Spring Break Riding Fun

I'll add pictures when I can! :)
So, instead of going somewhere warm and lovely for spring break, I hopped over to Wisconsin and decided to spend a week at Otter Creek Farm. I had a very nice jumping lesson on Bold on Sunday before I left with Jenny- we worked on not "jumping ahead", I have a tendency to try to start jumping the jumps before Bold actually leaves the ground...Which does NOT keep me out of his way! Jenny had me jump with my eyes closed so I couldn't anticipate the jump. So glad I have such a trustworthy horse to ride!!
Anyways, we got out to Otter fairly late on Sunday- I watched Jenny teach all day, and by the time we got there, I was ready for sleep! Carly was also out for the week, which was super fun.
Monday
Carly was going to be doing twice a day rides with her mare to get over a rough patch, so first thing in the morning, I watched her lesson. It was pretty fun to watch- they had a bunch of poles randomly thrown around on the ground, and Carly rode over them in different patterns, turning sharply to keep her mare focused and slow, weaving between the poles, and all sorts of crazy things! Carly was riding really well, and her mare loves to jump, so it helped her focus and kept her happy with the work.
Emily, the working student out at Otter, had spring break this week as well, so the three of us were out there together, plotting away! Emily and I rode together on Monday, and (I think) we ended up riding up and down the long driveway towards the house and cross country fields before and after the ride. I rode Moe, who, as always, was a total rockstar. We worked on shoulder in to haunches-in, then getting three changes on the diagonal. SO much work! Moe likes to rush off after he changes one direction(I think right to left leads), so I really had to keep it together! It was fun though!
Tuesday
Tuesday was a busy day- there were lessons, and the vet came out. Someone else was riding Moe, so I rode Jenny's mom's dressage horse Ymer. Ymer is a sweetheart with amazing training, and is a complete blast to ride. He knows everything, but still makes me work just a little bit for it. Jenny was busy, so her mom was helping me with Ymer. We did some trot work- shoulder-in and haunches-in, which I'm finally maybe sorta kinda getting the hang of! Lena (Jenny's mom) fixed my leg position a bit, and then told me instead of using constant pressure for leg-yielding etc, to just kick once or twice and then let him be. Oh, well that's a lot less work. So then we moved into some canter work... Apparently on high level horses, if they're fairly straight and you put your leg on, they switch leads instead of move over. Ooopsy. I did get some nice changes though! Once Lena told me to bend Ymer a lot more to get the canter moving laterally, we got some nice half-pass. I think. Anyways- the ride was a bit shorter since Ymer needed to get his vet work done, but I still learned a lot!
Later that night, we free-jumped some of the horses. It's really fun to see the horses that love to jump just playing with it!
We all went out for dinner that night, and Emily slept over- although it's a little less exciting sleepover when almost nobody makes it through even one movie! We all were tired! Still, it was very fun.
Wednesday
Wednesday morning, Carly jumped her mare. She rode really well- her horse was a bit wary of the bigger jumps at first, after having some time off jumping, but Carly stuck with her and got her through everything after a few tries! She had one jump where the mare got "wiggly" before the jump, and Carly got her over the jump beautifully. They both seemed to gain confidence then, and seemed to be working together really well.
The vet came out to float the last training horse's teeth, and I helped pull her mane while she was drugged. I watched the vet as well as I could, then she offered to let me try out the power-floater she was using. She handed it to me, and I did one of the front teeth. So cool to get that experience!
We took the horses out for a trail ride that day- Moe loved it, and thought we should run the entire time... Umm hello Moe, we are with a group, and you're kinda out of shape, and you are an unclipped black horse on the first hot day. What part of that says run around like crazy? Anyways, it was fun, and Carly and I got the chance to ride one of the training horses who is for sale that day. He's a really sweet horse, but a bit sensitive. I took him out for a walk outside after, his first time out for the year. It was uneventful, and we figured that if I (the biggest chicken ever) feels comfortable taking him out, he's probably pretty good.
We swept out the concrete show barn to help get it ready for Lena and Mark to put the new mats in! I think they got most of them in, and Lena asked if I would ride Ymer again, since she was tired from moving the mats. Absolutely I would! Carly rode Palladin- one of the younger dressage horses, and we had fun riding together. I did some flying lead changes again- I managed to start getting five on the diagonal! Woohoo!
Carly and I clipped Moe that night- full body, and he looked quite dashing with a "M" on one hind leg and a "shooting heart" on the other. Or so WE thought!!
Thursday
Thursday was our last day there, and I rode Moe outside with Emily in the morning while Carly had a jump lesson. We ended up playing in the water jump, and Moe and I wandered around the cross country course a bit, looking at the jumps. Great end to the week! We put the horses away, and then Carly learned how to back the truck up to hook it up to the trailer. Jenny asked me if I wanted to drive back and learn to pull the trailer... I wasn't sure at first, but I did it! I drove the entire way back, and it went great! I did well with stopping smoothly, and even avoided hitting deer- always a plus. Carly said I could trailer her horse to shows for her, so I guess she thought it went pretty well too :)
We got home, and I decided to ride Bold. I had a really nice ride, and decided to take him out to walk around the field. Well, walking around was boring, so I decided to trot. And THAT went so well, I just HAD to canter. He didn't peek at anything, and even got a bit lazy in the canter- just the feel I like! That's about as brave as I get, so I was pretty proud, and very happy with Bold.
Friday
I decided Bold deserved a day off, so I rode a couple of my friends' horses while they're gone for the week. The horses are both thoroughbred-draft crosses, and just some of the nicest horses to be found. They're half siblings, and have SUPER solid minds, and are pretty athletic as well. I lucked out on getting to ride them, and, while they're both somewhat green(started less than a year ago), I had nice rides on both.