January started the year off quite horsey. I felt some improvement in our dressage rides at home and we had some fun outings at Schranch and the Galway Downs XC fundraiser clinic. I had a blast riding with Hawley Bennett-Awad and my horse was a rockstar.
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| Galway Downs clinic in January |
February we kicked off the show season at Galway Downs with an up-and-down outing. I fell off in the warm up, hitting my head on a tree and hurting my back, but then we achieved our best dressage score at a registered HT to date. We rocked XC but had some unexpected baubles in stadium. Then we had a major scare when we arrived home to find one of the horses down in the trailer. Later in the month I attended a Dr. Schacht dressage clinic which was fun. I tried to stay positive and empowered while dealing with some depression and anxiety.
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| Dr. Schacht clinic in February |
In March we attended a dressage schooling show and overall I was feeling positive about our improvement in the sandbox. Winter rains made for less riding/training progress updates and more blog hops and other fun posts. I started to consider a bridle change and I went to Santa Anita racetrack for the first time as an adult and came away with a better understanding of my horse's past.
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| Dressage show at White Birch in March |
I really got the eventing buzz in April, with the excitement for Rolex and my 2nd horse trial. I had interesting discussions on moving up and why I event, and participated in some really great blog hops including why my trainer and my horse are so awesome. Hemie and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary together. We attended the Fresno Horse Park HT and it was another mixed outing, although we did come away with a lovely green ribbon.
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| Blog readers voted for our XC colors for the show! Photo courtesy of Paola |
In May I had a meltdown. Lameness concerns morphed into bad behavior concerns and for the first time I was scared to ride. Luckily it was a short-lived panic, and I found my cahones and started moving forward with improving our flatwork. Hemie turned 9 and we did some fun blog hops. Unfortunately he came back positive for worms again.
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| Birthday cake for Hemie! |
In June we attended a local show and had a good positive outing. I spectated at Shepherd Ranch HT and discussed safety choices. We continued to hunker down in our flatwork and I kept reading about training concepts to implement.
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| From our mid-year photo challenge |
Part 2 coming soon!
That is SO cool you got to do a clinic with Hawley!
ReplyDeleteLove the colours chosen :)
ReplyDeleteYikes February sounds frightening. I'm glad overall it was a great beginning to the year though. I'm looking forward to seeing part two. :)
ReplyDeletenice recap - seems like you two really worked through a huge variety of experiences this year!
ReplyDelete