This week

This week in lessons who knows what the weather will allow us to do!

In the indoor I have a grid set up, so we will work on some jumping faults (horse) and position faults (rider).

Common jumping faults that can be corrected by a grid are things like a horse that lands too close or too far away, a horse that wants to only take off long or too deep, or a horse that likes to get crooked.

Common riding faults that can be corrected in a grid are things like keeping the weight DOWN through the leg, proper releases, keeping the eye up, and having a soft hip that absorbs the jump without jumping ahead.

If some miracle of nature happens and the outdoor ring dries after last nights flood, then I will build a zig zag line of jumps through the middle to work on looking and turning, as well as landing leads.

In case your area missed it, we had some very nasty weather out here last night with large amounts of hail, and a crazy downpour of rain in a small amount of time...so things are pretty darn wet, and the mosquitoes have even more places to hatch! Yep, the mosquitoes are now out in full force. Fun.

I am still recovering from the long day on Sunday at the dressage show; the show went great, and Coregel managed to hold it together (although the look on her face when she first saw herself being ridden in the mirror was priceless!) and we scored in the 60s for both our tests. Wolfgang, Gode and Shawn were also very good and also scored in the 60s, and I believe Tamara won both her tests! Poor Shawn had the added difficulty of a stray dog causing a ruckus during her test, but Laureen was much improved from last year and was able to regain his attention quickly. Looking forward to their August show...where I WILL expect people to ride a test without me reading! I am such a pushover...maybe I should charge for reading....

Karen