Where Are We Going?

It's been a weird season so far.

I had grand plans to finally get consistent at the BN level, especially on cross country, and had a calendar full of horse trials laid out in front of us for 2016.

Like most plans we make involving horses, that hasn't quite happened. Since March, we've started riding with a new trainer, gotten a whip thrown at us by Lainey Ashker, kicked butt at a jumper show, had an okay horse trial, had some really bad XC lessons, dropped down a level and had a REALLY BAD horse trial, got bodywork done, got our saddle re-fitted, started Pentosan, got some more lessons with our new trainer who is doing wonderful things for us, had a blast on hunter paces, WON a hunter pace, had a less-bad horse trial, and went to a dressage show.

Yeah, that doesn't look like a full, confident, successful season of eventing at Beginner Novice to me, either.

But with the roller coaster ride of the beginning of our season be hind me, I find myself feeling pretty OK about it all.

While it does make me a little sad to delete horse trials from my calendar, showing has dropped down on my priority list for this year. Lessons, however, are still a priority. Improvement is still a priority. Having fun is a MAJOR priority! As far as eventing Dino goes, if we get there again this year, we get there. If not, I'm not going to cry about it. Too much.

We have one more schooling dressage show on the docket for next week (In which my goal is to beat my score from last time and, you know, remember the whole test) and then Dino will get a week off while I'm on vacation, and we'll be on a break from showing until September since August is pretty dead as far as schooling events on the weeks that I'm actually home this month.

Will we go to another show this year and jump all the jumps on the first try? Maybe! Maybe not!

I'd love to do a hunter derby! But that requires that my pony, you know, jump things when I ask him to. So, we'll see. I'm not dead set on anything for the rest of this year, though there are a handful of shows and events that I'd love to take Dino to if the stars align.

I still love riding my pony and we're going to have fun doing whatever we do, no matter what.