I haven't posted anything because I have yet to figure anything out. Work was crazy at the beginning of the year. Then just a bunch of stuff has kept me from actually getting to the barn or getting real consistent ride time in. When you can only ride on the weekends, only getting in an average of 3 rides a month does not allow for even maintaining what we managed to have going before the beginning of the year. I know Violet is in fantastic hands and will be ready for anything I want to do, and ready for anything that I can afford for her to do without me. Unfortunately, that is yet something else that is holding us back right now. I have a rental property that is actually costing me money that needs sold, and plenty of things that need to be taken care of at the house we live in (mostly plumbing issues, lovely), a step-daughter that is graduating from high-school and needed help buying a car, a trip to Italy for two weeks with my Dad in August, and a first anniversary trip in September. This is all preventing me from doing something like...oh, maybe getting my boots fixed? I have two pair of custom boots, and have grown out of both pair. The one that mostly fit (damned bulbous calves) became traitorous and the zipper is now non-functional, so I've been riding in an old pair. Said old pair were thrown in the trash last night due to the leather cracking and peeling off and the zippers being metal and actually scratching my saddle. So I'm riding in my river boots. Or half chaps, which I hate. Anyway, new boots, a new bridle for Violet, fees for any shows by me or anyone else, all these things are on hold. I think, as I sit here at work watching Rolex and dreaming of the day when I can actually go watch, that this is just the year that riding wasn't, you know? And I have to figure out how to be ok with that. Because let me tell you, the husband is really tired of seeing me be upset about not being able to get there.
On a good note, I did manage to take the dog to the barn once this month, and he wasn't too bad. I can see other day trips in the future. And I am making it down this weekend for both days, which will be nice. Of course, I will die, because I live in AC and it. is. HOT! But at least I will die with my pony.
I will not go into a whole lot of "sorry I haven't been blogging" stuff. I haven't, but I am today.
I haven't been able to ride much this year so far, which means I was not prepared to ride in this weekend's event, as we had previously planned. But the pony did not have such an issue, and I was more than happy to enlist Marcea's expertise to give her a good go, since it was the last show of our season.
BOOM! I'll just leave this here.
The husband and I headed down Friday after dropping the dog off at the spa. We were going to make this a mini vacation from everything going on at home. And we have a blast cracking jokes while jump judging, so we were looking forward to it.
Saturday was a very early day, with jump judging debrief at 7:30. It was actually nice to be able to sleep until 7am on a show day, at least for me. The husband, maybe not so much, lol.
We judged until 1, Violet's dressage was at 1:12, so we got there just in time to watch the end of her warm up and get this action on video.
I think the best part of all of it was the smile on Marcea's face when she came out of the ring. She looked like she had a good time, and she even said she loved that Violet is the one horse she knows she can work with in the ring. As in, start the movement, push for more, maybe a little less, then move to the next movement, change it up, etc. That is such an improvement over where we were only a couple of years ago, when she would disappear and you couldn't adjust ANYthing. And the judge was complimentary as well.
VERY complimentary
So that 27.5 (her best score ever, btw) put her in 3rd. And this judge is no joke. I was trying to find my dressage test from the show last year, but I'm pretty sure it was the same judge. As in, the judge that gave her a FOUR on the free walk last year. This year, she got a 7, and an 8 on the medium walk before it. Last year she got a 36 at this same show. This year was much better, lol.
So she headed to stadium Saturday in 3rd.
A beautiful double clear kept her there, and earned Marcea some recognition from the judge, who complimented her on a very well ridden round.
After chores we headed to Marcea's for dinner with the crew and some sleep before getting up for a whole day of jump judging.
We got to see almost all of the Training Rider and Novice jumps from our vantage points. For Beginner Novice, not so much. I got video of Violet going over fences three and four, but the video of the rest of the course was crap, since I was running and trying to video at the same time, and it was so far away.
Let's just say the pony ran around the whole course with absolutely NO issues. Marcea had to slow her down at the end, because she had moved out so well. Another double clear and she finished in 2nd.
Everyone from the Market Street Team had a positive show. Ginny and Pearl ended up in 4th in Novice with improvements across the board. Caroline and Charlie also showed great improvements in the Novice division, ending up in 7th. Robin and Finn won their BN division, which is quite the trend for them now, since they have won all but one this year (and they got 2nd then, and still won the TIP award at that show). Jane and Louie also ended up in second in his first Novice appearance. Oh, and Marcea and Riley ended up in 6th in their Training division, after neither of them showing in almost a year.
So it was a really great weekend. Violet finished cross country barely out of breath and very proud of herself. And qualified for Zone Championships, which opens up a whole other issue. I have to do some serious budget adjusting to see if I can't figure out a way to get them there. We'll see. And I'm still planning on getting back out there myself, probably in November. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to get back on the girl on a more consistent basis.
