Bringing Up Baby!
stayed to watch but decided to leave before the cattle trials. did watch linda and lindsey go though
5.5 hr drive home took 7 hrs. UGHHHH. dan did great though and was not too fussy, so good boy.
he gets a few days off! maybe even the rest of the week
photos: 10-26 regionals champ
video of grazing
EOH day
rainy morning, so no round pen time.
rebanded mane, course walk, watched friends, then... aaccck time to go.
warmed up great. did our thing. Last rider in our division (All of L1, pro, amateurs and non champs even, so... last one in warm up. he didn't care. was looking at all his adoring fans in the arena (not freaking out like poor triton). was PERFECT!!
got out, texted kirsten and judy that I thought we had just won it. jinxed myself. lost it by 0.5 pts to Becky (the one to beat). dans ass bumped the standard at the gate for 5. doreen gave us a 63. polly gave us a 68. doh! So... 2nd for EOH.
put us tied for first with Becky... but.... they average your dressage and your EOH score to get a final score for tie breaker and since we beat her by 2 points in dressage and she only beat us by 0.5 pt in EOH, we WON!!!!!
Region 7 L1 Amateur Champions!!
turned him out and he was filthy!!!!
then realized we had awards ceremony later, so he had to get a bath. I decided to tack up and ride for awards because he earned it. So bathed... grazed and dried, then... tacked back up for awards. long wait but got to see the sunset.
won a garocha pole!! Ha. didn't realize it wasn't a prop. GOOD PONY!!
lots of roundpen time.
photos: 10-26 regionals champ and regionals EOH
videos
Up early with the sun. So pretty.
still clean so let him be. turned out some. banded his mane. bemered. like the mane banded!
got on, warmed up lovely.
had A LOVELY test. Like.. our best one yet I think. Although overshot centerline to the halt. Ended up scoring a 69 with Doreen and a 68 with polly so averaged a 68 and change. Won the class. Whooo hooo!! square halts :) nice reinback.
spent the rest of the day chillin in the stall with the fan or in the roundpen, while i watched tests and ate lunch. opted to not ride again because... migraine for me. plus no real reason too.
course walk in am but because i'm in first, I'm the last in my division so plenty of time. yay. hope he does well. supposed to be raining, but oh well.
so proud of him! he's been sooooo good!
photos: 9-26 regionals dressage
video of test
Photos: 9-26 regionals
woke up at 5 am, loaded up and headed out at 6:15 am. arrived by 11:45 and he got to go in the roundpen while i parked and such. gorgeous facility and all close together. Got us both settled. bathed.
Had vet inspection. Mostly well behaved until the trot back. had to circle a time or two, but.."sound". Passed :) Phew!
video
then tacked up and rode in the covered and played with the obstacles. good boy. tripped a lot though. fatigue? (front end mostly) or footing or distraction? but sound and happy.
finished up with 45 minutes til "opening ceremony" and no real place to ride sadly. Such a gorgeous place would have loved to have hacked around the trails. Wasn't brave enough to go out on the "road" on my own.
hosed off and let him chill for a bit then got back on for opening ceromony. behaved himself quite well. paraded around like a good boy. no shenanigans. then stood and watched the guy with the flag in center of arena. (Walk only). Then paraded out. stood at arena rail and watched the guy canter with flag. Dan was like "big whoop, I can do that too". ha ha... do we get a turn?
then got another rinse... more roundpen time, some grazing... dinner. Competitors party.. then more grazing/turn out and bed.
so proud of him!
Ha! I didn't really stop loving you. But you were really making me question my sanity recently sir! And, admittedly, making me laugh too. A little bit.
Anyways... I was going to ride him at Ashland today and run through our test but the morning got away from me and I just... ran out of time. Plus, I panicked and wanted to do the obstacles once more. So I was going to ride at home. But when I went to catch him, he was flat out and fast asleep. So... continue your beauty rest, my silly boy. I'll ride a girl first. And then I rode a girl second too because I already had my tall boots on. By then, he was up and ready for his turn. And it kind of worked out better anyways, because then I could give him a bath and then feed him.
So we rode. I put my new reins on. They are VERY blue! But I kind of love them! We headed up to the arena because I was not about to risk the neighborhood again. My finger is still throbbing. We walked up there and did some walking warm up and then trotted. And he's sound!! He was maybe the teeniest bit off when we started but honestly.. it could have been my imagination. Or his usual right hind stickyness. I figured it wasn't enough to get us called out, so it's still worth heading to Tennessee.
We did some flat work and worked on a nice forward trot with some good bend. He was quite good. We tried to run through the test but I had to do it piecemeal because of all the obstacles in the way. But he was good. So then we did some obstacles and he was REALLY good. Like... okay... I'd be quite happy with that at the show. Good job sir! We played a bit more and then finished with some canter. He is still a bit stiffer going to the right, but we got some nice bend. Good pony!
After I untacked I gave him a bath. I just used dawn dishsoap because I figured he'd probably be dirty again by Thursday but it was worth an attempt. And then I trimmed his mane and tail a bit. And then fed them dinner, so hopefully he won't roll horribly. Although he was so filthy just from the dust today. Between the arena dust and the ground dust from his nap... it's been sooooo dry here. My poor pastures are just crusting away and turning to dirt.
I think I'm mostly packed and I think I mostly have our "outfits" planned. :) Debating how obnoxiously loud I want to be. But I think I do. :) Ha! At least for ease of handling...
You are really being quite the twit this week sir!! Like.. you might not get your legends wednesday! Because... dangit I have to ride your butt and deal with you all weekend.
I'm glad I waited til this morning to send Patrick a text instead of panicking and texting him yesterday. It was the right thing to do and he made a comment about someone else texting him on a Sunday and being annoyed. Granted, a new client, but still. Anyways, he texted back this morning and said he'd swing by this afternoon. So Mike grabbed Dan and put him in his stall and locked him in. Unfortunately the girls ignored him and stayed out so he was angry and kicking the whole time. Patrick arrived and said that Dan was all amped up so he couldn't get any reaction to the hoof testers. But one nail was kind of high so he pulled it. He was talking to me on the phone and said he was going to put some coppertox in the hole and then was like "Dangit.... maybe not.. there goes the cross ties". Wait... what?!? Ha ha. Then there was some noise and he was saying "If you can hear me, hold on... dan broke the cross ties... but it's only one... I got him". ha ha. Seriously Daniel!!!! Do NOT get me fired!!! Then Mike came out because of the commotion I guess. He was able to squiret some stuff in it and then they turned him out and he apparently galloped off. "Looks sound from here". Doh. Thank you Patrick!! I told him I'd check him when I got home and report back.
So, I got home and Dan was still pissed about being locked in so he didn't come up. It's dinnertime though. NOPE! I went out to catch him and he did let me catch him. I put him in the round pen to see if he was sound and he ws just cantering around and being a fool. Granted, the fan paraglider guy was out, but still... And then... He jumped out again. Luckily I was trying to video him so I could see if he was sound, so I caught it on video. Fool! But yay for catching it on video. And then the gallop off.
So... I walked back out and tried to get him to trot some. And he did and he looked pretty sound. But then I decided... screw it.. I went and got my helmet and his western bridle. I'm not getting my butt on you without a helmet and without a bit today... no sir. Not when you are clearly in a mood! So I hopped on and we walked over towards the girls and then I asked him to trot. I only asked for about 10 steps of trot but he was sound. I probably should have turned but he was already sounder than the last three rides, so I figured it was a win and hopped off. YAY! Thank you Patrick!.
Of course now I"m contemplating if he was still just amped up from the paraglider fan guy. He was watching it. Like looking up in the sky at it. And was on high alert the whole night. But... oh well. I'll ride tomorrow after the dentist. I bet he's sound. I would think I would have felt it or seen it at some point.
He did finally come in for dinner and was pissed that he got closed in again, but... you have to let Funny finishe her feed sir. And then he made faces at me.
Sadness.
hoping patrick will be able to get him fixed before we leave. Or barrow. Sigh... this sucks. I feel awful. tried to be preemptive and screwed myself. sigh...
packed and did outfit voting, just in case.
rode... but definitely still lame at the trot. But walked the obstacles and practiced some. he tried. good boy. now i feel bad for you. Though my finger still throbs and smarts!
photos: 9-26 still lame, sunset
