Merry Christmas from the farm!

     Christmas is winding down after a family packed week! Rob and I are exhausted, and the ponies are probably bored of hanging in the stalls all day. Byron is tired of us playing with his emotions. We took him to see Robert's parents then left him and came back... then left him at the house alone for a night while a friend helped up feed him. Whew! And now we are finally home (at least until next weekend when we travel for work).

Naps at Christmas time!

     So yesterday we had a great day riding some ponies, after a little bit of struggle before Christmas. We have been dying to try Oberon over fences (Ok, myself, Jeannette and Maggie). Finally I made some time during one of my lessons. I expected to be a great example, but Oberon had other plans. We went over a cross rail and he bucked a little at the end and off I plopped. Oops. Robert said my form was ok, I rolled past my head and shoulders. Except then I splatted on my lower back. I got back on and decided jumping crossrails could wait for another day.

     Sunday Robert and I had some extra time (haha apparently, this means I manufactured time for ponies into the schedule. Robert is forever telling me that we don't have extra time...) and we decided to work the ponies. Robert wanted to work on his communication with Oberon. Oberon requires one to ride with constant contact of the lower leg and constant contact through the bridle. Robert is learning how to do this, and practiced at the walk yesterday.

     Jellybean has been sporadically ridden, so I decided to go back to the round pen and work on walk/trot/canter. Unfortunately the round pen bit me, and I didn't get to canter around after I jacked my knee. Jellybean did well, and I think I need to focus on riding her in the cutting pen. I have also been trying to decide if she should be characterized as green broke instead of unbroke. I don't know where the line actually lies... Let me know what you think!