A great Lucas update, and thoughts on things that have happend in the past.

So I went to the local show today and got a chance to talk to Lucas' owners mom.  They are such nice people.  They recently had to leave their original trainer due to some personal issues on the trainers end and had been bouncing around for the past 4 months trying out different boarding barns trying to find the right fit for them and Lucas.  Right after the show at our barn (I had thought he was a touch thin, but no ribs showing or anything) they ended up moving him a final time.  So Lucas now lives at the barn in NG that I took lessons at in 2009 when I was trying to start riding again see this post to get back to my posts at that time. 

Anyways the trainer is a very good trainer and is exactly what Lucas and his owners need.  He's changed the feeding program (and put Lucas back on haylage like he was with me), and is giving his owner lessons.  Herb has also agreed that Lucas can go to the September AQHA show.  (And like I posted before, if you are good enough to meet his approval then you are GOOD).  I'm so happy that they have decided to be part of his program.  Lucas looked great at the show and placed top 3 in every class they did in english and even placed in the western stuff.

So thats the update on Lucas. I had to smile to myself though as I read though some of my old posts from 2009.  I was so happy getting to finally ride once a week again, and to be learning to ride effectively again and not just be on for a pony ride.  And I had a Luck post, of the things I was lucky for and grateful for. 

The past couple of months have been very good for me.  My health has been very good, I can ride multiple times a week, and its FUN again!  I have a great horse to ride and show, and great horse lined up to start riding in September when Lucy goes on maternity leave.  And the plan for next year is for me and D to work on Chilly all winter so I can show her next summer!  Which will be so fun to take a baby around and show her how fun showing can be.

The Maritimes

34 reasons the maritimes is the best place on the planet

Via buzzfeed, however please not that Newfoundland is not part of the martimes, but is part of the Atlantic provinces. 

Although the pictures are great, these are of the 'tourist' areas.  There are even more beautiful locations around the maritimes that unless you get off the highways you will never see.

In related news, about a block from my downtown office is a tidal river.  Because it is attached to the Bay of Fundy there is what is called a tidal bore when the tide comes in.  Some surfers saw some video posted a while ago during a full moon and this week Moncton became surf city.  A couple of surfers each day surf the bore, accompanied by support crew.  Thousands show up each day downtown to cheer them on. Here is a story CBC did with an attached video.

Its late I'm tired but

I did go and have my lesson tonight.  On D's suggestion we swapped out her western bit.  The ported barrel was working but when I was one handed it didn't give me much adjust ability.  It does work great with 2 hands and so that mouth piece will be making the transition to our english bridle.

I ended up riding her in a medium ported bit that was hinged at both sides of the port.  It has VERY swept back shanks.  I actually should have made the switch a while ago.  Within 30 minutes I was riding her one handed with WAY more control, but Lucy was still her happy go lucky 'nose out' self.  I think I was settling for 'good' and not looking for the best.

That said our lesson was good we worked on speed and body control and more work on our loping transitions.  Poor Lucy is starting to get noticeably in foal.  Shes not large by any means but its getting harder for her to carry herself as well as she did a month ago.  I can't get mad or upset about it, we knew it would happen we just have to work with it.

English night

And we're still working on finding a bit that Lucy likes.I've tried a couple of different plain snaffles, and one twisted (I thought that it might be the thickness of the bit, and this one was thinner) but she doesn't like any of them.  Its not really that surprising, she didn't like any of the snaffles a whole bunch this spring either.  I have been riding her in this bit western which she likes, and I do have the English version, but I want to keep this mouth piece 'western' to keep things separate.

So anyone have any ideas?  My next plan is to put a french link in her mouth to see if she likes a 3 piece bit, or a Mullen mouth...

SO HAPPY!

I GOT ON LUCY FROM THE GROUND!  No mounting block for the first time in YEARS!!!  This required lots of caps!

We had a good ride other than that.  Just working on our transitions at the lope from the walk and jog.  English tomorrow and then a lesson on Thursday.  A local show is on Saturday (the one I elected to skip due to heat, so glad I did that now!) and I have family flying in from Ontario so this weekend from Friday to Sunday will be busy.  Hope everyone has a good week!

Recovering

I didn't get to ride this weekend, trying to let my body recover so I'll be good to ride this week.  On Saturday I went out and had some 'barn time' and watered the horses for C and D and got caught up on the barn news.

On Sunday I went to the Miramichi (New Brunswick) to visit with my Mom's side of the family.  My Grandfather came from a family of 10, and each of his brothers and sisters each had 4-10 kids each.  Needless to say family reunions are complicated! It was good to see my grandmother see everyone she remembers and my mom had a great time catching up with her cousins.  My Grandmother is loosing some of her memories, mostly her short term memory is slowly getting lost, however she did remember everyone at the lunch.  Shes 85, so occasional forgetting that she already asked a question is not the end of the world.

In horsy news, Oscar will go back to being my part time pony at the end of August.  I'm looking foreword to riding him again and to see if I can handle his lope better now that I have more saddle time under my belt.

Just when everything is going good...

My car breaks... the only good thing is that I had taken it into the shop to have it checked out because it was 'vibrating' somewhat.  You know us riders, we can feel when something is off.  Anyways they thought an alignment and tire rotation would take care of the issue but promised to check it over just as a precaution.  Turns out a part was wearing out in the hind end of my car :(  Thankfully they were able to slip the part into my warranty (got to love Kia's 100,000 km warranty!)  However that was Wednesday and the garage still hasn't received the part (now Friday).  They gave me an SUV the first day, but it was a demo and got sold from out from underneath me and I now have a Rio.  Its a cute little car, and if my car keeps breaking I might end up in one sooner rather than later.

Second part, Wednesday I was fine, had a decent ride on Lucy with Oscars' owners riding him.  My neck was a little sore but I thought I had twisted funny at work and ignored it.  By 2 am the glands in my neck were rock hard and hot and I was running a temp.  I couldn't sleep because they hurt so bad so off to the ER I went.  Fastest I have ever been seen (in and out in under 30 minutes) but got sent home with just some antibiotics.  I did have a no related appointment with my doctors wife (who is a nurse practitioner) that afternoon and she took one feel of my neck and got me an appointment with my family doctor for Friday.

By the time I saw him today the glands had started to go down but he was still concerned about them, and my ears.  So antibiotics for a week, rest over the weekend, and if that doesn't make me better by Monday I get stronger drugs :{

In horsey news Oscars' owners have asked me if I would like to lease him again for the winter.  I think I am going to do that.  Hes a fun horse to ride and it will keep me in the saddle all winter.  I'll have to keep my eyes open for something to show again next year but that is nothing new.  I think I'm going to try and do some low level dressage with him, something different for both of us.  I think this year though I'm going to insist that he stays in a box stall all winter (we got bumped to a straight stall because I wanted him in the main barn) and I'm going to look into getting some mats for him.  His stifles get sticky if he's confined and I think that a box would be better than a straight for the days they are stuck inside due to the weather.  So we'll see how it goes!

I will never complain about riding in -15 again.

Well I most likely will complain, but I will try to remember how stinking hot this past couple of weeks have been and how nice it would be for a couple of days in the 20 to 25 range.

It was 31 degrees by the time Lucy and I were ready to ride this morning at 9:30!  Our lunging consisted of 5 laps at the lope each direction, then I hoped on.  D had talked to me this morning about how my canter transitions needed to be my focus for the next week or so as that is where we have a hole.  So I worked on some walk/trot transitions for a bit than D came up and worked us though some lope/trot transitions.  The sad part is both of us (Lucy and I) know what needs to be done to get a good transition, but I rush her, then she gets flustered and runs into the lope.  We just need to slow it down.

We did work on counter cantering today in an attempt for me to keep my 'inside' leg (the one not asking for the canter lead) OFF of Lucy so that she picks up the lead I'm asking for and not just trying to pick one depending on the direction we are going.  This is a big thing for our pattern classes as we don't have the rail to help me get her on the right lead.  This is RA related, the pressure that I can apply with either leg isn't the same, and can change from day to day.  Thankfully Lucy doesn't get upset when this happens but just kind of deals with it.

We also worked on some loping half passes. Again to get her responding to the leg I was asking her to step away from into my 'open' inside leg.  After that we were done!  Too hot to do much more than that, so Lucy got a hose down and liniment applied and got to relax in the shade of the main barn for the day.  I'm doing chores later tonight so I'll put her out for the night.

Watching Spruce Meadows this afternoon, I love Mac Cone being a commentator!

Sharing somthing I found

This is awesome

30 Photos that capture the best moments

Not so awesome:  I'm still recovering.  Recovery wasn't helped by going to work and finding out that I lost 87 policies of my largest client, not my fault but I have to do clean up.  No riding this week but back at it next week.  Next show is the August long weekend.

Home from the show!

So very happy with Lucy and our day at the show today.  We managed to show in 2 halter classes and 6 riding classes!  That's a huge show day for me, usualy its just 2 or 3 riding classes and I'm done.

So we didn't get anything in halter or showmanship, but I just wasn't feeling it this morning.  It was like the heat sucked the 'snap' out of our set ups and maneuvers.

Then we took our new to us english saddle and got ready for equation.  I warmed her up in the indoor where she would NOT canter.  I was a little freaked out and figured our show was over at that point.  But by the time we walked up to the cone for our pattern, she was ready to cantered!  Our transition was rough but she cantered.  We ended up getting 3rd!

Our english pleasure class was fun!  She trotted and cantered like no bodies business and pretended she was a serious english horse.  We got 5th in that class with about 10 entries.

Before our Western pleasure stake classes we went out and loped a bunch at lunch time, leaving the ring long enough to pick up my show jacket and put it on before coming back to do 2 classes back to back.  She got a 5th in the first stake but nothing in the second.  However I was finally able to get a hold of her and slow her down with one hand and my legs without her breaking.  That was our big breakthrough for the weekend and was worth the heat and sweat for that moment.

I got off her at that point and tried to cool her out a little while waiting the 3 short classes before our horsemanship class but it was tough on her and me.  It was too hot for me with my RA ,and her and the 'baby on board'.  Shes only 4 months along but we've decided to skip the next one day show as there is no shade there and we would be stuck at the trailer all day with little shade for Lucy.

Our horsemanship pattern was awesome!  Our lope transition was late but that is something that we have worked on all spring/summer and that happens.

Our final class was the Sr Western pleasure class where we got a fifth place ribbon.  She was slow and easy and came back when I asked her to.  I was happy with that and decided to scratch trail, it was a good place to end the day.  Lucy got a shower, her bands out, and then she got to go back out to pasture with her buddies.  I went to town, got a milkshake and now getting ready to nap on the couch with the air conditioner on!

PS -  Lucas and his new owners were at the show, she won the English pleasure stake, and placed really well in everything else.  I am so happy that she bought him, we just were not right for each other anymore.  I did feed him about 7 pink peppermints once he was done showing :)

Updated to add pictues!  No english ones yet though!

Love this one of her loping!

Tomorrow is the show

I think us horse people are crazy.  Its 35 degrees Celcus and with the humidity it "feels like" 40 or 104 Fahrenheit for my American friends.  And its not going to be much cooler tomorrow.  Needless to say I don't think I will be wearing my chaps tomorrow!

I went out this morning and helped with chores while Lucy had some time outside.  Then I bathed an C banded her mane for me. We rode every night this week so I gave her today off, I'm hoping that she'll save some of her energy for tomorrow, otherwise I won't have much of a horse left by the time it comes to my western classes. 

So we have grooming and conditioning, showmanship, english pleasure and equation.  Then 2 Stake classes, then Western horsemanship, pleasure than trail.  We will be busy and hot.  Cross your fingers it cools down a little!

Count down is on

2 days until the show at our barn on the weekend.  Lucy got new front shoes on today, and went up a whole shoe size!  Farrier is very happy that her 'tea cup' feet are growing out.  

I've been riding the past three nights and I'm very happy with where me and Lucy are at.  We finally conquered the gate!  Ill have to take a pic of it for all of you.  It's crazy, but it looks nothing like an electric fence which is why Lucy was scared of doing it in the first place.  I did drop the rope today, but that was RA fingers not working right, nothing to do with Lucy.  

C has decided that I needed a black bridle for my black saddle and, surprise! I have one.  So Lucy will be wearing a dressage bridle but it does look better than the brown.  

Sorry for the short update but its been crazy.  I'm on my own at home (parents are at the beach for the summer) so I have all the household chores instead of 1/3.  Busy but I like the alone time.  Plus I can clean my tack while watching tv!

Well, I did it.

I swore last spring that all I wanted to do was to be able to ride, walk/jog,  And to have fun on a horse again and to not hurt after every ride.

Since then I've started Actemra and I've found a new chiropractor.

This winter I started loping again and thought about showing a little.

This spring I got a horse going well enough to go show western. 

This summer I've finally ridden in an english saddle again.

I found an old but great condition German made close contact saddle for sale in a price range so close to perfect I couldn't walk away.  ($240 including fittings!) Its got both front and back blocks (which I LOVE) and a semi-flat seat.  Its not the same brand as the German saddles I rode in when I was working for the jumper, but its got everything about it that I loved about his saddles.  And its about the same age as me!  It was recently re-stuffed and from the sweat patterns on Lucy tonight it fits her really well.  I wont ride in it much but its fun to have something different to work on.

Oh and I should have done a ton more rising trot last winter!

As a PS - Lucy is wearing Lucas' "fat girth" a 54 girth with elastic on both ends....  But she is pregnant!