Three of the BEST days Ever, in a Row.

Thats right. Three. THREE AMAZING DAYS all in a row, and I didn't even have to leave Canada!

Im going to start with Day 3, because its today, and because I PASSED MY L4 FINESSE AUDITION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep. That happened. All the gods and Karma's and Universes that be, Bless Mo, thy saviour horse, who ALWAYS pulls my S%$t together when I need her to, and teaches me every lesson when she needs me to learn. My goodness I LOVE MO! We are officially fancy enough to be Black String Bearers!! Much more coordinated with my fancy black pony, dontcha know ;)

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

So thats today. Now to try and focus on the rest of the amazing - because trust me, it was amazing!

I will go back to day 1 - more Mo amazingness :D [Mo-mazing...?]

Saturday when I woke up it was awful weather. I have to say, the day did NOT start out feeling like it was going to be an amazing day for the history books.  It was cold and rainy and windy!! None the less, Mo and I were going to be brave. We waited all week for this day!

What grand adventure were we off to? Fox Hunting of course! What more could you ask for, than some pseudo-British weather when we want to try our hand at a British sport!

With a pit stop in Russell to pick up Roxy and Tristan, we were off, in the thankfully-tapering-off drizzle! We pulled into the Hunt Farm and got ourselves all registered. I think we were the only ones out of the people who did sign up for the Invitational Hunt, to actually show up - because of the weather! I am so glad we did though!

After getting ourselves sorted out, we unloaded the ponies and tacked up in the windy drizzle. Mo was her usual self, eating grass while this went on, but when I moved her feet I could tell she was feeling some energy. Who wouldnt on one of the first cold days, with the wind coming and all the other horses feeling it too!

Once I got on Mo I could really feel her energy up! She was BUZZING! Responsive, but very aware of everything. We sat and had our Stirrup cup [I had lemonade instead of port :) ] She surprised me when the hounds came out by doing nothing. She was absolutely FASCINATED by them! Which was a trend that continued for the whole ride. Every time they were in view, it didnt matter which direction we were travelling, she was looking at the hounds. Let me tell you how good our shoulder in was by the end of the day.... Ha!

In Hunting there are 3 fields of horses that go - there is First field, which are the ones that follow the hounds closely, galloping and jumping everything in their way. Second field goes slightly more moderately paced, trotting and cantering, with alternate routes around the jumps. First field mostly walks and trots, observing from farther away. Laura, Roxy and I opted for second field. Speed, but options :) I like it. Second field is where we rode in the summer on the "mock hunt" trail rides too, so I knew what to expect... sort of!

Second field was perfect pace. I really enjoyed it. Mo was SUPER riled! Basically the most adrenalized I have ever felt her, but still connected and responsive. It was such an odd combination! There were moments when she just COULD not stand or walk, so we did a bunch of passage/piaffe but it was all without me holding her back.... It was outright odd! I would just sit in my body and think " you can do what you want, in this box, but dont leave" and she would trot on the spot, poll high, bum low, super rhythmic and nice.... but just very emotional about it. It was sooooo soft. Just not calm! I refused to hold her up/back with the reins, so she held herself, but she stayed and thats what happened....

I remember thinking later, that I should probably do something to interrupt the emotional pattern, but in the moment it was just SUCH a cool feeling that all I did was set it up and ride it.... whoops ;) So we bounced our little way around the hunt field. There was regular walking and trotting to of course! And cantering! And galloping!

Im pretty sure the big horses were not galloping.... but Mo for sure was! It felt like the fastest we ever went - and it was extra fun because it was in a group with my friends and through a big corn field :D

FLY LIKE THE WIND MO!

I had so much fun :D I kept smiling and laughing [and because of that, ate a bit more mud that I really wanted to] and poor Mo's little white face was fairly mud colored by the end!

After the riding part, Mo and Tristan got to go stay in Laura's very swanky new barn and get spoiled there while we all got spoiled with FOOD! There was a DELICIOUS supper provided and tons of dessert! We all went home happy, tired and full! What a superb day!

After such a great day, Mo and I came home and found out we lost Phyr.... how? I dont know yet, because I havent had time/daylight to investigate, but when we got home late and in the dark, Zephyr was no where to be found!! After much searching and calling she finally crashed out of the woods in the back corner from the WRONG FIELD! GAH! Phyr child.... what she did to get over there and why she was there, who knows.... at least she came back!

So one tired Mo was re-united with one slightly stressed out Phyr and all was happy.

Sunday morning dawned much brighter and nicer than Saturday! Sunday was to be a big day too! I had thought long and hard on Saturday about  what to do - I had scheduled a lesson with Farrah Green for my self for Sunday morning. After our ride the day before though, I didnt think it would be fair to take Mo into another physically challenging endeavor. Which meant Zephyr was nominated!!

Time for the little kid to grow up, go on a trailer ride all by herself and have a lesson in an indoor arena for the first time ever! OH BOYY!!!

Zephyr totally blew my socks off. I cant even say how proud of her I am! She marched herself right on that trailer, all by herself, came off DRY and calm, and waited while I brushed her all up and then walked right into a strange arena while the previous lesson finished up! WOW! WHAT A KID!

I was actually really glad we had some extra time to settle because as good as Phyr was being, she *was* tight for her. So we played touch it and explored the arena a little bit in the ways that we could without disturbing the other person. There was a mirror in one corner that made her go "WASSAT!" but other than that she was pretty brave once she touched everything.


When it was actually our lesson time, Zephyr was spot on. I decided I wanted help on how to figure out how to help her not feel like I was "making" her do everything - even at phase one! I got some great strategies - 1] breathe and release with every step on the yo-yo. Keep going, but time your breathing to one foot. This made an immediate difference for her! I was really surprised! She is such a sensitive thing, that such a subtle thought really affects her!

On the both the circle and the yo-yo we played with maintaining a rhythm. Not just blah blah blah, but the walk I would like to ride, or the back up I would like to ride, or the trot... etc...  Even just changing my focus to be looking for rhythm and doing in my body what I would do if I were riding really caused Zephyr to change!

The we played with maintain gait at the trot - every time she broke we would change direction and send again until it was her idea to keep going. Canter transitions, which have been sticky for us got much easier and clearer! Instead of a helpful drive [my thought] we changed to a follow the feel porcupine up into the canter, which my genius child got right away. Because she is a genius! Her transitions were also GORGEOUS and uphill - which is something she struggles with!

We talked about how not to expect her to maintain that until its easy to maintain the trot forever and the transitions come easy - going to neutral with Zephyr is always my challenge because she tends to get lost and emotional out on the line and then either comes up with naughty thoughts or just robots and runs... so that was really perfect to have Farrah see her and get input on it. We played also with a little bit of just can you canter and using the same change of direction strategy and then when the attitude [can you see me!?!?!] came out, I would just support it in a friendly way, to let her know I saw her and was still there.

We also played with a little spanish walk towards the end, but there was some kafuffle with another horse and Phyr was not about to focus on something so small and ignorable, so Farrah just did simulations with me, and I will play with it with Phyr this winter :)There was also some sideways trotting in there somewhere - first time I ever asked her to trot sideways, and voila! Ha!

Phyr spent the rest of the day while I watched the rest of the lessons, by herself in a little paddock [thanks Garry!] happily grazing. When it was time to go home, she happily loaded up and rode quietly home. She unloaded PERFECTLY, didnt even call to Mo, and walked back into the field all " Did you see, Mo? I got to GO today and you had to stay here :P " I could seriously see her gloating. It was so funny.

The biggest thing I learned yesterday with Zephyr was that I can stop babying her !!!! Farrah says we are close to a L3 audition - so my goal is to pull that out now :) I cant believe that, but YEY Phyr! In my head she is still my baby, but its true, I CAN stop babying her and expect a little more from her now :)

So thats my last three days. Both of my ponies blew my mind, and then I got the email that compounded everything time a million :D

:D
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