Clinic update

Well I had signed up to do Horsemanship 2 at the Buck Brannaman clinic this weekend, but I had to withdraw due to my hip problems.

Early in June I took Princess Fancy Pants to a Bryan Neubert clinic and she was great, amazing, awesome, fantastic, superb, and all other good descriptors of perfect ponytude. What I realized, though, was that I'm not currently equipped to be sitting in the saddle for three hours straight. At the pony's clinic, I mostly rode twice a day for maybe 30 minutes each time. I've been trying to find the balance between pushing myself to do more, but not pushing so far that I exacerbate the pain from whatever injury is bothering me at the moment.

I've had all sorts of diagnostics and my problems range from old spinal compression fracture to bursitis and tendonitis in the hip to some sort of soft tissue injury in my foot. They all seem related, as they are all on the left side of my body. Resting makes me feel a little bit better. Sitting in the saddle for a long period of time makes me feel worse. Two sessions of 30 minutes I could do. Three hours, not so much. So I will go audit and watch a friend and live vicariously through the people there. I always learn something from watching, so all is not lost.

In the meantime, I've been keeping up with regular lessons with Mac. I'm learning some cool new stuff both in ground work exercises and use of aids. I've exclaimed a few times "it's like magic!" Mac generally is doing better, but sometimes he reverts to his old ways. Like, for instance, when a friend came to visit with her horses, two of which were mares. She had one mare saddled to ride and put the other three horses (the other mare included) in the pasture while we went for a ride. Boy howdy, Mac sure did put on a show! I forgot how studdish he can be since he and the pony have sorted out their relationship and there isn't really any drama. But a couple new mares show up and the brains go out the window, the neck is arched, the body is prancing, and the brains go out the window. Oh, I think I mentioned that already.

It was not the most relaxing ride I've ever been on, but it gave me an opportunity to work on things that I could only work on in such a situation, so all was not lost. And to think, I ride this horse bareback and drop my reins and just meander through the woods sometimes. Not on that day!