Personal, personal, personal

So I haven't really posted something personal about any of my kids for a minute. Guess I'll take a moment to bring everything up to date.

Classy Lady had her foal, the one that she conceived without permission. Luckily, it's cute and doesn't look at all like its ugly mutt daddy, and is a black filly with a short sock on her left foreleg and a star/strip and broken snip on her adorable little face. I am somewhat of a fan :) We named her Bohemian Rhapsody and Queen as a barn name.

Ivan is back under saddle and progressing now that I'm not suffering from broken ribs anymore and since my quad tear in my right knee is healed enough that I can be more active. I do still have some discomfort from my rolled (left) ankle, but aside from that, we're good. We did a very long trail ride last Saturday at KC Ranch up in Double Springs, AL, close to the Bankhead National Forest. I woke up at an ungodly hour of 4:45 am, finally rolled out of bed at 5:05 am, hit the road by 6 am, arrived at my friend Jennifer's to collect her and her horse, Kiba, at 7:10 am, then arrived at 9:10 am and was in the saddle by 9:30 am. Rode till almost 1 pm, took a 1 hour break for lunch, then got back in the saddle and rode until 4:30 pm. All in all, he was very good, though he rushes when other horses leave him behind, and he tries to rush down rocky hills instead of picking more carefully through the rocks. I really had to reel him in a couple of times, but he was MUCH better when we weren't trying to keep up with the gaited horse pack. My lower back was slightly sore after so much time posting in the saddle during the first part of our ride, but aside from that we were pretty good.

We're supposed to use up the last of our lesson package with Deb this week, then I'm hauling him to NC to do a short course clinic with Sophie Pririe Clifton, who trained under the well renowned Paul Belasik, and who is the trainer that my friend Tasida goes to regularly. Hopefully things will go well, and we might do another short clinic (locally) after getting home with a trainer from GA. I'm hoping that this short course we're going to is going to be beneficial for breaking down some communication obstacles that Ivan and I have been having. The idea is that we'll have a better sense of direction and come up with some really good homework to work on for awhile, then come back for another short course clinic when we need new tasks. It's going to be intense, with a lesson when we get there, two lessons a day for the next two days, then a lesson before we leave. The Ivanator and I are really going to find out how much we REALLY know and a lot about what we DON'T, plus we're going to probably become acutely aware of how not in shape we are... Well, HE'S not too bad off, maybe a little roly poly around the tummy at the moment but not really fat, but on the other hand, I'M definitely not as fit as he is.

So hopefully, all new things will be good in the world of Ivan and myself, and we'll go from there. I'm hoping to be able to get new video footage of us at Sophie's along with some decent photos finally. I need to go ahead and start getting all my stuff clean and ready to go so I'm not scrambling on the night before. Speaking of the night before, my other half's birthday is being celebrated the night before (since it's actually on the day that I'm leaving for NC), so I've got to be prepared for that, too. I feel a little bad that I'm leaving on his birthday, but that IS why we're celebrating the night before. I just can't push it back by a day or I won't be getting my money's worth to be going so far, plus I can't stay a day extra because that will mean I'm there on Thanksgiving day. Anywho, I'll try to keep my blog up to date on our progress.