RK3DE

I'm a terrible blogger. Anyways, have some Rolex pictures :)

Me and rooms :)

P Dutty and Trading Aces

Sinead and Tate

Sinead is FIERCE

Marilyn Little and RF Demeter

Marilyn Little and RF Demeter

Hawley and Ginny 

Marilyn and RF Smoke on the Water. He was euthanized today after getting cast in his stall :( 

My favorite shot of this pair

Such a gorgeous horse 

Andrew Nicholson and Avebury 

WFP almost ate it 

Twice.... 

Sharon White and Wundermaske

Kristin Schmolze and Ballylaffin Bracken (my favorite name by far)

Another favorite 

Allison Springer and Arthur 

Libbie Head and Sir Rockstar. Libbie is only 22 years old and completed her first Rolex in serious style 

DQ

I had a GREAT lesson today with S! Recently, my brain has been in meltdown mode, trying to figure out which dressage-legal bit will work for us. I have tried and failed to make most of them work, switching between a Boucher, loose ring snaffle, full-cheek, eggbutt, you name it. Limerick sometimes needs a little bit more than those to not rip my arms off in downward transitions, and lately he's been resistant to working in a frame and actually using his back. However, we had a break through moment today, involving a Myler Level One Loose ring snaffle :)

Normally, my lessons with S are jumping only, but today I opted to do dressage to solve this elusive bitting issue. I'm still loving the saddle and limerick seems to go really well in it, though I gotta say that I do miss my jump saddle a little bit... Basically, the entire lesson was on a circle. S had me warm him up on a loose rein, trotting between Collyn's jumps. Then, it was my turn and we focused on getting him round at the walk, then moved up to the trot. I have to remember to carry my hands, not drop the right one, and LOOK WHERE I'M GOING! Our turns started out super shambly because I wasn't steering or using my body at all to make them smooth... Bad Katherine. However, once I started looking around the arena instead of at his neck, the whole ride got one billion times better. Funny how that works... Next, because S must have felt especially evil, she took away my stirrups, stuck limmers on a lunge line, and made me alternate between posting and sitting trot for 15ish minutes. Let's just say it was probably the hardest lesson I've had in a while. My abs and back are so sore, not to mention my thighs! Limerick has the bounciest trot ever and it's no easy feat to sit.

Once I figured out how to sit back on my seat bones and distribute my weight evenly, it all went quite smoothly and limerick was a doll! We ended with some of the best canter work we've ever had, in which Lim was perfectly round and I felt like we were just floating along, making nearly perfect circles around S :) The Myler is seriously the best thing to ever happen to us, and I already have one in the mail, coming to us from Dover! I'm planning on having a jump school tomorrow, so I'll try to update with details from that.

Pefection, Part II

IT'S HERE!!! My dressage saddle finally came in today and it's awesome :) It seems to fit Limerick well and is very comfy. I didn't get to have an extensive ride in it because I had a jump lesson beforehand, but I think it might just work for us! Here are some pictures of it on Limerick's back, please let me know what you think: 

Like I said, I also had a jump lesson with S at Gail's farm. I didn't know what to expect going in because last time we lessoned there, Limerick was crazy. That was in our reindeer phase where his back was really bothering him, but I had yet to figure out what the heck was going on. Needless to say, he was 100x better today and quite the gentleman :) We started out with a warm-up of a small cross rail, which was quickly moved up to a 2-ish foot vertical, which we trotted back and forth over. He was good, so we upped the ante and slowly increased to a full-blown course. 

He was awesome, even with little kids screaming at the neighbor's house and dogs running around. Combine that with G's rather ghetto jumps, and he was practically a saint. No refusals or run outs, the worst he did was bring back the reindeer move, which I got hilarious video of this time!! If you watch nothing else, please at least watch Limerick's sweet reindeer skillz, they are too funny. He whipped them out for a rather innocuous little white vertical, which just so happened to have a horse eating flower box underneath, clearly worthy of clearing by three extra feet (he easily jumped the height of the standards). Today was my first time riding and experiencing the reindeer for myself, and I actually laughed out loud at how it feels... 

Well, at least we know the boy can jump... 

LOL

Other than that absurdity, the lesson was luckily uneventful. He did do some serious peaking at some of the other scarier jumps (black barrels, green gate, blue vertical), but he was never dirty and jumped everything, even with some less than decisive riding on my part. What a good guy!!

The video:

And some more screenshots: 

SO CUTEEEEE