Counting Down

I only have about 4 weeks until I leave for Tennessee, and I'm starting to panic because no one seems interested in either leasing or buying Dee baby. I don't actually want to sell her, so I guess I'm glad no one wants to buy her, but I desperately need to find someone interested in a free lease. I mean, she's such a good girl now! Who wouldn't want to play with her for 3 years!? Anyway, I'm not sure who reads this blog, but if anyone reading happens to know anyone who might be interested, please please please pass the info along! My e-mail is amy.bergamo@gmail.com, and I'd be happy to address specific details through that (where exactly she's living, my cell # to discuss her further, etc) To be vague, she's currently in Woodbury, CT.

Anyway. We had a fabulous jump school yesterday. We did lots of different gymnastic-esque exercises. One strides galore, a double bounce to a one stride, etc etc. The first time she did the bounce to one stride, we had the out set up as a little cross rail. Well, that's not very challenging, mom! So I'm just going to flatten out and skid over the top of it, dragging my toes and not even bothering to acknowledge that it's there. Solution? Crank up the height. With the bigger vertical, she actually bothered to look and balance and jump nicely. I have to say, when the fences get higher, she's got a big, fun jump to her. It sort of reminds me of Tango, but a little less of the back-cracking, jump you totally out of the tack style that he did so well. With her, you can feel the power, and it is a big effort, but I don't feel like I need to hang on for dear life like I did a lot of the time with Tango. She's a bit more comfortable in that department. The only downer of the day was that by the end of the school, my back was so exhausted that over the last combination, the most I could do was bury my hands in her mane to keep myself propped up. I mean, we did do a lot of jumping, but it was still frustrating.

On the flat work front, she's been doing fairly well. The canter work has been especially promising. These days, she's actually been coming up in front and carrying herself a bit instead of trying to pile drive her withers into the dirt. Can she hold it for long? No. She can make one trip around the whole arena, and maybe a circle afterward before she starts falling forward. But it's progress! I can only assume as she gets stronger that will get easier.

On the not-my-horse front, we got two new stallions in at B's this week. They are drop-dead gorgeous. I also had my first solo baby handling yesterday, and he was a very good little guy. I was especially impressed since as I was moving him from one pasture to another, I had Rascal screaming and freaking out that I was taking his baby friend away and I had the new stallions inside sqwaking about who knows what. He didn't even bat a little eyelash at the commotion... just ambled along to the other paddock. Very cute.

Ok, now that it's raining, I suppose I should get away from the computer and go ride before it starts really pouring.