Fighting out of the left corner....

So, here in North Carolina, we are experiencing quite the week. Beautiful weather so far (thankfully, a break from 95+ degree heat!), a little rumble of earthquake on Tuesday, and a hurricane by the weekend.  Ah, just the kind of combination to get us in the mood for the Fall season.

I'm truly excited to sit down and write out a 'plan' for this Fall (and by plan, I mean I scratch and doodle some events on the calendar, most of which will change).  I have the big man's name written with a tiny (whispers) "I" written next to it (meaning, if the stars align, we'll see ourselves with even bigger, big-boy pants on!), plus I have several other names to include in the schedule, besides my students of course!

The first name is a familiar one, Niki or Nik of Time who started competing with me last Spring, and has taken a bit of time off to hone the skills of eventing.  She'll be back to her fighting weight soon (if only the grass would stop growing!), and be out and about at the Buckhorn Combined Test on September 10th.

The second name is one that I should have introduced last month, but my blogging upkeep has been dismal, and I'm a slacker. So, this post is introducing Ryan.

Ryan came to me the day after my wedding (cause I'm crazy and like to schedule training horses to arrive after a night of drinking and getting hitched), to see if we could make him 'normal'. He'd spent his 6 short years in the world of "paints" and "spur training", learning that if you kick, that means head down and slower. Nice. His new owner just wanted to be able to ride him with the kind of cues most of us are taught (aka, leg means go, more leg means go faster).  I initially told her to give me 2 weeks with him to see where we could get.

Ryan didn't need 2 weeks - he needed 2 rides.  Super smart, super cute, and super willing.

After a month of so, I popped him over a little row of fences set in the ring.  He was so good! (albeit a little wiggly!).

In July, we decided to take him to a little dressage show.  We were worried about him getting uptight, as the owner had seen him do in the past, but we neednot have worried! Ryan was cool as a cucumber, although a slight bit fatigued once we got in the ring.  He scored a very respectable 63.2%, and went out for a cruise around the XC course.  He had so much fun (and me too) that we decided to take him to the Starter HT the next weekend.

Well, once again, he ROCKED it!  I don't think his little ears stopped being pricked the whole time we were there! He finished on his dressage score to place 2nd!

His wonderful owner has let me continue to show him, and is awesomely supportive. Here's to hoping for fun things from this guy this Fall!

He's back!

When I get an email that I read and need to respond to but don't have time right then, I mark the little 'star' next to it.  Right now, I'm starring at 100 little stars, that apparently I need to do something about, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

That's kind of how I feel about this blog.  I have about 4 different posts that I REALLY need to do, but haven't seemed to find a few extra minutes to get them in.  But I figured there was one really, really important one to do, and so here it is....

Prophet is back, baby!

I've actually started this entry 3 times now.  First it was after a little dressage show in July where P went out and showed the dressage ponies how it's done, winning the First Level Test 3.  Then it was after the rated dressage show (where we showed in the non-rated class), where P went in the ring with NO warm-up (what-so-ever) and pulled off a decent enough test, right before the rain gods blessed us with a downpour.  But even though I was super happy with him at those two events, plus at the super-fun jump lessons we've had with MJS, I just couldn't bear to right "He's back" until we had an honest-to-goodness event under our belts.

Well now we do. River Glen has always been a favorite location of mine.  I did my B-prep there about a million years ago, and have had a few runs around the mountain (or sometimes not quite getting to the mountain).

We (my student, Jen, working student/groom, Maggie, and I) had planned to stop for a quick XC school on the long drive up there, but after a small light malfunction (which meant taking my ancient little truck with two horses, three people, and all our stuff through the mountains), we headed straight there.  This meant P was going to have to run the XC without stepping foot on a course (or into water, or over a ditch) since April. Great.

Luckily I had no need to worry.

P's dressage left a little to be desired (um, meaning I need to ride FORWARD), and I was happy to just have a rail and a few time (for a minor 'regrouping' session) after the carnage that was the Show Jumping.  The XC course on Sunday had it's own set of problems.  I thought it looked like a BLAST of a course, with not a lot of size, but plenty to look at.  P felt a little bit taken-aback, but rocked in none-the-less, finishing over the time (a planned, slow canter around), but clear over the fences.

We brought home the green ribbon, which a very young student asked if it was 3rd place.  When I replied "No, it's sixth" she said "Wow, you must have done really bad."  hahahahaha.... nothing like a 6 year old to bring you down to reality.

Attached are a few pics that Bryan (owner of HoofWraps) took before XC (all photos credited to Rusted Digital Photography).  I will try and get more photos/videos loaded sometime soon!

His goal was to make it look like the sun was rising!

It was a huge team effort just get get P to put one of his ears up.

Galloping up the hill to the Trekhener

P, me, my dad, Maggie, and my mom before the fun phase!