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mari

goldhorse wrote:Mari, I hope your'e ok. Good vibes coming your way for good healing.

I'm okay. Nothing broken but I'm one giant soft tissue injury

My coccyx is very bruised, and my back and neck are sore. I have a series of physio visits and pain meds, now I wait.

mari

Congrats on some great scores Blob!

So nice reading everyone's updates <3

I had a crashing fall on Tuesday, so I'm letting my instructor ride Odin for a few weeks. He is not impressed with having to find his hind legs!

mari

Chisamba - I feel your winter dread! We're a month into spring here in South Africa, and this morning when I left the house early to go riding it was so lovely to not leave in pitch darkness. And our winters are mild. But I'm not built for winter. Also, even though the winters are mild, we do go dow...

mari

Congrats Chisamba!

mari

Oh dear, so many interesting/terrifying stories ;) I've been riding very sporadically. The cold has been very cold on my middle-aged body. My dressage instructor and I are also seemingly on entirely different life schedules at the moment so we average maybe two lessons a month, which is not helping ...

mari

Odin is turning 21 in September. I have somehow closed myself off to this fact, and convinced myself that through the force of my will alone he will live forever. His lengthened/medium trots have always been very very wobbly, since he was a youngster. I don't have the skill to improve it much, alth...

mari

Odin is turning 21 in September. I have somehow closed myself off to this fact, and convinced myself that through the force of my will alone he will live forever. His lengthened/medium trots have always been very very wobbly, since he was a youngster. I don't have the skill to improve it much, altho...

mari

Chisamba wrote:Let me know if this link works

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ThWaanqRBJucxPtu5
https://photos.app.goo.gl/mrhj8JVaJHQcyX5T6

So beautiful!

mari

I'd love to see the rain photo

Well done all, the show reports are great!

mari

Chisamba wrote:https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CjEtARqAX/

You should be able to see these whether you are on Facebook or not

So handsome!

mari

Great work Aleuronx!

Ponichiwa - I'll echo the others, there are so many treatment modalities now. Jingles for you and your horse <3

mari

Awesome Aleuronx! Such a big step up, congrats!

mari

Chisamba - thanks for posting the video, such a lovely steady test, you can be very pleased! We are working on getting my horse's attention on me in the first 5 minutes of the work, instead of 30 minutes in. Who knew it was mostly me being the problem all along??? :lol: :lol: :lol: Got to work on th...

mari

Moutaineer wrote:
IMG_20260524_130449.jpg

Love the expressions on both faces!

mari

Oh no I'm so sorry to hear about Junior, also jingling like mad!

mari

Aleuronx - awesome results, you must be thrilled!

mari

Chisamba, don't erase it. This kind of insidious depression touches all of us, and I'm really sorry you're going through it. I send you many many virtual hugs and I hope that some other little facet of your life will bring you joy and light.

mari

Ponichiwa, I think I also need to "live in the trot". Our scores are fine for canter, trot is a giant pain. I want to do some shows this year, but so far this year has been super stop-start for us. So our next two months can maybe be focussed on at least feeling more show-ready. Goals: 1) ...

mari

Exvet - Troy is such a lovely creature!

mari

Mari, it is definitely more fun to have some one to ride with. i could very easily just keep my horses home and ride, which exvet and khall do with aplomb, but all the extra work that goes into riding and training for others does add to the social aspect and enjoyment of it all. You need a riding b...

mari

Odin's sheath is still swollen but it's looking better. I'm hoping with less humidity and heat over the following weeks, as we go into autumn, it will also help to settle things down. It's April already and my riding goals have not moved forward since last year November. Not because of the penis iss...

mari

Exvet, that's so funny, think you should probably install some sprinklers for them!

Chisamba - the increases even here in South Africa... The yard is 35km away, and combined with the imminent hike in boarding costs I just have anxiety.

mari

The vet just sent me a video. The swollen skin inside the sheath has cracked a bit and now there are maggots. FML. She's thrilled that she found something to treat. I want to never be near a horse penis again. Ever. Never ever.

mari

Odin's sheath and penis bacteria have flared up again and he is very swollen and sore. Another series of vet visits and lots of head-scratching and mutterings of 'such an interesting case'. Amazed at how I can be overflowing with anxiety and bored rigid of this situation at exactly the same time. I'...

mari

Lovely pics Exvet!

mari

Had a lesson today to work on changes, and many shenanigans were had. I asked for them in a specific place last time, so today she really started anticipating and there was just lots and lots of kicking out. She had a chiro appointment tomorrow, but I might need it more, lol. The instructor said sh...

mari

Whoooooooooo Moutaineer for cantering!

Work is interfering with my riding this week. Well, partly work and partly malaise.

mari

Lovely write-up, thanks so much for taking the time <3

mari

We had a lesson this morning. I was on for all of 10 minutes before my instructor rather got on and did a how-to-pay-attention-to-your-rider bootcamp

We might need a few instructor rides over the next few weeks, he has too many things to look at at the new yard to hear/feel me.

mari

Apocalyptic rain here in the early hours. Drove out to the barn with the hope of still having a lesson, but the arena was too soggy so had to drive right back home again. Grumpy me. Should have known better and just stayed home. But the barn is about 40 minutes away and often a completely different ...

mari

First lesson at the new yard, in the new arena. With construction crews and heavy equipment, and heaps of white sand blowing in the storm, and sharing the arena with the tractor and rake for our warmup. Odin is a very chilled guy, but this morning the boosters were engaged :lol: So much holding of b...

mari

Inspiring updates everyone! We moved yards yesterday. The whole yard moved just down the road to a new property. The barn is gorgeous. Quite a bit of work still needs to be completed. One arena is rideable, the other is on pause because of the constant rain. Also still in progress is the lunge ring ...

mari

I'll let you lovelies take the lead for Jan/Feb. My only riding goal for the beginning of the year is just to get more rides in per week. Odin is 20, and while his condition is amazing, I think more regular movement will be to his advantage. So we'll feel it out and see how the year progresses. For ...

mari

We're just pootling this week. It's the last week before a 3 week break, I've got no lessons and no real drive to work hard at anything. This morning we did some wtc on a loose rein and called it a day.

mari

Aleuronx - lovely video but also a hell no from me for the snow

mari

Mari, Is it that you can't obtain turkey or that you don't like turkey? The second is forgivable but the first... I'll take issue with. My daughter was in South Sudan with Doctors Without Borders a few years ago, and she was able to procure a turkey from some local farmer to make Thanksgiving dinne...

mari

Happy Thanksgiving!
We don't officially celebrate it here, but we've adopted the custom. We try to make some American dishes (except turkey, cannot with turkey), and we go around the table and say what we're grateful for.

mari

so.much.rain It gives me anxiety. I grew up in an old leaking house, with ceilings that would collapse, and water running down the walls. I never outgrew that anxiety, and it is now nearly 30 years later. The thunder in our province is so loud that the windows rattle in their frames. I revert to a p...

mari

Khall I'm so sorry about Rip, they really do take pieces of us with them when they go. Chisamba - I've met a few half-bionic riders, not a single one has said they regretted it, although the recovery can be a biatch. Good luck to you! So lovely to read all the updates. We're at the start of summer h...

mari

Peeps, I thought this board was nuked. I haven't been able to access it for a few months now, and finally twigged that something might have changed and the access was restricted for other countries. Laurie and her husband opened it up for South Africa again.

Missed you guys! Glad to be back.

mari

Moutaineer wrote:Ha, Junior! Busted! Now she knows you can do it!

Exactly! Now you can be relentless, Exvet, you know it's in there somewhere

mari

I don't know how anybody ever gets to Grand Prix before either they or the horse dies of old age. LOL, that is kind of how I feel right now. Like, we've come so far in the last year and yet we have so much more work to do at second level. :lol: the funny thing about this statement is that when i go...

mari

Chisamba - what a lovely active leg yield! You have inspired me to school these big sweeping ones. I avoid them because they're so hard for us (I know, I know!) We tried a new bit yesterday. My one instructor suggested that we try something a slightly sharper than his current French link full-cheek,...

mari

Omw, I need to find me some padded panties!!! Thanks for that tip, didn't even think about it.

mari

If I can just actually go ride more than once a week, that would be great... Lost my mojo a bit, hoping to get it back. Somehow.

mari

I love your post Chisamba. I have a long list of concessions... Some are due to my natural patience/zen when training, and some are due to my current skill plateau. An example that is always relevant for me is that I can get EITHER a lighter feeling in the bridle OR enough impulsion. Nearly never bo...

mari

Lovely videos StraightForward, thanks for posting them! And your colour-matching game is ON POINT, love it.

mari

A productive but hard work ride today. It was half pass day. The left is pretty decent, but Potters was a bit recalcitrant about doing the hard stuff to the right, and we had some snarky spooks. (He'd rather do the things he finds easy like changes and pirouettes.) I find myself turning into a pret...

mari

I just wanted to post a link of a South African showjumper, Bronwyn Meredith Dos Santos, and her absolutely fabulous horse, Bibisi. They're at the 2025 LONGINES FEI World Cup Jumping Finals currently. The heart and dedication and cost it took to get there, and compete with the best in the world, is ...

mari

Tanga wrote:I love watching you ride, Aleuronix,. Good work. Good exercises.

Samesies! Lovely consistent work.

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