Snow in March?

Yes that would be here in beautiful crazy Oregon. We have had like 7 inches of snow in two days. Here is a little snow picture of Sky today! She potentially has someone interested in her pending what the ladies vet says and how a vet check goes if we make it that far. We will see, im not holding my breath though.

Mystic pony has a lesson with Teacher Mary tonight! He has been super good recently so hopefully he keeps it up for tonight. I leave on Sunday for Florida so he will have a nice long vacation. Im sure when I come back we will have taken like 5 steps backwards but luckily he gets it all back pretty quickly and we will hopefully have our mojo back in time for our show on the 14th!

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from today, and some of Mystic pony right before we left for the show last weekend that I forgot I took! I need to get a picture of him with new breast plate on because it is adorable!

The cutest pony ever:

Not happy we me at all! He says NO MORE pictures/baths/braiding!

Mystic pony won this picture frame at the show!

Sky:

Enjoying being outside!

She got her own pink shoulder guard so she doesnt have to borrow Mystics blue one :)

The puppies:

How can you not love that face? That face has clearly worked well since he has had a full hip replacement and just had a TPLO knee surgery last summer

New agility star in the making :)

My boys :)

Where has time gone??

Wow... looking back on the last week since coming back from the show on Saturday of last weekend I have ridden the pony twice. As in 2 times in a whole week. What is wrong with this picture?! I have him Sunday/Monday off on purpose, rode him Tuesday, Wednesday  he had off, rode him Thursday, got called into work all day Friday and had to get ready for the Canby Tack sale after work, then today I woke up at 4:50 am to head up to Canby for the tack sale (he got a breast collar for his jump saddle..super cute!) and didnt get back till 4 which by then I was ready to pass out in my bed. Considering this is show season and we have lots and lots of work to do I should probably get going! The other thing is that even if I work him all this week I leave for Florida Sunday night (the 25th) and dont get back till April 3rd. So there is another almost week and a half off :/ Definitely NOT complaining about the trip to Florida though. I am way super excited for it! I cannot wait! Hopefully I can con my mom into at least going out and fixing his fair a couple times and hosing his muddy legs off so he doesnt get super gross. Once I get back we will have a week and a half till our next show. I have a feeling we will be cramming as much riding time into that time as possible. Im sure he isnt complaining one bit about his mini vacation but now I know that if things dont go as well at the show it is my fault (it is always my fault with him!).
On a good note he was really very good for the most part the couple times I rode him this week! His leg yields are getting better. He kept trying to lead with his haunches which is weird because he hasnt been and at the show we got that his haunches were lagging to far.  Clearly it is just me and how I ride him to each one, im probably confusing the heck out of him!

I will send my entry in for the show this week. We are sticking with First Level test 1 and First Level test 2 again. Then in May, at the OSU Dressage Team show, we will brave First Level test 3 since we will have to ride that one at Championships (which he only needs 1 more qualifying score for!!!!!!!). The thing I really, really like about Championships is that you only ride one test a day. So one day we will ride First Level test 2 and the next we will ride First Level test 3. I feel like that is the best way to get two solid tests out of him. He is always good even in the second tests of one day but his fuel tank is definitely on empty so we dont get as good of work as we could. Also it will allow us more warm up time prior to the tests since we wont have to worry about wearing them out. At the last show warm up was a huge issue for us as we couldnt school any lengthenings or leg yields before going into the show ring. And we need to practice both beforehand to get anything decent out of him! The good thing about him (amoung everything else perfect about him that is) is that I dont have to worry about him having a week off and being a complete idiot at the show. He will be heavier in the bridle and not as supple, especially to the right, for the first few rides but that is it. So luckily I am not worried about the show at all. He is a solid guy all around :)

Dressage for the Ages Show

What a day! Things just seemed to line up for all of us. The weather held up and didnt rain, like it was supposed to, at all really! It really could have been a miserable show if it rains as we didnt get stalls because we were both riding First test 1 and 2 and when we entered didnt think we would have that much time between classes.
 I headed up early with my mom so I could watch some people we knew who rode earlier. Tolo, my horse that I just sold over the summer, was there so it was nice to see him!

Alanna and Stephanie then came up with the boys just after 1. Mystic came off looking like he needed a nap! Rhythm was also very calm for his first show! We headed to the warm up ring just to hand walk to boys around since we had time. Mystic pony really didnt care about anything but we didnt expect any less of him. Papa Rhythm took everything in very good, he looked at some things but never even came close to having a complete blow out (well besides the drain pipe, those eat horses! He just jumped but came right back) and definitely got a gold star for being so good throughout the whole experience. It was nice that we got to walk the boys in the indoor stadium arena so that the judges stand wouldn't be so scary when we had our tests, it was scaring majority of the horses. After getting our arena time in we headed back to the trailer to tack up. Mystic pony came out ready to go when I got on him and was really good in warm up. We rode First test 1 first (where Alanna did First test 2) so warm up time was short as I didnt want to have no engine by our second test (that planned failed anyways.. whoops!). He came into his test really good. His trot lengthenings were not as good as they could be but we didnt really get to do them at all in warm up since it was full of a bunch of people who clearly dont ride with other people. You would start a lengthening in there and have to stop like 3 strides out because someone cut you off. His second one in that test was better but still not great. One thing he kept trying to do was pop his shoulder inside and away from the rail (we had this problem, much worse, last year). We also got a couple comments on his canter being to 'down hill' at the end of our first test. He definitely was tired at the end of it and was trying, and clearly succeeding, to get really heavy and pull me down at the canter. Over all I was VERY happy with him and the fact that we just finished our first First level test! We got  good collective marks (all 7's and 8's!), along with our 74.8% and 1st place (YAY!) and the judges comment at the end said "Very willing horse".
Our second test definitely left some room for improvement but nothing I didnt already know. Once again warm up was bad. Getting any sorts of lengthening or leg yields was almost impossible with the other riders so I cant really blame him when we got in the show ring and he was 1)super tired and 2) didnt really get to do them in warm up. I actually thought his leg yield was decent for him. We got 6's on both of them. She commented that we got a late start, I actually started early but didnt get much of a response in the beginning. She also said his haunches lagged behind. I think I was just praying that I would get any response at all and didnt ride him as well as I could have, especially since I was also trying to just keep him moving forward! That being said our lowest scores were on our leg yields and lengthenings. His engine was dying on me. I think that if I rode him stronger he would have given me more, lessons learned for next show! Our scores for this test were more across the board from 6 to 9. Some of it was me and not riding him to where I should, circles to large, some of it was him ready for a full nights sleep, and all of it will get better with more time. Especially our lengthenings and leg yields. She commented at the end that he is a very steady guy and I rode accurately and thoughtfully but he needs more impulsion as we move up this level. Again he still got a 68 % and won his class though!

I think it was a great start to our show season. I didnt really know what to expect going into it so now that I know, I can get back to work! Obviously if Teacher Mary would have been riding him he would have done much better but I am getting there with him, slowly but surely! All the judges comments were correct and I could feel all of what she said throughout my tests. I know that she was quite a generous point giver so I dont expect these scored next show (with a much tougher judge) but I still felt like she had our all weak point on there too.

 He was so good and all our mistakes were mostly just a matter of me riding him stronger and better to get it.
 Quite a few people came up to me and just loved him for how steady and willing he was. Once guy came up and said "the first word that came to me when I saw him was 'heart'." I think that describes hims very well. Now its just a matter of me riding him better, dont you just hate when its all your fault?! :)
First level test 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFeyF1bF1RU
First level test 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P78JtNQsL88

Seriously awesome

..way to start our show season! This picture will have to do for now, im pooped and headed to bed!

The day we have been waiting for!

Tomorrow is the day we have been looking forward to for the last 4 months! At the end of last show season I was ready to not have to bathe his weekly, it got old VERY fast! But now I am so itching to get back in the show ring!
This morning I spent 3 hours at the barn riding and bathing. I got his feather so nice and soft. He does have one stain still that WILL NOT come off! Ugh... I went and got some hydrogen peroxide tonight so we will see if that helps. I left the barn the first time today at 2 to go to work, then came back at 6. I brought horses in and brushed the pony out really quick. Alanna then arrived with the pizza :) We ate and started watching Bridesmaids before we started cleaning our tack. Before I knew it we were out there for a couple hours! It is SO nice to have our riders room. It is heated, has a fridge/sink, a table, nice cozy leather couches, and a flat screen tv making it for a very comfortable tack cleaning. I mean its so nice someone could live in it!
Anyways, today I spent a total of almost 7 hours at the barn. 7 hours of slaving over my horse to get 10 minutes in the show ring (first level test 1 and first level test 2). Hopefully after tomorrow I will still think it was all worth it :) Im heading up earlier then my pony so I can watch some people I know ride. Tolo is also competing with his new owner so I am excited to see him again :) Im sure there will be pictures and videos to post tomorrow!

Getting closer

Got our ride times and we are ready to go for Saturday! Well... except for the whole being clean part :) He was pretty good last night. I think the changes we made in my lesson are REALLY helping! I worked him for 40 minutes and he was pretty tired but still felt like he could do more. I can really tell he is getting in better shape. I also made him look less like a homeless horse and more like a show pony buy clipping his goat hairs and bridle path.
Some people think its weird to give him a day off like 2 days before the show but he really doesnt change at all (unless its a week.. figured that one out! Man on man was he heavy and stiff when I came back!). So he just gets to hang out today and will go back to work for Th/F and show on Saturday then of course he needs another day off since we know he is going to be a star pony at the show!
Friday is also bath/tack cleaning party/Bridesmaids night! I am going to go out to the barn in the morning and give him a short but hopefully sweet ride before hitting the wash rack for about 10 hours it will seem like. Then after work I am going back out to organize all my show stuff, clean all my tack, etc with Alanna! We made it into a party and she is bringing pizza, im bringing drinks, were going to pop Bridesmaids into the tv in our riders room and get it all done in a warm and cozy room at the barn!