Diablo, aka the Villain's horse, and me

Hee hee!!  Today I was given a tour of the Excalibur stables!!!  My dad's friend's daughter works there, and she offered to show me around.  It was so cool!  I was able to pet the stars of the show, and I even met the barn cat.  All of the horses have their own air-conditioned stall, and they are bathed every day!  They are saddled up in the stable, which is in the back of the parking lot, and walked across the lot to the backstage area, where their costuming is completed.  I didn't get to see any of that excitement, but I was able to watch their morning feeding.  Despite their stardom, they are just as focused on their food as other, less glamorous ponies. 

One of the babies not looking too happy about having to stand still.

Not much to say today.  Not sure what the posting schedule will be like over the holiday weekend, so if you celebrate Turkey Day, have a happy one.  Heck, have a great weekend even if you don't.  Me, I'll be busy eating.  And hanging out with the family.

Saber - he doesn't look like the ruthless killer of vile rodents, but he's the chief hunter at the barn. 

I'm off to the horse show!

The grass is always greener...

Doesn't it figure that I'd wake up this morning feeling like crap? I hope I'm not coming down with a cold. I had a terrible headache, and now I have a lingering and distracting sore throat. I always get sick just in time for the holidays or a horse show, and both are coming up!

Last night I rode Blondie for the first time in a week.  I was a little worried that she'd be a handful, but she behaved herself.  I was happy to see that her nose isn't running as much, and she seemed to be feeling better.  She even tried very hard to trot nice, round circles and perfect serpentines. 

The academy show is Saturday, and I am in the first class.  I ride in one other class sometime in the morning, and I will be riding Harley.  We should do fairly well as long as we nail the canter leads.  Jen is coming to cheer me on, and pig out at the Indian buffet when it's over.  I'm looking forward to it!

Argh! Running really late this evening, so I'll blog about the lesson tomorrow. Have to get up at 4:30!

Here is my girl before her first class at the first show we ever took her to. She gets so excited in the halter classes that she jumps and stands up, and just makes an utter fool of herself.  She was like that at the first show this year, too.  Maybe she's just so happy to be out strutting her stuff that she can't contain herself.   The other ponies seem to be better behaved...

I don't know why, but today seemed like a really long day!  I'm so tired!  Maybe the sudden temperature change has something to do with it.

Jen took a lesson at the barn, and I rode Harley.  Blondie still has a snotty nose, though I thought it wasn't as running as it was yesterday.  Not much else to add, except that I cantered all the way around the arena on the wrong lead.  Yea, me!  One of these years I'll get the whole lead thing figured out.

Warming up before our class at Medallions

Today I headed off to the barn early; I was supposed to be in Frankenmuth, over an hour drive, by 12:30, so it was a rush to fit riding in.  M asked if I wanted a longe line lesson before I rode Blondie, and I told her I would do that, but have to skip riding Blondie.  I did want to try on her new blankie and make sure it fit.

When I went out to the pasture to collect her, I saw that Spitfire has been turned out with the girls, and the little filly was running all over the place.  I also saw that Blondie's nose was a runny mess, with bits of grass stuck in the snot for visual appeal.  Wonderful.  I took her back to the barn and pointed out her illness,  and both D and M commented that almost the entire farm is sick now.  Great.  I put on her blanket and took her back outside. When we arrived back at the gate, all of the other horses rushed over to make sure they weren't missing out on anything.

The longe line lesson was pretty uneventful, but it pointed out how much work I need to do to improve my balance.  It seems that just as I think I'm starting to understand one thing, something else becomes suddenly incomprehensible.  Tomorrow Jen is taking her first lesson with M, so I will be practice riding Blondie.

After finishing up at the barn, I met up with Michael and Jen, and we drove to Frankenmuth (home of over-priced, all you can eat chicken dinners) to meet up with more of the family.  As we settled into our chairs, I suggested that we have a butter noodle eating contest.  The waitress brought two bowls of noodles, having overheard our discussion.  I won, but only because Michael gave up.  I guess he preferred the mashed potatoes to the noodles. 

After a quick stop in the bakeries, where I loaded up on stollen bread and tea, we headed back home.

Blondie at Medallions

To make a long story short, last night's lesson was pretty much a disaster.  It was one of those lessons where you wonder why you're still riding.  I didn't fall or anything quite so dramatic, but Ritz and I just weren't communicating effectively, and I was left rather frustrated.

I was riding Ritz because we going to see how things went, and then decide if I will ride her next weekend at the show.  She wore a full bridle, and things got off to a rocky start.  I was having a really hard time at the trot finding my balance without hanging onto her mouth, but after working at it for a while, I started feeling a little more comfortable with her bouncy trot.

Then I asked her to canter.  On Sunday, she wouldn't go forward, and when she did, you had to constantly bump her to keep her going forward.  Last night, she took off like a bat out of hell!  It took a couple of loops around to get her to back off and canter  at a more leisurely pace.  Not really a big deal.

Then we reversed, and she did the same thing, only faster!  I could not get her to slow down, and then I couldn't even get her to stop!  All the time I'm thinking, What the hell happened to this horse that wouldn't even canter one time around without quitting?  After M told me to jerk her head right off, she stopped, and then M hopped on.  Of course she has a better seat than me, and she doesn't let the horses get away with anything, so Ritz behaved.  She kept diving in her bridle, which was making M mad, but she didn't take off like her tail was on fire.

So now I guess I'm going to have to ride Harley next weekend.  Don't get me wrong; he's an awesome horse.  He's just so push button that there's not much of a challenge any more.  I wish we could take Blondie, so I could get some experience riding the horse I'll be showing next year!  Anyway, after two years of riding, I am feeling a little down on myself because I couldn't get a silly little Morgan to stop charging around the arena.  M joked afterwards that maybe I should consider barrel racing.  Haha!  Blondie's not built for that kind of thing...

Tonight was a rough, exhausting lesson.  Rode Ritz again, and we didn't hit it off.  I'll write up more tomorrow.  Now I just want to warm up and go to bed!