Since my last post, I've ridden a bunch of horses, gained a bridle for Neil, begun the process of fixing my jumping position, packed it all up, left Springpoint (and Posh), spent three hours alternately sitting and standing up to clap at a scholarship dinner, ridden at a dressage show (first of my life, somehow), packed it all up again, arrived back in H-town, dropped off my horse, and done two loads of laundry. In the meantime, Mary King double-won Rolex (I didn't know you could do that).
Since when was coming home this much work?
Starting at the beginning of last week, I had some self-inflicted ups and downs. Peggy Paine, Caitlin's mom and my other mother away from home, brought out her best therapist voice (ride the plan you have today- yeah, it's a mantra now) in a lesson where my mind was in how-the-f$%^-will-I-make-this-work land and not in the ring. Not to go terribly off-topic, but my mare is at Springpoint Farm for another week, sound, and schooling first level. She needs a rider to lease and love her, and she needs Troy to keep doing her feet. And I really need not to be paying that set of bills anymore. But moving on.
Neil had a great field trip to Snowfields with Teen on Wednesday: flatwork in one of the rings (no explosions, yay!) and then a nice hack in the woods. He's a total pro, best baby horse ever, and I am working very hard on my bad marriage with the right rein to try and fix it permanently. I also had some really nice rides on Ben. It's awesome to ride a trained horse over fences and work on my position, but it's also a great feeling to just ride a horse on the flat and make it feel better. He's a little superstar and I'm going to have to come back and steal him. And his plaid boots. Obviously. I got a trip to Gritty's and leftover cheesecake for breakfast, and like 18,000 boxes of Peeps.
And then there was today: Neil's first show (ever) and my first non-rally dressage show experience. We had a nice lonely warmup up in the sand ring at Puckerbrush and then a very quiet test in the indoor. Baby horse pulled a very stellar 70% in Intro C, so we called it quits while we were ahead. While we were loading him up my mom noticed a nice split in my right front trailer tire- thank god for the crew from Someday Farm who lent us a yellow Trailer-aid jack so we could put the spare on. Let's all breathe a sigh of relief that baby didn't blow while we were on 95.
Neil is now happily chilling out at Horseplay Farm (very amped to go back to his big field tomorrow I should think) and I am in my own bed with the internet (luxury!). It's weird being home in so many ways- living with my parents again instead of on my own, driving my stick shift car again, and mostly missing the awesome people I just spent three weeks with. I will sorely miss spending 85 hours a week at the barn, one or two lessons every day, and my alternate family of Paines and company (speaking of which, I still have Uncle John's - I think - sweatshirt from that Easter brunch hike around Fort Williams) and Cody, and Gena, and Bud, and the boarders, and, and, and.... I can't wait to come back. I've been so horribly spoiled that this last month of school will be a bit of a struggle, but it's nice to have my mom paying for groceries again.
So, back in South Canada. The show goes on.
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