still playing catch-up

Had a couple items on the docket for Monday that ended up not happening.... was going to edit and post video from Saturday's lesson, and was scheduled for a lesson with D Clasing. 

Instead, I hung out in the hospital all day eagerly awaiting the arrival of my new niece. She's here and she's lovely and I regret nothing :)

So in the meantime, here's another quickie post. Will also catch up on everyone else's weekend posts soon too!

Finally got to test out my new cooler from SmartPak for real while traveling to and from our lesson on Saturday. As previously mentioned, it was raining pretty heavily all morning, so I opted to saddle Isabel at home, and stick the cooler over everything. This way, if it was pouring when I got to OF, we wouldn't have to stand around tacking up in the rain. 

pre-departure grass break

The cooler fits decently enough over the saddle, tho it is still a little longer than I'd like. She stayed nice and toasty and DRY under it during the trailer ride, though, so at least I know the thing does its job! 

need moar grass before heading back home

The rain was pretty much finished by the time we got to OF, which I appreciated, tho I left Isabel on the trailer longer than usual anyway. She was happily munching away at her hay, and I want to test out her patience in low-pressure scenarios to get a better sense of what I can expect at shows. She stayed quiet the whole time. Good girl. 

Sunday was another group trail ride. We had four horses this time, and it was very relaxing. Isabel was a machine, as always, and chugged right along on the buckle (or rein-less while I tried to snap pics of her munching and motoring lol). An OTTB out with us considered melting down while we were in a big-ish open field, and Isabel calmly reported for babysitter duty. Other than that, it was just a peaceful, beautiful day out in the woods with friends and ponies. What more can you ask for?

Anyways, I'm really going to try to get in some serious riding this week, if the weather cooperates (and my schedule - seeing as I want to see as much of my niece as possible!!!). It's really frustrating to miss ANOTHER lesson with Dan... but that's life. 

I can't make my OF lesson next Saturday, but they're holding a closed-farm schooling show on Sunday and we'll go to that. Then the HT the following Saturday (so again, no lesson). And I'm toying with the idea of entering a hunter trial at a nearby barn the weekend after. Lots of fun stuff coming up!!