And then there was 4.

I am thusly motivated. Not with blogging, but riding. I'm now back up to at least 4 days a week - just want to add in that 5th day again. But personal life has been keeping me busy and as long as I get in at least 3 days, I'm pretty satisfied.

Been having a few ups and downs with Sam lately. I went off again last week (4th time) and this time I'd say it was actually a little bit his fault. As opposed to the other 3 times, when it wasn't. After a jump he was feeling good and started humping around and because I was already tipped forward after the jump I just kept going down until my head was on the side of his neck.

My trainer yelled for me to sit up, but as I was leaned completely on my hands which were in my lap and past 90 degrees at the waist, I knew I didn't have the abs to fix it and I dropped my stirrups and superman'd off. I landed on my boobs and right thigh - nothing injured. Sam hippity hopped all the way down the arena until he found some hay in the corner. No remorse. It's not so naughty to crack his back and feel good (just being a horse) but it is to leave me in the dust and buckaroo his way to some food.

Sam & pro

So the following lesson was with a stronger bit and a pro rider and my trainer on the ground - and I got to watch. This way he couldn't dip his head down like he likes and the pro wouldn't let him get away with speeding up after the jumps. We also cut back his evening feed from 2 timothys to 1 timothy and 1 local.

Rider worked on stopping after the jumps and not letting his bulge out his left shoulder. And not letting him drop behind the vertical - a fun new habit that probably came from someone previously having his go around in draw reins. You could tell Sam was not happy about this lesson.

Afterwards though, he got the full spa treatment and had his first chiro appointment since I've owned him with a SUPER respected lady. The result was several places he was tight/bunched/out of alignment that she said was probably from before I got him last spring. So then he got three days off. Spoiled.