I got to the barn a liiiiittle late (by a little I mean an hour and a half late) and of course with my luck, it was supper time. so I quickly grabbed princess and tried to brush her as fast as possible because she was already a little irritated since she knew it was around supper time. just as I was doing the finishing touches, the lady on feed duty comes out with the feed dishes and Evy most definitely heard it a mile away. uh oh, I thought to myself. this was going to be a hot mess and two thirds. so being the sympathetic person I am, I head over to the hay cart and grab approx. 1/3 of a flake and let Eve carry on while I hurry and finish tacking her up. after fighting for 5 minutes on accepting the bit, I finally get her all set up and she reluctantly follows me to the arena. at this point, I know I'm cruel and decide to just hit the main 'goals' of out training schedule since it really isn't fair to ask her to work during supper. so after a crappy lunge warmup (at least she had good form) I hop on and walk around a bit, and it was then and there I knew today was going to be a lesson. here are just a few things I learned today:
-there are many scary things in the arena during rain that apparently have just appeared today, so we had some nice little spooks here and there. lesson: needs extended warmup during inclement weather.
-Evy decided that she didn't want to do all 3 ground poles and decided to jump/trot/hop over them, then throw a little buck to make her point. lesson: lunge over ground poles before hopping on, and do it thoroughly with good form and consistent gait.
-Evy's trot gait is very much coming along nicely. she constantly wants to do it and is starting to use herself nicely. lesson: work trot on lunge more so we can build more muscle/balance. plus grow some balls and use more trot under saddle and in day-to-day lessons.
-sitting back, looking up, and being in general good form (rider wise) actually helps Eve. when I slow down my posting she generally follows and becomes nice and balanced. lesson: work on getting EQ back - you're riding a horse who needs you to have good EQ, not for you to sacrifice it to stay on.
-Evy is not Evy during supper. lesson: get my ass to the barn earlier to avoid today's.
I'm not necessarily upset with our ride today - I'm glad I learned all these things today. plus we did end on a good note, so that's always nice. it's just not one of those rides where I'm like omg I love my pony we did so amazing omg let's do prelim tomorrow!!!! it's one of the rides where god really showed me what I need to work on, and made it clear.
enough with that. today I ordered Ben's Mom's saddle soap in Fox's Vanilla Lavender. I've heard raaaaves on COTH and since I'm in the market for a saddle soap, I thought why not try it? for 14.95 for a 8 oz tub, I'm down to try. plus I'm fairly certain I'll enjoy it because of allllll the reviews I've seen/read. if not, I'll give it to someone at the barn to try. I'll do a blog post reviewing it once it arrives and I've used it. I also went on Smartpak and ordered the Passier Lederbalsam (thanks SheMovedToTexas!!) and some tack sponges. I already know the Lederbalsam is the best of the best stuff, so I'll just do a review of the saddle soap! so needless to say my cart was very full. next up: name plate for my saddle!
aaaaand now on to the fantastic, amazing, phenomenal, life changing, religion altering (jk lol) news.... the equestrian coach at Auburn University contacted me :)))))))) IM SO STOKED. and I emailed my role models Dom and Jimmie Schramm asking about summer working positions, and they actually replied (which I'm still geekin about) and told me to ask again closer to summer, as they are full as of right now. BUT THEY STILL REPLIED AND TOLD ME TO ASK AGAIN SO IM REMAINING OPTIMISTIC!!!!
anyways. hopefully a lesson Friday with a good friend. I know many people say not to hire 'young people' as trainers, but she's trying to get her foot in the industry and why not help? I may be in her position in a few (or more..) years and I'm hoping the "treat others the way you wanna be treated" comes back to me at that point. and plus she's 4 years older and in college so she's not that close to my age. idk. just trying to help a friend out and why say no to a free lesson? worse comes to worst she sucks and I hate the way she teaches and we don't go back. so yeah.
That's all for today! Until next time!
Lauren + Evy
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