The 4-H State Horse Show that is.... Mighty preparations have begun. The girls and I unloaded lots of stuff we won't need in Shawnee from the trailer today and we added a few items already. But we won't really get things in order until Wednesday evening - then on Thursday morning - we will head WEST. The plan is to meet Mallory and Roxanne in Verdigris and caravan to the show grounds.
It's been a few weeks since my last post and my excuse is that I had two trips to Kansas and the girls got out of school. I got lucky the last two Wednesday evenings in a row when my YaYa Sisters got a chance to ride at Rita's and have good eats afterwards. I rode Splash both evenings and he was a good boy. I am still babying him by avoiding steep hills because he seems to have a bit of trouble - my thought is that his injury last year left residual effects. He also seems to have trouble with right lead canter - it is hard to get and hard to keep. But otherwise, he is working sound and making improvements.
We had Saturday Party Lessons the last two weekends - last weekend with Kathy B getting ready for Pinto World. She and Call are reserve champion T-1 and Kathy has the buckle to prove it. We are all very proud of the great progress they have made in their dressage training. Woo Hoo!
Ivy has been working Pico over jumps every chance she gets since her riding classes at State are Hunt Seat Eq and Hunter Hack. Pico is Freako a lot of the time but has some really nice jumping moments. Alaina is working on Trail obstacles and making progress with Sunny. They will practice a few more days but are really looking forward to having a lot of fun.
Work with Splash has been fairly good - no German Neck Stretcher at Rita's or Saturday; less fussy in the bridle and some give to the bit. Besides the normal leg yield work, Patty had a new exercise for us. We worked on canter transitions up and down from/to the trot (left lead) and from/to the walk (right lead). Not surprisingly, correct lead wasn't guaranteed and downward transitions needed a lot of work. Nancy and Doc were really making progress and Mallory on Raffles made it look easy. Susan and Sarah joined us and we all went to Graham's after the lesson.
Graham's has some competition in the new Mexican place just past the Depot. It is fun to have contrast in eateries - the owner/chef/manager at Ricardo's LOVEs us. We will have to come up with a Haiku for them too.
In other news - Bill's birthday was Saturday so we sang the birthday song! And TC is loving life at Lake Cheval. He has gained wait, shed out, and enjoying Christian's TLC. Ivy, Roxie, and Mattie gave him a low intensity bareback workout and he seemed to enjoy the attention.
So, no YaYa for me this week (4-H gets the whole week with meeting on Monday, ride night on Tuesday, preparations on Wednesday and then the show in Shawnee Thursday through Saturday. Cross fingers for next week. YaYa!
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