Let the Countdown Begin..

I did it. I sent in the entry for Tilly's first show. i know that Courtney will be disappointed, but I have her signed up for Intro B and C which sounds fair to me... I mean, she's a young pony who has been on a trailer a total of three times, all of which resulted in a new home and she tends to turn into a hand-galloping giraffe in times of tension.
Oh, and I like to do well, which we wouldn't (yet) at training level.

I'll admit that I'm disappointed that I can't ride RC, but with the hassle of trying to get an answer to whether or not it would be legit to show him a second level and have a student show him at training... Just not worth the possible complaints. (Side note: The USDF doesn't CARE how you run your schooling show)
I would have really liked to show at a 'real' level for a change. I feel that my riding has gotten much better in the last two years, but I'm still stuck at the lower levels because I have all these young horses. Darn young horses.... One of these days I'll get back to the real levels. You know, the ones with half-passes and flying changes. Oh to dream....

RC... eating away his show goals...

So, in my now panic that Tilly has just over a week before her showing debut I pushed her a little harder yesterday. And I found her eject button.
As it would turn out La Ponita Tres strenuously objects to 'excessive use of the whip', which seems to be defined (by her) as the smart pop I gave her when she pulled out a Whoastorm. It was a canter-prop-smack-bucksquealbuck transition... I stuck it, but thank goodness for knee rolls, know what I'm saying? After a little reprogramming on my part, I got some good work out of her. Tilly is becoming a really fun ride because I can feel her canter coming along, no more of that scrambling little pony run, but an actual reaching rounded canter. Sigh. I do so love it when things end on a good note.

After Ponita Tres, came Ponita Uno. Delight's had a few days off, so she's back to the Tick. Her girth had to go down two holes to compensate for her inflation. Oy vey... I guess Delight just can't hang with days off.
Anyway, for all that she has had an easy week, Delight was pretty good. Of course she warmed up rather stiff with absolutely no desire to bend her body at all... but plenty of changes of directions, some shoulder in and leg yield helped that out. After some great canter transitions and sitting trot work, I called it a day.

So Delight got a bath followed by a half hour of supervised grazing in the front yard.

Of course, then London wanted some front yard privileges, so I fed him in the yard then watched him graze for an hour. I'll still have to mow my lawn, but maybe the horses can help out at least a little.

This is like a dry lot here! Look at all that lawn! We could help...