More pony club fundraising and more bridle buying and more dressaging!

Went back for Day 2. Tried on the regular dressage bridle and liked it. May end up with that one after all. Also pretty sure I like that browband too.

Went for our ride... did a long session of stretchy trot and 4 loop serpentines to stretch out his back. Then did stretchy canter. Then picked him up and did collection work... lots of walk to trot to halt to reinback to trot to halt to trot to halt to reinback to trot... But small trot... baby trot. Then did canter work. Then worked on canter square turns. Then attempted baby canter pirouettes and actually got a step or two of legit stuff.

Then went for a hack.... flushed a deer... got attacked by bugs.. (it got warm and pleasant out and the bugs returned!). Then came home. 

Pony Club Fundraising.... Bridle Buying... Dressaging Day

Ann Margaret lesson: 

Swapping like crazy from right lead.. wouldn't hold it... worried about lameness, but looks amazing... seems to be a balance issue and an aiming to please now that I've started thinking about the changes. 

Need to work on having him able to turn his nose and also his shoulders separate from the bend...

Homework: 

Leg yield to half pass to leg yield to half pass... short quick steps of each. In walk, trot and canter.

Leg yield right to leg yield left back and forth in short steps

canter to walk to other canter to walk to other canter to walk... or 10 meter circles with each. ... on a straight line. 


Tried on the new Figure 8 House of Montar bridle and loved it. Gonna order it tomorrow

rode Roux for Butterfly Dreams to evaluate

Surprisingly NOT feral!

So... after our XC school on Sunday..... Dan got Monday off.. then Tuesday morning it was cold and raining and I had a migraine the night before so I felt wrecked that morning.... so I decided not to ride. Which sucks, as I actually had most of the morning free. I did catch up on paperwork (not entirely) but more so! But I didn't ride. Then I worked all day Wed and all day today.... I did manage to get home at 5:18 pm... and when I checked my phone it said the sun was setting at 5:32 pm. Sigh... Plus it was cold... super cold. And I've been cold all day. So I debated... but by the time I got to Ashland and tacked up it would be dark... and he's been off since Sunday.... and it was a full moon last night.. or two nights ago. So I decided that perhaps it would just be better to wait til tomorrow. 

But then.... I couldn't help myself. So.. I threw on his bridle and my helmet and off we went. I mean... what could go wrong? Bareback over blankets in 38 degree weather on a young fit horse who has been sitting in the pasture since Sunday on a near full moon... oh, and instead of the jump bridle I threw on the nathe dressage bridle because the rubber was less cold than the metal. But you know what?! He was so good!!! There was no antics.. no bucking..... He was great! We rode around in the round pen for a bit and did some leg yielding and some half passing at the walk. Then we went into the front field and did a tiny bit of trotting and two canters. Then we rode back up to the barn. 

But... AHHHHHHHHHH.... I feel so much better :) 


We've got a fun weekend planned hopefully. Tomorrow is supposed to be raining (starts tonight) but I've got a lesson with Ann Margaret and she has an indoor. Then Saturday I'll either hack and/or do a grid lesson with Beth. Then Sunday I should have a dressage lesson with Kelly and then I'll haul back to Ashland for a hack and stadium work with Liz. :) Then he'll get Monday off, hopefully a dressage ride (either a lesson with Beanie or just a ride) Tuesday am, then... on Friday we'll head to Aiken for Jumping Branchs' final schooling horse trial. And Dan's traning debut at all three phases! EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!! I hope I won't overface him. I have a feeling it won't go perfectly, but I think we'll finish. I just hope I don't screw up his confidence now that we're finally getting our groove back. So... fingers crossed!

PS... aren't his chicken jammies THE BEST!!!!

Stoneridge XC school

So much fun!!

Danny and I met Abby and Jude at Stoneridge farm in SC for a XC school. It's a great place to go for novice and almost training type fences. It was only like 2 hours away and an easy haul.

We got there and tacked up. Danny was in a mood! He was so bouncy and wiggly. But he let me get on and we walked a lot and then power trotted a lot and then cantered. We didn't have to gallop. So yay. But he spooked at the tiny ditch as we walked past it, so then we had to school it. And he was being spooky and wouldn't go near it. Ha! Goof! We did manage to get over it. He wasn't really scared, he was just being silly. So then we started jumping things and he was great. Well... he did refuse the barrel jump once, which was the first jump we jumped. But then he was fine. I honestly think he was being silly. Because he jumped everything else great!!! Most of it was novice and baby training/big novice stuff. He was awesome! We even jumped a fairly thick squatty corner! And some upright funky things. And did the double up and down banks. And the ditches. And a trakehnher. Nothing too huge though. But he was good for all of it and we had a blast. And he was adjustable!! Like, when I shifted my body, he rocked back and added or moved up for the longer spot. It was so fun!

We ended the day by attempting the skinny chevron. Which looked legit prelim size... so maybe it wasn't quite prelim but substantially bigger and more technical than anything else. But it had guide poles/V poles on it, so I thought we'd be alright. I was dumb and jumped the small jump before it, which was on a 3 stride bendy line. So he wiggled and ran out. Totally my fault! So then we tried again, without the jump before and... he sort of tried and then bailed. I tipped up his neck, plopped over his neck and landed on the fence, skipped off it, and landed on my knees with the reins still in my hands. Ooops.  So... I decided that it really was a big fence and wide and tall and skinny and we probably didn't have any business jumping it without a trainer. So we left it. We jumped a bunch more after that to reinforce a good go again and then we were done.

We did a short cool off hack and then I had to hose him off. He was so sweaty and foamy, despite being clipped recently. So then he was bouncing around and just being silly. SOOOO busy.. .busy, busy, busy! We're feeling better about Jumping Branch though. :)

Quick ride, but worth it!

Ahhh.... today was a long week because I didn't have a scheduled day off because of moving things around to get to the show. But.. I had two cancellations and was able to wiggle patients around a bit so that I could ride this morning. I didn't have time to do a long ride, but we were able to get an hour in. :) And it wasn't too cold yet!


I'm so glad I made the effort. It was gorgeous out!!! We had a good dressage school and ran through Training Test A. It's a fun test. Then we did a quick hack around. And I made it home in time to get to my first patient on time and stop for lunch. 

Feral to Fancy

Ha ha! I told Dan he could be feral yesterday. He got the WHOLE Day off Monday. Well, maybe not the whole entire day as we didn't get home until 2ish am and then he got a snack and then I pulled his wraps, but then he was free.... until breakfast... then naked and free until dinner. :) And then free and clothed until this morning. I let him be naked for a bit and then we went for a ride. He was FILTHY! :)

We had fun though. We took Fleck too and I rode Fleck first. Dan chilled. Then it was Dan's turn and the clouds came back so it wasn't as pretty of a picture day. But it was still pleasant! We hacked for a tiny bit and then did a little dressage warm up in the XC field. Then we decided to go back to the arena and do some work. We played with our canter and counter canter and got the three loop both ways, most of the time.. or some of the time. But then I decided.... let's just collect and balance the canter and ask for a change and see. And good gravy if he didn't throw one in there!! When I asked!!!! And it was right to left, which should have been harder! I'm sure it wasn't brilliant and I'm not even sure if it was actually clean, or late behind, or if he didn't skip through it. But it was not a simple change and it wasn't a partial change, so it was something!!!!! :) :) :) :) I praised him highly and for a good while and then rewarded him with a medium trot down center line. :) Then we tried the other direction. Nope. But he held the counter canter. ha ha! Of course. Oh well. I *know* I'm breaking the counter canter for the moment so I'm choosing to not get all ADD about it. So then we did a pass of half pass to leg yield in the canter both leads and went to go hack.

We ran into Erin pretty much as soon as we hit the XC field and trotted towards the lake with her, then left her to work while we went in the lake. Then Dan wanted to find her and Surreal again and power trotted back to the XC field so I made him go back to the lake and then we hit the woods and galloped up Hoot-n-holler. Then we saw them in the XC field again and he ignored them. Silly horse. So then we headed home so I could get the barn cleaned before patients arrived.

It was a good day. :)

Rocking Horse!!!

So.... Beth and Danielle and Liz were all going to go to Rocking Horse. It was supposed to be Danielles Intermediate debut. So they invited me for the girls weekend of fun. And then ... Liz broke her leg... and then Rusty got a bone bruise... and Beth didn't have them to coach, so.... I went by myself. :) I probably could have bailed but I had already entered and I figured why not?! It would be fun. So.. we went. :)

I left around 10 on Friday morning, which wasn't quite as early as I wanted, but oh well. The truck hauled great but I can't go as fast as I would, so... we didn't get to Florida til 6 pm. Luckily it was still light out. I got Dan in his stall and settled and found my RV spot. A nice easy spot and good view. BUT.... it wasn't the right plug. Seriously/?!?!? Every freakin' time. So I ran up to the office, caught the poor girl before she left for the day, and we eventually got it figured out. I ended up in a different spot but it was a good spot too. I took Dan for a little walk and went to bed. It was such a nice night out that I had the windows open and my heated mattress pad on and slept amazing!!! I'm sure the migraine pill helped too. Because.... of course, migraine.

Saturday I got up and took Dan out for a walk. He was kind of a butt... dragging me around. I put him back and walked XC. It looked huge!!! Eeeeeks.... But non-technical. So then I gave Dan a bath because I didn't have time before. After the bath he wanted to roll so bad and I wouldn't let him. And then he just... had a temper tantrum! He was squealing under his breath and started bucking and rearing and running in a circle around me. I was giggling at him because he wasn't trying to get loose or get me. He just.... had... to... move.... his.... feet!! But then he got a little carried away and had to swerve at the last minute to miss a car... and then the TD who was watching us asked us to go to the roundpen. Before we hit a car. Sigh... then she added "IF you can get him to it". Sigh.. so then he piaffed in hand all the way to the round pen. Unfortunately a horse got loose so I had to basically run him to the round pen so I could handle him... then try to contain him until they caught the other horse so he didn't get her more riled up. Sigh... so once they caught her... I let him go and he went squealing off! He did multiple laps and then wanted to roll so I had to smack him with the rope. And then he was all dirty from running in the round pen and then where I had to smack him with the lead rope. Ugh.... But man... at this point... So then I desperately had to pee but was afraid to put him in his stall because I didn't want him to roll and get cast. And I was afraid to leave him tied to the trailer... so I ended up tying him to the trailer and peeing in the trailer. Then I braided him. And.. I had a meltdown...  I mean, not really... I held it together, but my brain was freaking out and I was trying not to cry. Dan was a wild man... I couldn't control him.. he's only novice fit.. how the heck can I control him when he's prelim fit if I can't even handle novice fit Dan?? (Although.... I realize now that he's pretty much prelim fit now... and by then, he will at least have more energy expended). And then his braids were terrible.... and the jumps looked huge. And I couldn't trust him anywhere. Sigh... But he was fidgety and not super for his braids, but.. he was chewing on me and sucking up to me, trying to be cute and snuggly... like a T-rex being cute and snuggly, but... he was trying. ;)

So... I put him back in his stall and took a 30 min nap in my trailer as my head was starting to hurt. And he managed to stay upright in his stall and leave his braids in. So then we got tacked up and went to warm up for dressage. He was a bit braced and a bit resistant in his barrel so we didn't quite get the same degree of suppleness typical of him. He also felt kind of lazy and sluggish. Our test was okay. It was decent... and certainly really nothing wrong with it. It just wasn't as brilliant as usual. But we scored well. 30.8 I think. Which put us in 7th of 13. So... again, a mediocre test. We took another break and then it was time for stadium. Maybe it was the migraine pill or maybe it was just that the jumps didn't look huge but I wasn't too nervous! We warmed up and after a few sticky fences, we got in the groove and jumped one of the oxers like beasts! It felt phenomenal. So we went in and jumped a pretty darn nice round! It was smooth and clean and I didn't jump up his neck on any of them I don't think. Whooo hooo!!! That was exciting. The jumps felt small for novice, but Dan jumped well. We ended up moving up to 5th with that. Whooo hooo! I let Dan graze some more and we walked some more and I had dinner and a shower and went to bed early. Again, I slept amazing!

Sunday I decided I would get up and ride him rather than try to hand walk him. So we went out in the dressage fields and did some power trotting. He felt much happier and was behaving. After we did some work, I let him meander around, figuring he could graze. He didn't really want to graze but wanted to people/pony watch. He was hilarious. He was like some awkward creeper just staring at the people and their horses grazing. I just kept saying "I'm sorry.. he's homeschooled". ha ha... Then he went back to "jail" and I walked XC again (it looked much less impressive this time!) and looked at the shops. I ordered my photos too because... he looked so good in most of the stadium ones! I told the guys that I hoped that he didn't dump me after the first XC fence again because I was going to order all the photos. ha ha. Finally, finally it was time to ride XC. My ride time was 3:13 pm. I got ready a little early because... you know, stress.....  And then they were running 30 minutes behind. So... we hung out for a bit and chatted with Elisa. Then finally we got to warm up. He warmed up well so off we went. And it was a pretty good run. He was a little behind my leg to the first 5 fences or so... including the big scary one. But he jumped everything and didn't even think about being naughty or not going. We just hadn't gotten into our rhythm yet. We finally settled into it and then he was on a roll! Except I got lost! After the 11th fence we were just cruising and I could not find fence 12. I didn't even remember what fence it was. Luckily I remembered that it was past the tombstone fences so we rode back that way and then I saw 12a and b. Yay! We finished the rest of the course in great form and luckily, we didn't get speeding tickets or time faults! If anything we were close to speeding tickets than optimun even with the detour. Hee hee. After we crossed the finish line, I asked him to come back and it took him a good bit to come back to the trot and then he was power trotting for a bit. I was laughing at him.... "where are you going" We're done". Ha! I finally got him down and then he was jigging back at the barn again. But yay!!!! That was so much fun. :) And we moved up to 4th place!! Yay!!!

Then it was time for the long haul back home.... We left at 6 pm. Sigh.... Oh, and... in the dark, I totally missed the Ag station... ooopsy! Luckily they didn't hunt me down.

 Helmet Cam of XC