Weekend Update

Well, I feel like I haven't blogged in awhile now but I don't have any good excuse. On Saturday I attended the MN March for Science.

The turnout was great, it was fun, and the weather was AMAZING!!

Unfortunately I ended up with a headache and so I didn't go to the barn that day and instead ended up laying around on the couch watching NCIS.

On Sunday I went to the barn in the morning and had a great ride. Jane had moved a couple of horses to a pen at the end of the arena and had the sliding door open so Katai was quite keyed up. I used it to my advantage to test our improved relationship and my new skills. By keeping her really bent and moving off my leg at that end I had a very ridable pony. In fact it was fun because she was more forward and up in front of me. I had memorized first level test 1 the previous evening so I played with bits of that test, cuing for the canter at C for example. Unfortunately now that we've been working so much on the canter and canter transitions Katai is throwing that transition in when I want her to lengthen her trot across the diagonal. Oh well, something to work on.

After that we worked on the trailer again. This is our 4th or 5th time now, I've sort of lost track. At any rate last time we practiced things really clicked and Katai did an AMAZING job. This time Jane had moved the trailer to right in front of the barn, had it hooked up to the truck, and had removed the divider so it's completely open. With those changes (and Jane and her SO working nearby) I kind of thought she might regress a bit. However, she walked right in at least 5-6 times and although she was dancey (she was actually doing a bit of Piaffe) she wasn't as nervous as she has been in the past. At one point I heard Jane's SO yell "See! She's ready for I-2". I giggled but Jane was studying Katai and nodding her head so it must have been a decent, if very trailer induced piaffe. Then Katai threw in some Levade for good measure. She was definitely more stressed on the trailer with everything going on but she would immediately calm down once I took her out so that's huge progress.

After that I went to my parents and my dad and I finished up this!

It is so, so cool and I can't wait to load it with all my tack. It still needs to be sanded and finished but my dad will be bringing it to my place on Friday and then I'll be able to work on it whenever I like rather than making the 1.5 hour drive to my parent's place. 

It's only been about a year and a half in the making :) It's been an amazing project with my dad and now I'm trying to figure out what else I can work on with him.

With my sister and dad for scale, it's big!