Written Sunday... Posted Monday

We have good news, and we have bad news.  Let's start with some good, morph into some bad, and end with some exciting.  Sound good?
Today I went over to see one of my friends ride the pony (17.1hh Hano x TB gelding... perhaps 'pony' doesn't fit) she's been part boarding since like October.  I felt terrible that I hadn't met him yet, but no use dwelling on the past.  He was a total cutie!  Big puppy personality.  He's an eventer, competed up to prelim with his owner.  Why is it that the biggest horses are always the sweetest, and the little ones are evil?  Anywho, I then brought my friend over to meet Cadence.  I'd been debating as to whether or not I should flat or jump.  The decision was made for me when I saw that our BO had finished our standards!  We now have 3 sets of nice light single post standards, one set of barrels, one set of stools, and one set of killer heavy standards we borrowed from a friend.  We mostly just trotted a 2'6ish (a little under maybe) vertical, and then cantered in once or twice.  She was great for our warm up, but was rude and grabby afterward.  Grrrr... I thought we'd conquered that.  Apparently we hadn't been jumping enough.  Her canter fences are a lot nicer now, she's getting nice spots as well!  Alright, my gushings over.
Thebad news was her grabby rudeness is back.  The exciting news is that my coach and I discussed a show schedule for cette ete.  For those of you who don't speak french (or don't recognize the words w/o accents) cette is feminine singular for this, and ete is summer.  Learn something new every day!  I digress, we were discussing horse shows.
Cadence's first ever horse show is set for May 22.  It's a nice bronze dressage show, in a great low-key facility.  Exactly what we need!  Down side: it's almost 2 hours away.  Oh well... hope I can catch a lift with a friend.  We're going to do both w/t tests, and although she'll be ready for the training tests, I'd rather keep it as relaxed as possible.  We can school her canter in the warm up ring, and leave it there for her first show.  Later on in the month, our local Hunt Club is hosting a hunrer show, so we may pop in there and trot around a course.  The only down side to that one is that my coach already has a show booked in then, so she wouldn't be able to join us.
June will be dedicated totally to schooling.  Riding different places, starting her XC schooling, doing some jumper schools, etc.  All of which will take place off property.
In July, we're planning on heading to a combined training competition up at Equus, and schooling over their XC course while we're there.  There are also two local jumper shows (@ the same location) in July that I'd like to go to.  They offer courses ranging from 18" to 2'9, so it'd be a great first experience for her.
However, it's in August that the real fun starts.  August 13th, we head up to Glen Oro HT,  then we're back in the area on the 27th/28th for Woodwind HT.
Then we have the first three weekends in Sept off, before heading up to Equus on the 18th, and Glen Oro again for the 24/25th of Sept.
Our season will end with Grandview Fall HT on Oct 2nd.  There will probably be some more shows scheduled in there, and some removed but it's a good tentative outline to work from.  In other exciting news, our first outing may be occuring as soon as next Monday (25... Easter Monday).  My coach was thinking of heading to a local show farm where they have like 20 outdoor rings, and full hunter jumper courses.  Fun fun fun!  However, we'll have to get control of that rudeness before then or we're toast.  Odd expression, eh?