My Funny Valentine

[Emily C]

She sounds great Becca. I wanna come see you guys in action soon.

[Becca]

anytime!! i'm usually down when nobody else is (6- 8 weekdays) or no ones riding on the weekends because they tend to be full (5-8) just pop me a text simetime!

[Becca]

this week miss decided to be a 5 ft jumper, so i took her over a 5 foot oxcer and she was AMAZINGGG!!!!

hahahahahahhaha I NEVER. just joking!!! missy poo decided to jump the fence when winston let all the other horses out in the field and wrenched something.. she seems fine on the lunge but its tricky to spot where she is a gaited horse.. hrmm.. she can do w/t/c perfectly on lunge, but once we put a saddle on her and get on her whenever we ask for trot she goes into pacing fits (which i haven't had an issue with.. sence september) so i've been sticking with groundwork lately.

i played a few of the 7 games with her today.. she had no idea what to think of when i asked her to back up in our yo-yo's, but after getting one step, moving on to another thing, then asking for it again and then asking for 2 steps she became pretty good at it for her first time i think!. she moves her haunches really well, needs more work on her front end. she's so confident in her surroundings and space i need to keep reminding myself she's only a baby still.. with a 20 yr old mind i made a helocopter, flung it all over her and around her head whole time she was licking her lips she could have cared less.

[Renee]

Yup, she's an old woman! Hahaha awww baby! She turns 4 on Tuesday!! What??

[Becca]

i knowwww! buying a cosco carrot cake for the barn for her birthday.. debating on party hats hahah.. i can't believe it's been almost 5 months sence she was broke

[kylie]

she sounds awsome and you guys sound like you did alot of work and improvment good work !!

[Becca]

seems its time for an update since the last one
the big V is back to her old self again since last time i updated, a bit lazy but is going pretty fabulous. she had a bit of a vacation where i had exams and was on lock down for awhile but we're in full force training mode again getting our muscles back again for the clinics and shows coming up.

past couple rides I've been working on transitions, keeping her light and responsive threw them, she's becoming so consistent with her headset and frame, i don't touch my hands at all just need to keep her moving forward and under herself and she does the rest of the work. by the end of it it was just a matter of using my seat properly to get the transitions it's such a great feeling i still can't get over the improvement from a few months ago to now.. blows my mind how freaking fabulous she is.. need to keep reminding myself she's still only 4..

we've been doing leg yields/ walk pirouettes/ turn on the haunch / turn on the for hand/ and no contact steering. end of the ride i usually drop my reins and do no contact steering as part of her 'reward' before cooling out doing serpentines, circles, across the diagonal and whatever with just using my legs to steer, again she's a doll.

i honestly have no complaints about this horse.. but i think I'm blind by love. she's nothing but a doll to work with and takes everything in stride, i wish i could take her to Nova Scotia with me come September but highly doubt it without a fist fight with Renee

We're planning on attending the Mary Lew clinics coming up and show season 09.. most likely just keeping it walk/trot for this season. her canter isn't as consistent as I would like it to be to have her showing in it, but again she's just a baby tonnes of time to work on it

[Renee]

You are doing wonderful with her Becca! and you're right, it is hard to believe we are so lucky! Keep up the good work!

[Emily C]

Sounds great ladies, she is a beauty. Ill have to get up soon.

[Becca]

today i had a FABULOUS ride with velvet. I was very pleased. only a summery because i'm too lazy to type it all out.. i was feeling bit under the weather today so was planning on just doing some walk work, couldn't lunge because their were too many people in the arena.

we did nice long walk warm up with all the excersises we usually do, then moved up to trot feeling comfitable with it doing lots of figures. after did some no contact steering at the trot and after i picked up my reins decided to do a lap of canter each rein, and she got her leads both ways FIRST TIME!!! didn't have to bring her back to trot to fix them or anything! i was so pleased. usually her left lead takes a bit of work, but no missy moo got it all on her own AND both reins, we did a 20 meter circle!!! yay for 3 speed steering well maybe i'm just over reacting but i was super pleased concidering we haven't worked on our canter in forever.

this week i'll most likley leave it walk/trot, we're in no rush with our canter and i don't want to make her rushy with her transitions or get her exspecting to do something so far into a ride.


woohoo

[Becca]

Rode today, she was a bit lazy to start after doing some leg yeilds and walk perohettes she was a lot more responsive. After nice long warm up I picked up our canter and did circles both ends of the arena, she's starting to play with her a bit a bit at the canter instead of just having her nose out, I was very pleased with todays ride!

I'm on my blackberry and will update this later

[Becca]

wow long time no update!

well our canter is comming along GREAT thanks to an intense lesson on ellie from Susan last week that left me not being able to move the next day i must say our rides have been pretty awesome. i've been working on her straightness and making sure my leg doesn't get back too far(big habit for me) i've been doing coarses with poles, turns up centerline, leg yeilding to center line then, spiral circles, lots of change of rein / cerpitines just keeping her nice light and responsive. in our canter she's been doing great, she's getting more supple every day that goes by, she still tends to switch leads when i ask her to stay out on her circles with my inside leg but again it's more my fault then anything with my leg and just keeping it at the girth. also her pace is near to none these days, (although last friday i was told she had "one of thoughs days") she used to pace in her canter downward transitions to trot, but close to everytime she strikes off with her trot right away

marylew is comming back the 25/26, i'm very excited to show her our progress

[Becca]

missy moo is being pretty fabulous lately.

last day i wanted to lunge first, and she decided that she was going to adopt the brain of a stampede horse for the first 10 minutes then was completly PERFECT after that it.. it's was rediculously hillarious to say the least

after our lunge i worked on just walk/trot and doing leg yeilds to the centre of the arena instead of towards the rail.. she was leaning a little but with a quick adjustment with my inside leg she was great

today i worked on 6's (6 strides canter, 6 strides trot) on both reins.. we don't have a lead issue anymore*knock on wood* now we're just focusing on making our downward transitions nice and pretty by the end of the ride she was trotting into them nice and foward i was so pleasedd. as her reward i give her her reins and leave it on a long reinat the trot with lots of pats then of coarse a lovely cool out.. always looking at her ears and facial expression she always knows she did good, haha she's pretty cute i must say

i'm very pleased with how fast she's comming along without pushing it too far, i can't wait for marylew clinic to show her our progress from the last time

[Becca]

sunday poor little girl had to get all druged up to get her teeth done, so she had sunday off. i rode last night and she was golden. i worked mostly on keeping her forward and engaged, long and low. i rode mainly on the buckle for most of my ride. we worked on our canter transitions both with a regular rein & longer rein and she was great. also little to no pace threw our downward canter transitions, she bumps straight into a trot these days.. i'm exstatic! she has such a cute pleasure horse headset, i can't wait for the western show to see how she does

[Becca]

another long time no update!

this weekend kicked off the first of the many busy weekends ahead for the next month between the clinics and shows going ahead.. a little stressful with exams comming and all, but i think we'll survive; and best of all will be a great exsperiance for the ponyyy

this weekend was the marylew clinic. she gave us lots of warm up excersises for the walk and trot. velvets nice forward and responsive now, and is over tracking by atleast 2 feet so just keeping a nice rythem threw everything she is great. at the trot we did an excersise going from 30 metre circles legyielding out to 20 metres and back again which worked MAGIC with her, i had moments of exstream suspendion with her it felt like i was riding on a clouddddd! i was sooo pleased. we then worked on our canter towards the end of it. missy got her leads no problem everytimee (which is huge to me, concidering when we first started cantering we only had the one) and was doing circles and moving out off my leg pretty nicely. there were moments where she came unbalanced towards the last quarter of the circle and would switch her hind end to become disunited, but with a quick simple she was back to herself

today we worked more on acccuracy, her leg yeilds are close to flawless . missy was trying to be smart and do turn on the forehands on her own at first when i was asking for the other leg (my fault, i've been doing them towards the wall latelye instead of towards the inside) but after we did them "with motion" doing 'box work" and she was great.. moving off my leg nicely i was pleased. she wasn't impressed with teh dressage arena footing, so we moved inside to do some work and such a difference it made for her!
after we worked on her canter again did a few laps around and she was great she did a flying on her own in one corner (my fault, my inside leg wasnt as on as it should have been) and mary called out telling me to put my leg on and little miss switched herself on the longside! i'm so pleased on how well she's comming along, and how far we've come. flyinggssss like WHAT! excuse me horse.. but you're still an infant in my eyes!

ohh my.. i have the baby blues.. hate but LOVE seeing my baby grow up

but very very pleased with her this weekend we'll be working hard this week getting ready for andy clinic next weekend wee!

renee snapped a few photos and videos i believe, so ill have to get them posted!