Catch up

Okay so now I will try to sum the past 6 weeks up for you.

Let's start with the most important topic...Satin. Okay so since we last spoke we had our last horse show which went pretty well. Her barrel run wasn't her best but she woke up for the last two events and we ended up reserve for the show and for the year. Our banquet is tomorrow where we will receive our trophies.

About two weeks ago i broke down and decided to have an english lesson with some encouragement from R. The monday before the lesson I had my jumper friend S give me some pointers. I switched Sat from a snaffle to pelham to help with the getting too strong problem and she was better. We did some nice lines, jumped our first oxer, jumped hay bales, and did some jumper turns and rollbacks plus a mini course. My lesson with R went the total opposite. I went in too confident and determined to impress R. Well to make a long story short I had several refusals and I say I because it was me not Satin. Once she had gotten a few stops she just kept going with it. Then we had one jump I went over without her. All in all it was just bad. R was her usual wonderful, patient self doing her best to help me through. That Saturday K and I had planned a Halloween show at our farm which would benefit my cousin's cancer fund. There was a Gambler's Choice class and I planned to ride in it. R suggested I jump her very lightly Friday to get my confidence back. I enlisted S's help again and we just jumped a simple line I was confident on. I had one stop but got it together and ended well. The day of the show I pulled Sat out to find her shoulder was a bit blown up. She was sound but S suggested not jumping her or using her for the speed that day and I agreed. I decided Sat's jumping career was ending before it started. That week had just been too much jumping for her, much more than she was used to and the inflamation was due to the fact she was using muscles she didnt normally use, but she is going to be 22 years old and I don't feel the need to push her into something she doesnt need to do. I will still learn and I will still jump her on occassion just for fun.

Anyway the horse show went very well. All our planning had paid off and it was a very successful day. We raised almost $900! I won the in hand class with JB aka boyfriend. We are currently 3 for 3 in in hand wins. A kid from my old barn named Shyanne rode Sat in 2 gait pleasure and took a 5th having to ride the class with no stirrups because she can't reach mine. Sat and I took a 4th in the 3 gait pleasure. The two jumping classes went very well with my friend winnning Gambler's Choice on a 25 year old semi retired Qh! I pulled my adopted child and Satin's pasture mate Jewel out for the speed. The mare is quite the bullet even for being extremely out of shape. She bolted into the arena and was so excited I couldnt bring her back quick enough so our first barrel turn was wide but we fixed it in the end though took 4th because of it. We were ready for the dash and took first in that. We then teamed up with my barnmates K, E, and L for the relay in which we took 2nd. In the command it came down to K and I and Satin humbled me when I got a bit cocky saying I could counter canter all day long after which she promptly changed herself to the correct lead getting us 2nd in that class. Our final class was ride a buck in which we took 5th. My little cousin rode her in the costume class dressed in pink breast cancer stuff as the breast cancer awareness team as that was what we were raising money for. We are going to do another charity show in the spring as everyone had such a good time.

We just had another lesson with the wonderful R yesterday which went very well. Satin's changes were flawless and we did a difficult but very good cavaletti excercise.

In other news, school as been hectic with papers, exams, scheduling next semester, etc. I got a great schedule though and the next thing is looking into grad schools and the GREs.

I had a big photo job a few weeks ago for a local barn. I did 45 minute sessions for 20 boarders. The shoot took the whole weekend and was a lot of fun and a big success all around. I am still editing the over 3000 pictures I took but the customers were very happy and want to do it again in the spring!