Looks like Tuesday is blog day

Here I am again, another week has flown by!  I'm finally done house sitting, while I enjoy the scenic place I was taking care of, a full two weeks is a long long time.

Cattle drive on the way there, yes that is a cowboy on the hill on a horse

country road and spring skies

Super duper green hills

Freakin snow in April

Sunset over the foothills

School keeps chugging along, I even got a 96.5% on a biochemistry test, nerd.

I brought Diva over to the barn where Courage, Gigi, Gunner, and Zida all live on Saturday afternoon (for a week or two of arenas and jumps) and Alyssa came with.  It ended up being a really fun time and then plans were made for an epic pony day for Sunday!

Just chillin

This is Diva's first trip anywhere since last December and she was a total superstar (unless you hold being in heat against her).  I was planning on a light ride, but she started off about a mile behind my leg and all sorts of pissy (darn-it spell check that is a word).

Diva tries to buck

So we worked on big forward loops around the arena and then figure 8's and then she started to settle.  There were a few standing breaks thrown in and she was the best at those.

So fancy shmancy

Diva earning all the hugs

Her canter is so much more balanced this year and even starting to get more uphill.  The joys of being 17hh and a late 5 year old (her birthday isn't really until the end of next month) means that body awareness still leaves a lot to be desired.  She also took exception to my right leg and so thought that the right lead canter was an impossible feat.

Working on suppling up

Shoulder fore in the trot around the arena several times fixed our suppleness issues, but she still didn't want to canter right so I went back to the left lead for a few circles.  The left lead felt so nice that I cut across the arena to swap to the right lead (since lead changes are expected of racehorses everyday on the track) and BAM right lead.  Then she stumbled, lost it, and picked it up again.  Everyone cheered.  She was being so good I even popped her over a little cross rail and she was perfect.  Over all it was a great ride and she even got foamy between her butt cheeks (only horse people can say this with a straight face).

She is so long from nose to tail!

Love this face!