Beamer Updates

Beamer rocked his first season of distance riding. He had a 100% completion rate, accumulating 155 miles in AERC and ECTRA. After I last blogged, he did the two day 50 at Brookfield, then completed a tough 55 miles at Hector Half Hundred. He and Chelsea wrapped up the season with a strong finish at the Jersey Devil CTR. Somewhere along the line, Chelsea switched saddles and eliminated Beamer's back soreness issues. They are both much happier in the new saddle!

Vetting at Brookfield.

WW: Ozzy and JR

Gunner Updates

Jess and Gunner have been making awesome progress all summer long. As it turns out, Jess has quite the jumper on her hands! She never would have guessed it based on the way he used to just plow through even the smallest obstacle. In fact, Gunner is extremely scopey and seems to have pretty decent natural form.

We did a lot of free jumping in the beginning, mostly because we were curious to see what Gunner was capable of. It turns out he's capable of a lot. We maxed out at 4', but I honestly think Gunner could go higher if we kept at it. Neither Jess nor I have any interest in jumping him that high under saddle so we didn't push it. Still, it made for some cool shots.

Happy Trails, Gambit

In between introducing new clients and writing updates about existing ones, I'm going to take a minute to wrap up Gambit's chapter in my life. Not long after they celebrated their one year anniversary together, Becky sent Gambit back to SRF. Despite the fact that Gambit was doing really well in training, I can't say that I'm surprised. I also think it was the right decision.

Lilly Updates

I have sort of filled you in on Lilly by proxy, so I might as well finish the subject. As you've gathered, the big, gray mare is back in work. This will mostly be a photo dump.

I gave Lilly a refresher course in the ring at the end of the summer. Considering how long she's been sitting, she was really good. She started off a little barn sour, and her gait was pretty lateral in the beginning, but she was compliant and we soon found our rhythm. I rode her in the ring a handful of times, mostly because of the restricted trail hours. One night, I even had Mike there to take photos.

And before anyone freaks out that she's gaping her mouth or that (god forbid anyone says this, seriously) she has blood in her mouth, it is cookie sludge from her peppermint cookies.

See?

Booger Updates

Booger and I have been getting a lot done lately. Our ring work has continued to improve and she is getting pretty solid and dependable in that respect. 

WW: Cantering Ozzy

Introducing: Footie

I am keeping up with my new trend of blogging about fun things like nothing is wrong. And what could be more fun than a gypsy cob? 

Everybody, meet Blarney Stone's Footloose (aka Footie):

Stretching his legs after a lesson.

Riding with Amy

I am going to start this entry with a little bit of a tangent. I have to get some stuff off my chest, but I'm not really ready to talk about any of it. That's cryptic and annoying, and I know.

If one more well meaning person cheerily asks me how newlywed life is going, I am going to scream. The fact of the matter is that it's hell right now. Not the marriage. The marriage is wonderful and I would love nothing more than to enjoy wedded bliss right now. I did legally change my name, so that's one exciting thing, I guess. The fact of the matter is, however, that since very shortly before the wedding, Mike and I have been getting hammered with bad news.

The short version is as follows: we are increasingly broke due to factors outside of our control, the property we live on and adore is for sale and we are frantically hunting for other options while trying not to go down with a sinking ship, and Skip has decided to sell Moniet.

Hannah and Kal' Updates

Hannah and Kaleidoscope have been awesome all summer. They just keep moving right along in the right direction.

Now that we've woken him up and boosted his fitness level, Kaleido is turning into quite the jumping machine. I want the two of them to go to a jumper show in the near future, and Hannah is excited to try dressage with him again (and to see her scores improve).

After a few months of building flexibility, softness, and connection, we've revisited the subject of lead changes. Not surprisingly, Kaleido is starting to have some really nice changes! I suspect we'll be doing a lot of flat work once winter rolls in and we're stuck in the indoor, and I know both of them will go into spring much improved because of it.

For now, we've been taking advantage of the nice weather and the ever-growing outdoor course, and we've been focusing on a lot of jumping in our lessons. Hannah does her homework week in and week out, and she's reaping the rewards. Kaleido is getting handier and handier, and Hannah's timing continues to improve.

We did one lesson for height and Kaleido topped out at 3'9", which is no small feat for a stocky, short paint. It's hard to believe this horse used to duck out any time he saw something new. Refusals don't seem to be in his vocabulary these days.

I look forward to teaching them every week and I've taken about a million photos and videos this summer. Hannah has also taken up IEA and totally rocked her first show a few weekends ago. If I could have ten clients like Hannah and ten horses like Kaleido, I don't think I'd have anything to complain about!

Earlier this summer, working on the basics on the flat.

Introducing: Denali

Since Jess has formally introduced him on her blog, I'm going to talk about her new horse, Denali, here too.

His back story was small world for me. What else is new?

A few years ago, I had a client who made an ill advised purchase of a pony mare. The pony, who had been picked up from auction, had been mishandled and had several severe, fear based issues. One of them was that she was more ear shy than any other horse I'd worked with. It was so bad that if you raised your arm at the end of a lunge line, she would just about flip herself over to shield her ears. She would actually throw herself on the ground if you tried to bridle her. The pony was only 12hh, and I know for a fact that the grooms at the show barn that sent her to the auction would simply over power her and 'hold her down' to do things like trimming her bridle path or clipping her ears.