Cob Jockey

While I was in Texas, it rained a lot.  This meant all we could do was walk under saddle and in very specific areas, but that was more than enough for me to get a lot out of it.

I ended up riding all three of them, although my ride on Paddy was more of a "use the horse as a four legged saddle rack so I can try out Sean's new jousting saddle," which had arrived that morning:

The jousting saddle is CRAZY cool!

First up was Griffy, and this was before his suspensory diagnosis.  It's definitely intermittent, he never took even a faintly lame step with me, although again, we were just walking.

Riding in fashion boots because I just could not fit anything more in my suitcase

JenJ gave me a bit of a lesson on him, and I learned quite a bit about myself.  Like that my right arm likes to float up and toward or even sometimes across the neck in very specific circumstances.  I had no idea.  And that despite my best efforts, I am still very very crooked:

Oh look, it's me making Griffy go crooked in the same way I make Connor go crooked.  Sigh.

She pointed out my left leg, which still likes to get heel up and back.  And also that I'm not great about remembering to "turn and look" around turns, especially to the left.  Which is also Connor's bad side.


You'll notice that in all of these pictures I'm holding an Equicube.  I absolutely loved it.  When you're holding it, you can't not have a bear down, because if you support it with your arms instead of your core, your arms get smoked.

JenJ has several inches on me, but her saddle wasn't a bad fit for me at all

It also pointed out to me that I still have no tension or musculature between my shoulder blades, because that area was screaming the next day.  I sat there at the airport with my shoulders burning and ordered one of my own, which I've already learned some more from.  More on that later this week.

After Griffy, I took a spin on Leo, who is a totally different ride.  Jen has done an incredible job with his early training.  He's almost entirely seat trained, and so sensitive, if I pitched forward even a degree or two, he'd stop dead.

Does it fit in my carry-on?

You can't really call a relatively green 5 year old a schoolmaster, but he definitely gave me a lesson.  Crookedness and wobbly cores have no place on Leo, he just doesn't compute with them.  I am so, SO impressed with how solid his early training it, and with his attitude - he just has that "I'm so happy to see you, what fun stuff are we doing today?!" attitude.

Hoovering up a pile of alfalfa

I am so grateful for the chance to ride these guys and for the things JenJ pointed out, because they made a lot of sense in the context of what the vet found last week.

As often happens with my job, after not traveling at all in November and December, January beat me over the head with travel, with 11 nights out of a 16 night stretch spent in hotel rooms, including 10 days straight.  With Connor being NQR under saddle but generally fine, I opted to not have my trainer ride him while I was gone and just let him be for a bit.

But that doesn't mean I didn't pack a helmet for my travels!

Haffies!

My boss lives in Austin, and chose it as the destination for our January team off-site meeting, one of three times a year I get to see my coworkers in person.  When I asked if I could come a day early and leave a day late and work from Texas on Monday and Friday so that I could visit friends, he didn't even blink.

Of course, getting work done at JenJ's is sometimes delightfully challenging.

Y'all, JenJ is just the best.  I love every second that I'm hanging out with her and her family, four legged and otherwise.  I especially love Logan, my spirit animal.  We are certifiably joined at the brain:

"Welcome home, LET'S DO STUFF!"

Tacodog™ decided my breakfast looked better than his breakfast

Scale photo, me and baby Gus five(!) years ago

Sleepy afternoon naptime adult Gus in January of 2020

"HELLO YES THANK YOU FOR COMING TO WORSHIP LORD PADDINGTON"

Scotch tasting at 12:30 on a Sunday?  Don't mind if I do!

"I am totally not here because you were in the treat room, why do you ask?"

Paddington <3

"No seriously guys, I'm out of treats."

A wild Paddy stalks his prey, believing the red horse is getting more treats than he is.  This one should be captioned with Jaws music

I'm trying to decide where to even start with the tale of this weekend...

Maybe here.  It's really hard to pack for a formal dinner, a CrossFit workout, and riding when you're flying!

My husband's new company has a Christmas party in Austin, Texas every year, and it's a huge thing.  They fly all the spouses and employees down for the weekend, have a company meeting (They have no home office, so it's the only time the employees are together) and throw a massive party - complete with a cocktail hour, 4 course meal, an after party, and an after-after party, all on their dime.  It's sort of a thank you to the spouses for dealing with their significant others being gone all the time, and a good time to meet everyone.

I look tired because this was taken at 3:00am!

Nick's meeting lasted all day Saturday, so I met up with JenJ and Lauren, and I am so glad I did!  We started with delicious brunch and great conversation - it felt like we could have talked forever despite that being the first time we met.

This breakfast panino at Kerbey Lane Cafe was GLUTEN FREE!  Austin is awesome for people with food allergies.

Then we headed over to the Dover store, where I walked around touching things, even though I couldn't buy anything since I was flying.  For someone with no local tack store, being able to touch things is inordinately exciting.

The most surreal part of the day was riding Paddy and Brego!  Daun's blog is one of the first, if not the actual first, horse blog I ever read, and getting to meet and ride Brego was so, so surreal.  I mean, Brego:

My all-time favorite picture of Brego.

The first thing I said when I saw him standing in the pasture was "Oh my gosh Brego's huge!" because he's so physically imposing in real life, it caught me off-guard.  I thought Jen was joking when she said none of the halters at Dover fit him, but his head is seriously half as long as I am tall.



There are almost no words for how big and adorable those ears are in real life!


He and I are, uh, definitely not a good physical match, as evidenced by this photo where my legs are actually sticking straight out from my pelvis:


But he was so much fun, and I am still amazed that I got to ride him.

I also rode PADDY!


I have to say, I ride a cute horse.  One that gets mistaken for a Haflinger constantly.  But Paddy brings cute to a whole other level.  Everything he does is cute.  There's no other way to describe it.  He's horse-sized, but every move he makes is just completely adorable, and I think he knows it.

Much more appropriately sized!

At the end I tried to take a cute picture with Paddy:

And got photobombed by Brego, who couldn't be left out:

Two very, very good horses!

Sadly, I had to get back to the hotel all too soon, so the visit didn't feel long enough.  I am so thrilled to have met Jen and Lauren, as well as Paddy and Brego, and I'm excited to see them again next month for Blogger Weekend.