I have been so thrilled with my riding. Its been a year since I moved to my new barn and that year has certainly made a difference. The biggest of which being able to hop on whatever horse I want and school it around a course. The pictures above show a lot. They were probably taken a month after we moved barns. I am so obviously tense in both of them and hanging of their faces. Then in the next picture (taken over the summer) I am so relaxed and giving the pony all the rein he wants. Better yet, I can now do the exact same thin on a horse. I had been riding one horse at the barn a bit and felt really comfortable on her and now I’m starting to get on the other horses and its no big deal! I rode Scooter yesterday, and I didn’t have any problems. He even spooked a few times and I didn’t lose my confidence once. He was a really cool guy and I hate that I was too scared to get on him up to this point since he will be leaving soon. So all in all I’m really proud of myself and the progress I’ve made. I’m taking my riding much more seriously and trying to better myself to ride for college which i wouldnt have dreamed of doing a year ago.
Plus Toasty’s better than ever. We’re schooling bigger courses than ever before with no problem. He’s learning to carry pace, and to generally carry himself. He looks out for his jumps now rather than relying on me, and when he sees his distance he goes and gets it.Today we even school a combination that was a crossrail bounce to a 2’9 vertical one stride to a 3’3 oxer. I remember the days when we could hardly even make it through a combination! I’m so proud of how far my little man has come. He really never lets me down. I hate that I’m going off to college soon, I feel like this is the height of his career ya know? He’ll be fifteen when I’m done with school. But what can ya do? I’m just going to keep working with him and see what happens. I have a game plan now to work on overall straightness and flexion and if he can master this I may consider him finished.
