To show or not to show

More rainy days than sunny ones, away from home - working - more than I am home, and we've got ourselves the recipe for a FANTABULOUS summer WOHOO!! Actually, it has been decent and all things considering, life is grand. However it could of course be better, hehe.

I had intended to show both Link and Onyx at a BRAVE show July 17 however not only did my nerves kick in and my back-up driver/'groom' have to back out, but both horses also turned up sore after their trims the Wednesday prior. Yipee kye yay. It would have been a decent start for us, a good way of softly entering the show scene once again and good experience for the three of us, however it just did not work out this time. I was feeling pretty burnt out and unmotivated as well, which certainly did not help and it contributed to my putting less days on the horses than I probably should have had I really wanted to make it to that show. There is another BRAVE show July 30 however I am opting to skip it as well (seeing how neither horse will have been ridden for a good week prior since I am currently sitting at work out in the boonies, and I will only have 1-2 days of preparation) and instead point both horses toward a dressage schooling show just afterwards. I am actually much more comfortable with this option seeing how both horses are currently already schooling decently in dressage (in contrast to our limited schooling jumping at this moment) and I feel it is actually something I can handle and prepare for better. My plan is to enter Onyx into an Introductory Test A and Link into a Training Level Test 1 - both pretty introductory and simple for either horses respectively.

This next week I will also commence advertising Onyx and attempting to sell her. She is coming along fantastic - she is actively working her abs and working from behind to lift her back, is lifting from the base of her neck, and is even reaching for the bit. Her trot is developing into something beautiful (not that it wasn't already, she flows like a dream!) and her canter is slowly becoming more balanced. She is an exceptionally athletic horse who is also becoming much less flinchy towards people. Overall she is nearly bombproof - I love this mare, as nothing seems to faze her, whatever the deal. I will be selling her with less days u/s and less experience than I had originally planned, however I have reached the point where unfortunately she has to sell and I just will not have the time for her soon. So someone will be getting a helluva deal!

Link is also doing fantastic, as per his usual! We start our sessions off relaxed, and we are finishing them relaxed - it is actually funny because instead of people snarking at me 'oh he must be a Thoroughbred off the track, eh!', I am getting the 'what breed is he?', hahaha. He is so calm and quiet and is filling out beautifully! No head in the air any longer; in fact, I usually have to amp up his impulsion and energy rather than tone it down, lol! He is developing into a beautiful horse in many aspects. Our canter is also developing nicely to the point where he is picking up his right lead pretty consistently. I have high hopes for my boy!

I have not done too much with Cody however I have him penciled in to be worked several times while I am back this next stint. A shitload of sand was added to the arena, so I look forward to putting him through some nice stops on the new (woooonderful!) surface!

I have quite a few individuals interested in leasing Silver and have him scheduled for a trim when I return, so he will also be ridden that day (the day the farrier is out)...with any luck I will find an appropriate lessee for him. On the note of leasing, I will be checking in on Koolaid the weekend I return from work, however he already looks much improved and happy in his new lessee home, gauging by video his lessee posted.

Turns out my Soraya (formerly Whiz), despite approx. a month and a half at the vet clinic and their missing her cycle twice I think it was, is not bred. They were sure they would nab her their next try and really there is no reason for her not to have caught. Yet here we are, with no foal. Am I pissed off? Yes, yes yes. I was hoping to offset her pricetag a little with that foal, but $2700 later (more than I had planned, of course), here I am with no foal to show for it. Most of all, if I had simply broken even or even had have had to pay for this first foal (likely), I would have been content if only I had something to show for it. To breed her at a later date means interrupting her training and career; the timing had been perfect for her to foal next spring prior to commencing training. Ah well though, what can one do...everything will work out and such is the world of breeding. And you can bet that that mare will be working her butt off now when I get her home!! Oh, and in case you are still wondering who this 'Soraya' character is - it is Whiz, in disguise. Yes, Whiz is the mare I recently purchased, who has also recently gone through a name change :) It is pronounced 'Sore-ray-ya' though I doubt she really cares how it is pronounced, haha!

I return from work soon here and will try to keep this blog updated at that time, but if it comes about that I am unable to update here (likely), I will for sure update the minute I return to work and have boatloads of time on my hands - promise! Ciao!