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
While Rejoice and I were busy playing jumper pony, Ellie and I had been concentrating on our dressage lessons during the late winter and early spring. It felt good to come back from a pretty laidback winter and not to have lost any training; in fact, I think Ellie's winter break did her a world of good. It felt as though she had matured a ton and was ready to be a First Level horse. She is coming nine this year and I think it is my favorite age so far!
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| this was March but pretty representative of our winter rides |
Beth and I agreed it would be a good idea to knock off the rust and get the first 2021 show under our belt, so I entered the little schooling show her barn held during April school vacation. It ended up being freezing cold and spitting sn*w (which is better than the rain that was forecasted I suppose lol), so the weather wasn't exactly ideal and fun, but it was worth getting into the big outside ring and riding First 1 to see where we were at. We had not ridden this test since August 2020.
Due to the not-so-fun spring weather, I do not have any photos/videos because no one wanted to hang out and watch. We were able to ride First 1 twice almost back to back (one rider in between) which was nice. I was seriously frozen and wore a black winter coat and winter breeches hahaha.
But despite the fact the weather was sub par, Ellie was super!
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| i win dis |
We banged out a 66.5517% and a 67.2414% to place first and second in First 1 out of four rides (two other riders did F1 once). I made our canter circles a little too big, but that was easily fixable. We had comments about nice bend, being supple (!!!!), and needing more push from behind in the lengthenings. I was pumped to get all 7s on rider position/seat and use of aids, which I attribute to the fact I am no longer fighting with my saddle haha.
Overall, I felt really good about this first show of the year! And seeing as the highest we scored on this test in 2020 was a 63%, I'd say we have made some improvements!
What a great start to horse season. Congratulations!
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