♣Ambitious♣

It seems that we have reached the point where little jumps are starting to look ridiculously tiny, and big jumps just aren't big. I've always been one to notice the tiny, 3" difference in a fence; however, it simply doesn't faze me anymore. The first show of the season was this past weekend, and, while I didn't show, I tagged along anyway to take pictures and help out and eat food (because someone always brings donuts, and donuts are one of my weaknesses). I was also paying attention to what went on in different divisions so that I could be prepared for my first show in May. Jr. Eq. apparently only asked for walk, trot, and canter, but I'm still going to be dropping my irons and doing lengthening/shortening of strides. The courses are a bit difficult; one of them had three rollbacks in a row, and the second one included a hand gallop. Maybe the judge figured that he could torture them over fences then be nice on the flat. I'm still trying to pick out a ...

I don't think I've ever seen the heavens open up so quickly and violently as they did yesterday. I was hoping that, after a light sprinkle during the day, we would be able to ride outside again, but, no. When Miss Tanya picked me up, it was raining, not hard, but it was obvious and warranted a sweater. As we drove, it looked like the storm was moving away. I was wrong. We got to the barn, and I went up to the small barn to get Baby. I brushed her off and started on my way to the indoor. I kind of wished that I hadn't looked behind me. If you have ever seen James and the Giant Peach, recall the scene where the Black Rhino cloud shows up. That's what I saw behind me, so I started running. It was actually slightly more terrifying. The ladies were waiting for me at the other barn, opening the gates to salvation (the barn doors). I got Baby tacked up, hopped on, and started getting to work. We trot around on the rail, and I did a couple of circles and transitions. Her ...

Slow, but definitely sensational. I had the wonderful opportunity to ride Chesapeake Sensation aka Chess in a lesson this morning. I started riding him early last year, and had planned to show him, but then he went lame, and it's been a roller coaster ride trying to figure out what was wrong and then trying to rectify it. Originally, he was diagnosed with laminitis, but that wasn't making much of any sense to Miss S and I, so Miss S had him looked at again by a couple other vets. Turns out it wasn't laminitis, and I'm not sure what the final diagnosis was, but, with some special shoeing, he is perfectly sound. Fifi and Miss S have been getting on him a couple of times for the past month, but I've been very determined to work with him, so I asked to ride him today. He has no topline, and hasn't been ridden regularly in a long time (I'm talking years because he was never used as a lesson horse and the amount of time that Miss S had to ride him became smaller...

Queen B I'm afraid that I'll have to be doing some backtracking with my flatwork, specifically polework. We do a lot of jumping in our lessons, and I think Baby has gotten into the mindset that poles automatically equal a bounce or awkward half jump, half trot over of some sort. We also need some work going to the right (shocker). As crazy as it sounds, I think that I've spent way too much time on the left and essentially ignored the right. Shame on me! I was noticing all of this on Tuesday while we were working inside. It was a nice day, and I think we are officially done with snow over here, so everyone wanted to ride in the field a bit, but we had to do some real work inside first. We get to warm up by ourselves, so I took Baby in the arena and got her trotting around. She was perfect, honestly, I couldn't fault her besides being on the forehand, but that is what we are currently working on. We went on the rail for a while, then we started doing some 20m circle...