Good Times!

Hello!

I hope everyone has been dong well! I have been, it was my much needed spring break!

This week we headed down to Full Gallop Horse Trials in Aiken, SC. Thursday was yucky weather with nasty storms starting around 12 and lasting until about 3...when my lessons were. I was glad for the weather to break a bit, even if it was for just about 3 hours. I had quick jump lessons with Sharon White on Thursday. Tess jumped 3 feet over everything and was being great, so not much needed to be done with her, just me! Clif was also a good, a bit of a wild man, but good. He jumped great as well and got an easy last jump school before the weekend. Friday the weather continued to be nasty, love the spring storms! (NOT!). Clif and Tess had flat lessons on Friday. Clif was a bit wild in the beginning (big surprise there) and ended up beautiful! He had brilliant canter work and discovered a new trot with a bit of suspension...pretty cool!!!!! Tess then had her lesson...and oh, what a lesson it was. She was an absolute monster; she has been so good at home...oh well! She was just flat out unwilling to cooperate. Sharon helped me work it out with her a bit, we took off her flash and let her see if she liked that..she did not love it, but she liked it much better. She ended on a positive note and almost having removed my arms from my body.

Saturday was an early day, starting at 5 am. Tess did dressage first at 7:40....I'm going to blame the dressage on the fact that the princess was not impressed by being harassed at 5:30 in morning for something as horrible as dressage. Her test was actually impressive...impressively bad. She is such a lovely horse, it is very frustrating to have her be so naughty when she is fully capable of being the top or one of top horses in dressage. Better luck next time I suppose! Clif was next and was a bit tense to begin with. He relaxed a bit and started going well. We then went to warm up around the ring..someone had a trot through a puddle and Clif thought that was the end of the world. We did a nice spin and bolt with me hanging on the side of him. Man am I glad he stopped! Poor Clif, if a lady bug moves behind him, he is out of there! He settled back down and went around the ring in pretty circles. I need to be more confident in what I am asking him, he knows the tricks now and is relaxed, he is capable of getting straight 8's on his canter work, and he would have had I not backed off his canter lengthenings, oops. He got a 31 on his test which quite good, especially for him!

Saturday was also the day of show jumping. Clif got to show jump first. He was good for the warm-up area being so awful. But, I got him to a nasty distance with no leg and he said "No way dummy!". So after a nice little stop and some rattled Clif nerves we got it all back together. He jumped around well...he had the first fence down, which was a bit too bad, but not at all a big deal. I just didn't quite have it together enough for him to jump well over it. He is a funny horse, he seems quite the know-it-all, but is actually a bit timid and does a lot of over compensating for it with wildness. Something we need to work on! Tess jumped around lovely, she jumped about 4 feet over the first fence, it was very scary!!! She continued to jump well, we had one fence that was not as perfect as planned when she came above the bit and against me. That is what we are working on and will continue to work on, but 1 fence out of 10 isn't so bad..it is progress!!

Sunday was not quite as early, yay! Clif was the first out again. He was a maniac, but then again, he was in a rubber snaffle. I think we will upgrade to a regular snaffle from now on...such big bits he has! He definitely needed confidence around the whole course and did get better as it went on. He galloped around really quick and jumped pretty well...no thanks to my shoulders that needed to be around 6 inches further back! He was 5 seconds over the time which was good considering we had several discussions about our speed around the course. Tess went out next and she was AWESOME! I kept waiting for her to get her attitude out...but it never came. She went out of the box happy and focused..what!?!?! Yes that's right, happy and focused! She was great through the first few fences..I kept feeling like I was doing something weird..then I noticed I was smiling! I'm usually so serious with her (and I have to be) that I never really notice anything. She was super about everything, I could not have asked for anything better from her! I'm so so so proud of her. She doesn't have a picture of her on here because the camera went dead! But I will be sure to put some up from Southern Pines of her..she would be so angry she did not have her princess photos up!

Overall the weekend was great for the everyone. Clif ended up winning! He's won two in a row now, and this was his first full prelimb win (Pinetop was only a P/T division)! What a good horse! Tess ended up 8th which was not too shabby considering our dressage :). I think there were about 20 in their division, so big divisions! Well, I am off to continue scrubbing buckets, boots, and soaking Clif's smelly haynet (Got to love the horses that dunk hay in water EVERY SINGLE time!) Everyone take care, find time to ride and more here after Southern Pines II Horse Trials!!
Hillary