Friday, October 1, 2010

It's been a LONG time,I know!

Wow! Where to start! So you may or may not have noticed that my last entry was WAAAAAAY back in June after our first show! It's been a busy summer though full of photographing,riding,hanging out with family,working out at the gym and ring stewarding.

So I thought I would update you on mine and Hayden's progress since the last entry!
We still have not mastered the flying lead change BUT he's got one when it counts! We went to our 2nd Stock show and got both changes no problem! Spins and lope overs? Well we're still working on those! We are better but at the show,mmm...not so much!
At the last show we did the working cow class for our second time EVER and with one hand since we are in the bridle! It was so much fun! Notice in the pictures to follow that I am smiling the entire time! Evidently that is my happy place!

I mentioned that I have been going to the gym. Since the first show back in June,I committed to at least 4 days a week in the gym and have lost 16lbs since May! I am down in inches too! I feel so much better and my core is so much stronger! I feel like it's helping my riding tremendously!

The 29th of August marked a mile stone of sorts as well! I hit 500 AQHA hours on Hayden! Then after spending 4 days riding with Mr. Tom and then doing a clinic and show, I now have nearly 550hours!

Oh you want to hear about what we worked on at Mr. Tom's? Well-boring stuff really but super important stuff too! We worked on getting Hayden to not lean on the bridle aka ME HOLDING HIM! This takes a lot of me driving him into the bridle and then releasing so he can find where he needs to be. We also worked on moving his hip over and getting him to relax when we did this. After 4 days the result was a much more relaxed horse that was balanced and actually had Rhythm and Cadence at all 3 gaits and wasn't leaning on my hands! We also were able to nail the lope overs a few times!

The other huge thing we were working on was getting Hayden to stand up in the bridle and not drop his shoulders. This will help our lead changes and spins especially! He's slowly getting more and more broke and I love being able to ride and learn from someone who is not about rushing to finish a horse! Mr. Tom knows it can take years to finish a horse to where the horse actually likes his job!

How about some pictures from our second stock show?! Thank you to Briana Belskie for taking these!







Until next time=keep a leg on each side!