Hey guys! We leave for Pine Top tomorrow morning with four horses, including Poppers, so this week has been BUSY to say the least. As I'm now nursing a migraine and upset stomach (probably shouldn't be blogging) I'm ready to just get in the bed and try to get a good night's sleep. But first...
We went XC schooling yesterday and Pop was awesome. He was totally gung-ho and bucked after every jump. His bucks are more like spastic hops, but funny http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnonetheless. We schooled a ditch and some wahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifter, including a log 2 strides to a bank down into water, which looked pretty man-eating and terrifying when I was riding to it, but on the video doesn't look nearly as imposing:
He was super and I feel really confident about this weekend. I'm finally learning to trust him. He's going to try no matter what, so I just need to focus on riding my best and making his job easier. I can't believe I'm (God willing) finally going to go Training! At a recognized USEA horse trials!
And professional photos from the pipe opener can be found here. I am THRILLED with my dressage pictures. He looks like he's really going forward! And my position is less hunched and crumpled that in previous photos. Do you guys see an improvement? I just have to remember to ride him the same way this weekend.
So I was literally swamped today, to the point where I don't know if I'll ever actually be DONE tonight. I get stressed very easily especially when I'm tired, and I struggled to fit in a quick ride on Pop this afternoon...and my impatience and anxiety reminded me that I really, really shouldn't ride when I'm like this. Luckily for me, Pop is forgiving, and after a terrible first few minutes we started working together like a team. I was light in my hands, he was light in his jaw, and he was quite a bit "up" today, so I had a horse more like the one he is at shows. I have two days to ride him at the show grounds before our dressage test Saturday so I didn't do a lot with him, about 30 minutes of w/t/c with lots of circles and changes of direction. He wanted to put his hips left today (which is the opposite of usual), mainly because he was spooking at the Pop-killing bush in the corner, so I had to really work at keeping him straight with BOTH reins (good reminder for me) and keeping his jaw soft at all times. He was good.
Time to get back to packing, and hopefully bed is in the near future! Wish us luck this weekend, I will attempt to blog from my phone! :)
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