The WIND!

Holy moly cow! It sure does get windy here sometimes. It will come and go so quickly that you don't have time to change your plans. On Saturday morning, the wind whipped up early, but then died down by the time I wanted to ride. Then whipped up again! I rode Mac and he was very good. First time I've trotted him since having the winter off and despite flipping over a fence about a month ago (had a vet/chiro visit since), he felt very good and swingy through his back. Something may be a little tweaked behind, though, so we won't do much until the next vet/chiro visit.

Anyway, this blog is about Pony in all her Princess Fancy Pants-itude.

So after I rode Mac, I rode Pony. On one hand I didn't want to because it was chilly and windy and, well, who wants to ride in the wind? On the other hand, it is a training opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of. If we're going to live here and show here, chances are that it will be windy any time we are showing, so best to suck it up.

Pony was a little spooky - but for her that means giving something the hairy eyeball and maybe taking a side-step or two. She was SO GOOD! Really, better than one should be able to hope for or expect in a 4-year-old riding outside in the arena that has no fence or walls.

Surprisingly, my hip wasn't hugely in pain afterward. Not that it was completely pain-free, but it wasn't the depth of pain that I would have expected. I have/had decided that for now my jump saddle is the only saddle I can comfortably ride in, so I rode both Mac and Pony in it and it was the right decision.

Sunday I rode again but this time I did just the trail track out back. I did, however, set up a jump! First I set it up as four trot poles, which she went through beautifully in each direction. Then I set up a cross rail with a trot pole going into it and then maybe seven or so strides after that was just a ground pole.

First time I totally jumped ahead. Second time we were crooked. Third time was better. Fourth time was great on both our parts, so I called it a day after that.

We've got our first jumping lesson of the season coming up in a couple weeks, so I wanted to get some jumps out of the way so we'd feel confident going into the lesson. Pony was a rock star champion, though, and I'm feeling good about our upcoming lessons - AND plans for shows this year!