Octoberfest - Pro Pics

I don't know when the "do it while you can" urgency set in, but it's firmly planted in my brain at the moment and seems to be extending to buying pro photos from the shows.  They all kind of look the same, but there's no such thing as too many decent horsey pictures (The Boy might disagree on this point).

So I ordered a couple from the last show, one of our first outing at 2'9" and one cooler shot.  (had to).

I think we look like respectable hunters here.  Prair is finally pointing her toes, I'm not falling off and we both look decently relaxed.  I like it.

There were a couple cooler pics to choose from and I struggled between the full family shot (me and The Boy on the ground, S in the irons) and this one.  I'm out of frame because I was busy throwing dirt around trying to get Prair to prick her ears.  Something about the (slight) candid nature of this one won me over though. 

I also figure that any pictures that include The Boy don't count toward the too-many-pics-of-me-and-prairie-doing-basically-the-same-thing quota.

In other news, the ride today was great.  I kept my stirrups short and spurs off (per my instructions from the clinic) and while I thought I might have to pony-kick the mare a few times, she was so soft and relaxed it was a joy to ride her. 

The rain had chased us inside, so we kept it simple.  Just a single vertical on the quarter line that we cantered back and forth on both leads.  We worked on maintaining that slight haunches in on our approached and staying soft and supple on the landing. 

We worked back and forth over it for about 15 minutes slowly raising it to about 3' and then called it a day.  The mare was so good that we didn't see a lot of point to pushing our luck..