Melanie Nilles

I’m so happy! I have my moody ol’ mare back from her vacation. I’ve lost all but a pound of what I gained in my pregnancy (over 40 lbs!) and all the medical bills are paid. Now I’ve had her back at the boarding stable for a couple weeks. She *insert tongue in cheek* LOVES me right now. Oh, at first I was all right, but when I started making her work again, I turned into the bad guy.

I might have been in good shape, but not riding shape. I was sore after each of the first few rides. I’ve adjusted now, but she still has a long ways to go. She tends to drop her left shoulder and right hip, which makes for some very crooked and unbalanced work, but the longeing is helping with that. It’ll take another month or more to really get her strong again and not falling on her forehand, which is another issue we have to work through. She knows what to do, but she’s lazy. Her workouts consist of lots of circle work to make her balance.

And, I’ve figured out that I don’t want to even really touch on dressage but to focus on the hunter showing in which she excels. She is no dressage horse. Sure, the training has helped us, but it’s not our focus. I’m at a point where I just want to have fun, but I may want to show at the fall BER show coming up and I want a balanced, correctly moving horse. That means we actually have to work.

She hates it But she tries. She doesn’t have much of a choice, and I make the effort painless. It gives us a goal to work towards too, which I need.

Now, to get her slimmed down! She’s off pasture and on a diet now…the fat pig.  If I can do it, so can she.

I’m glad to get back to the old me, and it will help my writing.  You’ll see more horse posts now with updates of what we’re doing.  I used to keep a diary from her perspective, but I quit doing that long ago.  Now, it’s my turn.  My mare and me, a team again.