"Grind" doesn't necessarily mean boring or distateful...
This morning, I rode Snip again. Like I suspected, I did slop around in the saddle a little more than yesterday due to the slight soreness of my muscles. However, I managed to keep my seat and push Snip through some crazy, unorganized turns and twists for fifteen minutes without rest. In some ways I know what is wrong, but don't know how to fix the problem. Even at a trot, he fights me like crazy. He decides that he wants to go stand under this tree or that and starts drifting/pulling that direction. Humph...I just urge him back the other way; he pins his ears, pokes his nose out and tightens his neck muscles and I end up having to haul on him more than I'd like.
The mixed signals he's getting from my feet don't help much either I don't suppose. I am trying to correct my faulting training. When I started I did what seemed natural to me (partly because I think it makes sense and partly because my legs are so short)--that is, I kick him with the inside foot in a turn rather than the outside foot. It's my impression that he has realized what I'm up to (he isn't dumb--at all); he appears to be responding fairly well to that.
As for loping...well, I didn't get one out of him today. Too much of the usual, drift, pull, and slow down business. I did get in a good long stretch with my feet out of the stirrups--and nearly sat down when I dismounted. I hadn't realized that I had set up that much! It's nice and muggy today so both Snip and I were wet...and he was kind of droopy when I got off. I suspect a lot of that is just an act though. :D
After lunch, I did some yard clean up as I prepared to mow. This means that I picked up sticks and spanish moss and threw it over the fence. I also gathered up the hose so I wouldn't mow over it. :)
I went in and got a drink and was just fixing to go back out and head for the lawn mower, when I looked out to see the UPS man coming up the drive. It wasn't Britt, but the other gentleman. He's nice too. :) It was the Father's Day cooler from Aunt Laurie.
I put the stuff in the freezer and then went out munching on an apple. I was still crunching away when I finally got the mower cranked. It takes a little manipulation sometimes (in other words, I really needed both hands and was only using one).
I mowed. All afternoon I mowed. I wasn't sure I was going to get finished, but I did. The only reason I did was because after doing the drive way with the deck down, I mowed the yard with the deck up. (There are two deck hights--high and low. High isn't that high.) See, if one mows with the deck down the mower bogs down faster and the belt sounds like it is slipping and the blades slow down. This entails a forward movement that is closer to a creep than anything in grass that's even sorta thick. It took me over an hour to do the driveway at that speed. Someplace along the way I got the idea that to try raising the deck. It worked...and the yard looks like it has been mown! :)
That was today's grind...and once that banana bread I just took out of the oven cools, I'm going to have a slice with a lot of butter on it. (Even though I'm trying to work hard and eat little this week [in preperation for the H's wedding]; hopefully to be a hair thinner than the last time I had my corset on...it was almost too tight a month ago...Yes, I know, I'm nuts.)
This morning, I rode Snip again. Like I suspected, I did slop around in the saddle a little more than yesterday due to the slight soreness of my muscles. However, I managed to keep my seat and push Snip through some crazy, unorganized turns and twists for fifteen minutes without rest. In some ways I know what is wrong, but don't know how to fix the problem. Even at a trot, he fights me like crazy. He decides that he wants to go stand under this tree or that and starts drifting/pulling that direction. Humph...I just urge him back the other way; he pins his ears, pokes his nose out and tightens his neck muscles and I end up having to haul on him more than I'd like.
The mixed signals he's getting from my feet don't help much either I don't suppose. I am trying to correct my faulting training. When I started I did what seemed natural to me (partly because I think it makes sense and partly because my legs are so short)--that is, I kick him with the inside foot in a turn rather than the outside foot. It's my impression that he has realized what I'm up to (he isn't dumb--at all); he appears to be responding fairly well to that.
As for loping...well, I didn't get one out of him today. Too much of the usual, drift, pull, and slow down business. I did get in a good long stretch with my feet out of the stirrups--and nearly sat down when I dismounted. I hadn't realized that I had set up that much! It's nice and muggy today so both Snip and I were wet...and he was kind of droopy when I got off. I suspect a lot of that is just an act though. :D
After lunch, I did some yard clean up as I prepared to mow. This means that I picked up sticks and spanish moss and threw it over the fence. I also gathered up the hose so I wouldn't mow over it. :)
I went in and got a drink and was just fixing to go back out and head for the lawn mower, when I looked out to see the UPS man coming up the drive. It wasn't Britt, but the other gentleman. He's nice too. :) It was the Father's Day cooler from Aunt Laurie.
I put the stuff in the freezer and then went out munching on an apple. I was still crunching away when I finally got the mower cranked. It takes a little manipulation sometimes (in other words, I really needed both hands and was only using one).
I mowed. All afternoon I mowed. I wasn't sure I was going to get finished, but I did. The only reason I did was because after doing the drive way with the deck down, I mowed the yard with the deck up. (There are two deck hights--high and low. High isn't that high.) See, if one mows with the deck down the mower bogs down faster and the belt sounds like it is slipping and the blades slow down. This entails a forward movement that is closer to a creep than anything in grass that's even sorta thick. It took me over an hour to do the driveway at that speed. Someplace along the way I got the idea that to try raising the deck. It worked...and the yard looks like it has been mown! :)
That was today's grind...and once that banana bread I just took out of the oven cools, I'm going to have a slice with a lot of butter on it. (Even though I'm trying to work hard and eat little this week [in preperation for the H's wedding]; hopefully to be a hair thinner than the last time I had my corset on...it was almost too tight a month ago...Yes, I know, I'm nuts.)
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