What's Up Wednesday

 

Another busy week around here! Thursday was nuts. I rode lots of horses and even jumped Shiny and Eros too. I feel like I haven't jumped Shiny much this year since her kid has been having so much fun with her. But finally this week it was my turn! She was great, though it did take a few jumps to get her engine revving. 

We're working on getting back to her twice a day rides. The last couple of weeks we've had trouble getting both rides in. Some days due to weather and other days just due to lack of time. It happens. But this week we've been better about it. Tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be in the 90's with very high humidity. So we may not double up in those conditions. Playing it by ear!

Eros was pretty good for his jump day. He's been a little spooky and well... rude lately. But I think that's my fault. I've been taking it easy on him, but I think it's time to buckle down and get back to really working. He's feeling sound again, so I don't feel guilty making him lift his belly and work his hind end. He was less of a torpedo for this jump school than he was last week, so I'm calling that a win. He still was jumping me loose over a small 2'3" oxer though. Ha. Never change E.

Eros got his feet x-rayed on Friday to see how far the white line was up his foot. And it was actually pretty far, almost 2 cm. Just in the one foot though, thankfully. Our farrier came yesterday to finish cleaning that out and repack it with medication. He feels confident that he got it all without having to cut away the whole wall around it, so we'll see next shoeing how it's doing. We're going to stick with a five week cycle for now until we get rid of it entirely. Which honestly is better for the other horses. Since they're barefoot, they are usually ready for a trim by then, and pushing to six weeks can get a little hairy. 

Al's been great! I have no media from our most recent lessons because I didn't get Pivo charged in time. But, SURPRISE! We went to our second show on Saturday, so I have a video of our second trip to share.

I again opted to just do two of the three trips. I don't see any reason to keep jumping jumps if we accomplish what we set out to do in two classes. Save the other jumps for another day! Anyway, we again did the Low Child/Adult Jumpers which were set at .90 at this show as well. Al was a little fire-y when he came off the trailer, so trainer and I both thought it wouldn't hurt to let him have a little lunge. I've always been all, who lunges a jumper?! But after last time with all the bucking, I decided I am who lunges a jumper. He didn't lunge long, maybe five minutes. Just enough to get the sass evened out. He was polite and not crazy, but definitely appreciated getting to blow off a little steam. Then I got on, and had a lovely horse! He was a little spookier at this venue than he was at the last show, but we were in a back ring that had a lot to be looky at surrounding it. He was super honest at the jumps though, and that's what is most important to me. Both classes I did were Table 2, Sec. 1 which is a speed class. I didn't try to go crazy fast, especially the first round. I just wanted him to see the jumps and be a good boy. And we achieved that, though we did add in the first line. He was spooking at the "timer" (It was a corgi planter on the fence like the ones I have under the one jump) and just generally distracted which caused the add. But he never acted like wasn't jumping out of the line. Just got squirrelly. No biggie. 

In between our two classes, a deer appeared at the far end of the ring. A DEER! As you can imagine, Al was like "MOM! There's a weird looking pony loose over there!" Fortunately, it had wandered away by the time I had to go back in the ring. But Al had already seen it, and was not going too close to that end of the ring. Honestly though, that was to my advantage since it was a speed class after all. (These "speed classes" had hunter courses, so there really weren't many places to make up time.) I just turned early which helped us be a little faster. You can see in the video above that we totally faked the fact he was spooking. Or at least, I think we pulled it off pretty well. 

We ended up being second in the first class and third in the other one. I was really happy with him. I haven't stepped on the gas yet, but he more than held his own against some decent horses and their riders who WERE on the gas. So I'm calling show number two a success! I'm not yet sure when the next one will be. I was thinking Fairfield, but their fees are insane. It will cost me $245 before I even enter a class there! So yeah. I'm skipping that one. Stay tuned I guess.

We also brought my trainer's daughter and her pony with us for her very first show ever! She did the short stirrup and did a great job. She even won a class! Her pony is adorable. Eventually, I would love for her show Shiny, but first I need to see how she'll be at a show. She's never done one other than the schooling show we had at the boarding barn that time which was just in house. She was pretty spicy for that, so I feel like I should be the guinea pig. 

Eros and Shiny wound up having Friday and Saturday off this past week. Friday because the vet came earlier than expected which was great, but threw off my schedule for the day. By the time I finished that appointment, rode at the other barn, and got Al worked it was close to 4. I still had to clean all my tack and pack the trailer, and I just didn't want to be up late. So I gave them the day. Not planning on the horse show taking FOREVER. I was done pretty early, but trainer's daughter didn't even get to get on until 5pm. So it was a LONG day. I think I unloaded Al around 7:45. We left at 9:15 that morning, so obviously, there wasn't time to ride the other two that day either. So, I decided to give Al Sunday off instead of Monday while I rode at the other barn and Shiny and Eros. Then I skipped my usual Monday off to ride everybody. I had to take my mom to an appointment on Tuesday, and I wasn't sure if I was going to get everyone ridden. (Hence not taking Monday off.) Fortunately, her appointment was moved earlier so all worked out, and everyone has been worked all week so far. I'll still ride tomorrow even though it's going to be hot, but we'll keep it light. Friday is supposed to be the hotter day, so we'll see how that plays out. 

So that's the low down over here! How are things with all of you? I shall leave you with a very cute photo of Rita having a snooze: