Take Me Home Country Roads

Friday, March 19, 2010

So last Friday I had the day off from work. Yay for Spring Break! Which really worked out perfectly so we could take Little Cuddles and Buddy home to Maryland. Picked up Astrid about 5 and headed out to the barn. Started feeding the horses while we waited for Bonnie. By the time we got the trailer hooked up and the horses loaded we were on the road by 7. Not too bad for Bonnie time really. Pretty much the usual long, boring drive down to Maryland. We got to Sandy's about 1, got the ponies unloaded quickly and were back on the road in no time. We ended up calling Lee and meeting up with her in Monroeville for dinner. So we didn't get back to the barn until about 8. All in all not a bad trip. And Cuddles and Buddy are gone till next winter. Yippee!

Saturday morning I was at the barn early. Bonnie was going to ride Bugsy before the kids got there and I wanted to ride with her. So we fed early and then tacked up Kaye and Bugs. Of course we had just gotten on and hadn't moved past walking when Jim showed up to put hay in the barn. Kaye and Bugs went back into the barn so we could move hay bales. Took us about half an hour to do hay and then we could go back to the ponies. Bonnie had a good ride on Bugs. And Kaye wasn't too bad on the flat. Of course we had to spook at the Door Monsters that were hiding behind every door in the arena. After Bonnie finished with Bugs, she put him away and came back out to give me a jumping lesson.

Started over the single fence and then eventually added a second fence as a two stride. Jumped the two oxers. And then we jumped the first and second fence of the diagonal triple followed by the oxer, which actually rode very nicely. Then Bonnie raised all the fences a few holes and I jumped the in and out and the diagonal triple and then finally I jumped the two oxers. When we went back and measured everything, most of the fences were about 3'-3'3" and the one oxer and vertical were 3'6"! Woohoo! And I felt good jumping it all. I was a little nervous when Bonnie raised the fences but I jumped them all. I never said I couldn't do it. I never asked her to lower the fence. It was amazing!

Sunday morning I was back out for an early lesson. I had to leave early as I was going shopping with Aunt Sandy, Uncle Ralph and the girls. Tacked up Kaye for another jumping lesson. You should have seen her! She knew she would get to jump big fences and she was ready for it. None of the usual screwing around, she was all business. So we started out over the oxers first. and then Bonnie had us try an exercise where she placed a raised cavaletti in front of one of the verticals. The idea was to get Kaye to pick up her knees more. Well we failed miserably at that exercise. Kaye thought the raised cavaletti was a jump and so she just rode it as a bounce. Then we did the one stride in and out and then finished with the first fence of the in and out to each of the oxers. I had some problems with that. It's not a lot of room, only one stride and I was trying to wait until after landing to begin turning and there's just not enough room. Eventually we got it.

The best part about all this, I started thinking that if I'm jumping like this at home, it's really not fair to Kaye to go beginner novice at South Farm. So I think the first South Farm CT we will be going novice. And then training for the second one. I can't believe I'm seriously thinking of doing training level this summer, even at a combined test. I seriously never thought I'd actually be able to do it. It's really just amazing that I'm actually there. Can't wait to get to the barn tomorrow to ride again.

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