June 15th, 2012

Made the drive out to the barn, with pup in tow.  It really is such a long drive, through basically no mans land.  Have to find a new place and soon!

Although my trainer had offered to do a semi-training board in which I ride twice a week, and she’ll ride her the rest of the week, but I really want to be able to see my horse more then twice a week!  So I don’t think I’m going to agree with that. 

Libby was an overall good girl yesterday.  She is still in heat, coming out of it though, so she was a bit “fiery”.  We started out trying to do as little bending with her as possible, just trying to stay out of her way.  She’s been playing with the bit a lot lately, and we suspect that she desperately needs her teeth done.  We checked after our ride and sure enough, shes got some points on her, so hopefully next week she can get that done.  I put her through her paces, her canter was LOVELY, so soft and easy feeling, and then we started our little jumps.  She was super exuberant, and sailed over those little verticals.  She was jumping a good foot higher then the jumps, which doesn’t exactly bother me, she’ll learn with time that she can relax.  We did a little course and then cooled her out and brought her in.  Our goal for Sunday is for me to ride her over a course at the canter smoothly.  I’ve still been just trotting our courses, save for the one canter jump I did last week, and I’m at the point now where I can settle her and keep up with her timing.  My hardest thing to overcome, and the reason why I think my trainer has kept me trotting her, is that from past horses that would take off with me, I have it ingrained in my head to be defensive over the jump.  I’ll unfold out of my two-point mid jump, preparing to sit up and back on the landing.  Which is good on a bolter, but Libby’s no bolter, and my timing throws her off a bit.  She doesn’t do anything bad, but its just not as pretty a picture as it could be, so I’ve been working on keep my two-point longer over the jumps.  I’m at that point now where I can move up and start going with her.   So I’m pretty excited with the progress we’ve made!

On another note, I keep forgetting that we have a stallion on the property.  He is the quietest, most calm stallion I’ve met, and the poor guy is in love with Libby.  Shes at the point in her cycle where shes not paying attention anymore to the other horses, so he’ll make calls to her, they sound like a monkey hooting, and it falls on deaf ears.  Poor guy…

In happy news, the saddle for me to try OFFICIALLY is being shipped tomorrow! So I’ll finally be able to try it on her 🙂

I’m still waiting for my Smartpak sale catalog, my mailing system is weird, and have been thinking about blankets for her.  I’m going to measure her on Sunday to make sure of the fit, but I don’t know what I want for her.  And color wise, I have no idea what would look better on a black horse.  What do your horses outfits consist of?