but I think my gym time has payed off well.
There was one nasty moment when Ringo pulled a spin/bolt combo because his left side is very weak and hard for him. But my sweet Clever taught me last year how to deal with that, and Ringo's move was wasted on me. My heart rate didn't even change! I'm quite happy about that actually, I used to get so scared when horses pulled tricks, but I was utterly unfazed and remained calm and cool. I rode through it, insisted he go back the other way, and just tried again. We got it right the next time. Brendan said,"That was very well ridden!" I've become such a confident rider. It was a surprising revelation I had today when I felt literally zero apprehension in anything the horse did. I just simply enjoyed the ride. 
Then we started working the canter, and Ringo is very much on the forehand (downhill) and wants to run along quickly like a wheelbarrow that's out of control. So to counter this, we do very short bursts of work and lots of transitions through the gaits. Eventually this will train the horse to shift his weight back to his haunches. 
Mostly I focused on keeping the horse forward and straight. Brendan was saying we can't get any other movement from a horse until it can go forward and straight and that is where we start. But overall, I think coach and I were both surprised and excited to see the vast improvement in such short time!
I'm also happy because the horse being very weak on the same side as me, it's the ultimate therapy. If I'm not aware at all times of what my leg is doing, Ringo will either beeline to the middle of the arena or have some sort of meltdown. It is really forcing me to use that side as much as I use my right. Which I can see as a happy coincidence! 
Now we're off till next week as Brendan has a championship show (BLMS) over the weekend. To him we say GOOD LUCK!

poetry in motion