Below Freezing + No Stirrup November

 Last night was the first below freezing night we've had, it was very very cold to say the least. Working at the barn this morning proved to be cold and windy, and one of the horses waters was frozen this morning so we had to pour some hot water on top of it so the she could still get water before it got above freezing again. 

I haven't really had that much to do with Brooks lately - actually let me rephrase that - I haven't really known what to do with brooks lately. Last year at this time i had hunter finals to prepare for, this year I'm not doing the hunter shows so I don't have a need to prepare for finals. Last week I worked a bit on his walk to canters and his counter canters because he struggled with those the most thinking "oh! well this will take a bit of time to work on maybe 2 weeks or so" (again) I was wrong he did it perfectly like he's been doing it his whole life - okay well now I'm out of a plan 

Brooks has always been the pony that proves everyone wrong - cross country schooling the first time (he out jumped all the horses and was the best out of more experienced horses) going to the state fair (had never been in a indoor - was perfect) did his first event (got the lowest dressage score and was the only one to finish on his dressage score) you get the point that I should know by now with him, but yet i don't 

So today I decided to do something we'd never done before - no stirrups - okay so you might be thinking well that's not that bad yeah your legs die but its pretty much the same as with stirrups. So you might be right but we had a complicated start to no stirrups at the beginning of the year i lost my stirrup and it hit his side so ofc he exploded sideways and tried to bolt so I haven't been brave enough to go no stirrups on him since because he's a sensitive pony - well tis' the season its no stirrup November so of course I had to do it with him before our lease is up.

Cantering some pole courses 

The no stirrup work killed my legs today but it was really good for me - ive been trying to build up my core strength because Sindri's canter is super hard to sit (horse strides I'll tell you, does not go good after riding ponies for two years) 

It's funny to think how far he has come because it feels like just yesterday when we cantered a line of poles for the first time

Flash back: his first time cantering poles!!

Its funny because it was almost a year ago that we did that and its been even longer since i did things like that with Cyrus (😭) and I'm about to start doing those things with Sindri. Crazy how the best memories are sometimes the saddest or the most exiting. I'm reminded over and over again how lucky i am to be able to experience these things - even if sometimes it makes my want to curl up and cry, or jump up and down for hours, make me want to give up completely, or inspire me to do better and make my goals bigger.