Sorta Silent Sunday

Hi everyone! Not sure if I ever mentioned this, but Tim and I are home for the holidays and boarding at a new barn... I'm kinda lonely out there, as I don't really know anyone, but Hillary was kind enough to go out there with me :) She also took some pics, and I have to say that I think our dressage is much improved! For comparison, here's a pic from one of our first shows:

Summer '14

And from today! Huge thanks to Hill for keeping me company and providing sweet pics for this post <3 Also, the saddle I'm riding in is actually my brand new devoucoux makila, not the loaner!! It's beyond perfect. Also also, I body clipped Tim yesterday (for the second time this year) and forgot how amazing/fantastic/wonderful it is to have a hairless horse

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

December '14. Slowly but surely... also MY HORSE IS ROUND WHILE I'M RIDING HIM!!! 

Cookie..?

Love this one 

Supposed to be a long and low warm-up, but long and low isn't Tim's style 

Warm-up

He's just really cute

He's even kinda round tracking right!!! That used to happen 5% of the time and now it happens maybe 20%

Tim says 'I is giraffe'

Showing off my nasty habit of hanging on the inside rein 

lol

Clipped Tim is super shiny and cute 

His face

Rodeo

Limerick and I played a super fun game of pretend today. It was called "Limerick Moonlights as a Rodeo Bull" and involved some magic feat of stickiness on my part and a whole lot of laughter from Hillary... I imagine we looked something like this:

Except switch out random cowboy for little old me

That's right, all four of his feet left the ground in one spectacular leap/spook/RUN MOM, WE MUST GET AWAY FROM THE LIMERICK-EATING.......fallen tree branch. Yep, the bastard almost dumped me to spook at a downed twig, only made better by the fact that we had just accomplished a legitimately scary trail ride through an unknown forest, over rocky terrain. We made it back to farm property just in time for him to lose his s**t and attempt to leave me in the dust. I actually have no clue how I stayed on and vaguely remember flying into the air, crashing back down onto his back, and having to extricate my legs from where they landed, which just happened to be in front of my saddle flaps. Thank God for stirrups and some semblance of heels down, or I would've been a goner.

However, despite that craziness we actually had a phenomenal ride! Hill, Huer, Lims and I went down said scary trail (Lim and I for the first time) and had so much fun exploring and enjoying the sunshine. It was a cold, clear, gorgeous day and the perfect way to end a kind of crappy week. I had some rather lackluster rides from Tuesday-Friday involving lots of avoiding frozen spots in the arena and a bazillion circles, so it was just what I needed. I also fell on the ice Friday and ripped a hole in the knee of my newest pair of FITS (boooooooooo), so I was ready for something good to happen. Limerick surprised me by being mostly sane and chill on the trail, humoring me by walking over various fallen trees and being patient enough to take some pictures. We only had some small spooks, one of which was at an Irish-Sport-Horse-eating chipmunk... I mean, you can't really blame the poor guy. After all, chipmunks are extremely vicious, carnivorous, legitimately terrifying, scoot-inducing creatures with a particular liking for 1600 pound Chestnut-flavored horses.

Moving on.. we got to the end of the trail and came to a gorgeous open field, which Hill quickly bullied me into cantering across. It's not that I didn't want to, I was just the tiniest bit scared after some previous attempts at cantering in open spaces. However, I did it, and Limerick was a total gem :) Lim and I took the lead and Hill followed shortly behind, eventually passing us. Lims kept his head the whole time and came back to me as soon as I asked, which was just awesome! It was only our second time cantering in the open and our first with another horse, which I think might actually help his brain. I felt so free, happy, and exhilarated (cue every cheesy line from every horse movie ever. I'm mostly thinking of Flicka). We had just made it back to the barn when the incident happened. I fervently wish that Hill had gotten a video of it, but it was way too sudden and unexpected =/

So, here's the plan for the next couple of days:
tomorrow- ride, hopefully do some canter poles and maybe a cross rail, pack to head back to school
Monday- ride, pack some more
Tuesday- ride, Limerick gets a bath!!!!!, head back to school with pony in tow

On an end note, I will say that my rides last week were not lackluster because of Limerick, I was just in a weird funk. A month of training did wonders for the big baby and he's been so much more responsive and lovely since I got back :) I'm pretty sure he resents the uncoordinated amateur flopping around on his back after getting pro-rides for a month, but he'll deal. I'll leave you with some pictures from the past week and from the great ride today!

A too funny picture of Rue that I had to share. Rue, meet pineapple :p

Hill and Hue

Where we cantered off into the sunset..

my fave :)

Lesson!

I'll update later, but first I had to share this :) 

Ok, time to actually post about my lesson! I felt like it was a little bit rough, mostly because it was only my second time riding in 2+ weeks, so I just felt discombobulated and like I wasn't quite going with Limerick. However, looking back and watching the videos that my awesome barn buddy Liz took for me, it wasn't nearly as bad looking as it felt. S was awesome, as always, and I think she'll be really good for us. We started out working on the flat, because Limerick has been really resistant to any kind of contact since coming back to work, almost like he's locking his jaw... We're also kind of all over the place in the canter, but it's getting better with each ride. We did WTC each direction and then started with one baby cross rail. Then a small course of cross rails, then a bigger course of cross rails, and then a course of verticals!! I keep thinking HOLY CRAP, how did I jump that and not freak out?! But at this point, I know that Limerick will jump pretty much anything I point him at, so for some reason I didn't get nervous. The only thing I really struggled with was S telling me not to get in two-point ahead of time... I understand the concept of being "thrust out of the saddle" by your horse's jump, but actually putting that concept into action is harder than it sounds! I kept feeling like I was pulling on his mouth, which I don't want to do, even though he's a total saint about it and doesn't put a toe out of line. Nevertheless, I asked S if she could help, so the very last jump (one single vertical), I slid my hands up his neck and the whole thing felt much smoother. Overall, I was happy with it and Limmers was such a good boy :) Now for the videos:

Foamy and Proud of it :)

I had a great first ride today at the new farm, CVF. Limerick tends to be a little bit iffy and WAY distracted at new places, so I wasn't sure how much we'd accomplish. I needn't have worried, as he was a superstar! We started out walking on a loose rein around the arena, just letting him see all that there was to see and get used to the cows that are in a bordering field. He clearly thought that nothing was scary and just looked out of the ring occasionally with slight interest. We picked up the trot, got some nice long and low work each direction, and then picked up the canter. We got all of our "bad direction" leads, which was the first thing that made me very happy with him. Then, one of my amazing new barn friends came out and set up a cross rail and a circle of ground poles for us to trot and canter around. We had a great time just practicing over these, though Lim's stride was just a tad too big to canter over the poles C set up. Today also marked my first ride since Sunday, which means I'm now incredibly sore, but it was a gorgeous day and very worth it.

I could not be happier to have gotten away from my old farm. It's so nice to not have to constantly worry about a stupid pumpkin cannon or air horn going off or about the frequent groups of elementary school children who go there for field trips to pick pumpkins. I kid you not, I was there on Wednesday and there were at least 30 kids under the age of 10, rolling pumpkins down the hill right next to the outdoor ring... CVF is amazing and it's first and foremost a horse farm, with no crazy distractions and a much more personal level of care. My trainer at the old farm barely even said goodbye, but I've already moved on and I'm glad to be out of there!

Hacking tomorrow with Kristen, a new barn friend, and her adorable horse, Ti. Lim already seems settled in and is just as eager to make new friends as I am :) I'll leave you with some pictures from today:

Even under the breast plate!

Needless to say, he got a very thorough bath after this was taken

Driveway

Meant to be of the arena, but it turned out so cool of the clouds

We make it work...