In the beginning....

When I purchased Monroe, she was 4 and a half and had had one foal and 90 days of training. I had been searching for a jumper for over a year, and fell in love. She was very green, but willing to try anything and had tons of personality.

Our first year together was full of setbacks; when I brought her home the stress caused her to drop weight, and she got a fungus and bruised her foot trying to dig out of her stall. Later in the year she cut her leg in the pasture and got cellulitis, and after numerous problems with back soreness, we had the vet out and she was diagnosed with DJD in her hocks. Our vet was optimistic, and with proper management said that we could keep her on her training path and that the joints would eventually fuse and cease to cause a problem.

Luckily, with the care of THE BEST VET EVER, Dr. Chuck Kessinger and our course of Legend and Adequan shots Monroe has continued to be able to make great strides in her training, and is slowly but surely becoming the talented jumper that I always knew she could be!

Currently we are furthering our training with the lovely trainer at Triple Bar Stables (www.triplebarstables.com) with bi-weekly lessons, and also taking a monthly lesson from Ashley Austin.

We have jumped up to 3'9, but decided to step back to fix some holes that I left in her training (oops... nobody's perfect?) and started over-- teaching her to do the work and "hunt" down the fences--seeing the distance on her own.

During our hole fix, Monroe is learning to relax and stretch and consistently use her hind end to propel herself-- she is coming along quite nicely, and we recieve many compliments from the dressage riders at the barn! (SCOREEEE! I strongly believe that dressage is the foundation of good jumping, and that ultimately, jumping is just flat work over fences.) I am working on using my body more correctly and effectively and riding Monroe from my inside leg to my outside rein--for a long time I tried to hold her up, and perched rather than really using my seat to influence her and relied way too heavily on my inside rein.

We have made MASSIVE improvements, and are continuing our education by practicing riding in open spaces (if you can master riding correctly and effectively over fences in a wide open space, riding in an arena with rails is a piece of cake!) and continuing to encourage a soft, round and adjustable horse!