The Swing of Things

Weeell, sorry for not be a good blogger lately. As always, I've been extremely busy, but this broken hand is really slowing me down. EVERYthing takes longer. It's amazing how people adapt to different ways of life though. Here I am typing, using only one finger on my right hand, and I'm actually typing relatively fast. My grandpa was watching me type the other day and asked how I can type so fast. I just laughed, I mean, I was only using one finger on my right hand!!

Apparently I have won a CSDEA (Region 4's GMO) year end award... I don't know what it is yet, but quite a few people from Pferde Farm have been notified of their impending awards, so we're all going to go to the year end banquet together. That means I get my picture in the CSDEA's magazine!

Anyways, I have a few pictures for you guys... One is from my C1 rating with Sackett and the other is from the Otter Creek Fall dressage show with Grady. I look like a retard in the jumping picture, so just try and appreciate our good form and ignore my facial expression. The wall was 2'9". I will be getting a disc of pictures from my rating soon, so I'll put up lots more pictures when I get it.

In other news, Isis is at Birchbury right now for the duration of the deer hunting gun season. My dad doesn't let me ride during hunting - I always say it's not because he cares if I get shot, but because I'll scare the deer away. I always board Isis during deer hunting. To say the least, Rocky LOVES Isis. Actually alot of people do. The other day Rocky told me that I should sell Grady and just keep Isis. THAT won't happen, but she has definitely wiggled her way into a few more people's hearts. I'd been having problems with Isis fighting the bit, so when the dentists were out on Monday I asked them to check her and they filed on Isis's teeth for a good 45 minutes. It was interesting, the dentist looked and said "She has these problems, which can cause these problems when riding." I was like, "YEAH, that's EXACTLY what's happening!!" She's much improved. I can tell that she still has some throw back resistence, but it's becoming less and less.

I took a jumping lesson on Isis yesterday (she really hasn't ever jumped) and she tooled through the grid as if it was old hat. She did a 2' three bounce/one stride combo and just kind of trooped her way through, no problems, no mistakes... Then she looked as if she was board and wondering when she'd get to eat. Rocky was impressed with her amiable attitude and thinks she's a pretty stylish jumper to boot. I'd like to event Isis; I think she'd be a good event horse. Grady likes to jump and he'll be jumping for the rest of his life, but he'll never have that "can-do" attitude that makes life easy. Jumping Grady has been the best thing for my jumping ability, but I think it will be a long time coming before I'd be able to take him out and do a XC course cold. I think my new goal is to make Isis my event horse. Grady can be my dressage horse that jumps.

Speaking of Grady, he has been doing SO well lately. His attitude is getting better and better all the time. The other day I took him out and breezed him around the galloping track (Is Birchbury an equine resort or what??!!) and he went no problem, no questions asked, no spooks, no resistence. It was SO much fun.

My rides on Sackett and Julia have also been excellent. The other day I did an exercise on Sackett where I had to do a serpentine with jumps in the middle with each direction change (hard) BUT there were also skinny jumps set up along each curved part of the serpentine (crazy insane hard!). Rocky couldn't believe I actually did it. Riding Julia is so much fun. It's been so nice to ride such a well trained, sensitive upper level horse. I think Lindsay is impressed with how well we get along.

I know this is going to sound completely juvenile but... I LOVE YOU LINDSAY AND ROCKY!!!