Horse girls are just not like other girls....

Some girls like sparkly things, jewelry, clothes, or luxurious accessories for the house and home. Mom and I are a little different. We were practically giddy when the truck came up the driveway towing our new fancy schmancy arena harrow from West Coast Footings. LOL

In 100 degree temps, we joyfully hooked it up to the tractor, parked it out on the driveway, got a bit of grease on our arms and sweat it out in the sun as we made the necessary adjustments to get it level and ready for our arena. Doesn't it look good attached to the Kubota? Really, what girl wouldn't want to have her own tractor and arena drag?



Then we had some real fun. :-)


I'm happy to say we liked the feel after just the first dragging, and are anxious to see how it improves the footing. We had a couple of small but annoying bumps it already smoothed right out. These are the things that make a horsey girl so so happy.

Have I done my homework?

Krisi will be here Friday through Sunday. I'm only taking Ernie this time- just too much going on and having been sick I'll be glad to have my focus completely on one horse. Romeo has done wonderfully entering the showring this year and is working on moving up. Philipe doesn't need to go out at all until we show 4th which is looking like the fall Starr Vaughn show.

Ernie and I however, had our homework. With her bid for the Olympic Trials, Krisi hasn't been back for a clinic since April when I was on the disabled list. So, I've not ridden with her since Feb!!! Yikes....

Since then, he's getting changes although sometimes he can still stiffen and pop out an early change in front to the left. I've been trying a few things namely going back and making our departs to left lead snappier. Bringing him back quickly to pirouette canter and asking him to get quick and on the spot for a few strides before sending him back out and bringing him back. That helped, but there is a little crookedness creeping in. I get it prepared and then just as I go for the change (cuz I think I take too long to think ... er over-analyze it) he pops a little wonky and (those are technical terms ;-) and then we miss it. Before I was in bed most of last week, I found that riding him shoulder-fore to the right and asking for the change while keeping that position was getting the job done. But he does still want to come against my right rein and try to duck/rear against it. Not the full blown straight up in the air stuff he used to do when he hurt, just the little panic moments of doubt when he thinks he can't possibly get that submissive.

Back a few months ago, I decided that part of helping him with that would be to begin earnest work on the half-steps. So far it has seemed very fruitful to that avail of developing submissiveness as well as a lot of trust. He feels a big sense of accomplishment. Last week it began to click a lot into some honest piaffe steps. Today I slowly grew his piaffe and it spent a legitimate quarter of a 20m circle in passage. I could not have been more giddy up there on Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome. ;-)

Further, he's been working about 1 time a week in the double including today and so perhaps we'll do a lesson in it over the weekend and get some thoughts on that.

Unfortunately its supposed to be over 100 this weekend and I'm at the end of the days. Ugh....
2:45 on Friday, 1pm on Saturday, and 12 noon on Sunday. Phew... lets hope I have enough horse (and rider) to show it. At least I'm hoping I'll be able to breathe well enough not to overheat so easily as I have been with this cold.

And lastly, one of our long time friends has done the Parelli program for years. She worked very hard towards earning their Level 3 which includes canter half-passes and flying lead changes in a zig-zag sequence. Not at all a reasonable expectation for most people particularly given the "educational" material they present for training and riding such a thing. So, Meredith sought out my help and took regular lessons to learn the lateral work and teach the flying changes before putting them together into a sequence ..... with her 25yr GAITED morgan cross gelding Chalky. Well, she got the tasks done and passed her Level 3. Huge congrats to her as its a big accomplishment. We are proud of her and her horse.

Yes, I have plenty of thoughts on the Olymics

It has been an interesting week getting up early to watch the live feed of Olympic dressage or at least a portion of it, then viewing the rest of the rewind in the evening. Unfortunately, my reduction in sleep made me vulnerable to a mega head cold and Monday had me flat on my back the entire day. Yesterday I managed 1 ride and paid for it last night. Today was a set back and I rode no one. Ugh.....

With that in mind, I'm going to save my in depth Olympic dressage thoughts for another day. I'm a bit too foggy and medicated to put forth any seriously thoughtful comments.

I'll just say a few things:
If ever Balagur needs a home, he can stay here. ;-) He definitely wins my gold medal for "I would LOVE to own that horse."

Steffen you have done an AAHHHHmazing job in bringing Ravel on even since the Selection trials! Just wow..... (He should win a gold medal for tactful light riding too!) Ya got jipped....

I need to research whether or not Relampago do Retiro (Hayley Beresford's- AUS- Lusitano stallion) has been doing any breeding or will be. What a NICE iberian horse that is for the world stage.

Courtney, thank you for kissing, patting, and cajoling your horse when you exited the ring. There were way too many casual hand-offs to the groom and a few barely pats.

All around, I'm truly amazed with riders being able to put so much out there, travel so far, work so hard and put it all on the line for about 6 minutes in such an electric ring where everything can go so right and so wrong without you being in much control of it. No other sport relies on another living being that can be excited, scared, playful, tired, etc. and affect your score. It comes down to relationship with each individual horse. Some of them most of us would never dare sit on, and others would take our kids and husbands for a hack. Either way, each rider has to establish a working rapport with that horse at that level of athleticism in that kind of environment. While its rarely ever perfect, its the pursuit of it along with those fleeing moments where near perfection is within grasp that make it such a treat to watch.

August 10

The Olympics are here and I'm excitedly watching the wonderful Live Feed from NBC. If you haven't seen it, do check it out! The quality is quite good.... definitely not YouTube. LOL

Go here and then click on Equestrian to get all the great info, stories, pics and live video.

Another great site to check out is Kerri McGregor's Blog. She's with Team Canada, and has been supplying some super updates, pictures, and behind the scenes viewpoint of the happenings.

Now, for MY blog....

Breanna got a little photo time and here is what we snapped. Unfortunately, the camera didn't quite focus on this first shot, mom captured, but its fabulous minus the fuzzy aspect. Breanna is my 5yr Friesian/Saddlebred cross mare. She's working at training level. I got her as a yearling to be a raise-and-sell prospect.

And a look at her "boing-boing" factor! ;-) Check out the muscle use over her back and through her loin. Say it after me boys and girls, "Suh-spen-sion!"

Romeo takes home a blue!

Quick update:

Gina sold last week and went to a wonderful new home. We are very excited for her and her new mom Joy, who already sent a note to let us know how great her first lessons were with her trainer. Good luck to both of them.

Romeo learned a LOT this past weekend by going out to Starr Vaughn on Thursday and schooling. It was quite stressful for him and took a long time for him to get more settled into working in the rings. Since it was such a big deal, I opted to scratch Friday to allow him rest time and digestion of all he took in. The plan was great, as we schooled Saturday at home again at which point he already felt as though he grew emotionally. By Sunday he was so much more confident that he went in and put two nice tests with some bolder moments (and a few skittish ones LOL) to earn a %65.6 on Training test 3 for 4th place and a %66.4 on Training test 4 for a FIRST place! I was very proud of how much he progressed and gained in confidence through the weekend and certainly was significantly improved from his first show a few weekends ago.

He'll be going back to Dressage in the Almonds August 24th and then Krisi is here the 28th-30 at which point I'll be riding both he and Ernie.