The outside ring has been set with a show course and new flowers for the jumps were purchased last weekend. It is time to really ride and jump again! YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!<\/p>\n
Since we live in Pennsylvania where it snows, our young horses and show horses basically get most of the winter off. I ride a few animals every day all winter, but I only ride the really well seasoned horses or close to the ground ponies, when it is cold.<\/p>\n
We don’t travel to Florida for the winter, because I am busy at expos and it is expensive. We do mostly local and some rated shows. I would love to show at more rated shows, but I could only show at a lot of rated shows on my own horses, if the goal was to sell my mount after they were established, because the rated shows are expensive. Unfortunately, I am very attached to the horses in the barn right now. My four main mounts (Toby, Puddles, Rosie & Jacquoe) ride bridleless and get used for expos, performances and demonstrations. The rest of the horses at Carousel Farm that would be suited for rated shows are still really young.<\/p>\n
We just started to get all of the horses back in shape. We don’t jump unless we are consistently riding them. We just started jumping. I am really excited to show this year. I will be showing two ponies that I broke and trained with my mom “Set in Silver” and “CiCi”. I have one catch ride “Liz”. In addition, now that I started riding “Rosie” in the summer, mom is going to let me start showing “Rosie” and “Jacquoe” over fences, who are both horses that were bred and trained at our farm. She also said, if I stay consistent and continue to improve, she will start letting me jump bigger fences at shows.<\/p>\n
My mom did mostly catch riding at shows when she was a kid. I am hoping, if I keep getting better, I will be offered some catch rides. Maybe I can spend a winter in Florida with Elizabeth. But for the time being I am really excited about the farm horses I have to ride. I am also excited about the young horses we have coming along.<\/p>\n
If things go well with Silver this summer, I would like to try to show her at the USEF pony finals next summer in the large pony green division. We have one young horse eligable for IHF O\/F in 2011 and 2012. I would love to ride her at IHF. I also really want to show the Medal McClay. I think my mom’s horse “Jazz”, who is coming 5 could do the big equitations, because the jumps are easy for her and she is handy. In the meantime, I know I have to keep becoming a better and better technician over fences to ride in these classes.<\/p>\n
Anyway for the time being…we have two back-to-back schooling shows this weekend. The first show of the season is always a challenge, because the horses can be fresh, but I can’t wait.<\/p>\n
Hopefully I will have lots of great things to blog about next week!<\/p>\n
See you again soon!<\/p>\n
Lizzy \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n