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| Winter reunion |
January
Beauty has been in training with my instructor since September, since I have been away at college. I come back for winter break and am blown away by my little horse! She can now bend, keep her head down and canter somewhat. We work on consistency and suppleness, and generally get very frustrated with that canter! We determine that her saddle does NOT fit well, and begin the dreaded search for a new one. At the end of the month, I take her to a bodywork clinic and learn accupressure!
February-April
I go back to school, Beauty remains in training. My mom starts to ride Beauty a little, but not often. I get many reports about what a pain in the ass my horse is, and the vet comes out to determine whether she has reproductive issues that are contributing to raging heats during the winter. She comes out with a clean bill of health, but talk of putting her on Regumate arises. I strongly object. We try a mare supplement instead and take her off a supplement that had soy in it, which can contribute to higher estrogen in mares.
May
I come back from school and am initially not pleased with Beauty's progress, nor is my trainer. Beauty is tense, bucks during canter transitions and is generally rebellious. After working with Beauty MY preferred way for a while, my good old steed comes back. We find a saddle that works for her, and order one from the company.
June
We continue working on dressage, Beauty becomes an old pro at consistency and bend/flexion. We talk about entering our first (schooling) show in July! Generally boring month, but slow and steady progress.
July
We practice, practice, practice for our show! The show goes FABULOUSLY and I am so proud of my little horse! We score a 67.5 on our Intro A test and a 62 on Intro B. We JUMP for the very first time together! Our saddle comes and while it fits Beauty perfectly, I am vastly disappointed in it. I decided to keep it, though, since it is SO hard to find a saddle that fits Beauty and I can tolerate it, I guess...
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I ride with an upper level dressage instructor while on vacation. It was fun, but not overly helpful. I head off to school at the end of the month.
September
BEAUTY COMES TO SCHOOL WITH ME! The trailer ride is not as planned, and takes much longer than it was supposed to. Regardless, Beauty hops off looking no worse the wear and settles into her new home well. She gets a little beat up by her pasture mates, but soon works her way to the top of the herd. That's my bossy little mare!
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| Checking out the new paddock |
October
Beauty and I continue to settle in to the new barn and continue jumping. I am displeased with the barn farrier, who makes Beauty sore after a trim.
November
We finally conquer our fear of trails and discover that we both LOVE it! We go out both alone and with a group and Beauty never makes a wrong move (although there is a learning curve that she has to actually look where she is going to avoid tripping). We jump a baby rolltop and both work on chilling out over jumps. Our dressage takes huge steps and we work a lot on lateral work and impulsion. Overall, a VERY good month for us, other than getting cancelled on by the saddle fitter that was supposed to come!
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| Trail ears! |
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| Baby rolltop |
December
A short month for us together, as I went home on the 19th, and many days before that, I spent the day trying to not drown in homework and finals, so my barn time got cut. But while short, it was sweet! We got new blankets, made some more progress in dressage and got some snuggle time!
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| Breaking in the blanket |
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| Snuggles! |
Sounds awesome
ReplyDeleteWhat a great year! Cheers to 2014!
ReplyDeleteYou both accomplished a lot this past year! Here's to big things in 2014!!
ReplyDelete