Sun!

The sun came out today and Sky had a MUCH needed spa day. First I chopped off her gross wanna-be-western pony mane that is super duper thick. Then I started pulling it! I really hate pulling manes and has quite enjoyed the luxury of not even needing to pull a mane since having Mystic. At least his mane management is more fun! I did have to twitch her for it because she really doesnt like me yanking her hair out but I dont really blame her. I didnt completely finish her but she looks much better, it will take a couple pulling sessions for how thick it is. She then got a bath and her tail got worked on also. She has the weirdest tail... it is never nice and soft no matter what you do to it. It gets gross super fast and is all hard and gross and dry. We will see how it lasts after a good shampoo and conditioning. She also got her bridle path done too. She looks so much better! Now if only it will last...

 I know I already posted this picture but it shows her mane then. She looks much more sport horsey with her new hair cut (will get pics asap!)

I am heading over the the arena across our street in a little bit to lunge her and then hop on her! There will be no pictures as my mom took the camera to her dog show today :/

Tonight im heading up to see my wonderful black and white pony! I am going to try to get Alanna to get some video for us tonight so we can show you all how good he is at his bridleless and maybe even a little bowing we have going on :)

Shout out!

To Becky Holder and Courageous Comet in the 2012 Rolex 3 day! I loved this horse from the first time I saw him going xc in 2010 when he pulled a shoe and came up lame the next day :( Heres to a better outcome this year! They are sitting good so far after dressage!

I have continued to work Sky and she continues to look good and SOUND! Actually she feels quite good and is very proud of her leaping moves, although she has gotten much better about attempting to take me skiing. It amazes me how fast she is coming back into shape, you got to love those Thoroughbreds! Yesterday we did a solid 30 minutes of trotting and cantering with very minimal breaks except to switch sides and she seemed as if she could have gone much longer. The plan is to continue lunging her but now we are going to add some walking and trotting under saddle after a lunging session. We need to get cracking down if we want to be beach ready my Memorial day :) I cant wait to run down the beach!

Alanna/Roz, Me/Mystic, Magnum, Rugby, and Keyno!

Mystic and Roz

Running with Tolo!

Pie and Tolo

Running in the waves!

Best horse award goes to?

Mystic pony of course!! After him being ridden by another girl for the past week and going this weekend to OHSET and being a total packer pony (who was very done with it by the end of the weekend, understandably!) and having yesterday off I hoped on him today bareback and walked him around the block with Alanna. Then when we got into the arena I took his bridle off and went bareback and bridleless! I was hoping to have him ready for the demo we are doing in July but in reality we could have done it today! He was perfect. We walked, trotted and cantered WITH steering! So next on the list along with perfecting our bridleless skills is to teach him how to bow and lay down on command. We have 3 months so I think it is do able, he is a smart guy!
Then we could also schmooze our dressage judges after our rides by bowing to them, how cute would that be?!

So much has happened!

What a week it was! Mystic got called on to be a fill in horse for a high school girl to ride at OHSET over the weekend. So all last week she came out and rode him before we headed up Friday morning early, very early. He was such a good boy for her. She did try to steer daub off of him and that didnt go so well (as in she fell off him!) but it was not his fault at all and his kid was just fine and we all got a great laugh out of it.

He is truly worth his weight in gold! Even when he could easily decide just to not listen he always tried the best he could for her. He was so tired by the last day and was just ready to be done and was SO happy to be back home in his pasture on Sunday. Since he earned his keep this weekend I am giving him two days off then will start him back to some real work since he really hasnt had it in a week. Here are some pictures, I love this horse!

He LOVES minis!

Looking very enthused right before IHOR

Waiting for team penning!

Chatting with the cows :)

On another note... while we were waiting at OHSET a Gypsy breeder came and talked to me (one that I knew from state fair last year) and invited us to come be demo horse/rider at the Marion Country fair in July! So Mystic gets to go represent his breed at the fair. Hopefully we can be jumping more by then so we will have lots of skills up our sleeves. I also am going to try to get him going bridleless but we will see how far I get on that! We have dressage championships the first weekend of June so that will be our big focus for now but we will try to get some fun bridleless training days in too :) He is going to be a busy boy this summer!

Sky is doing great. She is lunging with side reins now. I am going to hop on her this weekend and just do some walk/trot stuff for awhile and keep lunging before I get on her walk/trot/canter. Then next month Alanna and I are going to take Pretty and Sky to the beach and race eachother! I love taking Mystic to the beach but you just dont get the same feeling galloping a Gypsy Vanner vs an off the track Thoroughbred :)

So sleepy while getting brushed. She needs a major mane spa day!

Putting her big girl panties on!

Gorgeous girl with a sad neglected mane!

May Fun!

I cant wait for May! We have our dressage show on the 20th then the following weekend we are hoping to go to our first eventing derby of the year! Hopefully I can set some fences up at our barn a couple times to get him back in the swing of things but it should be fun! I CANT WAIT TO JUMP AGAIN!!!

Mystic goes to OHSET this weekend, Im sure there will be pictures!

Working hard and hardly working!

Sky is headed back to work! She has worked 3 of the last 4 days lightly on the lunge line. Mostly walk trot but she has done a little cantering. Im sure people driving by get quite the entertainment as she practices her Lipizzaner moves in the air when asked to canter... Oh mare! At least I know she feels good. She settles down after a little time when she gets tired! She is looking really good though and for the most part is being good on the lunge line too. I am going to start lunging her with side reins at the walk/trot for the rest of this week and maybe start hoping on her next week after some lunging.

Mystic on the other hand had a nice lazy, well deserved day in the pasture today! Yesterday I just hoped on him bareback and took him on the trails with Alanna and Rhythm. He would like to say that it was animal cruelty to make him walk up and down those hills... like I said WALK the hills LOL! He goes back to work tomorrow. I am letting a high school girl use him for her last OHSET meet which is this weekend. Then he gets a couple weeks just working at home till our next show towards the end of May! He is going to be a busy boy this summer :)

Officially Qualified

Not that I had any doubts of not qualifying it is still nice to know it is a done deal! Championships is the first weekend of June to do some much needed work.

Neither of our tests yesterday were very pleasing for me. The warm up situation wasnt the best and going into our first test I didnt expect much since our warm up was poor. I, however, was not expecting to get the lack of listening skills as I did. I didnt shorten my reins enough and get him prepared enough for our trot to canter transition so he just blew me off 1) didnt get his canter until a couple strides past our letter and 2) ran into it after finally picking it up. The good part about him is that even when it feels so incredibly horrible it never looks as bad. Luckily the judge couldnt tell he wasnt listening to my legs... or my half halts... or very much for that matter!

We got a little more warm up after our first test and I thought we had sorted some things out but it turns out we really didnt. We blew yet another trot to canter transition.. WHAT IS THIS?! Is what I was thinking in the ring. It hasnt ever been this big of an issue before. Our leg yields were pretty poor also.

I know I made it sound like he was terrible, which he really wasnt! It was pretty frustrating as a rider though! I always feel like at shows I forget everything... including how to ride. Going back they didnt look as bad as they felt but I know it was about 60 % of what we are capable of doing at a show. He did still win a class with a 68 % and got a second (behind a prof trainer) with a 63 %. It was super fun to see everyone I knew and besides the warm up situation it was pretty well run which was nice! Luckily we have one more show before Championships to polish things up a bit more. We can only go up next time :)

Warming up

One of my favorite pictures from Saturday!

Waiting for results. We were so tired!

With my Auntie Alanna

What a handsome dude!