Thursday, May 3, 2007

Thursday, May 3rd
Happy Birthday Mom and Drake!
We rode outside today and Solo was his usual outside. Our flat warmup was no nonsense and quick. We trotted figure 8s then we cantered them doing simple changes. After a few little Xs we moved on to a one stride. It was an X then a vertical, which looked to be about two feet high! After it Solo really wanted to GO! He was stretching out and moving very fast. We put it together with a real course, and I was scared that I wouldn't remember where to go. I found it's a lot easier when you are going around then when you're sitting there looking at it. I was trying to remember when to hold him and when to let him go but the truth is he was just going so fast the whole time was mostly instinct. Collecting, slowing, and waited and got him to not take half strides. Since they were all diagonal planks and stuff there was no specific number of strides that I was trying to get but I still counted his rhythm.

After I asked Ariel about shows and she said I could go! There is one in June but it's a 3 day show and she estimated after transport, entry, etc. fees it would be about $700. There is also one in August that is only about $200 because it is local and just one day. It's Fields and Fences. I have to save up but Mom says that she might buy my coat. Ariel said anyway they may excuse coats because it would be so hot but I need to buy a coat anyway because I plan on going to other shows. I want the R. J. Classics grey with teal and blue plaid because it looks awesome and tailored with only little alteration. Dover just started carrying it, and on horsetackresale.com people rate even the $190 wool version very high, up there with elite by grand prix and the top of the line RJ coat up with GP. I have my too big ariat breeches that I think I'll wear anyway and the too short, too wide, slippry devon aire crap tall boots. I'll have to buy some sadl-tight or whatever that grippy material is. At least those fit me in the feet. My helmet will look great.

I haven't been keeping my blog up to date.

Here is from two or three weeks ago:


and this is from last week.

Everything went well and I was getting nice spots over the diagonal blocks. I did each twice before I had to stop, I was about to throw up thanks to only eating some salty, sugary, nasty noodles. The rest of the dinner was even nastier and I thought I'd puke if I ate any more. I couldn't get any food on the way beacuse my debit card is not working until I transfer more money from my savings to my checking. I've accidentally been putting my checks into savings and also the check to Colby for my computer came from checking. They already had to take the $130 for my sheep out of my savings. Mr. Sheepy is sick, they all are but they're on meds and will be fine in time to work with them for the fair. Unfortunatley not soon enough for this Saturday's official weigh in so they'll just get their tags. That means we can compete in everything but weight gain class, the one class Glenview Clovers always wins. :*(. I think I may name my sheep Xerxes.
Back to the picture/diagram. Sorry it's a little hard to follow, got carried away with the magnificent MS paint again! Anyway, we warmed up with just going over the first x and cantering out in the middle of the line and back to the wall. I'm proud to say that when we moved on to the circle in the middle, after two trys I got it perfectly! The moral of this story is eat good food before you ride, take your alergy meds, and make sure you have money in your checking account before you buy a sheep!