Summer time

Whoever came up with the saying "lazy summer" was wrong. I don't know how, but I've managed to feel busier now that the summer is here and I'm not in classes anymore.

Regardless, I have been riding, although not with the frequency that I like (aka every day) so the beginning of this week was a little interesting. Bijou got put in a new pasture with grass up to my hip and I think that helped with her crazies. I thought I could take her out and just hop on, since she's been so good/lazy lately... boy was I wrong! She was a total nutcase, darting into trot and canter transitions without any influence from me, shaking her head wildly for no good reason, etc.

So I lunged, and then rode again which was much nicer and allowed us to get some work done. Somehow in the process of her head flinging and stuff she must have chewed a hole through her rubber bit, because now it's barely hanging on! Good thing I bought that fat D-ring snaffle a little ways back because I'll have to switch to that until I can get a new one.

The rest of the week we did pretty good work, I've been getting both canter leads pretty consistently and there's been a remarkable lack of bucking! We're still working on getting rid of the giraffe impression at the canter, but I'll take it over bucking any day.

We even ended the week on a nice long ride where we did our first crossrail in ages. She definitely looked at it, but I've learned that she does need a little support from my leg going up to things, and now that we've balanced her hesitation with my push we get over things just fine!

I'm really hoping to show in early July if this EHV thing doesn't stop us, there's a schooling show coming up on the 10th that I might be able to make it to. We would do walk/trot and just have fun, but that means I have to break in my new boots... yikes!!

well that was interesting

We got an "unseasonable amount of rain" this past weekend, and thusly I have not gotten anything done with the mighty mare, except to blanket her for the unseasonable-ness.

Prior to the rain I had made a decision. I have decided that after the mud dries up I think I am going to put shoes on her for the summer, as it seems that all other soundness issues (I'm saying this at a whisper) are gone! And she's just a tad footsore on the gravely patches of the arena. So here's to hoping we can have a successful summer season, which I'm going to define as lots of riding.

I've also been seriously thinking (aka budget crunching) about doing some lessons this summer. I feel like my form is way out of it, and like Bijou and I could use the push of having someone who's going to critique as motivation through the week. So I'm going to go trainer hunting, which is going to be difficult because I feel like most of the trainers around here aren't respectable enough to earn my respect, which would not lead to a very good trainer/trainee relationship me-thinks.

Oh yes, I tried a figure eight with a metal (regular snaffle d-ring) bit. It was horrible. lots of head tossing and evading the bit and general unpleasantries ensued. I had a couple of hits when I put up an ad looking to try someone's bitless bridle or any other interesting bits they had but no one's gotten back to me after their initial responses.