Monday Notes

What a super weekend!  Between getting all the daily stuff back at the barn done, riding mine, helping Michelle/Doug, and shuttling Marissa and Carino back and forth to Paradise Farm we were BUSY!

First off, I have to give a shoutout to Marissa and Carino for rocking their first Novice event.  They earned a very nice 33 and had two lovely double clear rounds, finishing in fourth!  The cross country course had some good technical tests and some bigger questions too, and they ate it up! Way to go!

Also, pictures are up from the 2/15/2012 Apple Tree Farm 2phase.  Check them out at http://4141sailing.exposuremanager.com/Page
You can see Ari around picture 2483, and Diem around 6337.  They look great! (Although I made some funny faces!)

Rides have been going well, Saturday the girls and Beacon worked in the ring with a mixture of flat/jump, and Diem worked on the track.  Keeping Diem's schedule very varied has been working really well, we still work on the flatwork on the track, but the change of scenery keeps him interested and focused.  Happy horse equals happy rides!  Ari is really starting to use her body nicely over the fences, I have found that I need to let her get a little bit deeper (or at least what I feel is deeper!) so that she really rocks back and uses her hind end.  She can jump THE MOON when she uses herself properly!  Devin has been trying REALLY hard, but she can still get herself a little worked up when she makes a mistake so I'm keeping her exercises very simple and small so she can keep gaining confidence, but she's making great strides!  I tried Beacon in a new bit- I found a rubber gag and he LOVES it, he is super soft in it and will push forward to my hand, but is also very respectful of it.  He had a great jump school, finally!!!

Sunday was WET.  Diem took a field trip to Paradise and after Marissa's XC worked in two different warm up rings- he was excellent!  He really stayed focused and soft and was really trying, even with all the other horses galloping around and jumping by him, success!!!  I still want to get him into as many warmup situations as possible, but this was a huge step in the right direction for him.  When we got home Marissa rode Ari and I rode Dev on the flat and both horses were really super.  By the time I got Beacon it was DOWNPOURING!!!  I tacked him up and went to lead him out of the stall and he planted all four feet and laid his ears flat back and gave me this "are you serious?????" expression.  I had to laugh, but I was just as unmotivated to go play in the sideways deluge.  We dragged ourselves to the mounting block and I cursed the rain gods that turned the seat of my saddle into a swamp before I could sit in it.  We swam out to the arena and did a really quick (like 10 minutes) work up, just enough to verify that he was feeling 100% after jumping the day before.  He was actually fantastic- a lovely W/T/C, some lateral work and a couple small 10 meter circles to test how his body was feeling (specifically on the right front re-sectioned hoof) and he was perfect!  I have my horse back!!!!

Today's rides were all nice easy hacks and a little conditioning work.  It was a lovely sunny day, perfect to dry everything out after the rain.  The rest of the horses are due in this week so I spent a good chunk of the day setting up for them.  Marissa and I had set up a tack and feed room in the spare stalls but by Friday there won't be any empty stalls so we needed to get creative and find space for everything.  Michelle graciously gave me a corner of their tackroom and the rest we were able to set up outside of the stalls. We're ready for the next group of Aiken Adventurers!

Tomorrow I have a jumping lesson scheduled with Doug, I can't wait to get back on track with Beacon.  I also have to decide who's going to do what this week.  There is a derby cross on Wed and another 2phase on Thurs. The options here are endless! 

That's it for now, happy riding!