Olivia and Gambler!

Today, my friend Olivia came to ride Gambler! It was a lot of fun to see her and catch up. I know her through YoungRider, and she lives super close to me. I rode her horse Riley in the summer (and he is the cutest horse ever, except for Gambler of course).

It's always really fun to see other people ride Gambler. He is much better about other people riding him now then he used to be.

I rode Gambler for a few minutes before Olivia got on. He was so good. He's doing really well. He is still having a hard time going to the left. It's just hard for him to bend and go round, especially in the corners. I have a lesson next week, hopefully, and Heather will be of great help per usual! He got his lead going to the right on our second try today. Baby steps!

The ring is kind of a swamp from the rain/sleet the other day, and one half of the ring is a huge puddle. I wanted to trot Gambler through it and see what he did, but I had a feeling he'd slip, because he is dorky and clumsy!

Olivia looked really good on Gambler. She looks so tiny! He is getting so big, it's insane.

It's so cool to compare his movement in these photos versus photos from a few months ago. Such nice, positive changes, and I love seeing that!

Gambler's new blanket came in the mail yesterday. I spend and arm and a leg and approximately half my soul on blankets last year that Gambler destroyed and no longer fit him. Wah. They were really nice Rambo's, too. I was able to sell one that I never used, and hopefully I'll get around to fixing the other two and selling them for a little bit. He has a nice blanket from Smartpak though. It's an 81", holy moly. It's a little big for him, but he'll grow into it. And he looks awfully handsome in it!

Gambler is so fuzzy this year. Last year he grew hardly any winter coat, but this year he is all fluffy! I guess that means we're going to have a bad winter. He's nice and warm, though; I foresee lots of bareback this winter on the days that I'm too cold to do anything else!

Now, story time. So, Monday I fell off Auggie. It was hilarious. And I want to write this so that in ten years I can look back and laugh again. So, the fat pen ponies haven't been coming in when the rest of the horses do. I had to ride Auggie anyways, so I just volunteered to go look around the field for them. I got up to the top of the far hill, which is close to the road. Well, some dummy drove down the road really fast and honked, and Auggie lost it. Which is so weird because he's usually very calm and when he does spook, they're nothing bad! Well, this time, he jumped forward and to the side. I (not so) gracefully tumbled over his shoulder, "ass over teakettle" as Sally said. I was by myself, which was the scariest part, because I was as far away from the barn as I could get; as I was falling, all I could think about was what if I was paralyzed and I had to army crawl back to the barn! Oh, goodness. Luckily, I am all in one piece, albeit a little sore on Tuesday!

Also, I have a photoshoot with Gambler on Sunday. I am part excited, part terrified, because getting in front of the camera and looking decent isn't really my forte.