The Mare Be Trippin'

Yay for another day without rain!  About 5 more days of sunshine and we might dry out!  Last evening I decided to ride Baby L first.  I texted my neighbor to see if they would be shooting so I wouldn't die.  She said her husband had planned to and I asked if he could wait 30 min for me to hop on the baby.  I got L lunged and hopped on.  When I first get on he does this fast walk thing and when I start working on bending and turning he pretends to be exhausted.  At the trot he was slow and sort of all over the place.  He is pretty good about trying to put his head down as I push him up into my hands.  It just took him awhile remember how to steer.  It's not his fault though, he had not been ridden in 4 days so I would expect some relapse from a 3 year old.

Then I got on Poppy.  At this point is was getting late and I could tell she thought she should be eating dinner versus working.  As I walked into my jump field the neighbor came over to see if I was done riding.  I thanked him for doing this and explained I just can't trust being on my 3yo with the shooting but Poppy would be ok.  He was shooting his .22 so I can hardly even hear that from my house.  I forgot to ask what he was shooting Wednesday night that sounded like a cannon.  

Poppy was ok.  Not bad, not great.  When she doesn't want to work she gets fussy and pulls which causes her to be on her forehand and then trips alot.  This annoys me tremendously.  Having had a horse that tripped and fell frequently I worry about going down.  I picked up the canter to jump a cross rail, she did her fussy thing and bam, tripped and went down on her knees.  She is agile so she bounced right up.  I got after her as this fussy thing needs to be nipped in the bud.  She of course was pissed in usual mare style.  I made her keep jumping all my small jumps until she settled.  Stopping and backing her when she pulled.  I am praying for clear weather today and tomorrow so I can get some good jump schools in.  If that happens then I can hack her next week and we should be fine for the show.  I show Thursday and Friday.  Thank you horse show for scheduling amateur classes on weekdays!  Sure, I will just take off of work, no problem.

To get in the spirit, here is a photo from the show last year..  It was 1.15m but the jumps seemed huge!