Back from vacation!

     I read a lot of horse blogs throughout the day, mostly with an eventing focus. They have been filled with one of two things lately. Either they are traveling south for the winter (NC/SC/FL) or they are bundling up against the cold. For Thanksgiving, we did the opposite, and took off to Ohio to visit my family. All the animals were left behind, with the capable Jeannette (of 14hands.blogspot.com) taking care of the ponies and Robert's parents taking care of Byron. 

     We returned Saturday afternoon, and tortured Byron a little bit by making him think we were going home immediately. We finally made it back to the ponies on Sunday afternoon, just in time to start feeding and cleaning up poop again :)

Robert really wants a helmet for Christmas

     Monday we had a bit more time before Robert tested for his 1st degree black belt in Aikido, so we started Jellybean's targeted training program. It basically runs on the basis that we will work in the round pen everyday for at least 30 days-ish. Obviously rain and traveling are going to get in the way a bit, but since teaching has died down I can do this if I set my mind. Then I will have my own horse to ride :)

     So we were running late, and rushed out the barn to get Jellybean dressed and catch the last piece of winter sun. Of course the arena was populated with all manner of children running around under and over trees etc. Robert worked Jellybean around the pen and got her attention with lots of transitions. Canter, trot, walk, trot, canter, walk, whoa, change directions, etc. When she was ready, I clicked my helmet together and hopped on. Jellybean was surprised by all the extra turkey I was holding onto. 

     Anyways, Robert started the same exercise, except with me on Jellybean. Unfortunately, children picked an inopportune moment to start jumping out from behind things. Jellybean saw them first and took off crow hopping and bucking a little bit. Of course, I was furious that parents were so inconsiderate of other people. I told the children to get away from the arena and tried to continue. Until another child ran beside the round pen and scared Jellybean again. Cue crazy lady. 

      Despite the distraction of my fury, Jellybean was actually doing really well. Normally I am a huge proponent of scaring horses, but its just too much to ride a baby horse at twilight with screaming, running children. We successfully W/T/C-ed around, and ended on a good note, with Jellybean evening moving off my leg. Whew. More pictures soon, I realize the blog has become text-wall like in the business of the semester. Bonus Oberon pictures. Month updates coming soon ;)

Purchase date, 11/3/13

Part of the trial

More trialing.