OTTB Charm

Last year, I got a bit swept away with Banner about showing and lessons and moving up and improving my riding. Which don't get me wrong, I love  that we improved so much and accomplished so much last year! But unfortunately time seemed to run away from me last year, and my sweet Charms was put on the back burner. It was really no fault of his own, but I needed to work through some of my riding baggage and Banner helped me do that. I would pull Charmer out for a few days every so often to lunge or ride, and don't get me wrong, he got groomed and I stuffed him full of cookies every day or two. He wasn't ignored by any means, but we just didn't get much of anything done under saddle in 2019. Despite the fact that I know  he didn't care about getting time off, I still felt (and feel) immensely guilty about it. He is very talented and I felt like I just let that go to waste for a year. Starting in 2020, I feel like I have adjusted to have some slightly better time...

In late August/early September of 2018, Banner and I began weekly lessons with Trainer C, which has been such a game changer for my riding and for our partnership. Trainer C also has ridden him lots when he was still with his previous owner so she has a really good understanding of him. In the nearly year and a half we have been in weekly lessons, I have worked very  hard to not take off too many weeks in a row. We've had a few times where it has been off - when she had a baby, when I got deathly ill last year, when I went on my honeymoon, or sometimes when my work schedule has prevented it. I try extremely hard not to miss more than 3 lessons in a row because it takes a tremendous toll on my motivation and my confidence. Because of the holidays, my work schedule got all messed up for December and I ended up having to work on the 17th, so I cancelled that lesson, and then obviously the 24th & 31st were Christmas Eve & New Years Eve, respectively, so we opted out on ...

I'm making an effort to be a better, more consistent blogger this year, so here's my first post of 2020 to try and get off to a good start! First off! I bought a dressage saddle! It's a 17.5" (although rides more like a 17" IMO) Devoucoux Makila! I snagged it off of a local friend for a great deal a few weeks ago! Not that I was necessarily looking for a dressage saddle at the time, but I saw her post and the saddle was about as perfect as I could ask for in a used saddle, plus this particular one was local so I could try it on! It pretty much fits B like a glove which is great! Since his jump saddle is a Devoucoux I had a good feeling about it going in and I wasn't disappointed! The seat feels a touch tight for me but a lot of that I attribute to not being in dressage tack for so long. I rode in it for the trial, and while I felt a bit out of place, I knew it would work for us! A few days later, I did our first at home ride in the saddle! ...