For those that weren't aware, Ozzy's show name has now become Wizard of Oz - and if you went deep into his heritage you will find that he is actually related to the Wicked Witch of the East, or maybe is was West... The evil one that had the haram of Flying Monkey's.... Anyhow the only thing that Oz managed to inherit from this blood line was a terrible terrible disease. Aquadisolvitis. Yep its a rare but disabilitating disease - Its not evident to the naked eye, but indeed a person - well the disease only inflicts witches and horses - they melt with water / rain.
Today was our lesson and I haven't been in the saddle since last Saturday. And frankly by Monday I think I was very miserable. Sunday I was still on the adrenaline high from the show, but come Monday with work, family, routine I was just itching to get back in the saddle and start jumping again. So all week I've been watching the weather report as it was calling for 80% chance of showers on Thursday. All day I was at work it was cloudy but no rain, and then 4:30 came and so did the rain. I SWEAR I did not step or kill any spiders lately! I went to the barn, and I think Brianne was wondering if I was going to bail or not, Oz was in his stall as it had been raining up there earlier. He was sticking his head out of his stall just enough to watch Kim and Chili's lesson, but not enough to actually get wet. (God forbid!) So when I came in I got the usual greeting... "Hi mom, do you have a treat for me, cuz I'm pretty cute.... yeah a handful of treats, I love you", then I went and got his brushes, to which I got a reaction of, "Hmmm thats nice your brushing me, but really you don't have to go all out, cuz its raining out and I don't go out in the rain and you don't ride in the rai.... - hey what the hell!!! ---- Why are you putting my saddle on, um did you not notice that it was raining out there - OOMPH -- MUM !!! Easy with the girth, its really not required... I'm not sure if you heard me the first time but its dropping water from the sky out there, and I melt, and well rain doesn't do your hair any wonders either....
Mmmmm...mmmmggggmmmm...grinding of the teeth... this would be Ozzy refusing the bit, and twisting his head away like a child does when your trying to feed it brussel sprouts. So after finally getting the bit in his mouth and dealing with him trying to use his height against me by simply lifting his head. We buckled it all on. We were a wee bit early for our lesson and decided to wait for Kim and Chili's lesson to finish before going outside, so we watched from Ozzys window. I'm pretty sure at this point he thought that we were all dressed up, but really we weren't going anywhere other then watching the lessons.
Then it was our turn for our lesson, and it was pulling a mule out of the stall at that point. If he had fingers I swear I'd be having to peel them off the stall door frame. And out to our wet lesson we go. We worked on some off the rail and bending work for warm up. We worked on a couple of circles as that makes his mind sweat on those. I must stop leaning into the bend to move him over, and start to ask once and then tell him. We then worked on a some single stride jumps, both with a cross rail and a vertical. We jumped just under a dozen times I think, and I cannot believe how far we've come in such a short period of time. Speaks highly of our coach!
I mean we've been at the barn now since mid February, I don't think we started taking lessons until beginning of April, and even then our form was very scary. Us being both green it was only on the rare time I think we both felt confident enough to jump as a team and him not just rushing to get over and me holding on for dear life. But after every lesson now I'm feeling strong and more confident, but this isn't meaning I'm feeling cocky and that we can do anything. Even today there was a bad jump that I almost came off on, but where before it would take a lot of me trying to talk my brain into not being scared to do it again, now its an automatic - lets do that again. When it goes nice, it finally feels nice. When it goes wrong or bad, I can now identify almost immediately AFTER it happens what I did wrong. Its now just a matter of doing it before I do it wrong. Overall I think its amazing how much we've improved and its almost scary how addictive this has become.
A matter of weeks or perhaps a month ago, Brianne had said something to the effect that if I wanted to get serious, we would have to look at another mount. I know that Oz has limitations, and I think our goal this year was just to be jumping 2'6 by the end of the year. I think our limitation might be for Oz around 3'0. I'm not so sure I would ever want to push him beyond that, if we can even hit that. And by no means am I thinking we are going to get there by the end of this year. And when Brianne mentioned this I had thought, are you kidding, I'm not ever going to want to go any higher or more then what Oz can give me. Um well..... I've come over to the dark side, I know Al would KILL me, or leave me, but all week I'm thinking hmmmm... I wonder what it would be like to ride, like a 14.2 hh horse over the jumps, that could really fly over them. And by no means am I giving up Oz or at this time look at buying another horse... but its like when a woman gets the baby thoughts, suddenly all babies look cute, and you start trying to justify having another to yourself, and your not thinking rationally or in reality, but emotionally. Right now I know thats where I'm at, I'm getting such a rush with every jump, and as they come smoother and better and are feeling safer and stronger, I'm wishing that I could jump every day.
Oh well going to start playing the lottery, and when I win it I'm going to go out and buy that Dales Pony with the little black feathers, and jump every day! We could name him Toto - and he could be Ozzy and Chili's pet.
By the way for those of you that are waiting desperately to see the professional shots taken at the last couple of shows, I've talked to Melissa today, as she was on her way to her honeymoon (lucky girl) and the proofs should be up in about 7 - 10 days, so AS soon as they are up I will be ordering them, and we will get them posted up here.