so it begins

"and it's funny how you find

you enjoy your life

when you're happy to be alive"

And now that everyone knows what I'm working towards, as well as the mushy stuff that has led me to this point, I can begin the boring part... keeping up with the work that's (hopefully) gonna get us there.

It was quite the scorcher outside today. On weekends, I try to get to the barn by 8 AM, but, even so, today was rough. This is Randy's first summer in Florida, so I do my best to help him get along with the weather. 

We had a jump school today--a little gymnastic "box" exercise to work on tight turns and suppleness, as well as going for the add before a fence. The jumps were only about 2', because the point wasn't to wear out his legs, but to get get us thinking on how we ride the fences. I tend to let Randy, who has a long neck and likes to lean, if you want to know the truth, pull my upper body forward, which leads to long spots. Not really what you want when you're galloping up to a solid Prelim table...

We didn't have quite as nice a session as we had with the same exercise on Wednesday, but it was still okay. I finished up with adding in some 3'-3'3 fences around the arena, including the dreaded single barrel. Randy hates that. He doesn't get why I'm asking him to jump an upright barrel when he can just go around.

Can't say I blame him on that, but I need to get him more between my legs, to where he can't dodge out, because there are going to be skinnies out there on XC. Another thing to work on. We have plenty on that list, trust me!

Tomorrow begins my "on-season" at work, so riding is going to be an interesting thing to fit in with work, but it's certainly nice to have actual goals I'm working towards, and I think that will help with my motivation. Again, hence the blog.