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

Schooling Day!

Lately, I've had a lot of people telling me that I need to get Limerick off the farm as often as possible, so I have decided to start seizing all of the opportunities that are thrown my way. Unfortunately, I waited too long to write this post, so I don't remember all of the details. But, here's the short version: 

Limerick was a gem, a saint, and the perfectest pony I could ever ask for, all rolled up into one big ball of love! I was nervous about how he would act off-property (nutty reputation, remember..), so I wasn't riding my best and kind of relied on him to make the decisions. He totally took care of me! We jumped around in the indoor at the farm, had a full jump lesson with S, and then headed outside to test his behavior in the outdoor. At that point, I had remembered how to use my legs/hands/body/brain, so we actually had some lovely trot and canter work. We also had quite a funny moment where I bumped Lim with my spur for a trot-canter transition, and we crow-hopped/cow kicked for a couple of small circles... it was like riding some weird up and down rocking horse, and I was giggling the whole time :)  

Anyways, Collyn was kind enough to record a good portion of our jump lesson, so here you go:

Also, a huge thanks to her for hauling us there!! Obviously, it couldn't have happened without her awesomeness!