Groton House Pics and Vids

A big huge THANK YOU to Daun and her SO for some great pictures and video from Groton House's stadium!!!




And this one is my favorite, because I look so delighted and she's looking so witchy at the horse coming up behind her! "This is MY victory gallop, don't you DARE come within a hundred feet of me!"












It's still raining here, by the way. But the rain has changed from nonstop drizzle to massive thunderstorms inbetween bouts of beautiful sunshine and HOT, muggy weather. It's gross and it's sticky and it's creepy when suddenly the sky gets all dark and heavy and the wind starts howling, but hey, that's summer. Gogo had Monday off (and a nice long handwalk and grooming and graze, as well as a huge turnout.. even though at 10am sharp she started running the fence so I had to appease her highness with more hay EVEN THOUGH SHE HAS GRASS OUT THERE), and on Tuesday we hacked lightly for a half-hour. Today, we had another OUTSTANDING dressage ride. Seriously, I can't explain how all of a sudden she's matured into this fine dressage-y animal. Not that she wasn't before, but her cooperation has skyrocketed. It's like all of a sudden she went OH, if I dance pretty people will ooh and aah over me, all right let's do this thing! She's such a kook. We're really approaching more collected work now, and while I can't yet ask for collection and achieve it whenever I want reliably, we're getting more and more collected moments for longer periods of time. Her lengthenings are really approaching real mediums - today I felt her shoulders LIFT like nothing she's ever offered before - and her canterwork is light, balanced, uphill and really, really powerful, even though I can maintain it all with just my seat and some very delicate half-halts. That's incredible. We schooled some 10m circles at the canter today, lots of shoulder-in, lots of transitions, some half walk pirouettes and a lot of reinback. She is REALLY getting the reinback now, finally for the first time in her life! No longer does she rear, fight the contact, or stiffen through her body. No, today she stayed soft in the contact and moved lightly backwards with little prompting from me, because she's amazing. Ahhhhh dressage is SO MUCH FUN when it all comes together!


I have some other big big news. I have earned myself a Rider Achievement Award (the Medallion Club to be exact), and Gogo and I have earned two gold medals between us via the new USEA Medal program for Novice. I need to wait til Groton House's results are official with the USEA, and then I can apply for them. SWEET!

The other awesomely cool news is that Daun's USEA contact e-mailed me and wants me to write for the USEA blog. THAT IS SO AWESOME. I'm not totally sure yet what my first installment is going to be, but I can't wait. I love being not-actually famous! My only claim to fame before this was making out with Hole's ex-bass player (Courtney Love's old band... well what can I say, she was hot!). It feels so good to be recongized for all the hard work we've been doing. Area Championships are eleven days away AND I CAN'T WAIT.

Maybe I'll do GMHA at the end of this month, but I need to hustle if that's the case. What do you think?