This and That

I know, I know, I kinda disappeared of the internet for a while. Sorry bout that! Anyways, lots has happened in the last few weeks. I went up to New York for the Cattaraugus County Fair Horse Show in the beginning of August. And I was getting paid for it! Judi had hired me to groom her horse and get her ready for classes. Angel was a dream to groom. So easy to work with, and she was super neat in her stall. She was bathed before we got there Thursday and Saturday I only had to hose her off, no second bath. Judi kicked butt that weekend. Won many of her classes including both the Open Western Pleasure Championship and the Half-Arabian Western Pleasure Championship. In addition to grooming for Judi I got to ride Dalal in a few classes. First up was the Arabian Western Pleasure Ladies to Ride. We had a decent ride and ended up placing 2nd out of 4. Not too bad considering that we were beat by Emily Kidd. Then in the evening session I had the Open Western Pleasure Ladies to Ride. There were 10 horses in the class, including Judi and Angel. We had such a good ride! It also helped that Judi blew a lead :) We ended up winning the class, my first blue ribbon in a Western Pleasure class! Tom was supposed to then take Dalal in the Arabian Western Pleasure Open just three classes later, but he decided that since it was raining and I was already dressed and wet that I could take him in that class. Paul and Tom C gave me some grief about Tom hiring a ringer to ride his horse while we were waiting in the warm up. Now the Catt County Horse Show is held in conjunction with the Cattaraugus County Fair, which plays a part in this next class. We had just jogged into the ring to start the class and from over at the grandstand I hear people counting down. And then.....BOOM!! Huge explosion to kick of the school bus demolition derby. Scared the crap out of me. All the horses in the ring just stopped dead. I had an ok ride after that. I was a bit rattled and Dalal was too. We ended up 3rd. Sunday were the championship classes. Because of a little confusion with class numbers I ended up riding both the championships. We finished 3rd in the one and 4th in the other. No too bad all in all.

The weekend after Catt Co, Katie took Tru up to Erie for the August horse trials in beginner novice. She had a decent dressage ride. Except Tru spooked at the trailer the judge was sitting in as they rode the center line and Katie cracked him with her whip. Right in front of the judge. Bad move. Other than that it was ok, not great, but pretty good for Katie. After that we had a couple of hours so we walked the stadium course and then the cross country. Cross country was the exact same course Kaye and I did in June only reversed. Pretty easy and straightforward. Stadium was pretty easy too. Time for stadium warm up. Katie warmed up pretty good. She borrowed my long spurs and made him go over the fence. However when she gets in the ring, she freezes. Three stops at the first fence and they're eliminated. Katie talks to the president of the ground jury and gets permission to ride her cross country. Again warms up nicely. Out of the start box, down to the first fence and stop. So ends Katie's trip to Erie.

The next day I went to a one day show at Brookfield with Tom. Rode Dalal in a few classes. We ended up winning the Arabian/Half-Arabian Western Pleasure, beating both Paul and Tom C. And then we were second in the Adult Western Equitation. So that was pretty cool.

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3'8" Baby!

Saturday was the normal day of utter confusion at the barn. Tru had one of his cellulitis attacks and his hind leg swelled up again. I had to dig out the ice boots, where we needed both of them to fit around one hind leg. Katie just stands there with only a cotton lead rope and of course Tru jerks back. Come on Katie, at least put a chain over his nose! So Bonnie puts the lip chain on him and we try again. We get the ice in and Katie stands there holding him while I take Elena out for her lesson. Well Katie lets the lip chain get slack and Tru flips out again. Kicks the wall, breaks one of the muck buckets and manages to spook Fanny. She didn't really do anything, just trotted off a few steps, but Elena wasn't expecting it and she was scared. Although she was scared Elena rode through it like a trooper. We were finally able to start her lesson again. And eventually I got her to put both her hands on her hips. Fanny had another beginner lesson in the morning and then Ari tacked up Kaye for her lunge lesson. After Ari rode I got on Kaye for my lesson. Well a certain someone rode Kaye the day before since her horse was out of commission. And she rode like she rides her own horse, death grip with her legs and hauling on the reins. So when I started to canter, Kaye would not stop. I ended up spending my whole lesson putting a stop on the mare again. So I didn't get to work on anything else. Oh well.

Sunday I was back to the barn. I had to leave early since we had Karla's baby shower at 2:00. Kezia was home for the weekend so I rode with her and Airy. Kaye was such a good girl. We did some jumping, just started with a low crossbar as Kezia hadn't jumped in a while. Of course Kaye quickly got bored with that. Bonnie raised the fence to a 3'-ish vertical. We jumped that several times before Bonnie added a second pole, making it like 3'6"-ish. Jumped that a few times and then Bonnie added a back pole to turn it into an oxer. 3'8" baby!!! I love that mare. She sailed over it like it was nothing, which for her it really was. But I stayed with her and didn't freak about the jump height increasing. All in all good day!

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Where Kaye and I learn to do flying changes

It was quiet at the barn on Saturday. Astrid had been at camp all week and didn't come home till Saturday. So the von Rintalin clan wasn't out. It was just Katie and I, then Ari and Elena came a little later. Katie gave Elena a lesson while I cleaned some stalls. And then Ari was going to ride Twinkie on the lunge after Katie. But she got a little intimidated by how quickly Twinkie trots. So we ended up tacking up Kaye for her to ride on the lunge. Ari's actually doing very well. She has a great seat, and all the right instincts. Kaye did a little spook with her, and Ari just sat up tall and kept her legs long and rode through it beautifully.

Once Ari finished her lunge lesson, Katie and I had a dressage lesson. After we warmed up Bonnie wanted us to try doing canter departs on the centerline. Very difficult to do on a straight line. I was having problems getting the left lead for some reason. We were at least getting three canter departs on the centerline, even if it was only the right lead. Which is better than Katie managed. She could get one. So then Bonnie had the idea to try flying changes. So she dragged a ground pole out and set it down along the rail one the far side of the arena. Now Kaye has never been taught to do a flying change, mainly because of her stringhalt. And I have never done a flying change before, so this could be interesting. The idea was to go along the rail towards the back of the arena, pick up the left canter lead and ride a teardrop back to the ground pole, and then change leads over the ground pole. Well we tried it a few times and didn't get anything. But then I realized that I was just expecting Kaye to do it on her own. So we tried it again and I actually asked Kaye to change her lead...and she did it!! I was so pleased with her. We did a few more times going from the left to right lead. Katie could quite get it. She actually was bring Tru down to a trot before she even got to the pole. Then Bonnie took the pole over to the other side of the arena and we tried going from the right to left lead. I knew Kaye would struggle with that. The left hind leg is the one she has problems with. We tried a few times and we managed to switch in front but she could get her hind legs untangled to switch behind. We ended up calling it a day then, Kaye wasn't getting it and I knew it was hard for her. Bonnie even said she would have been very surprised if she would have changed that direction.

After I took care of Kaye and hosed her off, there was a surprise waiting for us. Puppies! Lee had brought Saber's litter out to the barn, as she had someone coming to buy one. After they picked their puppy and left she brought the others out for us to play with.



They were all too cute! Chloe kept trying to get them to play with her, but they couldn't quite get it yet. We all had fun with the puppies though.

Sunday, Bonnie and I worked in the fence first thing. We restrung it and wired the whole way around. So now we can hook it up to the charger again and give Airy a nice little shock when she tries to run through it next time. Then the two Tammy's showed up to ride, so I tacked Kaye up and joined them.

Kaye and I worked on flying changes again. Since the pole was already over there we just started with the right to left lead. We were still having trouble get the change. I could get her to change in front but not behind. Tried several times and then we took a break while Tammy was working Sugar. When Tammy finished I decided to try it again. First time she switched in front but not behind. But then we tried again and she did it! Switch in front and behind! I was so proud of my baby girl. The Tammys were laughing at me as I dropped my reins and we cantered around the ring while I was hugging her neck. Kaye was pretty pleased with herself, she knew she had done well. We picked it up a few more times and then we tried the left to right lead change without the pole. We got the change on the first try. I loff my pony! As it turns out, Kaye doesn't think dressage is so horrible when you get to do fun stuff like that.

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Holiday Weekend

I love holiday weekends! Ron was kind enough to let us out at 3:00 on Thursday and then we had Friday off since the 4th fell on a Saturday. Well, Thursday evening I had an appointment with my eye doctor, so I ended up missing out on Wooley Bully's. Kinda upset about that, it's been a few weeks since I've been there now. But I got the eye appointment out of the way and I could concentrate on more important things.

Friday morning I had to run a few errands, like get to the bank, since it's usually closed when I'm home. Got out to the barn about 10. Astrid, Ari and Vicky were there already and then Rachel and Kelsey got there shortly after. Rachel and I tacked up Airy and Kaye, and then Kelsey rode Bugs and Astrid rode Naughtie. We started doing some dressage. Rode the beginner novice test A. Kaye was being a pain with her head. She kept shaking it and flipping it up in the air. So after a pretty dismal test A I went and got the draw reins. Put those on and then did test B. Man was Kaye pissed! She did not like it that I was making her keep her head down. After we ran through that, I changed tack and we jumped a little. Only a small crossbar though. Bonnie was trying to keep the fences small so that Bugsy wouldn't bolt after them. So of course Kaye wasn't all that pleased with the baby fences. After we rode, Ari got on Kaye and Vicky on Naughtie for lunge lessons. Then Titus went home in the afternoon.

Saturday Katie and I rode together, jumping with no hands. Katie and Tru actually did pretty well they only had one or two stops I think, pretty good for them. Kaye of course had fun. We did a small bonfire in the afternoon for the fourth, but I couldn't stay long as mom was planning a picnic for the family and I had promised to help her. Everyone came over for the cookout at 5:00. Including my grandmother, joy. That aside it was nice to have everyone together. And nice to give my aunt a break from hosting the family gatherings. After everyone left and we had cleaned up, Mom and I had a nice time relaxing with coffee out in the gazebo, watching the fireworks.

Sunday I was back at the barn. Had another jumping lesson with Kaye. More jumping with no hands and then a little bit of no stirrups. Bonnie wanted me to do no stirrups and no hands, but I wasn't quite brave enough for that.

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Home Again

Saturday was a busy day for me. Tom and Mary Ann were in Saratoga for the weekend so I was feeding his horses. Got his horses fed early so I could be out to Bonnie's about 7 or so. Miss had an appointment with a vet at 9 for a chiropractic check up so we had to leave by 8. Got all the horses fed at both places and on the road on time. Katie and Astrid both wanted to go with us, so they piled in the back of the truck. We found the vet clinic just in time for Miss' appointment. She was a mess all over. Her pelvis was twisted about three different ways. And then because she was compensating for that, her whole back was out of whack. He worked on her for about an hour, stretching her, and popping things back in place. As he worked you could see her relax and get more comfortable. When he finished I jogged her up and down the drive again, man was she moving better already. She climbed right up on the trailer, no hesitation at all on her part. He gave us some exercises to do with her at home, getting her to stretch through her back and lift her back up. When we got her home, I walked her in the arena for about 10 minutes. Of course Kaye had to come out with us. Miss was almost overstepping at the walk, which she hasn't done in a long time. She was in heat, and squatting and teasing Kaye, another thing she hasn't been able to do in a long time. I am amazed by the change in her already.

So after we got Miss settled in, Rachel and Beth came out for our lesson. I tacked Kaye up in the dressage saddle since we were going to work on dressage anyway. Plus I still wanted to go over my saddle with the Passier stuff after the soaking it got at Lost Hounds. So I got Kaye ready, Rachel had Airy and then Astrid joined us with Naughtie and Katie with Tru as well. We warm up and then rode some dressage tests. I rode the beginner novice test A once, and man was it good! Better even than I rode at the show. Then we ran through beginner novice test B a couple of times. It went pretty well, except Kaye started to get pissy at the end. She wanted to jump! So Bonnie had me change saddles. Which was a pain since I had to use the 16 1/2 which is just a tad too small for comfort. Bonnie set up a little course for us. We started out over the little crossbar in the middle. Kaye jumped it once and then she was not happy with that small of a jump. Eventually the jumps were raised. We ended up jumping the middle fence as a 2' oxer both ways, a 2'5" vertical and then a skinny that was about 2'8". Kaye had a blast and so did I. :) Katie actually did all the exercises as well and she only had two stops. That was a pretty good day for her as well. And she didn't get in my way to much, so yay for not annoying me!


In other news Spider was supposed to get gelded this week. Notice I said supposed to. Bonnie took him over to Tammy's on Wednesday, and both he and Titus were to get snipped. Well there were some complications with Titus. He started bleeding and they had to get him outside and finish it with him on the ground. He's okay now, but it ended up taking so long that they never got to Spider. So Spidey still has all his little manly bits. Titus came over to our barn to recover on Thursday. And so we've been having some fun training him. We taught him how to lunge and how to step over poles on the ground. We also taught him to step over the scary blue tarp. And then Sunday we saddle broke him. He was so good for it. I lunged him both directions first and then Bonnie brought out the pony saddle. We put that on him and just loosely did up the girth. Walked him around a bit, tightened the girth some. Walked some more and then tightened the girth a bit more. I lunged him then with the saddle. The only thing he did was a little cow kick when I went to lunge him, but he wasn't anywhere near me, and that was it. He was so good. Afterwards he went into the barn and was untacked in the aisle like the big horses. He's really liking all the attention he's getting. We put him back in his stall and he just looked at us like "hey where are you going? Aren't we going to learn something else now?" So cute. I wish he didn't have to go back to Tammy's.


Sunday I headed over to Crooked Creek Horse Park to see Nikki ride. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, Tom was in Saratoga, otherwise I would have had a horse to ride. I got there just as Nikki was tacking up for the Open Western Pleasure. And she was going in the class in sidesaddle. She had a sidesaddle on trial and she was thinking about buying it, but she wanted to ride in a class in it first. And since the show didn't have a sidesaddle class she had to go in a regular western pleasure class in it. Image was being a snot, he was feeling pretty good. Actually though, even with him being a brat, Nikki still had a better ride than the other two in the class. Unfortunately the judge had no idea what to do with her in sidesaddle. So she ended up third. Really a shame because the woman on the quarter horse who was in second was two handing her horse every chance she got. She should have been disqualified, that's illegal!

Loping the first direction

In the line up

Apparently the judge really liked Courtney because he placed her ahead of Nikki in a couple other classes and then Nikki came back to win the Adult Western Equitation. She ended up not going in the Arabian Western Pleasure classes on Sunday as she was also working for C & G, helping Jody get horses ready for the other riders. I had a good time getting to spend the day with Nikki and catching up on things. I hadn't had a chance to talk to her about her week working for Gordon Potts in Fort Worth yet, so I got to hear all about that, including about the job he offered her. Lucky her, she gets to work with horses full time now. She'll be travelling to about one show a month with Gordon and then working for Jody and C & G Ranch. I'll admit it, I'm jealous. I'd love to be able to quit me job and be with horses all day. Well, maybe someday I'll be able to.

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Lost Hounds HT

Finally it was time for Lost Hounds this weekend. I spent the week practicing my braiding. Which I'd just like to mention how much I hate braiding.

Finished product

Rachel's lucky, no braiding for Airy

Thursday after work I headed out to the barn to clean my tack. I spent a couple hours taking apart the saddle and bridle and making sure it was spotless. Got home about 9, just in time to head to my mom's so we could watch the new epi of Royal Pains. Then I had to find a laundry place that was open all night. Luckily for me the Snowy White in Rochester is 24 hours, so I spent about an hour over there washing my green saddle pad for the show.

I took Friday off from work so I would have time to get everything done and get up to Edinboro to walk the cross country course. Got out the barn early and started feeding. Bonnie was picking up Astrid on her way home from work and they stopped at Tammy's to get the trailer. Bonnie had to get sawdust in the morning and Astrid and I stayed behind to get some stalls cleaned. Then when Bonnie came back she rode Kaye for me. Got her in the bridle and looking really good. Then Bonnie got on Airy while Astrid and I gave Kaye a good bath. We got Kaye nice and squeaky clean, picked her stall again and put her away. And then Astrid helped Rachel give Airy a bath. After lunch we all piled into Beth's car and headed up to Edinboro. We walked the cross country course, man was it a nice beginner novice course! Everything was straightforward, nothing too confusing back in the woods. Lots of room between fences. Just a really nice course. That's the way beginner novice courses should be set up. We walked the course twice and then headed home. Rachel grabbed Airy's tack to clean and she went home. We fed the ponies and I took Astrid home before getting to bed myself.

Saturday morning I was up at 3:30 to get ready. The plan was to leave about 5-ish, so I wanted to be at the barn by 4:00. Of course it was raining, and it rained the whole time I was at the barn. I was dashing out to the trailer between raindrops trying to load all my tack. I decided to tack Kaye up at home and haul her up with the saddle on since my ride time was at 8:30, and it makes me way to nervous when I'm rushed. Finally get everything done, get the ponies loaded and head up to the showgrounds. It poured the whole way there. We get there and park the trailer, it's still raining. Go to get my packet, still raining. I get dressed and finish bridling Kaye, still raining. I ended up not wearing my dressage coat because of the rain, instead I wore Bonnie's navy fleece pullover. I was soaked within minutes. But Kaye was so good! Our warm up was amazing. I asked for the trot she was flexed and on the bit. Picked up both canter leads and she stayed flexed. It was fantastic.

Free walk

I went into the ring and I had the best dressage test I have ever ridden. There were a few minor things that were my fault, but overall the test was great. Unfortunately I don't think the judge was watching my test. She gave me a 44.8 that put me in 10th place out of 11. And the comments she made don't even make sense. On almost every movement she said Kaye was resisting. Either she was watching something else or she has no clue what dressage is, because Kaye was not resisting! As much as it pissed me off, I just had to put it behind me. We'll make it up jumping. We had a couple of hours before stadium so my parents and Aunt Sandy and Uncle Ralph headed off to Erie for a bit and we went to walk the stadium course.

Stadium

The stadium course looked so easy compared to what Bonnie has us do at home. It looked small after jumping training level too. There was lots of room to turn, the in and out was a two stride, nothing too hard at all. The third and fourth fences were set up that in order to jump them both head on you would have to do a sharp left turn after three to get 4. We decided to just jump them both on an angle so we could get a straight line between the two of them. Yeah, they were oxers, but beginner novice fences are small for both Kaye and Airy. We walked the course two times and then had to repeat it to Bonnie. Finally about noon we got the horses tacked up and headed up to stadium warm up. We started warming up and Kaye was a superstar. She very nicely jumped everything. Got her leads when I remembered to ask for them. She didn't try bolting at the fences or anything. Rachel and Airy had a few problems in warm up, but when they went into the ring they rode a great round. Soon after that it was my turn. Kaye was amazing!!! I love that mare. I wasn't nervous at all so I was able to actually ride her and not just hang on and hope for the best. We got in good to every fence, got all out leads. We rode the third and fourth fences just like we walked it. Kaye did exactly two strides in the in and out. It was perfect. Bonnie told me it was the best round she saw all day in beginner novice or novice. No one else but Rachel rode 3 and 4 in the straight line. Everyone else turned between them and there were a lot of problems.

Flower box just before the water

So then back to the trailer, change my clothes and over to cross country. Kaye knew that's what was next and so she jigged around the warm up. Bonnie just had us jump the oxer a couple of times and then she headed out to watch Rachel. They ended up waiving the optimum time for beginner novice because of how much rain we had. Well that ended up being a good thing. We were in the start box, I never even put my legs on her, Kaye heard the starter say "you're on course" and she took off! She locked onto the prelim/int fence and floored it. I fought her the whole way to get her to slow down and over to the beginner novice fence. And then when we landed she just flattened out and took off. We could have been in the Kentucky Derby! So I circled her to get her under control. We jumped the second fence and had to circle. We jumped the third fence and then three strides later she jumped the patch of dead grass from where a portable had sat all winter, and then we had to circle again. Jumped the up bank and circled. We had to circle after every fence until like fence 9 I think. After that she would come back for me. At least until the next to last fence, I had to circle after that one. When she jumped the last fence, she knew she was going home and I couldn't do anything to slow her down. I was just praying people would stay out of our way. We didn't have any jumping faults, and since there wasn't an optimum time, we didn't have any time faults either. So we moved up to fourth place. Not too bad. And as tired as I was after that cross country round, I think it was a good thing for me. I learned I can ride her through things like that. We did eventually work through our control issues. And I finished. I didn't let my nerves talk me into quitting, and that's important for me.

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ICHA Double Points Show

So this weekend was the ICHA Double Points Show at Canfield, OH. Tom was of course taking Dalal and I had mentioned that I might be interested in riding him sometime. So they had a Ladies to ride class and the plan was that I would take Dalal in that. I had Friday off from work for a doctors appointment. After doing some stalls and riding Kaye I headed out to Canfield in the afternoon. I got there just in time to see Tom ride in the Amateur Arabian Western Pleasure. They had a beautiful ride, very consistent. We take Dalal back to the stall and untack him, send Nikki a picture of his blue ribbon to cause some trouble since she was in Fort Worth. And then we start to discuss who's going to ride what. Tom's suggestion is that I get on Dalal during the afternoon break and then if things go well ride him in the Registered Arabian Western Pleasure that evening. So we tack up Dalal during the break and head down to the main ring. It was a little bit weird to ride western I'll admit. And kinda funny, because Bonnie is always telling me that I don't ride with my legs tight enough. Well I ride with them way tighter than Dalal is used to! I asked for the jog and he took off. Lightened up my legs and we slowed down to an acceptable speed. It really pained me to pull his head to the outside though to ask for the lope. It's just so wrong!

So that evening I get ready to ride in the Registered Arabian Western Pleasure. I figure we'll just go in and have fun and kinda figure it out as we go. I had so much fun. It was an Arabian class so they did ask for the hand gallop. Man was that fun! Just put my hand forward and asked him to go. In the end we ended up 2nd. Not too bad, the horse that beat us was ridden by a professional trainer. As Tom said if she's not winning, she needs to find a new job. But we did beat a horse that has beaten Dalal in the past, so that was pretty cool.

I went home Friday night so I could go to Bonnie's Saturday morning for my lesson. As usual I was there early and ready to ride since I had other plans, and I never get to ride first! This really sort of annoys me. Elena and Ari both had their lessons first and then I finally got to tack up Kaye to ride. Bonnie has me put the draw reins on her again, which I hate. It's really just too much rein in my hands. We work on dressage for a while and then Rachel and Kelsey show up. They tack up Airy and Naughtie and join us in the arena. We work on centerlines for a while and then start practicing the dressage test. I ran through the test three times. The last one was pretty good, still some things I need to concentrate on, but overall not bad. At this point Bonnie tells us to head outside to school some more cross country. I just put Kaye away though. By then I had been on her back for 3 hours, it was 12:30 and I figured I had already missed the Adult Western Equitation class that I was going to ride in. Bonnie was a bit pissed at me I think, but quite frankly I don't care. I had other plans, excuse me if for once I'm not going to spend 12 hours a day there. No one else ever does.

I was right, I had missed the Adult Western Equitation by the time I got to Canfield. Tom had already rode both the Men's Western Pleasure and the Jack Benny, where he was first and fourth respectively. I did have the Ladies Western Pleasure in the evening session to ride. Of course it starts to rain by the time we go to tack up. And with the rain it got cold! So I get dressed while Tom takes care of Dalal. I put my zip up hoodie on over my show clothes and we head up to the ring. I find a tree to stand under for a while to try and keep a little dry. That at least saved me from getting too wet. Luckily by the time we went into the ring for our class it had stopped raining. There were 8 of us altogether in the Ladies class, pretty big class. I have to say I had a GOOD ride. Courtney was in this one again (she beat me in the Arabian WP the night before) She was my big competition but then her horse blew up on the lope depart. I felt pretty darn good about my ride when we lined up. But I ended up third, and no one could really explain why. Everyone was saying I should have won. But oh well. Tom ended up not feeling like getting dressed to ride in the Open Western Pleasure, so I rode that one as well. We placed 2nd in that class behind Courtney.

Ladies Western Pleasure

Sunday was the Championship classes. We decided that I would ride in the Arabian Western Pleasure Championship and Tom would go in the Open Western Pleasure Championship. I had a decent ride, some thing to work on though. Mainly Dalal was a little too much in front of the vertical. We ended up third behind Courtney and Tom C. Not too bad I'll take it for my first western pleasure show. So then Tom took him back in for the Open Championship. They had a perfect ride and won the Championship. Tom got to take home the trophy that Nikki won last year. So that's pretty cool that both their names will be on it. Back at the campsite there was some joking about who would be the first to get their name on it twice. My reply was that maybe Dalal would be the first to have his name on it twice, just with a different rider. :)

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Schooling

Kaye here, hijacking Jen's blog for a moment. I just want to say that yes the cross country schooling was fun. But she didn't let me run! Jen kept making me come back to the trot after everything. It just wasn't fair. She better not make me go that slow at Lost Hounds, we'll never make time. It would be so insulting not to make time on a beginner novice course there.

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Two Weeks and Counting!

Two weeks to go until Lost Hounds! Woot! Can you tell I'm excited? I had a couple of great lessons with Kaye this weekend. I'm really trying to think when I ride her and not just freeze up and hope to get around. I think I'm improving, Really I feel like I've come such a long way.

Anyways, I had to feed for Tom while he's at the Eastern Classic with Dalal. Luckily his horses are easy. Only three there and the boy stayed in last night. Dumped feed, brought Ivan and Amira in, topped off water tubs and tossed out some hay, and then kicked them all out for the day. Then it was off to Bonnie's for the day. Heather got there shortly after I did with Ari and Elena. So I tacked up Fanny for them and gave Elena a lesson while everyone else cleaned the arena. I'm really pretty proud of Elena, she's come a long way the couple of months she's been coming out. Ari's the one who really wants to ride. Elena was kinda scared of the horses at first. She's only stay on Fanny for maybe five minutes. Today she rode for about 20 minutes, went both directions and asked if she could ride with her hands on her hips! Just two weeks ago she wouldn't take her hands off the saddle no matter how much we begged (and bribed her) too. That was really a big moment for her. She's still only walking, not ready to try a trot yet. But she's come such a long way already, she'll get there eventually. After Elena was done, Ari got on for a lunge lesson from Bonnie. While she was riding Rachel came with her Mom so we starting getting our horses tacked up. Katie brings Tru in to ride with us and Bonnie has Astrid tack up Naughtie. This could be interesting.

The line of fences down the middle of the arena was still set up from my lesson last Sunday. Bonnie turned one of the verticals into a crossbar and we started by jumping that one fence, stopping at the wall and then continuing on. Did that a bit and then it was jump the crossbar, halt at the wall, turn on the haunches, back over the crossbar, halt at the wall. Do that a few times and then progress to jumping the first fence and then half circle to the fourth fence. Eventually we did three fences, turning the first and last into verticals and the middle one into an oxer with the barrel in the middle. I was super proud of Astrid because she jumped the whole exercise with Naughtie. Now she only jumped the fences as crossbars and trotted the whole thing. But still that's a hard exercise and she really did a good job with Naughtie. I told her she definitely got a gold star. To finish off the day Bonnie had me bring the sawhorse and blue outdoor carpet. We replaced the last vertical with the sawhorse/carpet and Rachel and I jumped that. We did a figure 8 starting and ending with the sawhorse. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Of course I could have done without Katie in the group. At one point she almost jumped on top of Kaye and I. We had just jumped the one fence and were halting at the rail. Next thing I know she jumps the fences and comes to a stop right next to me. Our stirrups were practically touching! Another time Astrid had called the jump and Katie just ignores her and goes over it instead. She always hogs the rail, making everyone else go around her. Eventually Bonnie had to give us a jumping order. Me, then Rachel, then Astrid and finally Katie.

Victoria had a mini meltdown when she was told that she couldn't ride Kaye. Of course she didn't want to ride Naughtie even though she's always complaining that she wants to ride different horses. I was almost to the point of telling her she wasn't going to ride then when she finally got on the horse. She just would not understand that I'm taking Kaye to a show in two weeks, therefore she's mine horse until then. I don't need Victoria or anyone else on her screwing things up between now and then.

Sunday Rachel came out again and we went outside for a little bit of cross country schooling. Bonnie and I cleaned up around the log at the bottom of the driveway. We then emptied the water trough from the arena and flipped it upside down on the grass about half way up the driveway. The sawhorse/blue carpet was put in the outdoor ring. We also put two blue barrels on their side at the other end of the ring. The old purple picnic table was set on it's side at the top of the driveway and finally we carried a small log over to the giant water puddle in the middle of the driveway.

Well Katie of course showed up when she heard we were going to school cross country, even though she hadn't been invited. So we all tacked up. I just have to say that I find it hysterical that Katie hurried up and brought her horse in as soon as I went with Bonnie to fix the jumps. She had to hurry up and get the cross ties before I could. I really thought of kicking her out of them since she wasn't invited to school with us, but I was nice instead. I used my new (to me at least) overgirth on Kaye, and I rode in my vest. Partly to make my mother happy, but also because I need to ride in it a few times and get used to it again.

We headed down to the log to start with and jumped that several times. Then we headed up to the water trough. I wasn't so sure about it coming down the first time and we had a stop. Completely my fault. Turned around and tried it again. Kaye of course was just like hold on and went flying over it. Jumped it a few times and then we had to give Rachel and Airy a lead over it. Bonnie eventually had to put an upright barrel next to it as a standard for Rachel and Katie. So then we head down to the bottom and jump the log and then up to the trough. Kaye and I come trotting up the driveway, I try to steer her to the water trough, she however sees the barrel next to it which was maybe a foot higher and goes "Goody the fence is bigger!" and she jumps the barrel. I was pretty much just holding on. Bonnie has us cross the driveway and do the sawhorse. Of course I have problems, even though I jumped it the day before I freak out a bit because it's outside now. Takes us a couple of times but we finally go over it. Of course by that time Kaye was a bit fed up with me stopping her and so she flew over it. She must have cleared it by at least a foot. We head back down to the start and tell Rachel and Katie to go. When it's my turn again, we got he first three jumps nicely and then do the barrels followed by the picnic table. I was a little nervous about the picnic table but I just held on and went with Kaye. Of course she got so into it that we overshot the water and had to turn back. In the end we jumped everything and I felt very comfortable with it all. So good day schooling.

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This and That

I know, I know, I've like disappeared of the face of the earth. Well not really, just been extremely busy. Rolex was a blast. It was incredible to get to see so many great riders. Not only Phillip Dutton and Becky Holder, but also Bettina Hoy, Lucinda Fredericks and Nicolas Touzaint. Tons of photos up on my photobucket page, so go check those out.

All winter I was planning to take Miss out and event her this summer. However she hasn't been doing to well lately. We weren't really sure what was wrong with her, she wasn't having the respiratory problems she had last summer. I think we finally have an answer though. The blacksmith was out this past week and Bonnie had him trim Miss. He thinks her back is out and she needs adjusted by a chiropractor. So we're going to give that a shot. Hopefully that will help her out. I'm really just not ready to let go of her yet.

So I thought that this was going to scrap my eventing plans for the summer. Unfortunately X just isn't quite ready for me to event him yet. Bonnie needs to take him out a bit first to some schooling shows. But I've been riding Kaye some again. And then I had an idea. Kaye and I discussed it. And she thought it was good. So we just had to get Bonnie to agree, which she did. Anyways what all this means is Kaye and I are going beginner novice at Lost Hounds June 20! WOOT! I'm so excited. Kaye has just been a superstar for me lately. Bonnie had us jumping some courses she set at 2'10". And then last week she set up a line of 8 jumps going down the center of the arena. And we had to jump every other one, landing on alternating leads to jump the next fence. I finally figured out how to land on the lead I want and not just hope I get it.

In other news X went out in the pasture with his girlfriends for the first time last weekend. He's still not all that happy about the great outdoors. If a bug is within like 5 feet of him he wigs. But he's getting used to it. And having "his mares" out there helps. Miss and Kaye the hussies that they are make him feel very loved by sticking their butts in his face. Yes I know we have a couple of whores for mares. X well he doesn't really enjoy being outside, he doesn't cause any trouble. He stays away from the fence, doesn't try to escape or run anyone else through the fence.

Anyways feeding the arabs this weekend while Tom's at the Eastern Classic in Little Valley, NY. So I'll be getting up early to feed there before heading out to Bonnie's. I'll probably lunge on X and then lesson with Kaye. As of this week she's mine exclusively until Lost Hounds. Well mine and Bonnie's. She really does need a dressage tune up before the show.

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