winter

So.... The farrier cut stitch's front feet a tad to short, so he has been off for the past week. (and partly because we decided to take the shoes off for the winter). We have come sooo far, and to look at a picture of my riding 2 months ago, the difference is astounding, now i can use my legs (actually for real) separate from my hands, so i would feel fairly comfortable cantering a course now. Christmas went well but i didn't get anything horsey, which is perfectly fine since i am nearing the end of a huge list of everything i need. (right now its possibly a new cooler, blanket, saddle pad, and dressage saddle) but most of those things i still have to pick out and i don't need them right away, thankfully! we almost got another horse, Winston, a thoroughbred. He came to our house over night and we decided he was wayyy to much for us. He is a show horse and used to 30-40 horses around him all the time. While at our house he freaked out with just stitchy there and he was very hard to handle.... so sadly we had to take him back :( (he was a 20,000 dollar horse for free). his owner couldnt pay for 2 horses so she had to get rid of him. I feel kind of sorry for her because she looked sad when we gave him back. And he was perfect in the show ring and every where else. But he was a show horse NOT a pet like stitchy.

Weather

The last week has been rainy (And 5 days of snow!) stitch has been in his stall the last week, and not been able to get out at all! hes very unhappy! hopefully i can ride him soon! he will definatley be a wild hoodlum :)

Today we went on a hike in grass valley at a place called Empire Mine. I was Soooo pretty. It was acually a trail ride, but dad wasn't home so i didnt bring my horse. I met up with our 4-h horse group and took a 3mile loop. :) hannah's horse was being bad, but calmed down at the end thankfully. Everything went well and it was great!!

Starr Vaughn Show

yay! on Saturday went to Starr Vaughn equestrian center (SVE) and it was the biggest show i have ever been to! it was on Halloween so they had Halloween jumps and many other people were dressed up for Halloween. they also had costume contest but i didn't stay long enough for that. Any way i got there on Friday and rode him, so he could see all the jumps and things like that. then i put him to bed ( i got a stall there) and went to Alex's grandmas house who lives 5 min. nearby. i woke up at 5:45 headed out the door to SVE. Lunged stitch, and got on. Luckily for me they started late so i actually had time to warm-up. then i did my first class: Rookie Rider (walk and trot overall) i ended up 3 out of 6? or maybe 7.... then i rode a little more and did my second class (walk and trot pleasure-judged on the horse; how well he moves, is on the bit....) and i got 6th out of 13 which was great considering there was soo many cute pony's. then i untacked stitched (i had a little break) and got to rest. then i did my crossbar class (little jumps) and got 6 out of around 16! then i did my 2 foot class. he was perfect (except he made a rail fall down, i didnt wear my show coat because i thought i was just going in as practice because i was trotting and you really have to canter to qualify, AND i trotted it.) usually that like automaticly puts you at the end of the list, but apparently i got 5th!!! out of like 16 again.... i have no idea how it happened but..... oh well! its good :)

i was very happy about the weekend and am looking forward to going to more shows!

here are some pics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38793127@N06/sets/72157622590049495/

lesson, clinic, and lesson :)

on Wednesday i had my lesson (not on Mondays like it usually is because of the rain) and stitchy was great! then i traveled him to ride at a clinic at Summerwood (this gorgeous facility in grass valley!) and that was awesome. It was how to deal with your riding under pressure.... one of the exercises we did was "the box" haha :) there were eight jumps in the shape of a box (duh) 2 on each side. then we would go out (each in turns) and trot around the box for like 5 seconds when he would call out the 4 or 6 or 8 (it got progressively harder every time) and we would have to jump them... like this. block, double block, green, diamonds, natural, white, barrel, bucket. AND we would have to remember the order.... AND we would have to take the shortest distance from the last jump to the next jump!!!! it was cool and i hope my explanation was ok at least (it is hard without a picture!) and yay i have a lesson tonight!!! exciting :)

the rain...

today was like a short thunderstorm.... short but definatley sweet. the thunder rattled our windows!! right before i took some pics of our lovely friends; brodie and stitch :) i used two camera's heres the little one (i took some cool shots on the big one too i just have to find the cord :O.

my first blog :) oct. 18, 2009

yay! finally this one works (i had another blog that was really hard to use (:) any way this morning i lunged stitch in the round pen at a neighbors house. i had hoped to get some energy out but he seemed pretty tired (he hasn't been ridden all week due to rain and whatnot!) hopefully i will ride him more tonight in prep for our lesson tomorrow and our upcomming show, Starr Vaughn :O! it will be exciting but its a pretty big show especially for me and Alex, we are going with our trainer Brittany... I was supposed to send in the entries last week, i still need to! she might be a little mad... oh well i will try to get them in as soon as possible. I'm already excited for our lesson tommorow we are working on being on the bit (with their nose tucked in rather than his head way up in the air) i will have my dad take some updated pics on monday at our lesson so you all can see. but here are some pics anyway that are kinda old (over the summer) this flickr adress has a really recent video:http://www.flickr.com/photos/38793127@N06/4002551659/ and other stuff from a show (i didn't ride in) and stitch portratis and jumping!