I made the plunge

Well, I guess I did it. I am now officially a "boarder". I've never been a boarder before. I dropped Lakota off for a month's training this morning. I miss her already, and poor April is beside herself.

This is going to be great, though. I've taken Lakota about as far as I dare to go myself, considering what little skill I actually have. Now she will have someone who knows what they are doing work with her, and fine tune her, smooth out the little bumps and rough edges.

She settled in just fine. I did have a chat with her, and told her all about where she was going, and what she was going to do. I think she's ready for this. And I'm so ready to have a nice-going trail horse! I do think Lakota would also do well in low-level dressage. We'll see, maybe we'll go there, maybe not. Not to compete, but just for something to learn together. I'm not sure if I'm disciplined and precise enough for dressage, but it sure looks like fun!

My daughter, on the other hand, is finding an interest in speed . She had her first canter yesterday, and is beside herself. She is also learning to jump. And she watched barrel racing at the fair last weekend, and is torturing her poor pony setting up cones as barrels, and trying to teach an ex-jumping lesson pony how to neck rein. Whinney is such a good sport, as long as there are treats involved.

It's been a busy summer, and hopefully an even busier fall, as I head out on the trails! See how hopeful I am???

But I still miss my girl. It's going to be a long month without her here. I'll just have to spend my time tormenting Ana. She'll learn to lead, and maybe we'll work on tying, and yielding all parts of her body. I may even bring Jen out to the roundpen and see about having her trot over some ground poles, to help build up her topline and strengthen that saggy old broody belly. A little light exercise should be good for her.