Today's the Day!

Yesterday's a little bit of this an' a little bit of that did not go over all that well. Gogo continued to be stiff, resistant, and crooked throughout the first part of our lesson, and I figured out why at some point - it wasn't that I had Vicki's saddle or that I had raised the bit a hole (although we did lower it again), it was because I was grumping about saddles and worrying about whether or not I was going to need a new one and where was that money going to come from and and and, and I wasn't letting my inner zen take over and just block everything out to focus on her. Once again, I laughed at something somebody said at some point, and I had an instantly rideable horse, complete with fluid, supple lateral work, transitions, serpentines, circles of any size, you name it. She's SO in tune to whatever I'm doing and thinking that I really need to be fair and let it all go as soon as I walk into the barn. I think how I act before I get on probably has something to do with it too. Gogo, my personal barometer... ;) I think for Monday, if I don't revisit the lunging thing, I'll ride her in my saddle and THIS CRAZY BIT:

WHOA IT'S LIGHT BLUE AMAZING. Even if it doesn't work out on the flat you can be DAMN SURE I'll find SOME use for it, even if it's just hacking around!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And today's the day!! Our first little show of the season. I spent the afternoon yesterday clipping her bridlepath (which is a bit sad because I overclipped last time, and now need to leave a section of mohawk there.... sigh!), socks, and whiskers, trimming and banging her tail, bathing (which she was just thrilled about), cleaning tack, cleaning out the trailer, trimming her feet, and getting all my schooling show attire out (tan britches, black turtleneck, and tall boots pretty much is the extent of that).





Look at those popeyes in the bathing picture. I think she could hear somebody galloping around in the arena and it was freaking her out a bit. In her stall, she looks ridiculous - she has on a navy blue full body Sleazy, a maroon head and neck Sleazy, and Shannon's green and gold stable blanket complete with monogram (her stable blanket needed a wash... BADLY! The bottom picture is her RF post trim. Really, there's nothing to take off this foot, it maintains so well on its own. I just took the wall down a hair and rolled the edge, and that was pretty much it on all fours. Her bars are all self-maintaining too, right where they should be. The bars on her LF grew out quite a lot a few trims ago, even though they hadn't been touched the trim before, but when I took them down, down they stayed and they've been down ever since. Easy feet!

Now, off to the barn for a nice early handwalk. Wish us luck, we'll post results later!