Day of Exuberance

MEGAN: After feeding in the hunter barn, doing turnouts (and discovering that Timmy was lame) and raking half of the indoor, I cleaned Simba’s stall, scrubbed and refilled his water buckets, and went for a handwalk. While we were handwalking I decided to practice for the vet jog at LYDF (required for Second Level and above- for the first time I make the cut!) and when we went to trot, Simba went into a very exuberant, forward trot, striking out every couple strides!! He was so proud of himself and I was quite surprised- we have practiced before, and he has yet to respond in that way! He is just too funny; needless to say, that will need a bit more work before any judges see it! After doing some laundry, checking my email, and hand grazing Fyn I then tacked Mr. Simba up for a lesson. We worked with Annie on the canter work from Second Level for most of the lesson- 10 meter circles off the centerline, simple changes, and medium canter. We worked on keeping the canter uphill and forward, which (believe it or not, Lendon and Maryal) is greatly helped by sitting back, NOT leaning forward. Who knew? As part of the warm up we also did shoulder-in to renvere; once again, the more difficult side was where we go from shoulder in right to renvere left (ah, the dreaded left bend), but after working on that for about 10 minutes, the shoulder in to renvere in the opposite direction was great; we only did it twice, and Annie gave us a 9 on it the second time through! After a great ride, walk to cool down, and bath me then did more laundry, hacked Melos, and cleaned some saddles. I then tacked Horse up for Annie and warmed him up- she said he felt better, but to concentrate on my transitions and the balance within them. After scooping in Mica’s barn, bathing Horse, copying Loui’s coggins for Mica, and handwalking Brou, Hannah, Emma and I rescooped in the main barn and went home. After a quick tempo run I showered and was ready to go to Theresa’s for dinner in 9 minutes! We had shrimp as an appetizer, then grilled chicken, salmon, corn on the cob, salad, and tomatoes for dinner. After helping clear the table I helped Theresa’s daughter Diane make brownies! Then Laura, Mica, Annie, Hannah, Emma, and I all sorted, organized, and packed ribbons and trophies for the Festival. We enjoyed brownies and fruit salad, then came home ready for bed!

SIMBA: Mom worked me in under an hour- getting in all the Second Level basics, keeping me forward, and working on her half-halts, core, and elbows! I must say that Annie was quite helpful in all of this, and Mom was quite to the point today! My student is doing well, thanks to my tutelage and that of others. I fell very good- all that grain, icky Muscle Builder, and lots of attention are doing me good! Going forward is not all that bad, though I still try to convince Mom that it is much easier than all of this hard work. Oh, well. I hear we have a hack scheduled for tomorrow- should be nice and relaxing! Mom has been exploring the trails on her own, so she should be able to put together a nice afternoon for us. I am off to bed- to you tomorrow!