We will start with Leo since this will be pretty short. He had a lot of the Spring off for what I thought to be allergies. He was coughing so bad it was hard to ride so he just got to be a horse for a lot of the Spring. He did have some good rides though where we worked on the basics for dressage and jumped, for something fun. We did 2'9 with ease! Well, he did it with ease, anyone riding him is left with quite sore legs from all the encouragement to actually move. He still can be rather lazy. After he gets moving hes good, its just getting there thats the difficult part. It was getting better with every ride. I enjoyed a day of jumping him....that lead to a bucking fit. That made me laugh though. First time under saddle but I wasnt mad because he landed from a jump and took off after the dog in his path. It happens, we survived, and kept on going. I have photos of that and of Kaylyn riding him over a 2'9" fence. Once the allergies were over he injured his leg in the fence, so while thats been healing he has only done some walking rides or walking the pastures next to the golf cart. Ive been putting him on the trailer, but just to eat grain. I need to really focus on getting him actually loaded and closed in so we can go places once hes better though. Thats my bad.
Jubal- well Jubal is the foal born on Easter morning at the farm. If you havent yet, I suggest you check out my fb and the farms fb page for him. He is a LOOKER! So friggin handsome. Ive really enjoyed training with him doing halter and leading training and getting him used to the normal workings and things us weird humans do. Hes so smart. Ive never done this stuff before, just winging it, but so far so good! Im going to be very sad the day he sells.
Onto Sophie. Oh my dear dear Sophie. Shes amazing. She amazes me regularly. Just here lately we have had so many firsts, all of which I never imagined happening. So shes been training well, little bumps here and there but nothing really. I just havent been able to get out to a show and test what weve learned yet. We havent even schooled xc since our show in November!!! Well, let me just tell you, my little mare is a beast and Ive been so tickled with her here lately I cant even verbalize how proud I am. First off, we have been having great dressage lessons where were building on old things and finessing them and adding in small new things here and there. Not pushing it with new stuff so much, just making her stronger in general really. Well, she was quite wound up one day so we, just for fun, decided to try for a flying change. Well damnit all if that mare didnt swap like shed been doing it her whole life! I never thought she would! And she did it properly too! Swapped the back while in the air and landed on the front. Now she used the opportunity to bolt like a maniac after, but it was a gorgeous change that made mine and my trainers mouth drop! We tried for shits and giggles, we never thought she would actually do it haha. She isnt ready, muscle wise, to really work on them but at least I now know she can! I also decided to have Kaylyn raise the jumps one day while riding. I told her to just surprise me. She raised it to 3'9" which Sophie did beautifully. she said it was 4', but it wasn't. So after measuring it and realizing it wasnt I decided I not only wanted to do a true 4', but I wanted to do it bareback. By golly if that mare didnt just do 4' but she did it beautifully! She felt great. She had good pace, took off and landed with power. So I did what I had set out to do and jumped it bareback. I was scared shitless, not going to lie. The whole time thinking about it made me nervous, and when I picked up the canter and traveled around the ring I was nervous. The moment I turned that corner and looked at that jump though, it was ON! Huge smile on the face, focused on our approach, up and over with barely a bobble. I impressed myself and my mare filled my heart even more than what she already has. She renews and refreshes me on the regular. I owe so much to her. She always takes care of me, and I cant praise her enough for that. Shes never done any of this stuff before me, yet shes got my back every time. Ive jumped 4' one time before, and that was about a decade ago. Then she comes along and willingly takes 4' the first time I ask her to and then lets me yank of the saddle and do it a couple more times. Gosh I love her! I then decided to take her to a hunter show. Were not hunters, im well aware, but it was 10 minutes down the road and I was desperate to show. I figured it would make a great practice for us. We did the 3' low hunter (first off, why is that called low hunter when most hunters never even make it up to the 3' classes???). She was not going like a hunter, but I had a great round anyways. I realized that was the first actual jump course weve done all year!! She did it effortlessly, felt great (even though I was trying to play hunter and keep her slower and she wasnt cooperating), and we even got 4th in one of the over fences class and 6th on the flat. It was miserably hot, over 80* by 9am, but she went and did a good job. I now am thinking Training level CT by Fall. We wont be ready for xc, I havent had enough practice and neither has she, but we can do a CT! Im excited. Ok, photos!!!