Proud Momma #2.

 Alright, it's official. I love my horses so much.

I had a little stalker last weekend named Ellie! She was a ton of help :) So, we had the Infinity Farm Frost on the Pumpkin two phase in Dover (30 mins from me). I took Duellsa and Ryn! We had pretty great tests! Duelli got a 35.5 in Beg. Novice, and Ryn got a 31 in Elementary! Yes, I know, Elementary. I would have taken her BN if she was more confident over fences. Then jumping came.....Duelli's inner "Deer" came out! She was hopping over fences like nobody's business. I think we need some Gymnastics. Despite her jumping crazy we went clear and ended with 4th! She was calm all day, so proud of her. 

Ryn's jumping was actually pretty good! She was a bit squirmy to the jumps, but pulled off a clear round! That is, till the last fence. She was super squiggly to it and tried to refuse but I pushed her forward and tunneled my reins. She jumped it SO incredibly awkward! Her shoulders were at the left side of the fence, and her hooves on the right side. From the point of view when I was on her, it looked like I was headed for the jump standard. So, I shifted my weight to the right and lifted up my left leg to avoid it from whacking off the standard. Well, I guess I did it with too much force and my stirrup and iron few off the saddle! I  was thinking from that point on was "The dirt is getting close, oh woah there is the dirt!" *smash*. That was interesting.....It was not Ryn's fault by any means, she is just not confident jumping and she took it funny. Although if my stirrup stayed on the saddle, I probably would have stayed on. Couldn't pull a Buck Davidson that day! Even though I fell, I did not fall till after the finish cones so I still placed! She got 2nd for the day! So proud of them :)

    Next day was the Steuart Pitman clinic! I rode Ryn 1st. This was her first time out cross country, so we were going to see how it went :). I did get to ride is Debbie Place's Stackhouse saddle which made my day anyway. Ryn was really great. Although like the stunt double I am, I once again fell off. GO ME! :) It was ok. She did the same thing she did the day before. It so weird! It is like she goes up the the jump with all the confidence in the world and once she goes to "Take Off" over the fence she lifts her front legs, and then jerks them to the left or right. It is really awkward. So with now having a better relationship with the ground, I got back on and jumped it again. This time she was fantastic! That was probably her best jump of the day. From there she did banks, ditches, coops, logs, everything great! She had no fear of the ditches or banks. I thought that was kind of weird that she had no confidence over a little BN triple log, but then jumps the ditches and banks like she had been doing it for years! :)   (Pictures of Ryn)

        Duelli was... different. She was not bad, don't get me wrong. She was actually really good! But her "Head Flippyness" was a little exaggerated that day. Steuart gave me some tips to fix it and it worked awesome. She jumped everything in site :) Up to Novice stuff! I'd sat that's pretty good considering where she was a year ago. The only thing we really have to work hard on in our cross country is, balance at a faster canter, and banks. With banks she tends to launch off them, instead of just jumping down. It almost seems like she see's a 2"6 vertical on top off the bank. Oh, Duellsa.

(Pictures of Duellsa)

Also.....Just want to say congrats to the US team that went to the PAN American Games! They got Gold for eventing with NO FAULTS! They all ended on their dressage scores. The also took home Silver and Bronze individual medals! Congrats! (although they probably will never see this.)(Information)