Never teach your horse something you want her to forget!

Sat went to school XC at Gorstella. My pony was a superstar. We only technically jumped one fence, but just for the get out, hack around, up and down hills, and through water, all with other people riding around -- she was amazing. And she did canter poles for the first time ever in the stad ring so that was good too (albeit a little dodgy, but she figured it out). We got fairly rained on though and eventually gave up and decided to go home for the day.

Fast-forward to Sunday when I had a lesson booked w/ Bob Holman @ Grandview. Invited Shannon to come along too so she could get her horse out to school before Will O Wind (and, realistically, cause it's way more fun w/ another person AND cause it helps for a greenbean to have a friend -- so really a triple win there :) N I have to say that while I'm not as fit as I'd like, it turns out I'm not nearly as unfit as I'd feared! hahaha calves are quite tight today and I laughed so hard my voice is shot, but other than that, no ill effects :)

Now doing the project management thing @ work, one of the things you're always supposed to do is recap a project with "Lessons Learned" -- so here are the Lessons Learned from yesterday:

- Stirrups usually remain where you left them -- and if you left them perpendicular to the ground you still have a chance @ surviving!

- The 8 second rule applies in XC just as firmly as at the rodeo. We're recommending it replace the "penalty zones" of the past (who else misses those days??? :)

- Someday's Spot just doesn't want to be found. He's a trickly little beast and can hide w/ the best of them; alternately there are days when he's wearing a nametag, barking and jumping up and down and *still* isn't seen! Or worse -- is seen by one half of the pair and not the other! hahaha At which point he generally goes off for a walk, tired of being ignored -- when you get to this point, it's time to move on to another fence.

- You can get a lot of thinking done when you're hanging out 3' above the fence you're supposed to be jumping.

- Never teach your horse something you want them to forget.

- Horse shows are a BLAST when you go with a couple good friends and no responsibility.

This is the summary of yesterday's XC school. For the novel version check out the GRS blog! hahaha there will be pics up once I get the rest of them from Shannon.



From one of the women at the show yesterday: "you really need to get your own farm." hahaha yes, yes I do. Am sort of amused that other people are picking up on that now too though! Where is that winning lottery ticket when I need it eh? Will admit I had *almost* as much fun hanging out at the show yesterday chatting w/ everybody who I haven't seen since LAST show season as I did on XC. Almost. It really was fun to get caught up on all the winter gossip though :) Esp being there with absolutely no pressure. Only had one student with me and she was helping and taking pics so really, making life significantly easier rather than work :) Did have to laugh though -- there were people circulating a petition and they were talking to Shan and Steph so I of course wandered over to be nosy -- which, of course, wanting more names this person was more than happy to have me listen in on what they were talking about n asks me to sign before doing a double take with "oh, are you 18?" hahahahhaha LOVE it. Particularly love it as I don't think they even asked Stephy who IS still 18 (if only for a couple days :) Classic. Somehow though when you're flattered that they ask, people backpedal really quickly *g*

They're replacing one of the rather large windows @ work today -- so definitely watching that out of the corner of my eye. hahaha the things I get to learn on this job :) hahaha at Marg's I had like a million job titles that all merged into one job -- here I have one title that encompasses a hundred different jobs :) It's an interesting change.

I'm starving. Off in search of food! Cheers :)