I'm Not Dead...

I promise(; I've just been extremely busy! So, let me go ahead & say that this entry will probably be verrrrrrrrrrrrry long. We had an interesting weekend at Poplar, to say the least. It started out pretty well but the second we crossed A, to go down centerline, everything went "bleh." We had a few good points in our test but the rest was just "bleh." We rode in a pony trot & looked at EVERYTHING.

  Plus, our dressage was in the grass arena next to the first cross country jump for Prelim, Intermediate & Advanced. Perfect. We were in last place after dressage... Cross country was great though. Dargenzio loved it. His ears were forward, looking for his next fence, the whole time. We did have a stop, but I'm fine with it just because it was his first Novice & he's a babbbby. Show jumping was just perfect.

I don't normally come out of show jumping feeling that great. We left all of the rails up & got around in style. I watched two people fall off right before me so I was a little nervous walking in. But, Dargenzio knows it's his strong point & took care of me over the first three fences where I was kinda still in awe that we were getting around. We ended in seventh, but we're determined to get a blue ribbon at our next Horse Trials! We will be heading to a few more HTs this year, one is definitely Chattahoochee Hills in October. I'm excited, nervous, but excited. I love Chatt, but I know that their courses are always difficult & generally max everything. But, we did get around Poplar & we did have a few interesting questions on course.

Hopefully, I will have some exciting news over the next month, but I can't reveal what it is yet!

Moving Up Or...?

I haven't been able to post lately because I've been soooo busy! After River Glen, we decided to start looking towards running Novice at Poplar in September. We've schooled cross country & worked on a tons of dressage work since. Last time we went schooling, the weather wasn't in our favor & Dargenzio was a little sticky to everything. Thats not good at all. So, we will be going cross country schooling again this week! If everything goes well, we will stay at Novice. If not, we'll run Beginner Novice & have a good, confidence building round for Genzo. Soooo, hopefully he will be good! We have decided that we will be breeding Savannah to my trainer's stallion, San City, next season! She is having a Repro exam sometime this year (in the next few weeks, haven't scheduled it yet) & then will hopefully be bred in March or April, next year! I'm very excited for this baby in 2015!

Ride Like You Want To Win...

"Ride the horse you have underneath you, not the one you wish you had underneath you or the one you had five minutes ago. Ride the horse that is underneath you, in that moment, and you will succeed."
Arriving at River Glen on Wednesday had its perks. I met a few very nice, knowledgeable competitors that really helped me out. One of these very wise people told me this when I mentioned that this was Dargenzio's first Horse Trial. Needless to say, I lived by this quote all weekend. Thursday morning was an interesting ride but I kept remembering that quote in my head. This horse was not the horse I left Florida with, this horse was an unfocused nutjob. I rode that horse. By the end of the ride, he was phenomenal. He still wasn't the same horse I left Florida with, but he was being great. Thursday night, I had a completely different horse. This horse was made. This horse sat on his butt, focused only on me, & tried his heart out. This was the horse I knew. At midnight on Friday, my phone lit up while I was asleep. I was (impatiently) waiting for my trainer to arrive & she had left earlier on Thursday, but was having truck problems. I woke up to see that it was my trainer calling & texting me, because she had broke down. My Dad left to get them & they arrived around 8 am, the next morning. We had a great ride on Friday, & that horse was the horse I wanted to ride down centerline on Saturday. That horse was forward, collected, & balanced. Did I ride that horse down centerline? Of course not. The horse I rode down centerline was lazy, not responding to my leg & was off balance. But I still rode the horse I had underneath me. We had an okay test with very few marks above 7 so I came out with a "happy with that test, just because we finished" attitude. I told my trainer that I didn't come for a ribbon so I was pretty happy with that test. That is when she told me that I should ride like I want to win, because then I will always ride better... That really came to mind when show jumping came around & I rode like I wanted to win. He was awesome in show jumping & went over everything like a champ. Our show jumping course was pretty tough but we took it with ease. We were sitting in first place on our dressage score of a 36.7, that I was happy with. We had a 6 point lead, going into cross country. We went clean on cross country but had some time faults (that we shouldn't have had), & finished in fourth place. I was a little upset because my watch was correct & there was no way I went 30 seconds too slow. Dargenzio's stride is massive & we galloped the whole course. My watch read us at 5:15 (which was really 5:10 since I started my watch at 5 seconds, in the start box) & the optimum time was 5:04. But, the jump judge's watch read differently. I think whatever went wrong, time wise, was in the start box since the girl in front of me was having a hard time getting over jumps 1 & 2, & finally was eliminated at 2. All I can say is, oh well. I wanted that blue ribbon but I obviously didn't get it. Dargenzio took our fourth place ribbon & threw it to the other side of his stall, so he wasn't very pleased with it either. On the bright side, we had a GREAT run on cross country & we will be running Novice at the September Horse Trial at Poplar! I am ordering photos from River Glen so hopefully I can post those soon :D

Camp, Camp, Camp!

So, I just got back from camp but I guess I should probably do a recap from our cross country school at Poplar the week before camp. It was great, we did the whole Beginner Novice course & he didn't stop at anything. He was being funky about the water but oh well. Now for CAMPPPPPPP. Of course, it was extremely fun & has made me feel extremely confident going into River Glen next weekend! The first day was a little iffy for Genzo. We were in an arena with 12 other horses & riders... a few of which either didn't know how to steer, or just didn't watch where they were going. He was a little nuts but finally settled into everything by the end of the lesson. The second day was great! We worked on 20 meter circles in our dressage lesson but didn't get the opportunity to do our jumping lesson because it decided to rain. Wednesday was also good, starting off the morning with a great jumping lesson where we did a circle of jumps that was extremely difficult but we got through it! We played games on horseback that night, but I chose to not use Dargenzio because I didn't think he'd be very cooperative. Thursday was great! I had a private dressage lesson in the morning, where we really got Dargenzio in the correct show frame. Our jumping lesson was soooooo fun too! We did four bounces to a going three stride oxer! & Friday, my favorite day, we went cross country schooling! Genzo was being amazing so my trainer thought it'd be good for us to pop over some of her Training level questions including a humungous log/fallen down tree sort of thing. It was extremely wide but only like 3 ft. tall. Dargenzio went directly up to it without a question & popped right over it :p We also went over a Trakhener, which he also took like a piece of cake. Today, we had the camp show & I got to do the Beginner Novice test B for our dressage test (since I'm doing it next weekend) & we did Novice level show jumping! He was awesome, except for being a little uptight & looky in dressage. Our show jumping course was great except for the fact that I was having a difficult time finding my distances so we had quite a few long distances, but oh well. I'm excited for River Glen & I *hope* this is my last Beginner Novice! I also came home to "Christmas In July"... My parents went out & bought two mini four wheelers for shows & got Dargenzio a bunch of stuff including a saddle pad, a new set of open fronts, bridle, etc.

SIT ON YOUR BUTT!

That title basically sums up my last two weeks. We're teaching Dargenzio to sit on his lovely hindend that God blessed him with. You would think since he has such a nice hindend, he'd be willing to sit on it right? NOPE. He is a total cow about sitting on his butt. Thankfully, we are getting there. We've had quite a few dressage lessons. Most of them start out horrific, but end REALLY nicely. His canter work is really coming together & he realizes that it isn't that hard to sit on his butt for three strides. With all of this hindend work, he has become extremely balanced & I was more than impressed with our hill work yesterday. We've been gradually building up our trot & canter sets, because I need Dargenzio to get more fit or he'll die running around Novice. Yesterday, he was able to withstand two 5 minute trot sets, & two 3 minute canter sets. He was also sooooooo balanced that my job was easy. I'm normally having to half halt every few seconds & I have to help him balance going down the hill. Not yesterday. I was kinda playing monkey, just sitting up there & steering. I really hope he is like this at River Glen because I cannot have an unbalanced five year old running around cross country(; He is really starting to prove himself & the feeling that he is finally achieving what I've been working for, for such a long time, is awesome. Now for the truck. We have officially bought a new truck & it will be coming home while I'm at Summer camp! (More good news, I'm now going to my trainer's Summer camp) Big Blue is officially up for sale & I've decided to name the new truck, Debby Dually. I think it fits very well. She is a brand new (yes, we did get a brand new truck for the price of a used one, thank you Daddy-O) 2012 Ford F-350 Super Duty, with the King Ranch package! They're currently installing gooseneck hookups for us, so we will be set once we go get her! I'm getting pumped for Summer camp & River Glen, & I'm not too sure which one I'm more excited about! I'll try to keep everyone updated with Dargenzio's progress but for now, enjoy this picture of him moping before our third day of (SIT ON YOUR BUTT!) work...

& now for one of our new truck!

Forgot to add! We're going cross country schooling at Poplar, at the end of the week! Hoping to school their whole Beginner Novice course (even though Genzo thinks its nothing) & a few Novice questions!

Looking Up!

I've been MIA for a while since I've been extremely busy, but I'll give everyone a recap of what's going on. I have signed Dargenzio up for his first Horse Trial (& I went ahead & paid so I can't back out on this one) at River Glen, in August. I'm super excited but nervous at the same time since I don't know how well Dargenzio will take that 10 hour trailer ride without a buddy. We have been doing many lessons & will start doing three dressage lessons a week with my trainer, so we can get ready for River Glen. Hopefully River Glen will go well so we can move up to Novice. Now... My truck is NOT fixed like the mechanic said it was. You would think that after putting $800 into getting the engine fixed that it would actually be fixed, well no. We brought it home from Georgia & the day after we got home, the engine quit again. This time, we're going to take it to yet another Ford mechanic. But, we just bought a new truck so we now have a backup & don't have to worry about being stranded on the side of a busy highway(; We have decided to sell Big Blue, after we get the engine fixed, so we don't have four vehicles & a trailer sitting in our yard anymore. This Summer has been hectic but totally worth it & I'm enjoying it :D

Summer...

So, I'm no longer going to Chatt Hills like I have had planned for the last three months. Yay. I'm definitely not happy & all I want is to take my horse to his first Horse Trial. Really? Thats not going to happen until September, maybe even October now, since the next Horse Trial that I could go to is in September. Ugh. I think we're officially at the bottom of the goal, totem pole. I worked my way up maybe a fourth of a way there. Then, I got shot down for going to NAJYRC camp. Now, I'm getting shot down to taking my horse to his first USEA Horse Trial. This is not cool & I will never move up if this keeps happening. So, I guess we'll have a Summer filled with really nothing other than lessons. I can't go to my trainer's camp, I can't go to a single Horse Trial, & I couldn't even go to Young Rider's camp. Perfect. On the brightside, Dargenzio is having both of his saddles adjusted to fit him so he'll be more comfortable. Well... I guess if I think positive, maybe things will look up?