First Day of School

The kids had their first day of school today. Faith is starting 3rd grade and Dwight is going into 1st. It was less a first day of school and more registration and meet teachers (both got the teachers they wanted so they are super excited), then leave. So by 8:45 we were leaving the school with a whole day still on our hands. With the high being in the upper 70's - low 80's that meant we could enjoy some time outdoors! We headed to the farm to feed and work horses. Faith continued working on her jumping to prepare for her upcoming show. She also rode Jazzy again with me outside the arena. I worked Payton and lunged Pilgrim. Pilgrim gets his shoes back on tomorrow and we can finally get back to work. While we were all busy, Dwight got a little mud on the tires of his new bike!

No first day jitters here!

After we got home, we met Chuck and took the kids to the park for some more fresh air. Faith is deciding whether to do the Knoxville Track Club's cross country season this year. Her age group does a mile. Her school unfortunately does not participate so she has to join as an individual participant which means that we are responsible for her training. To give it a test run....literally, Chuck (who used to be an avid runner as well as an officer in the military) helped coach her through warm ups, stretching, and running about 3/4 mile. She did great and is a natural runner, but she is still deciding....and honestly so are we. It's tough having so much on our plate but if she really wants it I think we can make it work.

Dwight's new bike

Enjoying some quality time outside at the park

Wore Out

Battle Scars!

Run Faith, Run!

Off And Running!

Faith rode with Lora Grace today. They both had good lessons, Larkin was wanting to chase the pony a bit today, which was good to work on since she has a show in September. Faith jumped a full course of verticals today. Not one refusal and only chipped one rail with a back hoof....Chip jumped lazy and needed a bit more leg before the jump. Faith's hands and eye were really good and she made good equitation turns throughout her course (instead of some of the wilder routes she has taken that are only seen in Show Jumping). Really excited....hopefully they will be ready to rock out the Stonegate Show on the 27th. 

Faith let Dwight help groom Chip to ride.

Clean those hooves girl!

Enjoying some "girl time" in the field....horsey style!

After their lesson the girls helped with farm chores and we worked Jazzy again today. We were finally able to get some pics of her under saddle.

Who needs a halter?

Faith was getting Chip out of the pasture today and through the early morning fog I noticed Chip was following her up to the gate with no halter on. Who needs a halter when your pony loves you this much?

These two have become such a great team this year. They are really starting to trust each other and work together. 

Coming Along Nicely

Lulu suffered a minor eye injury late last week and had to take a few days off to recover. Just a small scratch, probably from itching on a tree or getting something stuck in her eye and rubbing it. Anyways, she is all better now and back to work. On Monday I rode her for over an hour focusing on a consistent jog and collection. 

While she was sore on Tuesday, she still gave me another good ride. I rode her during one of Heather's lessons so she could ride with another horse. She was very well behaved and while interested in the other horse, was a perfect angel. I decided today to start her canter. My big concern was after getting such a nice jog out of her that she would try to rush and run out again all the time after letting her have some speed. So I decided to start small, I asked for just a few steps of canter, then brought her back to the jog asking her to stay slow and steady several times around the arena then ask for a few steps of canter again, back to jog. Wash, Rinse, Repeat, and TA DA! She got it. After doing exactly what I was sure would happen (get really excited when I introduced more speed) she learned to quickly come back to me. I gave her big rewards for doing the canter but also rewarded her settling back into the jog after. I can't say enough about this horse. Really a good, smart girl. I had Markie ride her some after I was done so I could get some good pics and video of her....or at least the best you can with your iphone!

Speaking of coming along nicely, Faith has been working hard getting ready for our first show this season on April 23rd. Her and Chip are doing great and have shown lots of improvement the last couple of weeks. They should be a force to be reckoned with this year! She is going to ride again tomorrow and I'm going to try to remember to bring the good camera for good pics and video.

Manic Monday

Super busy today and sweating to death....it was almost 80! I know I wanted warmer weather, but wow that came fast! It's suppose to be warm again tomorrow and then a cold front moves back in for cooler temps. Just when I was getting used to the warm.

Lulu had the morning off since I did a demo ride for her owners this afternoon and then her little girl ride her. She did great and so did Olivia (her kid). We also found out she can be quite the ham for the camera!

Getting groomed and looking good!

Pretty Lulu!

We worked Lotti this morning. It was the start of her 30 day tune up and since she hasn't been worked at all for months we decided to start with some in hand work and lunging with a saddle on. She has a previous bad habit similar to the one I just worked through with Pilgrim which is every time she wants to get out of work she sucks back and jigs while bracing on the bit, which was definitely evident today just on the lunge. Other than that she did well, just needs to lose a few pounds. After her tune up she will be offered for sale so if anyone is interested in a super cute 14.3 hh chubby buckskin mare let us know. I will post pics later this week of her.

Johnny also got back out today and after some lunge work I decided to take him for a spin. Just a walk around the arena with lots of stops, starts and turns, but he didn't attempt to kill me once! WIN!

Pilgrim had the day off to recover from all his hard work, but he is back to work tomorrow.

Faith and Dwight both got to ride today. Dwight has finally found the need for speed....well at least trot, and Billy was more than happy to oblige him! They trotted all over the place. Faith worked some flat and is working on correcting a bad habit she has gotten into with her hands that causes Chip to counter bend all the time. She's getting it, but it will take some time to correct, lots of practice. They also did some jumping. Heather had her work on sitting, instead of posting, trot to the jump. This is for two reasons 1. It gives Faith more control all the way to the jump. 2. To prepare Faith for cantering the jump course.