Keep those Hamsters running

    

Poor doped pony

Miss Holly got some good jump schooling Thurs and Fri, some 3ft work and naughty lady refused a lattice panel she hasn't seen in quite awhile.

She also got her teeth done, poor lass had some big hooks on her bottoms.

Saturday I was actually at the barn with enough time to groom, free lunge in the big round pen and wander back up to the indoor (boo) for our lesson and still not be last on (yay).

Holly was actually good on the flat, her only real spook was another rider shouting as L and Ramone had a moment, which made all the horses startle a bit.

Did some horrible line work. It was a longer 4 stride then Weds, and I could not get good distances. Lots of crappy half-canter chip- in, and weak strides to either a chip or loooong jump out. ugh.

I need to get forward but not canter when trotting in, and MOST IMPORTANTLY- I need to get my eyes up and off the second rail, no amount of staring will make it disappear. Of course every bad run just causes the dreaded "One More Time" shout from trainer.

After the line was a wide right or tight left at the end. We did some crummy, grape-stomping, back-breaking lead changes which really set something off in my back. Then I got frustrated, and that's when its so hard to have an arena full of onlookers.

Thankfully my torture ended and I went with a couple others to hack around the XC field, making precious pony super on alert, but she held it together since she was in a crowd.

My careful little driver

Today was another crazy windy morning. I wasn't real sure of Holly's mental state when she reared and shied just walking up the path to the barn. Then we apparently both needed to run around the roundpen together while sheets of dust blew into our eyes.

Then we got to it and had some of the best flatting since I've got her. She wasn't perfectly framed, but she seemed almost to search for the contact, not constantly fight it. She was still heavy once she was tired, and she was fairly tense (the roof sounded like it was slowly being torn off) but she kept her wits about her, which was impressive given the noise level and how many others were in the arena.

Then we cantered with two poles on the long sides, trying to keep steady rhythm, even with poles. This was made way harder since another trainer's adult student decided at that moment he also needed to wander through the poles while he waited for the trainer to get back. Argh!

Awesome Paint rendition ;)

After that I took turn with some of the kiddos (nothing makes you feel more sheepish as jumping the same level as little kids) trotting and cantering through an angled line of trot poles and the littlest itty-bitty vertical. It really makes you look up and ahead, not my strong suit. Holly was good, even when there were horses in the way and did all but one lead change quietly (for her).

Survived! Such a pretty pony :)

Back at it tomorrow, hopefully minus the wind.