You’ve got this! I can’t wait until me and the little peanut can move up to BN! I never thought a 2’6" fence would scare the bejesus out of me. Take 10 years off of jumping and voila…it looks like Grand Prix. I had my little 10lb dog who is all of 1’ tall out at the barn and she hopped over a 3’ fence like it was nothing. I actually laughed and said… “OK you big chicken! If a ONE FOOT TALL DOG can do it I’m QUITE sure your pony can do it!” So once my knee is better we’ll be trying to up the fences as well and I just need to suck it up! GOOD LUCK! Keep us posted!! I’ll be living vicariously through you while I finish the winter with my leg stuck up in the air!
Oh dear heavens… PaintedHunter, for once I am glad my DH is on a business trip, because otherwise he’d have moved onto the couch voluntarily … I have just finished reading your blog and you had me laughing out loud in regular intervals for the last hour!
I am sure, with that much humour and sass on the keyboard you can do anything you set your mind to (even though, the mind might not believe it at first! ) Good luck, and if your shows are ever somewhere in the East TN Region or reasonably close, I’d love to come and watch and cheer!
Kolibri
[QUOTE=Kolibri;7320293]
Oh dear heavens… PaintedHunter, for once I am glad my DH is on a business trip, because otherwise he’d have moved onto the couch voluntarily … I have just finished reading your blog and you had me laughing out loud in regular intervals for the last hour!
I am sure, with that much humour and sass on the keyboard you can do anything you set your mind to (even though, the mind might not believe it at first! ) Good luck, and if your shows are ever somewhere in the East TN Region or reasonably close, I’d love to come and watch and cheer!
Kolibri[/QUOTE]
Hee, thanks! I may have humor, but I don’t have adequate balls 
[QUOTE=PaintedHunter;7320622]
Hee, thanks! I may have humor, but I don’t have adequate balls :)[/QUOTE]
I did not see this as a bad thing. If you had actual balls, stirrup-less riding would smash them, so bonus for you! You have plenty of mental balls – you did it, didn’t you? (yes you did!)
Wildlifer, you make a good point. Good point.
And my mental balls are on kind of a slow boil right now. But they are there!
I also wanted to chime in and say I LOVE YOUR BLOG!! You are so funny and it is because we can all RELATE so well Good for you to move up to BN!
[QUOTE=Fancy That;7334615]
I also wanted to chime in and say I LOVE YOUR BLOG!! You are so funny and it is because we can all RELATE so well Good for you to move up to BN![/QUOTE]
Just read the whole thing this morning and thank god I am alone at work right now cause it had me laughing so hard. You have the best outlook and your boy is adorable!
Y’all are really too nice. You’re going to give me and Oliver giant egos. Well, Oliver already has a giant ego. Or maybe that’s just his head and neck.
Tomorrow is our first jump lesson where the jumps go UP!
Survived my first lesson at BN height and up … Things were going so well that my trainer sneaked in some Novice height jumps too!! Eeek. I was a bit nervous, so I reverted a bit back to fetal-y and hunchy a bit, but we did it! Ollie was SUCH a good boy for me!! He was happy to have something to pay attention to, and he picked up the pace on his own again. He didn’t knock a single rail down! I think we might actually get to Training one day…
Bumping this up, since its getting closer! Anyone want to try to meet up or stable near one another? I haven’t gotten a chance to meet CoTHers in far too long, and will be completely solo this trip!
Would love to meet up! We’re ending up having a big group going from my barn, so it might be a little crazy, but I do want to say hi and chat.
I am already having nerves about the show! And still wavering between doing the CT or the 3-phase for my first BN outing.
I can’t decide either…I’m glad I have a little while to figure it out, and have the ground thaw enough to actually ride!
I’m leaning toward the three-phase, thinking if I am feeling weenie for the XC portion, I can always trot everything if I want to. Nothing there should be big enough that we can’t safely trot. And I need to remember that water and small banks, etc. are nothing in Ollie’s mind. My only concern really is the controlling-him-in-open-spaces aspect, as he sometimes loses his mind randomly out there
Have you been there before? Its really quite inviting, though solid I am wavering in between tadpole and BN, and it’ll be Nacho’s 2nd time ever seeing XC jumps so…I’m leaning towards 2 phase then schooling but…I’m not sure. He’s bold and sane but I don’t know! Times like these I miss my trainer so much, and can’t wait til she’s back on her feet.
Omg, your blog is hilarious and your pony is adorable. He reminds me so much of my last horse, Guinness. What is he?
[QUOTE=Rainier;7362911]
Omg, your blog is hilarious and your pony is adorable. He reminds me so much of my last horse, Guinness. What is he?[/QUOTE]
Thanks! He’s a dog-like Percheron/TB cross. He’s such a cool guy!
Noctis, I have only been to watch one event at Chatt Hills, but I’ve been watching videos of BN courses on YouTube. One thing I AM worried about is things like jumping at the bottom of hills or really soon out of the water. He sometimes has trouble with hills and balancing, and we also have engine failures - so worried about propulsion out of water. I don’t know if they are making the schooling shows a bit less challenging or not.
You inspire me! I’m horseless at the moment and catch riding locally, so I’m not riding frequently enough to compete…yet! Hopefully, after 30 years of riding on and off, 2014 may be the year I do my first HT, even if it is unrecognized (I can’t afford recognized… again, yet!)
The last time I was there it rode REALLY invitingly, though it rather psyched ME out. It is quite rolling, but I didn’t find it hard. That was on a VERY green pony last time I was there. I do wonder how it will be different from a rated show in terms of course etc.
Yeah, the size and make-up of the jumps doesn’t worry me at all- I think we’d do well over many of the Novice jumps, actually! For an idea of what worries me, it’s things like at the :56 mark here - the hill, then getting it together for the jump soon after, and 2:25ish doing the jump soon after the water. i guess we need more practice with such things.
And also at 3:50- yikes!
