Updates For Those Of You That Are Still With Us :-)

Ah Blogger its been a while!

But this stint of not feeling the internal pressure to report on my blog has been good for me.  I know it sounds silly, but for me, I was starting to feel pessimistic about things, not because anything bad was actually happening, but because I didn’t have countless exciting stories/news to tell you guys.  I kept having the feeling I was letting the few followers I still have down because we weren’t making miraculous strides in a short time, and because I wasn’t buying all the things, and I wasn’t even riding, much less showing.  So I got to take a breath and remind myself that blogging, much like horse ownership is FOR FUN.

Learning…

So what have we been up to you ask?

Well most of you that follow me on Instagram or Facebook are probably pretty up to date, and I apologize in advance for reusing all the photos from those other social media sites, because I’m not awesome and always forget to get pictures taken. Whoops!

So since I last updated everyone, Libby was already going much better since we’d moved.  We’d taken her on a day trip to the show to school and she was perfect for trainer.  I hadn’t been riding much at that point, so it was mostly videos and updates on the trainer riding.

That stretch though!

I’m happy to report that I’ve been able to ride much more now!  We’ve got my Lymes kind of under control, so I’m able to ride 4-5 times a week, as long as its not too hot and I have time before work.

Please excuse the socks, new boots are hopefully on their way…

And Libbys been great! I had the opportunity to take her to a free clinic, thank you USHJA, with Bobbie Reber, which was an awesome opportunity to see where both me and her were at in our training.  We just did the 2’6″ adult section, and it was very low pressure and perfect for where were at now.  I lunged her before we left, nervous she was going to be strong at the clinic, but she ended up being dead quiet and a bit too behind my leg.  Oh well lesson learned.  She was perfect for me, and aside from one distance where she had a moment of “Move up you say? Ok I will two strides after you ask…” she was quiet, and listening the whole time.  We received lots of compliments from the clinician, who was lovely.  She mostly spoke about the concept of a distance, and how many times people fret too much over what the perfect distance is.  She explained how theres always a general area in front of the jump thats acceptable, and the job of a rider is to make any spot within that area look the same and effortless.  Nice way to look at things…

We’ve been playing around with bits and at the clinic I used the hunter gag that she loves so much.

After the clinic we had a mild regressing period where Libby was just being a twit at home, spooking in the same corner every time I rode.  And she was always on the muscle in the Waterford that she was so good with before.  So trainer was curious and decided to change back to the HS kk loose ring and drop the bit in her mouth about two holes on each side.  Her thought behind it was that for whatever reason Libby tends to be on the muscle from the first moment you get on, and she never seeks contact in the correct way.  So by lowering the bit in her mouth, she wanted to try and see if Libby would try to seek the contact more.  And for whatever reason, it worked.  Since we’ve done that shes been MUCH softer in the mouth.  Who knew….

We also changed up her hormone regimen.  For those of you that have been with us a while, you’ll remember that I put Libby on Regumate the beginning of last year to try and help her cold-backed tendencies.  Well it wasn’t doing such a good job, she was still coming out on random days slightly hump backed.  After having the saddle rechecked, its a perfect fit, and having a Massage therapist/Vet look at her, we decided to take her off the Regumate and switch her to Depo.  That with the combo of having a massage every 5 weeks, and having her regularly worked in the Pessoa system to strengthen her back, has totally taken care of the cold backed stuff.  Plus its cheaper for me so yay saving money!

The past two weeks I’ve taken her to the show grounds to school her, to get her ready for some showing.  Yes you read right, we’ll be doing as much showing as my miniscule budget allows!  Our first being the first week of May.

She really wanted to go in…

Any who, she was PERFECT for each field trip.  With no lunging, just get on/off the trailer and tack up, she was awesome.  For the first trip, we got to the grounds kind of late, and all the ticketed rings were closing so me and another ammy at the barn had a quick lesson in the schooling area, until the water trucks basically kicked us out lol.  But she was great, quiet and soft.  After our lesson, we walked around the showgrounds, and we even “babysat” another horse with her nervous rider.  For our second trip, we actually were able to get in the ring.  And again I had perfect horse.  Loopy reins, knees to eyeballs, and just listening everywhere, not once did she get on the muscle.  If anything I had to kick her up to a couple lines.  If I had to fault her for anything, which is very hard these days to do, its just at the outside corner near the Jumbotron that she bulges away from which is really hard for me to fix.  Other then that SHES been perfect.  Me on the other hand, I’ve been struggling with some equitation issues that have been hard to smooth out.  My trainer wants me to turn my toe in and sit back, which for whatever reason translates to sitting in the tack in my mind.  And let me tell ya, I can nail 8 distances all day long in my half seat, but sit me in the tack and I see nothing!  I think I had several chocolate chips that were cringe worthy, and had my trainer screaming after me, “Your a better rider then that! What are you doing!?” The other ammy I was with said they definitely didn’t look bad at all, but after about 4 chips I had to ask to get into my half seat to which trainer replied, “Duh as long as you keep those shoulders back!” After that I was golden!  I wish I had photos, but again, nope I’m bad and only have post-ride photos.  Hopefully for the show, or the next time we school I can finagle someone to video us 🙂

Perfect girl!

So life has been good in sunny Sofla! I wasn’t able to watch friends at WEF this past season as much as I would’ve liked but I did get to see a couple of the Saturday festivities 🙂 I did forget how much fun it is to be down here with the best of the best.  Kelley Farmers farm is right down the road from us, so I would see her schooling her gorgeous menagerie of derby horses every time I’d take Libby for a walk.  Same with Joe Fargis, although the jumpers don’t really hold my attention as much as the hunters do obviously 😉

Awesome photo of Trainer competing in the Hunter Derby at the Ridge on another ammys horse!

All in all were doing well! Libbys good, I’m getting better, and work is good.

Phew what a lengthy post! For those of you that are still with us, thanks so much for reading and supporting me and Libby through our journey.  I’ll be back soon!