Good Day

Yeah I'm getting a little obsessive about posting :P ah well...

Had a GREAT day with the pups and pony today! It was a lovely day in the 80's and felt like heaven to me! I remembered a camera, so get ready for picture overload :)

This is the best way to start the day, at the barn by yourself with a good dog and horse both anticipating a good ride.

Tilly waited patiently tied, while I went to work with Reily.

First we started with showmanship, as you can tell Reily was thrilled!

And then it was time for the bridle! It was all Reily could do to contain his excitement :)


(A video of me riding Reily!)

All done?

Tilly was ready to be done.

And finally I released the fuzzy white monster to go roll.

Cheers!

Showmanship

Today was a lazy day. Set up some fake courses and showmanshiped it! Not much else to report :) Have been making decorations for county fair, I'll get pictures when they're all set up!

Tuesday!

Today was good, not much to report but I felt lazy not updating the blog :) My nieces and nephew came out to the barn to ride! It was insanely hot so I didn't even attempt photos, as we were all covered in sweat. Can't wait for fall!

In other news, I've been considering colleges and what to do in that part of my life. Somebody got me to consider military but that just doesn't seem right for me. My hope is to join LCCC, but we'll have to see how that tryout goes!

Light bulb moment!

I love those rides where everything seems to go right. I had one of those today! First, I worked on showmanship. It was o-k. Not gonna go win some world showmanship class, but not too sloppy. Plus considering it felt like it was 500* outside, I was pretty happy with it. Then I get up to ride. I go straight to the curb bit today, my very mild curb, to do some fake show action. Walk-jogged around like pros! And then came the lope. Reily had the best breakthrough since I've owned him! I worked him up into the bit, asking him to use his butt and then asked for him to slow it. The more he slowed, the more I gave. I could literally see the light bulb glowing on his head. We had a beautiful lope (well he did, I was working so hard to keep him from four beating I looked ridiculous I'm sure) with a gorgeous long rein!! I've never been happier :D I love my pony!!

Countdown to County!!

Now that state's done, it's time to countdown to county! Unfortunately no pictures from state :[ but that may change in the near future!

SOO To successfully prepare for state (aka the greatest week of the year) I am OFFICIALLY dedicated to riding productively every day until county! Yup every day. I will try to take pictures, or videos, or notes. Today is day number one, and was successful. Started with showmanship, then rode in a snaffle bit, after warm up added the draw reins and finally transitioned into the curb for a nice smooth slow and low ride! Great day! Then I worked on the challenges from the HGS forum so I have some videos! yaaay!

Weeee!

I feel like a bad horseowner. It's been so freaking hot out, I haven't ridden in about a week :O okay maybe just 4 days. Reily hasn't minded it at all though! Hope he's living it up, because starting tomorrow we have less than 2 weeks till state so intense riding starts again!

To keep the blog intrestingish, I will tell you all about my last ride and how very productive it was. It was a hot day, not as bad as the past couple but probably around the low 90's, and I thought both of us were feeling sluggish and lazy. We tacked up like normal, mounted like normal, did warmups like normal *note only on one side of the arena*. Then I got inspired and decided we would trot around the arena nice and collected, with me holding and pushing him into the bit (snaffle bit day :D), getting that enormous butt of his to actually do some work for a change. So we're trotting at a fastish pace around the arena, feeling good, looking awesome. I'm thinking, "What a great freaking day" with a giant grin on my face, when BAM! We're in the middle of the arena, Reily looking as close to an arabian as a mammoth paint can. His eyes are bulging, his nostrils flare till they look like a small kitten could fit in each of them, snorting, and trotting in place, all while staring down a window along the side of the arena. That's when I see it, the scary horse-eating monster lurking in the window, and it looks just like Reily and me!
If you know my horse, you know he's not spooky in the slightest. So this really threw me for a loop. Not that I don't mind it, everyone needs something unexpected to happen every once and a while. But this is more than unexpected, it's unlike him! So I go off a mental list of everything that has changed, and the only one I could think of was he was back on joint supplement, and someone was feeling it!
But after collecting our thoughts, we continued on down the rail. For the rest of this 25 minute ride, every single time we passed a window, the above happened all over again. Every. Time. Ah well, we all have bad days!

Countdown to state: 13 days