Two Three.

SO.

I have once again failed to post regularly, but I have been working very hard in my lessons.

We are now jumping 2' normally with a few 2'3" jumps thrown in. It feels great and she has been doing great. She gets funny distances, but it's usually because I try to push her too fast down the line.

Today was a semi good ride. We started off bad jumping and she ran out of a few. She thinks the flower boxes are too tall or something and now she is bored with crossrails and jumps them retarded. But, we ended on a great note over a 2'3" and she got her lead!

I'm pretty proud of myself though, for being able to stay calm when she gets a bad distance or tries to run out. I admittedly get a little frustrated. I have a problem with wanting every jump to be "perfect" and that of course will rarely be the case, especially since we really just started a month or two ago!

So I think 2' and 2'3" will be our "normal" height, but Casey says we can occasionally jump higher and I'm excited about that. I actually like the bigger jumps better than the crossrails now.

We put her on the Cosequin ASU and I think that will really help her out, and she also gets half a dose of SmartMuscle Stamina. Half a dose because since we are doing such small stuff, and I only ride 3-4 days a week, plus she isn't a huge horse...well, she just needs a little extra to keep her going. Casey said she looked a little tired today, so I hope we see results in the next couple of months.

I'll try to get videos, but it seems like every time I have someone video I start to mess her up! So someone will just have to video when I don't know about it. I hope I don't get stage fright like that at a show!

Jumping for Joy

So, admitting I haven't posted like I promised, I thought I'd make it up by bringing you a little jumping video.  Not much, but this was one of our first times doing 2ft (the flowerbox) in over a year.  And we were barely doing it back then.

Things have been going pretty well with jumping.  I'm getting braver to the fences, and at this point my distances just worry me.  She started chipping A LOT in last week's lesson, and did a couple of times in today's lesson, so Casey fixed the problem by placing a pole in front of the jump and the first time we went to it, she tried to chip, realized the pole was there, and took it long.  We had a good laugh about that...she was a bit surprised, but after that she was absolutely golden.  Beautiful, powerful jumps.  We are going to try some 2ft stuff next week.

Basically the plan now is to show her in flat classes as a warm up for the fall and early winter, and then in January get another set of hock injections before the 2014 show season.  In the meantime, we will up her to a more powerful joint supplement, to keep up with the more strenuous activities, and I'm considering a muscle/stamina supp because she does tend to get muscle sore.  After injections we will to Legend or Adequan, and hopefully not have to inject again, or at least not for a while.

We have decided not to do more than 2'3", at most.  I think she is capable of higher but I think her conformational issues make it risky and I don't want to push her to the point where she won't have a comfortable life in retirement later.

...in other news.  I'm sure by now everyone who has read this blog for a while knows that I have always joked about how Amber would rather walk over hot coals than walk in water.  I have to borderline BEAT her to get her to walk through a puddle.  So, naturally, the big joke is that I could never take Amber swimming.

Once she tried it, she LOVED it.  We were trotting all around.  Our pond overflowed...we aren't allowed to swim in it, but we did a one-day thing since it was almost in the driveway.  Now when we go down the driveway, she pulls me toward the pond.

PROOF!  I made sure someone took a picture just in case I never got her back in!

But here is the jumping video.  It's very short, my boyfriend is a crappy cameraman!