Fitness for Equestrians: Spring-Summer '20 Challenge

Rain ruined my cross country schooling which was actually fine since Frosty was slightly off due to her lingering heel bruise which hasn't gone away unfortunately. Hiked the mountains down near Asheville all weekend and rode lightly yesterday evening. I'll ride tonight as well.

Hey equestrians! I'm checking in with a report on my weekly goals:

My goals for the week were:
Lose a pound (I was down a pound. Success! I did log my food everyday.)
Yoga 5x (3/5 done- had a harder time getting into the yoga this week)
Cardio 5x (5/5 done - achieved! I ran 4x and did a plyo/strength workout the 5th day)
Pony time with the kids 3x (4/3 done! The kids did great, we rode the pony more than hoped. Achieved!
Ride my horse at least once (Nope. Didn't get in a single ride. )

My husband was gone much of the work week and then this past weekend when I would have got my rides in, it was rainy. But the kids and I spent a lot of time with the pony, and they are doing really well. So that is exciting! We may get to start riding together this summer.

My goals for this current week are going to be the same, except I want to get in at least 2 rides since I miss riding.

Yesterday, we took my Morgan horse and the Welsh pony to a nursing home to volunteer to pass along some joy to the residents. The residents got to come outside to see the horses! It was the first time they had seen anything in months different than zoom calls with family, or TV. They can't have visitors right now and people can't come in to the home for any kind of enrichment. We showed the horses off and my daughter gave a little riding demonstration. She was so cute. She kept demanding that my husband unclip the lead and let her do it by herself, but the home was on a busy road so I was too nervous. My Morgan did a great job prancing around and looking fancy- he loves when people look at him so he played it up. The people were so happy- huge smiles and big eyes. It was great! We had to wear masks and stay at least 25' away from the residents, but it was still a great day.

After the trip to the nursing home, we were right by the equestrian beach access (I live at the coast) so we decided to drop by and just handwalk the horses out to the beach. I was hoping one of my kids would feel confident riding, but I think the openness made them a little nervous. And the pony hadn't been to the beach before since we only just got him this past winter and then that particular park was closed due to covid for a while. It was nice just working with my horse on the ground. I rarely do that, I'm always trying to fit in riding, so it was really enjoyable just walking him.

anyway, a good horsey day even if no riding for me. I hope you are both doing well this week so far!

@MomLarisa sorry to hear about the rain ruining your cross country plans, but sounds like it was for the best for Frosty.

@Lhasandme I had a strength training day last week too, where I couldn't walk the next day either! No fun. I think your plan on lightening the intensity is good. I want to add in more strength, too.