Another Beautiful Day!

And another missed ride. Sigh... oh well. 

I was supposed to be leaving for Kentucky today for Rolex. But I just had too much to get done. And I have been non-stop for sooooo long now, even on my days "off"... that I just.. needed a moment. Not that I really got a moment, but... at least I wasn't rushing too bad. I ended up working on one horse this morning, then went to the bank and post office and got those errands done. Then came home and finished some laundry and dishes and then Dan and I headed to Dr. Browns. I just wanted to make sure that shoulder was the problem and not something else, and fix it! And this was the only day I could do it. And since Karen and Lisa aren't leaving til tomorrow, I can hitch a ride with them. 

I sort of thought about riding before hand.... and should have. And would have had I really had time to think things through. But I didn't. And of course, it's shoulder bursitis and we ended up injecting it. So I couldn't ride. Which sucks, because I need more beet pulp so I was going to go to Aiken to get it and while I was there, jump and play at Hitchcock Woods. BUT... I really didn't have time anyways... in theory. And I'm glad that this will hopefully fix Dan's "rein lameness" once and for all. And it was good timing because he has to have a few days off, which means that I couldn't ride this weekend anyways, and I'll be in Kentucky so yay! It just means that I didn't get to ride today, or sneak one in tomorrow morning and I won't get to ride again til Tuesday. But I suppose Dan deserves a week off! I just hope he and Mike don't kill each other! :)

Anyways... Danny was a cutie today at Dr. Browns. He was sniffing the metal horses.. but my darn phone was in the truck. Oh well. 

Tuesdays with Cindy: Half passing

So... I didn't get to ride Sunday, which was a most gorgeous beautiful day!! It was perfect riding weather. But it was Easter. We went to Mom's and had lunch with the family and then Mike and I went sailing. It was a teeny bit chilly in the wind, but nice. And then by the time we got home it was too late to ride. Oh well.

Monday was an insane day. I worked for 13 hours and was on my feet for 15. So.. no riding! So Tuesday was the next chance I got.

We had a good lesson with Cindy. Nothing spectacular, but nothing bad. We worked on half pass. I still don't quite understand it. I think I either have too much angle or not enough angle...

Start with shoulder fore/in, then go slightly on the diagonal and then bring the haunches. Don't cross/hold the inside rein.

SOOOO MUCH RAIN

The horse showing score is currently 0 for 2. Sigh. I ended up signing up for the Chatt Hills schooling show... in an efforts to get out there after having to scratch from Fence. I even paid extra since I signed up late. And then... on Friday it rained.. and rained.. and rained some more. Ashland literally got 6.6+ inches of rain! And the arena at Starlight was completely underwater. The entire thing... like I wished that I had already desensitized Dan to the unicorn raft because it was the perfect day to go unicorn tubing behind Dan. And this is what the XC field at Chatt Hills looked like on Friday... 

Apparently on Saturday it was even worse. So they had to cancel the XC portion and just made it a CT. Which sucks for them...sucks for us. Sucks for all. So... with it being rainy still - it sort of drizzled all day - and it being cold...(it was like... 50 as the high with a windchill of 43!)... I just decided I didn't have the life energy into going and showing. Especially because I really needed to put money in our bank, rather than take it out, and.... perhaps showing in the cold and rain in possibly sloppy footing in stadium.. just seemed like that wasn't going to be helpful. So I didn't. And I'm okay with the decision. I think it would have been fine had I gone also, but... this way I was able to go get the boat with Mike and put it in the water. And then I came home and decided to take Flecky for a birthday hack and then Dan and I played some. It drizzled on and off all day, but it stopped around 4 pm, so we were able to ride and not get wet. It was just chilly. 

Dan and I did a short little hack around the small lake at Ashland. Apparently yesterday the path between the turtle pond and the heron pond was completely underwater, but today it was just sloppy. Then we did some dressage. And he was FANTASTIC!!! Okay, so it took a bit. We started off and he was just a bit sluggish and we were hanging on the left rein. So then I asked for a trot again with the lightest of touches and barely got a trot. So we did some shock and awe. And... he didn't react. A few times. So then we did some more "shock and awe" and he reacted and then almost over-reacted, but... then.. he was on fire! It was awesome. He was responsive and lofty and we got some beautiful work. And he was in the bridle but not braced or hanging. We did some trot work, some leg yielding, some shoulder in and outs, and some lengthens. We got some seriously good lengthens/mediums today! He was struttin'! Then we did some canter work and got all of our leads! (Maybe we missed one... or maybe it wasn't so much me asking as he just gave it... I can't remember, but it was only one if it was one). We worked on the canter collection, the jump, and the roundness. And then we nailed our counter canters, working on the feeling of half passing in the canter to the right. It was great. We got some good canter to walks too. And after our great canter work, our trot was FANTASTIC!!! I mean... bouncy and bouyant and floaty. :) It was lovely. 

So then we did a short little cool off walk. 

Ahhhhh.....

YAHOO!!

Great jump lesson!!! Not scary. Messed up some but didn't panic.

"Despite his bravado, he's a very sensitive horse and I think he really loves you".

Different seats.... My two point... canter around in that. Then my passive seat... where I'm sitting and using my leg but not driving. (And interestingly enough... when I use the correct part of my leg, which turns my toe out a hair.. my inner/slightly caudal calf, my butt automatically slides back in the saddle... so I'm not as over the cantle as I tend to be!!! Turns out, when I almost pinch with my knee, that tips me forward). And the driving seat. I need to use all three... Canter around in two point, making sure that he is in front of my leg. And I accomplish that by keeping him on my lightest of aids. So.... "shock and awe" if need be. And just keep checking through out the course. If he's not, a quick tap with the whip. Then the passive seat to the jumps.. and a driving seat to the ones with some trepidation associated with them. But in all my seats before the fences, my leg is on.

yahoo

Dressage

Clean changes... again, not on purpose, but still

Canter work... counter canter, think half pass with my seat... So... right lead canter... then still on the right lead but now counter cantering, sit heavy on the right seat (But still lift the hip) and think of cantering to the right (rail, true inside, counter canter outside). It helps a lot!! And in the 3 loop serpentine... do the turn.. then go a little half pass, then turn.. then half pass. :)

Fighting the storms

The legit weather storms we're having today, as well as the storming in my head, heart, and soul. Sigh... I really don't want to be this person. I miss the old me. I've been praying and hoping and just... crying out.. I don't even know what to pray for anymore.

But the storms cleared today and there was a window. After crying a good bit of the morning and taking a moment to do some stuff for myself (updated my blog posts from March, because yes.. I'm that far behind because ... life!) and taking a nap... I decided I wanted to go ride. So.. we did. And God smiled on us and kept the storms away. There was a 40% chance of thunderstorms about 45 min into my ride, but it stayed beautiful out. We had a pretty good dressage school! Dan felt pretty good and we got some good work. We're working on the canter aids (on my end, being consistent) and got some good transitions. We also kept the counter canter both ways a few times!! The trick is keeping his neck straight and keeping my hips moving. Then we met Kelli and went for a 40 min walk hack. It was lovely out. And I feel a bit more at peace, so Thank You God... thank you!

Defeated....

Not at fence....

We did it!!!! And my husband is amazing

So... dammit... I am going to fix this!! I am going to make sure we can do this so we can get that last damn qualifying ride. But I didn't want to be dumb. So I made Mike come with me so I could jump XC safely.  Bless him. He was so sweet about it. I started off schooling in the arena. It went fine and even went decent! So then we went out on XC.  It started okay. I was okay and my butt didn't hurt too bad. We got over some things and then I felt brave and wanted to try the training level table on the hill. Unfortunately... because we were going downhill slightly, and I was already a little perched trying to protect my tailbone... and Dan propped... I fell off again! Doh. Mike didn't even see it because I had disappeared over the hill. Thank goodness. I landed soft and got right back on. I don't even think he propped as an evasion as we were still multiple strides back. I think he just propped because he was surprised by something?? I don't know. I got back on and jumped something else and then came back to the training table and we jumped it fine. So... see, we're fine... We can do this.

Then Mike was being super sweet and walked to the lake and back with me.  We joked that Mike is my angel and kept me safe and needed to come to the show!