....Oh....

I am going to be really sore tomorrow. I am happy though. I rode Santana bareback and Aleythia took a video. I was having a hard time being able to stay on Santana's trot, but I think I'm getting it. I just have to remember that I can clench with my knees and still go with the movement of my horse. With bareback riding you almost have to slouch. Learning how to ride bareback makes you feel like you've never seen a horse before. It is getting better though, and I am determined to be able to do everything with Santana bareback.
I attempted cantering him and it really helped that the first time I asked him to canter I didn't fall off. I did notice that he was swishing his tail and it almost looked like he was bucking. He looked like a teeter totter. After that I just got him more riled everytime I asked him to canter. Probably because I'm riled about it. Terry thinks that the reason Santana swishes his tail at me all the time is because he doesn't like all the bouncing I do. I can see that.

I did have a very nice canter with Santana at the end though. It was beautiful and surprising. He even made a turn and I didn't fall off!

One thing was a little nerve wracking though. I decided that I didn't feel like driving the fillies today and so in order to get out of the monotiny of it I would do something different. Like ride! I saddled up Toffy and got on. I wanted to teach her that thing I saw on Mugwump.
Aleythia led Toffy to the gate while I was on and when she got to the gate she felt that Toffy was too close. She wanted her to back up, but she wouldn't, so she applied more pressure. And then Toffy freaked. She was bucking and rearing and hoppin around. Her bucking was not that hard to stay onto. Then my saddle started slipping... So I was bucked off and I landed right beside her in a snowdrift. I paused for a second and then out of the corner of my eye I saw Toffy rearing almost right above me. I scrambled out as quick as I could. I paused again and looked back at her and she was still way to close for comfort. I scrambled out to a safer distance, got up and watched her until she quit bucking. Aleythia had just let go of the lead rope and we just watched. She quit and the saddle ended up being shoved up past her withers. Other than that she was fine, and lucky for me so was I... Thankyou Lord... I led Toffy into the paddock and did a little bit of luneging I even had her canter. Nothing. She trotted and cantered beautifully. So Aleythia and I were just like what's her problem then? We didn't know and I got ready to get back on but before I did that I figured I should flap her stirrups. She jumped away from that really quick. It only took a little more time to get her to not freak out over the stirrups and then I got on. I had a whip in my hand and the halter and lead rope in the other. It was kinda a challenge to get her to go in the direction I wanted. She did walk when I kissed to her (my second que, the first being a squeeze with the legs), and she carried me extremely easily. She even trotted though I was not okay with that. The problem I had with trying to get her to go the direction I wanted is that she wanted to go to the gate where she could get out. I ended up having Aleythia go get another lead rope so that I could at least be able to put her in the right direction. I think what I'll do next time is ride in the little pen behind the barn. I won't have so many obsticals to work around then and I can just work on getting her to turn without worrying about her running off.
Thinking about her bucking fit it could have been prevented. I didn't prepare her enough. It's been a while sense she's worn a saddle. There were also a couple warning signs. The first was when Aleythia put the saddle blanket on. Toffy jumped at that. The second was when I got on. She didn't feel relaxed. The third was how she wasn't listening to Aleythia. How could I have prevented her bucking episode? Well, I could have desensitized before I got on. And do a little bit of ground work. It would have been so easy. It would have probably taken a grand total of five minutes and she never would have bucked.
The lessons we remember the most are the ones where we got it wrong the first time.
But here are some really nice pictures of beautiful little Toffy.

and others...

santana was laying down when we came

poor Ana

Cowgirls Dont Cry Part II

So, lets see...
I thought of another thing with Santana.
I was in the paddock with all the other horses and I think I wanted Santana to stand still when I walked up to him to say hello. You see he would always walk away with a very unpleasant expression on his face. Like he wanted to be left alone.
Well when he started walking away I followed him and then he turned around and bit me. Oooh he got it. I was lucky in the fact that it was the middle of winter so I was wearing my winter coat. I didn't realize until I got home that he had actually torn my jacket. So, now there's a cute little horsey right where the tear is. I actually don't have that coat anymore though.
That story reminds me of Flicka.
I was in her stall doing who knows what and all the sudden she lays her ears back and bites me. Curious how I've only been bit by a horse when I'm wearing a coat. I slapped her nose good and hard for that. Never had a problem sense. Ya know almost all the baby horsies have to try that on you at least once. A few of the fillies have tried it, but it wasn't very hard and a slap on the nose gets them over it real quick.
Flicka also tried to kick me once. I was with Aleythia and a boy who was in the same class as me. Fifth grade maybe? Well, we were out in the alfalfa field and I have no idea why but Flick bucked out at me. It never came in contact but I felt the air of her hoof flying past my face.
I also remember falling off Flicka riding bareback and I think Aleythia was leading her. I think we were leading her away from the horses and by that time she had learned that we couldn't keep her from running away so she bucked me off and ran back to the herd. That's the only time I can ever remember falling off Flicka.

Blacky was always fun. She was the first horse I ever rode and man was she a handful. It took some muscles to get her to slow down. She has always worn a hackmore and she definitely tried to get away with as much as she could. I probably fell of her much more often than I can remember. The only one I can remember though is because of her saddle. She wore a little pony saddle and it didn't really fit that well. Cinch it up as tight as you want it'll still end up crocked. It never helped that she had a lot of hair either. I was riding along and the saddle was slipping. I fell off because I couldn't get the saddle upright again and she ran off with the saddle upsidown on her back. That's one of the reasons we want the fillies used to the saddle beneath them. It's less dangerous if there at least not afraid of the saddle beneath them.

We've had trouble with Ana's saddle doing the same thing. We've tried almost four of our saddles on her and maybe this last one is finally gunna work. Before that the saddle would always slip. Cantering was the worst. I've never fallen off because of it, but man it could get pretty far.
Have I ever told you how scary Ana is to ride bareback? Seriously. So first you're riding this horse that doesn't really have breaks and has very little concern for you falling off. Her trot is floaty. It's really nice to watch not so much to ride bareback. Once you master it though it it a lot of fun. The first time I tried riding her bareback outside was really scary. All she wanted to do was trot and I was not ready for that. I just did an emergency dismount and went back in the barn to ride. I've done that dismount maybe twice.
There was one time I was riding her in the pasture and I was having a really bad time. So, finally I just let her go. We were heading back to the barn and she just ran. It rivaled Santana. And it would have been fun if I hadn't of felt like I was seeing my life flash before my eyes. My seat was pricarious and adrenalin was just pumping through me like electricity. Heightened by the fact that we were running straight towards the barn wall and I wasn't sure how I would get her throught that tiny little gate back into the paddock without killing myself. I was also underneath trees and some of those branches were low. It was alright because I think when we were really close to that wall she slowed down a tinsey little bit and I was able to turn her and avoid going through that stupid little gate.

And then there's Misstack. I've been bucked off by her once, but oh can I tell you about the stories of what she's done to other people.
The one time she bucked me off is one you probably already know. I was trailriding with Aleythia and Aleythia's horse, Ana, wanted to go faster. Of course. I didn't want Misstack to go faster though and she did. Not a good combination. It resulted in her getting into a trot, me pulling back, and then her bucking. I hit the ground on my back. Got up and walked around a little bit. That was not a good feeling. I was fine though so I gave Misstack a little bit of a lesson in manners and got back on.
She also doesn't like it when I ask her for a sharp turn when she wants to gallop. She bucked then too. I stayed on though.
Another thing she did was when my older brother came to ride. I saddled up three horses for him. Misstack included. She was a doll actually. She didn't do anything stupid and she was actually really nice. I figured she would be. If she's in a familiar place she's a perfect little angel. Sorta. Well my older brother suggested that we ride double. We were in the barn and so I was like what the heck. He got on behind me and we started walking. Have you ever gotten that little voice in your head that says you should quit something. Well, I got it right then. And guess what? I ignored it. What a stupid little child. Three seconds later Misstack bucked and my brother fell off... and he landed on his feet. Who does that?! Well, I told him he had to get back on so he did and she bucked again after a few steps. This cycle went on at least five more times. Then my brother had the idea to try a little monkey in the tree. We have this rope in the barn just for that purpose and I agreed if not a little hesitantly. It definiteley did not end well. My brother had gotten a hold of the rope and Misstack freaked out because of the rope. She didn't buck but she did back up. Really quickly. Jorgen got back on one more time and this time I didn't ask Misstack to move. We ended there. Always Listen To Your Little Voice! Terry was not happy when I told him about it. I know what I should have done instead though. I should have just got my brother on once, stood still, and then left it that way. It's what I did with Santana. He takes a second rider, at the walk anyway, just fine.
This was with Terry's granddaughter. She was going to go to a parade with Misstack so she trailrode over to the parade. One problem. It was Misstack's first trailride. Remember how I keep tellin ya that Misstack's a nut job? Well this is what happened. She was maybe halfway to the parade and Misstack freaked. She bucked her rider off and then jumped into a barbed wire fence. And then ran home. Terry's granddaughter got a broken wrist. Misstack got a gash on her front leg right above the hoof. There is now a patch there that doesn't have any hair.
Another thing Misstack did wih the same rider was at fair time three years ago. They got into the arena and probably got into the canter and then Misstack exploded. Terry's granddaughter ended up with big bruises on the inside of her legs. Man that girl can buck. I've seen her after she's been cooped up in the barn for a while. She starts bucking. Seriously she jumps into the air from a standstill. All four feet off the ground. And that's the horse I want to ride in an upcoming show. Fun. Actually, I do think it will be fun. Go right ahead, call me crazy.

I seriously think God's been watching out for me though. I hadn't realized how many close calls I've had. I've never broken anything riding horses. I've never worn a helmet either.
I'm sorry if this discourages anyone from ever riding again. Horses do happen to be unpredictable creatures and there is no such thing as a bomb proof horse. I personally have found horses to be extremely rewarding. So, if you're willing to take on the danger of riding horses enjoy it with every thing you've got. The joy I have had riding rivals almost anything else.

Snow! I Love You!

I honestly don't understand. It does not help my self esteem to fall off every time I ask Santana to canter when bareback.
First I just could not get a hold of his trot. It was just a pain trying to stay on. I don't know if he's just wiggly or I really can't stay on. Then I was like ya know, I want to canter. So I lined him up to the fence and the part of the paddock with the most snow. I have not had very good experiences with getting him to canter bareback.
I asked him to trot and then a canter. He was way too strung out and I still urged him into a canter. And then I don't know what happened. I think that maybe he does a little buck or something because I always end up on the ground. I landed on pillows. No seriously when I fell of I landed in a big snow drift and was kinda surprised because usually when I fall off a horse the impact hurts a little more than that. I landed on my back which hurts a tinsey little bit.
Maybe I should have Aleythia video tape it. It might give me an idea as to how to fix the problem. Or maybe I just need to get better at trotting before moving on to the canter. (sigh) If I can learn how to ride Santana bareback I'll be set to ride almost anything.

I was reading in Mugwump about how horse A gets Horse B to move (read here). A lot of the time Horse A doesn't care were Horse B goes as long as Horse B is out of Horse A's space. But when Horse A does want Horse B to go somewhere she'll bite Horse B. For example if Horse A wants horse B to go faster Horse A will get closer and bite Horse B on the rump. Slower? Horse A fades off a little bit. Left or right? Horse A will bite Horse B's neck or ribs in the desired direction. The head never comes into play. All this means is that we should be able to direct horses while riding the way another horse would. Without the help of a bridle. Mugwump explains it so much better than me so, go read it!
My thought on this was first I have experienced it before. Remember the time I got on Ana bareback and bridleless in the pasture. And remember how she hated it? I understand why. It's because she was being bossed around via me. She was being told what to do like she would be told by another horse. This was something she totally understood and responded the way she would respond to another horse. One of these days I am going to have to really experiment with that on her.
My second thought was maybe I want to train the fillies that way from the start. Their very first actual ride won't include a bridle. Just me, a saddle, and a crop. I'll probably have a halter and lead rope too just for my safety, but I won't use them. The crop is so that I can emulate a horse's bite much easier than what I could do without. I am seriously going to enjoy doing it. The fillies taught how to go without a bridle from the start. Love it!

Cowgirls Don't Cry Part I

I'm looking for something to do. That being the case I will start my close calls post.

Ok, I mentioned the one of being backwards on Santana.
And the one of getting on him bareback.
So I'll go over all the ones I can remember with Santana.
Ok, so when I first started riding him he hadn't been ridden for at least three years and was kinda a disaster waiting to happen. Terry said he was mellower than what he was... I can't remember the reasons, but every once in a while he would go into a bucking fit. The most prominent memory I have of one of his bucking fits is of him wanting to go back into the paddock from the pasture, and I wanted him to be calm in the pasture. So, I turned him away. This turned him to exploding into bucking. I was a better rider by then and I was able to stay on, but he bucked like five times.
I'll try to give you an idea how bad Santana really was. He bucked often enought that I would judge how much better I was at riding by how many of his bucks I could stay on.
Do you know about the story of why Aleythia doesn't ride Santana?
I was riding our little black pony Blacky and Aleythia was riding Santana. Well we kinda got into a race and a few strides out Santana bucks... and Aleythia falls off. She gets back on and a little bit later he bucks again. She falls off. She gets back on and after a little bit Santana bucks again, and Aleythia falls off. After that she didn't get back on. The only reason being was because her arm was hurting a little bit. Terry's granddaughter was there, so she got on and when he bucked he got it good. He quit bucking after that. And that's when Aleythia stopped riding Santana. It's not that she's afraid to ride him, she just doesn't. Terry thought that it was because he was just a one person horse. There has been times when I think that might have been true even though it's not anymore.
When I broke my leg (not from horses), I wasn't able to ride for at least six weeks. I was consoled a little with all the horse magazines Terry gave me, but I still was itching to ride. When I no longer had to wear my brace I asked the doctor about riding and he said that if it was a safe enough horse I could ride. My first thought was Flicka because she wouldn't do anything but walk anyway. When I got to the horses and told Terry I could ride he wanted me to ride Santana instead of Flicka because Terry felt that he would be safer. His reason being that while I was indisposed he had a few girls who wanted to ride (relatives I think). So he got out Blacky and Santana. Black went fine. Santana? They couldn't get him to move. Like seriously Terry tried he just wouldn't go. He was the first horse I got on after six weeks of being unable to ride. He was perfect. I guess I felt like he knew that I just wanted an easy ride and he gave me one. 
Now done with this touch feely stuff let's go back to the guts and glory.
Once again I was riding Santana bareback and I wanted him to be able to carry two people. So, to help him get used to it I slid back a little ways on his back and asked him to walk. He went out fine five steps later I was on the ground.
Another time I was also riding bareback and I think I wanted him to canter. That didn't go over to well. He bucked and I landed with my head under his stomach. I got up really quick and he reared. Somehow I had kept ahold of his short little barrel reins and when he reared it jerked on his mouth so I let go of the reins, and then he was fine.
I was riding Santana in the alfalfa field with Aleythia who was on Flicka. We were nearing the end of the alfalfa field and I just let Santana go. He started bucking. I didn't have a very good seat to begin with so that didn't help my situation. The first thing that happened was I lost my left stirrup. After that I knew it was a lost cause to try and stay on, so I let go of the reins and dove head first to the right. I hit the ground and Santana was already gone. He was running toward the barn with his head high and his tail flagging. I just sat there and watched him run. Got up and walked back to the barn. He had stopped by the trailer and I got back on and rode around for a little bit. But the idea of getting on again scared me just a little bit.
Then at fair time this year I fell of twice. One I have a video of and you can probably remember it. I was doing jumping figure eight and at the end of our run I decided to late which way I wanted to go so he picked a direction and then I picked. It looked like I fell off on purpose. The other time we were trying to figure out the order for 4-in a line, and Black was in the front. She took off and the other horses followed. We came within sight and hearing of the fair rides and it's like he stepped right out from under me. Santana ran and would probably have gone back to the trailer if he hadn't have been caught. That is why it's nice to do everything with your horse starting and ending at the trailer. The horse will just run to the trailer when he's escaped because he sees it as a good place and a familiar place.
Not too long ago I cantered him with no stirrups and when he turned I just fell off. I am trying to improve my riding with him so stuff like that doesn't happen. Bareback riding here I come.

You may think I'm crazy, but I still love to ride that stupid horse.  I think it helped that every time I fell of I always got back on. People always tell you that you have to get back on after you fall of because other wise the horse thinks he won. That's not the reason I get back on. I get back on for my sake. If I had never gotten back on Santana every time he threw me off riding him would scare the livin daylights outa me.
Ok, I have many more of these sort of stories to tell, but this post is getting too long. I can't think of anymore from Santana (there are probably quite a few more), but I've got ones from Blacky, Misstack, Ana, and even Flicka that I do remember.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Get Over It.

Mwahhaha! You'll never guess what I did today! And I'm not gunna tell you until I go through the other stuff first. Mwahahaha!

So, Aleythia rode Ana bareback

Do you see that white stuff? It's called snow, and we finally got it!

And I guess she was pretty good.
While Aleythia rode Ana I was driving Coffie. Nothing exiting going on there... she only bucked twice... ok, ok. I had asked her to trot and we we trotted a little ways and then she bucked. Lucky for me I was far enough away that she didn't get me. Hmm I have quite a few close calls with horses... But anyway... Aleythia said that her buck looked pretty. I didn't really do anything because I was kinda surprised. I mean seriously why would she buck?


The next time I asked her to trot she bucked again. This time I had more space between me and her. So she trotted... few steps later.... BUCK! So in the split second it took for me to look at her I processed that I had reins in my hands... that were across her back... so, I used them. Took my end of the reins and slapped the rein against her butt. I think she was kinda surprised, but she didn't buck after that.

Does this look like an evil horsy?

Never.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the "scab" that coffie has on her back. It was were she had ringworm. It's flaky. We don't think that it's ringworm.

 

I rode Santana bareback. I do believe that I am sorta getting how to ride his trot. A little tip. Don't hold onto the horse's mane. I couldn't use his mane because I was riding him in a  snaffle with two reins, so I rode two handed. For some reason it pulls you more off balance than it helps. What you need to do when riding a horse's trot is sit back on your jean pockets. If you lean forward at all you'll loose your balance.

 And as long as were on the topic of tips... if you're gunna get cowboy boots and you live in an area that gets ice don't get a smoothe soled boot. You'll regret it, like me. This will become the story of your life... you step on anything that has a slant and there you are on your butt. Another thing. Corral boots are not the best thing to do work in. Standing for more than 10 minutes? Absolutley not. The next time I get boots I will get a square toe, traction on the soles, and a lower heel.

 He looks pudgy :/

 

 

And now the grand finale!!!!

I rode Misstack BAREBACK!

The idea of riding Misstack bareback scared me. I mean I don't know what she'll do and I have no desire to get bucked off. She doesn't like someone riding double. Like seriously she doesn't. She bucked my brother off.

So because of experiences with Santana and getting on bareback... (I'll tell story's a little later), I took my hand and did a drum roll on her back. Terry gave me a leg up and I just layed over her back on my stomach. Then I swung my leg over. I did flexing and it was fun! I kinda felt secure on her back. Another goal checked off.

 

So, about the story with Santana.

Well, I bridled him up and asked Terry for a leg up. He swung me up there and I landed on Santana's back... BUCK, BUCK! Fun right? I actually can't even remember if I stayed on. And another time I had him tied up to our trailer and I just went to rotating on his back. I was on him side saddle and I was gunna swing my foot over his back. Well, when he felt my foot on his back he arched his back like he was gunna buck. And being the semi stupid kid I did it again. So I was on him backwards and then... he bucked... sufficed to say I do remember how that ended. Not with me on. And the only thing I got was a big bruise on my elbow. One of my close calls.

On one of those boring days I will have to make a post reminiscing on all the close calls I've had.

15 Minutes of Awesomeness

So I got the second video up. Click this to see it. I especially liked the video because it showed that Ana is still hyper. You can see she wants to go, but she still stands. We have basically taught her a different way to stop and she has learned it quite well.
If there is anything on the video that doesn't make sense please ask me about it. Sometimes I'll explain something to Aleythia and she gets what I mean even if it doesn't make sense to the rest of the world.
I rode Santana and it was an extremely short ride. I'd say less than 10 minutes. I just worked on getting him to do one reign stops while walking. He was doing really good and I was getting a little cold so, I called it good.
I ground drove Toffy and Frosty out in the paddock.
Toffy was pretty good she is shaking her head less and her back ups are awesome! I'll pick up on the reins and say back. She'll tuck her nose and back and I can't really feel the pressure on the reins.
Frosty though wasn't very good. She started out fine and then after a few times of stopping she refused to back up. It was getting dark and I spent the next half hour working with her anyway. I did flexing with her and she took forever to stop leaning on the bit. When she finally did get it it wasn't too bad after that. The other side wasn't bad either. So I did some more driving with her. And she really didn't want to go beyond a certain point in the paddock when I pointed her towards the pasture fence. She did to better after that. Her stopping was better than when we began and so was her backing up. I led her back into the barn and she kept looking behind her towards the pasture and running in front of me. I couldn't see anything, but it might have been why she didn't want to go towards the pasture.
Aleythia worked with Dash and Coffie and she just did ground work with them. She thinks that once a week we need to go back and review the ground work. I think that would probably be a good idea. It will help them to get better at the ground work.

Ana's Improvement

 

Ana in the summer of 2011... I think...

 

Aleythia is riding Ana in this video. Ana has two gaits. Canter and Trot. I think we got her desire to canter out of the way so now she just wants to trot. And now she has one more. WOAH!!! It's great.

I'll get another video on this post, but I just wanted to see if the video worked.





Finally. Here it is!

 

Love it!!

Do you know how happy one thing of doing nothing makes me? Yep, it's pretty awesome. Ana stood still...
I caught Ana in her stall and led her to the trailer. I brushed her with a metal curry comb and then a hard brush. Every time she moved I moved her back. I put Misstack's bridle on her and her black saddle with a blue saddle pad, and swung up. She layed her ears back at me when I moved around so, I moved around more. Eventually she stopped pinning her ears at me so I undid the halter around her neck. And we just sat there. After a little while I asked her to walk. When we were in the more open section of the barn I asked her to flex her head to the side. A few times of that and I knew that she was just gunna stand there. So I let her. Whenever I thought she was even remotely close to moving I pulled her nose to my foot. So I probably rode her for 15 min and we moved twice. And each time I had asked her to.  Once to get her away from any wall and another to figure out whether or not she was faking me out. Perfect little girl.
I think I will cross out getting Ana to stand still in my goals.

The other horses didn't do to bad either.
I'll  start getting Santana to flex to a stop from walking and trotting and Misstack's a little better with her flexing, but I'm going to perfect it a little while more before I start riding.
I desensitized Frosty to a cat food bag while driving and I just used a halter for that.
Dash had some bridling issues and I fixed those, Coffie didn't want to stand still, so I worked on it. She needs quite a bit more work.
Toffy is still flinging her head when she feels the pull of the bit, but stops pretty good and does a really nice back up.
So, I am proud to say that I worked with all seven horses today.

Stupid Titles...

So, my first thought is.... What do you do with a horse that has been abused, and doesn't take real well to round penning? So, my real question is to round pen, or to not?
I think that if you take the time to get that horse used to people like doing quite a bit of desensitizing to objects, round penning shouldn't be a problem.
This isn't for me, just something I read in uncatchable number 257
I think there's a bird stuck in my window... yep, I suppose I should fix that...
It was stuck between two glass panes. It did get out again, and we pushed up the window pane so that there wasn't a gap.

Well a little filly update. I drove Dash in a bit, or rather Terry did. She wasn't too bad for the first time. I had her flex in the bridle first so that she knew to give to the pressure and she was getting it.
Toffy is doing really well in the bit. She still does a little bit of the head flinging when she feels the pressure of the bit, but it's not too bad. Her stops are beautiful. I have a feeling that she will have a great sliding stop. Backing up is getting better. She'll fling her head maybe twice, tuck her head, and back up a few steps. It doesn't take much.

Then Ana... Well yesterday Aleythia spent more than half an hour just putting the bridle on. She didn't like it when Aleythia put her hand under her chin or over her nose, so she worked on that. After that when she got the bridle on she did one reign stops. Aleythia stopped when Ana stood still for almost 20 seconds. Woot woot!!!

Misstack is getting better with flexing, but she still has problems paying attention to me. It is getting better. She flexes a lot better on her right side than her left. Her right side is almost like what Santana does. Once she gets flexing down consistently I will ride. She's got everything accomplished other than that. Which reminds me I should look on that DVD on barrel racing as to what I am supposed to do after they can do everything on a loose rein.

Just so you know I did make it to the horses' yesterday.
I also made it to the horses' today.
Oh, did I tell you that Terry's brother got another horse. It's a white quarter horse, and is about 16 years old. I don't know the gender. Unfortunately I haven't seen the horse yet.
I worked with Misstack today and she is getting better with her flexing. I decided that another reason she isn't real good at it is because she is focused on everything else but me. So I made it a little more uncomfortable to not listen to me. When I wanted her to flex and I saw that her eye wasn't looking at me I took the end of my lead rope and made her move her hindquarters over really fast. After a few times of that she was listening to me a little better and was also flexing a little better.
I didn't work with Santana and Ana ;(
And Toffy didn't do too bad with the bit. She didn't like the pressure, so once again I went back and did flexing with the bridle and that helped. She still has a problem with stopping. When she feels the pressure of the bit pulling back she flips her head up until it stops. And I just have to live with it. It's not like I can really do anything to fix it. It will get better with practice anyway.
Coffie still needs practice in a halter. I think I got my point across with stopping though. I did one rein stops whenever she started to go after I had asked her to stop. That is not an easy task when you have to hold six feet of driving lines, and your lines have to go through rings on the harness. Oh, and you're standing behind your horse.
We're going to move Dash up to a bit too. And with all four I think I want to start making noises behind them.
It should prove entertaining.

Improvement is Welcomed

I wish I woulda worked with Misstack. I did everyone else, all six, except her. And she's the one who probably needed it the most. But I will go work with them tomorrow. I never go on Wednesdays. I have church, my student leadership meeting, and my quintet practice. And on top of all that I have school to go to. And tomorrow I have to be at church at 3:30 to help decorate a few signs for our Christmas play. So, I worked ahead in school. I have to skip the student leadership meeting and my quintet practice. And I will go to Terry's around 11:30. By the way I am home schooled, but I have one class at my high school, which is FFA, and I do plan to go back to the high school. So, if you want to know what's involved with homeschooling just ask.
I am actually really happy that I was able to work with Ana today. When I first got her out when I wanted her to back up, she was s-l-o-w. So, I grabbed the whip and whacked her a couple times. She backed up pretty nice. I made her move those feet as quickly as she could. After that I saddled her up, got on, and did one rein stops the entire half hour that I rode her. And she wasn't really good at it.
While I was riding I explained to Terry why we did one rein stops. And that was kinda fun. He likes to know why we do what we do.
Near the end of my training session I would flex her head to one side, let loose when she did it, then dare her to move. I just sat there and then right before I felt she would move I would flex to the other side and repeat. She was really good at flexing by the end. She leaves her head vertical to the ground when I flex her head from side to side. And she does it right away. Beautiful girl.
Frosty is getting extremely good at driving in the bridle. She stops really well. One problem I have come across in driving these fillies, is that when we start walking outside they don't listen to me very well. So, I either get them really good at driving in the barn and then go out or drive outside anyway and get them used to driving in unfamiliar places. Hmm. I think I like the latter better. Oh and I'm thinking that Toffy could probably be put in a bit and that Frosty could pull something. The other two need a lot more work.
With Santana I think that I will start riding him and only do one rein stops for a while. And I'll keep working with Misstack on the ground until she gets better at flexing. (sigh)

Go/Dream BIG or Go Home

First, I am totally bumbed that I haven't worked with horses sense Thursday of last week. I am feeling horse deprived. Talking about horses with somebody helps though.

Turns out my brother in law (married to my oldest sister), we'll call him N, has my whole life planned out for me.
I'll go live in Montana close to Yellowstone National Park on a ranch. He'll get an eight hitch team of Clydesdales and drive them. He doesn't want to deal with them other than driving, so I'll take care of them. He'll build my barn, bale hay, make feed, and even take out the manure. I can even have my own operation with horses in another half of the barn. I'll have a guest bedroom just for him (and his wife/my sister) and hey, I'll even label the bedroom as his.
And then we started talking about how at one time we had planned the perfect Christmas... and the Clydesdales would help with that. We would have a cabin in the middle of nowhere, hitch up the Clydesdales, and go for a sleigh ride to the cabin. (N's going to build that too). We'll invite everyone over to my place and as my youth pastor put it "We'll double the population of Montana."
The reason for living near Yellowstone is so that he can go snowmobiling there. He loves his snowmobile.
Oh, and N will build his own wagon too. And it will be big...
I love this dream. And who knows, it might just happen.

The other cause for being not so bumbed out about not working with horses sense Thursday is that we had our first official FFA meeting in our little town. It has been about 25 years sense the last one. And it is kinda awesome because the whole community came together and donated money to get the FFA program up and running.
And just so you know this is not totally unrelated to horses (I've been doing that a lot lately). The main reason I joined FFA is that it is possible that I will be able to ride in the fair under the FFA name. So, I'm kinda excited bout that.
And I also signed up to be an officer for our chapter. I am what ya call a Parliamentarian. And I am not quite sure what my duties entail right now. I plan to be one of the officers until I am no longer able to be in FFA.

Practice Makes Perfect

Ok, I wish it weren't true, but it is. Practice does make perfect. But that means I could spend a whole week on just one thing. Like Misstack is awful at flexing. She just totally leans against the halter. She is a prime example of why nylon halters can be a problem when training. She is actually the only one too. All the other horses are great at it. But she seems to think that the halter is a pillow. My goal - To get Misstack to understand that leaning on the halter is not very comfortable. How? By every time she leans against it I'm going to bump her with halter. She knows felxing so she doesn't have that excuse to hide behind. She is just being a pain. When we do flexing she looks at everything. Her mind wanders. She doesn't focus on me. I can see it in how she resists the pressure of the halter and when she does flex, she does it, but halfheartedly. 
I got after quite a bit today. She kicked at me once and she got a whack on the but with the whip for it and was all around being a general pain.
And because we felt lazy we didn't really work with the fillies. We tied them up to the trees in the alfalfa field and Aleythia just watched them. Ana was with them too. Aleythia had put Ana out back by herself Tuesday. And there is now a spot with no grass where Ana was tied. She wasn't too bad today though.
We figured out Tuesday that we need to work on having the fillies just standing there. We also need to do some desensitizing. It is really hard to find a balance.
All four fillies have now had the harness on. And Aleythia said that Frosty was doing really well in a bit.
Santana was amazing today. When I was asking him to do flexing, I would pick up the rope and he was already turning his head to the side. I loved it! I did the sending exercise with him too. Aleythia was watching and she said that she didn't like how he was disengaging his hindquarters. She said it was just too slow. When you ask your horse to do something he should do it NOW! A few more days of ground work and I'll start riding him.

And by the way... Don't try leading four horses at one time...

Learning

We've got freezing weather, you can see your breath, the top of the lakes have a thin layer of ice, and the wind is biting. But there's something missing.... oh ya... the snow! Come on if the weather is going to be this nasty could we get a little bit of the pretty white stuff to go with it?
It was probably the coldest so far and I still walked a mile to Terry's place. But then again, I've walked that mile in a blizzard too... Young and stupid? Granted I'm still young, but maybe I'm not quite that stupid anymore.
Lucky for me Terry has a heater in the trailer that I can turn on when I get there.
The fillies are doing well, but my toes are not. I'll explain a little later.
I ground drove all four of them... I'll tell you in story format just cause I think it'd be more entertaining.

~  ~  ~

I reached for the green halter and black lead rope hanging on the nail and thought about which one of the fillies I was going to work with first. It's quite a dilemma ya know. I decided that I would work with Frosty and I told Terry that because she was doing so well in a halter I would just go ahead and try ground driving in a bit. I've taken to tying them up at the trailer and brushing them. Usually I just do whatever I plan to work on for that particular day without brushing. But I suppose it gives me the opportunity to fiddle with their feet. I had to shorten the bridle two holes to fit small little Frosty.

At first Terry led her while I drove so that if she didn't do what I asked I wouldn't have to get into a fight with her while she had a bridle on. But she was pretty good. She was chewing a lot on the bit which makes me think that maybe we should have each of them wear it for a day or so. She was bracing against the pressure of the bit too. So after a little while of her not quite figuring it out I did flexing.  And now I know that the next horse I want to put the bridle on will learn to flex in the bridle. It is much easier if they realize that getting away from the pressure is the desired response. When I asked her to stop I pulled back on the reins and held them there until she came to a stop. And then I had her back up.

I let Frosty go and caught Toffy. I figured I should work with her on driving because we didn't last time. She was confident about going forward but as with Dash and Coffie her stops were terrible. She is the kind of horse that you can not man handle into doing anything. I figured that out today. With Dash and her stopping, when she didn't stop I could use all my weight to get her to stop. Not so with Toffy. She just got messed up. So with her it's all about letting her figure it out and giving her the opportunity to respond. After I had her not so confused once more her stops improved. Every time we stop I ask for a back up but with Coffie, Toffy, and Dash they kept backing up even after I say woah. So I was asking Toffy to back up and she did it quite well. After I said woah she stopped, but slowly stepped back. She stepped right onto my toes! I promptly pushed her forward. After that every time they kept backing up after I said woah I tapped them with the end of my rope a little bit.

Coffie and Dash's stops are improving. I asked them to trot and it was fun! They did it right away and Terry was watching me trot Dash and he said it looked really nice. They trot so nice and easy. I just love it!

~  ~  ~

So, there's my day. And I can't wait till December seventh. There's a masquerade ball that two of my sisters, me, and a few friends are going to. We made masks out of tin foil and you may think that sounds awful but it's actually really nice. You can shape it to fit your face, cut it anyhow you want, and decorate it anyhow you want. And it's not ugly either. Aleythia made a simple mask, painted it white, found a white flower stuck it in the side, painted the surface with clear shiny nail polish and put silver beads along the edge of the mask. It looks really nice. There's more than just tin foil involved to make it, but it does work. I couldn't decide what dress to wear, but I think I'm going to wear my black one with my four inch heals. Fun hey? The four inch heals aren't as uncomfortable as they sound.

Aleythia's mask. It's not quite finished.

I never did say how well Frosty did...
Let's put it this way, it's like pulling on a string and she does it...
She is confident about walking around she stops really well and if you pull an inch on the reins she backs up... perfect little girl...
Carter actually did most of the driving today. I made a few minor adjustments to his technique so that Frosty had the opportunity to respond lightly, but other than that he had fun and so did she. I think that I will put the harness on her next time and get her used to it.
...And the others were awful in comparison to Frosty. Not in comparison to her they actually didn't do too bad. They went where I told them and when I told them, without a leader. I even took Dash outside. But they were awful at stopping. I had to use all my weight to get them to stop. By the end they were doing quite a bit better. They can also back up pretty good now. The stopping and backing up needs work, but in the next few days they will get extremely better.
The only horse I didn't ground drive was Toffy. With Toffy, Aleythia had Carter get up on her and she led her around. And she was totally fine with it. She packed him around easily. As did Frosty.
And then her back foot hit a bucket and she bucked...
Aleythia took Toffy on the narrow side of the trailer. And she went through it just fine. Then about halfway through her back foot hit a bucket and she totally freaked. She bucked, hit the bucket again and bucked again. Amazingly Carter stayed on. She paused and hit the bucket again. She bucked again and that was when Carter came off. He landed on his back. Unfortunately the ground is not very forgiving. He started to complain about his back hurting after that. He'll be alright though. No broken bones. Maybe a little bit shaken, but I think that he'll be alright with that too. I told him that if he didn't get back on he would probably always be afraid to ride her again. So, after a little bit he did get back on. He sat on her and we all rubbed her and then Aleythia led them around.
One thing that Aleythia and I both noticed though was that she didn't try to run Aleythia over. She didn't invade her space even while she was panicking.

I also rode Santana. And by the way I am so glad that we have a barn that we can work in. It's not an indoor arena, but it has enough room to ride around in and do ground work in. I rode Santana bareback in the barn. It was awful weather today. I worked on his woah. After the incident with him on the trail ride when he didn't respond to that bridle at all I decided that it might be a good idea to work on it. What I did was walk a little ways stop and back up. I didn't do much trotting, because I have awful balance on him. It's like I can't find the right spot to sit on him or relax enough to do it correctly. Either he moves funny or I have major problems. But we repeated that exercise until his stop was pretty decent and his back ups were decent too. He can flex really well in the bridle too.

And I hope you all had an awesome thanksgiving. We went out to my grandparent's farm and after lunch we went out and played a really long game of capture the flag. I'm serious, it took like two hours. It was fun though. Nobody even won.

The day before thanksgiving I was over at my youth pastor's house helping add an room to his house. I was there from 10:30 in the morning to 6:30 at night. Aleythia and I learned what goes into doing something like that and we learned what hurricane straps are, what they help with, and also put them in. I learned where to stand when you have 50 mile/hr whinds and someone's cutting wood... Stupid shavings... We cut wood and framed a window and learned about the support structure. I also found out that I love the nail gun. And that guys are worse than girls when it comes to something they appreciate. They love to express it. We definetley had a good time.

Lessons

The horses were saddled and we were ready to go on our ride. H and I walked up and out of the driveway, took a left into town, and then another left at the first road. We were maybe halfway down the road when a black man pulls up and asks when he can ride

~ ~~

Ya know what. Even if I don't become a trainer and just own horses (if I don't, be surprised) I will open my barn to anyone who is willing to learn how to ride and I will have the horses to do it. My siblings can't ride because we don't have a suitable horse and neither can anyone else. We have an awesome black horse who is great with kids, unfortunately she's a pony and has really bad arthritis. We don't use Strudder because he also has arthritis and is almost always lame, and he's an English horse. Stretch is too old and can't get running out of his head anyway. Ana doesn't have breaks, and Terry doesn't trust Misstack with beginners and she can be such a nut job. Santana is the most likely to buck someone off and can be a handful. The fillies aren't an option.

My personal opinion is that Misstack and Santana would be our best choices. Misstack is a really nice horse when she knows where she is. Santana won't (probably anyway) buck or become hyper if he walks and trots and check him at the canter before he gets too fast. And besides a couple rounds of letting him run gets him calmed down pretty well. And he's probably the best trail horse we have.

Terry also is wary of letting people ride his horses because if they get hurt and sue him he could lose everything. What he should do is actually put that sign up in his barn warning people that horses are unpredictable and that they could get hurt. It might be a good idea and he couldn't get sued if he had that up.

 

But I had a really nice trail ride with H today. It was beautiful weather. I'm talking 60 to 70 degrees here. And despite Santana getting hyper when we ran across a field it wasn't too bad. We ended nicely. Before we left we went into the paddock to get any kinks out and it was kinda cool, because Ana followed Misstack and me around for quite a while. She pivoted when I turned Misstack into her neck, stopped when we stopped, followed when we turned away. It was funny.

I showed H what Coffie does when you breathe into her nose. It gave us a good laugh. And because I can't remember if I told you what she does I will tell you  know. Whenever you breathe into her nose she immediately puts her nose up in the air, rolls back her lips, and puts a disgusted look on her face. Silly horsey. It's probably a trick now because we pet her every time she does it.

And I worked with one filly after our ride and H got to see the problems that are presented the first time a horse learns to drive. Does anyone else think that sentence is funny? Go back and read it... You'll understand.

Frosty did extremely well. Well, not in the beginning. A little bit of advice if you are teaching a horse anything for the first time don't have pressure that's constantly there. It makes them frustrated. I'll give you an example. The halter was snug against her nose, she bent her head, but didn't find release. She lowered her head and braced against pressure. No release. Well, maybe a little one, because that was her solution to unending pressure. So now she braces against the halter and when I ask her to turn she puts her head down low and leans against the halter. I wait. She puts her head in the right direction. She is rewarded with a little bit of a release, but she still has that pressure. I wait. She steps, I release. Some of you might understand this example better. Try taking an uneducated horse and holding his head like you would a more advanced horse just as long as you would a more advanced horse too. Please take a video. I would love to see the results.



Three-Second-Stop-Ana and Others

I love to see how my horses improve. Don't we all.
Aleythia and I were discussing ways we could teach Ana that standing still was a good thing and here's what we came up with.

• Have her run until she's begging to stop. Stop, and do it all over again until she stands still.
• Emphasize stopping on the ground
• One rein stops
• Turn her when she's going faster than wanted.
• Tie her up to the trailer, put on all her tack, get on and wait. When she stops moving and heaves a big sigh, put her away.

Now I'll tell you the stuff involved with each one.
The first one will involve hour after hour of riding, as she can run for half an hour, stop for 4 minutes and run another half hour. Another problem is that she will also just get more and more fit every time we do it. And the only pro I can think of is that it would probably work.
With the second one we figured that if we really emphasize what whoa means on the ground she may just get it in the saddle. We're actually testing this one out. Whenever we ask Ana to stop we will say woah when she stops, so that she will start connecting the word with the action, or lack of action.
As far as one rein stops go, Ana gets frustrated with them, so she rears. It's actually not that big of a deal. You just get right back to work after she rears. And Ana can do circles all the way down the alfalfa field. She'll figure it out eventually, and it will probably get to be less and less time every time we do it.
The fourth one is not really about stopping, just speed. But it's something we will probably do in the future.
The last one is the one we chose to try. But we did do the ground work one first. We got the idea based off of something we did with Flicka. We always had a problem with her walking off before we got on so we always got on her while she was tied to the trailer. Then when we were in the saddle we undid the halter from around her neck and went riding. We did this for months. Not because it took her that long to learn to stand still, but it was just the way we did it with her. So unintentually we taught her to stand still while we got on. When for some unknown reason we got on her in the paddock she stood still while we got on. So, taking this idea we made our reasons just a little bit different. We wanted her to learn that standing still was a good thing. Her first reaction to you getting on while she's tied to the tralier is to start pacing. Aleythia made a little modification to this idea by also teaching Ana to disengage her hindquarters when she turned (she was doing it anyway, why not give her a cue to go with it?) and saying woah after a little while of Ana's pacing. Ana would stop but then get going again. It was funny, cause Aleythia was telling me about the first time she tried this, she said that eventually when she asked Ana to stop, she stopped, heaved a BIG sigh, and just stood there.

Doing the same ground work stuff with the fillies, Santana, and Misstack. We try to keep the sessions with the fillies short. Running in circles for long amounts of time can ruin a young horse's legs. We did ground driving with Coffie. and after the first little bit of me walking in front of her and Aleythia behind, she did it without me in front. She did have a little trouble about Aleythia being behind her, but she was much easier to correct and she got over it pretty quick. She was better prepared. The flexing is probably what did it. She learned that getting off the pressure of the halter would give her a release so that's what she sought after when ground driving.
I have advanced with Santana to changing directions by pivoting on his back feet when I step in front of his shoulder. I'm doing the same thing with Misstack.

It Had to Come Sometime

"Aw the water's frozen in the bucket!"
This is what greeted me when I stepped outside today, along with the wind.
And no joke I'm pretty sure our five gallon bucket of water that sits underneath the gutter now has a two inch layer of ice on it.
Two hours later, I'm working with one of the fillies and my toes feel like they'll never regain their feeling. I even put on a double layer of socks!
Lucky for us if we just rearrange a couple things, and pull the flat trailer out of the barn we have just enough room to do longing. We even had enough room to get the fillies to canter!
I did it with Frosty and Toffy, and ya know what? Frosty was awesome and Toffy was... well, not.... Frosty went into the canter pretty easily. And that was all that I wanted. Just to get her cantering.
What was really fun was watching Frosty trot. For most of the time she had very little pressure on the halter. When she did reach the end of the rope she tried to fix it. She would bend her head to the inside. And I can honestly say that that is the result of flexing. It doesn't hinder your horse's ability to turn, it just makes them more willing to get off that pressure. So because she was so light I got her to canter.
And because I was a sissy and not quite ready for the cold I went inside to warm up and didn't work with Misstack or Santana.

Sunday we went over to HM's again. Yay! I rode her two other horses Ollie and Tea. And it's funny because all three of her horses have a different way of going. And I am so glad she has an indoor arena. It makes riding possible even in the worst of weather. It was not particularly nice weather on Sunday.
And we had in-gathering at my church. It's like a potluck with pies. Everybody brings a pie and everyone eats pie. We have a service before that, it was mostly music and people stood up and talked about what God has been doing in their lives in the past year. Aleythia, me, and one of my other sisters, played for it. two violins and a cello. And it didn't sound too bad. After we had gotten a piece of pie we went back and started to play, and the pastor's youngest daughter came up to my sister and asked if she could play the cello. So this six year old little girl sat on my sister's knee and drew the bow across the strings while my sister made the different notes. It was soo cute!

Did you know it was like 60 degrees today? And then it started raining around 10:00. Probably the hardest rain we've had all year. (Haha to all you people with freezing temperatures!)
Sadly it's only a one day thing. We're supposed to get snow tomorrow.
But now that I have made fun of some of you I will commense to write about my horse day and maybe indulge and write about this evening.
We pretty much did the same thing we did yesterday only adding one thing which was picking up feet. The fillies are actually not  that bad at it. With more practice they will continue to get better. I also took the longe whip and smacked that against the ground and (one of the reasons these fillies are awesome) they didn't do anything. Did it with Misstack and she about had a heart attack. Okay, maybe  not quite that drastic, because she had her heart attack the first time I did it a while ago.
Misstack is getting better at using her hindquarters to turn and still needs practice. One thing I find interesting is that when she comes out of that turn she pretty much does a leap out. It's almost like she's jumping, but with more forward propulsion. I think that might be why it's harder to stay on her when she's running the pattern. She does a leaping thingy. Maybe now that I know about it I'll be able to stay on.
I did the same thing I did with Santana yesterday too. He was a little bit better, but not by much. He still doesn't totally understand that when there's pressure on his neck he needs to move his shoulder away. He's getting it though. He's down to the third level of pressure which is tapping him on the neck with medium pressure. It used to take the fourth level. He'll get better. I also did flexing with him. And that boy is funny. When you first pick up on the halter, his first reaction is to turn, but once he stops turning he can touch his side. And he did this like the second time I did flexing, but he still was turning in a circle. I just kept doing it until he figured out that it was easier to stand still. As far as the fillies' flexing goes, they are getting better. It doesn't take too much to get them to give to that halter all the way to their belly.
As far as Ana goes, Aleythia says that she thinks that Ana's really getting the concept of all these things.

Now my indulgence time.

One of my sisters (not Aleythia) and I went on a haunted hay ride that was put on by my brother in-law. And if you knew my brother in law the "haunted" part of "hay ride" should scare you.
He totally failed though. None of us screamed or anything I mean we were talking about cheese cake factories! And how a pasta cheese cake would not taste very good. It was still fun though. I can always give my brother in-law the excuse that he had limited help and that we missed the grand finale because our driver took the wrong path. But a few highlights from the night were as follows...
We tripped a wire and nothing happened.
The white trailers looked suspicious.
The fireworks went off too soon.
Large trees were a source of worry.
We stacked a couple hay bales as a barrier to possible chainsaws, running people, and paintball guns.
We were attacked by two guys in masks running at us with clubs.
The guy on our left screamed and at first I jumped. A split second later I wondered when that college kid had gotten home.
That college kid got shot by my brother in-law. What we saw... guy holds gun up to kids head, kid falls down.... What actually happened. Guy holds gun up to kid's head, pulls the trigger, kid falls down. By the way it was an airsoft gun.
Drive home and we joke about how our driver's drunk because he's swerving all over the road.(Scariest part of he trip)
And then we laugh with the guys about the evening.

Ground Work

With my regular chipperness I will try and write this...
We recently got a DVD on barrel racing from HM and so we are teaching Santana, Misstack, Ana, and the fillies the ground work shown in the video.
Aleythia worked on Ana while I did Frosty and Coffie. I have no idea how Ana did, so I'll just write about what I did.
They both did really well. Iworked on loneging at the trot, voice commands, flexing, backing up, and reviewed desensitizing with the rope. And Frosty backs up pretty nice. It's not perfect, It's not even very good, but she can do a few steps of backing up with really light pressure. They are both pretty good at flexing.
After I was done with those two I did almost the same thing with Misstack and Santana. With Misstack I added one thing which was getting her to pivot on her back feet when I stepped in front of her while loneging. She wasn't too bad. Definetly needs improvement, but not bad. With Santana all I did was loneging and getting him to yield his hindquarters. It's pretty bad. He's not real good at moving his shoulder away with pressure on his neck. He doesn't move quite as quickly as I would like when he yields his hindquarters, but it's not too bad. He was actually the worst one. Which I shouldn't be suprised at, but kinda am. I haven't done allot of ground work with him.
But I am happy that we worked with seven horses today.
 Strudder is having problems with his arthritis, so we haven't been riding him lately.

Beginning Driving/ Ana Problems

Is it just these horses or do most horses learn quickly?
I caught Toffy and attatched two long lead lines to the side of her halter. It's been wet, windy, and cold, so I chased the other three fillies out of their little section of the barn and commensed to teach Toffy how to ground drive.
We took twine string and attatched it to one rope, then the other so that the twine rested around her back and kept the ropes up.
I tried getting Toffy to go, but it wasn't working. She kept turning to look at me. So, to give Toffy an idea of what she was supposed to be doing Terry took over the ropes and I walked in front of Toffy. This definetly helped. She followed me and didn't get too worried about the person behind her. The trick was when she did try to turn and look at the driver was to pull her over to stop her from doing that. But once you pulled her over she just turned the other way, so you had to counter that too.
After a little while of this she was able to do it on her own. Initially she tried to turn and look at the driver, but she got it.
The hardest thing to do is keep her straight. When we put the carriage on her, she won't be able to turn really sharp. She'll have to learn to do a little bit of a side pass to turn. Terry said that he never taught them how to sidepass in the carriage. It's just something they pick up on.
I was going to use the bit right away, but Terry said that if they went to fight you, that would be hard on their mouths. And with all the turning and figuring it out  that they did that would have been very hard on their mouths. The bit will wait until they can ground drive pretty well.
We did this with all of them except Coffie. Aleythia picked up Coffie's feet instead. But it probably took us a half hour with Toffy, and the other two probably took 15 minutes.
They can walk, speed up the walk, turn minutely well, stop, and back up. But the only horse we did it without a leader was Toffy.

Before we ground drove Toffy Aleythia got on Ana bareback. She did a little bit of ground work, because Ana was moving around allot while being tied. With the ground work she calmed down.
She got on and Ana was hyper. We had told HM that Ana was more calm with as little tack as possible than with it. She suggested that it could be that the saddle doesn't fit her right. But after today we don't think that's really the problem. We will try and make the saddle fit her more correctly though. Parelli has pads that he puts underneath the saddle, but Aleythia thinks that a towel could work too. The only other tack she had on was a bridle, and I suppose that could make her anxious, but I just don't know.
Aleythia wants to ride Ana bareback for the rest of the winter and see if that has any effect on how calm Ana gets.

And one other thing...
Do you ever get the feeling that if your horse spooked you wouldn't be able to stay on? It's not a feeling you always have, just something that shows up once in a while.
Your horse may be calm or at least seem calm, and you may look like you have a solid, easy seat, but you really don't feel like you do. I have this experience most often when I am on the trail riding Misstack. I think the most times it happens when she picks up a more, not necessarily bouncy walk, but it pushes you up further. I think she is probably doing an extended walk.
My most recent experience with that feeling is when I was riding one of HM's horses, Buddy.
We went out on a trail ride and he also had the extended walk thingy going and I just didn't feel secure. I was fine inside the arena. HM asked me how Buddy felt, and I said that he felt fine it was me who didn't feel fine. She said I didn't look like I was insecure. After a little while it went away.
It could be that I am not riding it right or that I am slightly tense. Or maybe I'm too loose. If I ever get that feeling again, I will have to experiment with how I ride it.

Gotta do some Homework

We put driving tack on Toffy today, and she really didn't care.
We did a little bit of driving too. I'm not really sure how to teach it though. I honestly think that teaching a horse how to respond the the bridle would be way easier if I were on them.
The problem I had was she wanted to turn and look at me. She would move her hindquarters instead of her shoulders, and I couldn't keep that pressure on because I couldn't keep up with her swinging around.
I'll have to go exploring and see what I can find out about driving.
Other than that we worked on picking up feet.

I had an awesome time at HM's place yesterday. Aleythia and I got to ride English. I rode in a jumping saddle and Aleythia rode in a dressage saddle. It was totally different. The saddle had a total different feel to it. Honestly it's hard to describe.
I so want to teach my horses to side pass. HM's horses can sidepass, they move off of leg pressure, and it is so cool! I know now what a horse should feel like when they sidepass.
I think I'll become a dressage entusiast now.
I love her jumping horse's canter. It's so smoothe, comfortable, and awesome.
I got a tip on how to teach a horse (Misstack) how to be balanced. She said it's something from parelli called the bulls eye. And basically you ask your horse to maintain this canter circle around this object. You ride in a totally loose rein and your corrections are big and dramatic. Not harsh, just dramatic and easily recognizable. And you aren't keeping constant pressure around this object. That's where your corrections come in. When they start to get off of your object you correct them and just let them learn how to hold the circle by themselves.
I learned that horses yawn because it's a stress reliever.
Thinking that you want to do something (say canter) will help you to dedicate your body to cantering and therefore helping your horse to canter.
And I don't think that I will put an overcheck on the fillies when they learn how to drive. If I do it will be very loose. In part because they're quarter horses and weren't built to carry their heads high and because I don't like the general concept of an overcheck. It's not like they really need one anyway because we probably aren't going to do alot of showing in a cart anyway. Besides, I think all the overcheck does is make the horse look more flashy.
HM also gave us a few magazines and a barrel racing instructional dvd to borrow.

Just Smart

Toffy is doing well. Terry said she layed down, but they're still young and need to lay down once in a while, so I'm not worried.
I was discussing with Terry what we still had to do before we started riding more frequently. We still have to do loneging, walk, trot, and canter. We will teach them how to move their hindquarters away from the pressure of our leg. We'll teach it by using our fist and the stirrups. We'll also teach sidepassing. Then when we get all that done we'll teach them how to respond to a bit. Terry said that we could longline them. That way we wouldn't have to get on them to teach it and we could teach them how to pull a cart. I am looking forward to that. It will give us something to work on while they grow up a little bit.
Terry was commenting on how "dead" the fillies were. They take everything we put infront of them with minimal fuss and just don't mind it Terry said that he raised around 24 foals and none of them were as quiet as these four. But we figure it's probably because he raised the hottheaded horses. Like saddlebreds. And to tell you the truth these fillies may be really quite, but they are smart and sensitive. Aleythia can just look at Dash's hind legs and she will move them over. When I'm loneging Toffy, I will point the direction I want her to go and she will pivot on her back feet in that direction. Those horses are pretty awesome. They like attention too.

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda...

Well, it turns out that Toffy is just full of worms.
Terry took her to the vet and they discovered that she had worms. He got home around 3:00 and I was standing in the paddock and when he stepped out of his truck with four dewormer things.
He was telling that when he went up to the vet Toffy loaded really nice, walked out nice, and loaded up real nice when they were ready to go home. He said that there was a guy there with a couple horses there and he commented on Toffy. He said, "She's going to be really big!" Then Terry asked me how much I thought Toffy weighed. I guessed 700 pounds. He says "you're right, she's 710."
We gave Toffy two different kinds of dewormer and then went over to a hay bale, and I am happy to announce that she has her appetite back. We caught the other three fillies and gave them two different kinds of dewormer and then fed them supper.
Terry was like, "It just makes me mad, because I was going to deworm them. I just wanted to wait until we had a good freeze." Shoulda, woulda, coulda...

There's Always Something...

I rode Santana and fell off.
Ya know I love riding him. He is the one horse that gives me the least amount of problems.
I rode Santana with the goal to try and start improving my balance. I took him out into the paddock, kicked my feet out of the stirrups and tried the best I could to stay on.
We walked we did sharp turns, we trotted,... and I was beginning to sorta kinda figure out how to stay on that bone crunching trot of his.
I let him canter just for the fun of it and the first thing I noticed was that I couldn't stay in the saddle real well in part because the leather was slippery and I won't even bother to mention the other part.
The second time we cantered we were running down the longest side of the paddock and when he turned I started to fall and then tried to fix it by hanging onto the saddle horn. It was a great idea except for the fact that the cinch was pretty loose. So, the saddle slid with me and I fell of anyway. The problem is that I can't keep myself from being flung to the outside of his circles. Ya know what was really nice though? He started running away towards the gate. I said woah. He stopped and looked at me like "do you want something?" Oh he makes me laugh.
I got back on, put my feet back in the stirrups and cantered him. Good thing too because all he really needed was to blow off some steam. Kicked my feet out of the stirrups and did some more walking and trotting. Cantered a little bit and I think I am beginning to figure it out.
One thing I am extremely thankfull for is that I wasn't next to a fence or poop when I fell off.

So, is it a bad sign when your horse repeatedly lays down and attempts to roll? Ya, we thought so too.
It was around 4:30 and Toffy layed down and stretched out. We bugged her for a while. I sat on her back when she had her feet underneath her and then we went and fed them. We gave them all their food and they all dug into it happily... Everyone except Toffy. She didn't want to eat it and just put her nose in the bucket and slowly nibbled it. Terry thought that if she didn't want to eat it we probably shouldn't feed it to her because it might make it worse. After that she got up, layed down, rolled, got up, layed down, rolled. As far as her ears go she didn't look like she was in pain. We got the halter put her on it and went for a little walk. I took her up the drive way, between a couple small barns and then asked her to trot. She went into it perfectly. No complaints, no refusals. We trotted into the alfalfa field and all the way around.
At one point the dogs came out and chased her from the other side of the fence. She freaked out and tried to run away, but I pulled her back in time. She paused, tried to run away again, but I kept her facing the dogs. Then that was it. She realized that the dogs couldn't get her because they were on the other side of the fence and we proceeded around the alfalfa fied. Once again she went into the trot perfectly.
She walked once and I let her. If she wants a breather that's fine with me. We picked up the trot again and when we were at the other end she stopped and poopped. It was like diarriah. We trotted the rest of the way back to the barn then we put her back in with the other fillies and she layed down again. We watched her a little while put the halter back on and I took her out the the back pen and longed her. We walked for a little bit, then trotted, and even experimented with cantering. She is actually not that bad. She turned, listened to my cues, never tried to lay down and was generaly perfect. We even let her loose for a couple minutes and she didn't lay down.
We put her back in the barn and she immediatley layed down. We listened to her gut and it was growling, but it was minimal.
Terry dropped us off at home and said that he'd call us if she needed to be walked at 10:00 at night. He said it jockingly, but our reply was not a joke. We told him "Sure."
So, I sincerely hope that Toffy will be okay and that we can all continue with our lives without worrying about anything.

Life is full of Opportunities

Ya know our most recent trail ride where we visited a friend? Well, I keep forgetting to tell you what Aleythia and I learned.
I learned how to keep my feet under me when she's trotting so that I can have better balance in the saddle. I learned how to ride Misstack's canter without my back protesting.
Aleythia pretty much learned the same thing. But her problem was that her saddle would always slip. When you trot/canter for an hour and a half you figure these things out.
I have come to realize that I do not have the best balance... I intend to remedy that this winter by riding without stirrups and riding bareback. Maybe I'll do it more than that too. Riding bareback is fun!
I am excited for Sunday. Not only will I get to go to church and also see my awesome youth group, but I have gotten an offer from a fellow horse person in my church, HM. HM has offered to give Aleythia and I a chance to experience english riding.  That will be awesome! We do have a Saddlebred that does saddle seat, but I would love to have a teacher. HM's discipline is jumping.
What I hope to learn from her is communicating with your horse through your legs and jumping. I am totally ignorant and don't know if jumpers use leg control or any other control that doesn't require you to use the reins. I want to say that they do, because well, why wouldn't they? But I use leg pressure very little. Which is probably not a good thing.

I longed all the fillies except Toffy. With longing I am working on getting them confident at the walk and trot and making it an actual circle. We had different plans for Toffy. We put a bit in her mouth. We have done this once before, so it didn't take her long to stop chewing it. She let us put it on without complaint and even opened her mouth the second time we put it on, without my help. Smart cookie she is.
And then just because Coffie was right there we caught her again and put the bit in her mouth. We actually didn't use a bridle. We took a snaffle bit, tied it to the halter with twine string and then put it on.
Once Coffie figured out that she couldn't swallow it, she was totally fine. We did take it on and off because she kept trying to avoid the bit. So we did it over and over until she didn't try to avoid the bit. We don't want that to become a habit.
Did I mention that Coffie has a really pretty trot? It's like Ana's when she decides that it's okay to go slow. All floaty and cool.

Gone... Won't be Home Until Seven Tonight

I had an awesome Monday! No school (well, besides my online school). I didn't have to go to my highschool in the morning, so Aleythia and I went and visited a friend that I have known since first grade. I'll call her A.
A lives about six miles away from town, and it took us an hour and twenty minutes to get to her place. At one point we got lost. Like we weren't lost, but we didn't know where we were going. Well, we did eventually find it after we went through a couple fields and added another mile onto our trip.
Oh, and we were riding horses...

We left Terry's place at 10:00. Me on Misstack, and Aleythia on Ana. The first two miles were awful. Misstack spooked at the drain pipe, the cows, dump trucks, and a few unknown-to-me things. On the other hand, Ana was perfect. She had her head level and was just plowing along like the perfect little angel I know she can be.
When we didn't get lost, we were traveling on a dirt road and we could see the big electrical tower and we thought that we were too far over, because the senery looked wrong. So we stopped and discussed and decided that instead of continuing (where, half a mile down the road there sat A's place) we would go cross country into some harvested/plowed bean and corn fields.
We finally figured out which house we stopped at to get water the last time we were out this way (after a few wrong guesses), and from there we figured out the direction we should travel to get to A's house. In the distance we could see those tin bins, a few pig barns and what looked like the right formation of trees. We had found it. Still probably a half mile away, and me begining to hate the stupid plowed cornfield, but we found it.
We tied the horses to a couple trees, untacked, got water, and left them there until feeding time. From there we spent the next four hours hanging out with A and failing at Mario-Bro.
When we came back to feed them Ana had dug up a neat little circle around the pine tree she was tied to. I think she has anxiety problems.
We fed the horses and I tacked up Misstack so that A could ride. I led Misstack around while A rode and taught her the basics of riding.
When we were done we untacked again and went back inside for another half hour to keep failing at Mario-Bro.
Around 5:30 we left for home. It took us an hour and five minutes to get home and we cantered and trotted most of the way. There was very little light when we stepped into the barn, and it was even darker when Terry gave us a ride home.