And because my blog is “boring”…

…or so says my roomie Heidi 😉 (And yes, I agree. I need to update this thing more. I suck.) How do you fit a whole month’s worth of intense learning into one semi-readable blog post?

Well, I’ll start with Danny and me, I guess. After our first jumping lesson here (where he decided to refuse a crossrail several times and get shown up by a couple of three-year-olds), he and I both have improved a lot. Phyllis does weekly jumping ‘mini-clinics’ on Sundays, with a Prelim/Training group, one or two Novice/Beg. Novice groups, and the “baby” group for young and/or inexperienced horses (and riders!). Danny has been in the baby group every week, and I’ve been having a lot of fun riding in them. The first week he was an absolute SUPERSTAR, and in fact, this was the second time I’d jumped him since coming to Windchase – Melissa Hunsberger, one of our wonderful trainers, jumped him over some little stuff one day and I’d been getting some practice in on Shamrock. By the end of that first jumping clinic, he was jumping a line consisting of a crossrail, one stride to an oxer, and two (or was it three?) strides to a third oxer. I couldn’t have been happier – and although the jumps were probably 2’3 max, it was still a big step for us. Just the fact that he was having as much fun as I was, never even threatening to refuse, was enough for me. I probably had the biggest grin on my face leaving that arena!

The next week wasn’t quite so good, as it was part of Danny’s “Hell Week”…which all started with an ill-fated canter. Basically, Danny had the temper tantrum of the century and is just now pulling out of it. Anyway, this second jumping clinic was iffy – he was either galloping out-of-control or stopping and refusing to move (and consequently getting hit in the ass with the arena rake by Phyllis :D), and Phyllis made us jump over a vertical to an oxer a BUNCH of times until he submitted, and then we were done with him. Although it was certainly a *special* ride, he still willing jumped everything, so I decided to just be happy with that. Ohh aaaand Phyllis called me a “lovely rider” which is CERTAINLY something to be happy about, haha!

Yesterday was the third of our mini-clinics. I rode Danny in his bitless bridle just to see what he would act like, and, with the exception of our non-existant half-halt, he was actually quite good. Once again he was VERY enthusiastic, to the point that he would pull me through the line at a full gallop! We did jump through in a nice, civilised manner more often than not, though. We ended that clinic with a crossrail – five strides to an oxer – rollback turn to another crossrail and then a wide crossrail oxer type of thing. And then I cut across the arena and jumped another one of those which was apparently NOT part of the exercise, oops! I was very happy that Danny was finally getting over his tantrum, though, and today when I had a dressage lesson with Melissa he was in a very good mood, not at all balky, and giving me very nice canters! After my lesson, my fellow WS Meagan and her mare Starry joined us for a little hack around the lake. It’s so nice to take any opportunity to just enjoy the view here – Windchase is, honestly, the most beautiful place.

Speaking of getting out and enjoying the property, on Christmas Day Heidi, Meagan and Clare (a former working student who came back to spend the holidays with us 🙂 ) and I went on another “picture hack” – Heidi on her young horse Phoenix, Meagan on Starry, Clare on Shamrock and me on Danny. Phoenix, the baby of the group, ended up being the best behaved of the lot! Danny was actually so badly behaved that I had to lead him most of the way home because otherwise, he would just spin around…and around…and around…lol! Even so, it was still a really fun ride and watching Shamrock “levade” up a hill was quite an entertaining sight!

Things in the Little House are basically the same as usual; we have our Little Ghetto Christmas Tree living on our kitchen table and a TON of sweets and socks that the boarders gave us. We’ve all been attempting to play Scene It, but we suck at it. We also had a little party/lunch thing in our brand new tack room on Christmas Eve which was great, and then a wonderful Christmas dinner at Phyllis’s house. Free, GOOD food is one of a working student’s favorite things 😉 Other than that, there’s not too much interesting stuff to report. I’ll tryyyy to update this again soon…haha!