Friday, October 5, 2012

A "Ten-Horse" Day :)

So today was a busy day -- and a scorcher, too!  Muy humido.  In the morning I hopped on Vitruoso for a quick hack while Martin coached Rodrigo over the young horses' first few jumps.  I was amazed at how bold and clever Quantum and Invasor were.  They jumped a little oxer with absolutely no fanfare, just good form and a calm canter away. 

After Vitruoso I got to ride Justinian, who is definitely one of my favorites.  I like riding all the horses, but I definitely have a few favorites, like chocolate chips in a cookie.  The whole cookie is good but hitting a chocolate chip is a special treat!  Justinian was really good and we did lots of canter work and bending.  Next up was Mauro, who felt really good.  I'm starting to get more used to his way of going.  After Mauro I rode Nixon and Puccini and then Luli to finish up the Series horses.  By this point Alice and Martin had taken Benito into town for the last round of the Breeder's Cup style class.  After Luli it was Pastrocito and then Jour followed by Herodes right before lunch.  At this point Katie had finished up helping Rodrigo with the youngsters, so she got on Rodrigo's horse Georgia and then on Holendesa to ride with me.

After lunch Martin and Alice came home.  Benito jumped clear around the 1.20m again! :)  We still had a lot of horses to go, so it was onto Boss for a jumping school.  Boss was initially kind of tense, because a horse was playing up on the lunge line in the ring, so we had a few explosive spooks in a row before Martin told me to send him cantering.  It's a tactic that reminds me a lot of Canelo and it works like a charm... the first few canter circles he still wants to shy away, but once you get motoring a bit his attention turns to, "Hey, I'm getting kinda tired now... sort of want to stop... can't stop?  All right..." and the desire to play up kinda fades away!  One thing I need to work on is how to achieve this without riding really aggressively and getting tense through my shoulders and arms.  Afterwards I took Boss through the five stride line, and then Martin got on him and schooled him around.  I really like this horse and am keen to start working with him on the flat a bit.  Fingers crossed that the rain stays away... though sadly that doesn't seem likely.

Once a sweaty Boss had been thoroughly walked out, I got on Vitruoso for a quick walk around before Martin lightly hacked him in his second ride of the day.  After that all that was left to do was lunge Cor Lit, who will be shown to a client tomorrow along with Silene and Twilight.  All three are going very nicely, and I'm hoping the weather cooperates so that the showing can take place! 

After work Katie, Alice and I walked down to the store.  It's a short, neat trek through the neighborhood.  There's a real mixed bag of properties around here, from neatly groomed, hacienda-style houses with tidy green yards and Spanish tiling to really dilapilated shacks built from scraps of just about anything.  The main strip comprising the shops always seems really active, with cars and pedestrians and horse-drawn carts passing back and forth, generally tailed by one or two feral dogs.  I picked up some yogurt and Copos de Maiz for a breakfast bonanza tomorrow!

Definitely missing my friends back home a bit, and thinking longingly of Thanksgiving dinner with the fam... though I gotta say this 20+ degree weather is plenty nice...

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