A ride! And a hangout!

So, Friday was an awful day of weather. I didn't go into work because... The roads sucked. Instead, I went back to bed, then got up snd went to the barn. It was now 40+ out and lovely, so after mucking, I decided to work the girl in the hopes that she would be better for her lesson the next day. Lunged her for 20 minutes so she could get the kinks out, then hopped on for another 30min. Surprise surprise, she was an angel. Walked and trotted around like a doll, stopped, turned, gave me some minor head-tossing when i asked her to trot away frrom the herd, but it was easily quelched with a spin and next time, no issues. 

Then I got treated to a trip into Manhattan to hang out with Chris and his german business partners in town for the weekend.do you know what germans like to do when they get to nyc? Go see a broadway play? No. Museums? No. Chic restaurants? No. They like to Shop. Macy's. DSW. I'm like... Really? Shopping. I HATE shopping. So, to sweeten the pot, Chris bought me a couple pairs of boots- one knee-high velvety soft brown leather, and three short boots, all awesome in their own right. And It did make things more tolerable. Lol 

Saturday morning, I'm thoroughly prepared to hop a train back to the island for Sher's lesson, but get a call from the barn saying they cancelled it because, essentially, my horse is too crazy for the amount of people in the arena. I was like... Fine. I get it. That sucks. And rescheduled for three weeks later, when hopefully, it would be quieter. And then proceeded to pout for a good hour or so. My horse is too crazy to be ridden with other horses? Damn. Kristin would just about die laughing if she heard that. And Nicole. And just about anyone else who had ever seen her before that lesson. Ugh..

So... I went in search of an indoor to go practice in in the meantime, and found a semi-private one owned by a guy who breeds reining horses- right up the road! I explained what I was looking for, and he said he thought we could work something out. So... We're headed up there Saturday next weekend to go check it out. Who knows? Maybe we'll throw some reining lessons under our belt! Haha

A preview of what's to come..?

I'm so excited! Girly showed off her new trot today! Granted, all it took was 7 inches of snow, a crust of ice, and a week in her paddock, BUT!! It was a loverly trot. Can we say -extension-? I tried to get pictures of it, but my camera is also my phone and well... it leaves something to be desired when said subject is 200 feet away from you at all times of action.

That is all. Minor crowing. Until next time!

Update!! Sherwood is... horrifying in an indoor. After our amazingness on the trailer three weekends ago, we made an appointment to bring her for a lesson in an indoor in the quest to get her off the property and ready for showing this summer. So, two Mondays ago, we loaded her up (without an issue!) and drove her 5 minutes down the road to the H/J barn. They had me "try out" on a young TB lesson horse before they'd allow me to bring Sherwood to their normally busy indoor, in order to gauge my ability to handle a young scared athletic mare. Well, good call, peeps!

This fricking mare was... controlled chaos in motion! She wanted out of that place so bad. Wouldn't stand for the mounting block, trying to run me over everywhere, refusing to turn away from the gate by threatening to rear and shake me off, kicking at the instructor! I'm pretty sure my instructor either thought I was a moron or a pathological liar. All I had to fall back on was that she'd watched me ride the horse she trained (my tryout horse) and do a fair job of it. At the end, she left it at, "Well, you handle her well and you're well matched. She's fast, you're faster, she's tricky, and you've shown up to learn tools. I think you'll be okay with her, but she definitely needs more miles." And then Sherwood tried to kick her. Again. And all I could say, as I'd been saying the entire 45 minute lesson was, "I'm so sorry, she's never done that before." SNAFU, much? LoL

In retrospect, Sherwood was totally manageable- she never reared, she never did anything but shake her head and stomp her feet and slam on the brakes. I've ridden through far FAR worse than that. And by the end, we actually got a full half-round of the arena at a trot. So... progress was made.

AND I dragged her butt onto the trailer this weekend to ride in the outdoor at Bohemia, which was much more slick than I thought it would be, so we didn't do much, but she trailered there very well, she stood for a VERY awkward ground mounting (OMG, if I was her, I'd have run away), and walked and trotted around like a pro. After a minor blow-out in the parking lot about her being ADD and me asking her to pay attention.

Fantastic Miss Mare. We had to cancel our 2nd lesson in the indoor this afternoon due to 7 inches of snow, but we can't wait to get back there ASAP!