Update - Abby and Shows

no good pictures of her first show but here are a few from the one a few weekends ago:

First Show!

So we took Abby to her first show and she was fantastic! Friday afternoon schooling was a little rough since she went over all of 2 jumps. She got her head together Saturday morning and after a quick warm-up she jumped around nicely with only one refusal.

After a short wait and a ton of lesson kid chaos, Abby was in the ring and ready to go. Our first course began on the left lead, which is our sticky one, so I was a little worried but we got it nicely on the second try. Then came the jumps... and Abby was great! She took all of them in stride and for the most part maintained rhythm, pace, balance and composure though it was not at the traditional hunter pace. And she took the 2' jumps with scary flowers like they were 4' oxers. Buttt we got over them all!! The second course was even better. We nailed all the leads, changes and cleared every jump.

We were in a class of 20 or so with many horses who had no business being in a baby green schooling class and while we did not get a ribbon I was very happy with Abby. She definitely showed her class by staying together mentally as well as she did and by still performing her best. She was awesomeeeee.

Love my baby girl. Pictures will be up soon!

Craziness!

Hey!

So I know I haven't posted in forever buttt I've been super busy with the horses. I brought in a horse to work with (yeahh already have Abby and Jazz butttt did it anyway) so Ive been riding 2-3 horses every afternoon. Plus school. Plus teaching. Plus life. Funfun.

So the new horse is a 7 year old Hano/TB mare who is absolutely GORGEOUS! She's 15.2hh with good conformation and THE sweetest personality ever. I could go on and on about how nice this horse is. She was doing 1st level dressage last spring, schooling 3'9" and packing at 3'3"/3'6". She's got a nice little jump and amazing smooth trot. When I got her 3 weeks ago she hadn't been ridden in 4 months but we got up to jumping 2' and schooling basic dressage work. She is a little mentally green due to a sheltered upbringing but a very nice horse.

Long story short, we're not going to be able to keep her since I don't have the time/energy to keep up with riding 3 horses every afternoon. She is going back to her old owners on Wednesday and Im going to miss the silly mare like crazy. She was so sweet!

If anyone ones interested in this mare let me know as she is a VERY reasonable price ($2,000) for the training she has (over $5,000 invested by her last owner, a jumper trainer) then shoot me a message!

Anyway, Abby is doing fantastic and we went to a clinic on Saturday. She was SO well behaved. She got off the trailer to be greeted by a big dressage horse who was rearing and striking at his owner and didn't bat an eye. She nailed both leads and was giving me a nice, true walk/trot frame about 25% of the time which is a big improvement. She's such a nice horse!

This weekend, she is going to a schooling show to strut her stuff in the babybaby over fences class. Hoping it is a great experience for her.

And Jazz is doing awesome as well. I'll give a bigger update later in the week!

Abby - Week 1

Hey!

So Abby's been here for a week and four days. Its been so much fun having her around the barn. Jazz kind of hates her but then again, he doesn't like many horses so and she's fast enough on her feet to stay out of his way. He's a great horse to compete on because he's outgoing and bold but it gets the better of him at the barn where is a holy terror to the other horses. He's definitely the alpha horse around the barn but Abby plays number two quite well.


So she's settled in quite nicely and every day she does a little better. When she came she was very nervous about everything. She still gets worried when people she does not know are around but she has become more and more laid back around me. We think on top of being neglected she was abused so there is a lot of work to do with her mental as well as with her weight and training.


As of today, I've ridden her 6(ish) times. Mostly conditioning but we have done one day of dressage and today we jumped a bit! She wasn't terribly happy with the cross rail so I lowered it and after being led over it a few times (she took a flying leap over it) I got back on and we went over it a few more times. She's soooo much fun to ride!





Love her!

Abby Here and Doing Well!

Hey!

Well Abby arrived very early on Sunday morning safe and sound! She came off the trailer a little unsteady which is to be expected since she'd been in there almost all night. It was freezing cold when I arrived before 6 to wait for her. The grass was covered in frost and the water trough was covered in ice. I half slept, half waited very anxiously for her to arrive. Abby stepped off the trailer a little before 8. I slipped off the halter she arrived in and put on the black one I had for her. It was a special moment to realize she was actually my horse.



She was a little pushy on the ground at first as she first looked around. We walked for awhile to let her stretch her legs then put her in one of our stalls to settle in. With some hay, water and pony (who was totally in love) she settled in nicely and seemed to be happy that she could walk around in the stall (its big 14x14 with really tall ceilings. We went home and waited for it to warm up some then came back later in the afternoon. After grooming and blanketing we turned her loose with our two calm geldings then let Jazz out. No one seemed to mind the new addition. She trotted around the pasture some and she has THE most gorgeous trot I've seen. She's everything I hoped for and more.



Today was her second day at the barn. I groomed everyone then tacked Jazz up. We had a FANTASTIC dressage ride. We've added counter flexion, lots of spirals and TONS of transitions to our schooling. Plus I make up at least one different exercise in each ride so he always has a new challenge but we always in on the same thing: trot figure-8s. They were the first things he learned and is fairly good at them so I like to end on them. After I tacked Abby up to longe her. She stood perfectly in the cross ties as long as a stayed within sight of her which is big since when I bought her (sight unseen!) the owner said that was her only vice. She seemed to know what a longe line/longing were but as it got darker her thoroughbred ADD got the better of her so we quit with some parallel longing at the walk. Then groomed Jazz and Abby, fed and put blankets back on for the night. Overall a very good day!


And I think I'm going to get on and ride her some tomorrow!!

Katie <3