Amazing Saturday and Sunday

Saturday:
Saturday was a really good day in the sense of the whole day, and an even better one in the sense of what me and Mo did. I ended up going out shopping with my cousins aunt and mom in the morning to mid afternoon portion of the day before coming home to play with Mo.

Lately I have been feeling bored and restricted in the riding ring, which while its a good size, its not huge, or as big as my old one in Russell led me to be spoiled by [120' x 200'] Needless to say I have been feeling cramped. There is a place, well, two places actually, but the other place is waaaay out there, in the horses pasture that would be a perfect place for a ring. Big, flat, mostly eaten grass. The only problem is that its in the middle of a twenty five acre pasture, so carting toys out there has not been on my high priority list! Until now!

I got to the barn Saturday afternoon about 4:30 and immediately set to moving toys and poles out to where I wanted them. Finally sick of feeling cramped and ready to progress, I dragged out two 4x4's that were 12' long [thank you 45' rope for helping out lol] four barrels, and two jump rails. I wanted three, to make a vertical and a crossrail, but I settled for just half the X beacause by then I was just tired! It was a long walk each time! But I got it set up, between two telephone poles as the end marks to my ring [mostly, I sort of usually go on the outside of them, but they are really good for point to point!] So it was big, spacious and the way I set up the barrels for jumps was already larger than the current ring. I put each of the 4x4's end to end about ten feet apart as a start of a windmill when I get the energy to bring two more out. Then at the end of each 4x4, about 5 feet from there I set up my barrel jumps on either side. So it went two barrels for a jump, rail on the ground space rail space and the last two barrels for a jump.

Seemed pretty cool to me, and I can add to it over time as I accumulate more things. Maybe I will bring out my jump standars from home.. or some tires... or... YEY IDEAS! Anways, I am proud to finally sucked it up and put things out there because frankly, my first ride in my new 'arena' was GOLD. Pure and absolute GOLD!

I had my ipod on when I went to catch Mo and she was ignoring me looking over the fence, but with the sun in my eyes I couldnt see why until I was close. Well apparently some creepy people where petting her over the fence. Mo gave me a guilty look when I got closer to apologize. I just sort of smiled curtly at the creepy people and haltered and mounted Mo for the ride back to the barn. On the way we stopped by the 'arena' to dissuade Crystal and Delilah from trashing my barrels. It was cute to see their curiosity up though! Mo even sort of went "HEY! Why are there BARRELS in my pasture!"

In the barn I saddled her up and bridled her over the halter with her reins disconnected and tied around her neck [finesse reins are SO convienant!] and out we went. We played with stick to me and falling leaf and sideways on the way over to the ring. It was fun to watch Mo thinking really hard to stay with me when I changed from falling leaf to sideways. She was trying sooooo hard.

Once over by my obstacles I asked her over the ground rails, which she jumped like a goober, so we squeezed over them until she could just trot over them regularly. I had forgotten to grab my 22' line so I felt a little limited anyways, even in the big space, but I ran around with Mo a nuch, testing out the new jumps to see if I could ride her over them [first few I definatley would have eaten dirt] and then mounted up. I still had the 12' line attached to her halter, but I tied it to the handle on the theraflex pad so I would be simulating bridleless with a carrot stick - IN THE 25 ACRE PASTURE!

This was a total first for Mo. I havent played with bridless anywhere except in the ring and small paddock that is attached to it. But I felt the need to progress and grow and push Mo a little bit to step up to what I asked her - to be a little more particular and you know what? It paid off! BIG time! Mo was 100% with me, we did walk, trot, canter AND back up all around our new ring, we took jumps, we sidepassed over the ground poles, we did figure eights and point to point on the telephone poles and anything else I could think of. It was AMAZING!!!! At some point I ditched the halter and 12' because it was swinging annoyingly, and it was STILL GREAT!

I was totally floored. I have to admit, I wasnt expecting our session to be THAT great - our first session out in the pasture brideless? I guess its a good thing my horse is a loner! Hah! Everything about the session was just amazing. I was so thrilled that after half an hour I didnt want to push it, to push away the floaty feeling that we walked out and went back to the barn.

I still really cant get over how GREAT Mo was. She is such a great horse! She really gives her all for me and I appreciate it so much!

Sunday:

Yesterday was the last show for our local club this season. We eneded up being a little late because they were ahead of schedule, but it worked out. I didnt really get anywarm up time, for which I apologized to Mo profusely, but we DID take third in Command class! Which was super cool highpoint :-)

Of course that was our only class before lunch so after that Mo and I took the oppurtunity with my cousins to warm up in the jumper ring since the obstacles were set up already. I took off Mo's bridle and opted for a halter tied to the theraflex handle again and grabbed my carrot stick. This was the first time I tried my brideless in public. At least there was no one over in the ring when I started!

Mo and I cruised around the ring, doing random patterns and transitions between and around the jumps before finally trying some of them. Mo was amazing, she is turning into this point and follow my focus type of horse. She is looking where I am looking and just popping over any jumps that might be in her way! It is SUCH a cool feeling!!! We trotted around popping over all the jumps in random orders, doing the four on the outside line like we did it everyday. I was soooo happy and proud!!!

In keeping with our 'try new things theme' I handed my carrot stick to Colleen, tied myself some reins and attempted a total first for Mo and Me [as a team]... We CANTERED jumps!!! For the first time in Mo's history, she CANTERED jumps under saddle with a rider! How cool is that?!?! She was comepletely AWESOME! I am SO PROUD of her!!!

We cooled out shortly after that because our classes were not for another hour or so, and I untacked Mo and brought her to graze by the trailer. Our next class didnt go so well, it was Junior Horse and apparently people with young horses have no idea how to space themselves in the ring. I made sure I had lots of room, and then all of the sudden at the canter I was boxed in by FOUR people [yes FOUR, there were three of us wide along the rail, one in fron and one behind] which caused poor [angry] Mo to break the canter and then be annoyed enough not to want to pick it back up [ I wouldnt want to either] This happened going both directions, it was super annoying. Mo did great with what she was given though, and didnt try to kill anyone - which is a plus.

Since we were done until the western games later in the afternoon [waaaaay later] I moseyed back over the the jumper ring to work on transitions some more, since in the last class Mo wasnt as snappy as I wanted - even if there are other horses around, she still needs to listen. On the way we paused at the trailer to grab my carrot stick and tie my reins to the string I keep on the handle for my pad. So we were going around, playing follow the rail - which Mo had a hard time with! She kept wanting to JUMP! Which was cute, but I kept up follow the rail at a walk until she got it.

We did walk/halt/backup transitions until she figured out that we were following the rail and then we picked up the trot. We did trot walk transtitions and they were super crisp now to, so I was really pleased. We were just starting to play with canter walk transitions when another rider came in to use to the jumps, so I asked her if she wanted me to leave. She said no, that it was ok, AND complimented me on my riding! How cool is that?? I got a compliment! Whoo! We walked together talking for a while and then Mo and I played with more transitions and jumping before cooling out again.

I walked around the rings on the outside, stopping at one point to pull of Mo's bridle, since she doesnt really like it all that much and she kept grazing anyways, and we walked around some more. We wandered into the vaccant driving ring and sidepassed over the poled set up [bridless!!!] we even 'checked the mail' lol. It was really fun. I noticed that Chelsea was in a class so Mo and I went over the the main ring to watch.

Mo stood and grazed while I sat and watched. It wasnt until after that class that the judges 'runner' or whatever came out to snarl at me to put a halter on my horse. Oh, Im sorry, my obviously wild horse is getting away from me.... grazing.... It honestly hadnt even occured to me that I would get in trouble for neglecting to have head gear on my horse. Of course I had ditched my own helmet when I left the show ring, so if anything I was expecting a snarl about that.. but no... 'Put a halter on your horse' . *sigh* Note to Self: If playing with super awesome exciting and SUCCESSFULL bridleless, do it out of sight of the judge.

It doesnt matter that the judge snarled at me via her runner, it doesnt matter that I had to put Mo's bridle back on her [which she accepted with good grace] what matters is that I was RIDING Mo around SHOW GROUNDS bridless WITH NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I just cant get over that! She was ASTOUNDING!!!!! And, if I havent expressed my excitment enough, here are some more exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

During the break between jumping and games, Chelsea nad I practiced our newfound tradition of visiting the Bakery via double riding Mo over. That is always fun, and provides tasty results!

So western games eventually came, I put a halter on Mo and went to warm back up in the sand ring since there is a huge long break because of all the jumping classes. I did more transitions, playing more with bridless, doing circles in the corners and figure eights across the ring while it was mostly empty - just me and one other person [who to me looked like he was disciplining his horse, who was drenched, but not my business] Mo was a doll. She did everything I asked.

I have no idea how our games times were. A couple of girls showed up just for the games on their professionaly trained gaming horses and won everything. I dont think thats all that fair, to have a gaming horse and show up to a little club show and show off to everyone. Everyone has their own perogative of course, thats just my opinon. After games was Sit a Buck. Not our best class, but easily the most fun. We all do our openening canter laps to 'warm up' [reads: get some extra sweat and stick factor] and get our bucks. Of course the first command is trot, so Mo and I set off at this amazingly slow trot, which I am surprised she even did! And then.... Extend your trot please. DOH! Oh well, that didnt last long before they called a canter, and all was well until they said trot or walk or something, slow down in whatever capacity and my buck went flying. I was third or fourth out or something. It went pretty fast after that anyways.

When everyone lost their buck we did the traditional closing gallop laps. Except this time we were closing the season, not just the show. Always fun. And then we loaded up to go home. Great day, great weekend, and only a little bit of sunburn :-) Mo was a Star

:-)
S