Do Something Brave.....

But first.. Some funny danny photos. Tuesday night was cold... and raining, so I left the horses in. While I was cleaning stalls Dan came up to me and did this. ;) Goofy!
 
Then... Wednesday was a super cold day.... I put Dan's heavyweight on with a hood. I left at 8 am and it was cold! It was cold all day! Then I came home at 7:45 and... this is what greeted me. Doh!! I have no idea... The corner was soaking wet and his hind foot was wet and muddy. But he didn't have access to the creek. And the water trough looked unharmed. So... no idea?!? 
 

So.... anyways..... Today was a fun day! I went to Ashland to go ride with Kelli and Peri. We had a plan and then it sort of fell apart, but it worked. :) I ended up adjusting both Sunny and Arwyn, which was fine and I'm glad I was able to do it before their show. It just meant that I didn't spend as much time riding. But that's okay because we still had a blast. 

I rode Dan with them. Kelli had already jumped in stadium and had the fences set at 3'. I swear, my eye is shrinking because the one 3' oxer looked big!! Go Kelli! Since I had just done the courses at High Point and Peri wanted to get out in the field, we decided to go to the field. Kelli joined us and hopped over a few things too. Go Kelli. Peri and Roux did a good bit and cantered out in the field too. Go Peri! Roux was a little worried about the banks but settled nicely. 

So I played out there too. :)  Which was my plan. Caroline had mentioned previously that Paradise has a table cloth on a cabin in their BN course so I wanted to practice that. I sort of thought it may not matter to Dan but just in case... Of course I couldn't find a red one, but I did find a blue plaid one. So.. it was a bit windy today....  And I didn't think ahead and bring anything to hold it down. So yeah.... But it was good!

I warmed up him over some stuff and then we headed towards the table cloth. He jumped it fine, although we drifted a little. So I turned to come back around and two strides out from it, the wind lifted it up towards us! Ha ha!! Dan startled and scooted left, legitimately!, and so we circled. By the time we came back around it had settled into place and he jumped right on over it, like it hadn't just tried to eat him! I'm so proud. He jumped it big, but he jumped it fine. :) Yay!

Then I decided to pop over the banks. We did the up and the down and then I even walked down the big prelim bank. Then trotted down. Then trotted up the training one. Then I decided to think about doing the coop on the back side. I wimped out and decided that going down the coop and then dropping down the bank would be asking too much. So I decided to go up. We trotted up the bank and then over the coop. It was a bit of a heave the first time so we did it with a bit more energy next. And it wasn't bad. :) But I still decided that it was too much of a question to ask to go down. I figured he'd jump it bold enough that I wouldn't be able to balance him enough to go downhill. So we made a smart decision (I think) and left it at that.

Then Peri and Kelli made me a course.  It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bad. We did the novice up bank to the log stack, then around to the helsinki (for the first time, he was fine!) and then dropped down the prelim bank. Then we did the two stride coop to coop, then the hanging log/faux trakenher and then we cantered the ditch to the log and up the hill over the hanging logs. Then we circled around and jumped the log drop into the water and cantered out. We cantered in to the water too. :) Wheee. There was a vertical set up on the edge of the water and it was fairly impressive looking and leaning in towards the water a bit. So I chickened out. But then as we cantered past it, I thought... we could do this! So I circled and came around again. Ugh. It was awkward! He got underneath it but he tried and he cleared it. It's not pretty, but... close enough. So then we cantered over the tablecloth cabin again and then the dog house. Then I decided to try the water jump again. He took the flyer this time, but again he cleared it. I decided to quit with that. It was a tough question and big and he tried twice and while it wasn't pretty, it wasn't his fault. 

 

So then we went for a short quick hack around the little lake to cool off. :)
Fun day!  Our fun little course
 
 

Lesson

When he's throwing his right barrel at me in the canter... instead of increasing my aids and creating a potential tantrum, I could also leg yield out a few steps and then leg yield in, encouraging the inside leg to outside hand aids.

worked on turn on the haunches... one step sideways, one step forward, one step sideways.. keep the hips and seat moving. :) We got some really nice turn on the haunches :)

Danny's growing up!!!!

I was a bad girl today, but it was soooo worth it!!!!  I had so many things to do this weekend but... I couldn't help. There was a little local jumper show in Athens and I really felt like I wanted to do some course work. Our lesson was good but frustrating and I wanted to see if I could put it all together. I did put the big spurs on too and... Oh man!! What a difference. Beth was right! It's like the bigger bit. I rarely had to use them but because I was able to politely ask and get a response and not nag nag nag... or really did into him before I got a reaction... it was nice. I didn't mess up my position in an effort to get him in front of my leg. So yay!

So anyways... we got there and Dan was acting like an old school horse. Seriously... NO shenanigans!! Say what?! Sadly, I kind of miss them. :) He was great, even never having been there before. So we warmed up and then headed in to do two 2'6"/2'9" rounds.  Our first course was pretty good but not super smooth. He practically ran into the first fence because he was looking around the arena and outside of the arena... But then he settled and we had a pretty good round. Our next round was even smoother and lovely!!

Then we decided to do a 3' course. It was a bit impressive looking and it dawned on me that Dan has never jumped a full 3' course... maybe not even more than a few 3' fences... So I almost chickened out. But I figured I'd see how he jumped the first one or two and then if it wasn't working, I'd pull up and school the smaller schooling fences and be done. But I didn't need to. He was AMAZING!!!

While they were putting the fences back up, I jumped one bigger one just so he knew they were taller. He popped on over like it was nothing. So.. off we went. And he was brilliant!!! He got most of his changes even and then did quick simple ones when he didn't. And he jumped brilliantly!!! There was one fence that I just lost my energy for because I didn't ride the turn just right, so he was a little sluggish and we tipped the rail. But other than that he was perfect!! And that was my fault anyways. I'm so proud of him. It was so much fun. :)

Our first trip of 2'6/2'9

Dan's first 3' course!!!!

Easy Week :)

Ahhh.... this week was actually quite nice! Although I will still manage to work on 23 or 24 animals, so... maybe not an easy week, but a nice week. I was supposed to go to Big Bear on Monday to work on 6 but they cancelled so my day suddenly opened up. I decided to be good and work on case reports instead of ride. It was tough! I did get both horses adjusted and acupunctured though. I may have gotten some good stuff done with Dan in the right rib cage. Hopefully! So that was nice. 

Then Tuesday was my dressage lesson. We had a good ride. We made some good progress. I need to get a little tougher about getting the canter from the walk and then getting the canter, trot, canter transitions across the diagonal. He can do it, I just need to be better about creating a better balance for him and being firm in what he gives me. I also talked to Cindy about the canter aids and how I feel like I"m messing him up when I try to use my outside leg. She said that really, I am using my outside leg, but that perhaps I don't need to focus on it so much. Especially tracking to the left when my right leg is so far back anyways. :) So.. that's a bit of a relief. I didn't want to mess him up for the tempi's later in life but I also don't want to mess him up now.  So.. for now at least, I'm going back to just asking with the inside leg, getting the correct lead, and hoping that I'm keeping my outside leg back by default. We ended up getting some really really lovely left lead canter but he was super fussy on the right lead... I couldn't quite get him to bend around my right leg and not hang on the right rein. Sigh.. but a work in progress.

So then Thursday (today) I had a jump lesson with Beth. She was late so Dan and I went for a hack first. We walked down the bank and over the bigger ditch while we were out and about. Someone had set up a low vertical a few strides out from the bank, so we had to jump it and then trot up the bank and then come down the bank and jump it. He wasn't phased. :) 

Our jump lesson was pretty good. It's frustrating because I swear I can't manage to get it right. I fix one thing and another thing falls apart. Or I'm all opposite-y. Sigh.. And granted, he wasn't really in front of my leg today in the beginning, so that made it worse. I thought he was... he responded on the rail when I closed my leg, but right before the fences, not so much. So we had some icky fences. Beth suggested bigger spurs because it was throwing my position off having to work so hard to get a reaction. And...especially because I've been trying to avoid using my heel and spur and turning my toes in.... it was really hard to have to turn my heel in and dig into him to get a reaction. So it was throwing my lower leg back. Sigh... BUT... I was doing MUCH better with my hands and keeping them low and on his neck. And my position was better with the 3 point to the fence. We were drifting right badly today and I did manage mostly fix that was right leg and a little bit of hands left. So not a complete bummer, but just frustrating. We did have some nice fences and I figured out how to ride him forward through the turns, then keep my leg on but not keep egging him on, just holding the forward to the fence. And we did some hard turns too which really made it tough to keep the momentum and forward through the tough turns. And I made some good choices, so... it was a good day. :) 

After my lesson it was warm and Dan was so dirty, so I gave him a bath. Then I rode Fleck on a trail ride with Beth and Mighty and the 2 OTTB's to babysit, so Dan had to sit on the trailer for an hour and a half. But at least that kept him from rolling and let him dry. He was so clean and pretty! I turned him out when we got home for an hour or two and then Freddie showed up to do their feet. So he was in the cross ties for that and then in his stall while we trimmed Fleck. So then I fed them and decided to clip Fleck since he was so fuzzy. I got to use my big clippers YAY and they worked great! Danny was hilarious though.. he kept sticking his head over Fleck's back and trying to mess with the clippers. Fine goofy horse... I'll clip you too then! So I put him in the cross ties when I was done with Fleck and did him too. I swear he wanted me to. He stood pretty well for it too, though he's ticklish at his poll and withers. But what a good boy. And what a weirdo. :) 

XC Schooling at Fence

Soooooo glad that I went today. :) Dan and I signed up for our first recognized show at Fence in April. We were planning on going in without having schooled it because we would have done Gibbes, and then are going to school at Pine Top, then do Paradise's schooling show without schooling. So, in theory, we should be good to go. But they happened to have an open schooling day today and I figured, why not?! Especially since it'll be our first recognized. He's still green enough that I might as well take advantage. :) Liz and I were going to go but then Forrest got a puncture wound, so she decided she would take Party to keep me company. And then she ended up having to go to a funeral today, so she had to bail. I asked a few other people but no one could join me so I had about given up of going. But then Cindy texted me saying she wanted to go school somewhere and I said "How about Fence?!". It worked perfectly. I went and picked her and Trey up as they were on the way. We had a blast and it ended up that they were the perfect partners for us. :) She helped me be brave just by being there. 

We started out with a little hack and Danny was a bit boisterous! Nothing bad but just a little bouncy. Which honestly, was nice. I've kind of missed that extra little peppyness of his. We warmed up in the warm up area and I got all our leads and we even held both counter canters doing big loops. :) We then started to jump and he just popped over both fences I put him at. One I think was novice. Then they had the log missing from one of the hanging logs with a raised mini bank under it. So I went to canter him over that. He was so confused, but game. He was going to just canter over it but then at the last minute I asked him to jump and so he did. It was a long spot but he did what I asked. :) 

So then Cindy said we could cross the creek and pop over the fences in the path. She went first and off they went. Well Dan decided it was a race and took off after them. Hee hee. We managed to not get too much in there way and the fences were a bit too big for us, so we didn't jump anything. Trey had a stop at one so while she was regrouping to come back to it, I pulled my phone out to start my "my tracks" app. Once she got Trey going again he jumped it and off they went. Meanwhile I was still trying to get my phone back in the case and Danny was jumping around and bouncing and slightly rearing. Hold still goober!! I finally got my phone in and then he took off like a rocket. I aimed him at a decent novice fence and then made sure I rocked him back so that we didn't steeplechase it. He was a good boy and jumped the tar out of it!! But then he landed and took off again and we were headed to the creek. It was probably about 4 feet wide..... maybe bigger. Big enough that he could stand in it and take a few steps before reaching the other side. And yep.. I'm pretty sure we cleared it liverpool style. Then we flew up the hill and up to Cindy. Luckily we didn't spook Trey. hee hee. But after that he was much more well behaved. :) 

So then we headed to the big field and started jumping. We were behind Cindy again so he sort of just flew over the things I sent him over but I did make him circle and jump things not quite so hot on her tail. Then we were heading up to the bank and Trey had a stop at another fence but I kept going because... well, we were headed to the bank. Once we passed Trey, Dan was like..."wait... wait a minute" and looked at the bank and propped and stopped. Oooff! I circled him back and he jumped up the smaller area next to it, then we went down the big bank (it wasn't that big at all!) and then back up it and he was fine. It may have had more to do with suddenly passing Trey or maybe it was the bank. But once he looked at it, he was fine. 

So then Cindy said that the Tryon horse jump was there and I should go jump it. So I did. I was afraid the horsey head would be spooky. HA!!! So yeah, we are cantering up to it and Dan is fine and then suddenly I realize he's not really looking at the jump... but he jumps it. And lands and suddenly drops his shoulder left HARD and scoots and spins. What the?! Oh.... OHHHHh... There is some statue of a horse up on top of the hill next to the flag pole with a near life sized and very realistic looking horse painted (like the GA bulldawgs in Athens). Dan lost his marbles!!! That thing was TERRIFYING!!! The tryon horse was no big deal but this horse statue was the worst!! I actually had to get off and lead him up to it and it still took 15 minutes. Trey was spooking at it too and they were both freaking out. But luckily Trey was brave and eventually they both inched closer and closer. After Trey touched it, Dan finally did. And then he was just confused.. he kept sniffing noses with it like he would a real horse. So I got back on and we jumped the Tryon Horse both directions and he was fine with it. The water jump was closed, which really sucks as it would have been nice to school it, but.. oh well. 

So then we carried on and headed up to the banks. They have the ramp up the bank and then the drop down and Dan did that the first try. He zigged a little but didn't stop and leapt right off. Yay! So then Cindy went and she did the up bank, across, over the ditch to the next bank, across, and then down. Wow!! Fleck and I have issues with that. But her and Trey just skipped over it. So... Dan and I tried. We trotted up first and he went up and then stopped and looked at the ditch. So I walked him off and came back to it at the trot and he jumped up and over and down! WHOO HOOO!! So then we went and did the ditches. There is like 6 ditches there so it was super nice to school them all. Dan jumped the novice ditch to roll top without even blinking which was awesome. Then we went to the baby ditch which was on the edge of the mountain and we came in a bit crooked and squirted around it. Oops. That was totally my fault. So... we came back again straighter and I rode better and he was fine. Then we went to the next ditch and he stopped and propped but then went. And then we went to the next ditch and he jumped it just fine. So then we turned around and came back.. and he stopped and propped at the first ditch but then came around fine and then jumped the next two ditches fine. Sigh.. Shame on me. I must ride better. BUT... he did the half coffin that I'm pretty sure was at least on training course without blinking. :) We jumped all the ditches three times each I think and it got better. Then Cindy jumped Trey over the angled roll tops. It was a four stride and probably novice and training sized jumps. They made it look easy so I decided to try it. I jumped the smaller one first and as he landed I wimped out and decided to pull him out of the combo. But as I was initiating the wimp out, he pricked his ears and locked on to the second fence. Drats.. why am I a wussy!? So I decided if he was game, I was game and we came back to it. It was a tight four for us but he did it great. Wheee!!

So then we headed out to the back field where there was big fences. We jumped the bench which was probably novice and the little hanging log that should be BN. Then Cindy went and just jumped over the giant hammock that I have the epic pictures of me and Fleck jumping that was so terrifying. I did NOT jump that... but after she jumped the hammock she carried on to a hanging log and went through the woods. I thought, well, we can jump that one. So we cantered up to it and as we got closer I realized.. it was kind of big. And it had a big drop on the back side. So I circled.. and then talked myself into it. And he jumped it beautifully!!! And he didn't buck on landing. GOOD BOY!!! I'm noticing a trend though... I'm wimping out but my baby horse is game and good. 

So then we headed back and I popped over the ditches and the bank combo again and then we jumped the tryon horse again. Then we saw that the fallen tree and cabin combo was open so we did that. Then we saw another bigger fallen tree and jumped that!! Wheee!!! Then he was so good I jumped the staircase thingy, which might have been on the training course at some point. :) Then we quit with that as they were so good.

So yep.. SOOOOOO proud of him. He jumped pretty much everything I put him at, even the big stuff. The only issues were the banks and the ditches and really, once he took a quick peak at them, he was fine. There was no fighting him or arguing. I just had to allow him to peek and then he went. And he was game and rideable and not stupid. 

YAY!!!! So now I'm SUPER excited for the show. Of course after the scary horse statue, I'm really glad that we went and schooled. Plus it was just a whole lot of fun. :) 

 

Saturday

Today was a pretty good day. I got a lot accomplished (but still have a ton to do!) and had good rides. 

Dan and I started out doing some dressage. We worked on creating a place for my right leg, which went well. We had some troubles with our canter leads but I think I'm overthinking it. I am thinking that when I try to use my outside leg back, I end up cuing him with it instead and getting the wrong lead. So if I forget about the outside leg part and just cue him with my inside leg and hip, it works! We even got our counter canter serpentines to the right today. 

And then after our ride, we went for a quick little hack. I would have loved to stay out longer but I was in a t-shirt and once the sun started going down it got chilly. 

 

Relaxing Hack Day

Today was a good day but... a frustrating week. I ended up having to work this morning and I was just a little worn out. The weather was beautiful though. It was a bit windy and brisk but pleasant. I thought Dan might be frisky and up for a gallop but he was a good boy. I actually am a little disappointed in how good he's been. ;) 

We had a good ride. We just did some hills, did some trotting, did some cantering, and popped over the bank into the water at the canter and cantered over the ditch too. He was a good kid.