The Return of the Pivo

Well, here I am again trying to write more regularly!

This week, I pulled out the Pivo twice for my rides, after not using it in…more than a year? Time blurs these days.

Sunday’s ride was a short time up meant to get back in the saddle after three extremely long work days and see where he was ahead of our planned lesson on Tuesday. Well…he was somewhere, for sure. He squealed and cantered in hand after I finished setting up the Pivo, and then when I swung a leg over at the mounting block he reared up, leaped, you name it.

There followed a spicy, very “up” ride with a focus on loosening tension and stretching through the bend. With mixed results.

Twenty seven and one half years old, everyone.

My best guess is the change in season + recent hock injections really settling in + general contrariness. Either way, ultimately some good stuff, even if my position was so defensive as to be nearly useless by the end.

So then on to our lesson Tuesday! I had texted my trainer the images of the bucking (which she found hilarious) and so she was ready. And…he was lazy?

Until the last ten minutes. Then someone had the AUDACITY to make a loud Velcro noise while taking boots off a horse in the aisle and all bets were off.

The whole last ten minutes were snottiness interspersed with making him work his old man ass off. For example, the photos in the following sequence are, according to timestamp, seconds apart.

One immediate effect of watching the Pivo clips from Sunday: I worked hard to be less defensive in my position, stretching through my quads and having a softer elbow, and it mostly paid off immediately.

I am out of town at a leadership training for a few days and then back in the saddle on Sunday…I will definitely get the Pivo ready!