The weather, oh the weather! While we have had two nice days (by nice I mean above freezing), the majority of days have been absolutely freezing! I have developed a nasty case of chillblanes, yes they are real, I promise. I have even read some articles about them! They are absolutely yucky; painful, itchy, ugly, you name it, they are it! Luckly I have found out how to deal with them: Lanolin from New Zealand, don't worry, they sell it cheap on Amazon :)!
Last Monday I had my very first Linda Zang lesson! Linda did a clinic all day at Sharon's farm. Most of the horses had the day off, so we were able to watch quite a bit of the lessons. I learned the most about position from watching a beginner rider, it was interesting to see how much small changes entirely changed his position. I was able to watch a horse with quite a few Clif like habits, so I am excited to try those little exercises out on him in a few months when he is able. I had a lesson later in the day, so I was trying to change everything I felt like she would have a field day with.....the list is large. My lesson was on a super fancy young horse that will hopefully be one of Sharon's next big horses. He is a very lovely Dutch Warmblood, and is the sweetest horse you will ever meet, but also the most worried and sensitive horse you will come across....and if you touch his face, he will run away with you. Linda loved the horse and was helpful with how to ride him. She had me constantly shift my weight at the canter to get him to relax, had me sit a bit further back to encourage his step and sit more to the inside in order to better keep his balance. All in all it was a very interesting experience, and I would love to get some help with Clif at some point. Tess benfits tons from the Gerd lessons, so when she is back in action I think we will stick to what was working for her.
Irish is continuing on her perfect pony path. I cannot say enough good things about this little horse, she is my favorite horse to ride everyday, as your horse should be. She is so smart, you never have to teach her something more than once. She also had her first big horse jump school, aka jumping more than one jump in a row! She jumped though an entire grid, did related distances and jumped the very scary liverpool without blinking! She's going to be a little superstar! I do need to be the responsible rider and sell her, but I really do not want too!!! I am trying to find her the perfect home, the ideal home would be, of course, for her to stay with me and have someone else own her. Dreams come true, right?
This weekend I am off to ride in one of Jimmy Wofford's symposiums. I am riding Sharon's lovelly mare Bounce, so the weekend should be interesting and entertaining, as Bounce truly hates to jump a liverpool on the first try! I will update you all next week. I am also working on getting the video of my Linda lesson, hopefully I can get my technilogically changed brain to figure out putting it up on here or at least You Tube and I will put the link on here!
Enjoy the heatwave of 40 degrees!
Hillary
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
New Year, New Leaf!
I hope that everyone had a good holiday season and got to spend lots of time with friends and family! I was lucky enough to go home for some time over Thanksgiving and Christmas. My time over Thanksgiving got extended some thanks to a nice little back problem, yuck! In hindsight, I do not do enough for me; I do a lot to make sure my horses are strong and healthy, but not enough to make sure I'm strong enough for the task I ask of myself.....yoga starts next week. Over Thanksgiving I got to see my most missed amigos! Clif and Tess are in North Carolina, so seeing them was just what I needed. They looked super fuzzy and as happy as can be expected when not in work; they have definitely grown accustomed to lots of attention and a workload, they actually appear to really miss both!
Christmas came rather quickly and I was able to go down to Florida for four days to see the whole family! My mom had taken Clif and Tuc down; so I got to ride them both! Tuc was super cute and very quiet, which was not expected because she had over a month off due to both my injury and a nasty little battle some very determined cellulitis. Clif was absolutely w-i-l-d, he was trotting for 10 minutes and that was not enough for that attitude. He felt great though, which was exciting.
Just before Christmas my other 3 year old, Irish, came to Last Frontier Farm. I must admit, I was not exactly thrilled about her being there, she was not my favorite and I really did not think we would get along well. Fortunately I was wrong---surprise, surprise. She is absolutely adorable, her face suckers everyone in, everyone who walks by her stall has to stop and pet her (she actually more demands a pet rather than asks for one). She is coming along really nicely on the flat, she is starting to get a bigger stride and so responsive it is amazing she is so young.... "four and one week" since she is a TB! Her biggest love is jumping, she thinks its great fun and would like to do it every day, all day.
Work is going well. I am riding tons and tons, learning a lot. I ride anywhere from four to nine horses a day, some green and some experienced. Jumping days are very busy, I have jumped as many as 8. I stay busy! Yesterday I trotted and cantered 9 horses.......can you say ouch!? My legs are still in revolt.
I promise to be better about updating :-/, sorry!
Hillary
Christmas came rather quickly and I was able to go down to Florida for four days to see the whole family! My mom had taken Clif and Tuc down; so I got to ride them both! Tuc was super cute and very quiet, which was not expected because she had over a month off due to both my injury and a nasty little battle some very determined cellulitis. Clif was absolutely w-i-l-d, he was trotting for 10 minutes and that was not enough for that attitude. He felt great though, which was exciting.
Just before Christmas my other 3 year old, Irish, came to Last Frontier Farm. I must admit, I was not exactly thrilled about her being there, she was not my favorite and I really did not think we would get along well. Fortunately I was wrong---surprise, surprise. She is absolutely adorable, her face suckers everyone in, everyone who walks by her stall has to stop and pet her (she actually more demands a pet rather than asks for one). She is coming along really nicely on the flat, she is starting to get a bigger stride and so responsive it is amazing she is so young.... "four and one week" since she is a TB! Her biggest love is jumping, she thinks its great fun and would like to do it every day, all day.
Work is going well. I am riding tons and tons, learning a lot. I ride anywhere from four to nine horses a day, some green and some experienced. Jumping days are very busy, I have jumped as many as 8. I stay busy! Yesterday I trotted and cantered 9 horses.......can you say ouch!? My legs are still in revolt.
I promise to be better about updating :-/, sorry!
Hillary
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