Bad, bad blogger

I admit it.  I'll take full responsibility.  I abandoned this blog just when it was getting good.  And for no good reason.  I mean, I had my reasons, but they weren't good.  My descent into blog silence went a lot like this:

1st.  I want to interact with other like-minded horse people so I'll start a blog
      - queue going blog crazy for awhile.  

2nd.  I want to put my horse in to full time dressage training for a month
      - queue crazy schedule surrounding pony and dressage training

3rd.   I want to lazily ride my horse around the arena because I'm  super, super burnt out
      - queue lazy riding, but lots of canter work that wound up being super beneficial

4th.   OH MY GOD one of my best friends bought a horse and moved him to my barn.  I have my own personal pony club!
      - queue total blog silence

The last two months or so have been wonderful for Gavin and I.  The one month of dressage training that fried my brain also gave Gavin and I a great base to work off of.  It really improved my connection with him, and made us a stronger team.

As I said above, my friend moved into my barn with her green-but-good TB-Connemara cross (who's name is Sterling).  Gav and Sterling got along so swimmingly that they were moved in to the same pen, and now live together in total gelding love.

Laura and I ride a lot together, and it's helped me just having a friend there.  Because she's always working on something new with Sterling, I find myself trying things with Gavin that I wouldn't normally (I'm not really what one might call a bold rider).  This doesn't mean I've gone crazy, but Gavin has done so much canter work that he's a totally different horse at that  gait then the last time I blogged.  We've also done some canter departures over a ground pole, which I hear is the very first baby step to jumping.  As someone who knows zilch about jumping, I'm fine with just cantering over a pole for now.  I'm very proud of Gavin though, because he's always game and he's brave to whatever I ask of him.

Anyways - I don't have tons to report, but my hope is to start chronicling my journey with Gav again.  :)  I'm going to try to get a video to post soon so you guys can see our progression.

Also - and unrelated to horses - I got engaged just over a month ago!  Perhaps my next post will be focused on that.  :-D