Week 1

I'm going to start logging all of my time on this blog, and writing weekly updates every Saturday with what I've been up to the past 7 days. To clear things up, where Cliff is boarded and where I help with lessons and work with the ponies (Sassy, Ginger, and Shadow) and the horses (Magic and Lady) is called Laughing Buck Farm, and the place where I intern working with reiners for Sabrina (you'll likely hear the names Denzel, Hollywood, Chanel, Kit Kat, Buster, Latte, Godiva, and Gator-her stallion Tejon Please, facebook link to his page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tejon-Please/209582562430924 -mentioned) is Sunnyluck Farms. Here's this week's:

Tuesday: Worked at Sunnyluck Farms for almost three hours in the morning. Sat on Hollywood in the round pen while Sabrina rode her filly, Chanel, to make Chanel feel more comfortable. She did really well, walk, trot, and lope. Got assigned one of my 'project ponies' for the summer, Sabrina's 4 year old gelding out of her stud, Denzel. I'm super excited about that part, he's one of my favorites. Then worked at Laughing Buck for about 2 and a half hours, giving a lesson, working with the ponies, and working with Lady in the round pen.

Thursday: Was at Sunnyluck Farms for almost 4 hours. Had my lesson on Cliff, he was very focused for pretty much having almost two weeks off (I did ride him several times, but only briefly bareback) though he seems to be getting a bit fat again. He's an extremely easy keeper for being 19 years old, as in, will get fat off of minimal grass hay if you let him sit. I'm going to start getting him into a regular working schedule, riding him at least 3 times a week. Also rode Denzel, he felt tense the minute I got on him and after walking around and flexing for a few minutes, from what I can tell, he spooked at something in one of the barns on one side of the arena and took off bucking on me, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I didn't stick it though :/. Oh well, as the saying goes, "You aint rode til you been throwed". On the plus side, it was a very good fall and as close to the opposite of traumatic as you can get, and I hopped back on after lunging him for a minute and he was a very good boy for the rest of our ride. Wasn't the first time and won't be the last.

Lesson on Cliff (I must have thought that I was riding hunt seat, I swear I don't lean forward like that on a regular basis)

He says, "It's so hard to be good when there are scary things blowing around that want to eat me!"

Friday: Rode Hollywood for Sabrina in the morning, about an hour. We're working on getting controlled and soft transitions, particularly walk to canter, and trying to move his hindquarters to take the lead nicely. Struggled a bit, but I think that was mostly me being confused and we got a couple of nice transitions towards the end.

***Photos taken and owned by Sabrina at Sunnyluck Farms www.sunnyluckfarms.com***