Lots of exciting events in the last couple days! Wed Full Gallop ran the first of their Intermediate series Horse Trials, Marissa and I got there late enough in the day so that we could watch my friend Meghan run novice on one of her greenies and we got a chance to walk the courses.  We also ran into my friend Todd who does the course design and building at Full Gallop and chatted with him about how everything ran- sounds like it was a great day! 

Yesterday Beacon and Diem got the day off so that I could steal away and watch some of the Training Sessions for the team.  I love watching these top upper level horse and rider teams play with improving their own challenges.  I was able to watch Boyd show jump and Will C and Will F both do dressage.  Many of these horses are super big and fancy, but what struck me was that Will F was riding a super cute but much more average sized and average moving mare, but she was NICE.  It impresses me, and I have all the more respect for Will F to be able to take something a little less big and flashy and be able to still be super successful at the upper levels.  I was also very impressed by his relationship with her- he is a very quiet rider on her and very sympathetic, you can hear him saying things like "good girl" and "come on now" under his breath as they ride around the arena, it was a very quiet and harmonious partnership.  I may try to look him up and go have a ride with him on Ari who actually moves quite similar to his little bay lady (gives Ari and I something to aspire to!)

 When Marissa got to the barn after school we packed up the greys (Carino and Ari) and headed out to XC school at a random little farm on the otherside of town.  What an amazing little secret this place is!  It has a good sized derby field with anything you could want to school BN,N, T.  There were two different bank complexes, a water jump with beaches and a variety of banks, a sunken road, ditches of various sizes, and about a million different portables of all shapes and sizes!  We were able to put together a really good school without ever jumping even a quarter of the various fences!  The footing was excellent and in addition to the derby field they had a lovely show jump arena with beautiful fences, a dressage arena, a track, and even a place to swim the horses!  And the really amazing part is the whole facility fee is only $25!!!!  Marissa and I were the only ones there and we were able to have a really relaxed XC school where both horses did some very technical questions and some bigger fences.  Marissa feels good about going novice at Paradise (her first sanctioned novice!) and I was really impressed with the little grey mare- she has talent and GAME for XC!  The more and more I ride this horse the more she impresses me, there might be quite a bit of talent still to unlock!

On another note- I've picked up a job working for Doug Payne who was in need after loosing some of his working students.  I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing other than helping him and Michelle (his groom/barn manager) but it will be fun and educational to see the inside workings of a top rider's program.

Off to do my rides for the day now, and then we are shipping Carino to the clinic this afternoon to have a growth removed. 

Hope all is well at home!  I heard from Mike about last week's lessons and they sounded like fun!  I know Red is teaching this week, Happy Riding!!