Bringing Up Baby!
farrier morning, jumped out. zoomies
let me catch him and loaded up. had a nice ride at ashland. maybe a little sore/stiff starting out but maybe just his normal NQR. good ride. Didn't push it and ask for canter... partly because he's been a stinker and I wasn't in the mood and partly because I was a little afraid he was sore after the fall. had one thought about being a butt, but decided to make a better choice. behaved.
had a good ride
photos: 10-26 better life choice
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...
