Indoor riding and injuries

First injuries.  Riva is fine - you can all now breathe a sigh of relief.

     I would be the injured one - no, I did not fall.  

First, Cheers, our retired TB, nailed me in the thigh with a back hoof.  Luckily, he is only shod on the front right now.  Me, being used to Riva who gives plenty of warning before she even thinks about being naughty when being groomed, was going about de-mudding Cheers one evening.  When Cheers gets groomed, he relaxes (if you have a gelding, you know what I mean).  His sheath is over due for a cleaning.  Trouble is, we have to coordinate that process with a dental or something that requires sedation.  I took it upon myself to try and do a tiny bit of private area cleaning and Cheers fired without a millisecond of warning.  So I have a growing bruise on my thigh, sigh.

Second, I believe I pulled a muscle in my stomach or gave myself a small hernia.  Doc appt tomorrow afternoon if no improvement.  And I think I did it by tighening Riva's girth - you may now laugh!
Sara Ivie, my wonderful County Saddlery rep, informed me that I should have Riva's girth a lot tighter than I was adjusting.  I literally have to stand on top of the mounting block and heave upward to get to the proper holes.  This is the only thing I can think of that would have resulted in the bulge in my abdomen...sigh.  And I thought I was in pretty decent shape!

On to indoor riding - grrrrrrrr!  Riva is no happier about this change in scenery than I am, but wet cold weather has arrived.  Moving at a glacier pace is the Diva's answer to the indoor and forget round, soft, and into the bridle.  Something had to give and it was NOT going to be me!

Time for a trainer tune-up ride.  That is how Alexis and Riva spent Saturday night - which is supposed to be the Diva's day/night off.  Not this time, missy.  While the husband and I were enjoying Mexican food and margaritas on Saturday night - the mare was getting remind that she can work in the indoor as well as the outdoor arena.

I rode last night and saw improvement in speed and working with contact - not that Riva was perfect and made it easy for me.  No - still had to work very hard at it.  But once we had it - the work was decent.  I hope over the winter we can get the movement indoors that we can outdoors. Hey, we are at least better than last winter when Riva would randomly refuse to move forward!

 

Now look at her - only too happy to give a 'pony ride' to my sis-in-law!