The life of Iggy

I’ve been a slacker, in large part because I have no photos and it makes me sad to write without photos because I’m apparently 7 and need pictures in my stories.

LOL my boots, my mother would be ashamed

We’ve been plugging along riding again, under our weird, but entirely manageable new guidelines. Iggy is on day turnout again so I usually can grab him straight from his pasture and never even go inside the barn. My SUV’s entire cargo area is now a tack room with various stages of organization depending on day/time/weather/moon stage/what I had for breakfast. We’ve been asked to ride outside as much as possible and luckily the weather has mostly held up so that’s been the easiest of all!

I SWEAR IT STARTS OFF ORGANIZED EVERY WEEKEND

Over the last few weeks we’ve taken a few lessons, both jump and dressage. Nothing to worry about having not been over anything in > 6 weeks, Iggy was like, “No worries, I got this mom” and stepped right up to the plate. My biggest thing with this horse (mainly jumping, but really all the time) is not letting him rush/run off his feet. He’s a forward little guy, but sometimes I egg him on or get ahead and pretty soon we’re like a little matchbox car going faster and faster and faster but not really like… going anywhere. Whoops.

A mini donk for your viewing pleasure

I’m definitely still figuring him out over fences, but it’s much of the same on my end: keep your upper body back, pick up your hands, close your leg. Thankfully it seems to be working because my lower leg has never been more solid and even when he pulled a straight up PONY MOVE the other day, I didn’t budge.

Finally putting on some muscle after losing it all 🤦‍♀️

I’ve been downright giddy over his dressage work. It’s amazing how much easier it is to package up and ride a horse when you’re well sized for each other. Not to mention, finding my glass slipper dressage saddle last fall which thankfully still works for Iggy. He’s going super well in the Bombers Loose Ring Happy Tongue and I actually ended up buying it in the 2.5 ring for jumping as well.

We love it even if we look very unimpressed here

We’ve also been taking breaks and going for road hacks (you might have seen via Instagram). This seems very benign, but anyone who has known me a long time riding-wise knows it’s very much not. After my accident, riding outside an area was terrifying for years. I wasn’t comfortable on a trail ride until about 4 years ago and when I first got Doc, the idea of riding in the fields or galloping on the track was still scary. He gave me a lot of of that confidence back and so when Iggy needed a break last Sunday, a nice walk along the country road it was. Luckily our barn is in a pretty rural, farm-heavy area so it’s (as safe as it can be) safe to ride on the road/shoulder. Needn’t have worried as Iggs hasn’t put a foot wrong and seems to absolutely love going out and having a change of scenery.

Midwest life at its finest

We actually got to ride in our re-scheduled Sharon White clinic this weekend so I can’t wait to share more about that, but figured a general update was in order too.

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5 Comments

  1. so happy you get to ride the Iggster again and he is the cutest. Also my truck backseat looks like your hatchback right now so no judgy judge from me (and my boots resemble yours as well hahahah)!

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