Clinic Update

The clinic was a blast! If you haven’t seen the photos on my Facebook page e-mail me and I’ll send you the link.

Lucy and I learned a lot! Day one we listened to his philosophy for most of the morning and then hit the round pens in the afternoon. Very few horses wanted to cooperate & Brittney (his new apprentice) got to take over quite a bit. The sand in the round pens just rolled under your feet so almost everyone fell down at least once (some more then once).

When it was my turn I got CA’s round pen. Lu was doing well turning to go clockwise but didn’t want to draw in and turn counterclockwise for me quite as well. CA felt she was chumping me so he had me run in at her. That just made things worse. When he asked if I wanted Brittney to take over I couldn’t say yes fast enough! I was tired. I did feel a bit better when she wouldn’t turn for Brittney. CA had to step back and get Lu to just acknowledge Brittney from her right eye & then drew her in. He asked about her breeding and then asked if I bred or showed her. He looked at me like I was an idiot when I said no. lol

At the end of the day I took Lu back into the RP and worked on her some more. She was much better but still not perfect.

Day two – we did round penning in the am again. Lu was 100x better then she’d been the day before. This time Jenny helped me. I really liked Jenny. After that we went to the indoor arena (it was butt arse cold) and worked on some more groundwork. Sis and MIL got used as examples a lot and there was a film crew there filming them. I’m not sure if they will be on TV or if it was just for footage. Day two went slowly so we still didn’t get to ride.

Day three we worked on our groundwork outside in the morning. After our groundwork I saddled Lu, tied her to the patience pole and headed to lunch. When I got back Sharon said Lu had laid down so she whacked her to get her back up. I could tell Lucy was itching to lie down. I get so nervous when she gets this way because I worry about my feet getting caught in the stirrups as she goes down. Jenny told me to just flex her and if she even though of going down to whack her between the ears. Lucy looked miserable. She’d flex, keep her head at my foot and just close her eyes. By the end of the day she was pig rooting on the bit and she was as stiff as could be. I haven’t had her like that in well over a year.

When we were finally done I unsaddled her. She was swollen where the girth goes under her belly. No wonder why she was so pissy.

Day three – we started with groundwork again. I was learning how to refine and also was being shown some of the bad habits I’d gotten myself into. We broke for lunch only this time I decided to turn Lu loose in her pen for water/feed. She was still swollen so I had DH go into town and buy me a Mohair girth in case she was having a reaction to the CA one.

We rode and did our ORS, cruising and then went into the arena to do diagonals. Lucy did great with these and went very deep into the corners. When I got done riding I unsaddled and the swelling was gone! I guess I now know that Lu is an au’ natural gal, no synthetic for her. It must burn. That is the only thing I can think of but I had no problems with her wanting to lie down after switching to the Mohair.

Day four – we did a bit of groundwork and then CA let us go out onto the obstacle course. It was a blast! I was surprised at how much Lu seemed to enjoy jumping. I felt some people asked too much of their horses for the first day on the course but I just worried about me and mine.
Riding wasn’t too much different for day four. CA did mention that it appeared that MIL and I had loped our horses a lot.

Day five – CA was gone so we got Shana. I liked Shana. We did LFR Stage 2 and Lu did awesome! Then we went to the obstacle course and Shana helped me get Lu to jump down into the water (she didn’t want to on day 1 on the course). She had us all cracking up because she just put her front end in the water and then drank.

We worked on riding and the bending exercise. I went straight to Jenny because I knew we were not going to get it. Jenny helped me and Lu and I finally started to get the beginning of the bending. Woo hoo!

Day six – the majority of the people left so it was a nice small class. We did LFR stage 2 again and Jenny helped me refine it even more. Then we went to the obstacle course where Shana helped me get Lucy off of the big bank into the water.

After that we rode some more and worked on bending – Lu was doing awesome now that she knew what I wanted! Then we went to vertical flexion and draw to a stop. I need to work more on those since Lu wants to back up before giving. After class was over I went into the indoor and worked on diagonals, stick to the fence and the clover leaf pattern. She did very well. I called it a day and we packed up the trailer.

Sunday we were up and out of the ranch by 5 am. We made it to Janet’s around 7:00 and I made it to my mom’s to pick up the boys around 8:30. Brandon brought the horses home Monday. I’m glad to be home but boy did that week just fly by! I hope I can afford to do it again soon!