Early December presented some great learning opportunities. I was invited to ride in a lesson with WEG silver medalist Hawley Awad, and then a few days later a cross country schooling as well!  In our first lesson we worked on straightness and riding our corners correctly to keep the hind end squarely centered underneath our horses to allow them to push evenly for a powerful confident jump.  Hawley was quite impressed with Phinn and I was thrilled with the learning experience. We were invited to ride in the Buck Davidson clinic scheduled for mid-January, another great learning opportunity I am looking forward to!

Our cross country school was a few days later and Phinn was great, a little green and cautious at first, but then he really got into the swing of things, and Hawley said she felt pretty strongly that he would be ready for Novice at Galway's first event of the season, the first weekend in February, pointing out that there would be several schooling opportunities between now and then with her and other trainers.  Phinn jumped so well that I had to agree with her, so now we're aimed at Novice for our first event of the season, in 7 short weeks!

Hawley said our goal for the year should be the training three day at Galway's November event. I was tickled with her implied compliment, but we'll see how Phinn does and he'll let us know when he's ready t o move up. He's still  little spooky and cautious, and its imperative to me that he maintains his confidence, so we'll see how the spring goes, I tend to be a little cautious with him, but November is a long way off from now. 

Link to youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psQNKxy7Y84