My life smells like wet horse

Hampton is tired of the rain, too!

My car smells like it.

My house smells like it.

My laundry room smells like it.

The bathroom.

My living room.

Me.

And my horse.

I know that we are not that bad off compared to other parts of the Midwest who are literally underwater. And yes I know spring = rain. But for real, I was long-lining Noah in the round pen in ankle deep water. And in the rain. We were both sopping wet when we were done. On a good note, I think he learned a little bit more about steering.

However he does not like being bridled AT ALL and we had a minor war in the stall over that. I'm going to have to try some other approach because he's 18 hands and just too big for me to wrestle with. He's doing really well in the work department. It's just the stall manners we need to really work on (standing tied, not smashing me against the wall, picking feet, bridling, etc).

Hampton nomin' on grass after our ride.

Before the rain hit, I rode Hampton who was stellar AGAIN. We played mostly with First Level stuff - such as pieces from the old First-4 test. We snuck in more counter canter and I tried the serpentine from Second Level but didn't really nail the whole thing. That's ok, we can come back to that. If you don't take risks - you don't make progress, right? At the end I pushed him for lengthenings and got some good moments. I see First Level for next year easily. Yay!

I have got to get my entry in for the May 14 CAF show ... and after that I'm not sure where we will go. Gas prices have caused me to totally restructure my show plans. We may or may not get to a rated show this year. We shall see. And it's ok if we don't - I'd rather invest those funds in lessons or a clinic at this stage in our game.

Earlier I outlined my plans for show season. Here's how that panned out:

Feb. 12: Winter Reins Dressage at Foxton (?? a big maybe)   (didn't happen)
March 19: Dressage at Come Again Farm (went to the February one instead) 
March 26: Winter Reins Dressage at Foxton    (negative, ghostwriter)
April 16: Dressage at Come Again Farm (nope, had a friend's wedding to go to)
May: Harmony in the Park (Edinburgh) *Young horse test  (I wish, but gas is too expensive)
June 4-5: Indy Classic at Foxton Farm (conflict with a Phish show ... ooops)


I feel like I shouldn't really make show plans this year, but sort of wing it. It's not like we will be able to travel far or anything. So there ya go. My revised show season schedule:


WING IT!