LONG Time No Post!

Hello, People! I'm very very sorry I haven't posted...I have SO much to say, but I really just didn't feel like writing it all...a shame, really, because I'm going to write it now...

So...where do I begin? I'm sticking with just Daisy stuff and may be updating people at my other blog, so at least I don't have that much to say regarding Daisy.

Last time I posted it was our anniversary...since then, we've been riding only English or bareback (withthe bareback pad and without) through the woods. I did ride a I think 5 mile block around some different roads awhile back, which was cool...it was about an hour ride, but it was a "big deal" for me...it seems a lot longer. And it's HILLY! We passed some horses along the way that Daisy so kindly whinnied to, and continued along. The first BIG thing I have to say is that Daisy can do a right lead canter now! I KNOW, right?! RIGHT lead! It's a miracle! Back in January I posted (sorry the writing is hard to read, I still had the old template) about taking a lesson with Karin and trying to get Daisy to pick up her right lead. She had me trying to force Daisy to pick up her right lead, but she wouldn't do it. In February, I started trying myself to get Daisy to do right lead. I'd side pass her to the right, and make her "launch" into a canter from that position, because it sets the horse up for the canter stride. I'd learned that way back when I took regular lessons with my first riding teacher. Daisy didn't really do the right lead, even when I did that in the ring. I'd started doing it on the road, as I mentioned here. I took Daisy to a mounted 4H meeting at the end of April at Jean's house, at the same time that she got her shots, and WOW I need to tell you, she did AMAZING! I easily got her to right-lead canter in a circle, around and around. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, she'll pick her right-lead up by choice! Even if she doesn't, though, I can get her to do it so easily...hopefully, when we got to the pleasure show on May 31st we'll be good with our leads! :D The game show we went to, by the way, was great. I still didn't (and don't) have a western saddle, so we rode English, but Daisy and I both had a ball; we did a ton of barrel racing, and Daisy is amazing at keyhole! She shoots down through the barrels, gets barely inside, flips around and shoots back out; very impressive. Can't wait to do a game show with her! :D

So, let me tell you my agenda. Today I went to a horse show without riding Daisy, but I'll tell you about that in a minute. On Friday I'm leaving school a little early and Jean is kindly going to trailer Daisy down to just outside of Buffalo, New York (About a 1 1/2 hour drive)(Along with another horse to drop off for training) to her Dad's farm. He has a tack shop there, and we will spend time trying on western saddles for Daisy, as I can't just trust that a saddle off the Internet will fit her. I'm REALLY excited because I miss riding Western! It sounds crazy, but I haven't sat in a western saddle since last fall, at our last game show!!! That's MONTHS ago! Daisy was also kept in Jean's dad's herd for some time, so it'll be cool to see the place. :) Then we'll drive back and I'm pretty sure we'll keep her at Jean's house for the weekend. On Memorial day, Monday, May 25th, our 4H club is riding in a parade! That's going to be really cool, too. We're going to a parade in a small town near us, it's a quiet parade so it'll be good for our first time. We'll probably have 6-7 riders on horseback, and the rest of our club walking and holding a banner with our club name. (We are the Yautzy Road Yahoos... :-P) We're all wearing red, and riding with red saddle pads (red is officially our club color). It's going to be SO cool! I've wanted to do a parade with Daisy for awhile because I'm sure she'll do great. I love riding horses in situations where it could potentially be stressful, but we can work through it. I love the feeling of, in a way, "training" a horse to be "bomb-proof"...does that make sense? Like, the more experience, the better. :)
Then I will either trailer Daisy home for the week, or board her at Jean's (not decided yet)...We'll go to a pleasure show on Sunday, May 31st, probably riding western pleasure, and rackin' up points in Command class, which we rock at :P (and Trail class!!!!!!!)

Today I went to a horse show riding Scout, the new lesson pony Jean bought a few months ago. Remember him? He was a sick pony when she got him. Now he's a show pony! I could have ridden Daisy in the show, but I just didn't want to trailer her, and I didn't have a saddle, and we have the parade next week anyway. So I wasn't going to go at all, until Jean offered Scout this week. He's never been shown anywhere so Jean said it'd be good to have an experienced rider (verses one of the beginner lesson students). I rode Scout in a mounted meeting yesterday for the first time, and today in the show! It was a games show. He was GREAT! Jean recently purchased an 8 horse trailer, so we trailered 5 horses to the show, with one of our club members bringing another, and we all wore red and had a great time...Oliver got in a little accident with Bonita (who he's been riding and doing AMAZING with) so he ended up riding Bella once...Scout and I did keyhole as our first class(his first ever class) and we rode walk/trot (he's canter is minimal; he wasn't really ever taught to canter). We one first place! :D He was very good at the show, just excited in the beginning, and then he calmed down. Then we did pole bending, but he did two strides of canter (got a little too into it :-P) and we were disqualified. That's ok, though, we still got good pictures :-P. Unfortunately, the rest of the show ended up canceled because of severe thunder showers (I know, it looks so nice and sunny in the pictures! Hard to imagine that it started pouring :-/)

So that was today's experience...even though we only did two classes, it was a lot of fun; just riding around the grounds with the rest of the YRYs is always fun :). It was our first show as a group, and it was great! Can't wait for more! (We have mounted meetings weekly now; I'll probably "bum" a horse off people at Jean's barn for them, though, because I'm not trailering Daisy each week!)

Sorry this was so long and overdue...I've probably lost my readers by now. :)