Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Prepurchase exam is being scheduled and price negotiations are completed for both horses.

I'm back

 Becky asked for more pics of Grace and I have been negligent in my picture taking.  I always mean to be better and then I forget.  Here are a couple of my birthday when our friends came to our place to ride.  Yep, that's my pasture right there.  This ones kind of from a distance but I love how my friend, Junior is the same height on Grace that I am on Tax.  He's a big man and makes her look like a pony.

I haven’t been blogging much, have I? Things are afoot though. Exciting things…scary things. I just need to get though today and then I promise I will share. Today is a big day but I’m not ready to say why yet. I keep reminding myself that everything always works out the way it should. What is meant to be will be…but I’m PMSing today and I’m not sure it’s helping. Sigh.

Today, I want to write just to write. I want to write about the most amazing ride on Tax I’ve ever had. It was short but sweet. I asked for a canter, the take off just a little rough. I pressed my inside leg against his side at the girth to pick up his shoulder like I’ve been working on with the trainer. I kept my reins short with some contact. I continued to push him up with my outside leg into my hands.

Suddenly he wasn’t pulling on me. He didn’t feel behind the vertical either. He felt…light…like air. His stride became rhythmic and I could feel my butt sink into the saddle as I pushed down into my heels. My hips, my heartbeat, my breath…everything moving in time with his pounding feet. I looked ahead at the path ahead of us. Down the short end of the arena and across the diagonal, I reminded myself to sit back and keep his shoulders straight. I barely felt him change leads. His pace never changed. I slowed him to a trot and he was right with me. It had to be our best downward transition from the canter ever. I even nailed the diagonal.

If that’s what he’s going to feel like all the time once he’s totally consistent I’m definitely not selling him. He’s really just been amazing. He tries so hard to do what I ask and never gets a hair out of place. He never bucks, never spooks, just sometimes still gets a little quick at the canter especially his lead changes and that’s mostly my fault because I lean forward to look. My trainer rode him on Saturday after him being home since October 2nd. She said he doesn’t feel much different, just keep working on keeping his inside shoulder up. That’s like, the best compliment ever. I’m riding so much better now that I’m riding him 5 days a week. I know my trainer was worried I wouldn’t keep him going but she seems happy with our progress. We might be ready for a 2 foot course at our next show which is in just a couple weeks. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

He’s finally putting on weight now that I am feeding him myself. Weight and hair...lots and lots of gorgeous hair. I’m giving him a special mix of mostly beet pulp and rice bran that Grace’s trainer gives all her show horses. It seems to work wonders.  They all have amazing coats and body condition.  Gots to give it to halter trainers there...they know how to make a horse look good.

Okay, I'll give a hint about what's going on today because I can't help myself.  Unfortunately, you might be getting a lot less pics of Grace.  The good news is you might be getting more of this guy which is good because I hate this pic of him but its all I've got for now.  More soon...