Ides of March

Spring temperatures keep popping up here and there and make me believe spring really is on the way. 

Another indication?  The horses are shedding like crazy!  Seriously... one cannot wear fleece anywhere around them at the moment for fear of walking away looking like a wookie.

It's actually been nice enough recently to have 2 rides in the outdoor arena at iTolt.  This past Sunday was one of them.  Grand plans to do a jumping session outside were more or less nixed.  With everything being completely mud-covered (another Spring indication), no one has gotten their usual turnout time.  First ride outside?  Breezy and overcast?  Coming off little turnout?  Fit Thoroughbreds?  Yeah... quite the volital mix!  Spider kind of lost her cookies.  Not in a hateful way just in her way of telling us, VERY loudly, that she NEEDED to GO!  Go where?  Who cares... just GO!  Both Ella and Anita did a good job of getting her fairly focused.  I had another ride on her yesterday outside and she was still quite convinced that it was go time but she settled even better.  Afterwards I turned her loose in the indoor and she rolled then proceeded to run/buck for several minutes.  Silly girl.  Shirley did really well on Sunday.  Well enough to end with a couple jumps (though we left the grid as poles on the ground).  She's living at iTolt full time for the moment and is making good progress with the additional workouts.  Both girls had a couple lessons with Emily Abbate last week.  They did great and both Anita and I are anxious to see them continue to grow and learn.

Side note, Shirley is LOVING the extra work.  She's becoming more and more a pocket pony.  I'm really having fun with both of them and the attitude change (from disinterest to enthusiastic curiosity) is really great to experience.

Yet another indication of Spring?  All the show bills and clinics that are popping up!  To have the time and finances to do them all would be amazing.  There's an upcoming schooling jumper show, a fun "eventing show", plus opening dates for the first few events of the season are rapidly approaching.  It's fun to look at everything going on in the area, if not a bit overwhelming to make a decision on what to attend and what skip this year.  This is an amazing area to live in as there is so much to choose from.  And even if there isn't something specific going on, there's always trail riding.  Cannot wait for the trails to be less muddy and take the girls out.

Only one new update with the SVF shows... Emily Abbate has agreed to be one of our dressage judges for the June 29th show!