Long Time No Post

So, it's been a while since I've blogged. I got really busy and halfway forgot I even had this thing until Jeremy Steinberg started the new Region 6 Young Rider website and was asking for blogs. Seeing as there's a now a link from there to here, I should probably use this darn thing again.

Lipton is getting progressively better. He's sound to jog now, and he's quite sure he can do much more. I have learned many things in this journey with an injured horse. Such as: Garbage cans must be avoided at all costs, along with FedEx trucks, mailboxes, bushes, dogs, and the occasional car. The arena is apparently a much safer place to rehab, unless of course there are other horses... or tractors... or mounting blocks.

I have taken a break on working with Gabriel. He has officially been backed and trotted under saddle, but I'm too busy to work with him and he is only 2 and a half. I figure I'll give him until mid-November to be a baby again and then basically re-break him. He is quite bored in his stall and thoroughly enjoys spooking all the horses coming in from turnout by bolting in and out of his stall. He's a demon.

Inky and I are done showing, probably forever. I took him to fair and we did amazing. We were the overall Grand Champion in Dressage and received our Platinum medal in Dressage with a 69.5% on our freestyle. Before this, the highest score we had ever received together on a freestyle was about a 64.75%, so getting the 69.5 was an amazing feeling. I'm so proud of him, there aren't even words. We followed up that win with a Reserve Grand Champion at State for First level. I was happy with it. He's obviously more blind than he was at this time last year, and he never really settled into the State arena with his right eye out, despite being okay with his left eye out. It's strange to think that I'll most likely never enter a show arena with him again. He's brought me so far, but there's nowhere else to go.

On the note of State, I was also the champion Public Speaking contestant at the State Fair. You know what that means? I get another all-expense paid trip to Kentucky for 10 days in November. We're touring a lot of the same places as last year (Hill'n'Dale, Normandy, Kentucky Horse Park, Louisville Slugger Museum, etc.) but we're also going a few new places (Locust Grove, Civil War Museum at Bardstown, Frazier International Museum of History, Dinosaur World, etc). I need to practice a lot before we leave on the 4th, but I remember a lot more of my speech than I thought I would.

So basically, life has been exciting. Oh, and I no longer have Xander. He's happy in his new home with 8 other miniatures and a person who will love him and pay so much attention to him he'll get sick of it. One down, one to go.

Yeah, that's it. The end.