Yeah, I did that today.
I know I'm not the only horsey-person who LIKES the idea of, well, shoveling ****. (I'm a pretty frank person, as you'll probably learn.) I can't be. So many of us do it because it's part of owning a horse: you have to deal with both ends.
I actually ENJOY it, though. There's no better feeling than peeking your head in to check on your horse to see him/her happily munching a huge pile of hay, with fresh water and a nice, clean, well-bedded stall. So why is it that every time someone asks me if I want help and I politely decline, they look at me like I've just slapped their mother?
This completely baffles me. I mean, I suppose those of us who haven't been bit by the horse bug probably can't fathom getting up before the sun does to go throw poop into a wheelbarrow. But there's something really primordially satisfying about making something that was really dirty clean again. I get the same weird high from cleaning up a really dirty horse; you know, the kind that you turn out trim and tidy and that comes in that afternoon looking like a yak that took a mud bath. Cleaning those horses can be exhausting work, but it's good work. I'd rather do that than sit in an office all day.
I mean, who WOULDN'T want to clean this up, right?
I guess it must be a labor of love. Emphasis on the labor.
In other news, I had a really good conversation with my trainer about posture. I'll be the first to admit I have OK posture. I sit straight, but my shoulders tend to round quite a bit, which makes it difficult for me to keep weight in my elbows, which causes all sorts of other riding issues. I've been cheating, however, with this:
This is possibly the most fantastic piece of equipment I've come across for riders. And it WORKS! I'm always a bit skeptical about stuff like this, because something like good posture in the saddle should come from lots of time spent working on it in the saddle, right? Nope! I mean, yeah, it does, but if you've been riding a certain way for a long time (especially on the same horse, in my case, which has caused us to feed off of and share our problems with each other), this can be uuber helpful.
Bonus: it doesn't force your shoulders back. It nags. And nags. And nags. It's like your mom when you're a teenage: it'll only make you do something until you start to just do it yourself, then it's just there for support (that sounds a bit harsh, I know: I love my mom a lot, I promise!) I started using this around Christmas-time, and my shoulders were sore for the first week or so of use. That gave me a pretty good idea of how tight my rotator cuffs (the muscle that it helps stretch back) really were. After that, though, it was just there. I wear it every time I ride, and it's been FANTASTIC in helping me maintain a softer, more even contact without throwing my arms forward.
The whole reasoning behind needing this device is as follows: Ernie has made me a pretty reactive rider (although I'm MUCH better now than I used to be) due to his lack of confidence and tendency to shy at anything he evenly remotely considers threatening or that could become threatening. This happened a lot. So when he bolted or shied, my hands went into my crotch and my shoulders hunched and I'd find myself in half seat. That was still happening, for the most part, until probably about a year ago, and now it hardly happens at all, but the residual effects (the hunched shoulders) are still there. Enter the Shouldersback apparatus.
Amazing.
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