Sherwood has been coming along nicely! I even managed to get some glamour shots of my lovely girl after her bath. It was getting later in the day, but she'd had a hard workout and received a lovely bath, and was all squeaky clean and shiny. Perfect time to hang around and get some pretty sweet shots in an ugly barnyard.

I've been riding her about 2-3 times a week and working on the lunge the other 1-2 times. She hasn't had one act-up under saddle (knock on wood, KNOCK ON WOOD!!), but we haven't progressed to a canter yet. I figure, if it's not steady on the lunge, it's not ready under saddle. Not in a rocky, uneven arena filled with stuff that... should I hit it, it's going to leave a mark. No bueno. We have been doing lots of circles, figure-8s, serpentines, patterns, and we're starting over cavalettis. We're now up to stride poles followed by a double stride. I think we're going to work on 2 and 3-stride combinations tomorrow... Depending on how she is after today and yesterday's days off.

The schedule we'd finally worked out through this past 7 weeks of my Internal Medicine rotation was to go T, W, F, S, Sun. Lunge on T/F and Ride W/S/Sun, when I have the time and energy to be more patient and cognizant of her shortcomings and areas she needs to work on. Most of the time on the lunge is review work- H<-->W<-->T transitions, pick up the canter, let her sort through her balance, do a couple T<-->C transitions, change direction and do it all over again, then slip on the side reins and do it all over again in both directions. Overall about a 30 minute workout, maybe 45 if I get involved in something, with lots of walking breaks and halt transitions because... she sucks at them. I can't seem to figure out how to teach her to halt gently- ask her nicely, she blows right through it. Ask her more forcefully and the head comes up, the back drops, and it's a super awkward, uglyness. Bah.


Loki wanted to do his part in supporting the team effort, so he offered to wear team colors. Sadly, they were a bit large for him.
And he looked like Frankenstein when he tried to walk... slash hobble.
















We did not make it to the Young Horse Show, but our in-hand work was pretty sweet by the time we figured out we weren't going to make it. I spoke to the JC this week about sorting out her ownership transfer. It turns out that since her old owner could care less about me getting her papers at this point, I need to apply for a duplicate foal registration and get a notary to sign off on my reason that her papers were lost in shipping. Lovely, right? So, we're working on that while we also work on all the stuff necessary for the end of this clinical- next Thursday is my last day! AHH! Then we got to Brookdale. And get scared of gunshot wounds and knife stabbings. A far shot from the opulent north shore office I've been in... Wish me luck!!