Whew! Yesterday my alarm went off at the insane hour of 4:15am and I loaded my horse up to go cross country school. We stopped at the barn and grabbed some friends, then made our way to Queeny Park to knock off some rust and jump a few fences before our group heads to River Glen Horse Trials next weekend.
It was a beautiful day, with the scorching July heat leaving us alone for most of the ride, and 12 horses made the trek from So. Ill to St. Louis (well, Deb cheated and just came from 20 minutes away, but I'll let that one slide!). Deb and I started off with a quick 12 minute trot to let some steam off from our two, then we just popped over a couple of small things and scoped out some of the stuff that was mowed and had good footing.
I would have to say that the day was a success. The group ended up splitting into 2 smaller groups- we took the Novice/Training group and found some bigger stuff while Kelty wrangled the starter/Beginner Novice/moving up to Novice group. It made the schooling go much faster, and we were out of there in a timely manner for once. But from what I saw everyone had very educational and confidence building days. The group I was in ROCKED their schooling, with riders jumping fences at the Training level quite confidently, including Birdie rocking her first proper corner!
We finished up as a group down at the bottom of the hill where the water box sits. Even though there was not any water in it, I was glad to jump in and answer all of the questions that we could possibly see next weekend. I was very proud of Goose, as he jumped everything without asking once, including a very big, very narrow mushroom looking jump. He also jumped into the water box from every angle like a champ, now just to add the water!
I finished off the day by swapping vehicles with my mom so I could run off to work, and somehow made it through a 6 hour shift before crawling home and into bed around 11 last night. I spent most of my shift with poultice on my hands (oops!) but I wouldn't trade anything from yesterday for all the tea in China.
I am off this morning to ride Goose and then he will see the Chiropractor so he feels in tip top shape for next weekend. I also am working my life away for the next 5 days, so wish me luck! We are supposed to do a dinner for Kelty next week since she is leaving us, and word is Deb is coming down for some lessons and shenanigans, so fingers crossed I get a bit of a break before the weekend!
See you later guys!
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