Friday Foto Catchup

Instead of trying to remember, and in some cases not wanting to remember, what happened over the last couple of months, let's just have some pics instead. 

Cinder has had feelings about the tarps (barley visible in the right side of the pic just above the arena fence) that the barn owner had over her burn pile and garden this winter. Cinder is pretty sure they are death tarps and was very exuberant in her refusal to go anywhere near them. We have slowly (somewhat) conquered our fear of tarps and that corner, but the battle wages on. 

Trainer M aboard

We attended another show in April, and Cinder was fantastic. My riding left a lot to be desired. Friday Trainer M used Cinder as the guinea pig to see how the jumper courses rode and Cinder happily bopped around like a pro. Saturday I was supposed to do a 2'3" hunter round as warm up, then two 2'6" rounds, but I completely forgot how to see a distance, panicked, started to doubt every single life choice I've ever made, and then went and cried in my truck. You know, your normal amateur things.

M and Cinder again

Sunday I told M I just wanted to trot some cross rails in the warm up ring, and that's exactly what we did. And then I cried in my truck again. We hadn't really jumped a whole lot in the month between the shows, and nothing really at height, and I think between that and Cinder's inability to function in the outdoor due to the tarps, I didn't feel prepared and got overwhelmed. Trainer M schedules quarterly goal check-ins with her clients and we talked and made a plan going forward so hopefully future shows will go better. 

We lesson with Lily, the gray mare poking her head over the wall, on Thursdays and she and Cinder have a love/hate relationship. This day they were very much in love

 

Cinder got her annual hock and stifle maintance a couple of weeks ago. Last year she got them done in July and August, but we're hoping to show more in those months this year so I talked to our vet and moved them up. Our vet's pretty conservative with her rehabs, so Cinder got a week of hand walking, a week of walking under saddle, and we started trotting this week. If all continues to go well we can canter and I think even jump next week. 

Our assistant trainer barrel races and had set up the barrels for some of the lesson kids and Cinder walked the hell out of the pattern during her rehab

We have a tentative show schedule planned for summer, but we're waitlisted for Tbird in August (and who knows what crossing the border/the tariff situation taking horses across will be like) and my work schedule has shifted so I'm working six days a week every other week so fingers crossed we can actually make it to some shows.