Off That Rein

Last week was Bikes Blues and BBQ and since I work at a bbq restaurant and had tests in all of my classes I was busy busy busy! There was no way I was going to make it out to the barn to ride so I arranged for my trainer to ride Coaster three times instead of having my weekly lesson. She made some great progress with him - finally feeling what I've been feeling and saw exactly why I was "snatchy" on my left rein. Now that she has gotten him off of that rein (yes, in just 3 short rides!) she didn't want me to get on him until I rode a horse that was correct in self carriage and didn't pull on that left rein. Soooo I got to go out this morning and ride her competition horse - who will probably be going Intermediate in 2009. It was an awesome experience and I am so lucky to have a trainer who cares enough about my riding to take time and use her horse as a training tool for me!

Now tomorrow I'm going to go ride Coaster and not touch that rein, no matter what he does to try and trick me! I'm really excited to see how he feels!

Jump Lesson

In our lesson today Coaster was fantastic! I felt a little bad for him because as I was getting him from the field his turnout buddy was being brought in to eat, while Coaster had to go work. He is getting stronger through is back, but I still have to use a half pad under the saddle - which fits when he has a topline, but not quite right now.
Once we re-established a halt - it was one of those days - my trainer put us through the ringer. Coaster completely saved my butt through one combination, but other than that one time we did really well. I just wish we were both in better shape, hopefully we will be ready for the event in November.

This next week is Bike Blues and BBQ, so since I work at a BBQ place I'm not going to be able to ride at all. I'm going to have my trainer hop on him Monday, Wednesday and Friday so that at least one of us is getting worked. But starting back next Monday, it's back to work! I'm excited to see what Amy thinks after riding him - I kind of wish I could be there to watch her ride him.

Rodeo Isn't for Us

Since Coaster has been behaving himself wonderfully in the arena I decided to have a fun day and go "trail riding". Unfortunately our barn doesn't have any trails nearby so this really means that we go walk around the dirt roads, which is usually good enough for me. As we start off half a herd of cattle come trotting up to the fence to get a closer look at us. Coaster was not amused. Next thing I know we are in the ditch with a barbed wire fence just a foot from our left side. Luckily things didn't get uglier than that, I hopped off to check his legs - which were fine - and then got back on to continue of the road.

At this point in the ride I'm thinking that the worse is over and nothing can get much more exciting than a ditch and a barbed wire fence on our little hack. I was wrong. About forty yards past the horse-eating cows a great dane with horns - some people would have called it a goat - comes out of the brush (through the fence that was supposedly keeping it in). At this point Coaster and I have about a half-second "WTF?!" moment until the thing lowers its head and charges us! Coaster and I must have been on the same wavelength because right about the time he rears up and spins around I "cowboy-kick" him to get the hell out of there. Neither one of us really cared to stick around to find out what was going through this large billy goat's head - all we really were paying attention to were the horns and its not-so-happy expression. We gallop down the road - right past the horse-eating cows which weren't nearly as scary when we are galloping - and don't slow down for probably 100 yards or so.

I probably should have made Coaster stick around to deal with the little monster, but personally I didn't want to have to call the insurance company and try to explain why my horse is lame because of a goat. If any of you have tried to explain anything to an equine insurance company, you know where I'm coming from on this one! Needless to say, I'm pretty sure Coaster would do Grand Prix dressage for me if it meant never going on another "trail ride"! Poor horse, bulldogging and goat tying is not in his job description!

Back On Track

On Monday Coaster was sound, so I'm guessing he just was fooling around out in the pasture and twisted something Thursday night. Today I had a dressage lesson with the new trainer out at the barn. She was AMAZING! After being stuck in NWA with no event trainers to speak of for the past three years, I got lucky when this lady decided to move from California to Siloam! She is really encouraging and positive as well as extremely knowledgeable. I'm finally back on the track towards moving up to preliminary, these weekly lessons are definately going to be worth the extra hours waiting tables!

Wish Me Luck

On Friday I went out to ride Coaster so we could be ready for jumpers on Sunday, but he was off...sad day. He has a bit of swelling in both front legs with minimal amount of heat. He was cooped up in his stall for most of the week thanks to Gustav and all the tail end of the hurricane that we got, so I'm thinking he probably got let out in his semi-rocky pasture (we grow rocks here) and did something stupid and bruised or strained something small. So he lucked out and got the weekend off. I'm about to head to class (my parents would be so proud!) and then head out to the barn to check on his status. I went ahead and entered the dressage show this Saturday, worse come to worse I'll just scratch and forfeit my "office" fee.

Lively Country

My friend has to sell her horse for college/financial reasons. Bruce is a 1998 chestnut Jockey Club Registered Thoroughbred gelding (name: Lively Country). He has done some eventing (Novice), jumpers (3'-3'3"), and has the potential to go much higher. He would make a great young rider/junior/amateur horse for someone who is wanting to move up in the levels of pretty much any Olympic discipline. Bruce is one of the most honest and forgiving horses I've ever seen and has enough brain to take care of his rider and still be super brave on cross country. He has textbook feet, stands for the farrier, crossties, clips, loads, etc - a perfect gentleman! Price is $14,000 (negotiable) and he is located in Northwest Arkansas. More pictures and video to come. If you are interested contact Josie at jkgeorge@uark.edu Visit his equine.com ad here!