Epic three-day weekend

Side note: I got to see this at a Drive-In theater Thursday evening. BEST.

Riley is back in full work and I couldn't be happier. Our ring is finished! Woo hoo!!

He got a training ride Tuesday and was a superstar. Emily wrote about him on her blog, you can read it here. I'm actually quite surprised as to how straight and forward he feels in the new ring. One of the best things about it is that the owner choose to put the perimeter fence about 10 feet away from the edge which actually forces the horses to go straight and carry themselves, or at least you will know just how crooked they are as they cannot "lean" on the rail. His right lead canter is coming along wonderfully. Emily really worked on that Tuesday and when I rode him Friday he picked it up rather easily. He's still quite counter bent in that direction, but he's learning to move off the side leg and right now I am more concerned with the transition, getting the right lead and maintaining impulsion rather than forcing him to bend. With time and strength that will come too. We are working on some baby lateral work at the walk and he's starting to get it.



Saturday Emily gave me a jumping lesson in prep for XC schooling on Sunday and Riley was super game! I haven't jumped in quite a bit so I wanted to get a good ride in before exploring Fair Hill's xc course. I really need to invest in more lessons because there were lots of little things I needed to work on that I completely ignore when I am riding by myself. Namely, BENDING MY ELBOWS. Jeepers. Once I overcompensated for this and stopped riding with puppy dog hands, I actually looked like a rider. Riley was forward, willing and incredibly soft and not stiff to the right! Usually until he warms up he tried to break into the canter tracking right during trot work. But none of that on Saturday. I also need to shorten my reins about 12 inches... poor Riley, he's riding around lovely on the bit and I seem to refuse to give him solid contact. I've always been really light with my hands and I think I've actually gotten too light. Now that he knows how to carry himself I need to meet him halfway and keep the contact steady.

Warming up. Not sure what I am doing here.

Bent elbows and thumbs up! He was swinging beautifully through his back.

Swoon. The boy can move.

Sometimes, when I'm on the ground with Riley, he looks sort of plain. There are a lot of fancy horses in the barn and he's not necessarily a stand out. But any time I see him under saddle (with me or otherwise), I'm stunned at how lovely he looks. He's definitely not a type-y thoroughbred, but he's paints a really lovely picture conformation-wise. And well, the bling helps. His muscle tone has developed really nicely and the winter of being out on hills kept him pretty darn fit. I have a feeling as we move up in our training and he gets fitter that he's going to be quite the handful.

Right lead canter on the second try! Then we did several Canter-Trot-Canter transitions and he picked it up every time!

Looking super fancy and I'm apparently getting ripped arms!

A little canter video to show you how nice it's getting!

Then we jumped. Riley is actually REALLY jumping now and I got a little loose in the tack a few times. Emily set up a little exercise where we trot in over a placing pole and crossrail and cantered 5 strides to another jump. The second jump started as an X and eventually wound up as a small oxer with the back rail being about 2'6". It was a really fun exercise because it helped me work on either compressing or extending him through the line, sometimes getting 4 or 6 strides depending on how he jumped in.

I need to get better with my release and also, looks like I'm in the market for a saddle with a more forward flap.

As you can see in the video, I'm not as shaky as I might seem.

But in the manner of full disclosure, here are some hilarious outtakes.

Seriously Niamh? Way to get left behind. This was his first time over the oxer and he jumped into it and was like, "oh shit, where did that back rail come from"?

Second time? Maybe I'll try climbing up his neck and perching like a monkey?

That's more like it. Good boy Riley.

But, for as poorly as I rode a few times through he was honest and never touched a thing. He was exuberant, but never got naughty. I know I would have bucked me off after that shitty ride above, but he let me slam back into the tack (amazingly I never lost my stirrups) and canter away like nothing happened. Of course, he got all the praise in the world for tolerating his rider.

Cutie pie.

Sunday we loaded up the boys and headed down to Fair Hill to xc school. We were hoping it wouldn't be TOO packed because of the holiday weekend, but we tried to get there as close the starting time as possible. We arrived and there were a fair amount of trailers, but Emily said it's usually wayyy worse. We are extremely lucky to have such great places to school nearby and when you volunteer at events you either get a discounted rate on a starter trial, or a free xc schooling. Sadly, there are no photos of me actually jumping anything! Booo. Emily brought her Two Punch baby, Brody. He's never been off the farm and is currently for sale, so she wanted him to have a good outing. He was such a good boy. Riley did feed off Brody's nervous energy at first, but settled into a rhythm pretty quickly.

Being the cutest waiting to go ride.

The thing about Fair Hill is that it has a lot of atmosphere, even when there isn't an event going on. XC is on a huge expanse of land that is undulating and so all the horses can see are others galloping around, jumping strange things, going in and out of site. We hacked around for a bit and tarted with a very small, seemingly innocuous plain flower box that was maybe 12" off the ground. Riley slammed on the brakes about 10 feet away and slid up to it. I refocused him, never let him turn away and made him walk over. Well, I wouldn't be giving him the benefit of the doubt next time. We kept coming around until he jumped it forwardly and cantered away. Next we went to to a wagon jump that has red wagon wheels on both side and straw around the base. He jumped it without question! As we made our way around I just started picking off fences individually (it was too busy to actually put a course together). We jumped the scary red house (I mean, it is BRIGHT red), the ramped chevron, the ditch (without a single hesitation), a very scary roll top that was sandwiched in between a train jump and something that had huge fish carved out of wood... hm, a bunch of other little things, coops etc. We played around in the water trotting and cantering in and out which he was awesome for. Then Emily decided we should try the intro ramp that's about 3 strides out of the water. The first time Riley ran out because I gave him and shitty ride (at least he didn't bolt and spin). Second time around I rode him much more aggressively and he LEAPT over it. Holy crap, I managed to stay with him, but I'm sure it looked hysterical. I rode it again and jumped willingly, landed and kind of scooted away with me and when I half-halted he nearly fell flat on his face. To be fair the grass was pretty slick and his feet are getting done this week, but I scared myself a little! All told, we were out for 1.5 and that was plenty for both of them. It was getting really crowded when we were leaving so i think we made the best use of our time.

Heading out to school. So gorgeous.

So happy.

Riley got lots of praise and pats for a job well done, and Brody was just about as brave as you could expect for a horse in a brand new environment for the first time. I was beaming ear to ear and so please with how well Riley toted me around. We're going to continue training rides with Emily once a week for now and we're starting to look at the schedule for an event to send the two of them two. Meanwhile we've got our eye on the end of August for our next event together. I'll continue to work on stabilizing my jumping and getting Riley really confident over fences and hopefully our flat work will continue to improve also. Now that we have the ring in, I'm going to spend at least 10 minutes a ride without stirrups to help with my seat and lengthen my leg. Thankfully Riley has the smoothest trot of all time! And, while I don't really want to have to think about getting a new saddle, I know I'd feel much more secure (now that jumps are getting higher) in something with a slightly more forward flap (so I could jack my stirrups up some more) and small thigh blocks. So, keep your eyes peeled for me! I'm looking for a 17" MW Berney Bros most likely.