Weekend events

We had a great weekend.  I headed down to the farm around ten.  After sitting in line at both DD and McD's, I elected to grab coffee and some cheese at the gas station, a result of the boy getting the last of the cereal that morning.

I got there for a great dressage lesson.  It was warm and sticky, but cloudy and with a breeze so it wasn't awful.  We worked hard on my timing, because apparently that is my weakness.  I have an issue with keeping the canter going.  The one thing that came out of my lesson as a carry away is to put my outside seat bone into the center of my saddle, in order to keep from collapsing to the inside in a turn.  This goes along with pointing the girls slightly to the outside of the turn.  This does seem to help.

I love this view

After our lesson, we got to go on a nice walk around the property, since the sun wasn't out so strong, and took a chance to speak with the property manager who was painting cross country fences in the field.  As we stood there among the 5 dogs running through the long grass, with the dry palmettos making noise in the wind, Violet just stood there.  After a few minutes, the manager made a comment about how her horse would have taken off.  I truly am lucky to have this little mare.

Saturday night we went out to dinner, because it was our intrepid teacher's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Marcea!  Dinner was great, and there was much drinking.

We are getting hit with tropical moisture from the gulf and new it was coming, so we planned to get to the barn by 6:30 and all of us on together for a group jumping lesson by 7:30.  I'm pretty sure I was still feeling some of the effects of the beforementioned drinking when we got to the barn.

The morning was lovely.  There was this cool damp wind blowing and all of us made comments about it almost feeling fall-ish.  

Such a good girl.  And see how this bridle does not actually fit right?  We have throat-latch, noseband merging...

We started with cantering over a pole both directions, then over the pole to another pole that was parallel to the ring fence, about two strides away, going in the direction of whatever lead we were on.  That was tricky, but we all got it done.  Then we started working on lines.

The first was vertical to vertical, 6 strides for V, 5 for Pearl and Charlie.  Then it was oxer to oxer, same striding.  All of this was to be ridden forward, with concentration on the canter and the balance as we come around the corners to the fences, and straightness over and after.  After that, we put them together.

Then we moved back to our gymnastic friend, but this was changed slightly to a 4 stride (3 for the others) to a bending left in 6.  We rode that back and forth.  When riding from the single fence to the 4 stride, we were to sit up and take back, turn, then move forward to the combination.  When going from the combination to the single, we were to establish forward before the combination and carry it through, simply picking up the outside rein and putting pressure in the outside stirrup to make the right turn without taking back.  We actually got through this pretty well, although getting the forward and carrying it all the way through the turn was a challenge.

Are we done with the pics mom?

So then we put it all together.  I got through the first two lines pretty well.  Then I lost my stirrup and had to stop.  Then I turned Violet back to the combination and got through that.  And everyone was cheering.

I have traditionally been the queen of the add.  And Violet didn't know there was any other ride since that's what I consistently give her.  But the girls apparently fight over getting to jump Violet.  And the girls RIDE.  These 6' girls gallop that pony and have installed a gear I didn't know she had.  I turned her to that fence, said go, and she went.  She almost gave me the 5 in the first line, and we actually got the three in the combination, and I didn't even realize it, because she lengthened her stride so that it came up right.  It was so much fun.

So then we were done.  The other ladies did it one more time and added a two stride.  Marcy said I was done, but not because I couldn't do it, because I could, but because we had worked so well and didn't need to push it.

I am writing this as I watch the Olympics dressage at my desk at work.  This course is a killer.  Sorry to see so many riders having trouble (WFP, Tim Price, Clark Montgomery, etc.), but I admire those that figured out how to get it done.  Since it looks like Tryon is going after WEG for 2018, maybe I'll get an opportunity to volunteer for that.  That would be way cool.

P.S. Way to go Phil and Happy!

 And a few pics of the dog because...well, he's cute as hell, right?

His favorite toy.  Before removal of the squeaker.