Monday
On Monday, I went out to the barn and SADDLED UP. I was riding with Claire (on Pete) and Bailey (on April). I amazingly got on Zan with little trouble, and then started going. Before I got on, Erica told me to only canter once or twice each way, and to run him at least 5 or 6 times around each time. It was due time to get some of that excess energy out of him.
I have to say, I did procrastinate a bit before actually doing anything with Zan. I did a whole bunch of trotting, and when Erica, Bailey, and Claire joined me outside we worked on going over trot poles and small jumps. Guess what? I GOT MY NON-ATHLETIC HORSE TO JUMP! Yes! Guys, that is a huge accomplishment! We went over them only twice, and both Zan and I were very sloppy, but Zan actually went ALL THE WAY OVER both of the jumps, twice! I was so proud of him. I am still proud of him.
After Claire, Bailey, and Erica went back inside for a little bit, I cantered Zan once his good way and then gave him a rest. He was breathing a bit hard, and he seemed to take a while to catch his breath. Then, I turned him around and trotted a bit his bad way to get into the rhythm of things again. I slowed him to a walk, talked to him and hummed a bit to calm him down, and then asked him for a canter when we got to the side of the outdoor arena with no mud. Yup, you guessed it - wrong lead. So I slowed him to a walk, made him walk for a few strides, and then asked him again. Wrong. I made him walk again. Tried the canter again. Wrong. Walk again. Canter again. Wrong again. Walk again. Canter again. RIGHT! By the time we got the right lead, Zan was already huffing and puffing. I made him go around 7 times - yes, I know it's a lot, but TRUST ME, he really needed to calm down and get rid of energy.
Once we walked again, Zan was taking great gulps of air as if he'd just run a marathon. When we passed the water trough outside, he fought like mad to get a drink, but I didn't let him - if he took a drink after running that much, he'd colic. Once he calmed down, stopped breathing so hard and was being normal - normal for Zan, at least - I asked him to trot again. He was a good little boy and took off excellently. He did alright at the trot and then I asked him to canter again. We got the correct lead, the first time! Yay!
Monday, Zan was such a good boy. Bailey, when doing the small jumps, cantered after the jumps and really liked that. Claire did an EXTREMELY good job going over the jumps and she was loving on Petey boy like crazy! She loves that horse, you can really tell. =) Claire has learned her diagonals now, so that's one step closer to a canter! You GO GIRL! =D
After my ride, after I put Zan back in the field, Eric comes up to me and goes, "You sure looked like a barrel racer out there!" I laughed, brushed it off and kept on walking my walk and talkin my talk. Guess that comment will have to be thought about another day, at another time. Not now, anyways. ;)
Tuesday/Yesterday
Yesterday was my 4H Beginner Pleasure workshop. I arrived at the barn at 4:45 pm, thanks to mom, of course, and went to get Zan. Mallory - who is being kept in the outdoor arena/dry lot now - came right up to me and followed me around. Despite being the reclusive, elusive wild mare that she is, she does need some love sometimes. I realized that as I pet her for a few moments and whispered reassuring words to her. She nickered softly to me as I walked away and I felt bad for leaving her. But I had to get Zan, because we had only one hour to prep for the workshop.
I brought Zan in (no trouble catching him, yay!) and saw Kristen lunging Sonny for Madison. My mental question of "Where the heck is Madison?" was answered when Madison walked into the barn from loading the last of her equipment into the trailer. I put Zan into his stall and then walked up to Madison.
"Hey, Maddie, wanna do a favor for me?" I asked her. Crossing my fingers.
"Sure, but what do you want me to do?" Madison said in her little voice.
"Could you come help me take my stuff into the trailer?"
"Sure!"
Thank you, Madison. She 'helped' me take things into the trailer. By 'helped,' I mean she did most of the work. I had her carry my saddle pad, girth, bridle, and April's bridle (in case we needed a stronger bit) to the trailer. I took the saddle and brush box. Now that's what I call a good little girl. ;)
I brushed Zan just a bit, and then decided to lunge. Erica had left us a list (she had to be somewhere else and met us at the fairgrounds), and lunging was one of the things on the list. So, once everything was packed in the trailer - just tack, 'cuz it was just a workshop, not a show; so no show clothes, or any show-related necessities for the ponies - I put the bitting rig on Zan and grabbed the lunge line. Off we went.
No lunge whip. I didn't even notice until we were halfway through lunging. Zan, going his good way, was an angel. He just went right along with everything. Zan's trot was nice and very smooth, and it made me very happy. I noticed that, unlike my expectations, Zan remembered perfectly well how to lunge even after at least a month going without. When going Zan's bad way, he was still a good boy. We cantered three times each way, and I was so amazed. Zan was being so perfect. I suspected that he was playing a phoney act; surely, at the fairgrounds, he would act up. I was wrong. Totally wrong. Dead wrong.
We arrived at the fairgrounds after double, triple, and quadruple checking the tack and loading the horses - Sonny and Zan, I mean. We had to stop on the way to fix something with the trailer - not sure what, but we had to fix something - but otherwise the 20 minute trip was pretty uneventful. Madison's comments in the car were very amusing. ;)
When we got to the fairgrounds, memories of being there with Emmy came flooding back. But I pushed them to the back of my mind, you see, in order to stay calm and focus. We unloaded our horses, brushed fast, and tacked up. There was only one other trailer there; a group of two people with a buckskin mare and a dark brown/slightly black mare. We all met the workshop leader in the arena and started walking for a while. We walked for at least five minutes while everyone settled down. One girl - the girl who started out on the brown/black mare - couldn't control her horse. We started trotting, minus Madison (she didn't want to trot just yet), and the girl riding the brown/black mare got frustrated. She went and got a martingale and put it on her mare.
The older girl, who was on the buckskin mare, cantered first. I have to say, her horse was pretty. I love buckskins, and the rider was a good rider. They made an excellent team, and I think - judging by their excellent work together - that they will take home many blue ribbons at whatever show they go to, and they must've been working together for many years. Madison finally trotted, and I cantered once Zan's good way. We reversed, trotted, and I cantered. We were speedy. Twice Zan and I cantered his bad way. After we walked and trotted after our canters, the leader decided we were going to work on a 'pattern'. It was easy, but Zan did his little stopping-thing and we had trouble. We did it twice and did better the second time, but I do want to work on that at Victory in our spare time.
After riding, we were going to work on halter/showmanship. Madison opted out of that, so she got to be our 'cone' in showmanship. It was funny, 'cuz the older girl and the younger girl had switched horses while riding, but when we did halter, the older girl goes, "Hey, you. Yea, you. I want my horse back!" in a really playful voice. It was hilarious.
We worked on halter - did great, except for the first time the leader walked around Zan. He totally flipped out. The second time was better. When working on showmanship, Zan looks at me, looks at my foot, and WHAMS his hoof down on my foot. Ouch. I'm pretty sure one of my toes is broken. part of my foot is hurting like heck and has a quarter-sized bruise, and my boot is a bit damaged now. ;) I love you, too, Zan.
Katie Frazee took a really nice picture of Zan. Wanna see? She cut me out of the picture - she knows how I hate pictures!
When riding back to the barn, Eric looks at me and goes, "Not barrel racer type, huh? Well, ya'll looked like a racehorse out there." I laughed, and once again shook it off. We'll deal with that later.
***Back To Tonight***
Well, Taylor (Pete's new rider) is going to be riding Pete both on Wednesdays and Thursdays now. Great, huh? Yup. Hopefully, her and I can become friends, and not enemies. Guess we'll see how all that goes.
Sigh. Well, I learned a lot yesterday. Monday was an okay day, too. I'm riding every single day this week; can you believe it? I can. I'm happy about it. It'll give Zan and I lots of time to work hard and do things right. We'll just have to see how the rest of the week shapes up, huh? Guess so!
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