Another week has come and past, and once again, I sucked at keeping things updated.
A lot of things have happened this week:
1. Andrew and I have decided to look at buying a (cheap) truck to use for hauling. YEE!
Due to the majorly disappointing response from both Facebook and TCCT (so much for Minnesota Nice / Generosity) I don't currently have a ride to Otter Creek, which is now a little over 4 weeks away. I'd like to change that, and also regain the independence that I so love having - having to deal with another (usually disorganized) person's timelines, plus loading B into an unfamiliar trailer seems to me to be more stress than it would ever be worth.
2. Bailey and I did lots of dressage.
Much to BB's delight (sarcasm) we had a meh dressage ride in the indoor on Wednesday which involved better work but still hating her for the misbehavior due to the indoor. Friday, we had a surprisingly lovely ride after Princess B decided that the door blowing open and closed on the barn was suddenly VERY SCARY and sat back, repeatedly and hard. She broke the chin buckle on her halter, so she didn't learn she could break halters, but she did bang herself up a bit thrashing side to side trying to break the damn thing and even banged her right front up enough that I looked down mid ride and noticed some blood. Our ride, in contrast, involved some buckling down and she did some good work - prompt transitions, insisting on straight, focused work and not getting soft and throwing my reins away when she gets fussy.
3. We jumped on Saturday!
Bailey was pretty toned down on Saturday, but perked up nicely under saddle. She stood very still (especially for her) to be groomed and tacked - all while tied exactly where she was the previous day. We had a nice warm up and popped over a baby Xrail a few times. Seeing that she was sound and agreeable, I set up a version of the Lucinda Green run-and-jump, with 2 3' fences off the rail midway down the long sides of the arena. Bailey finally got on her game after a few awkward, looky fences, and took some awesome long distances to these fences to gallop them out of stride with plenty of forward. I tried to focus on my leg, but I think it still needs some major work. After our short jump school, we cantered down the road and I was very happy that she had ceased to be crazy looky and let me kick her on when she started to fixate/blow at "scary" grass/mailboxes/etc.
4. The Foxmonster got ridden on Saturday, too.
Fox was a good girl for me and was nice and soft - I kept my curb nice and loopy, and was very happy with her. She actually got an almost real buck or two in (which I take as feeling pretty darn good for an old lady) before settling down. Her canter work, as always, was lovely (though she was very convinced I wanted to do lots of flying changes) and she stayed soft in the trot, though it's hard to enjoy her lack luster trot when you just got off the flying redhead.
All in all, we had a decent few rides. Tonight Bailey and I will do more dressage and hopefully will ride through our dressage test to see what we need to be focusing on, and before then, I need to call some truck dealerships!
A lot of things have happened this week:
1. Andrew and I have decided to look at buying a (cheap) truck to use for hauling. YEE!
Due to the majorly disappointing response from both Facebook and TCCT (so much for Minnesota Nice / Generosity) I don't currently have a ride to Otter Creek, which is now a little over 4 weeks away. I'd like to change that, and also regain the independence that I so love having - having to deal with another (usually disorganized) person's timelines, plus loading B into an unfamiliar trailer seems to me to be more stress than it would ever be worth.
2. Bailey and I did lots of dressage.
Much to BB's delight (sarcasm) we had a meh dressage ride in the indoor on Wednesday which involved better work but still hating her for the misbehavior due to the indoor. Friday, we had a surprisingly lovely ride after Princess B decided that the door blowing open and closed on the barn was suddenly VERY SCARY and sat back, repeatedly and hard. She broke the chin buckle on her halter, so she didn't learn she could break halters, but she did bang herself up a bit thrashing side to side trying to break the damn thing and even banged her right front up enough that I looked down mid ride and noticed some blood. Our ride, in contrast, involved some buckling down and she did some good work - prompt transitions, insisting on straight, focused work and not getting soft and throwing my reins away when she gets fussy.
3. We jumped on Saturday!
Bailey was pretty toned down on Saturday, but perked up nicely under saddle. She stood very still (especially for her) to be groomed and tacked - all while tied exactly where she was the previous day. We had a nice warm up and popped over a baby Xrail a few times. Seeing that she was sound and agreeable, I set up a version of the Lucinda Green run-and-jump, with 2 3' fences off the rail midway down the long sides of the arena. Bailey finally got on her game after a few awkward, looky fences, and took some awesome long distances to these fences to gallop them out of stride with plenty of forward. I tried to focus on my leg, but I think it still needs some major work. After our short jump school, we cantered down the road and I was very happy that she had ceased to be crazy looky and let me kick her on when she started to fixate/blow at "scary" grass/mailboxes/etc.
4. The Foxmonster got ridden on Saturday, too.
Fox was a good girl for me and was nice and soft - I kept my curb nice and loopy, and was very happy with her. She actually got an almost real buck or two in (which I take as feeling pretty darn good for an old lady) before settling down. Her canter work, as always, was lovely (though she was very convinced I wanted to do lots of flying changes) and she stayed soft in the trot, though it's hard to enjoy her lack luster trot when you just got off the flying redhead.
All in all, we had a decent few rides. Tonight Bailey and I will do more dressage and hopefully will ride through our dressage test to see what we need to be focusing on, and before then, I need to call some truck dealerships!
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