September goals

Thanks to my lovely working student for acquiring these photos for me. I have meant to... I just don't ever seem to get to it when I've got tack flying everywhere and students to shout at and whatnot.

Jimmy:

• Reinstall longing
• Help his regular rider get him to stretch at the trot a bit more

Bert:

• Lots of transitions between gaits and some trail walks to assist in building muscle
• Extra food. He looks skinny to me. 

Camou:

• Camou is visiting his first ever show in about three weeks. Ohmygod all the things need improvement....
•  Courses. Above the height we'll be jumping at the show. With weird fillers, and stuff.
• Can someone PLEASE help me figure out why it's taking me weeks to install leg yields? I sense a master-post on leg yielding coming up....

Danny:

• More oxers. 
• More dieting. 
• He's going on his cross country adventure in a few weeks, so hopefully he'll be ready!

Tango:

• Tango is also visiting a show this month, so let's just keep refining those brakes and never take him off his SmartCalm supplements ever again (that's a story for another post)
•  Continue to introduce trail walks for the hilly aspect
• Hopefully trailer him to someone else's barn so I can get a sense of what I should expect at the show?

As for August's goals? I was over-ambitious. That's all I have to say at this point. Tonight I had a splendid ride with Tango where we really sat at the canter and I just felt so on top of the world. It's amazing when a horse comes underneath you and even though you're moving much more slowly it's so much power and movement that it feels just as thrilling as a great course or crazy trail ride. 

Why is it dark out here?

I fell off Camou last week because the bugger decided that he was going to feel 100% straight and then suddenly change directions. I guess that's good that he threw me because I'd literally just been thinking "man, I could really fall in love with riding this horse." Introducing the indirect rein with Camou turned into an argument. I'll approach it from a different method later. Right now I need to focus on rideability and straightness. 

The harvest moon was beautiful tonight

I'm pretty blessed. I've got great students who work hard, some pretty silly ponies to ride, and an accommodating facility to play around at.