Well, in my related personal life, my husband's contract with the NCAA ended last month, so he's once again not bringing in a paycheck. Ergo, I'm skipping what would have been our next event (Leg Up on the 5th), and the show jumping/XC schooling weekend the IEA is putting on this weekend. It's a bummer, but it's also set a fire in me to break this contract/unemployment cycle by doing what's in my own power to end it. More on that soon, hopefully.
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| St. Louis Cardinals game (baseball heaven!) June 2014 |
The sad part is, that schooling event at the Hoosier Horse Park this weekend ($7/SJ round on Saturday, as many rounds as you want, with each level going at a specified time, flat rate for XC on Sunday. Really cool concept!) is exactly what Connor needs. Oh well, such is life! This is what I got out of Fox River Valley:
Dressage: Keep on keepin' on. The warmup is working for both his brain and his body, I need to spend more time in the actual Dressage arena and learn how to ride a corner, but otherwise, very happy here.
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| Totally delighted with his Dressage! |
XC: This needs to get safer. Jumping a table from a standstill is impressive, but not okay. While the thought has crossed my mind that maybe he's too much of a chicken to safely take XC, I also know that he jumps more confidently/like a normal XC horse (read: across the fence, and not from a standstill) on the second half of every course, which leads me to think he just needs miles. Many, many miles. Time penalties will shake themselves out when we start, you know, jumping the fences from the canter instead of stopping at each one.
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| Fence 13, jumping totally normally by this point in the course. |
SJ: We need to slow everything down for him, so he has time to process the chaos around him, especially in new places and smaller rings. I am going to heavily lean on my trainer for ideas here. His warmup being so good and quiet, and his actual round being so crazy, I know I need techniques for dealing with this in-the-moment.
But the height is no problemo. That feels good.
Overall? We are seriously done forever with Starter, and that feels GOOD!
Congrats on permanently moving past Starter! How awesome :)
ReplyDeleteMoving up is always so exciting! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI'm savoring this one, since it will be our last one for a long, long, long, long time. :)
DeleteHopefully the hubby can find something perminent!
ReplyDeleteYahoooooo for moving up!
Hope so too, thanks!
DeleteAwesome you are ready to move up!
ReplyDeleteBest of luck in the continued job situation.
ReplyDeleteWish it wasn't continued! But I'm taking matters into my own hands now...
DeleteThe contract cycle is so hard :( We're hiring a lot at my company in Austin! :-D
ReplyDeleteYou and Jen both are trying to get me to move down there! It would be fun.
DeleteBummer about the job and the show, but yay about staying above starter.
ReplyDeleteYes! So happy to be done with it. 2'6 feels good.
DeleteThat's a real bummer about the finances but the good thing is you and Connor have already come so far and there is still so much time to continue improving. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteCongrats on moving up?
ReplyDelete