Spring visited!

No barn on Saturday because Hubby's massive family took over our tiny house for his birthday. I always feel like hiding when they come over. I wish I could make a little cave and take all the food with me. They swoop in and clear us out in one giant meal.

and then darcy tried to eat the baby.

Most of Sunday was spent doing house things before Hubby and I jetted out to a distant town I'd never even heard of before to do some biznass I'll share if things pan out. We stopped at the barn for pony time on our way back. We bought a new camera a couple of weeks ago at Best Buy's sale and I wanted to test it out. I'm not allowed to use it at the barn without Hubby's supervision. That was literally our deal when buying it. I don't know if it has something to do with the fact that cameras last about....oh, five months max under my care or what, but I agreed. I still have my beat to shit Olympus to shove in my pocket at least.

I went up to get Mr Magee out of his paddock and I literally did a little dance when I saw his bell boots were still on. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fed him his cookie, put his halter on, and had a mini panic attack when he walked to the gate swinging his LH out and dragging his toe. WTF, Bobby?! I thought he might have lost a back shoe, but fortunately he was still shod all around. He walked that way all the way down the hill. I brought him into the barn and grabbed a hoof pick. His hind feet had giant balls of mud and stones in them. I scraped him out and asked BO if she would watch him jog, just in case. She gave him the thumbs up and I tacked his princess self up.

Because it was in the mid-forties, mostly sunny, and not windy (!!) we were all over going to the outdoor. It actually felt like spring! I didn't need a coat to ride! It was amazing! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bobby was far more interested in gazing at the most beyootiful screaming TB mare whose foot-long ears rival his own in the paddock outside the arena than doing any real flat work, but dressage work has always been pretty much nonexistant when outside. Oh, well.

Of course Hubby had to play with the zoom and completely missed our flying change. He didn't miss how loose my lower leg is though. Probably ought to work on that two point just a touch more. And by a touch more I mean work on it period. It's hard to end a winter of dressage work when winter won't fucking end! But anyway. We got all three of our flying changes with zero fuss so dressage work can stay in the indoor for now. Small wins, people. I popped him over the 2'6 vertical that I had set up forever ago for warm up and I was super happy he didn't bolt the stupid thing.

As I explained to Hubby, I've been watching a shit ton of stadium rounds and trying to focus on the rhythm of the canter so I can carry it over to my own riding since I'm always going so slow. It's all about footfalls for me, and as stupid as it sounds, it actually worked today. It must be because I'm such a musical genius. Or something.

this is how the feetsies fall, hubby. why are you laughing at me?

I had Hubby raise the jump to 3' so we could finally have some real fun. I focused on being fast at the canter which translated to being spot on with our pace. Bobby started out a little, "OMG, we're doing the jumping! Must do the jumping nowwwwww." and had a bit of a canter in place like he does when his brain is about to explode, but a few canter laps on a loose rein with me patting his neck chilled him out and we got to work.

why hubby shouldn't be allowed to play with camera settings.

kind of cool.

I was really happy with how Robert jumped. I had my foot on the gas pedal enough that he didn't feel like he had to race to the fence, and  we got our leads every time.

one of these days i'm going to set out like, a 10' spread oxer.
my horse is a mile long.

He was also really listening to me on picking spots. I love, love, love that I can see a bit of a long spot now and gave him a smack on the shoulder with my crop to ask him to take it and he doesn't have a full blown meltdown. He's just like, "Right-o."

We didn't do too much, and it certainly wasn't enough for Bobby who channeled his inner Memphis and gave me a lovely trot lengthening down the longside because I was trying to not let him canter. With that, I can safely say the lengthenings we've been trying to get are not for realz. But now I know they're in there. Game on, Bobby.

"fuck this dressage shit. i wants the jumping."

No ride today as it's snowing its balls off. It's was nice of Spring to visit for a day at least. Someone dropped off the 2010 WEG Eventing DVD in my locker, so that's what I'll be doing today instead. It will get me in the spirit since today is opening day for our first event!

matching derp faces.