Evaluation Day

Hey! Evaluations were on Wednesday, and first off, they went very well. You may have seen some of these pictures on my Mom's blog, but I'm showing them anyway, in case you haven't.

My cousin, Anika, and I went to Jean, my 4H leader's house, on Wednesday morning. We cleaned the stalls (along with the other 4H-ers, Oliver and Jessie, and her sister). I rode Daisy around and barrel raced her a little, which was fun and I think she'll do very well with that once we get back into it a little, and then we worked a little on sitting trot and cantering. Then I tacked up and rode Bubba, Anika rode Daisy, Oliver rode his own, sweet little Morgan pony mare, Bella, and Jessie's sister rode another mare there, and we all went for a trail ride. Bubba was pretty good, except when we had to ride toward the back of the line of riders, then he started to get pushy, but it was alright. I rode him a little in the indoor, and he was great. Normally he's very strong and it's hard to get a good handle on him, but Wednesday he rode very well. We untacked, and Anika and I gave Daisy a bath, and all the horses got baths. Ate lunch, cleaned tack, got ready for the evaluations. We trailered Bella and Daisy there first, all tacked up, and when we got there Jessie rode Bella and I rode Daisy first. I got evaluated by a very nice young women who was quite kind, even though Daisy's trot to canter transitions were VERY sloppy, and my hands were "flamboyant" when they should have been lower to Daisy's neck. We passed though. We had to walk, trot, canter, halt, and back up for the judge, and then answer questions like how to pass around a horse in certain type quarters, and how to behave around a horse.

Then we brought Daisy back while Anika stayed with Bella and we switched for Bubba. Tacked him up, brought him there, and I rode him. I did (sadly, lol) better on him then on Daisy, but I credit it to the fact that he's a bit better trained (ok, a lot better trained) on leads and transitions, and complicated stuff like that. It felt wonderful to ride him and I think I rode him the best ever that night. Oliver, Jean's son, rode Bella for his evaluation (he and Jessie got evaluated for just walk/trot) and then they trailered home. It was a fun night.

Daisy came home yesterday morning, and Anika and I slept in the barn last night...except for a certain horse waking me this morning ;-) the night went well. :)

Tomorrow Anika and I are going to visit my brother, Markus, and his "family" and animals, so I'll be back Sunday night.

3:35 PM

Remember you can ALWAYS press the + and - signs to speed up and slow down the slide. The captions aren't anything special this time, so that's why I allowed myself to add the song, which kind of covers up the captions.