The show this past Saturday was one of those that I will record as another good learning experience and miles for my green horse. It wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t stellar. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a bit disappointing, but that’s horse showing! This was the 3rd time we’ve shown at this facility (2nd time this year) and as one day shows usually go, the schedule is a little stressing for Simon. You may remember how…
Simon got his first adjustment from the Chiropractor yesterday. It’s something we’ve been meaning to do for a while, but the schedule was never lining up. When my trainer texted me yesterday and said the chiro would be out and she thought it would be good for Simon to get done, I agreed with her… even if I will be eating peanut butter and jelly for a bit. Gotta love the timing of paying things for the pony! I wasn’t…
There are good lessons because your horse is fantastic, and then there are bad lessons because your horse is not fantastic. I didn’t have either of those lessons last night. I had the lesson where your horse is mostly game for what we’re trying to do, but the rider is not making his job easy. By not making it easy, I really mean thumping on his back while trying to step up to bigger jumps. Here’s a dramatic visual to…
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit down in the dumps this past week or so. The new puppy was a bright spot for sure, but now she’s sick and I’m worried and mopey about it this morning. A friend also has really sad news about their animal, and all in all I just want animals to stop getting sick or trying to kill themselves in a variety of unusual and expensive ways. Is that too much…
After four beautiful rounds of jumping this past weekend, my trainer informed me that I needed to do the under saddle classes as well. Simon and I hate flatting. People say that it’s the race horse in him, but he never really raced and the truth is he’s almost as bad schooling at home as he is in the ring. I just don’t think he’s quite figured out what under saddle classes are all about.
My goal for this show was to have a calmer Simon (and a calmer me!) throughout the entire experience, and I am thrilled to say that we blew past that goal and ended up reserve champion in the 2’3″ Equitation! Wut wut! That’s the high level overview. If you want to skip the rest of the words of this post and just look at pretty pictures, that’s totally fine by me 🙂 We’ll start with schooling on Friday. I headed over…
Even though I’ve actually shown a lot in my life, since 2008 s I’ve been to a grand total of three shows and all of those were in the past 12 months. Even though I thought I had conquered my show nerves in the past, they have returned with a vengeance. I know this is something a lot of riders struggle with. For me, it’s all about mixing exposure and attitude. Go to a lot of shows. Go to a…
This is the week of lessons ramping up to the horse show. Usually I do one group lesson and one training ride for Simon per week, but on a horse show week I’ll swap a training ride for a lesson. That combined with my usual weekend lesson means a group jumping lesson every other day until we go to the show to school on Friday. That much instruction means we have to improve… right? Right?!? Heading to Sunday’s lesson I…