First bi

Deuce went to his first show on the 17th! he was pretty distracted and excited thursday and friday, but steph helped me at the show. i had to keep his mind on the work so he wouldn't pay so much attention to the surrounding commotion. he did okay on his first day. he got a decent 57.7 at first level 2 and a 61 at training level. i really had to ride him because he was being kind of fidgety and opinionated. on sunday i took him out in the pouring rain. he was super fussy in the warmup and was kind of being a jerk. he was tired, didnt want to work, and was ready to go home. i took him into the arena but as i passed the judges trailer he spooked and bucked me off. he bolted and left me in the dust!
First i was pretty upset and sad and just thought maybe he's too young to show.

Miracle horse

Deuce had an accident two weekends ago. He got super excited when I let him out in the paddock and he tried to jump over the fence. He didn't make it, got his feet tangled and flipped over the fence landing on his back on the other side. Amazingly, I had the vet check him out and vet said he was totally fine, just a little sore. I may need to have a chiropracter out though because even now he's still a little stiff on the right hind. Otherwise, everything is fine. I really think it's a miracle he's totally fine because I saw the flip and it looked horrible.

Hopefully everything will be straightened out by our horse show on April 16th.

We're Back!

I know it's been so long since I've written, but after Christmas break I never got back into the routine of updating this. I've been super busy and have riding lots of different horses and have been going pretty easy on Deuce because of it.

Also, Deuce and I have kind of been in a slump because of the weather and my not paying as much attention to him. I need to do some different excercises with him as I think he is getting bored and not showing off his brilliance. We are getting better now and are planning to go to a show on April 16-18. This will be his first recognized show so we'll see how it goes! I haven't decided yet was tests we will sign up for but I need to get him back up to good regular work and training before I decide. The closing date is not until March 22nd.

Videos....what do you think?

still not great because I get nervous when I finally get someone to take video. I want everything to show up in the video and I end up not being able to focus on riding!

Floating trot :)

Yesterday our trot work was great! I've been riding him long and low so I decided to have Deuce go more into the bridle yesterday. I felt him using his back in the trot more than i ever have...and his stride lengthenings felt like he was floating! It was really fun to ride.

We worked on canter trot canter transitions again. Tons of them. I think he's over his tantrum now so that's good. I don't expect him to be completely on the bit when he goes from trot to canter. But he definately cannot throw his head up and use his neck to go into the canter. He's finally learning this I think. I need to be careful with my position when I ask for the canter too so I make sure I'm not leaning to one side.

I found that it's better to ask for canter departs on the rail when he is going track left, and on a circle when he
is going track right. He tends to over bend to the left so I think that's why. I also need to be sure to always have weight in my right stirrup. I don't want Deuce to grow up crooked! :)

...I guess he is only 4...

I've just been riding Deuce long and low the past couple days. I went over a little tiny cross rail yesterday and just played around in the arena. I was goin to do more serious stuff today but Deuce had a different idea. I didn't have a whip and I didn't have spurs, so Deuce just decided not to listen. Trotting slow and sluggish was about all he wanted to do no matter what. At first I borrowed a crop from my friend (that was all she had - no dressage whip) That sort of worked but I had to keep transferring my reins to one hand to be able to use it. I got him going in a nicer trot and did some canter work but couldn't get a nice transition on the right lead. Finally I borrowed a dressage whip and things went better. I just did tons of trot canter transitions and left it at that. That's not what I originally had planned but I think Deuce learned he has to be more attentive. Tommorow I think I'll do some walk/trot lateral work.

This is how I kill time....cute though!