Back in Action!

It was a long week for me last week.  Our office finally moved upstairs to the third floor.  And although the new office space is nice and new, the actual move was horrendous.  Add in the fact that I have come down with a bad cold, well I was pretty miserable.  I did actually consider staying home from the barn Saturday morning, but well I just can't stay away.  I rolled up to the barn about 9:00, just as Bonnie was finishing up with feeding.  Someone was possibly coming to look at Naughtie, so I pulled her out of her stall to clean her up a bit.  Katie had given her a bath a couple days before, so she was relatively clean, she just needed a bit of grooming.  Well no one showed up to look at her so Bonnie had me tack up and ride with Rachel.  What a great ride we had.  She actually hasn't been ridden since sometime last fall, but Bonnie was the last one on her so really couldn't tell that she had so much time off.  Naughtie was ready to get back to work and happily moved out into a forward, marching walk once I was in the saddle.  She was soft in my hands and very responsive to my legs.  After lots of circles of various sizes at the walk, we moved into an impulsive trot.  A little warm up at the trot and it was time to shorten our stirrups to jump.  Bonnie had set up a low cross bar in the center of the arena and we popped over that several times before she had us jump another cross bar that was set up to the right at a slight angle.  The trick though was to trot through the other jump standards only making the right turn about a stride before the fence.  We did that a bit and then Bonnie added another fence in front of the first fence in the center of the ring as a one stride combination.  We jumped that a few times and then jumped the first fence and turned to jump the angled fence.  First time through doing that wasn't very pretty.  I actually didn't make the angled fence as I was waiting too long to turn Naughtie.  Thankfully she is very athletic and managed to jump over the center fence even though she wasn't at all straight for it.  It took us a couple of tries but we managed to get the idea.  Then Bonnie added a third fence to the middle so that we had a bounce to a one stride.  Jumped that a few times and then Bonnie set up another angled fence on the left side of the center line.  This one she put back a bit further, giving us a little more room to make the turn after the bounce.  Then we started alternating, first jump the bounces turn to the left then loop around and jump the bounces and turn to the right.  Finally we ended on a small course; straight through the center, bounces to the left, bounces to the right and finally finish through the middle.  It was a fun lesson, and even though we only jumped small fences it was something new to Naughtie.

After I finished with Naughtie, I gave her a quick bath and then tacked up Fanny-girl.  Fanny was a super little pony.  headed right to work on the rail with minimal screwing around.  I did have to get after her a bit once when she kept giving the roundbale the stink eye.  After that she was as good as gold.  We warmed up at the walk and trot and then Bonnie had us go down on the circle and try the canter on both leads.  The goal was to try and slow her canter down to an acceptable western pleasure pace.  Much easier on the right lead than the left.  But the left is her harder side as she does have a bit of a stifle issue there.  we don't usually canter her too much on the left lead, definitely not as comfortable for her as the right lead.  Then it was time to jump.  We started out over the single fence in the center and then added the second fence to make the one stride in and out.  And then finally we added the two angled fences.  Fanny was having so much fun!  She's really enjoying herself with getting to play with the big kids.  And she much happier then when the little kids get on for their lessons.

Ari had tacked up His Poniness for a lesson and she rode him on the flat in the same group as Fanny and I.  She's doing a really good job with him.  He's looking very happy with her riding, the same cannot be said for some who have been on him in the past, so that's important to me.  And she's having fun.  At first they were going to have a lunge lesson, but then Ari just sort of worked into the group and rode him on the rail.  But she still worked on things like riding without stirrups and posting without stirrups.  Heather came to pick Ari up before she had a chance to put X away.  And so rather than immediately untack him I decided to hop up for a little.  We didn't do too much, just trotted a little bit and then picked up the canter.  He's still tossing his head at the canter which I don't like, but overall he wasn't too bad considering he really hasn't be worked other than on the lunge in a while.  I had planned to ride him a little longer, but then Miss decided to escape from her stall and come running out to the arena.  I guess she had enough of waiting around for me to get to her and  took things into her own, well hooves.  So I put X away and tacked up the Moose.

Miss just got some flatwork, a lot of walk and flexing and then some trot work too.  By that point I didn't really have time for too much else.  But Miss was breathing a little heavy, kinda rumbly, so it was probably a good things that we didn't do too much.  She gave me some good moments at the trot though.  And then we just had some fun walking around and playing a bit.

Good day at the barn, although I think I overdid it a bit seeing as I was coming down with a cold.  So I was pretty miserable at work that evening.  At least I only had to work till 10:00 rather than midnight.  I'm taking Wednesday off for my appointment with Dr. Connelly, but that's not till the afternoon so I should get a chance to go ride in the morning.

Still have some super secret Rolex news to share soon.  And another post that I'm really not looking forward to writing.  I seem to be doing too many of these suddenly...

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Baby Bounces

First off in case you missed it, Ecogold pulled a hilarious park on Friday.  Go check it out

Breaking News!  US Team selects new coach

More Breaking News!  Reactions to US coach announcement

Shocking turn of events!  New US coach resigns

So Saturday I had two great rides.  First I got on Fanny before the kids rode, get her listening and paying attention.  She was being a bit of a snot to start with but she settled down once we got to work.  I warmed her up on the flat at the walk and trot, and even threw in a couple of leg yields, something she hasn't done in a long time.  And then I shortened my stirrups and we popped over some fences.  Started off over just a single fence and then after a few times, Bonnie added a second fence as a bounce.  Fanny was so cute!  She was really getting into it.  She'll be the only walk/trot horse at South Farm who does combinations.  lol

The kids all rode then.  And I gave both Astrid and Ari lunge lessons on his poniness.  It was pretty funny actually.  Astrid went first and then Ari.  Well when I went to hook him up for the second direction with Ari, he started backing away from me.  I just had to laugh at him.  Silly pony, too lazy to do a little work.

After all the kids rode and things quieted down, Katie and I got ready to ride Mystic and Miss.  Bonnie had set up some random fences in the arena for the kids to jump some mini courses.  Nothing was really planned, it was just kinda turn here, jump that, turn there kinda thing.  Miss had a blast!  It's been two years since she's jumped any kind of a course and she was having so much fun.  They were just small crossbars, nothing big, but to Miss it was fantastic.  She was cantering between fences, and the couple of related lines we had, I just let her jump from the canter.  She was very pleased with herself.  Miss is looking so good, honestly I never thought I would see her in this good of shape again.

In other news, after riding Fanny, Bonnie and I got to talking.  And I'm thinking about taking Fanny back to her western roots and showing her western pleasure this summer.  How cute would she be?  plus if Fanny was going to the open shows, then Payton and I could go in the leadline class.  Payton and Fanny together would just be cuteness overload.  lol

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Catching Up

Alright, I know.  It's been crazy and I haven't had a chance to catch up on the barn/riding activities.  So that means this is gonna be a long one!  lol

Going back 3 (!) weekends ago, I had a great ride on Miss.  I started tacking her up when Rachel headed out to the arena.  That meant they were just starting jumping when Miss and I made our way out there.  So I did have a somewhat distracted Miss, but we handled it pretty well.  She's still not bending really great, somewhat stiff, so i know that's something we need to work on, but other than that she continues to amaze me.  She was forward and willing.  When I asked for the trot, she easily moved into a swinging trot.  And she was moving very straight, woohoo!  So we warmed up at the walk and trot while Rachel finished her lesson.  We did a lot of transitions, changes in direction and laterals.  And then it was time to jump.  I was actually riding in my Collegiate saddle so it would be easier on me to jump this time around.  I hiked up my stirrups while Bonnie lowered the fence back down and we were ready to go.  We got to jump a small vertical this time.  And Miss loved it.  First time through was pretty crappy on my part (as usual) but Miss was a rock star.  She's using herself so well over fences and she's just loving it.  We jumped that about half a dozen times or so and Bonnie bumped the fence up.  Which of course made Miss even more excited.  After jumping that several times, Bonnie bumped it up again.  But unfortunately I had one of my moments and we had a stop.  Rather than risk hurting Miss, we just dropped the fence back down and finished with that a few times.  After we finished Sarah measured the fence and we had been jumping 2'8" so just over beginner novice height.  Woohoo!  So pleased with my baby girl!  Of course by the time I took care of Miss and put her away I pretty much had to leave to get ready for work, so I didn't get any other riding in that day.

The following Friday I had off work for Spring Break, so of course that meant I headed out to the barn.  the plan was to clean some stalls, but mother nature had other ideas.  Between the snow and the rain, everything was pretty much mud behind the barn.  It was so bad trying to get the wheelbarrows through the mud to dump them.  So Kaye's stall got cleaned and then I gave up on stalls.  That's ok though, cause it was time for Spa Day.  Since Kaye was already in the cross ties I started with her.  She got a thorough grooming and then I pulled the clippers out and she got her bridle path clipped and all her whiskers trimmed as well.  That darned mare knows that it's getting close to show season and she's getting excited for it.

While I was working on Kaye, I was interrupted by a phone call from Sandy and I figured that since her ponies were going home in a week I better start to clean them up a bit.  So I pulled Buddy's blanket off, and first we headed out to the arena to exercise a bit on the lunge line.  I let him work off a bit of energy and then brought him back in the barn and started giving him a good grooming.  Which involved using all of my Cowboy Magic to untangle his mane.  GRRRR!  A while later he was groomed, clipped, braided and re-blanketed and back in his stall.

Finally I got to pull Miss out and give her a serious grooming.  It's been a while since she's had pre-show season day like this and she was loving every minute of it.  Started off with some serious time with the curry comb, and the hair was a flyin'!  So glad to see that, as she has been one of the last horses to shed the past few years.  Then she got her bridle path clipped and her whiskers trimmed.  And then finally I got out the pulling comb to work on her mane.  It still needs pulled some more to look respectable, but it's a start at least.  

Got to love how white that sock stays

Saturday, well that's when everything with Tru started, so it wasn't really a good day.  I did get a good lesson on Kaye though.  We had some great moments on the flat and some pretty good fences as well.

And then finally this brings me to this past weekend.  I took the day off on Friday so that we could head down to Frederick, MD in the morning and take Cuddles and Buddy home.  I got to the barn early so I could grain and water before Bonnie got home from work.  She stopped to pick up Astrid and then the trailer from Tammy's so it was about 8:30 by the time they got there.  Astrid and I groom the two ponies a bit while Bonnie was haying everyone and then we hosed their legs clean and loaded them in the trailer.  It ended up being around 10 by the time we left, a little later than I would have liked but not too bad.  Bonnie drove until we got our toll ticket on the turnpike and then we switched drivers so she could sleep a bit.  It was a gorgeous day for a drive.  We had the windows down and my iPod was plugged in the radio.  We stopped at Somerset for lunch, and of course I had to get Chloe lunch too.  lol  Finally we stopped at Hagerstown for fuel and bonnie took over the driving duties, which was fine with me.  I don't particularly want to drive the back roads to Sandy's place.  It was about 3 when we pulled into Sandy's.  After getting the ponies settled in their stalls we had a nice (brief) visit with Sandy before we piled back in the truck and headed home.  Bonnie drove for a bit in Maryland and then turned driving back over to me as she started getting tired again and I drove the bulk of the trip home.  We stopped on the turnpike for fuel and dinner and ended up making it home about 9:00.  Of course by the time we took care of the horses and I drove home it was after 11:00.  Oh and to make it even better.  When I went to get in my car, my right front tire was low, like majorly low.  Stopped at Kwik Fill and put air in it, and at that time I found the huge nail in the tire.  

So Saturday morning I had to first wait around until Smallwood's opened at 9:00 to have my tire fixed.  I was there early so I was the first one in.  And luckily they were able to patch my tire.  Which is good, I would have been pissed if I had to replace it.  That tire is only 2 months old!  It was going on 10:00 by the time I finally made it out to the barn.  We were running low on hay so first order of the day was to move some hay down from the upper building.  Since we didn't have Jim to put it in the hay loft we just put some in the barn.  X lucked out as Bonnie wanted to put a bale down by the arena doors, but she needed someone in that stall who wouldn't balloon out eating hay nonstop.  So Repo got moved and X went into that stall.

He's in heaven with the new arrangement.  So after we finished with the hay it was time to tack Kaye up.  I got on first to work out her spookiness.  And man was she feeling GOOD!  lol  As I was walking to loosen her up, we had to spook at the doors, all of them, every time we went past.  We had to spook at the very scary hay bales sitting at the far end of the arena.  Oh my god, how could I possibly expect her to work in such scary conditions.  Eventually I just pushed her into a trot, getting to work usually settles her down.  It was successful for the most part, Kaye moved into a forward, swinging trot.  She was relaxing and on the bit. We did some trot work, throwing in some laterals every so often and then asked for the canter.  As usual, she did pick her head up a bit at the canter, but she came back down on the bit when I asked, so I was pleased with that.  And she did a couple of really nice, responsive simple lead changes.  Then it was time to jump.  Bonnie had me shorten my stirrups even more than normal.  Usually I dressage with my stirrups on the 9th hole (give or take a hole depending on the horse) then for jumping I shorten them 3 half holes.  Bonnie had me shorten them 2 more half holes.  That's a big difference for me, a big difference for my knee really.  At that point I could definitely tell it was time for another cortisone shot.  Guess I better call Dr. Yakish.  

So stirrups shortened I was ready to go.  Bonnie had set up a smallish oxer for us (2'6"-ish)  And I was all over the place.  It was bad.  I was leaning on her neck, pinching with my knees so my lower leg was swinging waaay back, and then grabbing with my legs for balance so Kaye was taking off after the fence.  Time to try fixing this.  Reins tied in a knot and next time we go with no hands.  I'll admit it took me a couple of fences to get comfortable jumping with no hands again, I'm so rusty at jumping now, going so long without any lessons is not what I need at all.  After several times with no hands, I did get better with my upper body position, and my lower leg wasn't swinging quite so much.  So progress was made, not as much as I would like though.  I really need to step up here if I'm going to go training at South Farm in May.

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I GOT TO JUMP MISS!!!!

Ok, as you can probably tell, I had a great ride on Miss this weekend.  I got out to the barn a little late Saturday morning.  The kids were already there and get Kaye and Fanny tacked up to ride.  Astrid took Kaye out for a lesson and Victoria was on Fanny, so I figured I would tack up Miss and take her out to walk with them.  For the past few months, as I've been tack walking Miss, I've been tacking her up in the dressage saddle.  Saturday was no exception.  By the time I finished tacking up and getting myself dressed, Astrid and Victoria were almost done with their lesson.  But I hopped on and started walking Miss around.  The kids all switched horses, Carlee got on Kaye, and Henry got on Fanny.  I continued walking Miss and asked Bonnie to set up some ground poles for us to step over.  So we did that a few times.  And then Miss heard something that was apparently very scary and she decided to spook.  Which of course for Miss is just sort of humping her back and bouncing in place, and she thinks she's bucking.  And I just laughed.  So I got her settled down, and walking again.  Bonnie has the kids start trotting and tells them to go ahead and trot through the ground poles.  And Miss spooks again. At that point Bonnie just told me to put her in a trot and let her work off some of that energy.  Now I haven't really trotted Miss much in the past.  She would trot like 2 circles and get very wheezy with her breathing.  But I figured if she got too bad we would just go back to the walk.  So we trotted around a bit, through the ground poles.  And then after a while Bonnie set up a baby cross-bar and told the kids to go through.  I just kept trotting Miss on the rail and Bonnie told me to take her through too, see what she does.  First time she was sort of just figuring it out, it has been about a year since she jumped anything.  Next time through, she just attacked the fence, power trotted through the poles and then really over jumped the fence.  Normally, a baby jump like that she just steps over, she has to get up to 3 1/2 -4 feet before she really starts to use herself.  Well she was using herself over this little fence.  I could really feel her snapping her shoulders and back over it.  The whole time her ears were perked and she was eager to jump.  She loved it.  And I was just laughing pretty much the whole time, I was so happy she was jumping.  We jumped that about a dozen times or so before calling it a day.  And Miss wasn't breathing hard at all.  I'm amazed.

Needless to say, Miss got lots of treats after we headed back into the barn.  And she got a good grooming and her tail put up in her snazzy new tail bag.  Sheet back on and she was tucked into her freshly cleaned stall with another can of grain.  Of course by the time I left the barn she was sacked out in her stall.

Other than riding Miss, I didn't get much else done at the barn, cleaned some stalls and helped the kids a bit.  But with having to work at 5:00 I didn't have much time.  Looking forward to having the 11th off, so I can spend all day in the barn while the kids are at school.

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Pony Profiles: Valley Miss, Part 1

After Stoney was taken away, I didn't have a horse to ride.  So Bonnie put me up on Valley Miss.  Miss is a 1988 bay thoroughbred mare.  She was completely different than anything I had ridden before.  For one thing she was BIG, at least compared to the pony and quarter horses I had been riding.  She stand 16.2 hands and has the longest legs.  Which means she has a huge stride.  It took me a while to get used to that.  Add in the fact that she's not an easy horse to ride means it took some time for us to click together.  But Miss has always thought of her riders as her kids and so it's her job to take care of us.  We got used to each other over the winter and when the 2002 show season rolled around, we were ready to take on all challengers in the mini trial circuit.

My best memory from that summer was the Grand River mini trial.  Miss and I were entered in the very green division, we had a pretty decent dressage test and were excited to head out for cross country.  As we were trotting to the first fence on course, I felt my right stirrup leather slide off the stirrup bar.  I will admit, I was pretty much ignorant of the rules and I didn't know that I could stop to fix my stirrup.  So we kept going to the first jump.  The stirrup was only hanging on by the excess through the keeper, and the iron was hanging down below her belly.  Miss was such a good girl for me.  She just very easily crawled over the jumps for me.  About halfway around the course, I realized the stirrup iron was banging Miss on her leg, so I reached down and pulled it off the saddle, just tossing it on the ground.  There was one jump that Miss had to actually jump to get over, and as soon as we landed she was looking back to make sure I was there.  We finished our course, with only one stirrup and we had no jumping penalties.  Bonnie picked up my stirrup and we replaced it on my saddle and went on to jump clean in stadium and win our division!  I will never forget my baby girl taking care of me that day.

Over the winter one of the other girls in the barn started riding Miss, getting her ready to event at the novice level in the spring.  And although I still got to ride her occasionally, that was the end of our partnership (for a little while at least)

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Back in the Saddle

Well I finally made it back to the barn two weeks ago.  And I actually got a ride on Kaye!  Amazing.  Bonnie gave me a short flatwork lesson in which it was painfully obvious that I cannot go that long without a lesson.  My leg was horrible, I was tense, Kaye was tense.  All around it was not pretty!  But regardless it felt so good to ride her again.  I also had a another good ride on Miss.  She is definitely perking up and feeling good.  The snow falling off the roof of the arena gave her just the excuse she needed to give a little spook.  She humped her back, and bounced her hind legs in a little baby buck before breaking into a canter.  I couldn't help but laugh at her, which made it a little hard to bring her back to the walk.  I was just so happy that she was feeling good enough to even try to buck.  Of course, being Miss, she really has no idea how to buck, but the thought was still there.

Unfortunately the next weekend it got very cold again, so that meant no barn.  Boo!  But I understand why Bonnie doesn't want to open the place up in that weather.  I was able to get out again this past weekend though. I tacked Miss up first and took her out for a walk.  So was feeling good again.  And she is looking great!  She's putting weight on, her ribs are completely covered.  But I think I'm going to have to talk to Dr. Maro about getting some more albuterol for her.  We're pretty much out of it now, and it really has helped her breathing.  Then I got to hop on Kaye for a short lesson too.  And this one went much better than the one two weeks before.   I was much more relaxed and so she was much more relaxed.  And we had some really good moments at the trot and canter.  Really looking forward to riding more and getting ready for show season.

I talked to Bonnie about getting Twinkie's feet done so that I can start riding her again.  Ari and I were talking a couple weeks ago and she mentioned that she would try riding Twinkie again after I had a little more.  Twinkie really is a sweet horse, she doesn't do anything, but she's still just green.  She doesn't really know what leg means yet, so she's a wiggle-worm all over the place.  But she doesn't have a mean bone in her body.   She'd never even dream of bucking or anything.  I can get on her cold even when she hasn't been ridden in months, even if she hasn't be turned out in a while.  She's just so laid back and calm.  I'll lunge her more out of habit than any real need to do so.  So I've got a call into Jamie, just waiting to hear back from him.  X needs his shoes pulled and trimmed, and then Twinks can get done at the same time.  I was thinking that maybe I would take Twinkie to a combined test or something at South Farm this spring, she how she would do in the very green division.  Or maybe if we get her cantering I'll take her in baby beginner novice or even beginner novice.  So we'll see.

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Walking the Moose

I know I promised riding updates while doing the 31DC, what can I say though, this month has been incredibly busy for me.  Payroll cutoff at Pitt was insanely early this month because of the holiday.  So I was super busy with that.  And then I've been working 5 days a week at Wal-Mart as well.  So Jai doesn't get much sleep!  LOL  Wal-Mart has been crazy busy getting ready for the holidays of course.  Pretty much every night I'm kicking people out of my line so that I can shut down and go home. Oh well such is life.

So the kids have all been riding Kaye, so I haven't had a chance for a lesson in weeks.  But I have had some good walking rides with Miss Moose.  She's really feeling good now.  She wants to go to work.  And when we do go out she tries to use any excuse to break into a canter.  Two weeks ago I had Katie take a picture of Miss and I.  Thinking of entering it in next year's SmartPak "What Was I Thinking" contest.

Katie was laughing at us.  She said I looked like a ninja with a cape around my waist.  But I don't care!  I was warm.

Clothing Count:

• Fleecy Britches
• Full chaps
• 2 pairs of socks
• Western boots (cause my paddock boots wouldn't fit over the socks)
• English spurs on said western boots
• Under Armour
• Long sleeve t-shirt
• 2 sweatshirts
• Windhurst Jacket
• Exercise blanket

At least we were warm.  And Miss was working well, what do I care what we looked like.  And it's not like Boyd Martin or someone was there to see me.  LOL

I didn't make it out to the barn this past weekend, I had to get some shopping done.  Only a week till Christmas and I wasn't done.  I'm still not done and now I have less than a week till Christmas.  Eeek!  I have no clue when I'm going to be able to finish, I'll probably be out on Christmas Eve.

But Blair came home on Sunday!  Squeee!  I'm so excited.  She'll be home for a week and then next week, probably Monday, we'll be driving back to Georgia where I'll visit for a week.  Woot!  I'm almost more excited for that than I am for Christmas.

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Thanksgiving Weekend and Other Updates

I know I'm like a week late on my Thanksgiving post, but oh well.  It was wonderful to be off from Pitt for a couple of days.  Wednesday we got out early (at 3:00) and I didn't have to be at Wal-Mart till 6:00 so I got to do a bit of shopping in Cranberry.  Wal-Mart was busy, but that's good, makes the night go quickly.  Thursday I really lucked out and I had the day off from Wal-Mart!  Woohoo!  Headed out to the barn in the morning.  Katie was there but no Bonnie, which I knew about.  She had to go in to work early so she wasn't planning on being in the barn.  Katie and I cleaned some stalls and then she tacked up Mystic and I got Miss ready.  Katie just did some walk/trot flat work with the poopalossa.  And I was planning to only do some walking with Miss.  Well Miss had some other ideas, and she just popped into this nice forward trot.  So I let her go and we trotted a couple of circles.  I only let her do a couple as she's really not fit at all, and even then I had to fight her to get her back to the walk.  She has certainly been feeling good. 

Thursday evening it was down to Aunt Sandy's for dinner (of course!)  As usual the meal was fantastic.  Aunt Sandy always outdoes herself with these family dinners.  It was great to be able to spend the evening with my family.  Friday morning I slept in a bit and then Mom and I headed out for a little shopping.  We didn't go out until about 10:00 so we missed most of the craziness, although it was still hard to find a parking spot at the mall.  We did manage to get a good start on our shopping though, so I'd say the day was a success.  Then I had to head into Wal-Mart at 6:00.  And actually, it was really pretty dead.  I guess it was super busy in the morning until about 8:00 or so.  And then it was pretty much a normal day, only it seemed really slow because there were so many of us working.  At one point there was like 7 cashiers in a row standing out at the end of our aisles. 

Saturday I headed back out to the barn for lesson day.  Got some stalls done first thing.  And I had a great ride on Miss.  She was just feeling so good.  A couple of times she broke into a canter, which I quickly stopped, she doesn't need to be doing that yet.  But she was feeling good.  And she's looking good too.  She's really filling out and thanks to the riding, she's starting to build up her muscle again.  Her hindquarters are filling out and she's really picked up along her back, for the longest time you could really see her spine and she had no muscle or anything there.  She was putting on weight, but it was all in the belly and she wasn't able to carry it right.  Not anymore.  She's really is looking like a healthy horse again.  Yay!  My baby girl's doing better!

Unfortunately I had to go back to work at Pitt on Monday, but I did have Friday off.  Even if it was to go for more testing, at least I didn't have to go to work.  First thing Friday morning I headed over to Dr. Connelly's office to swallow a small camera pill. 

And then I had to wear this lovely belt and recorder all day.

So that pretty much meant I couldn't go out to the barn at all.  And to make it even worse I couldn't drink anything for 2 hours and no food for 4 hours.  Which at this point I hadn't eaten anything since Wednesday night.  So I was starving.  I headed home and snoozed on the couch for a couple of hours.  Then I headed out to Monaca for a bit.  Did some shopping and got a really cute pair of shoes, among other things. 

After that I stopped down to visit with Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ralph.  they were taking down all the Thanksgiving decorations so I helped with that.  Then we headed out to the back porch and just procrastinated.  Uncle Ralph really didn't want to start bring the Christmas decorations down from the third floor.  I had to go back over to Dr. Connelly's office at the end of the day to turn in the belt and recorder.  And then I went back to Aunt Sandy's for some of Uncle Ralph's yummy cheesy ham casserole.  Yum!  And then we did the usual, watch NCIS on USA then the Hallmark Channel.  Good evening.

Saturday I headed out to the barn for some pony time.  I got X's stall cleaned and then I tacked up Miss Moose for another walking ride.  And she was trying to canter again.  Silly mare!  I think it's time to start doing some trot work with her and maybe add some cavellettis.  But she really needs her feet trimmed before I start increasing her work too much.  So I'll discuss with Bonnie next week and see what she thinks. 

In other news, the Northeast Ohio Mini Trials Series has posted their 2011 schedule.  So now it's time to start thinking about where to take my little painted dressage pony this summer.  Titus will be doing some walk/trot dressage this summer at the very least, maybe even some crossrail mini trials.  Yay, I can't wait!  I think I heard that Tammy will be sending him back to us over Christmas sometime.  So hopefully I will get some more riding time on him.

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This and That...

I know, I know.  I've been terribly lax about updating.  What can I say, I've been busy.  Between working both jobs, NaNoWriMo writing and trying to squeeze in time with the ponies, well there's just not enough hours in the day.

Anyway, I had a good jumping lesson on Kaye a couple weeks ago.  Bonnie had these triples set up across the diagonals, kind of like an x in the middle of the arena.  That was pretty cool, Kaye and I actually didn't have any bad fences to start out with.  Unfortunately we were riding with Katie and Mystic, and since Mystic is still pretty green, we were only jumping baby cross bars.  That sucked, would have been a lot more fun to jump slightly bigger fences.

Then last week I didn't get to ride Kaye since all the kids ride her.  But I did tack up Miss in the dressage saddle and took her out for some walking work.  Miss has been chowing down on her grain the last few weeks, so unusual for her.  So now that she putting some weight on, we need to get her to build up her muscles as well.  I tried something a little different with her before our ride.  I gave her a squirt of Albuteral before we headed out to the arena.  And man did that make a difference.  Her breathing was a little bit rumbly but she never coughed and she didn't start wheezing.  And Miss loved it.  We did a lot of walking on a loose rein, bending circles and all that.  Then I would pick up the reins and collect her into a dressage frame for some leg yields and half passes and such.  Then back to a loose rein for a bit and then some more collected work.  All in all I rode her for about 45 minutes, and she was doing great.  Ari and Sara both took lunge lessons on my pony.  Ari has decided that she loves lunging on my horse.  So she rode him a bit and then Sara took a turn.  She wasn't sure about him at first, she hasn't been on anyone but Fanny since coming to Bonnie's, and he is a bit bigger.  But after she took a couple of laps on him, she started to relax and then enjoy it a little more.  After Sara finished I had Victoria lunge me a couple of times so Sara could see what she should be doing on the lunge, how to relax and sit the trot without a death grip on the saddle.

This past Saturday, I got to take a dressage lesson on Kaye.  Which is fine with me, I really want to focus on dressage this winter.  We got some good canter moments, plus some really good leg yields.  So I was really pleased with that.  After I rode Kaye, I tacked up Miss again and took her out for some more walking work. Once again I gave her some Albuteral before we rode, and she was great.   She's really enjoying getting back into some work.  I don't know if we'll ever be able to do anything more with her than just walking.  But even if that's all she can do, I'm fine with that.  At least she's still here with us.  And still happy.  And happy ponies make me happy.  So I'll take it!

Good news is this is a short work week.  At least at Pitt.  Of course I'll still be working at Wal-Mart all weekend.  But I'm off on Thanksgiving so I can head out to the barn in the morning.  And I don't work till 6:00 PM on black friday, so unless Mom drags me out shopping, I'll be at the barn then too.

Miss, still bright eyed and ready to go after our ride.

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The Countdown Is On!

One week from today and I will be getting ready to leave for Rolex in the evening! Woohoo! I am so excited for this year. For the first time we will be going down for all four days of competition. No more missing the best dressage rides because we didn't make it down for Thursday. Plus they are also running the Kentucky Cup Test Events. So Thursday night we have tickets to see the Dressage Freestyle test and Friday and Saturday evenings are some Show Jumping test events. So excited to get the opportunity to see riders from these other disciplines. And of course all the fantastic event riders that will be there as well.

In other news, I finally got my new boots. I'm actually pretty pissed that I had to buy new boots. I have really nice Ariats that I have worn maybe 5 times. But I tried to put them on and I was able to get the one on but it was so tight across my calf that it was painful. Couldn't even manage to get the other one on all the way. I have always worn a regular calf boot, but not anymore. So Friday after work I headed out to Luster's and tried on every boot they had. I liked the idea of getting something with a zipper, easier to get on and off, and probably won't be as noticeable if it gets a little tight. I ended up buying a relatively inexpensive pair of Devon-Aire boots: the Hampton Not too bad for the price. I wanted to get them now so I'd have some time to break them in and ride in them for a few weeks before South Farm.

Saturday morning I rode in my new boots for the first time. I had a short jumping lesson with Kaye before the kids rode. Overall it was pretty good, we started over the liverpool (which now has a big blue barrel in the sled) jumped that a few times and then added the swedish oxer. Then finally we ended with a little mini course. Blue barrel with the bending line to the swedish oxer, big left turn to the tarp and then the diagonal line to finish over the blue barrel. Overall we had a good jump school, but my first fence is still crap. I hate it, no matter what I do we always have a crappy first fence. We almost always chip in and take an extra short stride, and I'm usually all over the place. Then once I have that crappy fence I can usually settle in and actually ride the rest of our fences. I just want to be able to do it right from the first one.

Then later in the day after the kids all rode, I tacked up my little dirtball for a ride. Started out pretty well. He was tense when I first got on but we worked through that and he relaxed at the walk. And then started with some nice trot work. I didn't put the draw reins on, just rode in his running martingale. He was actually, going with his head down and mostly on the vertical. Then I asked for the canter and everything went to hell. He would not pick up the canter for me. Then he just turned into an all around jerk. Fussy with his head, not listening to my outside leg at all, dropping his inside shoulder, and just being a jerk. I've been asking Bonnie for months to get on him and school him a bit. However as of yet, she hasn't done so.

After I finished at the barn for the day I had to head home to help Mom empty, clean and refill the spa. We also got the brilliant idea to try and pull down the dead tree in the backyard. Yeah didn't end up working so well. Needed Todd's help to pull it down. And then to finish off the night I met Bonnie and Lee and introduced them to the goodness that is Wooley Bully's. It was a little bit weird being there on a Saturday night. Different crowd, different bartenders and no Victor. But the pizza was still good so I can't complain.

Sunday morning I was at the barn early. Got the ponies all fed and then Bonnie and I headed out to the field to try and decipher the deed to the 5 acres she's selling. We got the property marked as best we could determine. And then took Chloe for a nice little run around the farm. I remember not all that long ago when she hated the quad, now she loves to go for a run with us. Back to the barn to clean a few stalls and then when Tricia showed up to ride I tacked Miss up with her. Apparently though it was not my day to jump Miss. Had a couple of stop (completely my fault) and that's when we decided to call it a day. She's just getting better and I don't want to risk injuring her again because of something I'm doing. I did get some pretty decent flatwork from her though, so the lesson wasn't a total loss. After that we pretty much just finished up with the ponies and headed home.

So one more weekend at home and then we'll be heading down to Kentucky. And then the weekend after that will be the South Farm CT. Show season is gearing up and I can't wait!

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Happy Easter!

Hope everyone out there had a great holiday weekend. I know I certainly did. My only complaint is that the weekend wasn't longer! Friday afternoon Ron was kind enough to let us out early, so I got to head home at 3:00. And traffic was pretty much not existent so it took me hardly any time to get out of the city. Quick stop at Tractor Supply to get Miss some more of the peppermint treats she likes and I was at the barn. Rob Moro was coming out in the morning to do coggins and shots so Bonnie and I just worked to get stalls cleaned, besides Rachel had already taken a lesson on Kaye that afternoon. We worked to get Bugs, Mickey, Twinkie and X's stalls all stripped and cleaned. And then it was time for the impossible task: getting X-tra cleaned up. He was disgustingly filthy. Brought Twinkie in and then hauled all my bathing goodies out to the arena to give dirtball a bath. Hosed down the first side and then tried to get some Orvis worked into his coat, but he was shedding so much that the bath mitt was caked with hair after one pass. So I just spent about 10 minutes grooming him with the bath mitt to get the hair off. Finally I got him to the point where I could actually use some soap and I at least managed to get the first layer of dirt off. He wasn't really clean yet, but at least I wouldn't be embarrassed to have the vet see him.

Saturday I had promised my mom that I would go look at new computers with her. I was up early and to the barn by 7. Fed the ponies and turned out the horses in the front pasture and then started on stalls. Bonnie came down and we turned Cuddles out in the arena and got his stall cleaned. And then I started to tack up Kaye so I could ride before the kids got there. Of course just as I was finishing Jim showed up to put hay up in the loft. So Bonnie and I headed up to move bales. Jim loaded us up with a dozen round bales so that should last us for a couple of weeks. Finally I was able to go down and get on Kaye. In the meantime the two Tammy's pulled in with Repo and Sugar, so they joined me out in the arena. After a good warm up, Bonnie got me started jumping and she recorded our lesson.

It was an ok jump school. I was letting Kaye get too strung out as the lesson progressed, forgetting to dressage between the fences. So I'm not real happy with myself for that. But on a good note, we didn't have any stops. Which for me is really good. Overall fairly pleased with how we did. Unfortunately I had to leave soon after I finished riding so I could get cleaned up and meet up with my mom for our Costco trip.

Sunday morning I was back to the barn early. Fed the ponies and then spent a little time with X after he had his little visit with the vet. He was a good boy for Dr. Moro and he now has his coggins and got his tetanus, flu and rhino shots. All for only $77 including part of the farm call. Not bad at all, I was honestly expecting closer to 100. The vet took at look a Tru's leg since his cellulitis has been really bad again lately. That hind leg is huge and again and the swelling has gone all the way up into his belly and sheath as well. He looks pretty miserable and he hasn't been wanting to put any weight at all on that leg. Dr. Moro did some acupuncture on the leg, he seems to think it has something to do with him lymph glands. Said to give it a week and then give him a call, if there's no improvement he'll give Katie some meds for it. So we'll see what happens. Miss got another adjustment and her coggins done. Dr. Moro was very impressed with how well she's doing. And then Kaye, Bugsy, Airy, Cuddles, Pele, Mystic, and Mickey all got their coggins and shots. So we are ready for show season!

Anyway, Bonnie and I picked a few stalls and then I tacked up Kaye for a lesson. Had a pretty decent warm up again. Really getting her listening to me and in the bridle. And then we started jumping. Started out of the in and out, did that a few times and then Bonnie raised it, first fence was 2'10", second fence was 3'. And the best part, I never even thought about the fences getting bigger. I mean the last few weeks I've been really good about not asking Bonnie to put the fences down, or saying that I can't jump them, but I still have that thought in my head. That 'oh no the fence is bigger, I'm a little scared.' It never even crossed my mind. I just rode down to that fence and thought 'Ok, hold her, keep contact and drive her forward into the bridle.' It was pretty awesome. Then we did the tarp and the liverpool, the helicopter and the swedish oxer. Really good jump school, so much better than Saturday. And Bonnie recorded the whole thing.

After I put Kaye away, I tacked up Naughtie for a lunge lesson. I really need to do more lunge lessons, but I actually made some big improvements on my seat just from that one. I have been starting to sit too far back, so Bonnie and I really worked on getting me to sit up straight and relax. And it was working because Naughtie was moving so much better. She was putting her head down and relaxing into a nice frame. Lately she has been carrying her head and neck pretty high and that's causing her to hollow her back. Not a pretty picture. Obviously I was sitting on her properly otherwise she wouldn't have been going so well. Bonnie left me after that so she could get ready to go to dinner with Lee. I stayed behind a while longer to lunge Bugs and Cuddles. Gotta get their energy levels worked down a bit so Bonnie can ride them this week. Hopefully we can get Cuddles going in time to take him to the South Farm CTs.

Of course later in the day it was time for dinner at Aunt Sandy's. The food was delicious as usual. And it was great to be together with all the family.

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Random Videos

Just a quick posting of some videos of Miss from last winter/spring. The first two are from the jumper show we had at the farm last February. Miss and I ended up winning both classes over fences and we were the beginner novice champions.

This next one is from later in the spring last year, shortly before Miss started having her back problems. Schooling some bounces in the arena. Of course they really weren't high enough to keep her attention. Silly ADD mare!

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Brief Winter Thaw

So we had a brief winter thaw, which was kinda nice. I at least was able to get some riding in. Gotta say going three weeks without riding just kills me! I started riding Miss a little bit again. She is just doing so well. Since Christmas really she has just improved dramatically. She's putting on weight (she should be considering that she's getting like 6 big cans of grain a day), her hips don't stick out so much anymore, her ribs are actually covered and she's starting to pick up those muscles across her back. And the biggest thing is she's Miss again. She's acting like herself, she's perked up and enjoying life again. We turn her out with Kaye and Naughtie and she just runs circles around them. I rode her again on Saturday. Jumped her a little bit and even tried to canter her. That part wasn't so great, but that was my fault. I've always had a hard time cantering Miss.

Rode Naughtie on Saturday as well. Tammy was going to ride her, and Bonnie had me get on first to warm her up while Tammy was working with her friend that came with her. Well Naughtie was feeling good. Had a nice little spook right off the bat where she tried to bolt and was doing some airs above the ground. She was getting very pissy with my leg, and not wanting to bend or flex. Tammy decided she was just going to ride Kaye, that she wasn't quite up to dealing with Naughtie's shenanigans. So I ended up jumping her a bit with Tammy. She was being a complete retard. Bolting after the fence and stupid stuff like that. Then Cosimo decided he wanted to be part of the jump. I yelled at him and of course he didn't move, so I just aimed her at the fence anyway. Well he got scared when we were in mid-air and took off. Spooked Naughtie and she landed bucking and tried to bolt. The good thing about all this is that I am getting a very secure seat. I even lost my stirrup when she did that, but I just sat up and didn't even let her bother me at all. My position never changed. Pretty cool.

After I finished with Naughtie I had to head home. The ICHA banquet was that night and I had to be at Nikki's a 4:20 so we could all ride together. Kelly was meeting us there also and we were all riding together in her Blazer, plus picking up Nikki's other friend Monique. Well of course nothing can ever be easy and we had some adventures just getting there. Nikki got confused about where we were picking up Monique. We ended up getting on 60 and had to do an illegal u-turn. It was fun adventures though. The banquet was fun. It was nice to see everyone. Nikki didn't end up doing enough Inter-County shows to really win anything this year. She did win the Adult Western Seat Equitation and was Reserve in the Arabian Western Pleasure. Looks like I'll be joining ICHA this year. Tom wants to see Dalal's name up there in High Point Awards.

Sunday of course I was back out to the barn. Rachel came out in the morning and I had a lesson on Miss with her and Kaye. I really am so pleased with how she's doing. Bonnie set up some cavalettis for us. They were too short for Miss! She even spread them out a bit and they were still too short. But because of Kaye we couldn't spread them anymore. We did the cavalettis for a bit and then Bonnie set up a cross-bar for us. Miss was really using herself over the fences, rounding through her back and using her head and neck. Finally the last fence Bonnie added a back rail to make it into an oxer. Miss just felt amazing over it! So proud of her!

Taryn came out later in the afternoon and we had a lesson on Bugs and Naughtie. Naughtie was much better than she had been the day before, not nearly so worked up. We did a bit of jumping. And I took her through two bounces for the first time. Pretty sure that was the first time she's ever done bounces. She wasn't real sure about it and she kept sneaking in a tiny extra stride, but she didn't hesitate and she jumped. So we were pretty pleased with her there.

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Getting back to normal

I finally had my follow up appointment last week and I am cleared for normal activities. I can drive again and I go back to work tomorrow, not that I'm terribly excited about that but I do need the money. I'm not supposed to ride for another week and a half, but of course I haven't exactly listened to that completely. Only light riding though I promise!

So of course, once I had wheels again first thing to do was go to the barn. And I got there just in time. Little Boo Boo hasn't been doing well all summer. He got an infection he just couldn't quite shake. He's been on antibiotics off and on for most of the summer. Wednesday he really just went downhill and so Thursday morning Bonnie called the vet and said it was time. I pulled up to the barn just as she was putting him in the struck to go to the vet. Luckily I did have a chance to say goodbye. Afterwords Bonnie brought him home and we buried him under the weeping willow in the front yard. R.I.P. Boo, we miss you already.

Taryn had come to the barn while Bonnie was at the vet and I kept her company while she cleaned some stalls. I'm still not allowed to lift anything too heavy, so no stall cleaning for me yet. After Bonnie came home we went to lunch at Pizza Hut and then it was time to ride. Taryn had a lesson on Bugs and I was dying to get on a horse. No riding for three weeks and I was going crazy. Bonnie suggested that I get on Naughtie as she is pretty smooth and easy to ride. I just walked her, I was taking it easy. I just had to actually ride though. It was so good to get back in the saddle!

Friday morning I was at the barn early. We were headed to Pedro, OH to deliver Tramp to his new home. Taryn tagged along and of course Astrid had to see the pony off, so it was a full truck for the trip. It took us about 6 hours to get there. We got off 71 just south of Columbus and it was two hours on back roads. And boy was it pretty redneck there! The place Tramp went to was literally on top of a mountain. The driveway was about 1/2 mile straight up. The house and barn were absolutely gorgeous. But it was on top of a mountain. I think Tramp will have a good home there. The family was very nice. They have four kids, the oldest is 9. All the kids were very kind to the dogs and cats, so I think they'll be good with the pony. Astrid did not want to leave him. We practically had to drag her out of the stall when it was time to leave. And then we had another 6 hours to drive home. Bonnie got us off the mountain and then I got to drive the rest of the way home. In the rain. Why do I always get to drive the trailer in the rain? We didn't get home until 10:30, still had to feed the horses and then I had to take Astrid home. I didn't get home until midnight. Long, long day!

And then of course I was back at the barn Saturday morning. It was kinda nice though cause we didn't have too many of the kids. Only Astrid, Henry, Ethan and Maeve. Kids all had lessons, and then while Astrid and Henry were riding I took Miss out to the arena for lots and lots of walking. We're hoping that getting some exercise will help her out. We did some cavalettis, getting her to pick up her feet and really build up her muscles. Then after the kids all rode, we went out for a short trail ride up and down the driveway a couple of times. Miss had a ball. As soon as I went into her stall with the saddle she perked right up. She barely even let me get her bridle on, she just wanted to charge right out of the stall. And then she perked up even more when we went outside. She was really enjoying herself as we splashed through all the puddles on the drive.

Today, I was back to the barn. Rode Miss again, and we actually trotted a little bit. The work the day before did her a lot of good. She had such a good appetite. I could tell she was a little tired when I tacked her up today, but she was still excited to go to work. She really likes being ridden. She is not happy just standing around in her stall. So I think getting her back to work a bit will be so good for her. Then after I rode Miss, I got on Kaye. Astrid's been riding her a lot and well, Astrid doesn't make her bend she just kinda lets Kaye go where she will. And Kaye has a tendency to lead with her shoulder on circles and bends if you let her. But Astrid's still learning so it's not really her fault. So we just had a walking lesson where we did lots of bending and circles and laterals. Kaye didn't care for it one bit, she's not so patient with the walking. But it was a good lesson for her. I had to lighten up her sides again. As soon as I put any leg at all on her she just started trotting. No Kaye, inside legs means more over not trot. I spent a good 45 minutes just doing laterals and spiraling circles with her. She was going very nicely by the end though. I can't wait till I can really start riding again. X was starting to go so well and now he's done nothing for a month. And I'm really looking forward to working hardcore on my dressage with Kaye this winter.

Anyways, back to work in the morning. Looking forward to life getting back to normal. But I will admit I'd really like some more time off. Oh well, can't afford it so I guess I'll go to work.

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Naughtie is home

X is seriously in the doghouse after Saturday. Vicky tacked him up to take a lunge lesson, she's been riding him on the lunge for the past few weeks so this was nothing new. Well Katie was out wetting down the arena, it was starting to get too dusty, especially for Miss. So we're lunging, Vicky's doing pretty well. Then Katie goes and stretches the hose across the arena and then walks it back on itself. It's new hose, still wants to roll up and the hose twists up on itself. Katie gives it a good hard yank to unkink, RIGHT in front of my horse. X of course looked at and went "OH MY GOD! It's going to EAT me!" And jumped straight up in the air. Apparently he's been watching Bugsy, because he then snapped his back and turned it into a nice buck. Vicky got very defensive, hunched her shoulders, leaned forward and drew her knees up. So of course she went flying. Luckily for her, the new arena footing is still pretty clean and it's softer. Vicky was ok, and eventually I was able to get her up and back on the horse. We walked around a little bit and then she went out on a trail ride on Fanny with Henry and Katie. X got a saddle change and me on him for about an hour. We walked and walked and walked. I made him walk over the scary hose and onto the scary wet sand and past the scary windows. And then I made him stand quietly. He hates that part. Now that's it's getting warmer he needs to go back to work. He has gotten much too lazy this winter and thinks he can get away with whatever he wants.

Luckily I had a good ride on Miss in the afternoon to make up for my bad pony. I rode with Astrid and Kaye, Bonnie set up a small crossbar after three trot poles for us. I have to say I really hate jumping that mare over small fences. She has so much jump, she doesn't really know what to do with herself over a little fence. Plus she knows she can just step over them so she get easily distracted. But we jumped the little crossbar a few times and then Bonnie made it a slightly bigger little crossbar and we did that a few times. Then Bonnie added a pole behind to turn it into an oxer (about 2'3") Now we're talking. Miss is so much easier to ride over the bigger fences. And she really enjoys it, you can feel the change in her. Her ears are up and her eyes are bright and she just wants to go. We jumped that maybe 4 or 5 times, really working on keeping my leg on her and anchoring my weight in my heels. Then Bonnie added the blue barrel under the jump, didn't change the height at all, just filled it in a little. That's when Astrid bowed out of the lesson. She does really good and then some days her nerves just get the better of her. We jumped the barrel a few time and then Bonnie raised the back bar up a few inches (2'6") Miss really had fun with that. She is so amazing over fences, she just snaps her knees right up to her chin and she's 4 feet off the ground without even trying. So good lesson, Miss and I both had fun, and I was pleased with the progress we made on my position.

Sunday, no barn as I had agreed to help Aunt Sandy at A Chocolate Sunday. Sara was supposed to be helping as well, but she had a baton competition so she didn't go. My mom ended up coming to help in her place. We got put at a table handing out this Dagoba Organic Chocolate stuff. It was annoying because everyone was asking us about the stuff and we had no clue what it was. Plus it was all these weird flavors, like lavender, seeds (with Hemp!), roseberry, and super fruits. But Aunt Sandy asked me to help out and since she doesn't ask for things all that often I feel like I have too. At least I got some good chocolate out of it, including Rosalinds.

While I was at the country club pushing organic chocolate bars, Bonnie and Jim were driving up to New York to pick up Naughtie. Almost 2 years ago Margaret, Bugsy's former owner, had taken Naughtie to sell. Well she didn't sell and Margaret isn't really teaching now so Naughtie came home to us. She knew were she was right away and I'd like to think that she remembered me. Anyway can't wait to ride her again next week.

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Hair, Hair Go Away!

I had Friday off from work this weekend. Yay for Spring Holiday! Bobby was out in the morning to do teeth. X, Miss, Bugs and Kaye all had their teeth floated. And then Bobby proceeded to make fun of our "geriatric" horses. So what if Kaye, Bugs and Miss are 19, 20 and 21 respectively. You'd never know to look at them, or by how they act. All three of them act like they're about 10. He was pretty impressed with how good of condition they all were in, especially Miss. Anyway, we got some stuff done around the barn and I was able to ride. Miss and I had a flat lesson with Astrid and Kaye. We worked on our canter some more, which really needs some work. I'm getting so frustrated, but I think Bonnie's going to get on her and do a little fine tuning, so that should help.

Friday night was Lexy's concert. She was chosen to be part of the Elementary Song Fest. It's a pretty big deal, she was one of 7 kids from New Brighton chosen. All day Friday she was at Rochester High School practicing with the group that included kids from Beaver Co, Butler Co, Lawernce Co, and Mercer Co. And then the concert was in the evening. That was the first time the kids had all practiced together, prior to the concert they each practiced at their own school. The kids were very, very good. It was a good concert, and Rhonda Ficca only had time for a brief speech. Finally a concert that wasn't the Rhonda Ficca Show! Lexy had a lot of fun, I'm really glad that she's getting into stuff like this, she's far too serious sometimes.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, I couldn't wait to get out and ride. Plus we had a surprise coming. Morgan was up for a few days from Tennessee! I rode Miss in a jumping lesson with Astrid and Kaye. Bonnie had three bounces set up for us to do. Went through that a few times. And then I lost my reins and had to do it with no hands. I love jumping with no hands! It's one of my favorite exercises, I swear it feels like your just flying. The fences were just set as low cross bars, mainly for Astrid, and well Miss gets bored with little fences. She wasn't really even jumping the first one, just stepping over it and then jumping the last two.

So we had a great ride, but I feel so bad afterward. It's starting to get warmer, but Miss refuses to let go of her coat. Even though we didn't really do all that much, she was soaked. I untacked her in the arena and let her and Kaye loose to roll and dry off some. But of course Miss doesn't roll, so she went into her stall with a cooler. It was nice outside, but still a little on the chilly side in the barn. Poor girl, she just won't shed yet! Bugsy's like that too. He'll be the first one to start getting a winter coat (in August!) and the last to lose it. It's like he's worried that it might suddenly get cold in the middle of summer.

I changed X's bedding on Saturday. Nikki has been using this Best Cob stuff on Image and her and Derek are looking into become a distributor of it. It's kind of expensive to start out, one 40 lb bag can cost $6-9 and you need 3-5 bags for a stall. It starts out pelleted, but as the horses move around and step on it, it will fluff up. The stuff is great though because you waste so much less of it. When it gets wet it just clumps together like kitty litter. You can really just pick out the piles and the wet spots and the rest of it still looks clean. I was amazed on Sunday that X's stall was still clean. He can destroy a stall overnight. Bonnie is trying some of it too, on a few horses. It's too expensive to use in all the stalls, plus you really need to pick it everyday. But we put Miss, Kaye, Bugsy, Big Cuddles, Airy, and Spider on it. We also switched Miss and Twinkie's stalls. Hopefully putting Miss in an inside stall will help her allergies this year. Make all the pollen and stuff from outside work a little harder to get to her.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We cleaned the stalls first thing, turned the baby out for a while. I was going to tack up Miss to ride, but she had a little bit of heat and swelling in her right hind. So maresie gets the day off. Bonnie tells me to tack up Kaye instead, which made Kaye's day. She does not like being stuck in her stall. So Kaye and I had a dressage lesson. We worked on the canter, so easy with her and yet I struggle so much with Miss. Not fair. After I rode I ended up just spending a lot of time with Miss, grooming her and giving her some cookies. She really wasn't herself. I think it's because she has sooo much coat and it was pretty warm that day. I think she was just hot and not feeling well because of it.

Unfortunately it was back to work on Monday. And next weekend I only have one day at the barn. March 22nd is A Chocolate Sunday and I'm helping there. So I won't be able to ride. I'll just have to make sure I make up for it on Saturday. Maybe if it's nice enough I'll torture X and give him a BATH! I'm evil I know.

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I had a couple of good lessons this weekend with Miss. The weather was beautiful on Friday, and since my brother no longer needed me to babysit, I made it out to ride after work. Tacked Miss up in the dressage saddle and had a short dressage lesson. She felt really great in the trot, canter still needs some work though. I'm not consistent enough in my aids and Miss is a horse that you need to be consistent otherwise she doesn't know what you want.

Saturday we had birthday cake to celebrate Miss's 21st birthday (we like any excuse to have cake!) I was going to have a jumping lesson with Astrid. However the evil little pony managed to dump her a few times and so she was too sore to ride Kaye. So I ended up working on dressage again. And I managed to get a couple of nice canter departs. Bonnie had me riding a shoulder in and then asking for the canter. First couple of times weren't real great. I actually had to really crack her with the whip because she wasn't listening (completely my fault, I had way to much spur on her for the shoulder in) But on the fourth one we nailed it. I kept her flexed and on the bit. All in all I was very pleased with how our lesson went.

Sunday I rode with Kelsey and Rachel. We started out jumping just a single fence. Then added another one to make a bounce, and eventually added a third fence as a bounce. I shortened my stirrups another half hole on Sunday to jump. I need to have shorter stirrups with her (I ride Miss on the flat in my jumping length on every other horse) Last week I felt like I was reaching for my stirrups too much over fences so I thought I would try shortening them another half hole. But the I felt like they were too short and I was up out of the saddle too much. I didn't feel very secure and actually a couple of times I felt like I was almost falling off. I got very nervous for the three fence bounces, and our first time through was bad. I didn't let Miss move on enough and we were very slow going through. Bonnie made me get off and kneel down to kiss Miss's nose and ask for forgiveness! I think Miss probably thought I was crazy getting off to kiss her int he middle of the lesson! Second time through was better, but still I just didn't feel very secure. Bonnie then turned the last fence into an oxer and I begged out, not feeling comfortable with the exercise as verticals, let alone oxers. I guess I need to play around with my stirrup length over fences, and find what I'm comfortable with. I also need a lot of practice with oxers, I tend to get a little nervous about them.

Anyway, I have Friday off this week. Yay Spring Hoiliday! The dentist is coming out in the morning, so X will get his teeth done. Maybe if it's warm enough he'll get a bath as well. I did ride him for a few minutes on Saturday before Vicky got on for a lunge lesson. He was not too pleased with having to work, and so I threatened him with Bonnie. :) He really hates when I do that!

I think I've figured out our show schedule for the summer. At least the recognized shows.

• June 19-21 Lost Hounds HT in Edinboro, PA
• July 3-5 South Farm HT in OH
• July 25-26 Gemwood HT in Dayton, OH
• August 15-16 Erie Hunt and Saddle Club HT in Edinboro, PA
• September 9-13 American Eventing Championships

Of course the AECs all depend on getting qualified and having the money to go. Lost Hounds and South Farm I'll be going for sure. Gemwood and Erie will depend on if I can get qualifying scores in the first two. But I have a plan. We'll also probably do some mini trials this summer. I'd like to take X to some and maybe even Naughty after she somes back.

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