I'm so disappointed- it been beautiful out yesterday and today, and... I'm stuck inside studying for finals this week. Grrr... This is my morning break for breakfast and to vent my frustration.

I checked in with Dennis and Sherwood hasn't had an ounce of soreness from taking the back shoes off- yay!- so it would be reasonable to get over there and lunge her for 15 minutes, have some grooming time, and maybe work on my newest idea... Want to hear it??

In view of her pretty awesome ground skills and manners, I got the idea of showing her in-hand and getting her used to shows from the ground before even asking her to behave under saddle. Unfortunately, after looking about at the shows for this season, most of them are either breed specific- aka inspections- or straight hunter shows where there are no in-hand classes. Boo Hiss. EXCEPT for one. The Young Horse Show in mid-June. Which... is kind of a big deal in the land of rich folks and warmbloods. And fairly soon. Eep.

First problem is my insecurity and blue-collar background rearing its ugly head. I don't belong there. My horse is "just" a giveaway OTTB with fairly poor leg conformation, although admittedly nice movement and brain. I'm just a schooling level rider who's out of her league in taking on an OTTB to begin with, nevermind dreaming that she can show at anything other than backyard shows. It's an ugly place in my head, isn't it?

EXCEPT. If I want to break out of this circle of insecurity in my head, maybe an in-hand class is a good place to do it. I've always felt a little bit more secure on the ground, and yes, my mare does have some pretty good conformation faults, but we're not there to do anything but learn. Winning is a nice goal, but keeping our heads in the game, doing our best, and proving that OTTBs aren't the crazy lunatics everyone on LI seems to think they are- those are our true goals.

I'd also like to point this out- she won just about $90k in 30 races and never had an unsound day (Knock on wood, KNOCK ON WOOD!!!). So... suck it, conformationalists.

Break's over. Back to studying.