Buckle up kids, an awful lot happened this week! I'm going to go out of order, because if you follow my social media, I'm sure you're dying for a proper introduction. And if you don't, well... my family and I bought a new horse yesterday! Unicorn 2.0 seems to be what we were looking for, and he officially became a Seidman yesterday.
We have to work on the media situation, as I am desperately lacking. But I'll introduce you anyway!
His name is Eros (he has just the one name, but honestly, I think he needs a better barn name. Eros doesn't roll of the tongue) and he is an Oldenburg. He's nine years old, liver chestnut (as you can see), and in the words of Tracy from Fly On Over Eq, he has fabulous hair.
He's shown in the hunters a bit, up to the 3'3" greens. His main job with us is to be my step mom's horse for her to learn on, but I also will get to ride and show him.
We get along famously on the flat, but we have a lot of work to do over fences. He likes to get a little strong jumping, and I love to pull which kind of irritates him. But I'm confident we'll figure each other out.
He's a total love, and has pretty amazing manners on the ground. I think he'll fit right into our family. I've been riding him almost every day, and my step mom plans to ride three or four times a week. I'd like to get our schedule worked out so he doesn't do too many double ride days. But she doesn't work him very hard, so I also want to make sure he works enough each day.
Speaking of working horses... I rode Eddie a whole bunch last week in preparation for our first show over fences. I'm really starting to like that horse. He's so unflappable, even when I make stupid mistakes. Anyway, I rode him Friday and Saturday to prep for our show on Sunday. Here's a little clip from Saturday:
As you can see, we're keeping the jumps small while we get to know each other. We only jumped 2'3" at the show. I think maybe next time we can do the 2'6" though. I felt like I needed to know he wouldn't be looky at the jumps before I tried to jump bigger.
So let's talk about the show! It was very low key. I think the largest division all day had five people in it. My division only had two.
Despite the small attendance, the day kind of took forever. We got there way too early, and Ed had a lot of time to fill his belly while we waited. He seemed to like that just fine. Eventually, it was time to get dressed and get on.
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| I really love show clothes. |
They allow a short time to school before starting the classes, so I definitely took advantage of that. I was feeling a little anxious, just because it's been so long since I've prepared my own horse... or you know, actually showed. After cantering the first jump though, I knew we'd be just fine. Eddie doesn't care what you put in front of him, he just wants to jump all the things. He rode almost the same as he does at home, but maybe a bit more forward (which is quite nice in his case).
Our first class was going fairly well. The only bauble during the first half of the course was that one line rode pretty tight, and we chipped out. That would have been ok, and probably still would have won the class... but the last jump was a long approach vertical going away from the gate. I must have been running out of steam, because Eddie broke to trot a few strides out. It was a lovely trot jump! But we were supposed to canter it. Maybe we were just showing off how handy he can be?! I think a lovely trot jump should earn some bonus points! Anyway, we were second in that class.
The second trip was much better. The tight line was our first one this time, so it rode more easily. The only negatives to this round was that Ed swapped his lead in front of two of the fences. Just something for us to work on, and a little of his greenness coming through. We won that class!
I was feeling really good going into our third trip. It was the same course as the first though, so I REALLY wanted to make that quiet line ride perfectly. I found exactly the spot in that I wanted, sat up to get his stride just right early on. It was going to be perfect! So I softened.... You know what happens when you soften on Eddie? He trots, that's what. You guys, we trotted the oxer out of the line! DOH! The rest was lovely. Honestly, if you could omit that one jump, it was pretty perfect. Even held all his leads! But alas, second again. We won the flat though! The two of us riders in the 2'3" training hunters technically tied for champion, but since the other rider had more points over jumps, we finished in reserve.
Overall, Eddie and I had SO MUCH FUN at the show. I can't wait to go to the next one. I need to get stronger still with my legs and Eddie could help out a little more with maintaining his pace, but we're definitely on the right track.
I've been super busy with these red headed boys lately, but that doesn't mean my brown haired guys are getting neglected. Not completely anyway. We've been doing some late night walks during the week. Most nights Jamp even almost behaves.
And both weekend days we got to walk in the daylight. Saturday was chilly, sheet weather even!
But Sunday was like summer again. So that was much more pleasant.
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| Jamp has zero interest in selfies whilst walking |
And now for the other random stuff... The pugs had their annual check up on Saturday morning. Pretty much everything looks great, though P has a lump behind her ear with some unidentifiable cells. We're sending that sample out to find out what's up, but hopefully it's nothing. Keep your fingers crossed, if you can!
Ok... I think that's everything. It was quite a week, but all very exciting and wonderful things happening! I've sacrificed sleep and any sort of organization in my home, but honestly, it's totally worth it.
