Eventing Obsessed

So since I can't upload the vids from EA to my Mac and my PC died, its not looking good...ugh.

Its been busy in my life lately...so much shit to do before may 14th (end of finals week and beginning of Horse Trials)...I feel like I might explode with stress. I have ridden twice in about a week..and lunged twice. My house is a mess. My car is a wreck..I wear the same clothes two days in a row. There is paint on everything. I think I've gained back 5 lbs from eating out....ugh again.

However, I got two great rides in over the weekend. Saturday was Dressage day (pics on that later) and Sunday was Jump/Conditioning day. Saturday dressage was unbelieveable and Sunday was pretty good. e was a bit hyper for my taste but jumped really well. His gallops could use some relaxation but other than that we did 6 laps, 3 each direction. Each lap is about 1/3 mile I think so it was pretty good.

Pictures are out of order, but oh well, lol.

Look at that trot!! Talk about engaged :D

Practicing my 'galloping position'- Practical Horseman pg 34.

He was  waaay tense. The pic. above is about as 'out' as he got. Even full out gallop speed he was still uppity. He would NOT stay on the correct lead. Insisted on switching to the opposite  no matter which direction we were going. Weird counter-cantering ponyface.

Galloping=love

Speaking of galloping, if you all haven't read Practical Horseman's "5 XC Rider Positions", I would. Its excellent. 

Also there was another article by J. Wofford called "Magnificent Obsession" which was also excellent and inspiring. I love the quote,

 "....Dave Barry says there is a fine line between hobby and pbsession; he must have been talking about horse people. Obsession is a persistant disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly; compelling motivation..."

I also love how he says anyone who is a master of their work has to spend at least 10, ooo hours practicing. He says most humans live about 700, 800 hours, 1/70th of your life! It is awesome to think about it this way. I wouldn't want to be doing anything else with my life!

I can't really explain the article well in my must-do-homework mindset but I'd recommend reading it. Very motivating!

Baby trekahner

EW this is SO pixalated....gross. But, this was a drop fence and he handled it well for it being wet outside. My position is getting much stronger. No more leaning forward and MUCH stabler leg. I try to auto release but sometimes I forget.

Like I said, the pics are out of order. We jumped inside first then did some work in the jump field.  

Yankee felt really good over fences, but I can still feel myself sucking back before takeoff. Its something I really need to get over and I try so hard but by trying I just do worse. Its a retarded cycle and very frustrating because its ME and not Yankee for once. I am afraid he will run through the fence again like last summer and afraid he will refuse since he started doing  that after last summer but I cannot NOT think about it and ALWAYS stutter before the fences..its a pain :(

He was quite hyper and bucked after every fence and squealed and whatnot (in joy, not pain, trust me) but he was very smooth up to and over the fences. We practiced a bounce, two skinnies and a higher oxer.

H brought Pronto out to jump a bit. I think this is his 5th time and he is relaxing more and more. He doesnt like bounces much but he can jump!

Pronto and H. popping over the bounce. Lol, I still think he jumps a little funny.

H jumping Pronto. He is getting more and more relaxed!

The skinny!

2nd element of the bounce, I'm a little crouchy..ooops

BAD ponyface!

The skinnnnny! Which he jumped like a pro!

WEE!

I thought this fence looked wicked cool in a magazine and I wanted to try it. So I set it up :)

We then went outside to do some gallop sets. He was still really uptight so I thought popping over a few fences would help...not really. Overall he was ok though, it was wet out. Oh, he threw a shoe, of course. I should know better not to ride in ANY amount of mud b/c shoes will come off....

Lol, not really jumping the center am I? This was a massive spread btw.

I LOVE this picture!

Gallop sets!

Jumper show this weekend, dressage show maybe the next then our 1st HT of the season!!!

Don't forget all, Eventing/Dressage T-shirts...let me know if you want one! (refer to previous post/comments for design).