Well, the saddle came and I spent a week figuring out the right size girth, the correct padding set up, and getting a set of webbers. All of it came together in time for the clinic, but I had still not gotten a chance to ride in it due to weather!
Saturday morning I got to try out my trailer “horses keep out” area that I made with temporary electric fencing. I was able to hook up, adjust the fence to move about, and get into the whole rig into position to head out without worrying about the horses’ curiosity getting in the way! Skyler got to watch me hook up as she had never seen that done before.
Loading and leaving was easy, as Prophecy was behind the barrier of the electric and I was able to get onto the driveway and close the gate behind me without worrying about a run-away horse. Bonus is that it also gives me a space to bring Sully into at home and work with him away from Mr. Nosey pants Prophecy. Since it is made from step-ins and electric tape, I’ve been able to tweak it easily when I realize I need more room to swing the truck or trailer…

The drive to the clinic was uneventful and we arrived just in time for a shift between lessons. I unloaded Sully, chatted with Amy for a few while he grazed, and then we set him up in a stall and headed out to watch the remaining sessions of the day. Sully banged on the stall door a bit at first, but then just hung his head out watching the clinic until we were done for the evening and could put him in a paddock. This was just his first night’s accommodations, as the next morning we went over to FoxTrot Farm. Sully was a little confused about being asked to load and go again already (and before his breakfast!). There he stood tied to the trailer for a bit watching the clinic from the top of the drive while a few folks had their lesson spots. After those, he was moved to the “candy-land” pasture for the remainder of our stay. He was quite happy to graze and wait his turn.
After lunch I took him back up to the trailer and tacked up with the saddle to get ready for our lesson, but kept his snap on bridle as just on hand for IF we got to riding in our time slot. We spent the first hour working on crossing a tarp. He has done it before, but it was a blue tarp, on grass, and he followed me. Now this time I was asking him to be sent across a dark brown thing getting blown by the wind, and making noise when sand he shuffled scattered on it. His first attempt resulted in a giant leap over it as soon as his front feet made a noise. Eventually he walked across it from all directions calmly, as well as over a cavalletti coming off the tarp, and stepping over it onto the tarp. After that, it was time to get in my saddle for the first time and work on getting things “together” with it and the new bit. Unfortunately the webbers I received were too short, so the first time riding in it was not quite as comfortable as I couldn’t get my leg where I wanted. We worked on my posture though – mainly that I hold a lot of tension in my right side – and letting him work through all the changes we were making. He yawned a lot while working! We also rode across the the tarp (no issues) and did a little trotting work. We finished just as the sky was looking super ominous over the mountains next to the farm. I rushed Sully up to the trailer to pull the saddle off and get it put away before the downpour. He and I then ran back down to his pasture as the rain began. I tossed him out and ran for the house to get out of the rain – I was already soaking wet in a matter of 5 min! Pam and I waited out the storm for a bit before going outside again. I fed Sully and then we headed back over to the other farm for more sessions with the horses there. The storm was gone and the sun was out, so I dried off while we watched those lessons. Sully was happy and settled in just fine at Pam’s place overnight.

Monday was another day to start and FoxTrot and since I had a little time before our session I swapped the webbers for my extra beta leathers, which aren’t as nice and flat against your leg, but I could get my leg longer like I needed to be doing more ridden work. I’m hopeful that she will exchange the webbers for us for the correct sizing, and I also need get around to picking up the d-ring savers/extenders to better hook up the breast collar. I had it on, but only to keep the saddle from rolling if need be (the rings it was clipped to are not meant to take much pressure). I might need new shoulder & wither tugs, as they need to be just a smidge longer and I really don’t want to have sell this one and buy a new breast collar! (but will have to see what makes sense in the end)

We started our time with groundwork over the tarp, trotting over it and then having him stop ON it and back off. He is such a willing horse, just needs reassurance when things get scary and to confirm he’s “done good.” After that we moved to the barrels – everyone who had sessions at FoxTrot worked on getting their horse through a space between them and then over them. Each one of us had different experiences and sticky spots to work through; It was interesting to see how while it might be the same issue for several horses, you can’t always take the same approach in working through it. Sully did eventually go through them calmly and then over them. He can really get some HEIGHT in those jumps! lol Here we are after a successful “over” the barrel jump, and a closer up pic of his new halter/bridle combo (before the bit keepers came in).

Once we had gotten him more comfortable with jumping the barrels, it was time to ride again. My issue has been when he turns left, I end up getting kicked off to the right and all out of balance, which is much more exaggerated in a Balance saddle. So that is what we worked on. Emily had me ‘spinning plates’ working on different pieces of my riding one a time and then putting it together to get to circling while at a trot and keeping my balance more solid. I have to admit to being the only one to come OFF their horse during the clinic – due to a complete breakdown of communication lol I couldn’t remember if I was supposed to go right or left at a turn, and as I was starting to go left, I heard Emily say go right and attempted to correct it, which confused Sully and we parted ways in slow-mo (I almost saved it!) 🤣 All good, it was a very soft sand landing! I got back on and we went for a few more trots around – now knowing which way to go – and ended our time with Emily for this clinic with ideas to work on back home. Of course Sully was very happy to affirm good changes in my riding with yawning and stretching out as we moved about – This also sometimes made my changes harder to accomplish as I was encouraging his changes and experimenting at the same time.

We will continue to work on ‘squeeze’ obstacles at home on the ground, and I’ll keep working on the tweaks to my riding. A few minor things to settle out with the saddle and we’ll be ready to tackle conditioning again 🙂 Sully has a lot of try in him, and looks to people for comfort. He has already made some big changes since last year’s clinic physically and mentally and I look forward to our continued growth together.

It is officially SUMMER break for the kids as the online session of school ended on the 22nd, so we now have a 3rd grader and 6th grader in the house. Asher is super excited for middle school, but really misses his friends. Most of his grade will be attending the other middle school, and he has been worried he won’t see them again as he hasn’t since mid March other than online meetings which are now over. Skyler is happy to be done, but we are still doing some school type work for both of them as we have at least another month before any camps to be working at home. Skyler has become an avid reader now even asking to stay up late reading. She loves the Unicorn Academy series and has much improved her math skills this spring, while Asher has been soaking up all sorts of new math and upper level science exposure on Khan Academy.