SO BUSY!

Well, prep week is in full swing as I figure out how to get ready for our little event on Friday evening. I had a busy weekend dog-sitting, cleaning up the house, doing ALL THE LAUNDRY, and finding time to ride! Saturday I worked both shifts at the farm and took Lucy and my trainer's dog Bandit out with me for the day. Little did I know my boxer Hugo was completely pissed off and managed to not only escape his crate but create mayhem in the basement while we were gone. Ah well, his nickname isn't Houdini for nothing!

Look at my fancy show horse:/

Riley was not too thrilled to be yanked from his stall in the middle of second breakfast and his mid-morning snooze. I took a little trip to Bartville after I fed and turned everyone out where I picked up this blue halter for him. He gets rubs from his leather turnout one so he gets to look snazzy in this instead (and yes, it has a leather crown piece). I wanted to take him out into one of the big fields and do some trot sets and a few gallops in the Berny Bros. to see if I was in love and it was fantastic! I felt incredibly secure up and out of the saddle and Riley was well-behaved coming back to me every time. He definitely was huffing and puffing a little during the trot sets (which he thought were really stupid), but we powered through and his fitness (and mine) and my legs will thank me later. We kept it fairly simple 2 mins. trotting, 2 mins. walk. 2 mins trotting. Rinse repeat. The terrain is slightly hilly which is even better. Our canter sets were more like 1 minute canter, 2 minute walk, repeat. Then we walked to the very hilly part of the field and walked down the hills and cantered back up about a half a dozen times. He's feeling much stronger behind and I am so thankful to have hills to turn him out on and work him on! I made an offer on the saddle and I'm still waiting to hear back! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but it matches all my tack including my leather perfectly! My bridle is still a little lighter than I'd like but I picked up some neatsfoot oil so I can darken it when I clean all my tack this week.

Horse heaven.

Giving me some serious side-eye during our intervals.

He got a well deserved bath in our new wash stall! Yay! He's all beat up from his herd mates and he had a big swollen spot on his shoulder that was a bit worrisome, but he's also really sensitive so I know a few days away from the bachelor party will help his skin recover quickly. I would feel terrible brings my horse to a show with cuts and scrapes everywhere! I used some of the Absorbine massage foam that they sent me and I loved it. I think I had as much fun massaging it into Riley's muscles as he did. I scrubbed his sock in hopes that I could remove some of the dirt, manure and whatever else was on there so it wouldn't be so challenging to clean this week. To be fair, he's hardly had more than a hose down post-ride these days, so he got a thorough bathing Saturday! I still need to pull his mane and comb through his tail (and bang it again), but he should be looking very cute this week. I very, very tempted to braid him for the show even though it's just a little schooling show because it happens to be in the evening and I'll be at the farm all day. Plus I could really use the practice. I'm not gonna go crazy if I do though and I'll stick to rubber bands for now! I think turnout is really important and I'd love to see how he looks braided... not to mention his mane is wild no matter what the length!

Next up, I had the honor of riding one of Emily's horses! I had my choice between her super fancy mare Prima, or her gorgeous Two Punch baby Brody. I was a little short on time, so I opted for Prima. I haven't ridden her since maybe November but I've watched her blossom under Emily's training and boy is she fun to ride.

Equally enthusiastic.

My new saddle fits her pretty well so it was pretty great to try it on another horse to see how the balance felt. Prima's gaits have much more suspension than Riley's and I realized that it's been wayyyyy too long since I rode another horse than my own. *Note:I need to do this more often, preferably once a week or more. She's such a dream to ride and is has so much to teach me about sitting up and riding like an athlete instead of a passenger. We did lots and lots of serpentines at the trot and one of my favorite exercises which is making 10 meter circles in each corner of the arena, she moves so beautifully off the leg and it was so nice to ride a horse that reacts to that and lets me truly ride her from inside leg to outside hand (Riley is just starting to gather this concept). We cantered each way a couple of times and my God her canter is to die for. it's so uphill and fancy, she feels like a little sports car underneath of you. I got up out of the saddle in a light seat for one lap and then sat deeply and rode some really nice circles with her. She's all to eager to show off her changes and when you cross the middle of the ring you can already feel her setting herself up for them! Emily has been getting some tempis across the diagonal (3-4 changes every 2 strides), so the mare could certainly excell at pure dressage. I wish someone else had been at the farm because I would have LOVED to jump her, but I didn't want to take the risk. Plus, Lucy got loose in the middle of my ride and all of a suddenly I had her chasing me around the ring, I honestly wasn't sure what she'd do if she saw me riding a horse so I was ready to pull up and hop off if needed. Prima spooked once, but Lucy has a healthy respect for horses and just kind of hung out while we finished our ride. What a good pup!

Barn dog behaving herself in the ring.

This post took me a few days to write due to some unexpected changes in my schedule, so I didn't get to ride Monday or Tuesday! Whoops. Tonight, I'll have a jumping lesson with Emily and tomorrow I'll flat him in prep for Friday. I still don't have my ride times but I know it's between 3:30 and 6:30pm so I can always ride him a little in the morning if I feel like it. I still need to pull his mane and clean his tack but I can always bring his tack home with me Thursday evening:)

Here's a few cute photos from dog sitting over the weekend. Ruff life indeed for these three:

Bandit is a hound and tends to chase things so I thought Lucy could teach him the ropes of running loose at the barn. This worked remarkably well!

While I generally don't let the dogs on the couch it was a little hard to resist late Saturday night and then this happened. Cute overload!

I got a new laptop so hopefully my posts will be more timely!