One of the things I love about Cupid is her willingness to please me. When I asked her to walk through water she did after realizing I was asking her to do it and I wasn't leading her into a bad situation. When I moved her to our current barn she loaded onto the trailer like a dream because she trusted me. Most recently Cue has learned the start of a turn on the forehand. She still needs to learn that both front feet can move but she picked up the general idea extremely quickly.

Because of her willingness to please and her intelligence, my trainer and I are currently working with her on dressage basics. Last year I had inquired about trying dressage with Cupid but nothing ever came of that. I quickly discovered that my current trainer is a dressage fiend. Not because she wants to see her riders compete and win in dressage, but because she's a strong believer that all horses should know basic dressage. This is a belief that I have held for a long time so there were no complaints from me when she laid out the plan to work Cupid through some of the dressage pyramid.

Cupid's eagerness to please, combined with her quirky nature and my haphazard riding style have made this journey interesting. We started our lessons with getting my saddle taken away. My trainer instantly realized that I was relying too much on my stirrups and not enough on my legs to support myself. I was handed the vaulting saddle and instructed to do as much walk trot work as I could to strengthen my leg. Thankfully, I was allowed to use two of the school horses until I figured out my balance without the saddle. Because Cupid is fairly levelheaded she didn't seem to mind the use of the vaulting saddle after I transitioned back to working her.

After almost two months of "bareback" work, we have finally transitioned back to using the saddle but still maintain the use of the vaulting saddle once a week. My balance has gotten so much better and Cue has finally figured out that darting out of the arena is not the goal of riding in the arena.

While working without a saddle, Cupid and I began working on the dressage pyramid. Cue quickly picked up that her walk and trot need to be adjustable. With the right instructions from me she has begun to perform a working walk, and a free walk in addition to a nice working trot. All three of these are performed consistently and with a nice rhythm. I would love to see her gain the endurance to maintain the working trot longer but she truly tries to give me that nice consistent rhythm. In addition to the walk and trot, Cupid has also started to perform a nice consistent canter.

Picture credit: http://www.fccds.org/the-scale-of-training.html

Our current focus is teaching Cue to engage her hindquarters and round herself properly, as opposed to picking her head up like a giraffe and hollowing her back. She has figured out that stretching down at the walk is much more enjoyable than sticking her nose in the air, but this has come with its own disadvantages. Cupid has started to hold herself on the bit, at the walk, even when I am riding on the buckle. Our trot work still starts with her pretending to be a giraffe but after a few minutes, she relaxes into a rounder, more engaged frame. We're still working on the trot but once we've mastered that I hope to start working on the canter and encouraging her to use her hindquarters more.

It's hard to believe that we're on day five of the NYX Lippie Countdown! If you're wondering why I'm talking about then please see this post. Yesterday featured the reemergence of a great color from last year so I was excited to see what today's color would be. The preview showed a bright, bold, hot pink shade which is always a good choice in my book. 

After opening the tab I was thrilled to see that this color was part of the soft matte lip cream collection. I had eyed these at Ulta but wasn't sure if I liked all the colors in the collection or a select few. The hot pink was one that I definitely wanted to try though! 

This shade is called Paris, which seems totally appropriate because it's bright, sassy, and a classic fashion statement. 

This shade does need a bit of a heavier application than other NYX colors, but it applies nicely and mistakes clean up easily. This shade was super easy to wear and lasted a long time. It complimented my skin tone nicely, it wasn't too bold but it wasn't too flat. Overal, this will be a color that I purchase once this sample runs out. Paris might join the ranks of my signature lip colors!

It’s that time of year again. Leaves are falling, Starbucks holiday cups have just been released, Thanksgiving plans are being made, and equestrians everywhere are cringing while the trainers rub their hands together like praying mantis. It’s No-Stirrup November. That dreaded month where stirrups go missing or are neglected at the order of the trainers.

Thankfully, my trainer has had me work with only the vaulting saddle for the past few months. Something about me depending too much on my stirrups for posting and not having enough core support. Hopefully, this means that NSN won’t be as painful for me as it will for others. But like every exercise NSN comes with goals that need to be achieved.

1) Canter in the vaulting saddle.

I can walk, sitting trot, and posting trot well in the vaulting saddle. But I have yet to try cantering. We were going to attempt it last week but I conviently had on a girth that was too loose so that idea was dropped in the interest of safety. I fear cantering without my stirrups, and the comfort of my saddle, but I know I need to do it. So my goal is to do at the minimum the long side of the jumping arena in the vaulting saddle at the canter. Without turning into a potato...

2) Posting trot in my saddle.

I can sort of do this one but the slickness of my saddle is a bit of a deterrent. My saddle is “sticky” when I clean and condition it but that’s been neglected because I’m lazy. This goal is simple and I know I can do it. I just need to drop the whole “saddle is slippery so I’m going to die”.

3) Two point/half seat without stirrups.

This is another one that I can sort of do but I need to get better at it.

I’m thankful that Cupid and I have the ability to work with the vaulting saddle and that my trainer has been having me slowly build up strength. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t recommend doing stirrupless work for entire lessons but we’ve become so adjusted to riding without stirrups (or a saddle) that it’s been more comfortable for me to just ride in the vaulting saddle.

Cupid telling me what she thinks of our work with the vaulting saddle

 So equestrians, who is doing No-Stirrup November and how are you doing it? Vaulting saddle? Bareback pad? Taking off or crossing your stirrups? My plan is a mix of both vaulting saddle and crossing my stirrups.

Like many of you I try to set individual goals for each month. While scrolling through the various blogs I follow, I realized that many of them share their monthly goals. It dawned on me that this would be a great way to hold myself accountable, so here are my 5 goals for August!
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August Goals
1) Canter through the water.
Thanks to all the rains Florida has been having there is a small section of the arena that's flooded. Now Cupid is 'Little Miss Prissy Pants' and hates getting her feet wet. Our recent goal has been to walk through this puddle without issues, and we've managed to trot through it without a major break in gait. My goal for August, if the puddle sticks around, is to canter her through the puddle. Because I would love to take her cross-country schooling and to a hunter pace, she's going to need to adjust to going through water.

2) Practice the flute for 2 hours a week.
Central Florida Community Arts Orchestra rehearsal has started again and this time I need to really dedicate myself to the music. I would love to play for the Christmas concert so I need to make sure that I give this whole season 110%. The upcoming concert consists of music that is from Spain and Latin America which are pieces that I'm not really familiar with but have proven to be extremely fun to play!

3) Read 3 books.
I would love to start working through some of the books on my GoodReads "Want To Read" list, but first I've got to read through the 100 books that are currently on my Kindles! (Yes, I've got two of them)

4) Workout 3 times a week.
It's no secret. I've gained weight. I hate it so I've got to do something about it. I'm going to be checking out a training program through a local running store but until then I've got to start rebuilding my strength.

5) Paint office.
I've got this room in my house that has sat and done nothing for the past year. It started as a guest room, then went to my office, then started to gather stuff that I didn't know what to do with. I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with this room and what my goal was for it. But now I've settled on a basic plan and just need to talk with my mom about swapping furniture. In the meantime I've picked out my paint color for the room and need to get it painted before bringing the heavy antique furniture into it.

See. It's in need of a makeover.

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Now for the fun part; seeing if I can achieve these goals! I'll be using my planner to track what I've accomplished, and when, so I will have an accurate record of what I've done.