It's Getting Hairy In Here...

One of the first things on my to do list after I returned to Dallas was giving Dante his yearly clip job...a task neither of us enjoys. Luckily, he is a good boy for it so I don't have to drug him or even scold him very much. Unluckily, the weather turned from mid 60s to mid 20s and 30s just before I returned. You can see how unused to cold weather north Texas is, the local movie theater forgot to turn off their fountain!


So bathing and clipping Dante had to wait a few days until Saturday, when the weather started to break. In the meantime, Dante and I passed the time with a few jump lessons, mostly to get me back in the groove. Heather and Mike have been jumping him while I was gone, so he's going very well, but I haven't really jumped since October, when we diagnosed his injury. So, I'm a bit rusty, but by the end of the third jump lesson, I was finally getting my eye back.

Saturday was a busy day for us. We began the day by having a dressage clinic with Jean Moyer, who comes to Gold Chip once a year to tune us up for Florida. I think it's great to have her, because she only sees us yearly, she can really give us a good idea of how much progress we've made. Dante is feeling great and I got a couple of really good leg yields out of him at the end. We're taking it lightly with the lateral work because of his SI injury, but I feel confident that I can start to get some really nice tests out of him. Jean also had lots of advice for keeping my shoulders back and chin up, which I think will be very helpful.

After the clinic, Dante had a bath, the vet came and injected his hocks, I organized my trunk for Florida, and then we clipped. And clipped. And clipped. We were both thrilled when I was finally finished. Of course, I went out yesterday and saw him, and there's still a few spots I need to go back over. Oh, well.

Next week, we'll have another couple of jump lessons, a couple of dressage lessons, and then on Saturday, the entire envoy will leave for Holly Hill en route to Florida. I'll go to Holly Hill on Saturday, school on Sunday, and drive back to Dallas for classes next week. The next week, Florida starts!