June 30 2010

  Addie was definitely the Big Red Mare today. I didn't ride yesterday, but dang she acted like I hadnt ridden her in three! She was definitely in La La Land today. I had to do lots of counter bending at the trot to get her head screwed back on, to remind her she knows how to be round and not bend like a 2x4. Maresy was madly swishing her tail during warm up at the walk, and bouncing like bees were attacking her. She finally she agreed with me that there wasn't anything bothering her.
 Today there were two other horses in the arena as well. That was very exciting for her, because she believed she had a reason to scream at them a few times while their riders looked at me like "cant you just shut her up?!". To say the least The Mare has a mind of her own and will scream until hell freezes over no matter how many times you "tell" her to shut up. Hopefully she wont ever do it in a dressage test.
 On the up side her canter work was pretty good, and she had some nice walk to canter transitions as well. Her canter to trot down transitions were another story. You would have never guessed we had just spent a whole ride on them the day before last, which were very nice if I may say so. Oh well. We did some free walking to cool her down which was wonderful, we then ended it on some turns on the forehand (which she apparently forgot how to do, but finally remembered) that were pretty nice as well.

  I thought I had figured out my saddle fitting issues, but they sprung up again today, so that didnt help my riding whatsoever. The pommel was really tipping forward. I switched from a SaddleRight pad I was borrowing from a friend to my Mattes Quilted Correction pad. That had helped for quite a while, but now I probably need to go a smaller gullet for my saddle (I have a crappy Collegiate Convertible Diploma I am trying to replace with a Stubben). Right now I have a X-Wide Gullet in it, so I'll have to get the next size down and see if that helps at all. When I go down to Meggan's on the 11th I am going to have her do a fitting to see what size she really is.

Long Time No Post

I am not being very good about keeping my blog up-to-date. So now I am going to promise to keep you all up to date.

Since my last post, Addie and I have finally begun to really click with each other. She has finally figured out that I am not just pretending to know what I am doing, to "okay you've got it boss" and tries her heart out. We still have our "red thoroughbred mare" moments, but who doesnt? There have more good days than bad, so I cant complain, but there has been reason to dub her "Mrs. Robinson". The show name "Sweet Adeline", is just that, too sweet for my fiery, big, red mare...So it just wont do. Now she is known as Mrs. Robinson, and Mrs. Robinson she shall be.

Addie has also been taken on her first xc school, and was great. She did everything asked of her, even though it was all new. I also took her to her first show, a H/J schooling show at the local equestrian park. Addie placed in three out of the five classes. We only did the 18" and 2' classes to keep things simple. She was also very hot, but "cooled down" after the first class.

I currently had to move Addie from the boarding facility to a new one, which I am very pleased with. It has a small scale xc course with a complete water complex, regulation sized outdoor dressage arena, and heated indoor- which will be great for cold Montana winters.