LaunchesKayaks

I look like a complete dork when I ride lmao. Sandy had a great time and really liked the change of surroundings! She even rode alongside another mare and didn't try to kick and didn't take off when the other horse's rider had her horse go fast. Sandy just kept moseying along at a good pace.

I'm going to be looking for a saddle like the one I used today on Saturday at a cool tack store. It's like 2 hours away but worth the trip. I'm gonna try to trade in a saddle I got there when I started riding lessons a couple years ago. The saddle I want to trade definitely won't be worth too much, but I'm hoping it can contribute to the cost of a new saddle. I also need to get a better girth and maybe a new saddle pad... It's gonna be so spensive, but worth it.

As for my weight, if any of y'all are concerned about that, I checked with the vet before I started to ride and was told that Sandy can definitely support my weight and the weight of tack. Arabians are especially strong, which helps tremendously. As she gets more exercise, she'll get even stronger.

Sandy adores music, especially upbeat music. I was playing some Crane Wives (my fave band ever.) I was going to try out my second saddle on her to see if it fits enough to be a comfortable ride but there were riding lessons going on and I didn't want to distract the students. I'm hopefully going to be getting a saddle for her that fits well. I had her fitted and got in contact with a saddle selling company that will help me find what I need.

Also, sorry for the lack of Sandy pics lately. There was a tornado pretty much on top of my house a couple weeks ago and I've been dealing with everything from that. I had minimal damage to most of my property, but had to re-home my ducks because their outside enclosure got messed up and the repairs weren't a bit beyond what I can provide at the moment.

For all the Sandy fans out there

Sandy spent the day in the round pen today so I wouldn't struggle to catch her for exercise. We did her usual ground exercises and had a really good 20 minute ride. She gave me some trouble, but after I figured out some more effective techniques, she stopped fighting me. I've never seen a horse respond to jiggling the reins to steer but it works for her lol. I barely have to use leg either. She responds to verbal cues, specifically words super well.

She's a really fun ride once we get our rhythm going. We're both still learning about each other as well, so things aren't gonna be perfect in the saddle for a while. I have a saddle fitter coming out next week. I'm going to hopefully get a saddle that fits her super well soon, so we can have even better and longer rides. My current saddle fits well enough to ride and not be painful or anything, but a saddle that has been professionally fitted will be so much better. RIP my wallet cause it ain't gonna be cheap. Worth it tho.

Haven't seen her in that part of the pasture before so it was neat

At one point she sneezed right in my face then wiped her boogers on my shirt. I thanked her sarcastically and she nodded her head as if to say, "Don't mention it."

Like signs you've noticed specifically about you. I've noticed that I want to grow my hair out when I'm about to crash out. My hair is so awful when it's long and I always regret growing it.

I was exposed to a bad PTSD trigger on Saturday and dissociated for a bit and have been in a state of derealization since. Now that my therapist helped me not panic about this feeling, I've found myself curious about how other people have experienced this.

For me, everything seems muted. People and their expressed emotions, colors, general vibes in different situations etc. Everything is just wrong and unsettling. It's like everything just isn't existing enough to feel tangible. Iam fully aware that my perception is very wrong because I've asked people if things seem off at all and they've said no. I was very scared for like two days until I was able to book an appointment with my therapist and now I'm not as scared and the derealization doesn't feel as disconcerting, but it's still there. Hoping things will be back to normal when I wake up in the morning.

We did a whole lotta training on the ground today, but ended with a brief ten minute ride around the roundpen.

I think the trick to getting her to cooperate well in the saddle is to make her jog out some energy before tacking, make the process of tacking very slow so she can adjust to the stuff on her, then making her jog a little with the tack on and adjusting as needed.

The round pen is also walled so she couldn't gawk at every distraction which helped keep her focusedl.

I stumbled after dismounting and fell onto the sand in the roundpen. Sandy checked on me of course lol.

My pixel 7 is shitting the bed and I am considering upgrading and just installing graphene immediately on the new phone as part of my degoogling journey.

Is there anything I need to know about this? I work in IT, so I'm tech savvy. This is my first time installing graphene, however.

I'd be upgrading to a pixel 10 probably.

My carrier is verizon

I absolutely adore the field she's in.