April Wrap Up

Photo credits to Madren Photography 

 

	Butterball
Training rides	4- including 1 jumper round at POP
Lessons	3
Hacks	2 bareback hacks, 1 hack at a friend’s house + lots of pre-flat school hacks
Ground work, lunge, long line	0
Flat rides	10
Conditioning rides	1
XC school	1
Shows	3- 2 HT and 1 schooling jumper round

 

Butterball worked 25 of 30 days this month, hard working pony! We did a few combo training rides + short lesson afterwards that were really helpful for getting him sharp to the aids and sitting on his butt. We also competed in two horse trials: Rocking Horse and Ocala International. At both events, our dressage was a definite highlight. It's getting so lovely, we just need to move that quality canter over to the jump arena now. 

Stretchy circle that probably would have earned us a 9 if not for an unfortunate stumble in the las quarter

Unfortunately neither show had the jump rounds we wanted, with both being indicative of our current struggles. We had a not-so-pretty clear stadium round and then a stop cross country at Rocking Horse. We went and schooled cross country at Naked Horse the week before Festival and that paid off with a beautiful clear cross country run, but we did have a stop in stadium. 

However, I heard this quote the other day and it struck home: 

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

- Winston Churchill

Moving forward we've got a plan, and we've also got time to execute said plan before Area III championships at FHP starting the last day of the month. 

I did join RideIQ this month, using their two week free trial and hoping to win the $2K of show and clinic entries. Sadly I did not win, but I did very much enjoy a lesson from Holly Hepp Hudspeth on soft and through in W/T/C. My phone service is kinda sketchy ever since we moved to a cheap carrier that uses AT&T towers, so I'm going to track how many lessons I am able to pull up in May and decide if it is worthwhile continuing. **ETA I found the download button on the lessons, but will still log the number of lessons I do to see if it is worth continuing**

Finishing off this already scattered post with a few random pics...

Butterball got his rabies vaccine and confirmed that he DOES NOT like vaccines, noted and will be scheduled accordingly, sorry dude

He also tromped his way into the tack/feed room once or twice

And enjoyed a belated birthday cake - March was too busy for me to make one, but he enjoyed the April celebration just as much!