Sat/Sun = BRRRRRRR

Brrr!  It's literally FREEZING in Aiken!  Last night hit a low of 22 degrees- who ordered the New England weather???  Yesterday was definitely chilly, but the wind was insane! Even still, we got all the rides done and they were (surprisingly!) good even in the gale force winds!

Ari had a flat school out in the field where we focused on transitions and consistency (common themes for her).  She has such lovely moments but can't seem to hold them for very long.  I'm hoping that as she gets more mileage she will keep her focus longer and become more consistent in the bridle.  She's actually already a little bit straighter in between the aids, baby steps!

After Ari we packed up Diem and Devin and drove an hour to Gibbes Farm.  I had an appointment to look at some sales horses there and so figured we would take advantage of the opportunity and school xc.  Every year I have come to Aiken I have heard about Gibbes and never gotten there. This place is a mecca for xc schooling- they have endless options and variety for all levels, Beginner Novice through Advanced.  I was expecting a lot of fences, but I never anticipated the size of this place.  It is HUGE!  The field is long with good varied terrain and some wooded sections and literally hundreds of jumps.  And just when you think you've finally reached the end there is a corner and around it is another huge field, bigger than the first!  The place is endless! And there are so many excellent questions to school, lots of skinny turning questions, two water complexes, a huge bank complex, another more technical bank complex, coffins, combinations, hedges, ditches, mounds, ..... you get the idea.  It's xc heaven!

Devin was up first, and on this windy, frigid day I wasn't sure what to expect. This is also her first ever xc school (not counting one little outing at Flatlands).  To my surprise and delight, she marched off the trailer and was all business right from the get go.  She wasn't phased at all by the size of the place and settled into a nicely balanced trot and canter in the warmup.  When we started jumping she looked a little bit, but was very game once she understood what I wanted her to do.  It was quite a lot for her to be cantering around up and down terrain and come to the fences all in a nice light balance, but she did really well!  One of the first jumps she did (a fat little log) she jumped only with the front half of her body so we landed with her hind feet on one side and her front feet on the other.  I gave her a little nudge and she picked her hind feet up and stepped over the log- I figured she was just a little confused and wasn't at all concerned about it as she started jumping better and better after that. She really needs to learn how to come around the fences with her body so we were jumping lots of low square type of things to give her the idea.  She was really starting to jump beautifully when we came to another (slightly bigger) log and she did the same mistake again!!!  This time the log was too big for her to step over so she was stuck with her front feet on one side and her hind feet on the other and she was hopping a little back and forth- poor thing! So I did the only thing I could to help her- I hopped off!  Without my weight she was able to hop her hind end over the log and finish the jump and then she slipped right by me- just out of grasp (dang!) and took herself for a lovely GALLOP around the HUGE field.  There was nothing to do but wait for her to be done so Marissa and I stood by the trailer and watched her take a long, fast (and I must add perfectly balanced) tour of the property.  She finally made her way back to the trailer, decided she wasn't quite done, and did ANOTHER lap!!!  Then she came back, circled the trailer once and halted right in front of me as if to say, "Well! I'm ready now!"  I checked her legs and walked her around (she was hardly even breathing hard) and then hopped back on (we couldn't end like THAT!).  She was DELIGHTFUL after her little romp!  Super light and even and balanced!  We did a little walk/trot/canter and then popped over some fences and she excelled at everything!  With that I called it a day, but I'm thinking of adding some gallops to her routine!

Diem was a SUPERSTAR.  This post has already gone on too long so I will have to just be brief, but he was such a gentleman!  He stepped off the trailer, and went right to work- very soft and supple and focused from the first step.  After some very nice warm up fences we got a bit more technical and by the end of the school had done a variety of fences I'm sure he's never seen before (specifically a mound of turf with a couple of rails on top- he was like "What the.....???" but jumped it anyway!)  He did water, banks, ditches, and then we played with some fun stuff.  He was super at two different coffins, very rideable through some tricky bending lines, and excellent through a triple combination of VERY skinny logs.  A fantastic first outing of the season for him!  And he was so confident and focused! Love that!

Finally home I worked Beacon on the track doing some trot and canter sets- in the HOWLING wind and at DUSK!  Recipe for disaster?  Actually this was the calmest he has been yet and was really super focused and relaxed (finally!).  This was the first time since we've been down here where I could float the reins a bit and he would keep the rhythm and balance- I think he's finally settling in!

That's all for now, time to get the rides in for today!  It's freezing out there- time to bundle up!