Rebecca and her little fellow Tucker. They did a great job in the lesson with Charmer and I. Made lots of progress to becoming a dressage pony.

Carole and Seminole Joe, a good pair. Slightly off kilter sometimes but loveable.
Teresa and Nick, looking good together. Nick is a Hanoverian from Germany, and special. He likes to stick his tongue out for you to play with, but only if he loves you. He slobbers all over me so he must love me bunches.

Charmer and I, looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I really like this photo with the tree behind us.

My pal, Alex, and his keeper, Patty. We were down by the creek looking for dino bones and such, then we found some huge pinecones to throw into the creek. A good time was had by all except Patty. She went home and crashed on the front porch, a very tired pooch.

The view from the feedroom door, not to worry this was a staged photo. I shooed him out right after I took the photo.

Buggs and Amanda had a rat encounter one day last week. Seems they were both headed for the trash can just to the right of the edge of the photo, a HUGE rat comes scrambling out and scares both of them. Amanda said it was every man or horse for themselves. They were trying to get out of the door at the same time, just a cussing both of them. Buggs went running out of the barn with Amanda right behind him. She was praying the whole time that he wouldn't keel over from a heart attack.

My crows, the twins Grace and Claire and their friend, sitting on the fence laughing and carrying on.

Bella Grace on Sawyer, cute doesn't really begin to describe her on the pony.

Maddie and Sawyer, having a bit of a trot, or a jog I suppose since she rides western. I am going to have to work to convert Maddie to the english side.

Tabitha and Apache, doing great for her 3rd lesson. Picked up the posting rhythm really quickly, now I just need to get her to not come quite so high out of the saddle. Don't want to lose her overboard, she is so tiny.

Charmer, looking as handsome as ever.

09 May 2010

Happy Mothers Day to all, hope that you have a great day.

This is my first attempt at blogging, should be interesting but fun.

Poplar Place Farm was not the place to be yesterday for Teresa, Amanda and I. Started out quietly, everyone loaded onto the trailer well. Got moving down the road, made it to the show grounds without a hitch. I went in to check us all in and that is when the problems started. The entries had not been recieved. WHAT?!?!?! They had been mailed a week ago. AGHHHH!!!! I called Teresa, told her what was going on. They came over to the show office, got signature pages signed, copies of the coggins made but I forgot my coggins. Had to call the barn to get Teresa's husband to fax a copy over. Took two tries, finally got it. Then Teresa had to write a check for the entries, Amanda and I hadn't brought our check books with us. The show secreatary said that the entries would most likely be in this afternoon. Well that doesn't help us much now does it? I had a coupon too, with an experation date of the 15th of May. Everything is settled at the show office, back to the trailer we go.

Meanwhile, while I am at the office, they unloaded the horses. Amanda's horse, KC, tried to come off before he was untied. Darn near pulled his head off. The other two came off nicely. Thank goodness Charmer comes off the trailer like a gentleman. I don't think that I could handle a mouse like him jumping the gun about coming off the trailer.

I stay at the trailer because Teresa's mare, Pepper, likes to pull back and flip out. Usually over nothing, but someone had to stay and keep an eye on her. KC had already pulled back, flipped Amanda's saddle and show pad into the dirt. So Teresa and Amanda head off to warm up KC for dressage. Seems quiet until Amanda sees something on KC's leg, reaches out and touches it. This causes KC to levitate straight up and over onto Teresa's right knee. His front foot grazes the knee but hard enough to leave bruises and swelling.

Dressage goes fairly well, no free walk but they are both so tense it is a wonder they could even walk any way. Get back to the trailer, rest a bit then get KC ready for stadium. Teresa and Amanda go to walk the stadium course. I get a call, please takc KC up, staudium is running a little ahead, trying to walk the course now. I tack crazy red horse up, he heads off with Brittany (one of the fantastic grooms for the day) to stadium. Warm up goes well, but he spooks at the tent and off Amanda comes. She gets back on and they try it again. Mid way through the course KC starts bucking and rearing. Amanda is determined to get him through the course. She was eliminated for the fall but the show organizer allowed her to run cross country.

I meanwhile, still at the trailer with my lazy beastie and the other crazy horse, don't know about any of this. Until they come back, Amanda with a huge dirt print on her right side and desire to take KC behind the barn and beat the snot out of him. I have Charmer tacked up and am ready to head off to dressage warm up. We are going great, although my horse has now been standing tied to the trailer for 3 hours. He doesn't seem to be any worse for wear though.

I see Teresa and Amanda coming down the hill, no one is tacked up. Teresa should be riding said crazy mare. Crazy would be the right adjective for Pepper, when Teresa sat down in the saddle the mare went to rearing, spinning and sitting down. Needless to say she got off, checked tack and then tried it again. Same response, gets off and stays off this time.

Charmer and I are just doing out thing, warm up is going well. He is very looky but seems to be his typical self. THANK GOODNESS. The arena is running a little behind, we are left to just wander around the warm up area. We are up against a cute black pony and little girl combo, a cute but scruffy chestnut pony/girl combo and a gorgeous slender young woman on an ok chesnut mare. I continue warm up, waiting for the others to take their turn.

At the last minute, I completely blank on my test. How stupid is that, I can't remember a walk/trot test. Ugghhh, I can't get Amanda or Teresa's attention to refresh my memory. I think to myself, it is ok, just go in there and ride, you know this test, don't stress about it, the body will remember where to go.

Nope, no remember, I go off course. 2 penalty points, was going fairly well up to that point. Went fairly well afterwards too. The test wasn't one of our better tests, he wasn't quite warmed up enough. We had a long enough warm up but I didn't push for more, I didn't work him hard enough. This was the lowest score that we have recieved in over a year, 58.5%. Still not a bad score but the pretty girl on the mare got a 65%. Oh well, there is always the next show.

The ride home is uneventful and quiet, stop for dinner and off we go again. It was just one of those days, the days that make you really appreciate the good days that you have and the reason that you do this sport in the first place. Even though it was not the best of score or the best showing that Red Horse has had, we had a good time. Or at least I did, hope the others did too.