Home for the Weekend

First week of class didn't go bad at all...like I said in previous posts, I'm DYING for IHSA to start up again (tryouts next week!) and I LOVE my hunter class. I am soooo determined to do well this year and grow even more as a rider. I was 5th last year at Nationals and this year, I want that championship SO badly. If I could qualify in flat and fences that would be AMAZING (highly unlikely, but awesome none the less) and I want LEC to win our region so badly as well. This is just about all I can think about lately.

The good news is that it's been reflecting positively in my riding. I have determination to get things right on the first try...I want M to see that I am clearly making the changes to my riding. The only bad news is that I haven't had a single lesson all summer (ok, one but that was to work on Johnny not me and therefore doesn't count) and I think my equitation has suffered a bit. Last year, going into tryouts I was riding all the time with my trainer on a 3ft school master basically. All winter I worked on myself, and now I'm going into the first part of my season feeling totally unprepared. Although working with John has been amazing and a super awesome learning experience, I've barely jumped over 2ft this summer, but oh well I guess. I'm just going to ride my best and whatever happens will happen.

ANYWAY, as I said, I came home this weekend to pack up Johnny's stuff (he is offically shipping out Tuesday night) and because there was really nothing for me to do at school. I went to the tack shop this afternoon and got some more hoof oil, another tail wrap (because I seemed to have lost my spare...) and a really cute white baby pad with blue trim. I really wanted one of those while square jumper pads with the blue trim, but they were pretty expensive (over $50!) so I settled for the baby pad instead. It's the thicker kind, so I can still use it for a jumper schooling show or combined test. There's no rule against them...hehehe. After shopping, I went to the barn and got greeted by an especially happy Emmy and a decently happy Johnny (we don't have that relationship yet lol). Emmy got to go out first, so I groomed her and saddled her up. She was quite happy to see me and even happier to go out for a hack. After a short walk to warm up, we trotted and cantered down the street to the park (about a mile and a half) and took the loop around the dog park. The trail is nicely mowed grass and so I let her have a short little gallop up one of the small slopes. After that it was into the woods, down the ravine and across a wooden bridge, up another hill and back along the road to go home. Emmy was so happy! She cantered along with her ears flopping back and forth all the way home.

After I walked her out and took her tack off, I sent her out for grass while I got Johnny ready. The weather was perfect for riding...sunny yet cool and breezy so that the horses barely even sweated. Johnny and I did a shorter version of Emmy's dog park loop and when we got back to the barn we did some canter work in the front yard. He threw both leads easily and the canters each direction were smooth! He's getting shoes put on Tuesday afternoon...I'm super excited to see how much better he will move with more support!

Thats about it for today...more tomorrow!

Peace.Love.Ponies.