I've been sooo sick!! I took off the weekend after that last post, and then was horribly sick all last week- to the point that my mom picked me and Loki up at the ferry to take care of me. Ugh. In any case, I feel much better this week, and have a nice shiny schedule for my new rotation that worked out pretty well with daylight savings time today!

No pictures, and she was a BEAST to start off with. My sand-skiing techniques are getting really impressive. I'm pretty sure I could get a date just by showing up at Jones Beach and letting everyone see my skillz. I mean.. How many people can ski without any water, right??

So we lunged, then we worked on that damnable drain cover, then some more lunging, some bending- basically, we just kept going over the basics until she was giving in nicely- then... back to the drain cover! And back and forth it went! Until we finally were doing half-moon lunging and making the distance between a tire and the drain cover smaller and smaller until she actually was trotting over it. Still not touching it, but... I called it success and quit for the day.

Funny story? I walked into the barn to find my horse in another horse's stall, in yet a 3rd horse's blanket- which, to show how well-trained I am, I didn't even think twice about it. Oh, okay... That's interesting, but not even close to alarming... Where is her blanket? Then I saw that the horse in her stall was wearing it. So that was that. Then Dennis walked in and asked me why I was taking Jovi out for a ride. I just blinked at him for a moment, before chuckling as I realized he was joking (obvi!), "Dennis, I haven't been -that- sick! Quit fucking around... The blankets were a good effort!" And then realized he hadn't been joking.

Yup, we sat there for a good couple minutes arguing about which horse was mine- and i will take pictures of Sher and Jovi so you can see the ridiculousness of this conversation- until finally, I told him to check beneath the hood. WHich one has a package?! Yah. It wasn't the one in the aisle. LoL I'm thinking quitting carbs may have affected his brain.

So, I've worked Sherwood Tuesday and yesterday, and I have pictures I'd love to show off. See??

How gorgeous is she??

I can't seem to get anyone to take picture of us riding, and I barely managed to get these (because I was also holding a lunge line!), but after a good warmup, we lunged over some cavaletti, then added a 12" vertical after a couple times. The first time, she powered through it like a green horse, so I made her do it 2 more times (total of 3-4 in each direction), until she relaxed and started looking at them and not just flying through them haphazardly. Then we added the 12" bump, and she looked at it the first time, but was quiet and cool throughout. Good girl, right?

So... yesterday, we did the 4 trot poles, then 2 trot poles to a 12" cross rail under saddle. Again, she didn't even blink at it. Today, we're going to try doing the 2 poles to a 18"cross rail, then switch it to an 18" vertical.

Also, we've been cantering every day- no issues, no complaints. Just working on getting her to relax and focus in the canter, go around with her head nice and low on a loose rein.

I think we may have hit a breakthrough in attitude, too. Although initially she turns tail and heads away from me when I go out to get her, it's more like a- "Do you -really- want me? Really really?? Oh, okay then!" Because after about 5 steps, she turns and looks at me and if I stop coming towards her, she turns around and walks over and follows me into the barn without a leadrope or halter. No carrots involved. Swear! Yup. I think Sherwood and I have turned a corner for the better, and I couldn't be happier.

As promised, we headed to Parkview for our 2nd lesson. This time, Girly showed the trainer what I'd meant by- "she's usually really good". Laura gave me some nice new shiny tools to get her focusing and relaxed, and a cool new steering technique- "with my stirrups". As soon as she explained it- put your weight into the stirrup you want her to head toward, and even push her over if she's not getting the message, a light clicked on in my head. You know those moments where you want to take your leg off and kick yourself with it? Yeah, this was one of them. Sounds kind of like teaching lateral direction, huh? Just way more blunt.

PS. We learned all these things because parkview is crazy. Let me paint you a picture. 10 acres- maybe more?- with 50+ horses stacked here there and everywhere, tractors, workers, riders w/ and without horses who may or may not be working/acting up/washing/etc., cars, SUVs, trailers, mounds of manure/shavings, feed silos... Needless to say, it's more similar to a racetrack than the backyard barn Sherwood lives at. And she react accordingly- out comes the high headed stomping-pawing-spinning horse everyone loves to meet. BUT. This time, although she started that way, we worked outside, lunged, she came back to me a bit more focused, and laura and I decided to work outside. Picture all of that, but at least we're not trapped in an indoor with little kids on ponies. Literally.

And this mare was... golden. Once Laura showed me my new refocusing techniques- change the bend right left right left- Sherwood relaxed and floated. By the end, we had worked both directions W/T/C and Laura was telling me how impressed she was with me and my mare. "It's not everyone who can make a green horse look good, and this girl looks like a million bucks when she's with you. Great job."

Overall, an actually useful lesson, and one I can't wait to apply later this week!

It has been a busy week! Got to hop on She-Beast a couple times, so took her to the reining barn indoor today. I was fully expecting a crazy girl when she got off the trailer after her 15 minute ride to the place in a dripping sweat- literally, sweated through her medium blanket and was dripping on the ground. But... I walked her out in the arena, let her calm down a bit, then took her back out to the trailer, tacked her up, and lunged her in the arena. It gave her a chance to look around a little, get out some of her energy, and re-focus back on me. Until she found the lounge window- and THEN she decided she'd rather check herself out. Too funny. LoL

She was a really good girl- the first time a horse spun near us, I thought she was going to act up, but we stopped and watched for a moment, walked around them in both direction, and... Nothing. So anticlimactic. Same with the taking off at a gallop from behind us and skidding to a halt in front/beside us. Notta. The only issue she had was when she thought she was done and I asked her to walk past the arena gate. Then she tried some of her tricks, but a quick spin headed her off and got her back on track. What a good girl!

Although she's been trying to fake her way out of the trailer on the way to places, she got right back in without any issues on the way back.. I couldn't ask for a better experience for her at a strange new place. So- what do we do now? Scare the shit out of her at Parkview tomorrow!!

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!