Might as well jump

I've learned over a period of years doing this sport, not every horse is meant to do it, or for

that matter, wants to do it.

There are multiple reason why a horse fails out of dressage, but it generally has to deal with really signing on to the job description. 

Reba was supposed to be a nice upper level horse. Her bloodlines dictated it (Rotspon), her wins in hand proposed it, but in the end the lure of leaving temporarily leaving gravity really won out.

I initially sent her on during my stint in Florida to keep her legs moving with Lauren Neathry who starts my young guys.

A few weeks have now turned into a few months, and everytime I go out and watch the flat, she's a miserable sod. Compression? Too much. Submission? Not interested. All the things that make a dressage horse? She'd rather take a lark.

But put a few jumps in the arena and toss in a few questions, she becomes electric and is keen, the same kind of keen-ness that I enjoy about dressage horses that love their job.

So one spring day last week, we put the fences up and really asked a hard question. Can she do the height?

Resoundingly yes.

This past weekend we entered her last minute at Masterson Station fun show (pretty much all you can jump for 60 bucks), her first rounds were a tad shakey, but by the time that the final class rolled she locked, loaded and produced wins and fast times without being pushed. She was happy and a lot of the problems that she was having on the ground, evaporated.

Needless to say, I'm happy she's happy and she'll continue down this path.

Oh baby

We finally had enough break in the weather that we all could work consistently for three days straight and lo... life became a lot better.

Sinari is a rambunctious mess. To the point where there were no breaks. As my grandfather once put it: she really needed to blow out some carbon. So, at 50 something degrees today, I was happy to get her out and gallop hard. It was a well deserved break after Tomorrow and Sunday I have a lesson. There has been some talk of bumping the lesson schedule up to three times a week, which I'm all for at the moment.

May is doing exceptionally well keeping the herd in line with each other. One false move and the blonde children are told exactly where they belong. The old girl can still outrun most of the herd. It's entertaining to watch.

Bella began back this week with just easy ground work. I figured this would be the best way than dumping directly back into under saddle.

I've been thinking a lot about this baby. With this baby, Sinari's proposed in '11, it would make four, maybe five horses. Scary. Five to six total to handle (Bella, Sinari, May, Baby 1, Baby 2).

What worries me the most is financials.

The economy sucks. I'll admit that. I'm standing in the middle of a huge fire sale of bloodline, bloodstock and ponies that normally wouldn't be on the market at prices that I wouldn't normally be able to afford and it really makes me weep because its like being an obease person in a cake factory.

How I'm going to do this without killing myself or my long term goals (farm will be purchased in 2016, would like a new truck to haul with, and continue on showing, schooling at current schedule and open up a business) still remains to be seen. But the whole will/way thing should be kicking in.

First stop: the bank.

Back to the drawing board.