Month: November 2021

I finished up the last of my four Airrosti appointments before all of my October travel started, and I was really interested to see if/how the program worked out for me throughout all that was to come. All of my trips (Ocala, Maryland, Cali) entailed a lot of standing, walking, carrying… all the things that are oh so great for someone with back problems.

One thing that I had already known to be true before I even finished my Airrosti treatments was that it wasn’t like all my back issues just magically disappeared. It helped resolve the acute pain and swelling, sure, but what was most beneficial to me about the whole program was finding the cause of my reoccurring issues and then figuring out what to do to help prevent them from happening, or how to go about working some of them out on my own. That included stretching, foam rolling, and targeted strength exercises to make up for all of the muscle imbalances that I’ve spent basically my entire life creating.

I travelled with my lacrosse balls and resistance bands, since they’re small and easily packable. I also screenshotted all my exercises so I wouldn’t have to keep logging into the Airrosti portal to remind myself of what all was on my docket. Granted, by then I had pretty much memorized them all anyway, and expanded on some of them to ratchet them up a notch in difficulty.

While I didn’t run through every single one of the exercises every day (which isn’t the point anyway) I started to figure out which ones help me the most before or after which activities. On days where we sat a lot, I’d do more of the strength exercises and stretching. On days where we spent a lot of time standing, I spent a lot of time using the lacrosse balls on my lower back and glutes to help with the tightness. It helped a lot, and any problems I did have (there were a couple days where my back was legit killing me at the end of the day) were able to be helped a lot by the targeted exercises so that I didn’t carry the pain and/or stiffness into the next day.

For me I think the program as a whole was extremely helpful. My lower back isn’t constantly swollen and angry like it was before, and I’m a lot more comfortable in my day to day life. I think what was most valuable though was how much it’s helped me figure things out about my own body and how I move. Like the fact that when I think about standing or sitting up straight, my go-to maneuver is to hollow and hyper-arch my lower back. Which… causes a lot of my problems. I have scoliosis, so it’s even more important for me to always support my body with my core than it is for a normal person. My back can’t take it when I try to do that to my spine. So now I constantly find myself being much more aware of using and supporting with my core in literally everything I’m doing… even (or especially) when I’m just standing around. The second I hollow out my back, trouble starts. I’ve kind of had to re-learn the biomechanics behind doing even the most basic things.

And that’s also not to say that I’ve been 100% successful in my execution of all this. I haven’t. I still have a lot of strength to build up and imbalances to correct, which will take a lot of time. But I do feel now like I have a way better understanding and awareness of my own body and what’s happening to cause all these issues I’ve always had. It translates a lot to my riding too, where I tend to always want to “protect” my back a bit with my posture, which *shockingly* doesn’t work.

I will say that I think a large part of the success that someone has with Airrosti depends a lot on their particular issue as well as the provider they end up seeing. I was very lucky that the woman most local to me actually knew a lot about riding and how it affects your body (and vice versa) so I wasn’t having to explain a lot of things to her – she got it. But for me personally I feel like it’s helped me tremendously and changed the way I think about and approach a lot of things, and I’m definitely glad I did it.

For about half the year I live in sunshirts or tank tops, since Texas is balls-hot (scientific temperature reading) most of the time. However, once it stops being so aggressively Texas and things dip below 70, I feel like I’m always struggling to figure out how to dress myself. Layers tend to be key, since even when it gets “cold” here, it doesn’t tend to stay that way for long. Right now we’re doing the thing where it’s in the 40’s or 50’s at night and swings up to the 60’s or 70’s during the day. Which… it’ll do from basically now until April, with about a month’s worth of colder temps somewhere in there. I feel like every fall I’m caught off guard and find myself scrambling for long sleeves that aren’t sunshirts. Last year I found myself eyeballing the Anique shirts a lot, or the similar Lulu style long sleeve workout tops. I struggled with the idea of paying $70-$120+ for what was essentially just a baselayer though.

I ended up spending most of last winter in the Sporttek tech shirts, which worked out fine. They aren’t as fitted and don’t tuck in or layer as nicely, but the weight was suitable and they were only like $20. But over the past year a lot of equestrian brands have been popping up with Lulu knockoff type shirts like the one above for closer to the $40-50 mark, which was more enticing to me. One company put them on sale at one point over the summer and I snatched up two, just to see how I liked them, and well… I’m fairly obsessed. They’re fitted, they’re soft, they’re super stretchy, they’re comfortable, they’re the perfect length, they’re warmer than a sunshirt but not hot, and they have thumbholes (which I love when it’s chilly). I’ve been wearing them basically every single day that the weather is cool enough to allow it.

When I got them though I noticed that the packaging was VERY generic. Not branded in any way, and looked like something you’d buy off Amazon. I went to Amazon and scoured the listings of shirts like these but couldn’t find any that looked exactly the same. I ordered a light blue in a similar-looking one, and yeah… not the same. The cut was a little boxier and the fabric was slightly different. Then Holly had the idea to look on AliExpress and bam – found them. The exact ones I had ordered from the equestrian brand, like the same exact packaging and tags and little quote on the inside hem. They even come in the exact colors that a couple of the equestrian brands sell, so I’m pretty confident that this is where they’re sourcing them from. Except straight from AliExpress they’re $15 vs the $40 or $50 that they’re charging at resale. Granted, I think other people have figured this out too, or some brands have done a big order recently, because right now their online stock is pretty low. I’ve ordered 5 more myself now – 3 long sleeve and 2 short sleeve.

They ship from overseas so it does take a while to get them – mine took 3 or 4 weeks. I’ve spent a grand total of $74 though on 5 shirts, which would have cost me $200 even buying from the cheapest equestrian brand, so… to me it was worth the wait. I really love these shirts a lot and think they’re super versatile for the cooler months. Great to layer, and perfect to ride in. Since they’re fitted and aren’t too long (if you’re familiar with the Lulu Swiftly shirts, these are shorter like their race version), they tuck perfectly into breeches and stay put. I wear them a lot with jeans too though, especially if I’m doing anything active. They would make great cross country shirts too since they do sit so nicely under a vest.

I have a 35″ bust and bought the small, since I did want them pretty fitted for layering. They’re very stretchy but if you prefer a looser fit you should go up a size or two from your regular size. I was pleased with them at $40 a pop but I’m even more delighted at $15… can’t beat that!

Ok, first and foremost big shoutout and massive congratulations to the most spectacular pain in my ass, Bobby. He went to US Dressage Finals this past weekend in Kentucky with his boy Carlson and placed in ALL THREE of his classes, which were all championships… sixth in his 1st level freestyle AA, 5th in his 1st level AA, and 6th in his second level AA. He’s only had this horse since April but their partnership has come along so quickly and it’s been super fun to watch. They’ve still got so much more room for growth too, it’s pretty freaking exciting. Bobby absolutely loves Carlson, it’s freakin adorable, and I’m so proud of my friend and what he’s done (and even more importantly, how he’s done it). Even if he does keep trying to drag me over into DQ land with him, which, like… no. Hard pass. Why are you so obsessed with me.

Anyway, ew, that’s enough nice things about Bobby.

There’s not a whole lot to report on the horse front this weekend for me personally. Henry is trying to blow an abscess out under his shoe which has been a lot of fun, and his drama factor is very high. If you ask him, things are touch and go as to whether or not he’s gonna make it from one day to the next. Really I just need to get the shoe pulled off so it can drain and I can clean it. Working on that.

I also need to clip him again (already, ugh) since it was warm enough yesterday where he came in sweaty from turnout. The shortage of T-10 blades from all my favorite retailers is really cramping my style though. I had to cave and order a 10W since that’s all that was available, and I even went into Dover the other night to see what they had in stock. If you want a T-84 you’re in business but if you prefer a T-10 like I do… good luck. I found a place about half an hour away that can sharpen blades so I think I might try to take a bunch of my old ones up there this week and see if they can help me out. There’s a lot more clipping left to do in the next 4 months, I need blades. I did buy this doormat when I was at Dover though. Couldn’t resist.

For most of the weekend I was pretty glued to the Tryon live feed. It was the first time that any commentator ever actually took me up on my offer to provide breeding and pedigree data and I wanted to hear how it all came across and worked out in the live feed. I really wasn’t sure how much Cyndi would use the data, or if anyone would even care besides me. So like… knock me over with a tiny feather when she read basically everything I gave her, and the response was incredible.

I had people messaging me all weekend saying how much they enjoyed having some extra info and stats. I am DELIGHTED. People say that riders, especially eventers, don’t care about breeding but just don’t believe that’s true. The feedback from even just the little bit of data I was able to provide (only having 24 hours to prepare didn’t allow me to wander down as many rabbit trails as I would have liked) makes me think that a lot of people do indeed care. I think riders and fans in general would be a lot more interested in all this breeding stuff if we had more information readily available all the time and talked about it more often. People just don’t realize how interconnected it all is and how there are definite trends in their horses and where they come from (Sinead even remarked that she was surprised at how many were US-bred, I could have died happy at that comment). Breeding is not as embedded in our horse culture the way it is in other countries, particularly Europe, thus I think it has kind of become a blind spot for us. I’d love to try to help change that.

Also big shoutout to Cyndi Kurth, the main commentator for the weekend… that was her first time doing a live stream and I thought she did a fantastic job, especially on such short notice. More Cyndi, please! It was refreshing to have someone different directing the commentary that didn’t talk over people or interrupt their cohost, and kept focused on what was on the screen rather than rambling tangents.

Also thank you to Libby for connecting Cyndi and I in the first place, none of this would have happened without her facilitating it. Oh, and Hillary came in clutch helping me put the stats together, saving me many hours of work and helping me get all the data in Cyndi’s hands before the start of XC. Team work.

Here’s a few of my favorite blurbs and side-conversations that stemmed from the breeding data, in case you missed the live stream.

It was well-received enough that I’ve already had two other event organizers reach out to ask about getting breeding data for their live streams, and a media outlet has reached out about a future project as well. I was really just hoping someone, anyone would give a shit, so this kind of response has blown me away. Y’all know that this stuff is something I feel really passionate about but also feel deeply discouraged about on the regular, so I’m just ecstatic. This gives me a lot of hope that all indeed is not lost, and that people do really care, and that it really is something worth putting the effort into. You’re giving me hope, America.

I think we’re on to something here. I did come away with some things I’d like to do differently next time, and some stuff I’d like to add in, but… hopefully it’s a start.

If you’re wondering where Percy’s glamour shots are, he sorta missed out on those a bit. His poor surrogate dam had been massacred by a certain pony mare that rules the pasture with an iron hoof, so she was unable to be allowed to run around loose with him that day. Not wanting to have him miss out entirely, he did still get braided up and brought out to walk around the ring and have a look at everything, and he absolutely loved it.

Percy is always brave in a cool, calm, and curious kind of way, he’s more of a thinking kind of guy, and he was particularly mesmerized by all the fake flowers marking the inner borders of the ring.

The joke became that his name really should have been Pferdinand (as in Ferdinand the Bull, but it’s a “P” naming year, so…) rather than Perseverence, since he spent the entire time just standing there sniffing the flowers. The other foals had come in the ring all prancy-pants and were like YEEHAW FLOWERS, but Percy just ambled up to them, stuck his nose in them, and stood there happily.

No one tell him the flowers are fake and don’t actually smell like anything but plastic. Clearly he thought otherwise.

As you can see he’s continued to grow and fill out a lot. He’s still a little bit more awkward than the other foals but his proportions are looking more and more normal every day as he slowly but surely catches up from his rough start. His ears though… I hope he never grows into those.

He’s also still a very big fan of snuggles, especially from his friend MK. It’s always great when the ones who have a rough start are still very people-oriented… he’s a sweet and happy go lucky kind of dude.

That’s the official wrap to all of the fancy, dressed up pics of all the 2021 foals. Most of them are well on their way to being weanlings now, so we’re nearing the end of our Foal Friday material for the year. I think we can still eke out a few more weeks worth though, even though the foals are all super fuzzy and gawky now. I don’t know about y’all but I’m not quite ready to give up Foal Friday yet!

I’m a little crunched for time this morning so I figured I’d do a quick catch up on some of the other things that have been happening in between all the traveling, and get your thoughts on some other stuff that’s on my to-do list. I was asked yesterday afternoon if I would be willing to provide breeding information to the commentators for the Tryon live stream, and I’m so delighted to have been asked that I’ve kind of dropped everything else to get those sheets done ASAP. I knocked out the 4*L and 4*S last night and am gonna try to get the 3*L done today. The live stream is already up and running, make sure to tune in! They’re reading off the info I provided and I’m so excited about it… more elaborate breeding info!

On a totally unrelated note, I got a Cricut a few weeks ago, which is both amazing and really dangerous. Nothing in my closet is safe from branding. But it also means that I can make my own stickers and decals, which is very convenient. Some of you may remember that I mentioned after Presto’s Fan Favorite win in the Futurity that I’d like to send a little something to as many of you as I can as a thank you for supporting him this year in his Futurity journey… this is it! If you voted for Presto as Fan Favorite and would like a WTW sticker/decal shoot me an email with your name and address. I can’t promise that I’ll be quick about it, but I swear I’ll make my way down the list as I have the capacity.

I also have been working on that white breeches review/comparison that I talked about a while back. Luxe EQ was kind enough to send me whites from several different brands to try on and compare, so I’m working on getting photos and my thoughts together on that. Before I get too far into this – what all do you want to know or see when shopping for white breeches? What features would you like me to comment on or rate them by? I’ve got 6 different brands I think, so a pretty good range. I want to make sure I hit all the necessary talking points!

I also picked up some Majyk Equipe pads in California, and I have to be honest… between this and my new boots/coat I’m strongly considering making Presto’s XC color just black. Or more specifically, black glitter. It just suits him, especially combined with his spiked browbands. I’d love to find a shirt with skulls on the sleeves or something and just do a whole glam punk look in general. Plus I already have the black glitter Majyk Equipe showjumping boots, so like… it’s destiny, right? I’m obsessed with the black glitter look. The navy pad is super nice too, it’s got padding built into the top for a streamlined look, no half pad required. I’ll definitely be reviewing both of these soon.

I also got a new/real camera (thanks Hillary!) a couple weeks ago, and took it with me to Galway to play with it a little bit. The photographer that does all the Texas shows had a sudden very big issue with me using her photos on my blog (woooo that was drama), which… is obviously a dealbreaker for me, since the blog is the main reason why I buy so many photos. Given that complication I figured it was time to get a real camera of my own. It’ll help me get nicer shots at home, I can use it to take pics of friends at shows, and get friends to take pics of me. More media! Plus now otherwise I’d have no show pics and that’s a bit of an issue for a blogger. My own DSLR was the solution I came up with.

I need to probably get a new/different lens for it (suggestions for what type of lens would be good for taking decent horse action photos? It’s an Canon EOS camera, FWIW.) but I think it’ll be perfect for my purposes. I just have to remember to use it.

There are a lot of balls in the air right now for me so hopefully more updates on bigger/more exciting things soon, but this brings us fairly up to speed I think!