Where Did Summer Go?

Two weekends ago, I was at a show suffering heatstroke. Last weekend was thankfully more moderate, and warm enough to stop at the beach for a swim after a great ride. This weekend brought instant winter (of the moderate wet coast variety, so don't feel too sorry for me ;) When I drove home tonight the beach was grey and abandoned,  with huge waves crashing in. An after ride hot chocolate at the coffee shop across the street was more appropriate (and indulged in...I may not have got the summer body I wanted but my winter one is hungry and ready to be fed, lol!)

Bridget is also hard at work on her winter body

Despite the iffy weather, I had a great barn weekend. It was the first weekend in about forever where I had no one visiting and no other places to be. I think I need that sort of mental reset every couple of months. We have a busy month ahead show wise,  but I'm considering scaling back and just doing a 2 day dressage show instead of 2 weekends of single day shows. I'm tired, and honestly sometimes just the amount of lessons and training rides in a month seem like a lot of work, forget packing up and going to a show. Besides, I need to save for a saddle!

Anyway, our long weekend adventures:

- a jump painting party, in which it was discovered that out of 20 or so barn mates, I'm the only one who was uptight enough to bring painters tape and measure so the stripes on the poles are perfect. The kids used to think I was spontaneous and fun, now they know better. Much hilarity had at my expense ;)  In related news, the kids jumps turned out fun and amazing, while the adult painted ones are pretty boring.

- a dressage lesson, in which the cooler weather made for a much more fun and energetic pony. We worked on taking a walk pirouette and getting the basics of that in canter....no not a canter pirouette...just having her haunches in on a 10 - 15 m circle, pushing her shoulders around on an outside track, hinds marching along on a smaller inside track. A few strides of that, a few forward making the circle bigger, repeat. One day it will lead to fancy things, right now it is a tool to help get her more collected and straight. Second tool is to get as big of a collected trot as i can, and transition to canter keeping that same level of collection. When it gets big and uncoordinated, either spiral in on the first exercise if i have time to fix it, or transision to trot, but make it big and collected immediately, then back to camter. A lot of big pieces feel like they are starting to come together at the moment and I'm excited :)

Same day, better angle...she's actually somewhat fit for a round,  not so sporty pony

- some trail ventures. I'll have to take pics on a sunnier day, but we have some great trails right in our backyard that look like something out of the Lord of the Rings, big ancient trees and lots of hills and creeks. Even the name of the park, Mt Elphinstone, sounds like something from a book. We found a bunch of new trails and hopefully converted some barn mates into part time trail riders.

Llama and minis and sheep, oh my! But it's Bridget so even in the middle of spooking we take pics.

-A flat ride that EC later had a ton of comments on. Bad news, EC still has eyes in the back of her head, good news, she liked what she saw...slowly we are becoming assimilated into the program ;)

- A tryout on a new ride. Further details on that later...long story short a barn mate needs help exercising her super cool but giant greenie who I have a not so secret horse crush on. Trial ride went well, but I felt awkward on a strange pony, so new mare may be the subject of a lesson recap or two in the near future so I can learn the buttons. I'm excited and feeling a little intimidated all at the same time...been awhile since I left the Bridget comfort zone.