RAIDER NATION

Holy hot mess express.

Between the Oakland Raiders game the afternoon and the Debate the evening I am totally spent. I haven't been to an NFL game in about a decade and honestly, I was not super pumped about going to see the Raiders- they're a bunch of hooligans after all. I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd- lots of cheering & camaraderie....of course it helped that they won!

Whoa- we are so scary!

Ears Forward Ellie

Ears forward Ellie. To me that means that she is looking at something she shouldn't be or about to do something terrible. But in my 8am lesson on Tuesday and my 5:30pm lesson on Wednesday, it actually meant that she's engaged. In fact, while we were warming up on Wednesday Ali noted that she hasn't seen Ell with her ears so perked while just doing flatwork. Winning!

So as I rode around clutching my reins I asked Ali to please understand that I need a moment to get used to ears forward. Ellie actually is not going for attempted murder but maybe, just maybe is enjoying her job.

We've started riding in the Jumper ring versus our big oval ring. It has a bank, a little down hill/ uphill thing (I don't know the technical term), and a tree growing right in the middle of it! Maybe a little change of scenery? More things to keep her busy? Riding at some different times of the day in the cool, Fall weather? Whatever magic is in the air, I'll take it.

Or maybe it's the overnight turnouts. Yes. I said it. On Wednesday Ellie had her dinner in turnout and got to stay out until the next morning. Tell me where else in Cali there is "pasture" board? It makes me so happy.

Coffee Break

This is what an 8am Tuesday lesson looks like.....

1 Gray Mare, 1 Bay Gelding, 1 Trainer, 3 Coffees

Strides & Tides: Pro Day

For Ellie's last two shows I had been able to see her go on both Pro days- Wed & Thurs. For Sonoma Strides & Tides I was only able to make it out for day 2. I had heard that Ellie had been a good girl but the competition was stiff. For some reason Sonoma wasn't running the Baby Green Division but instead had a 2'6" Open- which meant she had some former Derby horses, some current Derby horses, and just generally nice finished horses in her division. Naturally I was totally miffed about until she got 5th out of 19th in one of her classes.  

OMG- yes- I am very aware that I am the overzealous Mom standing on the sidelines shouting asking why there are Varsity players in the JV league. 

I think she's just about ready for Pre Greens! 

Landmark Equestrian

So much has happened this past month and I am getting sidetracked by technology while trying to knock the blog rust off (e.g. just spent the past hour trying to renew a domain name, fix my google analytics, and organize photos in Elements 10.....did not succeed in any of the above). 

In the past 30 days:

- Westhaven team gave notice at our current boarding facility to move to a new spot a few streets down

- Horse Show @ Sonoma Strides and Tides

- Ellie and I made the difficult decision to stay behind at Fairmont under the banner, Landmark Equestrian, Ali's new business venture

I love our facility, the small but mighty group of clients, and that Ellie's training program isn't disrupted. There will be some changes to the schedule that will hopefully help to accommodate my weekday rides a little more. So overall, very few changes for us- just opportunity to continue to move up and grow!