New addition! Welcome Levi!

I haven't written for a while because not a whole lot has been going on but now I have some news. We just bought Gage his first pony. A 10.1 hand grey Shetland gelding named Levi. He is only 4 so we are just really starting his training but he is proving to be a fun pony to work with and should be a quiet responsive pony for Gage to learn on. He is learning to lead and work with Levi now and really seems to enjoy it. I never knew how much fun it would be to work with a pony. They are small and so forgiving. He learns so quickly and since he is the size that he is even when he does throw a bit of attitude it is not a big deal:) We are going to have a bunch of fun teaching him to be a good kids pony and a good driving pony.

Kizzy is doing awesome! Ever since we got back from Montana she seems to have grown up mentally and physically. She is so much more chill about things and she really relaxes much easier when she is having a hot moment. Chels has been working her 5 days a week and jumping her with me riding her 1 day a week which is helping my confidence but I need to ride more. We have been doing ground pole lessons because I want to get jumping again and I have to start somewhere. Even with ground poles everything comes back even if my body isn't what it used to be.

Kiz is getting stronger and I am getting better with my aids so her flat work is really coming along well. I can get her round and listening while moving forward although sometimes she can get a bit lazy and not push from behind. We have been working a lot on her canter to get it more round with more push and although she can only do it for short periods she is starting to use her whole body instead of just cantering around being flat. I feel that once I start riding more which will happen after this weekend I will become more confident with my riding on the flat and over fences.

Aspen Farms has there event this weekend and Chels is riding Kiz Beginner Novice. I am a bit nervous because she is still so green. Chelsey is a great rider though and should give her a nice confident ride. After Aspen Kiz will be done competing for the year. She will be in only partial training with Chels so I can ride her 3-4 times a week with 1-2 lessons a week. With a whole winter of schooling, lessons, clinics and schooling shows we should be a strong partnership next yr. I can't wait to ride more and I think it will help me a bunch!!!

I will post how the show goes after the weekend...Wish us luck!!!

Montana was amazing!!!

We are back from Montana and it was amazing. I am so glad we went and Kizzy could not have been better. She did get last place but it was no fault of hers they were looking for a more experienced horse with more muscling and she had just turned 4 the week before. We didn't push her for this event and she did everything that was asked of her.

The YEH series takes place over one day. It starts out with conformation moves on to dressage and then finishes up with the jumping phase.

Kizzy went out to Montana a week before I did and Chelsey schooled her a bunch. They did ditches, water and other new cross country fences. Chels also did a lot of flat work with her. She settled right into the routine and there were no signs of the spookiness/hotness that I was worried about.

Cindi and I came out to Rebecca around 9:00 A.M. Wednesday to watch Chels work Kizzy with Jon schooling her for the trot out (conformation) that morning. She was awesome even with everything going on. She then had to get braided and spruced up. While they did that Cindi and I went and got her packet and walked around the FEI barn to see if we could see anybody famous:)

Kizzy is not the best at standing up square. Her build is really good but she can make it look really bad:) She trotted up and back like she was at Rolex and didn't bat and eye and everybody milling around. It was then a race to get her ready for her dressage test. Chelsey was riding Nick and Kizzy so we just kept switching horses throughout the competition. I brought Kiz over to the dressage ring right as Chels was finishing up with Nicks test which looked very nice. Kiz warmed up really well and she looked great. The beginning of the test looked wonderful and relaxed then a spectator sat down on the hill in front of her and it spooked her. Her canter transition right after that involved a bit of a kick out and it was pretty tense. I think if there would have been a crowd of people it would have been fine but because it was one man in the middle of a large space she wasn't expecting it...Aahh babies:) Her halt was a bit sideways at the end but all and all the test was nice and she received very nice comments on it too. After dressage Chels jumped on Nick and headed over to cross country with me running after with Kiz in hand. She was still so chill with all the other competitors working there horses and motor bikes zooming around I couldn't believe it.. When I got over to XC she noticed heads above the grass. You know when people walk in tall grass it looks like there heads are floating well this is a big thing for her she doesn't like the floating heads. She also was a bit overwhelmed with the course and the amount of people watching. The course consisted of two green role tops (not what you would expect in a field) and a bunch of really nice XC fences along with a bank, ditch and water. She was a little spooky coming into the big bright green show jump role tops but she went over them. She jumped the next two great and then came the bank which she usually has no problem with. Chels said she was looking at the flowers and stuff that were on the bank next to the one they were jumping and she wasn't focused on her bank. Although sticky she did get over it. The next jump caused a bunch of horses issues and she was no exception but she did get over it and then finished the course galloping through the water, over the ditch and over a log to a long uphill gallop. She was amazing!!!!

The rest of the week we watched some amazing rides and I got to hack and work Kizzy over the wonderful grounds. She was so good and it really gave me so much confidence that she really is going to be my next special horse. She is aimed for BN at the Aspen Farms event then she will be done for the year except for derbies, schooling shows and things like that.

We will have all winter to get myself and her confident over fences and more polished on the flat and next year we will hit the ground running:)