It's hot up here. Really really hot. It's only 10 in the morning here and its already 95 degrees. Yuck! Hot, humid weather and horses do not mix very well.
Yesterday was about 90. I rode Ben for about a half an hour before I had to get off. He was fine of course, barely sweating and not even breathing hard, I was the one who was dying up there...
I always wonder how he gets so fit and I just don't. Aren't I the one who made him that fit? Hmm, things to ponder.
In other news, my horse has been most wonderful lately. It just makes me so happy to see all the progress he is making. When I first got him he was so green and had basically no real training. I couldn't walk once around the ring without him trying to start trotting. And then once we got that sorted out, I couldn't trot down the short side of the ring without him losing his balance and running on his forehand. It's just so amazing to see where he is now, all in the time of just a couple months over a year.
I had a jumping lesson Tuesday. It was fairly simple we just jumped two lines but it was very beneficial to Ben because it just got him jumping well and in a nice rhythm. Jumps were like 2'9"/3' which was also good for Ben because we haven't actually been jumping competition height much. We need more sand for our ring. It has a clay base so if it doesn't have enough sand its too hard to jump on. I have only been jumping at my lessons so we haven't done too much. Luckily, with all this hot weather, the ring has really dried up and its a little softer. It just needs a good dragging and then I can probably jump a bit on it sometime this week.
Anyway, Ben was really good for the lesson and I have a few videos that I'm going to post. There's only 10 days until Apple Knoll, I really have to get our butts into gear, it doesn't seem that close. He could use another two days of trot/canter sets on the loop. It should be dry enough now with all the hot weather.
I also need to figure out what the heck I am going to do with his mane. I can't braid it and I really hate leaving it unbraided. I just feel like that looks sloppy and like I didn't care enough to put the time in. People have mentioned roaching it before but I just can't bring myself to do it. I freak out everytime I have to clip his bridlepath!
I have tried every braid in the book: hunter braids, button braids with bands, sewn in button braids, dressage braids, scalloped braids, and plenty of hybrids between some of those but they either look like crap, or fall out, or both. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to let me know about them...
This is a video of a random lesson I had last weekend where we did gridwork:
Here's us on Tuesday jumping the outside line:
And jumping the outside to the diaganol. Enjoy our half tempi changes at the end, he didn't want to go straight after the jump...:
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