Fabulous Weekend!

Well I didn't go riding Saturday. My oldest sister and her husband were over Friday night and I told them I was sleeping over. Hehe. They were totally fine with that. It makes me laugh. So I went to their house for the weekend and cleaned it. My sister was very happy. I got to feed baby calves. My sister went to work so I went with my brother in-law to his parent's house and his cousins were over. I now have a small collections of funny stories.
I did ride horses yesterday. I almost didn't, then Aleythia got really frustrated with her homework and practically dragged me out the door. I rode Frosty first because I knew she would be the one who would want to canter, and I couldn't do that in the barn when it got dark. She is getting neck reining down pretty well.
I got Toffy to go over some feed bags too. Which is an improvement. I even got on her bareback and did it. I also went over the bags with Dash too. And we trotted a little bit too.
It's funny I don't think of my barrel horse as short, but he really is. Next to our fillies he is really, really short.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I almost like riding in the winter... when it's not zero degrees.
I rode Misstack today. We had fun. I think she was just happy to be out and doing something. I tried riding her in an English saddle, and working on my two-point. One problem. It was a saddle seat, saddle. Which is completely flat and is designed to push the rider farther back into a chair seat position, and give the horse free range of his shoulders. Doing two-point is extremely difficult because there is nothing to even brace yourself against. A jumping saddle at least has a knee roll or whatever you call it. There is absolutely nothing. to. brace. against. For my purposes I shortened the stirrups. That helped. Hey, maybe I'll get even better balance because I'll have nothing to help me. I can do six steps of her trot in two-point before I lose my balance. Yay! Actually that's pathetic... I'm working on it.
Misstack had quite the lively trot going there too. I loved it! I tried to sit her trot too.... Let's just say it needs work. Lots of work.
I'll try to go riding tomorrow. And hopefully I'll have enough time to work with all of my horses. It'll be Friday!!

Winter Woes

If you're wondering about Coffie scroll down a little bit.
Not a whole lot is going on right now. We're teaching the fillies neck reining, and that's about all were focusing on right now. Wait. We are also working on getting them to go over random things. Nothing too complicated. Toffy needs the most work in that area. We're thinking that over the winter, if we are looking for something to do we'll train them further in driving. I might start doing a little work on the correct way to go around a barrel over the winter too. Though I might want them to be a little more adept at moving their hindquarters and shoulders before I do that.
It's been really cold. And we don't even have snow. Zero degrees, feels like negative eleven. If it was more mid winter, that wouldn't bother me so much, but it's still not real fun riding in that weather. The horses are getting an extended break. Though it bugs me to be inside all day. It is so boring.
I went and saw Burn'em this last week too. That filly I'm going to be training. She has a much better attitude than when I last saw her. She ran from me with the halter, but didn't start backing up when I put it on. I did a little lesson on lungeing which she is surprisingly good at. My fillies were all over the place. Not her. I also taught the girl I was with how to lunge. She'd never done it before.
They are thinking about also having me train their four year old. Not exactly sure what needs to be done with him. He apparently doesn't like people... and is afraid of brushes. I think they want him trained in barrel racing. We'll see how this all works out.

Post on Selling Coffie

Recently I put up a for sale add on craigs list for the fillies. I wrote this. "Well broke filly with a year and a half of training in western riding." My intention was to let people know what discipline of riding she was being trained in. What people thought I meant was that I had been riding them for a year and a half. They are two and a half and I got them as yearlings. They were not ridden as yearlings. For a year they had ground work 15 minutes a day. As two year olds they had very light riding. Less than 15 minutes and no hard work. I still consider their age when I do things with them. I am extremely conscious about how much I put them through and what affect it will have on their body.
I  am truly impressed though with how many people care about what happens to other people's horses. What I am not impressed with is how many people sent me hate mail. I accept constructive criticism. If you don't like how I do things tell me in a polite manner instead of sending me hate mail. Thank you to the people who asked about the post.

Beautiful Things

I have had the best time with my horses and other people's horses. Last Sunday Aleythia and I went to Holly's to ride and we worked on position. One of the exercises was to stand up in your stirrups above your pommel and stay there. The end goal is to be able to do that at all three gaits. It's quite the leg workout. I don't know how long I did it, but the next couple days I was really sore. Another exercise we did was to start trotting: sit two strides, post one, and repeat. Then do the opposite: sit one stride, stand for two. The third exercise was impossible. You were supposed to go into two-point and bend at the waist and try to bend to your horse's neck. I. can't. do. that. After those exercises there was an immediate difference in how secure I was in the saddle. Then I tried sitting Oly's trot... It's a work in process. Like always we did a little bit of jumping and I jumped Oly over two jumps right in a row. There is a name for it, but I don't know it. He would jump the first one and would immediately have to jump again without taking another stride. It was so much fun!!! I rode T too. Bareback. And we jumped bareback. The jump was only about two feet or so. Probably less. That was fun too.
Tuesday Aleythia and I went to ride our own horses. We only had time to ride one horse. I rode Misstack and Aleythia rode Ana. I wanted to see if Misstack would do contact... she can. She might not be real good at it, but she can definitely do it. This is what she can do. She figured it out at the end.

The walking finally clicked for Ana. It's so cool. She finally gets it. It still needs work, but she is so much better! Wednesday we discovered that she is now a Cadillac. Terry got the chiropractor to come out and he adjusted her hip. It is such an improvement in her canter. Usually her canter is jarring, hurts your back, and makes you look like a fist year rider. Now she has that canter that Terry always said she had when he was riding her. She just needs to slow it down. So here's a before and after.

before

after

Thursday I rode Santana and tried to sit it trot without stirrups.... I could. I love it!

Today we went with Holly to her dressage lesson and I realized how little I know about the position of a horse. Like dropping the shoulder, being stiff, ect. My dressage vocabulary has greatly expanded. The highlight of that was riding Rosa. She is such a powerful horse. It is so different to ride her than any horse I have ever ridden. I don't really even know how to describe it. She has the most beautiful gaits. I love that horse... who wouldn't. 

 



Poems: Never Said I was Good

The day started with the young ones...
and ended with the older ones
The fillies were great
The trail ride was fate
We trotted a lot
and my shoulders are shot
Misstack and Ana were part of the game
It was windy but they never lost their brain
I'll stop with this rhyme
It takes too much time....
And that shows you just how much skill I have writing rhymes. I kinda don't feel like writing too much, but I'll say that Toffy has improved. She is a whole lot more trusting of what I ask her.
Misstack and Ana's trail ride went pretty well. We went on a trotting trail ride to see what it would do for Ana. She walked so nice the first mile and then we asked her to trot and she got hyper. We also cantered so the whole way back she was prancing. We were half a mile from home, crossing a road and she walked. Aleythia promptly got off.
Oh one other thing Terry said that yes to keeping the foal at his place for training.

Please Let it Work!!!

I have the most awesome news that isn't 100% off the ground. It's more like 50%. I got asked by someone from my school if I would like to halter break and do ground work with a foal she has. Her mother trains barrel horses, and she wants someone to start her foal. I don't know if she just doesn't have time or what. So I was waiting for the bus and I walked up to this girl and the conversation went sorta like this.
"Do you know how to train horses?"
"Ya, totally."
"Do you want to halter break and do ground work with one of our horses? My mom is kinda like, 'we really  need to get someone to start this horse.'
"Heck ya."
"How much do you want to get paid?"
"Ya know I don't know. Because I am a beginner horse trainer it will be less, but I really don't know what I should ask. So ask your mom what she thinks I should get."
"Were would you train him? At our place or yours?"
"Honestly it would be so much easier to keep him at my place, but I'll have to ask Terry what he thinks about and then there's paying for feed."
"Ya, so I'll ask my mom about that."
"I'll see what Terry thinks and get back to you."
I am super excited to see how this works out, cause honestly everything is in my favor. It's a paying job. Which would be appreciated. We have an open stall because we recently lost our oldest horse, it would help me to get more motivated to get over and work with him and I would therefore work with my other horses. I feel like Terry would say that we already have too much on our plate, but I think it'll be an incentive to work more with our horses. If we add another horse to our roster of mounts we will have nine horses to ride all together. Six is usually a more common number though. We don't have to ride Strudder or Santana. So add another one and we do seven. Though this horse doesn't need to be ridden and will take less than half an hour a day.
I can't wait to do all the work we put into the fillies into that horse. I actually don't know the gender, breed, age, or anything else about this horse. I'm thinking that this horse is a little older that what he should be to be just starting on this because they really need it done. I seriously hope he isn't a stallion, but seriously doubt that would even be a possibility.
So that's my exciting news. I don't know what will happen. It's a surprising twist. It's really funny too. I'm getting a job prospect even before I will need it. God's done that to me quite a few times. When I need money, even before I know I'll need it, I get some type of job. It really is quite amazing.

This is How We Do It

Coffie has gotten way big

this is how we do it

We went on a trail ride Saturday with Toffy and Coffie. It actually went way better than I expected. It was very windy and the horses were nervous just being in the paddock. Aleythia and I decided that it would be safer for our health to lead them for a little while. We led them about half a mile, crossed an intersection, and got on. I think riding your horse in the ditch is the best thing you can do to them. They get used to cars, stepping on random objects, seeing random objects. If your ditches are anything like mine you'll understand. Oh another plus is that it's harvest time. The huge tractors are out and making noise. I got off when they came by. I don't like getting bucked off. To my surprise Toffy didn't care. I was prepared for her to have an "I might buck" attitude, but she did really well. I try not to let my preconceived notions about how they will do an a ride affect my actions towards them.
We got on a dirt road, and we turned around an hour into our trail ride. We cantered a little ways, and trotted. I'm not sure how far we trotted, but it was definitely longer than five minutes. Those fillies are really slow walkers. When we were going out Coffie was zigzagging all over. After that trot and canter she went considerably straighter. Coffie also decided that cars were scary on our way back. We were just about to the intersection when a car came by. Coffie jumped sideways and Aleythia almost fell off. A second car goes by slightly slower than the first and Coffie still jumps. A third car went by and this guy got the idea. The horse doesn't like cars!!! He drove slowly by and Coffie didn't spook. A little while later we were sitting at the intersection waiting and a truck and trailer turns onto our rode and Coffie doesn't spook at all.
We reached home and I had gotten off and I was leading Toffy up the driveway and this little yapper/rat comes racing over and Toffy's like, "OH MY GOSH!" Then she's like, "oh wait..." and promptly goes to eat.
After that Aleythia and I clipped Toffy's feet. It took an hour.... Terry can do it in 15 minutes. The reason it took so long was because our hands are not strong enough to squeeze the clippers together and it takes both of us to do it. We did get it done though.
Then we went in and watched a movie for a couple hours.
I rode Santana and he didn't buck me off. I consider that a plus. I have probably ridden him three times sense August.
On a sadder part Stretch was put down.

Knowledge Comes In Different Forms

The fillies are going through another growth spurt. Coffie's withers come up a little above my chin, and I'm 5'4". She is looking a whole lot heftier than her skinny younger self. Her mane looks awful. She's been reaching through the fence to eat the grass on the other side, and tears off her mane in the process. I might cut it all off after winter so that it grows straight.
I haven't ridden for 2 weeks and it really is a pain. I am having a hard time making the time. Cross Country ends soon though (Wednesday next week). That should free up quite a bit of my time.
I rode Misstack on a short trail ride... after two weeks off. I like riding her on trail rides. She looks to me more, and more often, and does what I ask. I love that she doesn't mind being away from the other horses. And plus it gives us something to do sense I am not training her in the barrel pattern. After fair I quit with barrels, and poles, and all those other events, just to give them a break and do something different. So we'll go on trail rides, I'll work on getting them more supple, and teaching them new things like sidepassing. I don't have them do a whole lot of work, we're kinda lazy.
I think I got somewhere with Toffy today. I gave her a reminder course in ground work and getting her to do what I ask. I've started doing rollbacks with her and am telling her "Hip!" before every turn so that she can relate it when I get in the saddle and do it. Then I had a little bit of fun and threw a small ball at her. I don't know what it was made of, but it was really squishy. Squishy is the wrong word, but describes it accurately enough. Believe me I was not abusing my horse. Just getting her used to different things. I also emphasized things hitting her legs. I took a hard whip and tapped her legs, I bumped her legs with a tire, and I threw the ball at her legs. I am trying to fix how touchy she is about things hitting her legs. Then we did the tarp. I started out shaking it. It didn't take too long for me to be able to shake it while it was on her back. I'll keep doing random object training. We'll do that with all the fillies. Dash is brilliant at it though.
That is my story... wait I'm not done yet.
Yesterday I went up to some place to a Horse Evaluation contest for FFA. I discovered something. Horse people are weird. They make me laugh. I couldn't even really tell you why. I was just listening to a random conversation of a couple girls that  sounded like they knew what they were talking about. I think that's why I think it's funny. Horse people act like they know what they are talking about. When in reality we just know slightly more than the next person. My limited experience has taught me a lot, but there is so much more I could learn, and there is always someone who knows more than you or I do.

Picture Crazy!!!!!

So I'm just going to go picture crazy.

The fillies have changed quite a bit over the summer.