101 Dressage Exercises

Look what came today! 101 Dressage Exercises! No, I am not stepping into the dressage arena just yet (although my distinct lack of jumping makes it feel that way)- however one of my goals for this year is that I approach all of my free ride times with Ellie equipped with a plan of attack. Or just any plan really.
I have a feeling that when I enter into a ride with set exercises in mind that I will likely be much more successful than when I arrive in walk, trot, canter mode.

And of course who doesn't need a copy of the "bible" aka. Hunter Seat Equitation by George Morris. Can I get an amen?

Disorganized

I'm feeling disorganized in this new year. Which is why I did not set goals. Case in point- my dear friend got married in September and I am just now sending a wedding gift. So tacky.
And why am I sending this gift 5 months after the fact?
No good reason. When I got my new cell phone (already a month after her wedding) my text messages, where her address is stored, did not port over. I still have the phone- it was just a matter of getting it to a place (my home instead of work) where I could charge it long enough to pull the address. Literally the phone and I just needed to be in the same place with a charger.
Sad.

So I thought that since I'm not seeing the horses this week (busy in the office with proto review for Spring '16), and have no good new riding news, that I might make a list of things I need to do here on this blog to try and temper my mind.

* Send Tracy from Fly on Over the horses info so she can build my binders! This is a must do now that I need to be in charge of when Wilbur gets shoes and wormed. Right now I have the info she needs scattered between work and the barn. Organize all the horse things!
Due Date: Review what Tracy needs from me on Thursday morning, bring current binder of vet notes to the barn and write down feed instructions. Send info to Tracy on Friday while flying.

* Write down friend's addresses and birthdays in new 2015 diary. Clearly phones cannot be trusted and I cannot be left to my own devices.
Due Date: Flying on Friday

* Set up monthly training for Wilbur with Amanda. This should be pretty easy- I've already met her, just need to shoot and email and drop off a check. Perhaps I should be there for his first session.
Due Date: Realistically? End of January

* Create Pinterest Boards of the furniture I want to buy for the living room.
Due Date: I promised to have to Paul by next Wednesday so this will be flying home Tuesday project

So. I guess written down this list isn't too bad and it looks like if I follow my deadlines I will have most of it completed by next week. Of course I've managed to cram it into 10 hours of flight time to and from....Hawaii!

But for the rest of tonight, until the furnace is fixed, I'll huddle with the kitties by the heater in the bedroom!

Lookin' Fresh

She was in fact not. Fresh. At all. Back to basics in our Saturday lesson.....walk to trot transitions. Emma is mostly a genius and sometimes I wonder if I have any thought in my brain at all.

The few times I managed to get out and ride Ellie in the evening has been, frankly, a dismal failure. She flings her head about (what you saw in the beginning of the video? It's not just reserved for play time) and I worry that she's uncomfortable, that she's going to buck me off, or a combination of the two.

Not so friends. She is just trying to get out of work as illustrated when we did 15 walk steps, 15 trot steps, and continued to pare that down to 5 and 5. At the start of the sequence she would fling and we would ignore while giving her a boot with the spur and carrying onward. By the end she would merrily bounce into her trot without batting an eye.

When we repeated this exercise on Sunday morning she spent less time flipping me the bird and more time trotting forward, albeit sort of grudgingly. I'll take it.

Livin' the Pasture Life

What a wonderful sight!
New green grass! Dry Pasture! I think Wilbur might be ready to go back to work- he followed me all the way back to the gate....and it wasn't just because of my cookies!

Love this!

Wilbur and a New Friend

"Let's go Mum!"

Some Rules are Made to be Broken

A play day to celebrate the New Year! Some might call this turnout in the indoor ring.....
I call it free-longing.