So yesterday was my birthday. Who the heck wants to go on having birthdays after you are fifty. I mean if you reach half a century, you should just be considered ‘on your second half’ and let it go at that. It was a lovely day and thank you everyone who made it special and sent me greetings. I enjoyed reading them very much.
Having Anne Marie and Selena home seems to make things busier. How does that happen? There seems to be horses and riders everywhere all working like busy little bees. Yesterday I gave myself a birthday present of a walk around the driveway on Benny, the younger of the two OTTBs. He is a lovely chappie with big floppy ears and a soft round back. Even although he is barely broken and I have not ridden for months, I felt safe and comfortable as we wobbled around the driveway two or three times. Of course I wanted to try trotting and cantering but better he learns from someone who has two legs that both work. I feel that anything I ride right now is going to get one sided from my weak right knee.
Today Selena rode Benny in the baby jump school. Anne Marie rode Rummy and Tori Morgan rode her own Annie, who is also an OTTB, four years old. Benny was the star of the show and finished over three trot poles 4’5″ apart, 8′ to an X, 18 ft to a second X with guide rails to help him stay straight. He was a star. Annie and Rummy who had been that far already added a third X at 21′. They all jump beautifully, I think thoroughbreds are born knowing how to jump. Everything they did was about pace. Having them slow enough on the way in that they kept their line. Sometimes they trotted in between and at the end, sometimes they took a canter stride, but the main thing was finishing with something that was not hand dependent. It was easy to see them growing in confidence each time they negotiated the puzzle they negotiated it more confidently next time around.
Later today the big kids jumped. We did our first outside course with a mix of cross country and show jumps in the arena. Only about three feet high but we had a big wedge that few of the riders had jumped before, a triple with a barrel skinny as the middle jump (no wings), a downhill double of an oxer to an upright, a corner, a liverpool on a bending line and a swedish oxer so there was plenty to think about and everybody had somewhere that they had to repeat and work it through. All in all, a good day.
We had a surprise shipment from Purina who sent Selena a really lovely vest and great hats with a horse on the side. We thought we would take a nice photo to let you see. Thank You Purina, we couldn’t do it without you.
