Farewell to good friends

Both Fleck and I had to say good-bye to dear friends this weekend. My BFF Christine and Fleck's BFF Sham are moving up North. We will miss them dearly. We bon voyaged them with a surprise going away party and then a final gallop and trot race. We're going to miss them. 

It was a fun two trail rides though. We had a good time on the trails and finished off with a fun gallop together. (Fleck won! - hee hee... I think Sham always lets him win though). Then we did a teensy bit of jumping and Christina even got over the helsinki jump, which was one of her Summer goals. Yay! It was beautiful. 

Fun Show

Today was the schooling CT at High Point. I figured it would be a good chance to get in the sandbox and practice that blasted test and do a jump round. And Fleck was HOT! He really felt good. Almost too good. ;) While I went to say hi, the goober snuck into the trailer and sucked down a handful of peppermints...with the wrappers! Eeeks! Goober. I got on and went to warm up and he was on fire. Dancing around, cantering instead of trotting, and even bunny hopping. Goofy! I love goofy Fleck! And then suddenly he was flipping his face about 8 times, then suddenly slammed it down to his leg. I thought he was going to "tuck and roll". Turns out he had a bee on his nose as I saw it fly off when he rubbed it on his leg. Poor guy. He was still dancy and jumpy and humpy afterwards, so the bee was no excuse. I had a tough time getting his right barrel over but he settled into it towards the end of our warm up. We had a pretty decent test. But it was a 39. :( Mostly 6 and 6.5's. We need more suppleness. He was wound pretty tight, but I thought it would have scored better. I'm glad Denni was harsh though. I'll read the comments and have a good idea of what to work on for Texas. Not that I have much time left. ;) 

Then it was time to jump. YAY!!! Fleck was thrilled! He was a "bucking" machine. For him. ;) We warmed up well and Beth basically said that I had to control his shoulder. That's where I was losing him. EVEN if it meant that I had to literally plant my wrist on the side of his withers (so NOT crossing over) and then using a very wide opening rein on the other side. And then I had to get him straight! If he wasn't falling in, I did this pushing his shoulders the way I needed to go. If he was falling in and I was losing his shoulder out the wrong way, then I would have to "counter" do it and get him straight first. It was actually really helpful. And it made me keep my hands low. Yay! So into the ring we went and Fleck was great. I held a little too much instead of half-halting and closing my leg, so we had some tight distances. BUT he jumped them well despite being underpowered and underneath some of them. Yay! Then we finished with two extra lines for kicks. For the slightly long lines, I really have to ride long! Fleck's stride is not that long, maybe even short. So when he comes in tight, I have to really kick on. NO HALF-HALTING! We managed it on the second attempt and even then, I almost half halted as soon as we landed. No... forward!! And it was also evident that a bigger step in over the first fence was an easier forward ride. Duh. The first time we did it (on course) I knew we jumped in little, so I actually held for the extra stride. Beth said nope... don't do that. Push more for the big stride. She's afraid I'll shut him down by holding. 

Regardless though, he was jumping well and felt great! He was having fun! And so was I!! I'm really starting to get excited about Texas. Though I'm still nervous about dressage. I feel like we're capable of scoring closer to the top 1/3 or maybe even top 4th, but know that most likely we'll be lucky to end up in the middle. Because I blow it! I tense up and make him tense, or I don't ride at all and we get sloppy. Especially because I hate that test! So... we'll see. At least the jumping part should be fun. :) I'm hoping there won't be anything too bad. We've been running prelim (albeit easy prelims) so hopefully championship training level will be fun!

Wish us luck!

No more funk!

Well, maybe some skin funk, but no more funky bad mood!!! And you know why?!?! Because my pony is SOUND!!! And felt good.... and without drugs.... and without being distracted by Danny! YAY! YAY! YAY!!!

Such a relief! Not only just for AECs, but because I don't want him hurting. I'm not ready to retire him and neither is he. And yep.. I totally over-reacted... I knew deep down I wasn't going to have to retire him. It's just tender soles (knocking on wood and praying to God)! But when I'm that tired... and haven't ridden in that long... the world as I know it is ending!!!! hee hee...

Anyways... I took Fleck to Ashland today, sans Danny, and we had a blast. We worked on dressage and I focused my warm up on getting him round, onto the right rein, and transitions! I think it helped. Right as I was about to run through my test, some friends showed up. Of course Fleck was distracted. We went over to chat and then they headed off to play on XC. I figured Fleck would be horrible with them leaving us. He's had herd bound issues before, but I resolved them. With Danny around though, they've resurfaced. But he was really good!!! Like, encouragingly good! I'm sure we will still be in the middle of the pack (hopefully) but I'm aiming for that low 30 score. I think we could do it at prelim, but... at training test B... we'll see. I definitely need to work on the transitions and even the elastic band type stuff. So yay!

As a reward, I traded saddles and we went to join our friends! WHEEEE!!! Fleck and I jumped around a little bit and he was good and felt ready to go. Then we headed to the lake and soaked for a bit. He loves that spot. He just sits there and watches. Then splashes. Then watches. He's so freakin' cute. I was soaked because he was splashing so much.

Ahhhhh.... Now I feel better.
Then I packed and organized the trailer. Jeesh... I've got SOOOO much stuff to take. And it took me forever. I didn't even have time to go get refills for my poultice and shampoo. Oh well. I've still got... oh, just two days ;)

Sound again!

What?! I gave Fleck a previcox today for our dressage lesson. And because I wanted Peri's help, I took Dan too. So again, we had the previcox and the Danny distractions. And Fleck was sound. Nutty, but sound. I never felt a lame step. We even had a rockin' medium. :) But man was he a twit! He was lovely, and then suddenly he was spooking, or inverted, or neighing his fool head off for Dan. Jeesh. I was trying hard to not react. But I admit I caved some. I'm just still tired and I was almost more frustrated that he was sound. Not that I want him to be lame, but... he's so back and forth. It's frustrating. But regardless, I was glad he was feeling good and even glad he was being silly. At first. ;) 

We had some good moments though. His trot is really coming along. I just need to remember to bring his ribs and belly to the outside and I've got him now. And to not lock my elbows. And to focus on my seat. 

Now if we can just keep him sound...and I can remember how to ride. And he doesn't turn goofy without his stall/trailer buddies. He's definitely worse when it's Dan as opposed to Sunny or Sham. 

So... fingers crossed. I'm praying he's sound and happy and that if he's not, he makes it clear for me.  

Oh, and... AND... I did get a lovely flying change today. Granted it was during the three loop serpentine. And I didn't ask for it (at least not on purpose), but still! :) :) :)

ARGH!

I left the previcox off on Tuesday night and after a nap on Wednesday morning, Fleck and I went to Ashland. We did not take Dan, so there was no previcox and no distraction. And Fleck was lame. Sigh...not super lame most of the time. Most of the time it was almost imperceptible. But there were definitely multiple instances of him being blatantly lame. Argh. I kept riding, because... I really do think it's tender soles/foot. And i HATE that stupid training test b. It's too much back to back sling shotting. Argh. So Fleck and I had words. And I felt horrible. It's not his fault. I was more mad that he was lame. After all I've tried to do to make him feel awesome. And I know. It's stupid. Sigh. So a very frustrating day. I should have just stayed asleep. :(

Nah... cause then I would have missed this :) 
 

YAY!!! Back on!

So... Fleck got shoes on Monday. And on Tuesday I took him to Ashland for a jump lesson. I gave him Previcox on Monday night. And he was maybe the teensiest bit mincy but it was really hard to tell. Now, he did have previcox on board and he was definitely distracted by Danny being back at the trailer. But he was happy to go and happy to jump. We had some fun. Beth set up some decent sized fences and Fleck didn't bat an eye. She wants me to get him supple in his jaw before the fences. I almost had to think dressage canter. She wanted him that soft in his jaw. And really, to get him that soft, he had to be very low. Very round. As he approached the fence, he could lift his head obviously, but he had to stay soft. It was a little scary. Beth said that for now, we had to exaggerate a bit. But ultimately, we don't want him that round and low in his head. But it was cool. The canter was very powerful so it wasn't scary and he was jumping great. To accomplish it I had to use my alternating half halts and even alternate my leg. When he was nice and rocked back, it almost felt like I was almost asking for canter tempi's. (forgive me if this is SOOOOO not how you ask for them... but he felt very rocked back and ready to swap if asked). It was pretty darn cool.

Lots of fun and I was so glad to be back in the saddle!

Arghhhhhhhh

So.... not only did I not get Fleck's shoes back on... now he's lost his front left too. Argh... Which means, no trail riding today... on this glorious beautiful almost even cool day. And that also means no cross country schooling at Bubba's tomorrow. 

I'm soooooo frustrated... Between being out of town, all the work, the lacerated foot (which is just about healed up yay!), and now the darn shoes... I feel so behind the 8 ball for Texas. I mean... it's training... I know. But still. It's a LOT of money to get there... I'd like to feel like I'm prepared. Sigh.... 

At least Fleck will get shoes Monday and Beth is coming to teach Tuesday. So assuming he hasn't bruised himself or made himself sore, we'll recover one of the days on Tuesday, then have Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun and Monday before we leave early early Tuesday morning. Oh my!!! It's CLOSE!!!!!!

Let the freak out commence!