I’m supposed to be showing at my barn’s local IEHJA show this weekend, but after losing the “Will I Lesson?” game too many times… I’ve taken Simon off the list. Truthfully, I’m super bummed. I was really looking forward to getting back in the ring with our new skills, but he got another abscess that sidelined him for a week. Although he’s sound and happy again and I’ve had some great rides, it’s not fair to my horse (or my…
I know I’ve already shared a lot of big news, but this is probably even more important than all that. More important than me moving to California. More important than graduate school. Guys. GUYS! GUYSOMGGGGGUYSSSS!!! Simon — My beloved, nerd horse… IS DOING LEAD CHANGES! Now, he’s always done some lead changes. My trainer would get the occasional clean change when she asked, but it was never consistent. On course, Simon would do a clean change when he really needed to…
I’m not one of those crazy natural horsemanship bloggers that will stalk people’s blogs and write scathing comments the minute they pick up a martingale. YOU’RE CREATING A FALSE FRAME! YOU’RE RUINING YOUR HORSE! YOU’RE NOT RIDING LEG TO HAND AND YOU SUCK AND YOU’RE PROBABLY GOING TO DIE ALONE WITHOUT ANY PONIES THAT CAN GO PROPERLY ON THE CONTACT! I don’t like those people, and neither do others. Those people don’t typically get invited to parties, and I like…
I’ve been fairly mum on Roman for a variety of reasons. When I feel less than stellar mentally, the act of sitting down to write about ponies seems insignificant in the grand scheme of things and I don’t bother. Additionally, even though my trainer doesn’t believe me I’m planning on Roman being a longer term resale project. That doesn’t mean he won’t make blog appearances, but it does mean that I won’t be publishing every single little detail on the…
Once upon a time I had a green horse. Rides were somewhat unpredictable, and some lessons I could do my best and things would still kinda suck overall because he was green. Then I took weekly (or twice weekly) lessons for two years. I added a weekly training ride. We went to shows with the only goal being “get around”. We did more stuff at home on our non-lesson days. Slowly it started coming together. Simon has always been a…
I said a few weeks ago that I was taking a break from showing for sure in June, and most likely July… and I may just get crazy and add August to that list. This probably sounds crazy from the “Goals! Show! Derby!” personality I had earlier this year… but I’m seriously happy right now enjoying my horse in a leisurely way. My lesson on Sunday was super fun. Sure, we got changes late, but I didn’t beat myself up…
Remember that time when I was like it’s flat work boot camp time! And I was all gung-ho and all COUNTER CANTER ALL THE THINGS! And Simon’s brain exploded? Oh wait, I didn’t tell you about the brain explosion part. So, flat work boot camp started out fantastic. We did bending! We did circles! We did rollbacks! We did counter canter! We did canter extensions! We did transitions… well, we didn’t do transitions. Instead, we did a series of really shitty…
Simon and I have a well established routine this time of year, and by well established… I mean this is what we did last year: work hard all year to horse show, go horse show, end on a high note, pretty much ignore Simon until after new years… and then start all over when he’s sound again. See, I have plenty of drive and motivation when the shows are looming… but after our year end show ribbons and debut at…