Trail Ride in Helen

Ackkkk!!! Somebody else is on my precious Fleck!!! It doesn't happen often, but sometimes I let some special people ride Flecky. :) Lisa is one of those. She came to visit and I met her up near Dahlonega with both boys. She rode Fleck and I rode Dan. Dan was pretty good and Fleck was a star as usual. :)

We had a great time. We went to Fausett Trails and it was a nice place. Good parking lot with a wash rack and water. The trails were pretty cool. STEEP though!! It was some serious hill work. But many of the trails were wide enough to go side by side on, which is great. And lots of different loops. We picked a shorter loop because it was so steep and I didn't want Dan to get tired and have it not be fun. He's not as fit as Fleck. Although even Fleck was a little out of breath up some of those steeper hills. Some serious hill work! But we had fun. It was a 2 hour haul, but it would be worth going again.

Day off???

So Fleck was supposed to get today off. But I needed to ride Dan before tomorrow. When I went to get Dan, he was at the creek and Fleck was in the front field. Fleck heard me and neighed at me but I told him to enjoy the day. He hung out in the front field until I was loading Dan up and then he came neighing his fool head off and cantering up to the gate. TAKE ME TAKE ME TAKE ME!!!!!!!!! So I had to. How could I resist?! He about jumped into the trailer. :)

So we went for a nice easy walk ride. No being "on the bit", no rules... just a nice long walk. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad I got to ride him. Especially since Lisa will be riding him tomorrow. (We're both so alike... I think he was more jealous that Dan was going without him... and tomorrow I'm going to be jealous that Lisa is riding him and not me). Ha! Two peas in a pod. 

But seriously.. it was too gorgeous of a December day to NOT ride the Fleckinator!

 

Pine Top Thanksgiving!

Such a great show!!! I always love this show.... so many fun people there, such fun course, and such a fun atmosphere. :) Of course it helps that Fleck was amazing this weekend too. :)

We got to Pine Top on Friday and I went ahead and jumped on because I was running out of daylight. Fleck was horrible! He was bolting and running and wouldn't bend to the right. It was very frustrating. I tried very hard to ride well and encourage the bend and finally got somewhere so we quit. I then decided to adjust him and I'm glad I did. He had a bunch of cranial ribs out, his poll was out, and his usual sacroiliac stuff. He did a good bit of licking and chewing so he must have enjoyed it. I took him for a little walk and got all settled for Saturday. 

 Suprisingly I slept great! I had to braid in the morning because I didn't have braiding bands and as I tied him to the trailer to braid the sun came up over the barn and was totally blnding me. It was completely in my eyes as I went down his neck. Doh! Oh well. He was braided. I warmed him up and he felt amazing!! He was so soft and supple and relaxed. And he could bend around my right leg. Yay chiropractic!! I was giggling because I ran into a friend and told her I rode right after Andrew Palmer, the Olympic rider. She said my smile was better. :) Bonus points, right?! :) So anyways, we went in and did our test. And I thought it was pretty darn good! He was supple for the majority of it and we did everything where we were supposed to. He was a little earthbound at times and needed to be more extravagent but I was quite proud. I figured that because we were riding under Sandy and right after Andrew, no pressure...not like we stood a chance. ;) But you know... we scored decently. 36.9 I think. Under Sandy. So really not bad. That put us in 6th out of 9. 

 

Fleck got to rest before stadium and I went to walk the course. It looked super fun!! I warmed him up and because Beth couldn't make it, I was on my own. But I managed to do pretty well. There was a giant oxer set up, but I decided not to bother with it. The fences in the ring weren't that big and there was no sense in busting our confidence. We jumped the smaller oxer, the vertical, and the cross rail. He was getting rather long or rather short to the oxer so I fixed it. :) Yay me! I needed to push but not lengthen and I managed to do it. He felt really good so we chilled and then headed into the ring. It wasn't perfect, but it was good!! I managed to stay with him for most of the jumps and the ones that weren't perfect, I was able to sit up and ride properly after and fix them. Yay!! So no rails :) He was jumping great! It was a fun course with lots of roll backs. We recieved a lot of compliments and even Mark said my position looked great and I was flowing with Fleck. :) yay!! We ended up moving up to 3rd after our double clear stadium round. :) We were only 3 points out of first and 0.3 points behind Andrew. (We won't mention that he was riding a green stallion, just mention that he's an Olympic rider!). 

I walked XC and it looked pretty good. Nothing very technical at all but lots of big fences. I swear some of them had been on the prelim course before. And fence 3 was the big open oxer in the bank field that had been boarded up top after the horse fell in it. Yikes!!! It was a bit scary. But it looked better the second time. 

XC morning was a gorgeous morning! We geared up and off we went. I decided to get on and get him down there early so I could warm him up slowly and gradually. Yeah... Fleck had other ideas. He had two speeds - gallop and jig in place! Doh. He was amped up! I tried to warm him up slowly but he was not having it. So we went ahead and cantered (or galloped....) and jumped a few. He was dragging me over them and looking for more. They still had the huge gray table flagged and Tawn had jumped it... so we did to. As soon as I picked up the reins, he burst into the gallop, so I just let him go and he flew over that big table. A few minutes later they unflagged it so I'm glad we did it. I figured at this point, he was good to go and I'd leave him wanting more. So we jigged in place and finally chilled a bit. Finally it was our turn!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and have a great ride!!! We were off. He flew out of that start box and tore over the first fence. (Which was fairly impressive)! I managed to get him somewhat under control and over fence 2. Then we galloped up to fence 3 and I knew it would be fine. He soared over it like a pro. The rest of the course was awesome. He was going and I just pointed and we went. He jumped everything well. The angles were great, the mound/roller coaster was great, the corner was a breeze, and he even jumped keenly into the water. He felt great and wasn't breathing hard and we came home well within time. In fact, even slowing him down a bit, we were only 10 seconds from speeding tickets. WHOOO HOOO!!!

We ended up moving up to 2nd because Andrew's stallion had two stops. Way to go Flecky!! I was so proud of him. He was just on fire and having a blast! :) 
 And he thinks he deserves a beer. ;)

So yay! We're going to go to Full Gallop and run prelim while he's feeling good. I think that I should probably give him some time off in the Summer instead of the Winter since he seems to be tolerating the cold better than the heat. (Not that it was cold... it was 70 degrees! But the humidity really seems to bother him). 

I'm so blessed!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I couldn't resist!! The ponies got apples and carrots for their Thanksgiving breakfast but then I had to hop on Fleck and go for a quick ride. And it was quick... less than 2 minutes. During which I dropped my phone and then my hat! Hee hee. Poor guy. He was not thrilled about it. 

I am so blessed to have such wonderful ponies in my life. God has been so kind to give me three "lifers". Roany was such a fun girl who gave me so much confidence. Fleck.... oh Fleck.. the love of my life, my soul horse, and my friend. I'm so lucky to have him. And I thank God every day for bringing him into my life and keeping him in my life. That horse means the world to me. And now Dan.... the little hooligan. I love him to pieces and I hope that he and I can develop the same bond that Fleck and I have. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are so very blessed!

Jump Lesson

Phew... I needed that! It was a good lesson though. Beth said my new leg position was good! I really think just slightly pushing my butt back in the saddle makes a big difference. It just puts my leg slightly in front of me, allowing me to close my leg at the girth and keep my heels down. It also keeps me from pitching my shoulders forward and thus pinching and pivoting at the knee. Yay! Of course my legs are sore now. It's a slightly different feel so I'm having to use slightly different muscles.

But yep... our lesson was good. We started out pretty well and Beth told me to focus on his shoulder. She said that 70% of our issue right now was me losing his shoulder. Especially on cross country. The faster he goes, the more obvious it becomes. So she told me to NOT correct it by just counter bending him. I laughed and said that I had been riding with her too long - she knew all my tricks! So... then how do I fix it?! Sitting down in the tack, sitting him on his hiney and using the outside rein to keep him straight. So we started and I had some really beautiful jumps! Like "WOW!" jumps. He rocked back on his butt and the canter was just there. 

Then she set up all the fences and had me do a course. Egads!! We started fine over the first one and then it just went all downhill. I think I was more just hanging out, along for the ride, because it wasn't horrible, but we kept getting to this awkward distance and he was taking these really long spots. And I would get left behind and then we'd scramble and my reins were too long to then collect him back to his hind end for the next fence. We got around clean but with much grunting and heaving and eeks. Beth said that I wasn't sitting him on his butt and I was letting him lengthen to the fence. Aha! That's why I was getting to that funky distance... I wouldn't, but because I let him lengthen, we'd end up there. 

So then I sat up and rode better. Not just alternating rein half halts without getting any response... but I sat up and rode. He jumped the first oxer fine and then kinda wimped over the first of the second slightly long line. I landed and gunned him so that we made the 4 and then he sat up and paid attention. Then I rode his shoulder, but kept his jaw supple (thinking DRESSAGE IT!) and viola! It worked! He didn't lengthen and we had some lovely fences. 

Few! We quit with that. I was tired! It was a LOT of work riding that way. Yep... I remember that. I need to ride hard at prelim. Ride like Boyd or Buck and get it done! This isn't the hunter ring. :) And by ride hard, I mean that I need to ride every stride.... whether that's realizing all is well and just closing my leg or realizing I'm losing a shoulder or just keeping him rocked back on his hiney... I need to not just float around. 

So yep... hoping we're ready for pine top this weekend. It came up rather quickly. Eeeks!!! At least we're only doing P/T. Hopefully we can survive. I'm glad Beth jacked the fences up though because it was a little bit "eeeks, they're big again!". 

I went ahead and clipped Fleck again too. And his butt is pink!!! Like he'll need suntan lotion if he's not in his clothes pink. Hee hee... He has some lines too but oh well. He was too furry for pine top. 

Doing our homework

So life has been a little crazy! Despite the fact that I'm working less, apparently I've had less time to ride too. But I'm being a good wife and Mike and I are having fun hiking. And the weather hasn't been as cooperative. But look! See! I'm riding even when it's super cold. :)

We have been doing our long and deep warm ups with lots of direction. And I hope it's helping. It seems to be. Then we went out to ride late one cool night and I decided to try jumping a hair to see if sliding my butt back makes it easier for my leg to behave. And I think it does!!! Of course I really need a jump lesson as Fleck was feisty and when I did that, my leg started to behave but then didn't. I think it'll work but I definitely need to strengthen some different muscles. But we jumped the trakehner a few times in prep for Full Gallop too. :)

Brrr... it was cold and I had forgotten my quarter sheet. So I grabbed a fleece blanket. It didn't stay on very well but we tried. Fleck was happy as clam grazing though, regardless of how cold it was. But I was cold, so we headed back in pretty quickly.