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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It's Rolex Time!

Last weekend before Rolex! Can you tell I'm excited? And I'm not even riding. Anyways, Saturday was the usual busy day at the barn. The kids were all out, including Rachael and Kelsey. First thing on the agenda was lunge lessons. Astrid and I took turns on Naughtie while Rachael and Kelsey lunged on Airy. Astrid went first and when it was time for her to do the sitting trot she had to pull the stirrups off the saddle because they hurt her legs. So when it was my turn Bonnie wouldn't even let me put the stirrups back on the saddle. No I can get on my little 15.3 hand horse bareback, but getting on 16.2 Naughtie? Not so much. Once I finally managed to climb on her back I had a good lunge lesson. Which I really needed. Actually I need lots of lunge lessons right now.

I rode X a bit on Saturday as well. We did some cavalettis and he was a jerk. He liked not doing anything all winter and he's not exactly thrilled with the idea of going back to work now. I did manage to talk him out of his bad behavior and spooks. He really wanted to though. His leg is doing much better now. He's just getting the proud flesh medication on it every couple days and it's healing very well. The really exciting thing was that Saturday was warm enough for a bath! After I rode I gave X the first of many baths he will need to be clean. He's not all the way there yet, but he doesn't smell anymore.

Sunday was spent playing musical horses and moving stall assignments around. We turned M-N-M out and started on his stall. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get him out to do his stall the last time the spreader was on that side. And so between that and the leaking waterer, it was a bad one. But we got that stall done and moved M across the aisle and then Spot went into M's old stall.

After the stalls were finished I tacked X up for Katie and I to have a lunge lesson. My pony is such a good lunge horse! He just goes out and trots around as long as you want him to. He's so nice and soft on the lunge line and easy to side on. I love my pony! Of course he wasn't quite so happy when Katie got on him. First Katie looks like a giant on him. She's like 5'10" or so I think. Quite a bit taller than me. She doesn't realize it, but when she rides she grabs with her leg. Tru is just so used to it he doesn't do anything, although he is really dead sided from her. X didn't do anything bad, but your could tell he wasn't happy. The ears were back and his tail was swishing. Not that Katie got it. I told Bonnie we need to put her on something that will bolt if she grabs like that.

I'm off work Thursday and Friday this week for Rolex! We're not leaving until like 7 Thursday night, but I decided to take off anyway. That way I can go out and ride during the day and help Bonnie get the barn in order. And then it will be off for three days in Kentucky. I've got the camera all ready, extra memory cards and an extra battery. So I'll be good to go. I'll try to post pictures each night once we get back to the hotel so check my PhotoBucket page. Plus I'll probably be Twittering from my cell during the day. I think Friday morning we're going to try to get up early and go watch the morning works at Keeneland. That will be fun, I've never been to a racetrack before. So the next time you hear from me I'll be at Rolex!

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Why do I have to have an accident prone horse?

So last Sunday I noticed that X had a cut on the outside of his right foreleg. Not too big a deal, didn't seem to hurt him or anything. So I cleaned it up and put some Vaseline on it. Friday I got out of work early and I headed out to the barn. Cleaned his stall and then brought him out to the cross ties to tack up. I'm grooming him and his leg is swollen a little. Cut doesn't look any different from last week but he has some heat and swelling at the site. I jog him up and down the aisle a few times, he isn't off at all so I figure I'm still going to ride him. I finish grooming him, tack him up and slather Vaseline over his leg to keep the arena sand out of it. We go out and I put him on the lunge line first. He really hasn't been ridden much, plus then I can see if he's off at all. Nope he's perfectly fine, takes off cantering, bucking, jumping, the whole bit. I let him work some of his energy off and then hop on him. Suddenly, we're dead lame. I don't think so dude. I make him work through it and after a few minutes he realizes that the lameness trick isn't going to work and he starts working. Now though he decides that it's necessary to spook at everything! I really just don't feel like dealing with it. I get off and he goes back on the lunge line. It doesn't take too long for him to give in. Really he's lazy and knows that I'll just keep making him go until he settles. I get back on and he's a good boy now. Bonnie comes down to the barn after a while and she sets up some cavalettis for us. First few times through it was like he'd forgotten what they were, but after a while he was going through perfectly. Pretty good ride considering he hasn't done anything in months!

Saturday I was going to take a lunge lesson on X but for once the kids all showed up early. Ended up riding Naughtie in a lesson with Kelsey/Kaye, Rachel/Miss and Katie/Tru. Of course Katie takes five times longer to take up so by the time the rest of us are ready to start jumping she's just getting to the arena. And then she's constantly in the way. Like common courtesy would be to give the rail to the horses that are working. Not Katie, everyone else has to work around her. We worked through the cavalettis and then onto a cross-bar. As usual Bonnie raised the fence until we were jumping a 3'4" oxer. Then she decided to have us work on some bounces. Lowered the jump back to a cross-bar and we started over just one. Then she added a second fence. I had some trouble with Naughtie which I know was all my fault. We had a couple of stops and so that was it. I didn't want to start any bad habits. I ended up getting on Kaye to jump the three bounces. After I took Kaye through I couple times I got back on Naughtie and did the single fence again, just to end on a good note.

So today I was determined to get a lunge lesson on my horse, we both really need it. I go to groom him and his leg is swollen again. And joy, it's infected. But it's still not bothering him at all, so hopefully it will clear up soon. I had a great lunge lesson. X was really working well and moving great. The leg didn't bother him at all. He figured out that it's not worth it to try and pull the lame horse routine.

Picked out his stall after we rode. I love the Best Cob bedding and how easy it is to clean. Plus it's keeping X clean. But now he has to find something to do since he can't get himself all dirty. And this is what he did. I could really kill him sometimes. Makes me glad I hadn't planned to do any recognized shows with him this summer.

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3'4" Baby!

The bridle I bought Naughtie arrived from Ebay this week. Really nice black leather, no identifying marks as far as brand but a decent bridle for the $17 I paid. So Naughtie has her own bridle now, she doesn't have to share with Miss or Kaye. I also decided that I'm going to show her in pink this summer. I've always wanted to put a horse in pink, but I feel bad doing that to my gelding. And Naughtie actually looks very pretty in a pale pink. I picked up a pink pad from Luster's Friday night. And I found pink laces to go on my black Tipperary vest. I also bid on a pair of pink rubber reins on Ebay, they should be arriving any day I think. Bonnie hates the pink, but oh well I think it's pretty!

The plan is to go to the South Farm Combined Test on May 2nd. I'm going to take Miss beginner novice. Which means we NEED to work on the canter. If she's allowed Astrid is going to take Kaye in either intro or very green, which ever she feels comfortable. If Toni doesn't let Astrid ride I think I might see if I can take Naughtie as well in beginner novice. And then the plan will be to go to the South Farm Horse Trial Fourth of July weekend. Ideally I'd like to take Miss, but we're still waiting to see how she does once the weather gets warmer. If her breathing isn't good again this year, I'll try Naughtie there. I don't think she'll have any problems going beginner novice.

I left work an hour early Friday. I needed to go to the bank before they closed plus I wanted to go ride. Put Naughtie's new pink pad on her, and she looked fabulous! Anyways we warmed up on the flat and then Bonnie had us go over the cross bar. Just from the one jumping lesson the week before she was already jumping better. We did that a few times to warm up and then we jumped the oxer. I'll try and describe how the two fences were set up. They were both in the middle of the arena, about half a dozen strides apart. The one was the cross bar and the other was an oxer. I jumped the cross bar going towards the end of the arena and then did a figure 8 and cut in the middle to jump the oxer going towards the other end of the arena. Bonnie then added a bark rail to turn the cross bar into another oxer and we just kept jumping the both of them on a figure 8. Anyway I lost count of how many times we jumped. By the end of the lesson both oxers were about 2'8" with a 3' spread. Not to shabby. Naughtie was really jumping well. Looks like the plan is going to be lots of gymnastics with her and lots of big, wide oxers.

Saturday morning we had all the kids out. Rachel came out and brought a friend Julia. I rode Naughtie in a group lesson with Rachel/Miss, Julia/Fanny and Astrid/Kaye. The same two jumps we did Friday night only they were both little cross bars. Jumped one individually a few times and then did both cross bars in a row. Jumped that a few times and then Bonnie set up a third cross bar as an in and out. We did single fence followed by in and out. We each jumped that three times and then reversed so it was in and out followed by single fence. Julia had to bow out after that because Bonnie turned the second fence in the in and out into an oxer. Fanny just can't jump that much anymore, even though she really was having some fun. I went through first. And let me tell you it wasn't very pretty. Bonnie always tells us to come back to the trot so I was trying to get Naughtie to trot after the single fence and I didn't get the trot until like a stride before the double. So we just didn't have the impulsion to get through it well. She kinda climbed over the oxer. Now Bonnie tells me that I can canter the exercise. So much easier the next time through. After Rachel and I both did the exercise a few times Bonnie turned the first fence of the double into an oxer. Again the first time through wasn't the best. I really needed to push Naughtie in between but we got better. Eventually Bonnie turned the single fence into an oxer and raised the in and out a bit. I went through that a few times and then called it quits. Naughtie was getting tired and I just can't carry her through that kind of stuff. She's really not all that fit yet. Astrid got on her then and rode a bit. She jumped her over a few cross bars. But Astrid was afraid she was going to do something and was grabbing the mare with her legs. So of course Naughtie says "ok let's go." And Astrid got scared. I think they'll be a good match after Naugtie has settled in a little more and Astrid gets over her fears.

I went back and measured the fences later that night and it turns out the in and out oxers were 3'4"!! Woohoo Baby! Bonnie laughs at me because I always want to go and measure how high I jumped. But I'm just curious to know what we did. Plus I have to be able to document it on here. It pretty amazing. Usually I'm ok jumping single big fences. Or small combinations. But I freak out about jumping big combinations, and by big I mean anything over 2'. Even with Miss I freak out about that. But with Naughtie I never even thought about it. I just jumped.

Sunday I was out to the barn again. I had to strip out X's stall and put three new bags of bedding in it. It's little expensive to use the Best Cob stuff, but it's really working quite well for him. And now he's going out in the arena at night with his mares, he's not in his stall as much. We got Jade's old stall cleaned and moved Buster in there. And then cleaned Buster's stall to move Mystic. And now Mystic's stall needs to dry. It's like soup in there. He somehow managed to overfill his waterer big time. And it leaked everywhere! Once that dries some so we can strip it out, we'll move M & M in there so we can open his stall out into the pasture and let the outside horses use it for water.

Tammy and Tammy came out for another lesson. I was planning to just work Naughtie on the flat. She needs a bit of a refresher about things like moving off my legs and all that. We did a lot of work on a smaller circle, really making her get her hindquarters underneath her and come down onto the bit. And we got a lovely canter in each direction. She picked up the canter right away, and lightened up on her her forehand beautifully. She's really making progress just in the last week. Since we've been jumping the last two days I was just going to end there. But Tammy wanted to jump a little and Bonnie said it was ok, so we did a few cross bars. Nothing too big. Although towards the end Bonnie did put up a little oxer (about 2'4") I have to say Repo was so cute when he jumped. He hasn't jumped an oxer in probably a year and a half or so. Actually he hasn't done much jumping at all lately. He cleared the jump by a good foot. Really good weekend all around. I'll get in my lesson Friday night this week, I had wanted to start riding another night during the week. But that's not going to happen since Michael decided he wanted to alternate work schedules. Would have been nice if I'd been asked what I want to do. Monday was the first day I had to work the 8:30 - 5:00 shift. I left at 6:45 in the morning and didn't get home until 7:10. By then I don't have energy to do anything, let alone ride a horse. This sucks!

Easter next week, so Sunday will be a short day at the barn. But it means dinner at Aunt Sandy's, yay! And only two more weeks till Rolex, can't wait!

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First Ride on Naughtie in Almost 2 Years

I took the day off from work on Friday to take Buddy and Little Cuddles back home to Sandy's in Maryland. I am so thankful they are gone but man could I have done without the "excitement" of the trip. Apparently on Thursday when Bonnie was going up her driveway she hit one of the massive holes and the Y pipe on her tailpipe came loose. So before we leave Friday morning she wires the tailpipes to the bumper. We load the horses up and head out, picking up Astrid in Zelie. We're driving down, make it all the way down the turnpike to Breezewood ok. Get off there and get on 70. All the sudden I hear the tailpipe dragging on the ground. We pull over, re-wire the tailpipe to the bumper and start out again. We get to Hagarstown and Bonnie decides she needs coffee so we stop at a McDonald's. Her and Astrid head inside and I get laughed at by some guy in an SUV as he watches me first fix the tailpipe again and then reattached the side view mirror with duct tape. We make it down to Sandy's ok, get the horses settles in their stalls and everything. We decide to just pull the tailpipe off the truck cause it's coming loose again. So we get on the road every thing's going well and then we hear something dragging. Pull over thinking it's the other tailpipe. Look at the back of the truck, nope the tailpipe is secured still. Nothing else is dragging on the truck, nothing on the trailer. Can't figure out what it is. Then I look behind us. The muffler is laying on the side of the road. We keep going and manage to get home without losing anymore of the exhaust system. Take the trailer over to Tammy's. Try to park it in front of her barn and suddenly we can't go in reverse. Chris had to come out and use his tractor to pull the truck and trailer to where we could park it. We did make it back to the barn (barely) So we made it home, with one tailpipe in the back of the truck, the other one wired to the bumper, the muffler on the side of I-70 in MD and no reverse in the truck, but we made it home.

Saturday I decided to go antiquing with my parents and aunt and uncle. Fun day shopping, but it was long, with LOTS of walking. And we took a uh, interesting scenic route home. The GPS had us on this road that for about an hour we saw nothing but farmland (pretty) and some redneck homes (not so pretty) No gas stations, restaurants, nothing. It was pretty bad.

Sunday I finally got to ride. Tammy and Tammy hauled Repo and Sugar over to ride. Bonnie had me tack up Naughtie to ride with them. She was so good. She really has relaxed right back into the barn. Astrid and Katie both rode her a little on Saturday, Astrid on the lunge line. I guess she was a little bit nervous at first and that's why Katie got on. Anyway, she was good for me, settled, we got to work right away. It's pretty obvious that she's hasn't done anything lately. She very unfit. She was also a little on the skinny side when we picked her up although she's already gaining weight. Anyway I rode her on the flat for a bit and then Bonnie set up a cross bar for Tammy and I to jump. We did that a few times and then raised it a bit. Jumped that a few times and turned it into a vertical. Eventually Bonnie turned it into an oxer. I later measured it at 2'8". Naughtie was so good, I was really pleased for our first ride in almost 2 years.

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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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