Happy 250th blog post! Giveaway contest!

Bad blogger again, though this time I have a semi valid excuse.  I have seriously had no time whatsoever to write over the past week, between being super duper busy at work and having a commitment Every Single Night, there just hasn't been time to write anything down. No worries though, I have some updates.  First being, WOW!  I can't believe I have written 250 posts!  I really don't have a lot to say and I know I am not a fantastic writer so the fact that you are coming and reading my posts and writing a response to say hi is amazing.  Thank you so much!  I am really excited about this upcoming show season so hopefully you will stick with me as I muddle through progress and attempt to document it.  I should do a give away to celebrate, I have a new blue or black lycra helmet cover (your choice) that I will give to someone who responds to this post.  It will NOT fit a Tipperary or similar style helmet but fits nicely on a Troxel or similar style helmet.  Contest will end on Friday, 3/21 at 6p EST, tell your friends!

The horses are doing well, I have ridden 2-3 times each week for the past couple of weeks.  I rode Mia last Sunday in a lesson and we did fairly well, H gave us some tips to try to fix her right lead canter that we will try.  She said that her left lead canter isn't actually connected so she needs more power, so gotta work on powering it up a little bit.  Her trot is much better as is her steering and once I can figure out how to ride with my hands TOGETHER (grr!!) on a regular basis, it will be much better.   I need to work on keeping a solid outside rein to push her into and I should work on some spiraling out on a circle to really engage her hind end to work as she is still pulling with her shoulder.  All that in mind, she is still a very green horse and so I need to keep resetting my expectations.  I shouldn't expect top level work out of a horse with so little experience, even when she makes it so easy to raise the bar of expectations.  Again, stuff to me to work on lol.

On Sunday I hauled both Mia and TWH over to another farm to use their indoor arena.  I took a lesson on TWH with H and worked exclusively on my position.  I have been frustrated that my position isn't as good as it should be over fences, for whatever reason I am standing in the stirrups as I come to a fence and get left behind.  Despite knowing I am doing this, I keep doing it which adds to my extreme irritation at myself.  H again reminded me that I shouldn't be so high with my expectations.  I have only jumped 3, now 4, times since September and I am not in tip-top shape.  She also reminded me that I am voluntarily staying with low jumps as I am aware of an issue so I am not hurting anything or anyone.  She says most of my issue is being rusty, she expects with a dozen more sessions I will be much better as I didn't look like this last year when I rode.  She said my homework was to go over 3 bounces so I have time to mess up at the first jump, fix it at the second and be correct at the third.  I am also going to up the time I am doing two point to get my balance back to 100%, so I have some work to do.  Overall it was a really good lesson and it made me feel better by having someone tell me I am making a mountain out of a mole hill in regards to my position, I don't really suck, I just think I do.  She said even with my "bad" position, I am better than a lot of riders.  So there is that.

I hauled Mia over to the barn for exposure only, I wanted to get her out and let her see things with very low expectations.  She needs trailer loading/unloading work but I think one good session will fix the Stand And Stare issues.  She walked into the new barn like a dream and settled into the stall without any drama.  Win!  At home, when left alone, she tends to weave in the stall and screams for the boys.  There was a horse 2 stalls down, across the aisle that she could see so maybe that helped, but she only yelled once and behaved very nicely while I rode.  When I was done with the TWH I put him in the stall under a cooler and tacked Mia up.  She stood very well in the cross ties and didn't paw (WIN!), she even nickered at me when I walked back up to her after running back out to the trailer to grab her bridle.  Awww!  We walked into the arena and she took it very well.  She was very looky and had to inspect every single mirror in the place.  Of all of the new stuff she could see, she didn't spook a single time and was only extremely cautious of a jump that was set up that had pine limbs under it as a brush fence.  Once she realized she could eat the needles, she stopped caring and didn't have a care about anything else.  Awesome mare!

We finally loaded back up and headed home, she was a little worse loading on the way home.  I was ready to have someone stand behind her and smack her with a lead rope when she finally decided to hop in.  Even treats are not getting her in the trailer, yet anyway.  As soon as some of this ice is gone we are having a trailer loading session!  TWH now not only self loads, but also waits until he is asked and then self unloads.  Love that horse!  Going to ride tonight and work on my homework, happy 250th blog post everyone!