2x national champ!

Well thanks to the official re-count from ApHCC (appaloosa horse club of Canada) it turns out that Sassy and I were national champs 2 years in a row! In 2008 we won open yearling mares, and in 2009 we won open 2 year old mares! I'm a little up-set that it took them this long to get it figured out, but very happy with the results :) :) :)

AND Lucas was fantastic tonight! I lunged him every day this week except for when I was having a sick day from my IV. I figured we should work on his standing still at the mounting block as that is usually our biggest issue. So I took him over to the block and tried to get on, then we do the dance.

Hes not horrible but he always takes a step back when I get to the top of the mounting block. So we tried twice and the 3rd time he escalated it and started swinging his hip around. So I got down from the block and backed him the length of the indoor. He was a brat the first 10 steps or so but was backing nicer by the time we got to the end of the arena. So I walked him back to the block, put a little tension on the outside rein and got up on the mounting block.... and got on! No issues what so ever!

So we had a very nice 'dressagey' (is that even a word?) ride, lots of change in directions, change of gaits and speeds within the trot and walk. (we stuck to a walk and trot because the footing in the indoor is as hard as a rock). We did some leg yielding across the arena and he was very good. We only rode for about 20 min but it was good. Once I got done, I got off and I took him over to the block and got back on him just to reinforce the good stuff, we then walked a circle and then got off him.