After having a month off with only one Trainer ride during that time, Eeyore is officially back to work. He looked a little puzzled when, after a good grooming Saturday, I grabbed my tack instead of a handful of treats. Sorry Buddy, it’s March and time to get back to work.
It started with a lesson Saturday late afternoon. Honestly, after me not riding him for a month I expected a pretty bad go at it. The horse I had a year ago would have been unrideable or at least not rideable in any productive way. But the horse I have now? He had his opinions and lost a lot of flexibility at the trot, but all in all he got to work and we picked up nearly where we had left off.
The lesson was pretty straight forward and was focused on waking us both back up and shaking off the cob webs. After working on a 20m circle w/t/c we moved to jumping and warmed up over a one stride cross rail to vertical combination.
Eeyore was pretty high on life at that point and we flailed a good bit but we managed to graduate from that to our three jump course of verticals set on a very sharp “S” curve with the focus on getting the proper approach to each and not losing the balance or momentum through the steep turns.
We did ok the first time through and even better the second and then she called it quits and sent us up to the dressage arena to walk through Intro C (which sucks BTW, what is up with the canter circles not done fully at the canter?!). The take aways from the lesson were the same as always: sit UP for the love of all things and be more precise with my aides. I tend to ask and keep asking which allows him to ignore me. She wants me to ask clearly and then stop and ask again if needed. Things I know and forget all the time.
It was the best lesson I could have hoped for after a month break from the saddle and I’m so happy with Eeyore. I signed up for a CT on Saturday at starter and I feel like we have a shot at not embarrassing ourselves. Currently Trainer has it in her head that I’m going to do the starter CT and then end with a jumper round or two at BN but we will see.
Then on Sunday morning Emma came to visit!!!! She was on her way home and swung by for a bit to meet and hang out. I was sooooo excited to finally meet her. She was the very first blogger I followed and I doubted we’d ever meet with her living so far away.
I quickly hopped on Eeyore to make sure he wasn’t going to be too extra then handed the reins off to Emma to try him out. It’s always interesting for me to hear other people’s take on him. With anyone new he pulls out his favorite evasion to work which is just to canter everywhere and the ride becomes a jumble of gaits and mishmash of pace and loss of rhythm but she handled it well and soon he knocked it off and got down to business.
When she had enough Orange Fun I got back on and hopped him over a couple jumps to show how happy he is to jump. We kinda biffed every single one but I wasn’t riding all that great and was just having fun.
It was awesome to get to meet Emma, the morning was gorgeous and I absolutely love watching others ride my horse. Not everyone feels that way and that’s fine, but for me? I’ll share the ride any time.
Eeyore’s break is officially over. Hopefully the show runs this weekend. Rain is in the forecast pretty much every single day now through next Monday so I’m not sure how that will go but we will do our best to be ready for it if it does run. If it is canceled we will re route to the Riverbend fun schooling hunter jumper show the following weekend.
The Roaming Rider 
So fun to meet bloggers!
Glad you are back in the saddle and Eeyore seems to have not missed a beat!
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He was the best boy I could ask for after all that rest. Not perfect but I was far from perfect myself
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You both look pretty happy to be back in work! And so great that you got to meet Emma!
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I was really happy it worked out to meet Emma. She is super nice and I only wish I lived closer but eh then I’d be cold so maybe not LOL
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look at y’all! looks like some time off really did him well! I am a big fan of periodic rest periods for their minds.
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He is funny with rest. It does his body and mind good to have it off but he really doesn’t do well with being ignored so he gets pretty bratty on the ground. I need to find a happy medium between time off from actual work but still keeping his toddler self busy with things around the farm
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That is the key!
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He looks fanccyyy! And super fun getting to meet Emma!
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We have our moments and are working towards keeping those longer and more frequent. Meeting bloggers is one of my favorite things to do
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Great that you are back in the saddle! And extra great to meet Emma! Glad to hear you had a nice visit
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I love meeting fellow bloggers. It was awesome that she was able to swing by
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You and the Orange Beast look so great! How exciting about meeting Emma and about the upcoming event.
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Lots of fun happenings
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What an awesome blogger meet up! Yay! I’m glad Eeyore was a good boy about it. And you’re not alone! I love sharing my horses too lol. That’s great that you’re getting back into it again!
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I understand that some people don’t like it but I’ll throw someone on him anytime. It’s good for him and I really enjoy playing owner
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So nice to meet you!! I’m so glad it worked out haha 😉 and thanks for sharing eeyore!! He’s so springy and flexible – reminds me a lot of when Izzy and I were getting started. Something tells me you’re gonna really enjoy getting further into dressage with that little appy!!!
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We will see about that. I don’t think I have the drive that doing well at dressage requires but you never know. I also thought I’d never go beyond ground poles
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There are some super fancy photos in there, go you guys!!
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It’s starting to come together a bit. More importantly he is really a blast to ride most days and that’s a big improvement.
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I know that feeling, it’s so good
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You guys are looking so good! Blogger meet up sound fun, I wish there were more of us in Aus!
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It was a fun meet up. I don’t get to meet many as I’m not really near a lot of people. I’ve enjoyed every single meet up I have had tho
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So very cool! Emma is fun to hang out with 🙂
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She is! Wished she could have stayed longer
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Giggling at Eeyore being high on life. 🙂 It’s a great start back and I’m happy/jealous that you got to meet Emma!
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He loves to be doing things right up until the moment it feels like work
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