Hey everyone! I have a lot to tell you... first of all, I didn't have a lesson today- I had one on Wednesday because there's a clinic going on at the stable my trainer teaches at. On Wednesday, Thunder and I were working well together. I kept him on the bit and using his hind end fairley steadily, which was a great sucess! I'm going to a show on November the sixteenth, which I hope i'll do well in. The only thing is, that it's a trophy show and I no longer ride at the stable that is putting it on, so who knows? I might get put last in every class because i'm no longer fianancially supporting them. I hope this will not be the case, though. Meagan, my trainer, says that we won't do any jumping until November the sixteenth so that i'll be well prepared for the flat classes. Next lesson, D and I are going to switch horses for an hour! I think that'll be fun, and it'll be a good learning experience because Thunder and Chesapique (the horse D rides) have very different strengths and faults. Anyways, mom and I are a little worried about Java. She seems bright and alert, but she's been having severe diarreah for a few days now. We can't identify anything new in her diet, so we're hoping it's just a bug that will pass through her system. In other news, we've been measuring out our property to see where we can put a new arena. We're thinking we're going to have it be about 75x100, which I think will be a good size. We're getting it redone in hog fuel. Well, that's pretty much it! The picture is of me at my first show earlier this year on a lesson pony I used to ride. Have a good weekend everyone!

Lesson and Horse Expo

Hello, everybody! I must say, i've had a great day. This morning, I had another lesson on Thunder which went very well. I started off by giving Meagen (my trainer, whose name is pronounced Megan) my paragraph on what I learned last lesson. Then, my trainer and I longed Thunder, who does NOT like being longed. He tends to throw hissy fits. Once I got on, we did some warm up work and trotting poles. I had to count Thunders stride between the poles out loud, which made me think about it more. The only thing I would really say was bad, is one of our transitions. I sort of chased him into his canter, and I should have been spongeing and adding leg to bring him up to a collected canter. Instead I just closed my leg and broke my connection. I corrected myself though, and everything else seemed to be good.Anyways, Meagen said that I did a good job of holding my connection, and that it was much better than last weeks! I was quite happy about this. After lesson, my mom took my friend D and I up to a horse expo for the day! We watched some clinics, one on jumping, one on dressage, and one on working with your horse from the ground. They were all pretty educational.We also watched demonstrations on Icelandic Horses and Miniature Horses. The Icelandic Horses were really neat, and we got to hear about their heritage and their gaits. I found out one very interesting fact: even to this day, once an Icelandic Horse leaves Iceland, they may never return. Isn't that odd? Anyways, we then watched the Minis go around. It was overwhelmingly cute. Some of those minis were jumping about two foot six! Apparently in some mini competitions, they jump up to THREE FOOT SIX! All in hand, of course. D and I then wandered through all of the booths, buying cotton candy and looking at trailers with living quarters. We also looked through books, saddles, a mini Greenhawk (My fave horse store) and literally about a thousand other booths. We're going back tomorrow to watch clinics, buy stuff, and watch the horse demos. There's an ANDALUSIAN demo tomorrow that I just can't wait to see! I'll report back with details! The cat is named Ash, ain't he cute?

Athena's New Pictures

Hello everybody! I know it's been a while, but life has been extremely buisy. I'm going to start off by giving you some background on the many photos that I have posted. They are all of Athena, who is now a year and five months old. It will be our one year anniversary of Athena belonging to us on October the nineteenth. We've been evaluating Athena's confirmation, however a lot of things could change. So far, though, she looks like she'll be a pretty good jumper! A few days ago, Java had an interesting experience. My friend Melissa came over after school, and we worked with Java. We started by longeingwalk trot and canter, then longeing Java, who is now two and eight months, over her very first crosspole! Java did a wonderful job, although she was a bit confused at first. She really wants to please people, though, so she came up to the jump, looked at it for a second, then gave a big hop over it! We then decided that I would ride Java bareback with Melissa leading. Java is totally fine with being ridden bareback, and I was wearing a helmet, so it was fairley safe. We did some walking and trotting, before I hopped off and gave Melissa a turn. This was Java's first time with someone other than me getting on and trotting her around! It was very exciting. Java seemed to handle it fine, which is good considering Melissa will be the one showing Java when it comes time because i'm a bit too tall. Anyways, this morning I had a riding lesson again, which went very well! After some warm up, Thunder and I did a figure eight at the trot, then cantering over poles. It really was a good exercise, because once you go over one pole, you do a lead change, then have to straighten out for the next pole. Even though we weren't actually jumping, Thunder still got very excited, and I had to sit tight and do some major spongeing and half-halting to keep him under controll. That's the only thing about Thunder, he does get very excited about jumping. It makes for a pretty fun ride, though! Once I got home from lessons, I groomed Athena, who is looking pretty good as far as weight goes. She might even be a bit chubby! I don't mind, though. Since she's a growing thoroughbred filly, going into winter with a little extra bulk won't hurt! Anyways, I hope you all have a good weekend, and for those of you up here with me in Canada, happy Thanksgiving!

An Interesting Day...

Hello, everyone! Today was a good day for me, however I did have to get up at 7:50 ON A SATURDAY! In order to make my 9:00 lesson. Me and my friend, (let's call her D because I don't have permission to use her name) had a pretty good lesson though. We did a lot of flatwork, and teardrop patterns. For all of you who don't kow what a teardrop pattern is, it's hard to explain, so just go with it. The only thing was that Thunder was having a bit of an excited day, so our transitions weren't exactly 'smooth' most of the time. I'm getting better at keeping my leg to hand connection, which is good! After, lesson, D came back to my house, and we groomed Athena and Java. Both were very good for their groomings. Athena is getting better at accepting the spray bottle without freaking out- mind you, freaking out for Athena is raising her head and taking three steps backward! I spent a while french braiding her mane, but just as I was about to put the tie on it, she shook madly and it all fell out. Oh well, she was patient while I braided her mane at the least. I need to take some new pictures of her to post, because she's starting to look like a horse! I'm serious, she's about 14.1 hands high, and she's fairley filled out! I'll take some more pictures in a few days, and post them up. As a comparison picture, I posted the picture of what she looked like the first day we got her, almost a year ago. (the third sunday in october 2007) she was five months old then. Anyways, after we groomed them, we put Athena away and I hopped on Java! She's really such an angel. No saddle, just me being lead by D around the yard at a walk and a trot. Java's really coming along, and I think she'll be a good pony for someone once her training is complete. She's a good size, too. 13.hh. Anyways, after putting Java away, D and I got all the stalls ready for horses, because the weather had turned windy and rainy. Fortunately though, the rain calmed down by the time it got dark. So that was my day! I hope yours was less tiring!