Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Armani Man, Wonder pony, and The Princess.

















So we went back to visit Armani and Rumor, whose name i found out is actually spelled Roamer. But pronounced Rumor. If your confused please join the club.
Armani this summer was busy building muscles and teaching a hunter/jumper rider how to have contact with the bit. And i just have to throw this in, she did a very good job.

The first two days were spent perfecting canter-halt, halt-canter, halt-counter canter then do a simple change, and basically working on geometry. Ms E drug the arena and we got to make fun patterns in the sand. I made a ten meter circle four leaf flower thing. Working on geometry like that really helps one be aware of where they are in the arena. So once we could successfully navigate the arena she had us pick up counter canter from a halt then go across the diagonal and before we got to the other side do a .........drumroll please........flying change!!!

i can't even tell you how excited i was!! the first day we tried them poor Armani was so stiff he just barely got a couple clean ones, he needs his hocks injected again. But on the third day every single one we tried was clean and spot on when i asked. It was so cute he got so excited every time he did a change. This time was just so much better, i knew how to get him soft and  waiting for me, and he just floated everywhere. I. Love. This. Horse.

Ms E cant ride herself because of a degenerative balance issue. Armani is her horsey-soulmate. The last day we were there after doing over 7 clean changes both directions she almost started crying, which made me almost cry. Overall it was just so much fun!!

We went out to dinner one night and i asked if she wanted a working student over the summer, she was a little hesitant until she found i can drive. We need to talk more to work some kinks out but i should be spending summer 2011 in mississippi, riding a schoolmaster in the morning and indie in the evening.

That Weekend there was a games clinic that my best friend was teaching, so i decided to ride too and got offered the ride on her own games pony Chino.
Anyone that has ever competed in advanced games east probably knows Chino. Because he's pretty much the best games pony ever. He knows the games better than his rider.

This is me riding Chino, the wonder pony. Yes i know my worst nightmare came true i am in fact...neckreining and his neck looks like a llama *gasp!!*
My inner dressage queen just died a little.
But apparently according to the best friend i'm really good at games, who knew!!
Did you know i can touch the ground from Chinos back?? its a little harder than it looks. And i'm really really good at the mug race, there are four poles every other pole has a mug on it and you have to pick up the mug from one pole and put it on the next pole, i like that race. The race i didn't like was the one where you have to put a tennis ball on a cone and then pick another ball off of another cone, every time i got close to the dang cone i'd knock it over.
My favorite race by far was the flag race. you run to the other side of the arena and put a flag into a cone and then go pick up a flag from another cone. I cantered that entire race and got the flag every time, except once but that one wasn't my fault!

Never fear dear readers i'm not switching to games. Dressage is still my first love. Friends dad was laughing at me the whole time because in the middle of a game i would be completely turned around in the saddle watching someone ride dressage on Winglet, the cute little mare that sometimes tries to throw you over her head because she has really really good brakes.


Alright so in India news, because we all know i can't have a blog without talking about the princess!!
The Chiropractor came back and worked on her butt, and there is good news not as much good news as i would have liked but still good news. Her poll, knees, shoulders, and ribs were pain-free yeah!! Her hips were still hurting all over, but not as much as last time yeah!! So we still can't do any collected work which is really making me crazy because everything else is just so damn good!!

All her lateral work is better and more expressive. Her gaits overall have improved ten times, she doesn't have those choppy short strides most ponies her size have, she is actually over-tracking which has never happened before ever. Her canter is bouncy and expressive. Her top-line is finally developing like it should and her neck has a slight arch to it now. The muscle that connects the shoulders to the neck is finally getting bigger and stronger. She is softer in the bridle and  more flexible around her rib cage.
And i can't work on anything that takes collection!!! AHHH!!!
Driving me nuts. Oh well i guess we will just have to go visit Armani again.....damn. ;)

I've really been thinking hard about me and India because this year i become ineligible to ride in the FEI Pony and indie can't compete at FEI junior or Young Rider, which i would really like to compete in. So i've decided that i'm going to train indie up to FEI pony level and then find her a rider that is young enough to take her and i'll just have to work on FEI junior and Young rider on her and a bigger horse. Don't worry i'm NOT selling her. The only way someone will get indie from me is if they pry her out of my cold dead hands. But in a couple years make sure to look for Indies name at FEI pony!!

By the way i love indie so much she's my baby :)