Poor Foo Foo. She got Sunday and Monday off after the show. But today was lesson day and since Lyric is presumably still lame, she got to go back to work. But she was ready! She got to wear the back on track sheet as it had rained overnight and it was a hair chilly and soggy still, and add in the wind.... Plus she was nasty and I was hoping this would help clean her up a bit. ;) It didn't really.... She loaded right up though and we got to Ashland. The original plan was stadium but since it had rained, Lucy closed the arenas so we moved the lessons to the XC field. No big deal.
As I was just about to put her bridle on I heard some screaming coming from the XC area. And then it continued.... and Funny heard it too. She was starting to get amped up so I untied her and held her and about that time I saw a kid on a pony come galloping up the path towards the trailers. The kid was still screaming. The pony just looked like it was having a strong canter. She came in to the trailer parking area and kept going. I yelled out to pull on one rein.... turn the horse... pull just one rein.... I'm not sure if she heard me and did or the pony just got bored and came to join us, but I managed to grab the reins and stop the pony. The girl hopped off and was crying. She apparently had no stirrups the whole way from XC. Well sat cowgirl! I called Jacel to tell her all was well and at that point Courtney and Annabelle showed up. The girl hopped back on and they all headed back to XC, except for Courtney. Funny was now spinning in circles around me so I asked Courtney if she would stick around just long enough for me to get the bridle on. She said she was joining my lesson instead. Cool! Funny settled and I got her bridle on and got on.
We bounced our way to cross country with her flinging her head around but mostly staying to a walk. The pony runaway and another pony were finishing up there lesson so I trotted around a tiny bit. At one point we got to close to Romeo and Funny pinned her ears and kicked out and poor Romeo scooted out of the way. Sorry Court!!! Spicy mare is spicy today!
Once the ponies finished we got started. Funny was a bit of a dragon today but she was a good girl too! And she was on FIRE!!! We warmed up over some small stuff and then Jacel was like... "Holly, honey.... she's ready... it's time to let her grow up". So then she had us jump some bigger jumps. Including the small brush log out of the water! She told me I could let Funny run past it if I felt she wasn't ready and... I did. Funny was like "ummm... what are we doing?". So I circled and pointed her at it with more gumption and she popped out of the water over it like it was nothing. Then we did the BN up bank and she lit up that and was looking for her next fence! We did a few other smaller things and Courtney and Annabelle were impressed with her :) Eeeehhhhh :) :) So then they finished up and headed back and me and Jacel finished up. She was like.... okay... go let her put her nose on that coop. I was like... "Um, isn't that a BN coop? It's big!" and she was like.. yeah.. it's time. Stop treating her like a baby horse. So we walked up to and she was more concerned with eating grass. So Jacel told me to turn her back to it and put her nose on it again and give her a little squeeze.. just to get her to pay attention. Like we've done with Lyric. So I did. And Funny was like "okay"... rocked back on her haunched and LEAPED OVER IT from a standstill!!! While I was holding her back because I felt her rock back and tried to stop her. She scrambled a little bit with her hind end over it but landed at a nonchalant walk. Ha ha... Okay baby girl... we get it. You are cool. You don't need to look at things. I laughed and was like "well dang.. I guess we're fine to trot it". ha ha. And we were. She trotted up to it, broke into the canter and just jumped it. Then Jacel had me take her over the triple stack! And then we did the roll top at the top of the hill. And she was amazing! She just jumped over it all. Like it was no big deal. And LOOK AT HER!! Baby girl has some hops!
I'm so proud and I had so much fun. We talked about how she needed more education because she has the talent and bravery but doesn't quite understand all the questions. And we joked about running her training level at Kentucky AEC's in 2026 but... we also talked about how we knew we would have to take it slow with her and not create holes and build up her education so that she and I could conquer the world. :) Jacel also told me "With all the love in her heart"... that Dan had nothing on Funny. Funny was going to be my prelim horse! I don't disagree. She's freaking bold, brave, confident, cocky, talented, and... hopefully not as broken.
Today was fun. Really fun! After our lesson we went on a long walk hack and just enjoyed our day.
And then tonight... I signed her up to run starter at Chatt Hills' year end show. I kind of hope it's a challenging starter course because... I think she'll be game. But hopefully it won't be too beefy. I'm going to try to go school it Saturday to help her and me out. For now, I think *I* need the schooling the day before for my confidence. And then I'll probably just haul her home and go back the next day. And hope I don't have too early of a ride time. And I will definitely give her gastrogard!
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