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
By mid September, Ellie and I had started to get ourselves together. It wasn't perfect, but it felt so much better to have put in the time, sweat, and tears to begin to move past our issues with stopping. I felt really discouraged for most of the summer, so moving through that was huge. Of course, my rides at Green Acres and Esprit in August had still contained stops, but our lessons were where we really showed improvement.
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| when you ask your small child to take a photo of you on your horse and he wants a selfie, too |
I took Ellie down one day to the farm where Babette was based out of for years called Gathering Farm (she is now at a new barn because Gathering sold over the winter). It was an opportunity to take a lesson over fences in a new place, so while it wasn't totally like a show, it was nice to jump in that environment. And can I just say that Hamilton, MA is such beautiful horse country! It is home to Myopia Hunt as well as many other lovely barns like Ledyard Farm. Back in the 1970s, Gathering was the USET headquarters where Jack LeGeoff taught. So lots of rich history and I am glad I got to see and ride at the farm one last time before it was sold.
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| Mama, I want to clean your tack, too! Why sure, here's a bridle! |
Also, I mentioned that I finally had come to grips in 2020 that I needed a new dressage saddle. It fit Ellie well, but it did no favors for my position. I had to find a big girl dressage saddle that not only was comfortable for us both but also would not break the bank. I searched and searched and lucked out with Maryland Tack Exchange (which is now located in FL which confused me at first but ok). I found a wide Trilogy Amadeo Elite for $2K, which I was pretty excited about since new they start at $4850. It fits Ellie so well after a little flocking rearrangement and I feel like I can actually sit up like a real dressage rider. Thankfully I was able to sell my Stubben within a month for $1000, so it worked out.
Even my saddle fitter was like WOW, you are good at this finding used saddles thing! haha She's fit a dressage and jump saddle to Rejoice and a dressage saddle to my friend Margaret's young horse, and she has been impressed with our ability to find decent used saddles for good prices that actually are close to perfect for our horses!
Not saying I love saddle shopping/fitting, but I have had good luck with saddles over the past year. So one small part of 2020 was quite good in that respect!
I am thoroughly enjoying the 2020 retrospective, thank you for writing it out! And congrats on the new saddle!
ReplyDeleteLooking good! And yay for the new saddle! Loving these little updates :)
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