Oh, What a Day!

MEGAN: After helping with the feeding, doing turnouts, and sweeping the corner of the arena, Annie asked Rachel and me to set up for the show. After some confusion over the photocopying of a dressage test, I cleaned Simba’s stall and scribed for the schooling show. Then I quickly groomed and tacked up Simba, and got almost no warm up for my ride. Our first test was terrible. Canter was a problem, and the whole test was slow. Specifically, the canter at F in Second Level test 1. Our warm up for the second test was much better. He was forward, and all transitions were better overall. Then, as we turned in to do the test, he just died. He shut down and it was very, very slightly better. The first test was a 58.68% and the second a 60%. Both times, flustered, I ended up off course and extremely frustrated. We bucked, passaged, and did many other interesting movements unfortunately not part of the dressage test. I went in the indoor and Annie helped me with him, getting him in front of my leg once again. There are days when I wonder why I ride horses, and this was one of them! I then cooled Simba down and rode Atticus in the field- he was wonderful! Forward, fairly soft, just a good boy. Then I got pictures of Simba for the fundraiser flyer, and cleaned tack. I helped feed and swept out the tack room, then scrubbed off Timmy’s legs. Then I was able, with Nikki, to discover that trails were indeed available for running. With Grace and Rachel at the pastry and Pizzeria, I ran for an hour and 15 minutes then showered, ate dinner, and talked with Maryal. Talking with her about my test was helpful, and I feel more prepared to make a decision about my show entry for tomorrow. Well, let us just say that bed is a welcome end to this trying day!

SIMBA: I was just not feeling it today. She did my stall, got a little girl to take me out for a walk and grass before my ride and spent lots of time prettying me up- and I just didn’t want to. It is that simple. She got a bit tight going in that arena, and I was having none of it, even after a nice, forward warm up the second time through. After that, though, she worked me in the indoor. I could feel her frustration and disappointment, but I have to teach her these lessons. Experienced horses like me tend to want to run the show (no pun intended) and she will have to learn to overcome that if she wants to be successful with me. OK, so maybe I am being a bit harsh, but she’ll have to learn how to deal with it one day- why not today??? Then, I got my picture taken and smacked poor Mom in the face when something startled me- on top of her slammed foot and jammed fingers. Phew, what a day- she’ll be happy to hit the straw tonight! Oh, and tomorrow morning when she has to clean my stall. Ha, ha!