Little by little

We had a great lesson tonight! It always seems that the days before our lesson things seem to 'fall apart' so its nice to know that one is coming soon, it happened this week to so I was VERY happy to have one tonight! I know that a lot of it is me but it doesnt make it any easier. Although our leg yields have been getting better we hit a wall with them early this week and so I was feeling frustrated with that, so it was definitely something I wanted to work on tonight. I found out that I really need to prepare him a LOT better going onto the center line and get him really engaged in his hind end so he isnt just plowing around on his forehand, making it really hard to do a good leg yield. We got a lot of good cross overs behind tonight. I havent gotten him to keep a good leg yield for the whole length but we are getting closer and I now have more things to work on in hopes of getting even better.
I always feel SO much better after a lesson but I know that we still have a ways to go. Alanna and I were talking tonight about how I think our expectations are a lot higher then others because we have been around and seen some very nice upper level horses so when I dont feel like we are looking fantastic I think the only other way we could look is terrible! Really I think getting a 55 % (qualifying score for championships) wont be an issue but its just all the unknowns that are getting me nervous! I havent ever really been nervous for a show this much. Ever since we have started with Teacher Mary I have learned so so so much and actually understand dressage more so I expect more out of my horse and I. I definitely banking on some cute points though, I dont think they will be hard to get when you look at good as my guy does though :)

On the Sky front... Someone I know has a friend that is looking for some nice TB broodmares and that would give her a good home. Im torn on this. I would LOVE to keep in contact with whoever gets her. I told the lady I know that I would give her away to a great person (with the terms that I get her back if they ever need to get rid of her). She said if I gave her to the lady that I could get a foal out her. Which actually doesnt sound bad, maybe next year or the year after. Then I could have my adorable mini draft pony and a bigger one that could maybe go further in eventing. On the flip side being a broodmare for the rest of her life? I dont know, maybe if she just got to hang in a pasture with other horses and get loved on she would be happy. I just want whats best for her and feel like the perfect home IMO will never come along because of her previous injury. So is this second best? Who knows... my friend is giving her friend my number. We will see where it goes.

Mystics Valentine :)

Mystic picked his Valentine today, he is so cute! Sadly she doesnt have the same feeling for him. He does have good taste though, Rheiny is a 3rd level dressage machine!! He thinks that since Mamma Rheins baby daddy (she is due in just over 40 days!) didnt stay with her for the baby that he will just swoop in and win her over LOL!

Checking Mamma Rhein out in the pasture :) Its love <3

My rant for the day...

As some of you know I have listed Sky up for sale to a good home. I put her up for $500. I feel like that is pretty reasonable for a nice TB mare that has potential. BUT she is $500 for a REASON! If she never injured her hip and came to me completely sound she would now have over 6 months of under saddle training. No, she would not be $500 then! I get emails telling me thanks but she isnt as big of a trotter as I want, or is she solid on the trails, or wow im not super impressed with her movement. Ok really people? Your looking at a $500 horse your not going to find something amazing! There is a reason they are that cheap! If she were perfect then of course she would be way out of their price range! So either be willing to look at a horse that needs some work or dont look at $500 horses! I am so irritated! I have someone possibly coming out tomorrow but she wasnt thrilled with her video so we will see. Her husband is a equine lameness vet, she is 1 score away from earning her silver medal in dressage and has trained a horse to grand prix and sounds like a good home but we will see. Im not getting my hopes up because horse people always seem to let you down! I really want to find a home for her before I start really getting her into work so I dont really want to keep her then!

Update:
Yeah... guess what I just found out? They backed out of coming to see her. I am SO frustrated with people! I wish I had money and could just keep them both, show them both, ride them both, etc. Oh the challenges of life.

Lovin being outside!

Videos

even if its blurry it is kinda cool!

I had a great night at the barn last night! First I hadnt seen Alanna all week... and since we both got off at 5:30 last night we decided to go to Yogurt Extreme first (we both still have gift cards!), it was super yummy! Then we headed to the barn afterwards. It was nice to be able to ride with someone else sine I have been riding alone in the mornings because of class/work. At the end of our ride we video taped eachother a little bit. The video was supposed to be of our first level test but I messed up after the stretchy circle so we just winged it and did what we wanted! I also got some video of our leg yields so I can see what they look like. For me its hard to tell when he is actually doing it right sometimes because I have never ridden a horse that knows how to do them well. Not to mention I seriously have to ride the pants off of him to get him to keep it until we get to the wall. I think in everyone he pops his shoulder or just starts running about half way through and we have to start again but never get the cross steps we did in the very beginning.
Alanna and I were talking last night about how when we think of how our tests will go at the show we think we will do great... then we go ride and see how much we need to work on and how not good something is going and we think "oh great... we are going to suck!". I guess we will just wait and find out in a month!

Videos: 

Leg Yields

Creating my own test!

Home stretch

As of tomorrow I believe we are officially a month away from our first show, both SUPER exciting but there are also some nerves in there! Im not actually nervous for the show itself but more like if we will be ready! Our leg yields have been coming along pretty well and we had one of our best ones on Tuesday but in the actual tests we have to do them within a shorter distance (from X to a corner both ways). That is the only thing I am 'worried' about. His transitions are coming along much better, he actually has a cute little pony trot lengthening, a great canter lengthening, our stretchy trot circles may be a little misshaped but he stretches decently most of the time. Overall ability wise I think he will do super well, just those leg yields may give us a little trouble. Oh well I still think he will do well anyways, we will just crack down on those for the next couple weeks then cross our fingers, toes, hooves, and anything else we can in hopes that we dont look like fools out there! Either way im super excited to start showing again. We also added a Combined Test (dressage and stadium jumping) im May so hopefully the weather gets nice and we can start jumping again!

Also... 2 weeks after our first show (Spring Break) I am headed to FLORIDA!! I get to go visit my aunt, uncle and cousins that moved there in September (im flying out there with 2 of my other cousins also!). They are the ones who bred Mystic! I am SO excited. We have already been planning things that we are going to do and we are going to swim with Manatees and go on a huge zip line! Of course riding the ponies also as I have been given the task of getting one of their young mares going under saddle. I get to stay for a little over a week, hopefully I dont bring Oregons weather with me and we actually have sun while im there too!
March is going to be a seriously fun month!

Nicer weather in Feb.?!

What a handsome dude!

"im coming Auntie Alanna, dont leave without me"

We have had a gorgeous last couple of days here!! Like the ponies have been naked and soaking up the sun! Oregon cant fool me though, I know its just the calm before the storm (the next storm atleast, already had the major flooding)! At least it has been nice while it has lasted!
Mystic pony had some Teacher Mary time on Thursday and I got great reports that he was awesome for her! We worked really hard on thing from our lesson, such as controlling his right shoulder while tracking left, and she said she could tell he was getting it! I think he is really growing on her, she was telling me how hard of a worker and how fun he is :) Then Friday I took him up on the trails and we did just a little bit of conditioning on the hills, not much since we havent been up there in awhile but enough to get him going a little. On our way back to the barn we met up with Stephanie and Rhythm who were making there way up the hill! Then he got Saturday off in his pasture. Today he is back to work!

Yesterday I took Sky over to the arena. I tacked her up and threw her on the lunge line after some walking and trotted her a couple circles total each way (its a lot of work for a girl thats so out of shape!) then decided I would just hop on her. So I got on and we just did about 20 minutes of walking. I have watched some of the videos from the Retired Race Horse challenge going on right now and so I tried to do a little bit of what I saw in those videos with her. Although im sure im not doing it quite as well as the professionals she still did put up a good fight but by the end I got her much more relaxed and stretching her neck down instead of putting her head in my lap (clearly a race horse thing but super annoying!). I always forget how hard it is to go from Mystic to Sky. I forget that she doesnt move up my leg that well and doesnt understand all the things that Mystic does. She got much better by the end though and was even kind of getting the whole moving off my leg. She was pooped after that, im sure both physically but even more mentally. She is so cute when she is all tired. She basically puts her head in your arms and just falls asleep!
What good ponies I have!

Late birthday present to myself

My late birthday present to myself came last night! I got Mystic a new dressage bridle from Smartpak. I love it! It is so soft and almost has a broken in feeling already. Not to mention the padding along the crown piece and nose band to keep the pony happy. There will be picture tonight after I go to the barn :)

As promised... PICTURES! We had a super good ride this afternoon! I love this pony :)

Hes so sweet!

Almost there

I love this boy!

Stylin

He is very unenthused with this whole picture thing