The Past Week

I was extremely busy this past week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Friday I went to Victory; On Wednesday I went to Sunnybrook. Thursday was a busy day family-wise, and today we have a family friend coming over, and then going to a volleyball game with my family and friends. I'm wondering if I'm getting to the barn today.

Monday
On Monday, I was at Victory. Erica picked me up from school and we went to ride. So I grabbed Sonny and she grabbed April, and we tacked up. Erica has a BSET show today (Saturday), so she wanted to do some no-stirrup work to build up some leg muscles. So she took the stirrups off of her saddle and I kept mine on.

I worked Sonny on the flat for a while - he was being quite the butt head - and jumped a LOT. I've become quite sloppy when it comes to jumping, so I was glad to get some more work done to build my foundation more and get me back in the game again.

Erica decided it was time for me to get on April and work on building my leg muscles, while she tried some stuff on Sonny. We both jumped a little bit (me on April, her on Sonny, me without stirrups, her with), and it was great fun. We had to go inside then, though, because it was getting dark. So we went in and I worked with April on my skills. Erica did some dressage stuff with Sonny, and really enjoyed it. She promised me that if I could walk on Tuesday, I could ride Sonny again. =D

Tuesday
I'm not going to say too much about Tuesday, but I will say that I rode without stirrups and it killed me. My legs felt like lead!

Wednesday
I rode Missy on Wednesday at Sunnybrook, for my lesson. Troy and Lisa worked on the fencing around the outdoor arena (we're working on getting up real fencing, not just our redneck fences) while I rode. I wanted to warm Missy up, work on turns and rollbacks, and then I wanted to see if she would do a flying change at home.

So we cantered up to the center of the pasture/field on the right lead, did a circle to the right, and when we reached the center again, I cued for a flying change.

trot, trot, canter.

Missy went down to a trot to switch leads, then picked up her canter again. When we came up the middle to go into the first circle again, I put some leg on her to get her to move a little faster and pick up her feet. Came up on the turn, and i cued for a change.

flying change.


Ah, I discovered the cue! She needed to go faster. When she went into her canter, she always picked up a pleasure canter. But in order to get her moving fast enough to pick up her feet and eventually flying change, I had to apply leg and voice. Bing!!! Winner!

We also set Lucy up with some new digs. She now is pasturemate for K.D., Asia's thoroughbred. Lucy gets to stay inside all night, and gets morning and night supplements once again. She seems pretty content, especially at night when Lisa comes and conditions Lucy's feet. I am so excited to see how much better she gets. I'm so happy!

Friday
Friday was a Victory day again. Erica and I brought Pete and Sonny in from the field, deciding to trot/run up instead of just walking. Erica was behind me and all of a sudden I hear, "Crap." I look back and Erica had stopped and is looking at Pete. We go inside and I ask Erica what was wrong. She said that Pete was limping at a trot. I went to get April for the lesson, because we needed her now that Pete was lame.

Erica called her dad, who said to call Sherry (Pete's owner). So Erica did, explained the situation, and Sherry said she'd call Whitesell and see if she could get him to come out on Saturday. I put Pete in his stall and got him some water, then taught a lesson with Erica. I hung out with Katie and her boyfriend Kyle for a little bit, too.

Then Taylor got there with a surprise. I'll tell you more about that later, when I get a picture! Any guesses?