Connor and the Circle of Death

Last night Mary, her husband and baby Annie came out to play. I have so much going on on the weekends right now, they have to come on a weeknight - but we all agreed it still feels absolutely miraculous that we can hang on on weeknights at all!

I had stalls and a barn meeting, so Mary set up a jump course and did all of the riding. I described said jump course as "torture" and Mary called it "fun". It was a circle of death at one end of the ring with two crossrails four strides off of it on both long sides.

I stood there watching them with my mouth open. I genuinely don't recognize this horse anymore.

Also we honestly didn't plan this level of color coordination, it just happened, lol

I'm used to seeing this horse do the circle of death with his breastplate down, making it hard for him to recover from the last fence in time for the next one. And instead I saw this bouncy, elevated canter and very little "smelling" the fence before takeoff.

WHO ARE YOU

I mean it wasn't all pretty, especially to the left, which is 0% surprising since that's the hock I have trouble convincing him to use in Dressage too. 

But they cleaned it up by the end of the ride.

Of course we ended the night with pony rides, with Annie in her new pony helmet that she refuses to take off at home, lol.

This is the smallest helmet Ovation makes. She had been riding in a bike helmet up to this point.

Next up is hauling to Cincinnati today for a remedial geometry lesson before the shows next weekend. I am not sure my trainer wants to be seen in public with me again until I clean up my 3 loop serpentine shape, lol...

Happy weekend, everyone!