Monday

Monday

Watching The Boss to start the day

Ahhh, Monday! You are the day to reevaluate where the training is, how stiff muscles are and if, perhaps, there should have been more riding/sleeping/stretching than just doing mundane chores as the main activity on Sunday. With all of the above in mind I hacked Wendy with Austin and one of Catherine’s young horses over to the White Fences Equestrian Center for an off-the-farm-adventure to start the day. She was lovely as the brave leader - flags flapping in a stiff breeze are no problem, yapping dogs that rush the fence and run alongside are fine, crossing a landbridge over the canal is ok and then schooling in a strange arena with flowers, a judge’s hut, people crunching in the leaves and making all sorts of distractions are no big deal! She has settled into the routine and training program nicely - The Boss commented on her improvement and we enjoyed watching Austin schooling the youngster and then happily hacked home on a loose rein. 

Wendy watching at White Fences

Baby Jocko

Jocko!!!

Wyatt had a similar adventure - he went with his good friend Patrick up the street, had an intense warm up that had a strong focus on solidifying the quality of the changes in the canter zigzag (he must be straight for at least 1 stride before and after the change) and then we worked on perfecting the pirouettes. After all of that hard work, we had a run through of the PSG and while it did not have any major bobbles - I did not ride my best and showcase his strengths enough. Must work harder to be more consistent and professional in the presentation of the work all the time. 

So the current plan is to polish the 4th 2 and show that test this coming weekend so both of us have a bit of time to settle down and sparkle more when we do show PSG in our next outing.  *sigh*   The barn motto of “We don’t train for second place” is very much in action in the decision making, so we’ll buckle down and keep working on improving the work!