Riding my horse = pure joy

(Squeaky at his second IEA show)

Since arriving home from Vegas, I had not sat on my boy at all.  We flew in Saturday morning, and then I had exactly ONE WEEK to get our show organized.  If you've never put on a horseshow before, it's stressful.  Very, very stressful.  ESPECIALLY an IEA show because you have to have enough horses to cover all the rides.  I had every intention of hopping on the Muffin before Saturday, but I just did NOT have the time to do so:(


Saturday morning dawned chilly and gray.  Tiki and Star loaded right up on the trailer no prob, and thankfully the new transmission shifted smooth as a baby's butt.  The truck was supposed to have been finished the Monday we got home ... David and I picked it up on FRIDAY.  Talk about cutting it close:)


To further complicate matters, David and I picked this particular weekend to buy a new car ... at a dealership an hour and a half away.  My car was falling apart; it was a 2007 Pontiac G6, and I was about to have to pour some serious money into it.  Sunroof, rear end alignment, wheel bearings, rotors, breaks, air bags, stabilitrak system ... seems like EVERYTHING went wrong right after our 100K extended warranty ran out:(  Unfortunately, we arrived at the dealership Friday night around 7:30, and by the time we tried to put a deal together the banks were closed.  We had to go BACK down there on Saturday to close the deal.  The best part of this whole situation is now the truck is mine.  David will be driving the car now so when I need the truck I have it!  Yay for me:)


When I settled into the saddle on Saturday, it felt like heaven.  He was super for not having been ridden in 2 weeks.  The biggest thing I noticed is he was extremely heavy in my hands.  He wanted to bear down and pull pretty hard.  I worked him for about 45 mins because 2' horses warmed up first., so I had plenty of time.  He felt GREAT over the course.  I was happy with how the warm up ended up.  Once the competition started, his kids won a few blue ribbons!  I was pleased that the judge liked him.  Because he's jumpery and not huntery, sometimes the kids don't get high ribbons on him.  Like I moaned about in my last post, if these kids would just relax and FEEL what's going on underneath them, they would do much better.


Sunday he felt TIRED.  I warmed up for only about 20 mins, and actually had to close my leg at the jumps.  It went ok.  He seemed a little bit irritable.  Typical sensitive chestnut.  Also, during the warm up, the put his tongue over the bit for the first time ever.  Strange.  I may have to start using the figure 8 for IEA shows again.


Thinking I may take him to Patchwork on Saturday to give one or 2 lessons on, and then I will trail ride him so long as the weather is good.  I'm thinking I will not be doing much with him until after Christmas.  Don't know about the horse trial; just depends on how the money flows.  As per usual, I just have more "real life" things to worry about right now.  Tiki's done a LOT this year, and hasn't had a real break, so it won't hurt him to get some down time for the next month.  Hoping to find time to trace clip him soon; he's a hairy beast!