Updates

First of all, Elle was wormed with Zimectrin Gold on 1/20/09. That's just for my personal records. I usually don't spend the money on Zimectrin Gold, I just do generic ivermectin every 8 weeks and 2 Strongid after the first frost and first big thaw. However, Elle hadn't been wormed in a while (oops) so I just wanted to do ZG to cover all of my bases.

Things have been going okay with the girl. I went to Mexico and when I came back, she hadn't been worked with. I kind of figured that would happen, but oh well. So the first day I got back (Sunday 1/4), we just did ground work and I let her be really silly in the indoor. The Tuesday after that, I just got on and did my thing, and she was really wonderful. She wanted to play, but not be mean, and she never did anything stupid. By the end of my ride, she was giving me every ounce of energy she had and I was really proud of her.

Since then, I've been riding on and off because of cold weather, going back to school, etc. I've probably ridden/worked with her only 7 times in the past 3 weeks, but sometimes other things take precedence. She has been great, though. I even played with a few jumps a couple of days ago.

However, I'm running into a wall a little bit. If I show her some jumps, her attitude gets so much better and she's way more fired up, which is GREAT. Transitions there without the pissyness/beating on the bum, less kicking/bucking. If I DON'T jump her, I can get the same thing, but it takes about 30-35 minutes of riding before I can get her to REALLY cooperate and get fired up. This is only in the ring, by the way. Is this a conditioning issue, a young horse issue, a consistency issue, or something else? A boredom issue? I'll keep working at it, riding more, and see if she wants to give herself over to me sooner and sooner.

Back from Cancun

The view from where we spent most of our time.

MT DEW > Corona

This is the backwards 2-spotted lady bug that flew into my purse!

Matt with the Cookie Monster that was at the mall!

Me with Cookie Monster...my dress matches!

Me getting ready to go snorkeling for the first time! And then the coral attacked me and I have a huge scratch on my leg, and now I hate snorkeling.

The boat in front of us on the way back. It was slow, we kept almost passing him! But that's not good because it was our guide. 10' fiberglass boat with a 30hp engine & a red gas can as a foot rest (and our fuel supply) in the open sea = fun.

Taking pictures while we're NOT at full throttle in the open ocean.

Getting ready to start the boat up, I think.

After our trail ride...we were alive!

Matt on Duke. Notice the chains used as reins and a tie down, and the long shanked bit :(

When we got off to change at the beach, they all layed down and took a nap (but looked dead).

Matt on his water horse. Isn't he so cute???

Matt on his super cute water horse.

Matt in the ocean!

Matt on the pony bareback.

I have no idea what my water-horse's name was, but he was so good! Coming out after our swim.

Cutie.

Wading out into the Caribbean Sea.

Matt on his little appy-loosa, El Duque.

This is one of the girls that fell off. You can see why.

King. He was so cute! And crazy but that wasn't his fault.

I'm only smiling because I like Matt. We were going home. I was sad.