BIG News....

It has been a while since my last post - I am very much aware of that thank you to everyone who reminded me. At work, it is pretty busy for me right now - we are in the middle of salary increases and promotions and we have a practice inspection with our provincial institute on Monday - Wednesday of next week...so it has been insane and not very fun for me in the office....

Moving on...

This week - was Big, Huge even.

1. I got the all clear from DVM Extraordinaire to jump... "Just small jumps, work on getting your footwork down". Pardon - WHAT?! AWESOME...her words to me were 'He can do with the pushing'...so, on Monday night, I set up our canter poles (remember those from way back when) and, he NAILED IT...I stayed off his back, looked where I was going and just let him figure out his feet. He went 'pppft - bring it'

2. Tuesday night - ENTER THE BOSS...that's right, you heard me correctly, we had a LESSON on Tuesday. In 3 minutes, she had him moving better then I had in 3 months...I hate her...She goes to me "You're gripping with your knees, your legs are too far back, and you hands are moving too much. Stop, get it together and start again. Get him in front of your leg and hold your hands still"...so, I basically do that and he basically goes 'Christ mom, it's about time. Boss, where have you BEEN for the past 3 months' Annnnd then we proceeded to have the best flat work since he got hurt. Needless to say - I am MUCH more rusty then he is. Then - we jumped....3 trot poles, spread pretty far so he really had to stretch and then trot on to a 2'3 vertical....keep my leg on annnnd he pops over it and calmly canter away....repeat x2. Okay Boss says 'let's do a course'...so, we do a course. And it was calm, cool collected, albeit a little slow, but, he felt great, looked great and was thoroughly enjoying himself! I was almost in tears I was so proud of him.!!!! Joyce says - okay - so, jump him at the end of all your schools...just like we did tonight, for 5 or 10 minutes, that is all he is going to need... Put up some verticals tomorrow and pop him over like you did today... :-) YAY CHESTER!!!

3. Wednesday night - I am schooling him in the jumper arena again (boss put a Big X on riding in the small arena) working on our movements, getting him to move forward, me trying to stay quiet etc and he feels great. I put up some verticals - maybe 2'6....and pop him over...and he again feels great, doesn't touch anything and canters up and away from the jumps smooth and calm as can be! There is a gate - jump in the arena and I would say it was just shy of 3 feet....I debate - okay, let's try it...I turn him towards it, he locks on, adjusts his stride accordingly and sails over...YAY CHESTER!! One of the ladies was watching us ride and her comment was 'he looks so good, nice and confident.'...then I filled her in that that was our second time jumping in 3 months...and she could hardly believe it...

So - what does all this mean? All this means that WE ARE ENTERED INTO LANE'S END ON JULY 25!!!!! That's right, Chester, will be making his debut in about 10 days time....and I am so so so excited for him. Okay - YES, I know we haven't done ANY xc schooling BUT:

1. Quote The Boss "Enter him, use it as a schooling, trot the whole course if you want, who gives a shit"...so, that is the plan.

2. At the OLD barn, he DID jump over ALL the xc jumps that Aaron made...didn't bat an eyelash at them.

3. I am going to ask Jen (new barn) owner if she can move some of the logs /recently purchased xc jumps into one of the fields so I can pop him over...just to make myself feel better...

4. Think FORWARD...if I can keep him moving forward, close all the escape doors and look UP at WHERE I am going...we will be okay.

This afternoon - Dressage movements

Tomorrow - Conditioning

God -I am so so so proud of my horse. Who knows - maybe if we can hit a couple pre-training events late this summer and in the States in March - we will still be able to make Bromont in June 2011....think positive thoughts....

More soon.