ok, so clearly I haven’t done a great job of keeping up with posts!

Well, shortly after the last post I was given an opportunity to pick up a last minute spot at a Harry Whitney week long clinic in August. I’ve never been able to manage more than 3 days at any clinic, and usually kept it to 2 due to work and family commitments. Since this week occurred right as school began, there wasn’t as much to worry about juggling schedule wise and Doug was on board with it. So, off to Floyd I went with Breeze for a week of camping in the trailer – but we were well fed and had shower available – and 5 intense days (and sometimes boring moments) doing, watching, and learning. Not to be without drama, the night I got there my dad called to let me know he had taken my mom to the hospital to deal with some GI issues. Not much I could do, so I was told to stay and kept close tabs on if I needed to leave Breeze and hit the airport (thankfully, all stayed well).

Day 1 for us was ground only, though we discovered I should have put the saddle on to ride as well. Breeze was “good” on the ground in the pen; it was not until we left the pen with other distractions around that there was “something” to work on. Harry took him for a few to help me see how big/important I needed to be to get Breeze’s attention back around and keep it.

Day 2, we started on the ground and moved into ridden work in the round pen. I know his triggers, and purposely set us up to have them in place… It was a lot of him bracing against me, rather than just following at thought, that nearly had my bicep cramping. We made some good progress walking in there and I (maybe even Breeze) was worn out! Somehow, no pics of all that! lol.

Day 3, again started in the pen and this time we had issues with the Stop… as we had seen in July with Tom. Harry got on himself and made a big breakthrough with Breeze. Now I had a horse that would respond to request for a stop much quicker, and could even do it from a trot!

Day 4, a quick start on the ground in the larger riding arena… and it ALL came back up, especially as there were some other horses out and about to distract and in the field bordering us. The not wanting to give to my request, bracing against the simple requests, not wanting to stop, and if I raised the anti to the trot — oh boy! By the end of our session he was doing better, but that raising of speed just brought up so much anxiety in him.

Day 5, the final day – I requested to be put “in the deep end” to get some tools to work with him with several other horses around us for him to be drawn to, as that was endurance holds for us – many other horses doing their thing – and I need to be able to do mine and keep us “riding our own ride.” It was a successful push for us, with basically every horse out there riding that was at the ready and crisscrossing around trying to keep on task. Overall, incredible 5 days spent improving our relationship and understanding of each other. Totally hoping to return next year if I can manage the time away!

Moving into Fall … we are in the throws of Skyler’s fall soccer season and shows. Drum and Skyler continued to show and work on their skills at smaller spot and Soccer season ended mid November – The Navy Blue Storm was an undefeated, no ties even, team. They have a day long tournament coming up in mid December and winter indoor futsal league for a few weeks in Jan to Feb, then full on spring season begins in March again and shows start up about then too!

Asher’s been enjoying his JR year so far and is involved with the acapella singing group for the high school as well as jazz band. We bought a Mazda for Doug to drive so Asher and I have been sharing the Explorer as he gets his hours and such in for his license and it will become “his” later. He took a behind the wheel class and passed the driving test early in November, so as of Dec 5th, he is a full on driver and can be on his own! eek… But that means I also get a break from running him around! lol Oh, and he got a job at Chipotle – a few nights after school and on weekends when he can. We haven’t gone in yet while he’s there, but will!

We had our last Tom clinic for 2025 in early November and had a great two days at Hope Horsemanship. Breeze hadn’t been ridden in nearly 8 weeks when we went due to the above crazy schedules, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. He was quite good – though that right rein toughness remains, there is so much he has improved on. I had to get pretty mentally tough on him and just say “we are going straight, here, now” and we got some straightness in our movement vs his snaking and pulling left all the time. Skyler and I “ran” barrels with our boys, went over some Cavalettis, and had some good momentum working together.

After that weekend I was left thinking, what’s next? I know there are things we are still “stuck” on that need more work put in, but now what? It was obvious to Tom and me that Breeze isn’t the biggest fan of arena work, and is much happier out on trail so we talked about ideas for keeping him engaged on the “boring stuff”. Barrels seem to be the best answer lol…so I guess now I need to make us an obstacle course a bit at home. Lucky for me, Skyler has already made a jump course in our trailer area and is making another in our front field, so we will use it too! 😂 Aside from that, I feel like it is time to put on the big-girl panties and get him into larger than groups of 4 riders and keep working our tools for bringing his anxiety down and mind back around to the moment and me and getting us ready to do an LD this spring…and eventually, God willing, to do 50s.

Skyler’s plans revolve around working on the canter with Drum and being able to show at the larger shows she was using a lesson horse for before. She bumps up in divisions this spring, so that adds another dimension! Hopefully, the weather will be good enough this winter to get the work in!