I Love Warm Weather!

I walk in the house after just returning from working with horses and the first thing I get is "Go take a bath!" Is that a familiar line to anyone else?
Personally I love the smell.

We worked with seven horses today, but we didn't ride any of the fillies. Which for some reason I was under the impression that we did.
Dash is getting a little bit better about the plastic bag. I can shake it next to her and she's alright. When I first started I made the mistake of trying to touch her neck with the bag. Ya, not a good idea. She freaked out. I couldn't hold onto the rope because she was turned away from me and bucking. I got a little bit of a rope burn, but it doesn't hurt anymore.
So we decided that instead of us trying to desensitize her and taking a good hour to just get her to stand it being shaken next to her we would tie plastic bags all around the paddock. Were thinking every two posts. Though I'll still desensitize her with the plastic bags myself. It took a really long time yesterday. I think the chemicals in her brain aren't working correctly or are working really slowly.

We put the fillies in the trailer too. All of them but Coffie anyway. Aleythia did ground work with Coffie. Aleythia rode Ana too. Ana has a stop button that works!
Dash went into the trailer like a pro and didn't even care about being stuck between the dividers. Frosty was fine with it too. Toffy was not. She wouldn't go in. With a little encouragement she did go in.... then she wouldn't come out. She was looking at the ground like, "If I can't touch it with my nose I'm not stepping down."

She did eventually come down. When I brought Misstack in after my ride. She bumped over the gate sitting on the ground, got freaked, jumped across the gate and ran to her buddies tied to the far wall. Toffy jumped out after her.
Misstack did really well on her ride. I worked on neck reining. Basically I would trot her towards an object with intent. I kept my reins in one hand and didn't pick up the other one until it was necessary. If she deviated from that course I would give her my cue to go back with neck reining and if she missed that cue I would turn her in the opposite direction she went. One thing to stress is that the circle is just a circle and is not a correction. If you think it's a correction you'll tend to get harsh with the bit. I would give her the lightest cue possible. When I wanted her to turn around and go back to the place I started at I would look over my shoulder at that place and ask with my neck rein. If she didn't do it I would disengage her hindquarters until she was facing the direction I wanted her to go.
I did the same thing with Santana. And also stuff from what I did the last time I rode.
And both horses bucked on me.
I cantered Santana a little bit too. And did one rein stops at the canter. Let's just say it needs work.

And the best part of that whole day... I wore a sweater all day!

Easter!!!!

Happy Easter everyone!
I love Easter. And not just because of all the candy. Jesus died on the cross for our sin. A perfect sacrifice so that we could be with the Father. But he didn't just die and that was it, he rose again. He is alive and active. That is why I love Easter.

I loved yesterday too. It was b-e-a-u-t-f-u-l! The ice is melting off the lake, there's water flowing through the channel, and the snow is melting! Like seriously, I smiled every time I walked past a gutter. The water was flowing down into the gutters and it was a beautiful sound. I wish I would have had my camera, I would have taken a picture. The water was running down the sidewalk on the hill, like a miniature stream. And the best part. The sun was actually warm!
Terry was out in the paddock with the bob cat smoothing out the dirt so that it would drain off the water better and dry up sooner. I was laughing watching the fillies. They aren't afraid of the bobcat anymore. All of them, even Dash who freaked out the last time, were all following the bobcat. It would go right beside them and they were fine with it. They moved out of its way, but didn't freak out. That's perfect.
So I didn't do much with the fillies, I just hung out with the horses. Terry got some of the stuff he ordered including a shedder thingamajiggy and a bridle. Woot Woot! The bridle is really nice. Its leather is nice and bendy. Though it was just made because on the headband it was still sticky. We went and brushed horses with the sheder and their hair was coming off in sheets. I was trying to brush horses and the fillies were following me and generally getting in the way. We took the blanket off of Stretch and brushed him. He's basically fur and bones. His back comes up in a point and basically has no muscle tone. We don't ride him because all he wants to do is run and we're worried he'll have a heart attack or something.
I did do something with the horses today, though just hanging out is important too. At four o'clock we let them in and gave them food.

So, of shoot story, don't worry I'll go back. I'm at my grandparents farm and the phone rang. Grandma said hello and then 5 seconds later hung up. She told grandpa, "It was an advertisement saying 'if you're a senior citizen suffering from diabetes...' and I hung up." Grandpa told her, "I'm a senior citizen suffering from medicare." Ah yes....:)

Anywho, we let the horses in and fed them. And it was a beautiful day and Terry was asking if I was going to do anything with them. I was leaning towards not, but it was a beautiful day, and I had time to kill. I went and got Misstack from her pen and Terry helped me get her ready. I worked on flexing at the standstill, walk, and trot. I think she's limping. We did a little bit of flexing at the poll and backing up. Disengaging her hindquarters and bending around my foot. It didn't take too long. Got done with her and Terry had Santana tied up to the trailer for me so I saddled him up and pretty much did the same thing.
They both did really well.

Aye, Yi, Yi

I'll start with.... Dash needs help...
What Aleythia and I talked about doing with the fillies... We decided that we need to do more desensitizing with Dash. We think that maybe we're taking it a little bit too fast and she's just not quite ready. We'll still ride, but we'll desensitize before and after riding.
Proof.... I decided that I would just work on desensitizing Dash to the plastic bag so that we would have more time to work on getting all the other horses done. It didn't help. I walked Dash through gate in the barn and bent down to pick up the plastic bag. She flipped out! She bolted in the opposite direction and started bucking right next to and running into all the other horses who were tied up. So we had a bunch of slightly crazed horses. Dash stopped bucking, but now all the other horses were a little riled up. For the next hour I worked on desensitizing. I wasn't able to get her to walk forward to follow the bag. I just stood there lightly shaking the bag.... six feet away. And that's about as close as I got... In an hour... So, guess what I'll be doing for the next week.
Aleythia rode Ana, and I'll let her tell you about that... if I can convince her to write...er.. type. I asked her too and she didn't seem totally apposed. We'll see.
She worked with one horse and then didn't have gumption to do the others. She did work with Frosty while I rode Misstack. So here we have Frosty's reaction to the plastic bag.

Big difference from Dash ain't it.
Misstack is getting quite a bit better at flexing. She doesn't turn every time I do it, and she's lighter. She does put her head down to brace against it sometimes though. It'll get better.
I convinced Aleythia to desensitize Frosty while I rode Coffie. I desensitized to the plastic bag first and it didn't take long. I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't get bucked off when Aleythia started waving it around.
I also rode Santana. He did pretty good. He's getting pretty good at flexing while trotting in a circle. I love it. He just feels so light and ready to do what I ask. It can definitely improve, but it is definitely better than what it was.
So that was my horse training day. We worked with seven horses in three hours.
One thing I'm not too excited about is when I get a job. I'll be running in the morning, working, and then riding seven horses, sometimes nine. The last two come in when I'll be helping a friend train her horse, Patches, and if I can, retrain Flicka. Fun right? I suppose I'll get used to it. But man the first couple weeks of that are going to be awful.

It'll Come... Eventually

I really need to go to bed and catch up on the sleep that I've been lacking of late, but I kinda want to do a post.

I was really happy walking to the horses. I could just smell spring! I can smell winter too. In fall I'll be walking and all the sudden I get a wiff of the freezing cold air, blizzards, and snow of winter. But spring? It smells like grass, new breezes, and flowers.
Spring would be my favorite time of year if there wasn't that inch of slop everywhere I go. And actually it's not so much that I hate that slop, it's more that I can't ride in that slop. So instead of seeing how well my horses could balance I hung out in the paddock with them taking pictures.

This I took on my way to the horses'. Just reminds me of spring.

Ain't Ana perty?

The herd. All but Ana and Blacky. They're in the photo above this one. There are eight horses in this photo. And yes I did learn how to count.

Strudder loves to roll. He has to do it twice though. On account that he can't roll all the way over.

The nut-job of a Thoroughbred, Misstack:)

I did have a picture of Stretch rubbing his head, but it got deleted...

Coffie and Frosty

Ana about to get bossy

When Stretch went down to roll, he did not seem like he would be getting up anytime soon. I walked over and was petting his neck and I could feel his pulse racing through his neck... Not good. After a little while his heart rate slowed and his breathing got calmer. When he got tired of the fillies biting his blanket, he got up, with quite a bit of effort, and walked away.

I really wonder how much longer he'll live. We keep saying this'll be the year that good ole stretch says goodbye, but he keeps hanging in there. 

 

Toffy's reaction to the bobcat...

That tail you see is Dash... bucking as she runs to escape the evil that does not sleep.

And then there's Blacky

Big Decision

So the second biggest decision of my life is... not here yet. This big decision is whether or not I should go to college or go apprentice with a horse trainer.
My original plan was to go to college and then apprentice. There's a problem with this.
I was talking with someone and we were talking about college and careers and debt. This person I was talking to knows a lot of people who have fancy degrees, and work in a place like McDonalds or not at all. He on the other hand didn't go to college, has no debt, and runs his own computer business. So I could either go to college first, get a degree and a lot of debt, and then apprentice, which would leave me with pretty much no way to pay off the debt, or apprentice with a well known trainer first and then go to college. I could skip college all together, but I'll worry about that when I come to it. With doing the second option I could do what I love, make a name for myself, and not have to worry about tons of debt while I was doing it. I could get a good salary and all would be just fine. If I went to college I would get a degree in the agricultural field. As far as what part of agriculture I haven't decided yet. I would like to go to college, but I don't know what I would do with the degree I would get. I want to train horses.
By the way my first big decision was and is trusting Jesus, so that's what I want to do with this decision. Trust that God has a plan for me and he'll put me where he wants me to be.

Trust and Obey

I had an awesome time riding with HM Sunday. I learned what a dropped shoulder looks like and feels like. I also got to practice a little bit more jumping with Olly. Aleythia almost fell off of Tea when she jumped. It was kinda funny.
I love riding HM's horses. It gives me a little more experience with horses that have training in dressage and jumping. I get to learn how to do things on a horse that knows how to do it for a change.
When I was jumping Olly he would cut in over the jump and we worked on that. I didn't get it perfect, but I got it better. I also worked on going over the cavaleties. HM says you don't want to do the cavaleties too many times because they're like push-ups for horses. We did four each direction. And a little more because Olly was taking an extra step.

We went to the horses' today. It was windy. Way too WINDY. We walked to there and it wasn't too bad until we got to the lake. Then it was awful. Basically we went to the barn said hello, and left for the house. Very exciting day.

I am sad though. My youth pastor and his family is leaving our church in March. That means we loose a good part of our youth group. He has two sons that go to our youth group. And that also leaves one guy with a bunch of girls that know nothing about sports. Poor dude.
It makes me really sad. They've been at our church for five years. But I suppose that's the way the ministry works. God calls you to go somewhere and you go. It may be hard, but you go and trust that He will provide.

Learn about Equine Anatomy and Nutrition!

So I came across something really great in the Mugwump Chronicles' forum. Someone posted a site that gives a free online course. The course is about equine anatomy and nutrition. Give it a look. I think it will be very useful. Please read the terms of use and the honor code. If you are under 13 this course is not available to you. Sorry.
This doesn't count towards any college credits but you will receive a certificate of accomplishment signed by the instructor.
I put it on my other blog too.
So come on! Do it!

A Cold Windy Day Riding in an Indoor Arena

I will definitely have to get an indoor arena when I have horses of my own. It's very handy. I rode with HM today. The weather was awful. The snow hitting your face felt like little pinpricks. Lucky for us she has an indoor arena. We stayed warm as the wind howled against the barn.
I rode HM's Thoroughbred, Ollie. We worked on trotting, doing cavaleties, or for those of us who don't speak jumping, logs on the ground. We did cantering and... we did jumping! It was so much fun! It was one jump with two poles crossing each other. After doing that a little bit I asked if we could make it a little higher. I think it was just above knee high or at knee high. We did that and Ollie was great. The last jump we did Ollie was quite pleased with himself.
I found out that there is a dressage and jumping instructor about an hour away. Not exactly how far away but I think it's about an hour. But anywho. HM's going to see if we can make it work to go up there with her the next time she has a lesson. So excited!

Gettin Down to It

Ya know what is always a plus?
Not getting bucked off.
It was a b-e-a-u-tiful day. The sun was out, the snow was melting. It was great!
The fillies are still doing awesome. I rode Toffy and Frosty out in the alfalfa field, and they were great. Frosty was a little high strung and didn't want to walk. Toffy was great. She was still looking around but she was fine with walking. I am greatly assured that the fillies aren't afraid of the neighbor's dog. I led Frosty right up next to the fence and she just looked at the barking, growling dog like Ha! I know you can't get to me!
I rode Toffy past the barking dog and she spooked a little once so I turned her towards the dog and she was fine.
Coffie is amazing. I asked her to do a figure eight while she was trotting and I'd say it was pretty near perfect.
Dash was good too. She trotted just fine. No bucking!

I'm excited! In a couple of months the fillies will be good enough that Terry's grandsons can ride. Before that though I want to figure out how they react to a total stranger riding them. Poor H....
Actually she's excited too. She comes home in April for Spring break so maybe she'll be able to ride the fillies. Otherwise I can always ask HM if she can do it.
That reminds me.
We'll be going over to HM's place this Sunday to ride. I'm super excited because we might do a little jumping!

GEESE!!!!!

I had a pretty eventful day with my horses. I rode six of them. Frosty, Toffy, Dash, Coffie, Santana, and Misstack.
I rode Toffy out in the alfalfa field. She was fine. We did a little bit of trotting, but we didn't stay out there long.
In order to get into the alfalfa field, without opening up a bunch of gates, you have to go past a house that has a couple of dogs that like to bark and run towards whatever is on the other side of the fence. The last time I brought Toffy into the alfalfa field was when she had all those worms in her stomach and she freaked out when the dogs came. I didn't want to deal with that when Toffy's steering is somewhat faulty and not quite developed. So, I asked Terry to lead Toffy past the dogs. Her reaction was pretty minor. All she did was tense and jump forward like three inches and that was it.
Frosty was pretty good. That or I can't remember. She was good. We did trotting and direction. Ok I did that with all the fillies. Just so I don't have to keep saying it.
Coffie was good too. Actually she cantered. I asked her to trot and she did, but her trot kept getting faster and then it felt really weird and I was like girl what are you doing. I turned her and then I figured it out. She wanted to canter. I asked for the trot again and this time I didn't stop her from cantering. We got maybe four strides in before I turned her again. What a good little girl!
And then there was Dash. She bucked. Twice. The first time I fell off. She can buck hard! The second time I stayed on. Plus of this? I figured out why she was bucking. She did it when I used my command cue to get her to go forward. Which is taking the end of my rein and slapping her haunches with it. Though thinking about it I wonder if that might have been my fault that she bucked at that.
The first time I gave her my command cue to go forward I went from soft to hard very quickly. We ended on a good note though. She was trotting really nicely.
Santana went really well. He was flexing really nicely and I loved it. I rode with a saddle, because I didn't feel to secure just hopping him bareback after not riding him for a few months.
Misstack was being Misstack. She wasn't paying attention so... I kicked some horse hiney. It helped. She was doing what I asked more consciously instead of staring at everything that moved and ignoring me.

We have geese!!!! Gives me hope that spring will be here soon, school will be out, and winter won't stay forever.

... This was yesterday... I forgot to Publish...

Doing Awesome

Guess What!!! All four of the fillies have trotted with a rider. I can't wait to see them improve even more!
Aleythia conned me into going to Terry's today with, "All you have to do is ride Coffie. She's the only filly who hasn't trotted with a rider." So, I rode Coffie.
Before I got on I wanted to make sure she knew that I was boss and was listening to me. Mostly because if I can get her listening it's a less likely chance that she will buck. I desensitized, worked on backing up, and worked on disengaging hindquarters. I did a little bit of lungeing too. I banged on the saddle with my hand and my hard whip to get her used to noise above her too. I got on and we were walking along and I wanted to make sure she wouldn't buck. So here's a little trick Larry Trocha does to do that. I kicked her once on her sides. She was surprised, but she didn't buck. All she did was go into a nice little trot. I won't always do this. It's more like a one time thing when I first start riding a new horse. The reasons for doing this are as follows.
You'll be prepared. It's better if you know that it's going to happen and your prepared for it.
You can choose where your horse bucks. If you have a horse that you aren't sure of and you do this you can choose the safest place for your horse to buck.
Your con is a warning. Don't do this with horses that have been abused as more than likely it will turn them into total freaks of nature, bucking, bolting, and rearing to high heaven.
But Coffie did extremely well. I was confident that she wouldn't buck me off and she was doing really well.
Coffie got bigger too. I was looking at her and she looked a little more grown up. It looks like she lost a little bit of her baby face. When I got on her I could definitely tell she was bigger. She is going to be one pretty filly.
I can't wait till we canter!