Mini Unplanned Vacation

This post was written Monday night... sorry for the posting delay. (among other things)

I ought to appologise for dissapearing off of the face of the earth.  I didn't in fact die, I just took an unplanned vacation.  My family was supposed to come up for a visit from the states, but they had to cancel, so I went to them.  Very generous of me, I know.  Anyhow, as much as I'm sure y'all want to know every last detail of my life... I'll stick to the horses ;)
The Mare has been fantastic.  We are officially  in prep mode for her first combined training which is (drum roll please...) next Wednesday!  After which I will take a planned vacation.  It works out pretty well, since we have the show, and the next morning I leave to take a couple of friends up to Algonquin Park for a canoeing trip.  So, Cadence will get the next four days off.  Our show plan for the summer has been shifted a bit.  Due to the Mare's awesome progress, we're doing this CT show at Equus (at pre-entry (like pre-beginner novice)) going for one more cross country school, and then doing PE (pre-entry) at Equus on july 27th.  Hopefully after that, providing all goes well, we'll do two or three beginner novice (Entry in Canada) events, and maybe try a PT event before the season is out.  At least, that's what the long term plan is looking like right now.  My coach has this crazy idea that we'll be schooling Training next summer.  We'll see...
Cadence's work has been fantastic recently.  Her canter is finally coming together.  transitions into and out of canter still need work, but the quality of the actual canter is getting better.  Funnily enough, so is the trot work after :P  Amazing how that works!  She still gets all worked up and doesn't want to give, but she is improving.  Also, I'm pleased to say that as of today her jumping is really coming along as well.  Well, her actual jump's always been fine, but we can consistently get the proper lead after fences, we can not rush into fences, and we can... that's a bit of a lie. She still likes to rush after.  However, it's nothing major.  Plus I can't wait to take her XC again.  Her overall responsiveness and comprehension of my aids in regards to jumping has improved tremendously!  Today we were working on balancing her trot and canter back.  I'll go into a two point, and the second I sit down, she starts to balance back and package herself up.  Up I go, and she's off like a rocket.  Sometimes the ups are a bit too enthusiastic, but it's a matter of rewarding the behaviour and keeping the enthusiasm while not getting too quick and free.  Either way, we're more than ready for 2'6 pre-entry fences.  I'm pretty sure I could just point her at them and she'd figure her way around the course... lets not try that though.