Sigh ...

Sure am missing my muffin man. He's fat and sassy, though, enjoying his time off. He hasn't had the ENTIRE time off so far. He's been ridden once a week since the clinic. I did hills bareback (with my fleece half pad and a bareback pad) with the halter. Last week I gave a student of mine a lesson the Tiki boy. He was SUCH a rockstar:) Should have taken pics of them! It was her first time on him, and I had her do all his 'tricks'. They were great:)

I am just working like a DOG. 6:00 in the morning, to the barn to do stalls, ride Audrey and Sedona, to PWF for an early lesson, then summer camp, then more lessons, then BACK to Joyce's to finish up my "time". Sometimes I'm too tired to get up in the morning, so I have to ride AFTER camp when it's literally 98 degrees outside ... that's the biggest reason I've chosen to just let Tiki sit around for a few weeks. Next week is my last week of camp, so it's at that point that the muffin and I will start back to work:) Planning to go back to Calimar to go xc schooling the 19th of July, so I have that to look forward to.

Actually gave Nicole her first "real" Jen lesson:) She wanted her butt kicked, so I kicked it! Star is a game little mare; tried to give her ideas to keep her rocked back on her hind end a little more, because Star can be a little lazy and tend to run a little bit instead of canter with impulsion. Made her jump the blue barrel with NO standards or anything. It took a couple of times, but Nicole got her over it. At the end, raised the jump to 3'6 or so, and they were good. I'm still too chicken to actually canter up to a free standing 3'6 jump, but Nicole is way more brave than I. Anyway, it was fun, hope SHE had fun, and I can't wait for us to go play xc together!!!

One more week! Muffin will get a bath and a nice graze tomorrow morning. Probably next Saturday or so, I'll start him back with hills, then trot sets in the pasture, then ring work the following week. He looks great; doesn't seem to have lost any condition. I've switched his SmartPak and will be taking him off the U-guard, and putting him on MSM. Still haven't gotten Adequan yet because that stuff is SO expensive. Maybe I can start him on that in the Fall. I'll let y'all know if I see any difference at the end of the month from the MSM.

Excited about the AEC's in September. I'll hopefully be volunteering for them, but if not, will definitely be spectating. Maybe Tiki and I will be competing in those in September 2011. All it takes is hard work and a little extra $$. The hard work part is no problem ... the $$ part not so easy. Oh well, if it's meant to be, then it's meant to be!