Stuff ...

Well, GA is back to COLD weather. Daggum!! It has been quite miserably WINDY since the drop dead gorgeous weekend weather. It has been flat out miserable since Monday. Beautiful to look at it, but will freeze your toesies off. Didn't ride Monday because it was raining, of course. Rode Tuesday, and it was a fairly normal day for Tiki when he hasn't done a ton of flat work recently. He felt a little stiff, didn't want to bend his neck or body, and has decided that he LIKES being ridden on a loose rein. Anyway, he worked out of all that, and I popped him over a few small jumps. I set a 2'6 vertical with no ground line down the "X" center line, had a 4 stride line of 2 verticals set up; one at 2'6, the other at 2'9, and had cavellettis all the way down set as bounces on the opposite long side. Trotted into the vertcal with no ground lines, he knocked it down, but landed on the right lead. I turned him left, and he popped off a very nice flying change. Cantered the bounces, and he stayed very slow through that. Cantered into the line, and planned to add a step. He was on a bigger stride than I anticipated, and we ate the distance coming out, so he knocked down the second jump. Ugh. Got off and fixed the 2 poles, then got back on. At that point, things got much better. Trotted the no ground line vert again, and he jumped it well. Kept cantering around to the bounces; kept going to the line, and let him get the stride. Stopped, came again in an opposite direction, caught the line to the bounces again, and he was quite good.

Yesterday, gave him the day, and today it was so cold, I put the quarter sheet on. This weekend is my IEA team's big Regional competition, and Tiki and Star are going. So we practiced potential equitation tests. Turn on the haunches, check. Turn on the forehand, check. Figure 8, check. Counter canter, check. Change leads down the center of the ring, check. That's all the hard stuff, and he nailed it perfectly.:) Cantered the bounces off the right lead and he was perfect. Came again off the left lead, and he was perfect again, so we quit there. I'll ride him tomorrow at the venue, and then Saturday's the show. Wish us luck, we HAVE to finish 1st or 2nd in order to move on to Zones, so fingers crossed!!:):)