Kind of A Clinic

 On the downside, my much anticipated trip was a no go this weekend, so no new saddle fitting or EC lessons for me. I'm going to try to set up lessons in a couple of weeks when my work schedule relaxes, and it sounds like the saddle fitter has a wide area she travels to so one of the upcoming visits to areas around me will likely work. All is not lost!

Sometimes we ride on the ferry, sometimes it is broken and then it's a chain reaction of side effects in our isolated town.  

On the plus side, there was a clinic at home, and while I was too late (and thrifty, after buying a trailer and planning for a new saddle the horse budget is tight) to sign up, I did go audit and volunteer to take photos. So that was fun. 

Sophie's boyfriend looking pretty cute

The really good decision I'm glad I made, though, was to load up Sophie with friend S's horses and have her hang out all of Sunday. I treated it as a practice show/clinic outing for her.

The clinican is a regular and he's great - you all probably know by now that I can get a little weird about riding in front of new people, particularly shows or clinics, but zero anxiety about it in this situation. He's kind of one of the gang at this point and the clinic is pretty relaxed, so it was fine for me to bring Sophie along and ride on the periphery (provided I gave the paying folks space and priority :)

<I'd insert Sophie pictures here, but did I take any of my own horses this weekend? no, of course not >

And, she was absolutely fine - a little aware of all the horses, people, and vehicles coming and going, but honestly the arena itself was pretty tame considering what it can be like when a few people are riding with less organization ;) She's still a bit looky about horses cantering towards her, or hearing them coming where she can't see them, but it's pretty easy to refocus her. I don't think she'd be happy in a crowded warmup yet, but we're light years from where we started and every horse was cause for distraction. She was very quick to settle and let the anxiety go, and I had zero moments of concern about there being any pony antics beyond my capabilities.

A previous barn friend she was happy to see again.

She was great in her stall, but she'd kind of had enough by the end of the day and was getting excessively dramatic and flirty with her neighbours. I moved her a couple of stalls away from everyone and there were feelings expressed for a while, but nothing too terrible.

All in all, a couple of very long horsey days. I managed to get some nice photos of everyone, plus I got to cheer on everyone's successes, learn a little for myself,  and give Sophie a bit of education too. So productive!

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