March 2010

Well it has been a busy time for us. I got my friends horse on trial and he was right, she is just what I'm after. Show off. He's already lining up Shannon's next horse. Anyway, Lace is 16.1-162hh even though farrier is adament she's 17hh - he does like to joke! Not having had a mare myself to ride before, I was a bit hesitant, but she's not really any different from the boys. I have managed 3 road rides with Lace, 1 with Alise and Shannon and 1 with just Shannon and myself. I then made the huge trip to Tai Tapu and went for a ride with Julie, it was a 2 hour ride and my butt was soooo sore, thank god I was riding in the Barnsby and not the Stubben but she's a dream on the road and I'm getting my confidence back - who knew. We went out with my sister and her friends to Belfast and did some jumping, had a few stops but that was me learning to ride her properly, but after that we were away and laughing, nice thing is no buck no bolt. I've organised to get a jumping saddle for her, so I can do more than the one day I did, so Shannon has now got the Stubben which fits Jim a treat. Poor old Jim has been out of action for over a week, last ride he tripped and went down on his knees, the ground is so hard we immediately hosed his legs and smeared Aloe all over. He was definately sore the next day. Shannon then got sick so they've both had a well deserved rest period. Rat is ready for action again now, leg is fine after the altercation with the fence, and had his shoes reapplied. So as of this weekend he's back in work (weather permitting). However now Cheeky is out of action, just as Shannon was starting to jump her, she had an altercation with the fence and managed to take all the skin off her back leg. Swellings down but due to the amount of skin taken off probably out of work for a month or two.

I have a show this weekend, the CRC Show, so looking forward to that. Entered Lace and myself in the Hack ring, so hope all goes well and we have fun. We've just been working on our trot to canter transitions and canter to trot transitions as they're not flash but yet again thats me not her. So my main goal is to sit up, not drop my hands and no hunching! Easier said than done.