I had many great horsey experiences in 2019! I am really pleased with how the year went overall; nothing is ever perfect, but both horses are sound, happy, and healthy, which is really what matters to me. Some of my 2019 goals were met easily or with lots of hard work, and a few of them were utter fails haha. C'est la vie! Let's recap! Happy, health, sound Both mares are doing well in this regard! Dreamy will be 29 this year, and while she definitely shows signs of her age at times, she overall looks and acts much younger than she really is! Ellie has really matured this year, filling out as well as mentally becoming more comfortable in her own skin. As she will be eight this year, I feel like we have moved through the baby phase. having this photo shoot was definitely a highlight of 2019! Continue lessons with Beth and Babette This goal was met and then some! I took almost weekly dressage lessons with Beth and monthly jump lessons with Babette. Thanks to the
Ellie and I had a great lesson this past Saturday and while I know this is incredibly boring blog content, writing this stuff down for ME is really the reason I started this blog in the first place back in 2008. So feel free to skip haha. ;-) We started by doing a lot of walk warmup, which really seems to help her right now. She starts every ride, at a lesson or at home, by hurrying along in this really crap walk (think running down a hill with a wheelbarrow full of rocks haha) and looking around halfheartedly for things to potentially spook at. It is annoying but it is just where she is right now in her training and in her baby mind, so I just focus on regulating her walk and making her do schooling figures all over the place. It helps settle her down to "get to work" because she is just not going to start out on a long rein and mosey around for a few minutes just yet. Thankfully, being thoughtful and methodical with her walk warmup means that within five minutes, s