Updates

I am promising myself that I will get back to posting regularly, but I know it probably won't happen before mid August when all the summer company has come and gone. Still, I do have a week here on my own and thought I'd try to catch up some.

I haven't been able to ride nearly as much as I had planned to. That being said I am going out to the barn this morning. I plan to longe in side reins this morning and ride tomorrow morning. The farrier is coming out late morning and I will be holding both ponies for him.

I spent some time at Dressage at Devonwood last weekend. I got to see the trainer at our barn ride an I1 test. That was a lot of fun to watch. I found the Riding Couture booth and bought myself one of her bling bling hats and t-shirts. Very very friendly people in that booth.

The young lady who rides and shows Baythoven went to a schooling show this past weekend. She rode Training test 3 and 4 and did very well in both tests. She came home with a 3rd place ribbon and score of 67.6 for test 3 and a 2nd place ribbon and score of 66 for test 4. This was her first time showing Bay at dressage except for the test she rode for 4H. We are very proud of her and will enjoy watching her climb the levels. This schooling show was at Summerfield farms in Ridgefield WA. and I thought was very well run. We would go there again. The weather cooperated too! If was cloudy for a large part of the afternoon which kept the heat down. Later in the day the clouds went away, but the breeze kept things from being unbearable.

This coming weekend there is a dressage show at the Lake Oswego Hunt Club. The young lady who use to show Boo for me will be there riding a 3rd level freestyle. I am going to go watch her, and I am very excited. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her! I hope you will too!

So, even though I haven't been able to ride much lately I've been to or will be going to a lot of horsey happenings!

Today was all about me and my horse

What beautiful weather we had for riding here in the PNW today. Cool where I am, but no rain. The horses were happy and so was I. I haven't been able to ride nearly as much as I had wanted to this summer. As a matter of fact, it feels like summer has gotten away from me. Everyone elses plans take priority. Not today though. Today I was able to spend most of the late morning and early afternoon out at the barn, brushing and spraying and braiding to my hearts content. We were able to ride in the arena without incident. Lots of bending and schooling cuz it's been awhile. I got a nice collected canter both directions. We went out and about on the place without a spook. All is well in horsey land.

Thought about riding western (for about a New York minute)

I have a friend and neighbor who started taking riding lessons a while back. She rides western. I have only ridden in english type saddles. My dressage saddle is my favorite. My friend told me this week that she took an english lesson at her barn and liked it. She thought she might take more english lessons. I casually told her that I had contemplated taking some western lessons too. I said this within ear shot of the dear husband who promptly told me he knew someone with an Arabian western trail saddle for sale. We drove out on on Friday and picked the saddle up for a trial run. Tonight I finally was able to ride in it. I gotta tell you that it was not anywhere near as pleasant as I had expected it to be. I am use to feeling a living breathing horse underneath me, and all I could feel in that saddle was leather. It seemed to fit Boo well. The stirrups were to long for me, and I had them as short as they would go without punching another hole, which I didn't want to do considering I had not yet bought the saddle. The clincher was the seat was uncomfortable. I had only ridden in it for about 20 minutes and my bum hurt. This was not going to make a good trail saddle for me. So we are taking it back with a thanks but we'll pass. Looks like hubby won't be getting out of that Tucker saddle he promised me.

Our accident prone Baythoven has injured himself again. He had a puncture wound on his butt. It was swollen and oozing and slightly hot. Hubby trailered him over to the vet's where they proceeded to pull a splinter out of him that had to be 3 inches long. I swear if there is a way to hurt himself or some disease to catch, Bay will find a way to do it.

I'm baaaccckk!!!

I cannot even believe how long it has been since my last post. Once summer hits life is like a whirlwind. I haven't been doing nearly as much horsey stuff as I want to be doing, but I think for the rest of this month that might be different.

I have had company since June 22nd. The last ones left this afternoon. I am exhausted...but happy. Don't get me wrong. I loved seeing everyone and wouldn't change it...except for I would want to spend a little more time at the barn.

The 4th of July is "Cowboy Christmas" and my hubby takes his rodeo seriously. We were in Mollala on Thursday night, St. Paul on Friday night and did a marathon in St. Paul on Saturday. Went to the parade and both rodeos. Didn't get home until after midnight. The little buckaroos are my grandsons.

Boo and Bay are doing fine. Enjoying the dry weather and Boo is enjoying his time off. He carried the twins around a bit this afternoon and thought that was a cushy job.

I promise to try to post at least 2 to 3 times a week. I've been enjoying reading everyone elses posts when I could steal a little time for myself.