To Show or Not

Hoping to be back at the barn by the middle of November if not sooner! Not leasing yet though, she has changed the prices for pretty much everything so we are just going to do the "pre pay for 5 lessons" (which costs as much as the lease did originally), then when April comes around and exams are finished, I'm hoping we'll be able to start leasing again until September or so. Since I'll probably still be at the liquor store I should be able to get a few days completely off so that I can ride, and with any luck show.

If I do get to show this summer depends on a few things, like the lease price, I can't remember what it is now, but it did increase significantly. So whether or not my dad still wants to help out paying for shows and for some of the lease since there's zero chance he'll pay for the whole thing with what it costs now. At least if I'm thinking of the right price.

It also is going to depend on the horse. Showing Kokanee is not an option. He's a sweet horse, with a great jump, but he looks lame!!  His back left hip muscles are really stiff so when you're trotting/warming up he kind of hobbles along until he loosens up, so it looks like you're going to try and   make your lame horse go around a 2'6" course. ...You'd probably be disqualified in some shows actually...
Rocky, I don't know if K even wants him to be shown since he's like 18. Which is another good reason not to show him! Light jumping lessons are fine, but a whole day at a show... if you did one class I suppose that would be okay, but even then, they have 3 divisions, which I suppose would be like a lesson if you had three go's around a course.

I'm not even sure if I want to show regardless of the horse. Maybe if it was Pony or even Spencer (without W messing him up of course) then it would something to consider, but clearly that is not the case. Most of the time I don't mind not doing a lot of showing but then you go to Amberlea or the River Valley Classic to watch/help out a friend who is competing, and it's like wow, I wish I could ride in this too damn it. But for both of those shows you kind of need a certain type of horse, which Kokanee isn't and Rocky isn't quite that anymore.
Rocky actually could do pretty well, despite being old and having bench knees and being a pony, because he will jump anything from nearly any angle and has these fantastic sharp turns....I do miss him!!

So I guess we're going to have to wait and see what happens over the winter, next term does look a bit better for riding time...sort of. Usually it's work that gets in the way, not school and I'm not sure how much she can move shifts around when you only work 3 days a week, there's not a lot of options. Plus, I don't really want to give up my already limited number of hours because travel isn't cheap and neither is university abroad...and possibly showing now to haha. We make surprisingly good money at the store, well over minimum wage, but when the max time you can work is roughly 22 hours, it kind is not enough money...because I also like to shop and buy way to many books!
On an excellent note though, I am down about 3lbs this week, so hopefully I shall be able to keep this up and see an improvement in my riding ability! Whenever I make it back out to the barn that is....

So the horror of Rocky also being sold was short lived, K decided that she really couldn't sell him, so he'll be staying at the barn!

She offered to let me ride him this past Sunday after I finished barns for her, but it took to long and I leave or I'd be late for opening the store... I spent to much time playing with the cats I guess =/. I had been hoping to ride this weekend but my parents are taking my sister and her German exchange student to the Rockies this weekend and they're taking the only vehicle I can drive, so no luck.

L has bought a new mare. She's a four year old throughbred who was left in a pen with a donkey to get fat after she failed gate training for the track. She's really sweet but a bit skittish. She also doesn't have a name yet, she's been dubbed New Beast until she gets a real name.
She also can't be ridden yet since she's had very little under saddle work, but she'll be 5 this spring so it sounds like thats when they will start really working with her. For now is lunging and ground manners and that sort of thing.

Rocky

Rocket (Rockys son, he's only 1/16 appy or something ridiculous like that)

 Spencer :) from when I went to say bye

Selling Rocky?!

Ah the frustration! I haven't been to the barn since I went to say bye to Spencer, but have since heard from L that K is possibly getting Rocky in shape to sell him to some woman who was looking at him last year but then didn't have the money but does now. She's mentioned possibly selling him before because she's had him for so long. So that's just fantastic.....

And this weekend and next weekend I won't be able to ride because of midterms, gross. But I might have to try and work something else out as far as finding time to ride, depending on how my manager decides to schedule my Saturday shifts.

I've been thinking about possibly finding a new barn but I don't know. There's a couple that I quite like the sound of but they're a much longer drive and they don't have the same leasing program where you get to show the horse as well, so that kind of sucks. Even though I'm not as interested in showing as I was, the option would still be nice. I've been at this barn for almost 8 years and I don't think I'm going to be able to get to where I want at this barn, at least not with out my own horse, however the same is true for most barns I would imagine but at least with a new trainer there would be a new perspective and I could learn something new, or at least a new way of doing the same things. Haven't made any decisions yet though.