JULY 2005

{

July 19, 2005

A.M. - Didn't get to ride on Sunday.  Spent the whole day working on projects around the house.  Everything looks great though!  We got the bathroom painted, moved the medicine chest, hung a new mirror, put in a new light fixture, switches, plugs and face plates, installed new baseboards a new shower rod, rings, curtain and a new showerhead.  It looks great in there.  We also hung our new 60 lb. mirror in our bedroom.  Was really glad to get that up.  It really makes the room.  Basically, we worked from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m..  I worked my poor man to death.  If it weren't for him, everything would have been off kilter and cockeyed.

Rode last night and continue to be really pleased with Justin's progress.  I'm able to get to work sooner without a lot of fuss from him (squealing and messing around) and he rarely goes above the bit now.  Did some canter to trot transitions.  With the footing, I didn't want to do much but we did enough to show me that he's really come along.  Trot is getting longer and looser, walk is getting a nice swing to it.  He's a little fussy about haunches in to the right but is better than he was the last time.  No squealing or balling up at the trot -- some 'jumping imaginary cavaletti' stuff at the canter (normal for him) but all in all, a very good ride.

Debating on going out tonight, or grilling those steaks I thawed this weekend!  Hmm.....

P.M. - Looks like tonight is steak night.  Bob had a meeting at Andrews so I'm going to make good use of those steaks before they aren't fit to cook!  Got the most adorable pictures from my cousin Gina.  One is of my second cousin, Julia (her little girl) holding her new baby brother, Alexander.  The other is of Julia with her new Breyer horse collection which I sent to her last week.  I'd visited Gina, her husband James and little Julia in Colorado recently when I was there on business.  I just adore Julia.  I'd been trying to get rid of some clutter in the garage and decided it was time to let a few things go -- namely, my sister Pam and my Breyer horse collection (over twenty in all) and my very first baby doll, a Madam Alexander doll.  I came close to selling her to collectors on eBay but decided she somehow needed to stay in the family.  The doll is over 30 years old and the horses are nearly that age.  Seeing Julia again made me think she might be the perfect adoptive parent for my old toys.  Gina told me that package after package kept coming in the mail for the baby and little Julia was so disappointed that nothing was for her.  Of course, since I am over 20 now, my brain is a sieve and I don't remember anything so I kept forgetting to send the toys to Julia.  Finally, memory kicked in and I remembered the weekend before the baby came and I think the two big boxes made it there just a day after Alexander came into the world.  Gina said Julia was thrilled and I think the picture to the right confirms it.  Just about every girl reading this part of News right now has at least one of those Breyer horses my sister and I had in our collection.  I'm just thrilled to have someone to give them to who'll love them like I did.

July 16, 2005

OK, I'm never touching the Codi page again.  I've gone in there and tweaked that page a little here and there and fouled it up one time too many.  I've had two Register.com techs help me out over the past few days (their customer service is amazing) and they've fixed it, only for me to go in there and mess it up again!  So, this last guy, Jake, got the page fixed for me and I'm never touching it again!  I am praying to the web page gods that when I publish this update, that things copy over correctly for that file. 

The twins were off so Alyssa had me all to herself today.  The girl is a superstar!  For someone who hasn't had a ton of showing experience, that girl steps up to the plate every time.  First, we went to her barn and I braided Bailey (did a dandy job, I might add).  When we arrived at the show, poor Alyssa didn't have any time to prep at all.  As mentioned before, Bailey has just come off of a layup and we've only just started jumping him over little Xs at home.  So Alyssa can get some showing in while Bailey is fit enough to jump, she's showing him on the flat in Pleasure and Under Saddle classes. 

Alyssa got dressed while I tacked Bailey up and when she got to pulling her boots on, one would NOT budge!  The poor girl was trying with all her might and it refused to allow her heel to slide through the ankle of the boot.  Normally, these boots pull on just fine.  Not today.  We finally had to scrap the boot idea and she had to go in the ring with breeches and paddocks on.  Thankfully, I know the announcer and I asked him to please tell the judge she'd have to go in paddocks since she couldn't get her boots on.  I just didn't want the judge to think we were being disrespectful or just plain goofy!  I pulled her socks down and stuffed them into the paddocks so he at least looked like she was wearing jodhs and off she went into the ring.  Bailey was actually, uncharacteristically good in his first few classes with no time to even hack around a bit.  Richard made an announcement for anyone who had talcum powder to please stop by his stand.

In the Pleasure Walk/Trot, a class mixed with horses, ponies, children and adults, Alyssa was third.  In Walk/Trot/Canter, she was fourth and Go As You Please, she was tied for sixth with another pony.  While I was waiting for Alyssa to come out of the ring, a nice young woman, Karin (Karin the Petsitter - see her under the 'Virginia' listing at this site), who is a friend of a friend (LuLu Wheeler - probably one of the nicest people on earth), stopped by on her horse and said she had powder.  I was thrilled!

We had a little break between Alyssa's next classes so we did everything we could to ensure those boots would go on.  We switched socks, (mine were a tad thinner), I sprayed the inside of the boots w/Show Sheen, I twisted the daylights out of the ankle area of each boot and we PACKED powder on her heels and legs.  The boots finally went on!  Alyssa was able to wear her boots for her last two classes.  What we were most pleased about (aside from those boots!) was how Alyssa improved as the day went on. 

During a break, I hopped on Bailey to show Alyssa how she might better hack Bailey.  There really is something to hacking and once you figure out how you need to hack your horse, you get  it for good and your chances of a better hack are always higher.  Alyssa is such a quick study.  I tell her one time and she gets it.  After our little pow-wow, she was second in Green Hunter Under Saddle and fourth in the Working Hunter.  She fixed everything she needed to and she finished the day eager to get to her next show.

I ran into friend, Peggy Smith, the photographer, who I just adore.  It was great catching up with her.  She had great stories about her recent trip to Alaska and promised to post pictures to her website soon.  Peggy is a fantastic photographer and I promised her that next year, I'd go broke buying pictures from her of me on Justin! ;)

Also ran into a friend, Wil, who I hadn't see in SEVENTEEN years!  I have students who aren't even that old!  Wil was my barn manager when I had a place in Middleburg.  It was really, really good to catch up with him.  Can't believe he's been in Aldie, VA at Misty Brae Farm, almost this entire time and I hadn't run into him until now!  He came to the show with a client who looked like a very good, polished rider and her attractive bay horse.  Wil looked great and seemed to be doing well.  I hope to catch up with him when we both have more time to talk about old times.

Back at home, when I walked into the house, Bob was into a bathroom remodeling project and of course, I felt like I should help.  First I took a nearly cold shower because it was SO hot today.  Later, I got near my shirt that I wore in all that heat and I have to say, I've stood next to construction workers at Sheetz who smelled better than that shirt.  I was horrified because I realized I stood in McDonald's (the cursory 'on the way home' visit) and I'm sure I offended a few people.  I'm sure of it because quite frankly, while ordering my food, I offended myself.  Note to self:  set fire to pink monogrammed shirt.

The day ended with Bob and I shuffling around Lowe's (OK, I shuffled.  I was just happy to be showered at that point), picking out all the new stuff for the bathroom.  My efforts earned me a dinner at the restaurant of my choice.  I chose Bob Evans, which my Bob has grown to hate but he conceded and took me there.  The sweet tea alone is the draw for me.  I can die happy now.

No riding Justin today.  I'll head out tomorrow evening after we remodel the bathroom.  I'm sure I'll just have tons of energy by then (right!).  I miss my gray pony! (Crossing fingers while hitting 'Publish').

July 15, 2005

Got to ride last night.  He's getting so much better about his haunches in and half-pass.  I think the hardest thing about both is keeping the horse bent in the direction he's tracking.  His canter seemed much tighter (less like an egg-beater) and he settled into a nice, rhythmic trot pretty much from the start.  A few of his antics that he usually does at start up but he settled in a lot quicker than he has in the past.  I think I'm most impressed with how good his canter has gotten. 

My bumper system is still hanging in there.  Seems to be working like a charm.

July 13, 2005

Didn't get to ride last night.  Worked on the 'bumper' project instead. Bob helped me pick up the PVC pipe and hardware at lunch time.  The pipe just barely fit in Snowy, the Explorer.  I hung the pipe just in front of the edge of the block and in front of a beam in the stall from cables and snaps.  I sincerely don't believe it will withstand a lot of bumping into so I'm sure I'll need to go to plan B with it soon.  Won't bore you with that but I just might even do that before the whole deal decides the cables and clamps aren't going to cut it.  An easy fix.

Justin was hilarious the whole time I was working on the project.  He literally just rested his chin on my back while I worked.  Didn't even do the "I'm just going to take a little taste of you" thing.  Just rested it there.  Or, he set his nose right next to my ear and breathed nice, warm breath down my neck, making the 90° temperatures about 95°.  But what could I say?  He's just so adorable so I let him.  He had to inspect every single piece of hardware, sniff the drill and literally be on my hand with his muzzle while I tried to run the cable through the clamps.  He was VERY curious about the big white pipe.  Tried to taste it and figured out it wasn't going to yield any goody so he went back to inspecting my work.

Finally found the time to update Codi's pictures with captions and descriptions and something went whacky and now there are double sets of navigational buttons and just the URL for the photogallery is sitting there.  Grrr!  Webpages are fun but they are so much work!

Look how cute he is!  Will head out to the barn again tomorrow.  Looking forward to seeing my pony again!

July 10, 2005

Fantasmic ride last night.  Justin was superb.  He's carrying himself at longer intervals without as much assistance from me and is so much lighter on the forehand.  Nothing I hate worse than a ride that is downhill and heavy on the forehand.  Except maybe one that pops its shoulder through the turns too!  Bleh!

Have introduced the half-pass, haunches in and shoulder in.  I love how he feels to ride after doing suppling work.  My next challenge is to get him to move out longer.  I've had to spend all of this time teaching him to just trot in a consistent rhythm, go on the bit, work from behind and bend.  Now that he is getting all of that pretty consistently, I'll start working to lengthen his movement.

Went out to help Alyssa with her pony.  He'd been bucking after jumping and dumping her.  Sarah had tried to jump him and he'd done the same thing.  After Alyssa warmed him up, I longed him over a jump a few times to make sure he wasn't hurting during jumping.  He popped over it just fine.  I got on and trotted a stack of poles, then an X.  He was fine.  Then I helped Alyssa with how she should ride him to the jump.  I gave her some tips on what she should do if he tries to buck again and everything wrapped up nicely by the end.  Personally, I think Bailey is just being lazy and has figured out he can dump Alyssa, then he doesn't have to work.  Now that he's sound enough to jump, he'll need to get used to the idea of doing more than flatwork.

July 7, 2005

It's a little past 9:00 PM and I just got back from the barn.  Figured I should take some time out to update my site -- tweak a few things and so forth.  It's been a kick to look at the statistics that the hosting company provides to see who looks at my webpage.  It's funny to see how often people come and what they look at.  What's weirder is to see people visit regularly who I don't know at all!  Another fun thing is, the statistics tell me how many hits I average an hour and what the most popular times for people to visit my site are.  Oddly, people seem to visit most around 11 a.m. and 9 p.m..  It's also neat to see how some people find their way to the site, for instance, through Google or Yahoo through a search string and even tells you what search string they used that sent them to me.  Neat stuff.

The rain kept me from riding tonight but I still went to groom Justin, to do his stretches, ground training and I gave him a nice massage.  I rode him pretty hard last night so I figured he might be a little sore.  The rides have been great.  He's really been trying.  His canter has gotten better and he's really muscling up nicely.  He's developed the nicest neck!  I want to try to get some more fat on his ribs but in the meantime, everything is shaping up well.

Sarah has been working hard at her ground training and she's gotten ahead of me!  She has Romeo to where he'll do one task on voice command.  I worked on it tonight with Justin and he's getting it.  Really fun stuff.

The ground has been so hard.  Last night I rode in a field that had recently been mowed.  The freshly cut grass provided a little cushion and allowed me to push Justin a little harder on the flat.  I've been riding him in polos and hind boots (he interferes a little) but I really want to look into those Professional's Choice SMB boots.  I want something that provides maximum support and shock absorption -- given the footing lately.

Justin got a boo-boo on the back of his hock and I'm certain it is from some cinderblock which is a part of the construction in his stall.  I'm going to design a 'bumper' system made out of PVC pipe.  Basically, I'm going to mount some pipe back there that will keep him from backing into the block.  Little trip to Lowe's or Home Depot and I'll be good to go for probably under $20.  PVC pipe is cheap.

Haven't had any shows which is always nice and a bummer at the same time.  Nice, because I get to spend time with Bob, a bummer because I love to see my kids win!  The holiday was cause for a break and now, the trailer is in the shop to get some upgrades.  Should have it back by the end of the week but I think we're going to take a break this weekend which means more time with Bob and Justin!  I'll also give Alyssa a lesson and plan on taking my niece out for a long overdue birthday outing (horse stuff gets in the way -- thankfully, she forgives me).

Off to bed!