Video Update!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the nearly two month hiatus... in my defense, I was in London for most of January and didn't get to ride ;) Here's a look at what Tim and I have been working on:

Basically we've been jumping really small fences and I'm working on body control/my position 

Jump lesson!

We had a great jump lesson this morning with S! She's always so positive, fun, and really good at instilling confidence over fences. We did a couple of different courses and the biggest thing I learned was that I need to ride in my jump saddle more... I've been trying to focus so much on dressage that I ride in my jump saddle maybe every two weeks, possibly less. This meant that approximately 5 minutes into my lesson, my legs were screaming in protestation.

Regardless, it was really rewarding and I can't believe how far we've come! I used to be scared to jump baby x's... now it's pretty rare for me to feel any anxiety about jumping because I trust Tim SO much. I'd say he's worth keeping around and he definitely deserved his own blog title ;) S was kind enough to take some videos, so here ya go:

You can tell we were really struggling with arguably the easiest jump on the course (the last one) =/ he kept diving right at the last second and just would not stay on the line I wanted him on 

Definitely the best! This one pretty much felt perfect 

Preparing for Octoberfest!

In my preparation for Octoberfest this weekend, I started thinking about what others do to get ready for a show? Let's say the week before. How many times do you try to ride in that week? Things you work on? How you get your pony spotless (especially in cold weather)? And anything else I might be forgetting! Thanks :) 

I had a productive jump school yesterday, in which I jumped a baby X a couple of times (the first few times with my eyes closed = my favorite), then went through a small grid, then the small grid to a stone wall. After we jumped in the ring, I went up to re-familiarize Tim with some of the XC jumps. He can be such a freak about them at first - he's pretty convinced that every natural looking jump is going to eat him. Super comforting behavior from a seasoned event horse...not! Luckily I had my mean girl pants on and refused to take any of his shit. Once I convinced him to jump politely, without throwing himself up in the air, we called it a day. 

Tuesday - training ride from BA dressage trainer

Wednesday - jump (?) lesson with Dorothy Crowell 

Thursday - dressage lesson with same BA trainer

Friday - head to Octoberfest! Maybe school at KHP depending on time 

The weather is supposed to be absolutely PERFECT this weekend, so fingers crossed it stays that way! Considering how crappy it has been recently, I don't have high hopes. 

The best view 

I stopped by team challenge on Sunday to pick up my loaner saddle/get pics. This was from the prelim 3 day division

Pretty meadowlake (even at a wonky angle) 

P.S. make sure to sign up for Hillary's contest over @ Equestrian At Hart

Jumping and Pictures!

I know I'm a bit biased, but god he has the cutest face ever 

Hey there, beautiful ;) 

AWK

Does anyone else think my stirrups look long??  

Going down the Rolex drop, anyone..? 

Happy pony, happy girl :) 

Tim says 'I am a stubborn dinosaur' 

please excuse the sh**** position. Working on it! 

We are jumping beans!!!!!!!

Hey, blogosphere! I haven't quite decided what I want to do with this blog... I thought I was officially finished with blogging, but now that Tim is back at it, I find myself wanting to share our progress with all of you :) I'll try to post as often as possible, though I totally understand if my inconsistency now means that I have no readers.

Tim had his final checkup at R&R today and was officially cleared to start jumping. I jumped him tonight for the first time since september. Can you believe it? SEPTEMBER. He has been back in work for the past 1.5 months and has been super! Tonight was no exception. In other exciting news, I got a Devoucoux while Timmers was broken and decided to sell my County jump saddle. So I rode tonight for the first time in a month (I went to the Bahamas for Jan term), in my brand new Chiberta, on my newly jumping horse... life doesn't get much sweeter :) Oh and a big shoutout to Hill for coming out to video and set jumps XO

Go Timmy Go! 

My home for the past month :)

Missed this face! 

New saddle and Ogilvy saddle pad <3

Some pics from our Christmas morning photo shoot! 

Not amused by this game

Prep

.... For our "Big Mini Trial" on Sunday!! This will mark the first time we go cross country in a competition, which is both scary and exciting. It's all three phases in one day, which is going to be really exhausting and potentially miserable, depending on the temperature and humidity. YAY for summer in the Ohio valley =|. 

So far, we have had one jump school and two dressage schools in which I specifically practiced things for the show. The jump school was on Sunday, hence my new banner photo! Lim was a superstar and I believe the jump shown in the banner picture is the biggest overall that we've jumped to date. It was roughly 2'6", with a decent sized spread and a polka-dot panel that you can't really see from the picture. The attempt in the picture was our third and best, though the other two were not bad. Limerick launched himself over it the first time, we got a bad distance the second, and I guess third time really is the charm :) 

Limerick definitely understood the "question" ...

A better view

Down we go

This was the bad distance... notice the left-behindedness! I was clearly trying to slip my reins

Magic :)

Yesterday, Hill was kind enough to help me practice my dressage test and read from it when necessary. It wasn't terrible, but Limmers and I fought more than I was hoping we would. We're doing starter at the show, but for some reason we've been assigned BN test A. I'm not unhappy about this, but we have never had a dressage test with canter in it until now, which caused the majority of our problems. Our circles were more like ovals, though we did have some that were darn near perfect! Limerick also was not really feeling the whole canter thing, and many attempts were made on his part to break to trot (GAAAHHHH). I was stiff, he was unwilling, and it was mostly us fighting against each other with some magical moments interspersed here and there. We ended with a nice walk around the farm property and I vowed to make today's ride better and more positive. 

We both survived our first bareback hack! Yes, I'm a chicken, but his spooks are difficult to sit with a saddle and stirrups

Finally, E returned just in time for me to have a lesson this afternoon. It was positively disgusting outside (helllloooo humidity) and I was dripping in sweat before we even started working... E decided to give us a new warmup routine today, in which I'm supposed to get Limerick really moving, first in trot and then in canter. Holy hell is he hard to stay with when he really gets moving! His trot throws me out of the saddle and it was all I could do to keep my stirrups. Canter was a little bit easier, but once again made my legs really sore. However, it was definitely fun and new for both of us, and I think it'll be a perfect warmup given how free and loose he was afterwards :) 

Once we were done running around the ring, E had us practice collection and bending on a circle. We had some fabulous, swinging trot work and there were definitely multiple moments where I could actually feel his back come up underneath me! The coolest part of the whole lesson was when I had him somewhat collected, on the bit, and working through his back. When he really looked good, E had me look down at his neck, where I could see a huge muscle bulging out and bouncing with our movement, showing just how relaxed he was through his neck!! WAY COOL. 

The rundown for the rest of the week:

Wednesday- group jump school with Hillary and Hue! 

Thurs.- hopefully a flat lesson so I can practice my dressage test again

Fri.- XC schooling!

Sat.- pack, braid, and do last minute tweaking of dressage test

Sun.- show

Mon.- Florida for the 4th :) 

Notice that shiny silver thing through the rear window ;)