Lily Pond and horsey stuff

The Lily Pond Show was fun and, at times, a little to exciting. Alaina rode Sunny in 2 intro tests without incident or enough impulsion.

But, Ivy and TC had a different story. After a calm and obedient warmup, Ivy and TC were waiting a few minutes before their Intro B test.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, TC seemed to panic - we got Ivy off and I dismounted to help. We went into the warmup/indoor arena and TC calmed down. Richele helped Ivy re-mount and work out the stress. The ring steward re-arranged the riders and a few minutes later, Ivy tried to enter the arena to complete the test. They never got to the ring; TC dumped Ivy and bolted back into the covered arena and blasted around full speed 2 or 3 times like wolves were after him. Ivy was shaken up but OK and an hour or so later, rode Pico in T2 for a good ride.

Possible causes for TC to spazz out: bug up TC's nose/ears/lungs; red ants biting legs; or mold causing an asthma attack. The last year or so, TC has had 2 similar episodes when exposed to moldy air - not quite so extreme. I guess he really will have to give up dressage shows.

Ruthie and Istari had a great dressage test scoring a 10 on one movement but having a little trouble on the cross country course. Jessie had good jumping/dressage runs with Denali and then Ruthie had some nice rides on Pico.

Christiana is really making great strides with Ardemus - he is a really nice young horse and they are running rings around me and Splash. Denise rode Tater Dee really well and looked fab on Jurgen - woo-hoo. Kathy and Call were looking mighty fine and Patty and Dante had 2 beautiful rides to end the day.

Nancy and her new buckskin/dun/paint cutie pie will be joining us shortly. Yippee!

Alaina got a chance to ride Istari and loves him since he reminds her of the Dezzie Doo.

And on Monday afternoon, Ivy worked Pico over cavaletties, crossbars and low jumps and had a great time. She talked Alaina into trying Pico over crossbars, and after a slow start, Alaina discovered how much fun Pico can be. Later, the girls taught Jet how to jump jumps too.

Splash escaped working this evening since RAIN messed with our yaya ride - but don't worry, we ate, socialized and laughed together anyway.

Splash was difficult at the Lily Pond show, but when you consider my recent travel (i.e., non-riding) schedule, then we did as well as could be expected. In T4, we were VERY late with our first canter transition (Rt Lead) and scored a 5 (should have been 4). Then recieved 4s on the next 2 movements which were much better. hmmm. Our Intro test was very tense on my part because Ivy had just had her TC incident, but the score was over 62 (63.something) - I might have 2 Intro qualifying scores, but I still don't have even 1 qualifying score in Training level. Perhaps I won't have a decision to make about the schooling show championships. Our lesson on Sat. was good although I had quite a lot of trouble with the turn on the forehand in motion. Splash and I really struggled until I envisioned a leg yield where the hind moves faster than the forehand around a point (thanks Patty). I will work on that next chance I get. Next Sat., another lesson and then the following weekend, the county fair.

To show or not to show...... that is the question.. I probably should just to get Splash in the ring....