The Whole Week

Monday I went up to the barn around 7:30... everyone was wrapping their stuff up and I had the place to myself. The weather was awesome and it was beautiful!

It was the first time in a long time that I didn't have to hurry up and get home... I mean hubby wanted me to come home but it wasn't like something was pending my arrival. 

I hacked Henry around, working through our W/T/C and then also on our counter bend in circles... one day this horse will not be so stinken heavy on the left... one day!

Tuesdays lesson was postponed to Wednesday because Trainers niece was riding in the Pan Am games so she wanted to watch... come to find out none of us got to watch b/c they didn't show any of it on tv BLAH!

Anywho we ended up going to dinner and the party store to prep for the big first birthday party Sunday... so my riding time was eaten up but we went out and groomed and lunged Henry :)

He wasn't sure about the vacuum hose but didn't really care about the actual vacuuming.

Wednesday I took a lesson with miss Erica and we had a blast! The wind was our of control so we did a circle around trainer so we could hear her.

Flatting went well, we did some more counter bend at the w/t/c ... Henry loves it hahahaha!!

They have a rope blocking the other half of the arena so that is what the black line is

This was a new course of jumps so it's good practice for shows. Yes he has jumped all of these things before but not set up like this so it's all "new",

He was great, a little sticky the fist time through at a few things but nothing big- I rode well and that helps us a lot lol!

We warmed up over the purple.

Started pink vertical left hand turn to the red 3 stride line (had to really stay left and hug the standard of the green oxer), left to the blue wall/vertical, right to the gray 4 stride line.

Then we worked on the red line the other way a few times.

Then she had be do the green oxer, then she said add the red line so i thought she ment green oxer straight to the red- yep that is not waht she ment lol oops! She wanted me to do the green oxer go round the first fence in the red, turn left and loop back around to the red line.

Henry was great, can't complain!

Thursday I turned Henry and his buddy Blue out for almost 2 hours. they were super happy boys to get out for a bit!

Friday I got to the barn at about 8, tacked up and warmed up.. once trainer got there we went down and did some more jumping.. this time with a few tougher turns but SO FUN!

We did the red line off the right lead, roll back round off the right lead to the green oxer, left to the black vertical, immediate left to the blue vertical, right to the gray line.

Again he was great, a few rider errors of either to slow and then stepping on the gas (haha oops) or to fast and having to whoa a lot in the lines.

Overall is was great, I just love him so much!!! I can't wait to be able to go to another show!

Henry will get turn out Saturday and Sunday and then back to it Monday :)

ZBH Blog Hop: Everyday Fail

Yep joining the blog hop at ZBH... pretty awesome hop if you ask me!!

I have picked some great pics over the last 3 years... enjoy! (Thanks Kat and Andy for the pics!!)

Weeeeeeeeeeee ...

April 2012

 Smiling for the judge?

May 2012

 More Weeeeeeeeeee...

May 2012

More Flying!!

Aug 2012

Apparently we like to fly a lot ...

Sept 2013

Sept 2013

And now we show how to jump from under the fence...

Oct 2013

This is a few rides after getting back in the saddle after having Addi..

Oct 2014

Naaaaa we don't need to steer :)

June 2015

More flying... we believe we can fly lol!

June 2015

Hope you all enjoyed my finer moments... haha!

Thankfully I actually do know how to ride someones ;)

#mybffiscoolerthenyours

Yep.. my best friend is bad ass.

What your best friend... but for real she is like my sister... isn't in the top 25 IN THE WORLD?!?!

I am SO proud of her and am loving cheering her on through this all... NFR here we come!!!

Thirsty Thursday

Thursday morning I planned to squeeze in a hack... well my back had other plans.

I went to the dr, they took x rays... my spine and hips are all jacked up. Hopefully we are on the road to fixing this...

I did lunge Henry though... He was CRAY! So I let him get that out and then we got to work. Thank you bitting harness for helping me today when I was broken.

A picture of G for good measure.. he is really good at eating and hanging out lol!!

Success!!

Monday I hacked after dinner in the evening. It was a just get Henry out and move around  before our outing Tuesday ... and I talked to Erica through almost the whole thing haha!

B talking to Trooper lol

Tuesday morning we loaded up and headed out to another barn to school. I hitched up all by myself, go me! If you have done that with a bumper pull you know the fun that it is alone haha!

Henry hauled great :)

Tacked up and got on ... Henry was bright eyed but I just had to ride through it. A few scoots here and there but it feels great to be able to ride through that and not stress :)

This is the course we did....

Gray was a single and then trot to a X and vertical bounce
Red was a brick roll with a poll over it
Green was a 5 stride line
Brown was a small vetical 2 strides to a small wood crate with no standards 1 stride to a small oxer
Orange was a oxer
Blue was a fan jump

The red, orange and blue were probably 2'9
The green and first jump in the gray were prob 2'6
The brown and rest of the gray was prob 2'0-2'3

It was a fun mix of new jumps.

Henry gave a hairy eye to the wood crate thing with no standard but other then that we jumped everything great.

I really liked working on the trot jump in the middle of a canter course b/c we had to do that at the show in March and it was a miracle that I trotted it at the show. When he gets going on course he gets in the zone and trotting isn't on his mind lol.

First jump in the brown line

I love going to new places and having a great horse under me, bring on another show!!

Wednesday is turn out day for Henry :)

Do you clean...

Do you clean your brushes?

If so how often and with what?

After I am done grooming, I try to get all the dust out and fluff them against the wall or another brush.

I have never cleaned them with water or soap.. maybe that is something I should look into. I am interested to hear if any of you do that and with what so I can try!

Does anyone have a set of the custom brushes? I have always wanted them but worry that I would be scared to use and ruin them ha!

What are your favorite brishes to use? I have a variety... Oster are my main go to though :)

Oh Hey I Have a Blog

Whooooops! Sorry but I am back!

Monday I hacked, Henry was good.. my goal was simple, get him out and moving around.

B helped me cool Henry out haha :) She went and got her helmet and was waiting patiently for her turn :)

Tuesday I had a lesson.

We jumped this course after doing a TON of two point. I rode with one of the kids and she kept getting in trouble for leaning on the neck so we two pointed forever lol!

For jumping we did an array of everything... lots of technical turns that we rocked. I love that Henry is so game and on it when we are jumping- so fun!

Wednesday was a turn out day.

Thursday I hacked. There was a lesson going on so I rode around with them.

Nothing fancy... WTC and then I worked on counter bending at the trot and canter. Henry can be stiff and so I have been working on counter bending and pushing that hip over. Also spiraling in and really making him pivot around my leg.

It's a balance to make sure I am riding him right so that we don't lead change and so he actually is counter bending- hard work but bring it on! It gets better every time.. keep building upon some great training :)

I planned to ride Friday before hubby went to work but he had to go in early so that went out the window.

My youngest brother got married Friday night so it was a family filled weekend... Henry got lots of turn out :)

Happy 4th of July!!

Flags are no big deal for Henry :)

Thursday Henry felt a little weird... but only to the left. I rode around to see if I was crazy, trainer said I was crazy b/c nothing was visible to her.

I kept feeling "something" and so she said that if I felt like something wasn't right to not go forward anymore with the lesson.

I walked him around to cool him out and then took him up to untack. I cleaned him up and then iced his front legs.

I had planed to try again Friday morning but hubby got out of work late and so mom duty calls.

Henry got a nice turn out Friday though and I am hooping to maybe sneak in a ride Sunday, if it doesn't happen Monday we will be back at it!

Fair and Riding

Tuesday was 109... Henry had the day off and we went to the fair instead, crazy I know. But we had a blast so it's all good!

Hubby and my lunch

Wednesday was another hot day, triple digits. Did family stuff during the day and then went to the barn at 8 pm.. it had cooled off to a lovely 85 lol!

There were actually quite a lot of people up there and two lessons going on. The indoor was a DUST bowl... I wonder if they aren't watering it anymore? I haven't ridden in there in a while...

Henry was chill and then crazy... we have a lesson Thursday morning so hopefully he will put his good boy pants on for that!

Technical Questions

Apparently I need to go back to learning how to steer lol!

The weather has been triple digits lately so trainer held a morning lesson Monday.. WS, Kat and I were there. I was a tad later then them because I wasn't quite sure when we were getting on. Luckily WS had a couple horses to ride so I flatted while Kat jumped and then got a private jump lesson which was much needed...

The course changes a tad so here is a new pic :)

Warmed up over the pink X back and forth. 

Then I did the pink X to the orange oxer, right to the green gate, left around to the brown (mustache), right around to the in and out (one stride) red oxer to blue oxer, right to the purple vertical.

After a few times through that trainer broke it down and we did some refining...

We did the red oxer to the light green vertical... I had to come into the in and out (red oxer) straight and turn over it to the light green. I wanted to come in at an angle so that we were pointed at the green but trainer wanted me to not take the easy route haha! It took a bit for us to do it a few times right so that we could move on lol!

Then we did the gray wall to the domino wall (black vertical at the top left corner). Thankfully that was quick ha!

Then we did the brown (mustache) to the purple... i had too much speed so we had to work on really going slow so that I could get the 4 stides in there.

Lastly we did the light green to the red oxer... had to go over the red straight which is harder then you would think, angling it was way easier but not what trainer wanted lol!

It was a hard lesson... but good!

I was SOOOO tired after it. I think I did too much cause I was super shaky and couldn't get off Henry, I had to walk him over to my truck and pretty much fall into the truck to get of. Then I sat on the cool ish concrete floor and Kat so kindly brought me something frozen from the freezer to put on my neck while I drank my water. 

About 15 min later I was able to clean up Henry and get back to our regularly scheduled program.

Horse cleaned, tack cleaned and off to In and Out to meet the hubby and girls! 

I-Am-number one

Bringing back my high school years here...

Susan and Agifthorse you are the winners!!! B wanted to pick a winner too so we have two lol!

Relish in Nelly #1 cause you are!!! lol

Email me at Karleychall at yahoo dot com so that I can get you your prize!

Loved hearing all of your shopping secrets!

Thanks for everyone who participated... this was fun and I will have to do more of these!!