Recap and Coming Up Next

I'm so pleased about how our show went this past weekend. I learned a lot and I think there were a lot of good take aways. I went back and forth about whether to post this but from a journalling perspective I think it will be very helpful for me so I'm going with it.

1. I need to continue to do more ground work

She had been doing so well in her normal environment that I've been ignoring this a little. I had focused on it in the weeks before the show but I need to make this more of a priority. Of course she's only bad when she's under stress and I was actually able to keep her from running me over which was enough for me at this show, but I want to make it even better for next time.

2. Trailering

This one is so frustrating when you don't have your own trailer. I have someone that has a trailer that I can maybe borrow but she's been out of town for the past month so I haven't been able to talk to her about it. H has a trailer but it's about 2 hours away so it's nearly impossible to got get it, park it at the barn for a few days and then deliver it 2 hours away again :(

I'm going to do some begging and see if I can borrow a trailer on any sort of regular basis. It's not that I can't get her on, it's more that it causes her a lot of stress and I'd like to be able to practice show trips on a regular basis.

3. Packing Stuff

Randomly piled in my little car before the show

I struggled with all my stuff last weekend. It didn't help that it was rainy and muddy but with my lack of organization my stuff got even wetter and dirtier than it would have been with more preparation. Between that and not being able to find what I needed, plus lots of trips back and forth to my car, and I really need to figure out a better system.

Mucky, wet, stinky tack after the show (and cute puppy :)

I love planning and organizing stuff like this so I'd put some thought into it but, honestly, it caught me a little off guard that my show came up that quickly. Next time I'll be better prepared!

My poor boots

Our next show is coming up quickly! I'm going another schooling show on June 25th and L is out of town tomorrow through the 19th. I'll do fine on my own, especially since it's less about riding and more about handling the dragon pony. What's actually going to be a little trickier is that I'm going out of town early on Monday and will be out of town through Friday. In between I'll be riding two horses on Saturday and Sunday for three weekends in a row. At least I won't be lacking riding time :)

Sunday Fun Day

I had a great training session with Katai today and made a lot more progress.

I have to admit that I use some of Clinton Anderson's techniques to teach basic ground work. As a rule I don't like "methods" and I'm also not a huge fan of the current trend of "natural Horsemanship" trainers that sell anything they can for about ten times what it is worth. I don't have any of Clinton's products other than one book, I tie my own rope halters and I use a lunge line.

However, I did find that when I do ground work myself without following a book I tend to bounce around and skip stuff, part of the artsy brain type, and I'll manage to get everything done but it will take me twice as long. For that reason it is nice to have a nice list of steps to take.

Today I round penned Katai to each side with the western saddle on and got a couple of bucks out of her. They were sissy little bucks but it is the first time I had seen her do that at all so it was great for me to know. I also desensitized, which is the easy part for her, had her wear the bit for awhile and worked on backing away from pressure and yielding her hindquarters. She is getting so much better so quickly and it should be about 2-3 more weeks before I get on her depending on how much time I have to work with her and the weather.

The specific plan tomorrow is to work on more of the lunging type techniques, yielding her forequarters, and more backing and round penning.

I can't wait to spend more time with my girl!