We have been blessed with beautiful weather the last several days. It's been in the 70's and sunny, which of course means riding and teaching as much as possible. It's been crazy busy out at the farm. The kids were gone this weekend, but we still had plenty to do. Of course with all this warm weather it meant breaking out of all those layers and putting a good start to my farmers tan. Unfortunately I tend to have 3 shades: white, whiter and red...so guess what color I am right now! We have now also broke out the Aloe Vera!
My husband and Heathers husband were given lots of boy projects to do. Chuck helped out around the farm while I taught lessons and rode lots of horses. He got tons done, everything from adding padding to our trailer, to seeding the girls pasture, helping clean out water tubs, and adding panels to the round pen to make it bigger, along with about a million other little things!
Heather was still out of town on Thursday so I had my hands full taking care of all the horses, riding Lulu, Pilgrim, and teaching lessons, then rushing home so Dwight could get to Karate and I could do some more Insanity!
Friday I had to drive out and do a follow up check on MayMay. Any horse that gets training with us gets free follow up visits to make sure things are going well at home. She's doing great and we are so happy she has adjusted to being back home. There was a fall the other day, but that was more a dad problem than a MayMay problem as he forgot to tighten the girth all the way! Ahhhh, how easy it is to forget the little things. Hopefully he won't make that mistake again. Luckily everyone is okay and MayMay doesn't seem phased by it, nor does the kid as they were right back to it.
Saturday and Sunday were both filled with lessons and riding. Saturday I was able to ride Pilgrim, afterwards I worked him in Showmanship too. I also worked Jazzy, MC, Junie and CJ in Showmanship as they all needed a tune up. I rode Lulu working on keeping her in that consistent jog and level head set. She learns fast and is doing well. She has also learned to back and I've started teaching her to pivot. I am going to try to put a canter/lope on her this next week and take her out on a trail and see how she does. I also was finally able to get Johnny back out and really work with him. He lunged great and and I saddled him and bridled him and walked him around. He had a few Arabian, "I might have to freak out" moments, but held it together and I was so proud of him. I'm excited to start riding him again. Most importantly, I got my new radio installed in my truck and it's awesome!
Sunday after lessons I rode Pilgrim again. He has become so much better just in this week. He is steady in the bridle finally and is developing self carriage. He is also finally getting some bend around his corners and circles. I've started riding him in spurs along with my dressage whip to really help engage his hind quarters and push him forward. It's made a major difference and and a major improvement. I'm shooting for a May schooling show at Penrose. If he does well I'll take him down to Georgia for a rated show. That's right....I've finally found some confidence in my boy and feel like we are really getting somewhere. I'm not going to get ahead of myself and we will start with Training level tests. I'm going to start working elements of Training Level Test 3 next week. Chuck is getting a new video camera for his birthday and it should get here this week so hopefully we can start posting videos soon of our progress. He keeps taking some with his phone but the quality is so bad we decided to just wait until we could put up some nice ones.
Lulu has signed up for another 30 days of training and Lotti starts tomorrow. I'm wiped and going to bed! STAR benefit tack sale this Friday....will you be there? You know I can't pass up an opportunity to shop!
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