Monday's lesson

All we did was walk. (not complaining!) We worked on being able to drop the head by command. Not just put the head down, but truly drop it and stretch the neck all the way to the ground. It's a lot harder than it looks!  We eventually nailed it at the halt, but had trouble with it at the walk on a 20 metre circle. I would ask for the stretch and couldn't find the happy medium between my leg and hand ques, so the horse either wanted to halt or trot. I got some stretch, but not quite all the way down!

I am loving my lessons! I am learning so much that I can apply to P-man in our own training rides. Yesterday I started working with him on stretching his head all the way down. I didn't keep my ques even on both sides, so he kept wanting to move off of my leg. Not complaining though, considering how hard we've worked on that! He got it after awhile. We have to work in short increments, or else he gets frustrated. My lesson next Monday is on him, in preparation for our show next weekend. So excited!

Well I have not been on in a while... P-man has been lame! He hurt his hip running into something. I should be better within the next week or 2.

On a happier note, I scheduled a lesson with an eventing trainer!!! My first lesson is Monday! So i will have pictures from that. When I set up the lesson she gave me homework to do- I have to draw a picture and write a paragraph on what i want to accomplish from eventing. When I finish the paragraph I'll edit this post and include it.

My saddle is being shipped back from the fitter today!! :D

On another note, P-man is lame. He ran into a post a week ago and cut his hip. He was never lame from that til monday. He's really sore, so I've been giving him bute, cold hosing his hip, and putting liniment on it. It will be probably another week before he's back to normal. They're getting their teeth done on the 28th, so hopefully I can ride by then!

Well they were supposed to get their teeth done this morning...but the dentist called and rescheduled for next week. Dang. At least this gives me time to send the saddle off to get adjusted so I'll have it when he gets his teeth done and can ride again!

New Saddle!

Well the trial period ended on that Passier yesterday, so it looks like I have a new saddle! :) I'm still working out sending it to a fitter to get it adjusted and what not, I would ride in it now as is but like I said in my last post he needs his teeth done. The dentist should be down here Monday, so he'll be back to work soon!

I've been watching lots of first level tests on youtube, I'm getting excited to work him again! I'm hoping that since we have a correctly fitting saddle and his teeth will have been done a lot of our issues will be easy to iron out. He's not in very good shape since he's had so much time off, so I am going to do quite a bit of conditioning before we take another lesson.

Our next show is in November, and all I know is we're doing at least Training 3. I know I'll do another test, but I haven't decided which one. I'll probably do an intro test since I can't get AQHA points at this show. (AQHA only awards points starting at Training 3)

This also means I need to buy all the Dressage fittings since that Courbette was a jumping saddle...cha ching cha ching! Oh well! Hopefully my Courbette will sell soon so I can use that money for the Dressage stuff. Here's a picture of the new saddle!

Can you tell I', excited?! :)

Reasons behind so few posts....

My saddle no longer fits Pistol. Boo. 

The boy has gotten mucho, mucho wider...at least I know he's growing up!

So I've taken a Passier Dressage saddle out on trial and am working with a fitter to get it to fit him. Normally I would be putting P-man in the bit rig and working him, but he desperately needs his teeth done. I think he needs his wolf teeth done.

So this all means I don't know when I'll ride him next, but hopefully my saddle search is short!

Thursday:

We jumped for the first time!!!!!!!!

Eek!!!!!!!!

....granted, it was just an 8" cross rail, and all he did was step over it, but still...

I'm so proud of the kid! Ugh really hoping to be able to do Pre-Amoeba next show season!

Friday: 

We just went on  a hack today and did lots of hillwork....BEAUTIFUL weather lately!

Tuesday

We just went on a hack. There's a couple of ditches on the property so we walked up and down those lots. He had a hissy fit about walking through this large puddle so we worked on that until he went through it calmly. And we worked on staying still while I opened and closed the complicated pasture gate from his back. Hopefully dressage in the yard tomorrow!

(This is from last week, I just never finished typing I guess...)

Wednesday

We worked on our Dressage. Lots of side-passing, too. He's getting better and better! Our homework from our lass working was to really work on moving off the leg (side passing and turns on the forehand, mainly) so that we can work hard on our leg yields. I can definitely see an improvement in our wanna be leg yields now that we are working on the side passes! Lately an exercise we've been doing is sidepass across a pole, turn on the forehand 90*, and side pass across another pole. We need to work on WAITING on my cue though, once I start the sidepass pistol just likes to keep going and going instead of doing it 1 step at a time.

So I accidentally came across a Dressage saddle I'm interested in.Ugh. I currently ride in a Courbette Alpina, and I do not have a dressage saddle. My dressage trainer would like for me to get a dressage saddle, but I know that I am perfectly capable of doing these lower levels that I am at right now in my hunt seat saddle. So the question is....do I wanna pay the money for a dressage saddle, or do I want to pay the money for more lessons? 

Ugh.

Just an update as to why I haven't been posting....It's been raining the past 3 days so I haven't been able to ride.

Last week we did 3 days in a row of dressage, which Pistol did NOT like.that. He got super sour and wouldn't stop bucking and kicking out at the canter. Once I got him to stop we quit for the day. Hopefully it'll stop raining soon.

Well we had a show today, it was just the local Saddle Club. I only took him to it because it's his first show season and we are going for high point at the end of the season. He was HORRIBLE in my classes, but absolutely perfect in the warm up. He has a bad habit of chasing other horses, because we don't ride with anyone at hope. I ended up scratching my last three classes because I was the only one and he is perfect by himself, so he needs the experience with other horses.

Oh well. He's getting tomorrow off then back to work Monday!

Here's a pic off my instagram:

Hello!

     My name's Katlyn...but you can call me Kat! I am a 15 year old living in the (hot-as-hades) Deep South. I've been riding horses since I was 7....so no, mom and dad, I still do not think it's just a phase! I've grown up riding all around, starting out with Arabians and then moving onto stock horses. But now I'm taking a leap into the dark side of eventing...still looking for the cookies....

Pistol:

    Pistol, a.k.a. Imma Slippin Tardee, is the biggest dork of a horse I've ever met. I feel like he's the perfect combination of Kevin (the bird) and Doug the dog from Up. Seriously. He was born on May 17, 2009, making him 4. My former trainer gave him to me as a gift July 18, 2012. He was an unbroke 3 year old, so we sent him to our local cowboy for a month to get the basics put on him. When he came back, he was absolutely horrible with me. (COMPLETELY my fault though. NOT the trainers.) He had an attitude. (No, not because of pain.) I couldn't get him to walk without him throwing a fit. He was very awkward, just being 14.3 and SCRAWNY and underweight! He is still a hard keeper to this day. Now though, after a couple barn moves and both of us growing incredibly together, We are schooling training level dressage (almost) solidly with the beginnings of first level thrown in there. So follow us in our struggles and adventures to being first time eventers, and let's see where this journey takes us.