Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Green Bean Thoughts

So fancy in his inherited PSOS bridle

Being given the opportunity to ride such a well trained horse as Evita certainly has been a blessing. But, it makes riding and wanting to ride the green horses a lot less motivating. I can get on Evita and pretty much put her exactly how I want her and do whatever suits my fancy. And I started to run into trouble with my greenie. 


Greenie's first side rein

Merlot has an incredible work ethic and despite his spookiness, is a pretty chill dude under saddle but after prioritizing my rides on Evita I found I would get frustrated and pushy with Merlot. And it isn't fair. He toodles like a pro, but if I try and put on trainer pants, I started to expect he had an education when he didn't. Even though Ries was not a dressage pro, he had a foundation put on him and once trainer taught me to unlock and develop it, we were golden. But greenie he was not.


Mer and V Have a huge bromance. Also photo bomb by Mae and E (E is in fly mask)

So here I am sitting with a lovely pony who will work sun up to sun down and give you snuggles when the day is done. But I really don't know how to get that first step of the dressage foundation put on him. So we toodled and moved at a snails pace. I tried to do "hey look, if I weight this seat bone and put on this leg you move over" and "I know contact feels weird but I'm just going to have soft forgiving hands" and yet I felt my tool bag kind of empty. 

So many smiles <3

I had my first dressage lesson on Merlot two weeks ago and that helped so much. It was enough of a push but also a "we are only focusing on one thing this entire lesson" that I finally feel I have a start in the dressage direction. I knew I looked like a sack of potatoes riding a llama but I couldn't help but smile. I didn't just buy a green horse because I think he will be fancy and he has a forgiving attitude (and I have a limited budget), but for how much I wanted to experience the process of bringing a green horse up and how much joy it gives me.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

An Intro: The past month



So my little hiatus lasted a little longer than planned. But that's ok, I'm here now and want to start back with a small intro to the next few posts.





























1) I got engaged! Holy crap was this a total 360 in my life. Luke proposed at his birthday party (end of April) I hosted for him after blowing out the candle (I actually forgot candles for his cake and had him blow out a giant yankee candle lol). It was so lovely to have our friends and family there. I am so so thrilled. No, there is no date yet, my focus is my last semester of college!


 
Baby Z's third ride!

2) Ponies are doing swell. Baby Z has been rocking baby boot camp and I've even ridden him twice now! He comes home in about two weeks. Mae has been a little brat and I haven't gotten to ride her yet, she needs to graduate from my stop-being-a-brat-about-work groundwork bootcamp. Vermont has been a super steady guy and very easy for rides. Merlot definitely is showing his green side but so so willing (and gorgeous to look at omg). And finally, Evita has been my rock and so much fun.



3) I finished my second to last semester of college with a fantastic GPA. My work continues to be nice and they even gave me an internship for summer to get some credits knocked out. I'm looking forward to my future outside of college.