Thinking it through

 Fun day! I decided to just ride Fleck since I was riding Danny twice this week already. So we had fun. I took a little nap after work and then Fleck and I headed out. I warmed him up with a short little jaunt through the woods. Then we went back and did some dressage work. It wasn't going well to start. He was very inverted and tense and while we did our warm up, the canter just was icky. He wasn't hanging his head and was bracing against me. I started to get frustrated but then stopped and thought things through. I knew it had to be something I was doing. I focused more on my seat aids and then gave him more rein. At least going right, he needed it. With a bit more rein he was able to hang his head and neck and be soft. And sure, it wasn't rocked back as much as I'd like, but I was happier with soft and using his back and in a training level or first level frame than a fake inverted second level frame. I figured it's strength. So we got some good work and then went back to the trot. The trot was then quite nice!! Yay! We did try the leg yield off the rail to X and then back to the rail. Egads. That is tough. Especially leg yielding to the left. Hmmm.... Not sure what I was doing wrong. We got a little better but never well enough to leg yield to X and back all the way. Oh well. Thank goodness I've got lessons soon! 
Then we went back out for another hack. We did some good hills and some trotting and had fun. Fleck is goofy! He saw a horse grazing in the XC field (with it's rider on his back) and was all spooky and goofy. Really?!? :) Turns out it was a chiro client of mine. Yay! We chatted and made plans to try to ride together.

2015: First ride of the year

 And it was a wet and wild Mrs. Toad's Wild Ride! :) It was rainy and gross and supposed to storm more. And it is supposed to keep raining for 3 days. So I sucked it up and went anyways because I hadn't been able to ride yet this year and I was itching to! (Granted it's only Jan 2nd, but still).

Work was so crazy that I had to take a little nap first, but I wanted to beat the weather. I only had time for one pony and since the weather was icky and I wanted good footing the whole way... I decided to go to Harbins. We did the 6 mile loop and worked on our fitness.

 It was fun! We started off without any rain but ended up having a light mist most of the way. Until the end. Then it become more of an actual rain and by the time we left, it was pouring. But it was fun. Rather magical in the woods with the rain. And it was just us. We had a grand time. We did a long long walk. Then a good solid 15 minutes of trotting. Then after a little breather we did about 5 minutes of canter. We walked and trotted some in the last two minutes but only because of the footing. It was twisty and turny and Fleck and I were having fun. Wheeee! Then we did more trotting and a smidge more cantering to get back to the trailer quicker as the rain was picking up.

Ahhh.... I feel better now! Happy 2015!

Goodbye 2014

Oh 2014... it's been a good year for us. Not exactly what we wanted, but plenty of highlights. We missed out on our P3D goal, but it's okay. I learned that Fleck seems to have a tougher time in the Summer, so I plan to give him time off this Summer and focus on showing more in the winter, when he's happier. I have decided that some days he's going to have bad days. And that's okay. He can have them and it won't bother me. If he's having a good day, then great! If not, it's just a show fee and some time. I learned that he still wants to play most days and in general, most days are good days. We also got to go to the beach and had a fabulous time again.

All in all, a great year. Another year with my best friend, my soul mate, and my partner.. You can't beat that!

We celebrated with a lovely trail ride on a lovely day. I just wish that I could ring the New Year in the same way, but I've got to work tonight. And I have a feeling it will be busy.

 

It was a very long day for us today. But it was a blast and very educational. We got up at 5:30 in the morning and Peri picked us up at 6:30. We got to High Point and left the ponies snuggled in stalls with hay while we went to the lectures and learned about judging. It was interesting. It's neat to hear how the judges think and do things. We watched a few videos of some movements too and that was helpful. 

Then we went back to high point for lunch and then the riding demo's started. Fleck and I were in the first level movement group. There was two others - Kitty Coman and Julie Cochran. They are both so nice!! We all ran through movements of the new first level tests and then got to listen to the discussions on what everyone gave us. It was helpful. And they were nice. :) Fleck received mostly 6 and 7's, some 7.5's and there was a few more moves that he would have gotten higher but he was irregular in his hind end or he jigged from the free to medium walk. Doh! But at the end... he was just done. We were trying to finish on the canter change of lead through the trot at x. He can normally nail that movement. Ha! He kept running through it. She asked us to repeat it once or twice and Fleck just kept getting worse. He was saying "Heck NO... I am DONE with dressage for today!" Doh. But he was good until then. 

And... lucky for me! Cindy said she would barter with me. So I can get lessons on both ponies in exchange for adjusting horses. :) Yay! A good day. 

YAY!

Finally!!! I feel so much better today and got to ride both boys!! Bliss..... 
It was such a beautiful day too.

 It dawned on me that Fleck and I were supposed to do the L Judge demo thing for Cindy at High Point, so I figured we should do some dressage!! It was time to get back in gear and out of vacation/beach mode. So we did. And Fleck was pretty good. We also went for a short hack too because I just didn't want to quit riding. It was just such a pretty day.
 

Christmas 2014!

 Merry Christmas!!!! This was the first time in a long time that I had Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day off!! And I had the flu. Ugh... I felt pretty cruddy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I missed out on visiting Mom and Ken and Chan and the gang. I felt okay some of the day but took a nap, like the boys. ;)

I was very tempted to ride, but didn't. I started to feel cruddy again. But it was a good Christmas anyways. Fleck got a new quarter sheet and Danny got a new bridle. I got some winter riding gloves and regular riding gloves. So yay! Hopefully I'll feel better soon and can ride.

Wildlife

Fleck and I went for a fun trail ride with Kelli. We saw this heron in the lake. Fleck didn't notice him until he took flight. Just a little spook. :)

Fun relaxing day.