Ridin' Solo

And I don't mean Solo, I mean solo. lol Yesterday I went to the barn early. I have been getting sass from Husband for spending so much time with the BigRedHorse. I mean look at my boy...who wouldn't want to spend that much time with him?? Oh, well...he (meaning Husband) will live.
It was suppose to be our re-match on our grassy track, but once I got to the barn Kelsey text me and informed me she had a terrible headache and was gonna medicate and hit the hay. Tif was there shortly after. I think Tif would show up if she were missing an arm and had to use a tournique until she was finished riding, and then head to the hospital. While Tif mucked I set up a few jumps. The weather was wayyyyy cooler than the past few had been. I fabircated 4 bounces and a one stride in a line. I also had a 2'6" ramped oxer with a 2'6" spread, my mini coop and a skinny barrel with pylons next to it.

Bounces and a one stride

Ramped oxer

The barrel skinny

Just as we get saddled and into the arena Tif's phone rings. Of course she used her hands-free...lmfao...and was really excited about something. Come to find out that Tif will put her riding on hold to go get her new 2010 truck. Totally understandable!!

She asked if I would like to ride along. Now, I am all for fun time and new cars and friends, but I did want to ride and I had a time limit. I was gonna make it home by 1900 to get brownie points with Husband. I stayed behind. So, I was ridin' solo. Had I remembered my camera and took video, that would have been  perfect song to put with it! Dang it!!

Olly seemed kinda mopey and was not feeling losing his friend. We started out warming up in both directions. Then we took our little log jump and I made a GOOD effort to make him take his right lead. The BigRedHorse isn't that great on his right. He landed perfectly. Now, I don't know if this is just me or what, but I find it easier to get him to land correctly than to land and change. I circled around and took the skinny barrel. He was starting to wake up. We did a cool off lap and went for the log again. This time, left lead. In order to make the turn to the left it would be a roll back and for those of you who watched the roll-back video, you may be cringing right now. lol I prepared him to land correctly because it was so close to the arena railing I wouldn't have time (at this stage of our training) to change. He landed it and turned awesomely. We canter a few strides and at the last second I made a sharp turn to theleft (almost 90*) and took themini coop. I saw what was gonna happen and I tried to fix it but Olly wasn't focusing quickly enough. **back to Lucinda** was what I was thinking. MAKE SURE YOUR HORSE SEE'S THE JUMP. Welllll I could tell he had no idea that mini coop was about to jump out in front of him. I picked his head up, started the turn as far back as I could , without throwing off his balance, and gave him a half-halt. The ADD having BigRedHorse still didn't see it, which I was prepared for. He bunny hopped the corner of it and if I could see his face from where I saw sitting, I'm sure it would have had an "oh, shit!" look on it. I gave him a cool off lap and we did the exact thing again. This time though I made the turn into the mini coop a little late, just so I would have the -focus on mom and not on what you THINK we are doing. He approached the coop better and not so surprised, but it wasn't perfect. Cool off lap, and again. The third time was great, although he knew what exactly what we were doing. Next, lesson we are gonna practice on "seeing" the jump.
On to the bounces. We ran through them once and decided  to remove the fourth bounce. I had wanted to set them at 9 feet apart, but Tif said that they were closer to 10. The last bounce to the one stride was a bit too long and the crappy standard was way unstable, so I just removed it. We did the line a few times and were finished. He was getting better at his leads, which was a relief.