Things are "going good."

So....Hi people.

Sasha has been amazing the last few days. <3

Yesterday, I had a lesson with my friend and her horse Noodle. My instructor lunged & rode both as they are both green. Noodle was shown and did very well for a few years in the area, but then was sold and neglected for about two years. =[ Anyway. So, both horses were ridden. There were walk/trot beginners that were flying everywhere, and two dads were sitting on the bench in the corner of the arena. Well, Sasha gave my RI a bit of sass. Nothing terrible, there were just arguments about where her head should be [not with her muzzle pointed to the sky] and who exactly was in charge. -eye roll- It involved tail-swishing, ear pinning, head tossing, but it got sorted out.

I hop on, and immediately we are told to trot over the cavalettis that are set up along the long side of the arena. We are going towards the bench. I think the dads thought it would be funny to try and scare the horse. >=[ One, staring me STRAIGHT IN THE EYE, stuck his legs out and thumped them together. Sasha, saintly Sasha who comes through when she needs to, pricked her ears WAAAAYYY forward but did not do anything bad. I was so proud of my baby girl! They were flailing there arms at Noodle, too, but I don't think my trainer saw them because when I was near the obnoxious people, he was focused on my friend, and vice versa. I think they may have thrown a freaking rock at us too, because I felt something hit the bottom of my foot at one point and Sasha jumped a little bit. However, that seems a little hardcore even for annoying people...

But enough about people that are really just...arghhh!

Sasha was so so soft yesterday! She was rounding up, she stayed on the bit more consistently than she has been, etc.

The poles turned into poles leading up to a crossrail. Sasha, not batting an eye, hopped the crossrail and cantered off quietly. Thinking about it now, I want to almost cry with pride or...I don't know what this emotion is. It is a mixture of pride and joy and disbelief. A month ago, Sasha didn't even know what trot poles were. She couldn't even do three without rushing and getting nervous. She had done the 2'6" hunters, but she was always nervy. She also couldn't do crossrails without GALLOPING, and I mean GALLOPING after. Sasha had two gears after jumps: stop or RUN! She would halt when asked, but she wouldn't slow down.

Yet, we trotted into a set of cavalettis then popped over a crossrail and softly cantered away in an arena with six other horses in it. And this isn't a huge arena, three riders were 6-9 year old walk/trot beginners, one is a woman who comes and just walk/trot/canters her horse around bareback, the other was a walk/trot/canter/one itty bitty crossrail beginner, and the other was my friend.

We repeated the crossrail about five times, then took a break. Our next task: Sash and I's first in and out.

She handled it like a pro, trotting in, jumping in, jumping out. She needed some half-halts coming through the turn, occasionally one through the poles. After a few times, Sasha got more excited, causing a half-halt to be necessary in the middle of the in and out. I was happy, though, because we weren't out of control. We had normal problems to deal with, like being slightly crooked, not "HOLY $%^* WE ARE GALLOPING AND NOT GOING TO SLOW DOWN EEP!" At the end of the arena, my friend and I were supposed to trot then come back around. You know what? We actually were able to TROT and come back around!!! No crazy circles or excessive halts. Sure, I think I had to halt her twice after the jump when she got excited, but even then she hadn't been crazy bad, it was mostly a reminder when she felt like she was getting quick.

The second jump turned into a vertical, then before I knew it, there were three jumps a stride apart. A triple, a gymnastic, call it what you will, but Sasha had never done them we think. The barn where she was doesn't do a lot of training exercises with their horses; it's just courses and lines. Those are fine for a more experienced horse, not necessarily the best thing for them, but for a young horse..eheh. So, now it was brown crossrail to a tiny brown 2' vertical, to A REALLY SCARY TINY CROOKED WHITE CROSSRAIL! AHH! Sasha trotted through the cavalettis then stopped at the first jump...oops on my part. My instructor was a little "sharp" Friday, so he yelled at me a little but whatever, you get over it quickly because you know he doesn't do it out of spite.

The second time through, I actually had to close my legs and ride forward. [omg never thought I would say I did that on Sasha] She [reluctantly] jumped, half-trotted half cantered the next jump all while staring at it because it's lower now and it is suddenly scary, and REALLY looks at the next jump, trotting, over jumps slightly, then canters away. My riding instructor say that's okay, the worst thing you can do is try to "chase" them through because then you get stoppers. The best you can do is pick your hands up and close your leg [which I did, yay!] to encourage but not rush them through.

After that, it was smooth sailing. The jumps got higher, Sasha decided that she could handle [and try to quicken through, tsk tsk] three jumps in a row, and I ended up sitting down and half-halting in between all the jumps. I was happy because I was back to jumping at least 2'6". I was jumping 3' courses last year, so it was nice to FINALLY not be doing tiny tiny jumps. But yeah. It ended with everyone still on the horses, happy riders, happy horse that loooveee to jump, and a satisfied RI.

Today's events. [I feel like that should be bolded or underlined lol but it's a statement, not a title so....]

I planned on riding with Noodle and his owner, as well as the girl who rides my mom's pony Velvet. We got together, tacked up the horses, and got on. There were one or two lessons going on, but no one was cantering or jumping, so it was fairly sane and quiet. Velvet was going well, Noodle was lazy as he always is on the flat, and Sasha was eager and out walking everyone but she still listened to my hands.

The ride was fun. It was fun riding with my friends, and I did more cantering on Sasha then I usually do. Actually, to be honest, I usually haven't cantered her outside of lessons because it always seems to end badly. Very badly. [See last post.] Yeah....But we probably cantered between 5-10 minutes total. I lose track of time when I ride. We did lots of calm circles. The only time she got quick was when I made her pick her canter up from the walk, but that was only for a stride or two and then she settled.  Velvet's rider ended up cooling off bareback after I told her Velvet was really fun bareback and I more or less dared her to ride bareback. =P 

Oh, I almost forgot! I think Sasha FINALLY has settled in and accepted me as her new owner! She's always been sweet, but she usually was slightly reserved. Today, she kept begging for cuddles and treats. She is across from Velvet and they are at the end of the barn. So, Leah [Velvet's rider] and I both had the horses in their stalls with the stall guards up. I gave Velvet a cuddle [we were just hanging around after they were untacked] and Sasha actually was acting "jealous!" She kept stretching her head and neck out as well as pulling silly faces and tilting her head to the side in her "jaw scratch please!" position. Leah got pictures; I'll have to harass her for them.

Wow, that was really long! Hope you aren't falling asleep my nonexistent stalke....er, followers. I am about to put up a recipe for a type of treat that Sasha and the horse I used to lease both went CRAZY for! So maybe your horse or pony or whatever, giraffe or something, will like them too. Bye!

<3 my stalkers.

-Cruce