So this blog thing..

..I'm just not good at it. But mostly, it's been a combination of being busy with the end of e-team season, horse problems, graduating.. ect.

Ok.. Recap of the rest of E-team-
This season was awesome!! I qualified GOLD in Keyhole for state, and then I won GOLD at state. I couldn't ask for a better season. (Well, I could actually, but this was good enough!). Drill team didn't place last, but we didn't place well either. So I guess that was an improvement over last year.


My horse situation-
Nic has a heart murmor. We found out when we took him to go get his teeth floated and before the vet sedated him, he listened to his heart and said "Do you know that your horse has a heart murmor?" Um.. NO! We have no idea whether this is something that he was born with, or he's developed since we got him, because we didn't vet check him=STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID!!!!!!
He's not going to make a speed event horse, thats for sure. We don't know the grade of it, but still. Currently trying to maybe get rid of him, and if it comes down to it, we'll just put him down. I don't want to sell him to someone and them be riding him and him have a heart attack. and he's such a snot he might not make a very good companion horse.

What this means-
I'm effectivly horseless for the things that I want to do, i.e. Rodeo in college. But whatever.. so I'm not taking a horse with me to college, which really really sucks, I wanted that more than anything. But i'm going to try and do equestrian team for my school. I'm doing Gorge Girls drill this summer with Okie (and maybe Steel if I talk to Larry and he's ok with it).

So that's where I'm at right now. On a good note, I have a game show this weekend and hopefully I'll do pretty good. I'll post results on that after Sunday.

Um..

..Yea.. So. The post below was the last "nice" ride I've had on Nic. The last time I rode him he was really good for the first 10-15 minutes and then he started not really wanting to go forward, he would not trot, and when I tapped his butt he humped up and kicked out. I got off because I got scared, and then moved him around a lot on the ground, but I never got back on him. And I haven't been on him since.

Ugh..

Larry is going to take him for awhile and put some time in on him, which he needs with someone who isn't afraid and tell him how it is.

I have had some good play sessions with him however. He is getting a lot lighter and listening a lot more.

As far as Equestrian goes, I've been kicking butt on Steel. For points I'm sitting first in Keyhole, and have had some really good runs on other events. I'm doing reining at the 3rd meet for a joke, lol. It should be entertaining.

Yay

Short post tonight, I'm tired, and have had NO time lately post details about anything.. I'll make up this weekend...maybe...

Nic was AMAZING at Wednesdays gaming practice, he was sooo good. We cantered through poles for the first time (not the whole way, but most of it, lol), worked on keyhole, flags and barrels along with poles. And bi-rangle as well, and he was just AWESOME the WHOLE time.. such a good boy.

I am using Steel for the meets because Nic is just not ready, and I do not want to push him before he's ready, I would rather not want to undo damage, I'd rather just keep him whole.

Cleansing...

cleansing talks are always so nice...


1) I need to accept where I am with my horse


2) The only opinion that matters at the end of the day is mine and my horses.



...details later...


I <3 you Frannie!!!!

I suck at updating..

..well, I have a sort-of excuse, BUSY!!! Between the play and equestrian team practices I haven't had a chance to update. Nic has been doing better since the post below. He has been great at the gaming practices, with a little snotty-ness, but not bad, but at drill he started out ok on the ground, then got kinda bad, and Kendra hopped on him for me, he humped up a little when she got on, but then he was fine. She rode him for a little bit and he didn't do anything, so I hopped on and had a pretty good practice with him. He needed some reminding that he can't kill the other horses and the other horses are not going to kill him. I've been trying to teach him showmanship, and so far that going pretty well. He'll trot with me on both sides about 90% of the time, and is starting to understand how to square up. Haunch turns are still bleck, but hey, he's learning, and a lot of that has to do with his lack of knowledge about the porcupine game.

Psycho...

lol, I just got back in from a very wet session with nic
he was an absolute TERROR when we took him to practice saturday..I didn't want to ride him, and so we ended up having to move arenas, so we went home and got okie
... kicking out or bucking when he didn't want to do something, full of energy, just being a jerk
I was like....I'm NOT getting on...

so, our session today was ok.. it was good when we were up by the other horses, but as I made my way down the field he got worse and worse, doing more kicking out every time he didn't want to do something. so I ended up down by the section of fence that is wood, so I attempted some squeeze game, and some sends, and TONS of yo-yo, because it seems he kicks out more when he doesn't want to yo-yo.anyways... the other horses finally came down there, and so I got him to where he was paying semi attention to me, and let him go, and busted butt up the front of the field and started playing with JJ lol. then I made my way up there, and scratched him, and then let him come to me a couple times, and went and fed them.. so it ended on an alright note
mind you, he's in a stall for a month, and been out about 2 days of that
and being fed HOT HOT HOT feed, so I'm sure thats part of it
He needs to gain weight... lol... But he's not getting any alfalfa anymore

That is cut and pasted from an IM session, and I don't feel like editing it to make it sound nice, lol.

I just hope that this behavior is mostly resulting from no work, being fed hot feed and being confined to a stall. If not.. ugh, lots and lots of more work ahead for me, I just do NOT want this to develope into something that I can't handle, because if it does, I'm screwed, lol.

What I'm going to try to do is at least play with him for 15 minutes EVERY DAY, no matter the weather-unless its ridicously cold, pouring down rain or something like that. I think I might take Okie to drill practice on Tuesday, and just give Nic some more time.

Speaking of drill team, I got some good news..

Not only am I on the "core" team, but Kendra chose me for co-captain!

Changes...

After a chat with one of my best friends, Fran, I got to thinking about change. How change affects everyone, and how things change without us realizing it. One major thing I've noticed is how I notice changes so much more since starting parelli 3 years ago. Not only do I notice the changes in horses, but changes in people.

So here are some changes that are happening currently, or have ust recently changed:
-My dads company is being sold to another company who is shipping the equipment to Mexico, therefore my dad is out of the job soon. He has worked at this company for about 25 years.

-Nic is becoming more of a people horse. Since he has been locked in a stall for 2 weeks or less (crazy amounts of snow, 6+ft foot drifts), I have been doing little stuff in the stall with him. I've played with bridling, mouth handling, and porky and friendly. He's really making a change. He always has his ears up towards us and is just more into everything. Last night I played with bridling and worming practice. The bridling went even better than last time, and he got some of his favorite berry goods. Then I found an old, empty paste wormer tube that still smelled like wormer, so we went to work on that. He was actually not that bad, compared to when we brought him home and we were trying to get banamine down him. I got him where I got easily put the tube and his mouth and hold it there until he stopped licking so much. So today I am going to try and worm him for real, because he needs it.

Skinny Horse

*sigh of relief* I think that Nic is alright now. We discovered that he was coughing a bit, and now that that has stopped he has been eating WAY better and more alert and awake. We also got him alfalfa and he loves that, so now he's eating better. He did however lose a bunch of weight during this little phase of his, so now I'm trying to get weight back on him. I actually think that he has already put on a little weight within the past couple of days through the alfalfa and grain.

Today was the first day I played with him for awhile because of him being sickly, then weather, then there was Beauty and the Beast auditions (I'm assistant directing again), so finally got a chance to play with him today. I started with some friendly, then I did Day 1 of hill therapy. I actually didn't do the last five minute walking section because he was getting a little too into the circling thing. Every time I asked him to back up he thought it was time to circle, so I just said "No.. i think you'll just stand." and yo-yo'ed until he decided it was a better idea to stand, and within a couple seconds he was licking his lips. He seems to be a fairly fast thinker and not overly afraid of anything. I took the beach ball and let him smell it and then put it on his back, all while he was loose in his stall eating. Then I bounced it up and down, and it makes a lot of noise, but it didn't bother him a bit.

Pictures of Nic

I had a really great session with him today, and then a stressful day. Session was awesome, he wasn't jumpy at the carrot stick, starting to understand driving and yo-yo more, also did some circling and squeeze game. I can't really teach sideways in the arena because theres no fence around it yet.

And then I turned him out and he laid down.. ok, whatever. Then went and got hay, he got up, ate some hay, then laid down in the hay. I went out a little later and made him get up so I could listen to gut sounds and they were fine. Basically he's spent the whole day off and on laying down. Its weird and freaking me out because he hasn't ate much of anything today. ARG!! horses..

Tractors, Dogs and Strange Horses, Oh My!

I have officially survived two more RIDES on Nic. Me and gma loaded him up on Saturday morning and took him down to Angies for the "open ride" before the actual practice, but I didn't want to go to performance practice. When he loaded up he was pawing, but settled down once we got on the road. Off the trailer like a gentleman, then it was like OMG! New place! Strange horses everywhere!!!!! lol, He wasn't that bad, just a little excited. When I got into the arena he was all starey eyed and snortey and whinnying, and then Bonnie came through the door with a horse and the HERD of dogs. He was looky, and he's not a huge fan of dogs, but he got over it. I put on the Parelli Halter and went to playing, just lots of getting him to move his feet, driving, and some moving circles, investigating the corners of the arena. He started to calm down, and then in the meantime, the farrier comes and is making all kinds noise, the dogs are barking up a storm, but Nic is getting over it.

After a little while he calmed right down to where he was just standing by me while I was talking, and standing calmly with a foot cocked and his head down. So I saddled up, moved him around a little more and got on. I need to work on getting him to stand still while mounting. For the most part the ride was good. I didn't canter him because I was working on getting him to stay an even tempo to the trot and not do the wavery, slow/fast thing all the time.

2nd ride- I took him to gaming practice yesterday and he did even better. Was whinnying when we got there, but it was feeding time for all the other horses and they were making noise, so he thought he had to. Mary had to work up the arena, so I took him into their amazing covered round pen and played with him for awhile in there. He is starting to get the principle games, and he seems to be a nice mix of LBI/LBE, not extremely overreactive, maybe a little lazy, but not so much that its hard to deal with . After that, saddled and went up the arena. Played a little bit more in there, then put the bridle on and had a good ride. He was doing pretty good with the gaming stuff, though I need to not let him stand in line with all the other horses because he really gets to where he doesn't want to leave. Thats not a big issue though.

List of what needs to be done with Nic:
-Work over Cavelletti to learn where his hooves are
-Start asking/teaching for vertical flexion
-Braid his tail
-Pull his mane
-Play more with porcupine game
-Get him to accept the bit/bridling (has a bit of a mouth issue...)

Nicolai's First E-team Practice

Well, the first practice for Mr. Nic was tonight. I didn't ride him, but rode okie and bought Nic along. One good thing about that horse is that he is absolutely amazing in the trailer, load/unloads nice and travels awesome. Nic was OK tonight.. pretty nervous when we got there, but eventually started to calm down. Gma played with him while I was practicing, and he definitly started to get better, although I wish gma would do things "correctly" lol. We need to rewatch the levels together.

His race horse side definitly comes out when I'm ponying him around. Acts just like a racehorse, on TOP of me and Okie. Okie got pissed at him a couple times, but Nic didn't care. My leg got squished ALOT. But, it wasn't horrid, and he could have been worse. We just have to remember that he is only 5 years old, and has been sitting in a pasture since June.

Good news:
He loves the berrygoods.. of COURSE, he has to love the most expensive brand of treat. ARG. Oh well... lol

Picky Eater

I think me and this horse are made for each other....
"Hi, my name is Carissa and I'm a picky eater."
-Hi, Carissa
"Hi, my name is Nic and I'm a picky eater"
-Hi, Nic.

I noticed that he didn't want to eat an apple I gave him when he was sickly, and then yesterday he wouldn't eat the carrots. Then today he wouldn't eat the horse treats that all of our other horses LOVE. He would lip at them, pick them up, not chew and spit them out. ARG. So I asked Dad to pick me up some BerryGoods, because I know he likes those, the owner was giving him them when we bought him.

Today's session- good. Played with the principle games more. He's good with yielding HQ, but not FQ, telling me he's a bit more of a dominate horse. Still not horrible though, not rearing or anything, and he does move, just not willingly, and I think a lot of it is that he doesn't understand. Played a lot more friendly because he's kinda jumpy about the stick and string. I walked backwards with him at the end of the rope, swinging the stick and string over the rope, like Pat does all the time with the demo horses. Played with porky as well, that was OK. Once again, better with the HQ. I also worked with desensitizing him to a cell phone, lol. I had the music go off on my phone a couple times while holding where I would be while riding, he was a little iffy about that, but when it was by his face, he wanted to eat my cell phone. Also was lipping the CS when I let him investigate it. Seems to be a curious horse. He got distracted when JJ came up to the water tank because he really bonded with her, but just got his attention back when some driving and yo-yo. Shows tongue when he licks and chews.

First session with "Nic"

I took a few pictures before I caught him, but they're crappy, so none for now.

Nic wouldn't let me catch him the other night when I wanted to put a blanket on him, so I decided to go out today and make friends with him, lol, well he just walked right over. Apparently, he doesn't like carrots or apples.. but I think mostly he doesn't know what they are. He will not eat them, he eventually started to lip at the carrot piece, but never ate. All of this time JJ is chowing down on the carrots.

I took him into the little field and just did a little friendly with swinging the rope over his back. He was a little nervous about that, and then I did some lowering his head by combing the rope and he was great about that. However, lowering his head by pressing behind his ears he doesn't like and doesn't understand yet, probably will improve with more porky game. Also, put the rope around his front leg, he leads by a leg pretty good. Well, didn't do much leading, but he would lift it up and bring it forwards, I decided that was enough. Did a little driving and porky, both were better on the "on" side, no surprise there.

I honestly didn't do that much because I was soooooo exhausted. This whole week has been draining like no other. Want a run through? Okay.
Sunday- get up at 4 am to leave by 5am to get nic.
get there 5 hours later, buy horse, go home
get home at like 6-7ish, horse colics
In the barn until like midnight.
Monday- don't go to school, but stressing over nick all day, then had a tech rehearsal for the play
starting at 6.
Tuesday- relaxed mostly, and did lots of homework
Wednesday- school, dress rehearsal for play, got home LATE
Thursday- School, first night of play, once again, LATE
Friday- School, 2nd night of play, late.
Saturday- get up early for drill practice from 9-11
First show for play at 1
2nd show at 7
Then went to Jack in the Box afterwards for a long time to hang with Ash, Kevin and Cory. I'M TIRED!!!

Finally, new horse!!

Sorry, no photos yet..
But, I have a new horse. His name is "Were in the Red" aka Nic.. or as I've been calling him, Nicoli. He's a chestnut, star, one hind sock, 16 hand, 5 year old gelding. He had 7 starts on the track, and then went to another owner who started him on barrels, then was sold to the lady we bought him from who started to really work with him, and then had knee problems. Knee problems so bad that if she rode for 30 minutes she couldn't walk for 2 days, which led to a knee replacement, which means that he had been on pasture since late june.

We got there and he was standing quietly in their trailer (they hauled him to an arena so we could ride), guy tacked him up, then took him into the round pen and ran him around a couple laps, rode him a couple laps, then took him out into the huge arena. Nic did really well, especially for not being ridden or messed with since June. I got on and things went pretty smoothly. He spooked at some cows, but only went sideways a couple of steps. We decided to buy him.

Mind you, it was a 5 hour drive from our house to see Nic, so he has a long trailer ride. We stop at a rest stop and he's shaking and gaunt looking, so we give him a break for a bit, then go on our way. he got another break when we stopped to eat, and then gma noticed that he was really watching cars outside of the little vent thing, so we closed that and it seemed to help. He hadn't pooped and that was really worrying us, well finally he did poop.

Got him home, walked him out a bit, put him into the stall, eats some hay, and starts to want to lay down and roll, well that was NOT gonna happen. I immediatly took him out and walked him..forever, while gma made a late night run for banamine. All in all, it was LONG, TIRING, STRESSFUL day, especially for the horse. He had a mild case of colic. Was way better monday, and then today he pooped 3 times, which is better than Monday, and the poop was looser with no mucus on it. Been giving him equine senior in a mash, with some grazing, but no hay. He is much more relaxed, and not as gaunt looking. Not drinking much, but he is getting water from the mash, and he's peeing a lot, so I don't think he's dehydrated. Also been putting electrolytes in his mashes.

Nic seems to be pretty level headed. He's watchfull, notices when things happen. My gma and I were cleaning out the used-to-be spare stall, and we were bringing out the pool noodles and he was definitly interested. Not scared, but like "Whats that????" and gma put them on him and he didn't care. Then I brought out this mini-massager thing and he liked it, tried to eat it. Also tried to eat a bag of stall pellets I was carrying by.

So, I'm pretty hopeful about the whole thing, just the colic really scared me, because he's not on a trial, he's ours.
heres is his pedigree: http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/were+in+the+red he's got a really nice sire(won over 400k on the track).. and even though Nic didn't race much, or win anything, he has a race Register of Merit (ROM).

oh, and one good thing about the trailer ride was that he is a REALLY good hauler. Stands super quiet, loads very nice, is good to bring out of the trailer, just generally good.

"Whoa..."

"There are no garden tools in my barn, the word is 'woah!' not 'hoe'! "

Lol.. so, that was the quote of the day on saturday when I was trying out another horse. 'twas funny, and I really liked the horse, and then she came down $1000 on the price to $2500, so we're thinking about him. I want to go ride him again and have larry look at him, and its nice because, for once, this horse is local!! yay. Back to the quote, I tend to say "ho" when I'm riding a horse that does voice commands, and rocket listens to Whoa, and when I finally got that through my brain he stopped really really nice.

I had a good session with Mr. Okie last night. I played with more sideways without a fence, because he still wants to leak forward especially on the off side. Played with a little circling, which wasn't that great because he kept coming in, but thats not that bad, considering what he used to do, lol. Then i hopped on and worked a lot on him stopping with just my body and the savvy string around his neck. also, on following my focus. With that I actually got a couple pretty good trot to halt tranistions basically bridleless (obviously still had the halter with reins, we're not ready to be naked, lol)

Bad me.. no updates

Dedicating myself to writing some during school is hard!! lol..
ok, where to start..

So, on my last post, I said that I was going to have a session with Belle with the whole "go" thing.. In the end she threw a pissy tantrum, and by tantrum is was a "You're getting off NOW!!!" She moved about a foot during the whole thing, but it was rear, buck, rear, buck, buck, rear.. I lasted for about 8 seconds and then came off, and I'm glad because it was just getting worse.
We don't know what to do with her, and she's been sitting basically since. me and gma have both played with her a couple times since then, but not anything in the last couple of weeks.

We took a horse on trial, fell in love, then he didn't pass the vet check, RAWR, so back to searching. We're going to go look at a horse in Pasco this weekend, and hopefully that will work out.

Okie scared us by getting this GIANT lump on his stomach, we thought it could be pigeon fever, but its gone down, and as of tonight it was really no longer there.. weird horse.
I had a really good time with him tonight. He was FULL of it, and not having played with him in a couple weeks he was a little rusty, but not bad. Got some decent sideways without a fence, and had a blast just running around like idiots in the field (he did a lot of that, like I said, he was FULLLLLLLLLLx10 of it).

A good day with both Belle and Okie (pics!)

Yesterday's session was pretty good. I started off playing with Okie, mostly to see if he was still limping, which if he was, it was slight. I did a lot of sideways, and worked on some downward transitions in circling, because he's definitely good at upward trans! Also did some figure 8 pattern and that was getting better, it helps him to think and not just get impulsive and GO. I hopped on him and just rode around for a little bit, he had some energy which came out in the form of some crow hops when asking him to canter, LOL, it just made me laugh. Part of it is I've gotten him to where I can gather him up and do a halt-canter transition, with maybe 1 step of walk, so he's expecting that collection, and when he's feeling good it comes out the other end..silly old man.

Then I got out ms. belle. First I took her for a run through the hay field, basically traveling circles because I was looking for Okie's lost fly mask, and I found it (it was in the blackberries), she was pretty good during this and only a couple times did she put her ears back at me when I asked for faster or a change of direction. After that I went and saddled her up, she was being rather impatient tied at the trailer, pawing and stuff (she has her days...), then I went and played with her in the arena. She was a little looky/spooky because we put up a new fence the other day and she hadn't seen it yet. The riding went better than the other night. She was going forward more, though, as the session went on she kept getting stuck more often, I had to have gma come un-stick us, lol. When I was trying to get her to go she kept turning her head and trying to chew on my saddle, just curiously, not aggressively.

Today gma is going to saddle up Rhythm and have Belle follow him when I'm on her, so maybe she can understand the whole "go" thing.

Pics:

Belle tied to the trailer looking adorable..yes my saddle pad is insanely crooked.. oh well... (the string is a "best friend" thing given to me at fair by a 10 year old girl, lol..used to have a bell, but it came off during gaming day)

Just got on, going forward pretty good. (neon green shirt is REALLY un flattering-its my mentor shirt from last year) My stirrups almost look too short when i'm on her, but they look perfect when i'm on a bigger horse, lol.

Then I got the cs to assist me in the go department.

Then gma had to help us get unstuck, and here she was running so that belle would trot with her.

Belle and Abby are having a moment. Abby has this funny thing with the horses, she goes over to them, sits down, and follows their nose while looking into their eyes, and she gets super still when they come to investigate her, and even if they bit her, she does really move, she'll even lay down, and when they take their nose away she wags her tail and searches for their nose again... its so interesting to watch.

The past couple days...

..have been depressing, fun, hard, sweaty, full of acomplishment.. and I don't know what else. I feel really emotionally detached after my near breakdown when we took Steel back after fair. I've been pretty down about that, but other things have been good.
I finally went to go look at a horse the other day.
Name: Maddox
Age: 8
Breed: TB
Color: Bay
Height: 16 hands or so
History: Came off the track, ran a lot, but came off sound, and wasn't ran into the ground. Tamara bought him as an english prospect, then got interested in the western side of things, her friend said he wasn't exactly what she would use for barrel racings and such, and he's been ridden enough, but not consistently. Has been on trails and all that. Owner says he's usually laid back (wasn't when I rode him)

My opinion: I'm not sure.. I definitly need to go look at him again, and have larry come out with me and see what he thinks of him, I need to ride him again, and decide if his high head is something I want to deal with, not that I haven't had to deal with that before, lol (OKIE). Maddox really had some GO when I rode him, but like I said, tamara said he's usually more laid back.
---Enough about Maddox-----

I rode Belle last night!!! It went pretty good. She didn't really want to go forward, but she did, and she kicked out a couple of times when i asked her too, but thats just her little protest thing, and I didn't really feel any fear come up when she did that. She kept stopping at the same places in the arena, but she backs up well and definitly will stop! lol, going is the problem. But she was yawning and getting rid of some endorphins, its been a LONG time since she's been ridden. I hope that she will get this whole forward concept with more riding, she's just sooooooooo green. This is where I wish there was someone to give her 30 days, just the basic Walk, Trot, and Canter. and then I could take it from there.

Busy and a hot Fair week..session with Belle yesterday

Fair went ok. Actually, it was pretty good for the amount I've gotten to work with mr. steel this summer. Showmanship we got a red because being a LAZY LBI he fell asleep in line, and even though I tried to wake him up, he wouldn't trot out of line, BUT he did trot with me on the off side. It was funny though, he was so asleep that he grunted as I tried to get him to trot, lol.
I got a blue in western, red in bareback, and red in english, and a red in trail. Trail went pretty good though, better than Okie has ever done, so that was really nice.
Gaming was either hit or miss like usual. He's just not consisitent at all. I won barrels, YAY. with a time on 16.3. I ended up with 2 blues, 2 reds, and 2 whites. So when it came to state, I'm 3rd alternate, which means I could get called. I am going up for judging and groom squad as well. We won groom squad again, yay.

The session with belle yesterday, was... amusing. She was SOOO full of LBE energy it was crazy. We played with sideways a lot, she is getting better with that offside, but she still doesn't get going sideways over a barrel from that off side at all, the on side however, is perfect. She's missed me playing with her. I know that because when i was getting another cavellti pole before I got her, she saw me and came RUNNING up the pasture looking at me like "PLAY?!?!?!???" and then she broke away from me during a LBE buck, fart, run thing, but she stopped quickly and I just said "Belle" and she came trotting back to me (this is with no fence around the arena). It was then I decided to just take her down to the little fenced field, turn her loose and encourage her to get rid of some energy and fat. With that fun little time she did some really good stick to me's and a couple times cantering back to me.

The joys of jumping and Dressage..and weird judges

Do you know those people who really shouldn't intereact with people at all, especially kids/teens at horse shows? The judge for jumping/dressage was like that.. when we asked for clarication on the pattern he talked to us like he couldn't understand that we didn't understand the pattern. Oh well...people will be people.
Anyways, because of confusion over the pattern I got a white in showmanship, as did most of our senior class, 1 red and 2 or 3 blues. Nothing more. In the words of Kristi, our jumping/dressage superintenant, "That judge is a Dick."

As for Dressage, I was pleased. Usually I'm not pleased with white ribbons, but you know what? I did my test correctly, didn't get confused on the pattern or anything, and Okie was resonaably good. AND I wasn't the lowest ribbon out there, considering that there was only ONE RED in the entire class. I scored higher than a lot of other people, and I felt pretty good about how it went. Okie was extraordinarily relaxed in warm up, accepting the bit, nice and round and cantering good. When I went out for my test and walked by the truck at the end of the arena, something spooked him and he got tense. Which resulted in most of the test him being tense, but it wasn't too bad. I got a couple of 6's, he picked up the wrong lead once, but I fixed it and the resulting circle wasn't too bad. I thought the day was going to be worse because when I went out in the morning to feed and all that Okie had that look and attitude about him that tells you that you might not have a good ride today, so i went out and played with him and rode him a little for about 20 minutes, that helped so MUCH, thank you Parelli!!!!

I did Hunter Hack and trot-a-course for jumping. I probably COULD have moved on and did low hunter, buuuuuut, those jumps were like 2'6" and thats probably the highest I've ever jumped, and I didn't want to push okie.

Hunter Hack went well, my rail work was decent, not amazing or anything. The first jump was a little rough, but in the judges words "the second jump was very nice." My equitation wasn't too bad, and the judge left lots of comments on all of our comment sheets so that was really good. A reocuring theme was "use legs and back instead of hands" which I know.. lol, but Okie was kinda strong, and he said that to pretty much everyone. I got a red, and only one person got a blue, so I ended up getting reserve champion!!!!

Trot a course was pretty good with some nice comments on my sheet, the first jump my timing was off so it wasn't pretty, but other than that it was pretty smooth.

All in all, it was a good day!