Been a While...

Well it's been a while...a few years in fact...since I've last posted on this blog. Many things have changed as you can see and I'm no longer having adventures with Satchmo but now with my horse, Smashing! She is a 7yr old 17HH Holsteiner/Thoroughbred mare with quite a feisty attitude! About a month ago we moved to a new farm called, Waredaca, where we are working on improving our Eventing skills in order for me to sell Smash in the spring of 2013. We are still adjusting to the new barn but so far we've been loving it and its amenities! Waredaca is a HUGE facility with all of your Eventing needs! In 3 short weeks I'll be competing in my first Event of the season - an unrecognized show at Waredaca. I am aiming to ride in the Beginner Novice division and hoping to have a bit more success than I did last season.

Last season I had some major bad habits with jumping and not enough instruction or practice which I feel left me unprepared for the show. Refusals were left and right and my confidence went down the drain. Since working with Steph I'm figuring out what my bad habits really are and building my confidence back up one lesson at a time. It's been pretty amazing how quickly we're turning things around, too! Just Monday we had a great jumping lesson over the stadium course left up from the recognized HT that previous weekend. We worked on my position to the jump and my aids/communication to Smash and I had the best jumping round I've had in YEARS! We only ran into a few trouble spots and it was mostly because I'd look down or try to override Smash to the fence when it turns out I don't need to work so hard. I'm now practicing looking up at the sky line with my approach to the fence, to loosen my grip on the reins, and to still keep my leg on to keep her moving forward and straight.

I've not always had confidence issues. In fact I was a very brave rider and successful rider through college until I started trying to train myself and green horses over fences and found out I need a little more help than I thought - especially when it comes to Eventing. I established over a few years some pretty bad jumping habits that were starting to really get me in trouble. I couldn't just skate through events anymore and that's mostly why I decided to move Smash to a farm with instructors who could help me get back into my jumping groove. And so far, the move is paying off big time! Steph has a great eye and has been able to pick out my issues every time.

Tonight I have a cross country lesson slated for this evening and I'm very excited! It, like the stadium course, is left up from the recognized show last weekend. It's pretty cool to be able to school over it for free! I'm planning on testing out my new Helmet Camera, too, during the lesson so hopefully I'll be able to share some footage!

I'm going to apologize in advance for lack of photos...most of the time I am traveling to the barn by myself and holding Smash and a camera at the same time is pretty difficult. So don't expect pictures unless it's a show day, clinic, or some other day when I have my Mom or Nick there to either hold Smash or take photos of us. Hope you still enjoy!

-Sara & Smash