Saturday, October 20, 2012

October 19th - 12:14pm

Early morning at Rancho Pampa today. Martin said if we started early and got finished early enough we could take a roadtrip to Baral to check out some horses. So we got up early and were greeted by insane lightening. Super bright, forking everywhere, crashing thunder, the whole nine yards. But no rain. So we tacked up the first group to go to the walker. Then the second group. The weather had considerably slacked off by then so after a quick call to Martin, we opted to go ahead and ride. Which of course meant the rain had to start. So from 6:30-7:30 it rained. Wet horses and wet working students. But we got 6 horses finished by 7:30 and the two I was on, Nacar and Holendesa, were quite good.
After my two rides I started onto Rodrigo duty with longing. Most were a little up after several days of being stuck inside but all settled right into working. The ring was still somewhat wet from the last rain and rain this morning so cut the longing short when the footing started going bad. Which should make some of the fillies even more interesting as theyve had an extra day off now. But it did mean I got to get one more ride in. Ended up on Virtuoso doing walk/halt transitions for 45 minutes. You'd think itd be boring but a perfect down up transition is nearly impossible so there was a lot to work on. No drifting to the side when halting, walking perfectly straight away, nitpicky stuff. But important stuff. A horse that pops a shoulder in the downwards to the halt will likely pop the same shoulder elsewhere. And fixing it is all disipline. Finding/discovering/using a method that works and implementing it consistently in work. Method and disipline. Very important stuff. I tend waver with my method and to be hit or miss with disipline. As a result, my horses are the same. And thats not what I want. I want a horse that does what I tell it. So big eye opener there trying to sort out all the nitty gritty details.
Once we'd finished and had lunch Martin called Baral to check on their weather and turns out it had REALLY been pouring their so no fieldtrip. But since everything was finished, he offered to take us all to the mall between Rancho Pampa and town. We all jumped on the oppertunity to get out and about. Plus Ive been wanting to get some new clothes. I dont own many clothes to start with and didnt bring much with me since I was only staying 3 months. Well nearly 6 months into the trip, Im getting very sick of the same couple shits and polos. So today was a bit of shopping. New shoes, new dress and a better idea of words associated with shopping/clothes. Learn something new all the time! After we met back up for dinner with Martin at an American style resturant. The food was great, Martins stories were awesome but by the end I was almost asleep at the table. Starting the day at 5:00 and being out to dinner still at 10:00 does not make for an energetic Katie! But it was worth it! Headed to bed now with a day starting at the normal time tomorrow!

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