Here we are in 2016!

WEEK 1 January 4-10, 2016: Goals are to take everything we have worked on in the last twenty two days and get those skills really sharp with good energy and performance. This week has seen us get hit with a large amount of rain and some snow. Of course this means the footing at home and the local outdoor arenas are swamp like. So we’ll tighten our budget once again and see about getting a pass to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds. At least the foot in good there so all three horses can get the work they need (Ronan and Michael are set up for the 3 Day Clinic in February with Clinton Anderson). No round pen there sigh) so Nike will be working mostly on the lead line and under saddle on the Fundamentals.

            01/09/16: NEW PLACE! We headed over to the El Dorado County Fairground. This is a very active facility with folks coming and going to different functions and lots of folks walking their dogs and riding their bicycles near the arena. We have had a very wet week which made training very challenging. We FINALLY got hold of someone in the know at the El Dorado County Fairgrounds who knew when open rides (with a monthly or quarterly pass) were. We got a pass and then got to work! The Downunder Brumbies are having a practice on the 16^th of the month so we wanted all of our horses to be ready for the focus exercises. So this session focused on lateral flexion, introducing vertical flexion, getting  a ”yes sir” attitude when lunging for respect stage 1 and 2, improving the yields of the HQ and FW and leading beside. (all groundwork). We also focused on the Sending exercises and LOTS of desensitizing activities. Under saddle we worked on lateral and vertical flexion, unsticking her gas pedal and freeing up her steering and well as several suppling exercises. Having five days off showed in her sassy face and her performance. We worked through everything and got some wins. It was a productive session.

            01/10/16: Nike was worked after we wrapped with Ronan and Argent. The arena was BUSY today! When we got there we had the place to ourselves and encourages all three horses to run around and get the fresh out. They didn’t have much fresh and after some decent laps and turns just gave us “two eyes” so we got to work. Nike’s lesson was like that of the day before. Same goals but looking for a higher level of performance. Other horses were around – some calm and some not so much- and acted like magnet times but we saw some real improvement on all her focus exercises. She moved out and maintained her trot much longer today and even began to Follow the Fence. She was acting a little dull to my leg cues so I added some spurs to the mix. Woke her up and helped getting some roundness when we backed up and nice bends and lateral movement. Yesterday as I dismounted I twisted my ankle pretty bad. Silly but it happened. It started hurting pretty bad but I maintained until I got some real improvement and then dismounted so Laurie could handle Nike/s cool down. They did a little more trotting just to be sure the lesson was understood and then wrapped up with some Bending at the Walk. Good session! Nike was a bit tired but is making good progress. We’ll be back at the same place tomorrow afternoon!