Hope

How Katai greeted me the day after all that work.
She was totally mugging for treats (spoiler alert, she got one :-) 

Sunday at the Hunter Pace was amazing. I had so much fun and I think that Katai did too. Taking home a ribbon was the icing on the cake but that isn’t what’s left me feeling like I’m on top of the world for the past few days, it’s that Katai wasn’t a monster to handle, didn’t lose her cool, and didn’t forget how to horse at this event.

I know that I’ve been a little negative about how the last schooling show went and I just want to be clear, that had nothing to do about our dressage score. I think that’s sort of funny and was very fair for how she rode. I do feel like it was an accomplishment that we stayed in the ring and I’m really not disappointed in how she was to ride. It was everything else.

Katai's satin. I used to have all my ribbons (4-H and other horses)
on this picture holder thingy but took everything down except what belongs to Katai

She was a monster to handle on the ground and nearly hurt me a few times. She so completely lost her marbles (didn’t even seem to know I was there) that I’ve just been unsure about how she’ll be to show in future.

It’s not like I think that she’ll never be able to show calmly. She is a very reasonable pony and exposure has really fixed most of the concerns I used to have. In fact, she used to lose it when I cross tied her in the barn and now she gets in the cross ties and pretty much falls asleep and doesn’t move her feet. I know it’s possible, it’s just that with the extent of her freak out at that schooling show I wasn’t sure how many YEARS it was going to take her to calm down and for showing to be fun. I’m just in this for the fun and the thought of dealing with her tantrums for any lengthy period of time was making me feel sick to my stomach.

However, on Sunday she was nearly foot perfect for a young horse. She did throw her shoulder into me a bit, she danced a bit when she was tied and had a couple of nervous poops. She didn’t want to stand still for me to mount and she jigged a bit when I first started riding. All of that is fine, it’s what I signed up for when I got a young horse and decided to start her myself. I didn’t sign up for a horse that was blindly striking out at me (she was so upset that she literally didn’t see me) or rearing into me, or rearing backwards into the wall in her stall at the schooling show. That’s terrifying and something I’m hoping to not repeat and the Hunter Pace on Sunday proved to me that it might not take YEARS for her to be a good pony, maybe just a few months or a year. That gives me so much hope :)

Different Experience: Lesson Recap 5/22

Right at the start of my lesson L asked if I'd like to ride her 4 year old warmblood while she's out of town. I feel like that's such a compliment since 4 year olds in particular are so moldable. I feel like it's a huge compliment to my riding that L trusts me to ride her greenie.

She is having a trainer ride him two days per week but wants me to put the other two rides on him for two weeks while she is out since that's what she would normally be doing. Next week we're going to swap rides one evening and she'll ride Katai while I ride her horse. That way she can give me some tips and make sure that I'll be on the right track with him for her time away.

Minor mare meltdown, maybe she didn't think she was having a good hair day?

I will be gone for awhile during that time as well, June 6th - June 10th, so the weekend before and the weekend after I'll be riding/lunging two horses each day. Because of that unfortunately L won't be able to give Katai any trainer rides during that time but we're going to find a way for her to do some at some point soon.

I had a great lesson this weekend. Katai is getting to be such a grown up and really becoming a fun ride. We worked primarily on trot and did just a bit of canter with lots of walk breaks since we had another 30 degree temperature swing that put us in the 80s that day. Inside it was cooler but still hot and humid and pony got pretty sweated up pretty quick.

Sunny hand grazing this evening after a great ride

After a nice long walk break we went back to trot, L wanted to make sure that Katai can roll with the punches, and we had an AMAZING trot!!! It was seriously nice and L said, with a big smile on her face, that if we could get that trot we'd do VERY well.

Love that little drizzle of white down her jaw

So that's my goal, get that trot at the show, even if it's not in the ring I'd like to get that trot.