After Margaret and I had such a fun time at the fall hunter pace, we opted to go again this spring! This time, while I rode Rejoice again, Margaret rode her horse Jester and had a friend ride Ladyhawke. All Kennebec Morgans!! Jester and Rejoice have the same dam and Jester and Lady share the same sire. Unfortunately instead of a lovely late spring day, we had one of the first intensely hot and humid days of the year. It was definitely a bummer, but the ride was mostly in the shade of the woods and we had a great time! most of the fences were 3' coops but we found a small log and this hay to jump haha Until we didn't. 😑 We brought along a third friend who rode Margaret's older mare, Ladyhawke. She's a good rider but hasn't known Ladyhawke for very long and didn't realize how much of a cranky boss mare she could be at times. She kicked Jester right in the front leg just about halfway through the ride, and while the cut itself ended up not being a big deal in the
Whew! That was a whole lotta posts in a short amount of time! All caught up with 2020 and now we are moving forward!
 |
| is this not the CUTEST photo of my youngest riding Rejoice back in January?? |
I never really wrote any goals for 2021, but they are pretty simple:
- Keep the ponies happy and healthy
- Ellie:
- Have multiple solid experiences at BN level
- Maybe have Babette take Ellie N by fall
- Confident in all First Level movements by end of 2021
- Rejoice:
- Continue to have fun outings when we can!
- Dreamy:
- Keep her comfortable, sound, and in good weight (she was looking a bit elderly/unsound this winter to me so she is back on Equioxx)
 |
| this was my favorite Bernie meme even better is that Janet Foy made it her FB profile pic hahaha |
I gave Ellie most of the winter off and just did some toodling around in the sn*w here and there. I felt as though we had grown SO much in 2020 that we both needed a little down time to digest it all. Babette was in Aiken anyway and I did not want to take dressage lessons, or more accurately I did not want to deal with the focus of lessons in the dead of winter! You never know what the roads are going to be like, what my steep driveway is going to be like, the fact I would have to clip Ellie more than just the little bib clip I did, trying to make progress even though I couldn't practice much at home......BLAH. I enjoyed the little break to be honest.
 |
| Here is a ridiculously massive Google Meet from my living room haha One entire grade/wing was quarantined in January for ten days. Yup, that included me! I had my first COVID test and thankfully was negative! |
I did end up riding a lot with Margaret over the winter, and Rejoice seemed to like getting out when the footing was favorable. I mean mostly we just bopped around and didn't do much productive, which was exactly what we needed to survive winter haha. We even rode one day in the sn*w in February and it actually was quite nice! (If you know me, you know I am NOT a fan of winter lol).
To beat the winter blues, we cooked up a lot of schemes about what we wanted to do in 2021 and ended up deciding to play jumper pony with Rejoice at a local farm during their winter jumper series. More on that later...
Ultimately, I feel as though I came into 2021 with a much more positive outlook than I felt during most of 2020. Winter didn't feel as never ending as usual, I felt excited to get going again, but also tried to enjoy the quiet months too.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment!