Good, Better, Bestest

I've had three awesome rides in a row and today was the best yet! You know how I raved yesterday about how good Limerick was on the trail (even though he tried to kill me)? Well he was 10x better today and did not try to dump me in an earth-shattering spook, so the big baby got almost a full bag of carrots after our ride. He was that good.

Hillary and I couldn't resist heading back out on the trail today, and this time we went with two younger girls from the barn. We started out working a little bit in the ring, since yesterday revealed Limerick's inner fire-breathing dragon. Just some light work, a cross rail, and some canter poles to get him thinking and burn off some energy. Then we headed out towards the woods.. the actual trail part was uneventful, other than Limerick getting a little bit pissy when the other horses got to jump the fallen trees and he didn't (cry me a river). We even went on a little adventure on a new part of the trail that went down towards a large creek. We went and stood by the edge for some pictures and then headed back up to the field where we cantered yesterday. Limerick insisted on trying to jig uphill towards the field, tossing his head and being a big dummy. I made him stop and then gave him permission to trot the rest of the way.

We finally made it up to the big field, which Hillary and I promptly raced across. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Limerick was actually lazy!!! He wanted to stop and had no problem letting Houston charge ahead of us. We had a few strides of real gallop mixed in when I could actually get him to go, but it took a lot of urging. Not what I was expecting given the prancing and head tossing up the hill. I thought he would literally explode when I let him go, but I guess I learned that I need to carry a crop.. Go figure! Hill and I laughed and cheered the whole way, getting to the end and turning back a couple of times to run again :)

I can't even believe how far Limerick and I have come since I got him in August, timid as ever and terrified to canter in a ring.. outside in the open was unthinkable for me at that point! Yet here we are, pushing each other every day to go outside our comfort zones and having so much fun doing it :)!

New Pessoa Open Fronts <3 I've oiled them twice since these pictures :)

My poor ripped FITS :(

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 :)

More pictures!!

Two more days...

BEFORE I CAN SEE LIMERICK AGAIN!!!! We arrived at our final destination in France today, Nice, and leave on Monday morning, thank goodness. I had a good time overall and will spare you guys the bitching, but let's just say that we had to rough it more than I was expecting. However, I made a few really great new friends and had some good laughs (thank god for funny people to commiserate with!), so I'd say it was worth the three presentations, all-nighters, and 8 mile hikes in freezing rain.

I get home late Monday night, plan to sleep until noon on Monday, have a chiro appointment to work out all of the craziness that is my back/shoulders thanks to toting my luggage around, and then will head straight to the farm :) I'll update with how my first ride back goes, though I'm suspecting I'll feel like a wet noodle. Limerick should be on his best behavior though as he's currently getting 5 training rides a week... E said that he's been pretty good overall with just a tiny bit of "baby" stupidity at the schooling show they went to. I have lots of videos and pictures to post (thank you Hillary <3), so here you go!

W.W.

PARIS Bound!

I'm sitting on the plane writing this, waiting for my flight to take off in approximately 30 minutes 😁! Sorry for the absence, I was in Florida for a week, got back yesterday, saw limerick yesterday afternoon and this morning, and have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

As soon as I got home yesterday, I ran to my house and changed to head to the farm! It's freezingggg at home, so I bundled up and had pretty low expectations for my ride. After all, limerick did get a full week off and much of it was spent in his stall thanks to crappy weather! We walked, trotted, and cantered both ways before calling it a day. He actually surpassed my expectations and was basically perfect for the ride! We had some sticky transitions, but he totally held it together, wasn't spooky, and wasn't bursting with energy. He was actually kinda lazy.. Then, we went outside and tried to explore a bit, which was cut short when Lim kept sinking into the ground and had trouble picking up his feet.

Today, I got up early, had breakfast with Hill, and then headed out to the farm. I really just wanted to spend time with the pony and didn't have much of a plan for the ride. Did I forget to mention that it was 25 DEGREES outside?? YEAH, it was. Not fun and certainly not very motivating, so we explored a bit outside and trotted a couple of laps around the indoor. Then I gave him bunches of hugs and kisses before heading home to finish packing!!

I'll be back on the 21st. Meanwhile, Lim will be in full training with E, so I'll have a lovely pony when I return :) I'll try to update with some pictures from the trip while I'm still there!