Poor Danimal! He got ridden twice today! We were scheduled to have a lesson with Jacel at 5:30 tonight but the weather was showing storms. It started as storms all day and slowly moved to evening storms. So when I woke up and it wasn't raining I decided to ride. I figured that I could do a shorter ride and that way, if we got rained out this evening, we would still have gotten in a ride. The rest of this week looks rough weather wise too and I haven't ridden in over a week! So... sorry Dan... man up!
We rode at home this morning and had a great ride. It was hot and humid but we kept it fairly short. We flatted and man, was he forward! Probably a little too forward. I was working hard to use my seat to slow him and eventually I figured it out and we got a better "economy" trot. We didn't do anything too exciting as it was our first ride back, but it was a good ride!
So then he got a rinse and was turned back out. Luckily he stayed pretty clean. The weather was starting to look more menacing but... it stayed dry. Around 3 Jacel touched base and we all decided to give it a whirl as the radar looked like it may just be skirting around us. So.. we loaded up and headed to Ashland. When I pulled in there was a big crack of lightning and a huge thunder boom and the skies were looking a bit dark. Eeeecks... I walked halfway up to the jump arena and met Laura there. There was another thunder boom and we talked about what to do. While we were heading back.... I checked the radar. Again, it still looked like it was mostly going to miss us and the stormy part was dissipating. So... since nothing else happened, we decided to tack up and see. We headed up to the arena and we got super lucky! It drizzled for about 2 minutes... not even heavy enough to get us wet really. And there was no further thunder or lightning. Yahoo!
We had a good lesson. We started with some tight ground poles on a sharp turn and worked on riding the outside aids. Jacel set them up right next to the judges booth and her kids were there. When we first walked up Dan was staring at her car like "They're in there, aren't they!?". Ha ha.. I don't know why he's so weirded out about Josiegh but he is. Hee hee. So of course Josiegh was walking around and hanging out in the judges booth so Dan was all goofy about it. We did manage to finally get him trhough the ground poles successfully despite him being concerned about the kid. Then we went to jumping and we worked on riding his hocks and getting him bouncy to the fences. We started off with the crazy high X and then did some fun lines. One was a sharp roll back but I rode it perfectly!! I rode his outside shoulder and used my inside leg. And he was super! There were a few that looked pretty big! Like... I was thinking training level big. But alas, my eye has shrunk so they were only novice. Maxed out novice, but novice. So to a few of them, while I had him bouncy and was riding his hocks... I thought we didn't have enough forward. And he added so I jumped up his neck. But luckily, he was bouncy enough that he managed to clear the fences despite me hanging on his head. Jeepers! Sorry buddy. But we managed to get a little more oomph and I stopped jumping up his neck and it got way better! Dan was a super star and was jumping awesome and using himself very well! I was rusty but... not terrible and managed to have mostly good jumps! Yay!
When I got back to the trailer to untack Jacel came down with us and was chatting. And Laura and Kid left and Dan was rather sad. He also kept looking up at the jump arena like he still thought something would get him... Josiegh? The Sprinklers? Who knows!? So then Jacel left and went back to her car and then drove down and Dan was all freaked out about her car. Ha ha. Seriously dude!! It's just kids! So then after she left I put him on the trailer and he was being all annoying and standing stock still. He got half way on and then turned and went right... just out of my reach while I grabbed for his lead rope. Then the little turd decided to trot off and then went galloping toward the gray barn. Again Dan?!? Argh... I followed him and saw him in the field by the other horses and called to him. He looked at me and turned and ran off again. You little butthole!!! Luckily Kelly caught him and returned him to me. He was still praning and being stupid walking back to the trailer. I don't know why he was so rattled today but... he jumped great and focused in the arena, so... who knows!
We made it home just fine and clearly he's pretty fit and happy!
No comments:
Post a Comment