Hello all
I'm a little behind on the old blog updates here in Ocala so I will try to update everyone.
I have been here for almost two weeks and have been having, over all, a good time with the horses.
The first weekend I ran Lewis prelim at Rocking Horse... finding that my experiment of trying to skip a prelim at the beginning of the season last year did NOT work for the spooky monkey. "WHAT is XC?! eek!" We had a positive xc school with Kyle the wedesday before the event and he seemed pleased that Lewis was "better than the last time I saw him". Go me, I did my homework!
ROCKING HORSE
We were blessed with good weather, not too warm and a little breezy. Lewis put in a decent test but I will admit I had never ridden Prelim A before and I probably gave away some points on accuracy. He was a good boy and scored a 35. I'm looking forward to getting him back in the standard dressage arena at Intermediate (with the double bridle) where he can have a better test. The herky jerky way you have to shove the required movements into the small arena doesn't usually allow for a good flow.
I ran out and walked the xc between dressage and show jumping and found the course to have some nice forward gallop space in between fences and some decent questions. I wish that there had been a narrow or corner combination for us to practice. The water was a pretty serious prelim question.
I jumped on Lew for our Show Jump round and headed to warm up. I love Rocking Horse but I find the show jumping to be my least favorite part of the event. The course tends to feel tight in the narrow arena and the fences are pretty airy. The warm up can be over used and there are several deep spots in the sandy grass that you have to mind out for. I hit one of those spots right in front of the oxer in warm up and he had no choice but to slide into the fence. NOT exactly what you want to happen right before you go in the arena. We did get it together over another warm up fence and went into the arena to produce a clean round.
XC I walked the course once more before i ran xc and felt pretty confident with my plan. He WALKED into the start box and STOOD. For those who have experienced "crazy start box Lewis" this was a welcome surprise. By the time we got to fence 5 he was the confident horse I felt I had lost last season. So delighted to ride him like that again. I over shot my turn on the related distance to the water and had to take back on the reins more than i would have liked. And in the new pelham bit I am using he actually listened to me! Oh no! So i ended up having to give him a love tap before the 2 stride into the water which he jumped very boldly and pulled the rein out of my hand. Good think Lew was on his game and held his line to the narrow out of the water with little direction from the monkey on his back. He rocketed out of the water and jumped the rest of the course like a champ (obviously he didnt need any help from me!) Our clean run with a few time penalties had us finish a very respectable 5th in a tough division.
LEWIS, VIVA, AND TIGER GO TO OCALA
Other than Rocking Horse Lewis has been happily working on the flat at the farm in Micanopy. Kyle had a student who is trying to make the Olympics for Venezuela whom was competing in Argentina at the 3 star this weekend. So I missed lessons with him this week (seriously I'm just trying to survive at Intermediate and she is trying to compete at the Olympics go Kyle go!). Luckily his wife, Jenn (also a Midway College grad haha) was available to help me with Lewis. Mary Hollis and I rode in an xc school with Jenn on Thursday and worked on dropping and picking up our reins while jumping an exercise through the Hollow (since Mary Hollis and I BOTH lost our reins in the water at Rocking horse haha!) Anyway the hollow at their farm has a log on the lip of the hollow then about 4 strides straight down an incline and then 4 strides straight back up. Lewis has done with WITH my reins several times before. This time, no reins = very very excited Lewis! He was jumping some sort of imaginary 4 foot fence at the top of the hollow then celebrating his brilliance with leaping and bucking. He is such a cat, when we added the very narrow narrow out at the top of the hollow he jerked his legs out of the way to jump it well every time no matter what else (leaping bucking running away) he was doing. Silly.
I took a Show Jump lesson with Jenn yesterday and we worked on turning to a long approach with out PANICKING! Lewis and I LOVE the long one, LOVE IT. We worked on compressing exercises to get him deeper to the base of some bigger oxers and verticles. I made a mistake having my canter too big to the oxer exercise a few times but Lewis, as always, can compress himself into a little ball so fast and FIRE out over it to fix my bad ride in. He left a ton of room to spare. Jenn was impressed with his athletic ability to ping over a fence.
Viva has settled into work with me again. She is such a one person ride, and I hadn't ridden her much myself before we left KY. She got a complete make over down here and looks like a real show horse now. She has taken some field trips around town and schooled xc 3 times. She gets better and better each time out and has become a lot more ride able.
Tiger, who belongs to my student, Jill Hummel, also made the trip down with me. Poor Jill has hit a few walls on her travel getting bumped from several flights the first weekend. She did make it the night before I started competing at rocking horse (she is only running the next rocking horse) I was happy to have her help at the event. We took Tiger and Viva to Kyles to school ourselves Sat of Rocking horse after Lewis was done competing. Tiger was happy to get out and did a lot of exercises on compressing his stride and getting him to listen to half halts. We did learn that Jill needed some better reins after he pulled them out of her hands more than once! (I am a rein snob!!! everyone better have good reins!) Unfortunately, it appears that Tiger stepped on something and ended up with an abscess starting on Sunday. Luckily we caught it early and got Vet treatment quick, the shoe went back on yesterday and we have our fingers crossed that he will stay sound through next weekend!
Fair well to THE GRASSHOPPER
I have been having a great time down in FL with my horses. I am so lucky to have such a great horse to see every morning and know that Lewis is my horse of a lifetime. It is easy to take them for granted, but in reality everyday with them is a gift, especially when you find that one really special one. I can't imagine what my life would be like if something happened to Lewis. I was shocked and devastated to hear of Megan Moore's loss of The Grasshopper aka Hopper on Advanced xc at Pine Top. Megan has become a good friend of mine as she Suzie Harrison and I formed the "I event at the upper levels on a shoe string budget on a horse that cost less than the saddle I am riding in club". We had formed a support system for each other and had planned to hit some of the same events this season to help each other out and be a cheering section for each other. I know how much Hopper meant to Megan and how responsible she was with his training and selecting events for him to run. She had saved him from a terrible situation and I know she was his best friend. My heart breaks for her. Last night i gave Lewis and extra carrot and buried my face in in neck and wept for Hopper and Megan. Rest in Peace Hop you will never be forgotten.
Give you horse a hug and an extra carrot they deserve it for all they do for us.
Jenn
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