Stuff From Last Week

Ok. So my horse is honestly fantastic. I rode him wednesday and we just flatted but I decided that instead of worrying about frame I would just give him his head so he would stretch his neck long and low. It was awesome, I got the trot I've been working so hard on getting and his head was perfect !

Thursday my usual coach was not there, so my lesson wasn't as great as usual but it was still pretty good. He seems to be jumping diagonal jumps without a second thought now! The only problem was he was SO lazy he would sometimes crash through the jumps..oops. Oh well at least he is getting confident with them and not worrying about them eating him :)

His usual training ride would have been Friday, but Jackie was still off so he got Friday and Saturday off.

Yesterday I was worried about the crazy pony I was going to get on, but he was amazing. When I first asked him to pick up a trot he through his head all over the place but after he got those few beans out he was amazing.

I was trotting around with no hands doing circles and diagonals! I was so impressed. Love him. We only trotted because my focus was getting the same relaxed floaty trot, and it took about 40 minutes to get his full concentration. For such a green bean hes amazing. I am so blessed !

Jumping to success?

The past Tuesday and Thursday I had a lesson on Malibu. He has actually been fantastic. Tuesday we worked a lot on bending, today we worked a lot on stretching long and low. I'm so impressed with him, he's amazing sometimes I forget he's so new to this whole thing.

He's is getting really good with bending , except to the right (only at one end of the arena)...other than that he's basically a pro ;) but you definitely have to ride through it all.

I've also found to encourage him to pick up the left lead you need to lift your left hand and ask with your inside leg and not really the outside leg.

We also started to ask him for lead changes today...he swapped the front! Progress! :)

THis is from tuesday, look at his cute little knees! Ignore my leg tho :$

Lets Catch Up

Just to get us all on the same page my horse was off for four weeks as I waited for his feet to grow. Finally he was good to go so we were getting him back into shape by lunging him. So far I've only had 4 lessons on him.

Lesson #1: Only a little bit of walk/trot

Lesson #2: Walk trot and cantered for the first time. His cant was amazing, so slow and steady...to be honest I was nervous but he was amazing ! We then did some trotting into jumps he was perf :)

Lesson #3: Walk, Trot, Canter & Trot into jumps. Getting better every time!

Lesson #4: Walk, Trot, Canter. We cantered into jumps for the first time and he was so good! So then we did our first course. It was just a single x, to a diagonal 4 stride. He was so good for the first first two jumps but once he saw that there was another jump he got nervous. It took a few tries to get over the second jump in the line and at that we only ever trotted it. But its progress, he's doing so well. :)

How It All Began

My parents gave me the okay, I was overjoyed I couldn't believe this was happening. Finally, everything I've ever wanted was actually happening. I couldn't stop smiling as my parents informed me that we could begin the search for a horse! Now, my parents didn't exactly give me a budget that would buy me a top grandprix jumper but with the right connections it was doable.

The weekend coming up I was to try a horse named Hawk. Hawk had shown on the A circuit in the jumpers and hunters. He showed promise. I went to ride Hawk and that is when I found out a little more about him. He is 17.1hh and me I am merely 5 ft 3 sign one that this partnership just wouldn't work. Next thing I found out that is when he's on indoor board he colics...GREAT another reason why this horse wouldn't work out. Then I found out that he had been abused and is now scared of jumping...ugh. Not the horse for me. He was sweet and I wish I could've helped him, but it just wasn't realistic I was looking for a horse to bring me into my first season of rated shows.

I was not impressed with my parents anymore. They gave me such a tight budget and I couldn't find anything...Then we finally got a call that there were two more horses for me to go see. Option A: "Reina" a 16.3hh warmblood jumper mare. Option B: "Murray" a 16.2 hh 7y/o green broke off the track gelding. A was definitely my first choice...until I met her. I found out that she would rear whenever a male would get onto her, and she hated being mounted. I also found that she had a hip problem that made it appear as if she was paddling with her back left. I also found that she was very wound up and preferred to put a 3 into a 5 stride line...ya definitely a little too much horse for me.

I was getting grumpy now, I had my hopes up about this mare I had been so excited and now I realized that there was no hope in getting a good horse. They brought out Murray, sure he was cute a blaze and 4 white socks pretty flashy but they said he knew nothing. Not what I was looking for. A girl got on him to show me him all I could think about was how I didn't want to ride him and how he looked so much like the very fancy , expensive jumper that my friend just got..and I didn't want to seem like I was attempting to copy her with obviously a lower budget. I was pissed. I continued to realize how my dream horse was very far out of reach. Anyways, the girl jumped him a course of 2ft 9 to 3 ft... ok so maybe he does know some stuff.. fine I'll get on him.

I fell in love. I didn't care that he didn't know anything, there was just a connection between us that I was hoping to feel with the other horses. I knew he was the one.

A week later and Malibu (Nee Murray) was on his way home.

Pros: I have a horse!

He's flashy!

Cons: He had an abscess in his eye

He was very underweight

His feet were growing at the wrong angle and it would be 4 weeks before I could ride him.

I was happy but upset at the same time...it was a weird feeling.

<- That picture was taken in my first week of owning him. His ribs are visible, his tail is disgustingly thin and not even. He had horrible manners...What did I get myself into was all I could think

I love my barn and the people in it. They were so helpful about my horse, yes there had been drama that made me very upset but never mind that. My horse was beginning to behave and I was soo happy. Six weeks later I have a well mannered, happy, and well fed horse.

This photo was taken only 2 weeks after owning him. He was already looking so much better.

This photo was taken today...Trillium Hunters here we come :)