Family & Media!

This weekend, I got the pleasure of my Aunt coming into town. She was coming to see the family, but she also loves horses. Oh and she is an awesome photographer. I hope you see where this is going. I was thrilled to have her in town to begin with, but doubly thrilled when I realized she brought her fancy camera!

Finally some new media! The timing was perfect, because I also got Charmer clipped this weekend and it made him look a lot nicer in the photos! Clearly we are both a little out of shape, but I loved getting some media anyways!

He warmed up the best he has in a long time - soft, relaxed, pleasantly forward, and he was moving off of my right leg really well (we have been struggling with this for a while now). Knocked his laterals out of the park, and didn't go to pull on me or buck more than one time.

I even got to pull out a bunch of new outfit stuff for both of us! Our OTTB Identity shirt, newest Piper breeches, new Majyk Equipe boots & new Nunn Finer figure 8 (go die in a hole stupid HDR bridle I had before!).

I'm about 95% sure that Charmer's perfect attitude was because of our super coordinated outfit and the fact a camera was out. I swear this horse loves the camera. Even when the neighbor dogs came out barking and roughhousing, he didn't bat an eye. I was super impressed to say the least!

So I finally decided to pull out a jump for the first time in over 5 months (wow, can't believe it's been that long!). It also happened to be the first time we jumped at home, ever. I figured it might go well, because he felt great, and at least if I died, we would get it on camera.

But of course, I shouldn't have doubted my big bay creature, because he was foot perfect. I need some reminders on how to do everything, but he took every jump in stride without batting an eye, and any issues in his form were all 100% my fault.

Since we are both rebuilding fitness (okay, me more than him), I kept the jump low and we only went over it about 15 times, and I made sure to end on one of the best jumps all day. If he can keep up this calmness, we will definitely kill it in the show ring this year (provided I can actually figure out my stupid schedule so I can ride!).

All smiles, all the time with these two

Wonder intently watched our whole ride. I'd like to think he is taking notes. But probably not. Little kid is hopefully going over his first fences in the next couple of weeks! Just gotta find the time and set something up. I'm hoping to con someone into jump crewing for me so I don't have to worry about getting on/off to fix any jumps he takes down.

Charmer humored me with a mini photoshoot

So thrilled that I got some stellar media this weekend, and I cannot wait until April when my Aunt comes back again so I can get even more media! Hopefully some nice photos with Wonder next time too!