Let me start off by saying that whatever shortcomings my barn has (as all barns do!), I’ve never been around a group of nicer people.  The silver lining to Simon being hurt right now is the incredibly generous people who are letting me ride their horse.  Lately I’ve been able to ride Viper (who will get his own post later) and last night one of the good teenage riders offered her appendix mare, Joy, for me to jump around on.

Aaaaaaaaaand since I rode with my friend Kelly, we were able to get shakey iphone video of each other riding.  So I have proof that I did a few things right (and I’ll tell you about the things I did wrong, because I edited that out)!  You’ll notice in the video sometimes we did changes and sometimes we did half changes or simples.  This is partially due to my still learning how to ride a horse with changes (Elvis never did them and Simon hasn’t started schooling them really yet) and the fact that Joy needs her hocks done, so I didn’t want to push her on something that is probably not 100% behavior.

Things I was Happy With

• My distances (overall) were good last night
• I see dramatic improvement in my leaning/jumping ahead problem
• I became increasingly confident over the few 2’6″ fences
• My leg looked and felt fairly steady
• I didn’t do my crazy “throw your hands forward release” that I’m famous for (see awfully wild release here)

Things I Am Not Happy With

• I may sit up OK before the fence, but the rest of the course I was leaning very far forward.  Need to fix this forward center of balance that I’ve gotten used to
• I didn’t do a good job of lengthening her stride and keeping up a good pace for a real 2’6″ course
• My elbows are sticking out in a most unattractive way
• My ass is huge, I need to get fit and start losing weight again for real
• I felt like I didn’t hold my two point long enough on the descent of the jump
• In between the jumps I felt like I had a quiet seat, but in the video I look like I’m bouncing around the saddle between two point and sitting.  When I sit, I need to actually sit

The main reason I’m being so tough on myself after watching the video, is that there may be a possibility that I could show Joy in April.  She’s going to Pin Oak, and her leasee said we could talk about it after the show.  I miss showing.  I love showing.  I want to show… so I’m cautiously optimistic this may become a real possibility.

On the Simon front, I can’t shake this feeling of dread that something really bad is happening with him.  We’re back to the stall rest no hand walking since he wasn’t 100% sound at the end of Feb, and I feel like every time I see him he’s resting the injured hind leg. This could be coincidence or the fact that he’s naturally pre-disposed to resting that leg from the history on it, but it still worries me.  Also, he does rest the other leg and he does stand on his injured one… but still, I worry.  I might try to get someone to jog him early next week to check progress.  In my mind, I’m already planning for the worst case scenario.

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