If you’re like me then you are probably on work from home/self-quarantine for the next few weeks. As companies step up to slow the risk of the coronavirus spreading they are taking proactive measures to keep employees separated either by completely closing down operations or having all employees work remotely. Over the weekend I  received the call that my office has made the official call to allow us to work remotely. While I am happy for the opportunity to not have to commute 2 hours each day, there is a strong possibility that I will not utilize those extra hours in a productive fashion. So for the next few weeks, I have to make sure that I don’t waste those extra hours and I strongly advise others to do the same. 

The main priority for those extra hours is to ensure that I still perform my job to my fullest ability. I might be working from my house but this is my time to shine. It is my time to show my managers that I am trustworthy and capable of working with little to no supervision. If there is an opportunity to showcase my abilities or increase productivity due to not having to commute then I fully intend on taking advantage of it. Now is when we can all show our management that we are able to work remotely for extended periods of time and that we can be trusted to self-start. The actions that we all take in our professional performance over the next few weeks can be used at mid-year and end-of-year reviews to help prove why we all deserve extra projects or that raise you’ve been working towards. 

A second priority is to catch up on everything I might have neglected. That saddle that I have been meaning to rehab now has 2 extra hours to be fit into my schedule. Cleaning and reorganizing the feed room no longer has the excuse of “it’s getting late I want to unwind before bed”. Checking and repairing all my fence lines doesn’t have the excuse of “it’s hot out” when I can do it during my morning drive time. Taking this extra time to catch up on neglected barn chores means that this summer when it’s hot I won’t have to worry about tackling them. 

The priority you’ve probably all been waiting for is to dedicate my extra time to my horses. The time I normally would have used to get ready for work or drive to the office can be used for riding the horses, and for doing workouts that are designed to help improve my riding. I’m fairly certain that the schooling shows I was planning on attending will be canceled but that allows me more time to get Cupid into shape. This means Foxy and I have more time to work on getting her more comfortable with hopping over baby jumps. Much to my dismay this also means that I have extra time to devote to building my own personal fitness base so that I’m ready for our next cross country schooling and the physical exhaustion that comes from horse showing. My shoulders need to stay back and I need to make all my transition cues clearer! 

So bring it on quarantine! Let’s get these projects started before I lose all motivation!

Cupid and I went and fancy pranced today, or attempted to. The Pony Club arranged a clinic with one of the local professionals and because I joined as an adult member we were allowed to attend! Despite being the greenest in the ring and the ones with very little formal training, I’m proud of my little mare and how she tried for me! 

Our day started at 6:30 where I woke up and regretted life. It was the weekend, I should be relaxing and not going to embarrass myself at a clinic. After laying in bed for a few minutes I finally got the motivation to get up and get ready for the day. 

The ponies were awake and excited to see me. Then Cupid realized that along with the feed buckets I was holding my grooming supplies. Little Miss Sassypants seemed very proud of her decision to lay down last night and become one with her pee spots. Grey horses are always the best to get presentation ready! After 30 minutes of working on the stains I decided to call it quits and hope the tack covered the remaining “color”. Spoiler, it didn’t completely but we survived. 

Getting Cupid onto the trailer was an experience. At the initial attempt she decided to duck her head, turn tail and run. Nothing like watching your horse run from the trailer into the neighbors back yard. After catching the little monster we put her chain on and with some convincing, mostly from my trainer, we got her loaded and headed over to the facilities. 

We successfully completed our first Pony Club safety check, as an adult it’s interesting to say the least. Someone comes over and checks all your tack and safety equipment, then clears you to mount your horse. From there I hopped on and went to go walk around while waiting on the clinician. She arrived and there was a quick Q&A with all the riders where we covered the background experience of our horses, our experience level, and what our goals were. I’m fairly sure that answering that my goal for Cupid is just to solidify our foundation was not the right answer but it is the honest truth. 

We took a pathway to the dressage arena, then started the lesson. During the clinic we covered lots of trot work, including transitions and half halts. It was fascinating hearing how this clinician viewed half halts, less of a halt/preparation for the next movement and more of a rebalancing act, and I think Cupid actually responded extremely well to her method. It involved much more use of the corners than I’m used to and took a bit of work to get used to but I’m really looking forward to using it more during our rides!

While our trot work was fairly decent, just needed a lot of motivation, our canter work left a lot to be desired. For the first lap I unfortunately didn’t maintain our communication and we quickly lost implusion and broke gait. Our second lap was much better on Cupids part but I was still a hot mess. I worked on maintaining my outside leg and unfortunately collapsed my shoulders forward which threw Cupid off. With some work I did get better, but this is clearly one of the big things I need to work on. 

Overall, I loved the clinic and can’t wait to work with this trainer again. She was extremely positive about Cupid and our lack of experience, and she broke everything down into understandable details regarding the how and why of what I needed to do as a rider. My biggest takeaway is that I need to remember that Cupid is a large pony with short legs, when lessoning with larger horses I can’t compare her to horses with larger legs and she’ll never feel like a larger horse. She’s my little grey monster pony who tries her heart out for me with every move she makes. 

Finally, sorry for the lack of pictures. They just didn’t happen today.

Thanks to Instagram It is one of the worst kept secrets that I’m working on training both girls to become low level eventers. Cupid, with her dressage and hunter background is fairly well suited to this endeavor once she’s convinced that everything is not out to eat her. Foxy, with her lack of jump training is less suited but makes up for it with her bravery and curiosity. The biggest issue in this training process though is me and the amount of hours in a day. 

Fox still doesn’t know how she feels about this whole Eventing thing.

Keeping the girls at home, with Chance, has been a fantastic experience so far. I get to be 100% in control of everything and have developed deeper relationships with my horses than I ever imagined possible. But all this has come at a cost, my riding time. 

With everything falling to me to care for I quickly run out of time to actually fit in solid rides. Weekends can go from planned trail rides with trot sets to hill work in the yard because fences need repair, holes need to be filled (thank you Foxy), or some other maintenance need has arisen. Evenings after work can go from dressage work to lunging because someone has trashed a stall during the day and it needs to be completely stripped, or I get stuck at the office later than planned. 

Despite all of the extra work I don’t think I could ever go back to having someone else care for my horses. We miss rides more often than not, we spend far too much time working on ground manners, tricks, or other silly things (Cupid still hasn’t figured out this whole ground driving while pulling the paddock drag business). But we’re more of a team than ever. Being able to lead without a halter, point where I want them to move to and communicate without words is priceless. If we complete in a tadpole/entry level trial this year I’ll be happy, but if we end up continuing to build our partnerships without competing then that’s something I’ll be equally happy with. 

A year ago I never would have imagined this type of training would be possible

Above all, I feel like I’m finally moving forward with understanding how my herd thinks and the motivations for their behavior. That knowledge is priceless and utterly rewarding.