Ow.

So yesterday had it's ups and downs.

The farrier was there yesterday and we got to show him how well the fillies were doing. He was one of the people we asked about getting a few horses. And when I asked about quarter horses he said, "Don't swear."
We loaded the fillies into the trailer, took them out and tied them to the wall. Got the grooming supplies out and groomed them. The whole time he was talking. He said that the fillies were in the top 80% for horses their age that have that good a base. Just in necessary skills. He said that he doesn't have four horses in his barn that can stand tied to a wall and he's been training horses for 35 years.
He also told us not to sell them at a sale barn. If we sell them a at a sale barn no one will know what we did with these fillies. "Sell them privately and make sure they know what you did. If I ever see these fillies in a sale barn I will personally come over and kick your a**."
Yes sir.
He said that the reason you can't find a lot of horses that can do what the fillies do is because no one takes the time to do it.
It's nice to hear that you've been doing a good job. Especially from someone who's been doing it for 35 years.
I wish he could have stayed longer because he would have shown us an easy way to get the fillies to canter, but he was pressed for time. Sad day.

The not so great part of yesterday was that I got bucked off. Twice.
It was recommended to us to put a back cinch on just because when someone did want to put a buck strap on they will be extremely happy that they are already okay with it.
So we did it on all the horses but Dash. We even rode them. We did ground work first though. They didn't have any reaction.
The one exception. Toffy.
So she did all the ground work just fine and didn't have any reaction at all. I got on and was walking around and decided that I wanted to trot. So we trotted and she was going along great. We turned and dirt hit the side of the barn and she got a little scared. I turned her and she was alright. I asked for the trot again and after a couple steps.... She bolted. Buckin. I fell off a little while later. Got up and caught her. Did a little bit of ground work and got on again. I asked for the trot, and when I went to turn her she bolted again. Buckin. I fell off again and landed hard.
Aleythia caught Toffy and I got up and walked it off. Got on again, but this time I had Aleythia lead her around at a walk. I was just too nervous about her blowing up again. When I was more relaxed and Toffy was too we quit.
And right now I'm pretty much hurting everywhere. I've got a bruise on the back of my heel, a bruise on the front of my calf, on the inside of my leg, on my back, wrist, and elbow. Oh and my neck hurts too.
Currently I am really glad that it's Sunday and I get a couple days to start feeling a little better before I ride again. I will ride her again.
I'm thinking that what happened was that the straps hit her in the side when we started trotting. After she was already nervous about the gravel hitting the barn.
We'll see. I have some ideas about what to do next time, but I don't have time to right about them right now.

Soft Coat!

Wow, it's been a while. I have not been going to the horses' lately. Too much homework, bad weather, and not being home accounts for most of that.
Seriously though Minnesota is drunk. It's been raining/snowing off and on the past two weeks. It got cold and then it was semi nice. Two days ago we got a blizzard and four inches of snow. Thursday it rained all day and then froze. Fun times. This next weekend we're going to get around 70 degree weather. So it went from around 25 to 75 in a week. I have a love/hate relationship with Minnesota weather. The upside? The lakes are back to normal levels! I was walking across the bridge and it was all the way up to the bank. These last few years it's been really low. It made me happy to see the water that high.... wow. I am such a retard.
Aleythia and I went to Terry's today though! It was great! It was mostly warm, so I took my coat off when I got there. When Terry asked us what we had for plans, we told him, "Not much. I was thinking about working with Dash on desensitizing. I've been working on a theory." I'll get to the theory in a minute.
Terry moved the flatbed trailer, the tractor, and the manure spreader out of the barn so that there was more room and I worked with Dash.
My theory:
I was laying in bed late one night and I was just thinking about Dash and her problem with the plastic bag. All the sudden a thought randomly popped into my head. Maybe I need to try to desensitize to other objects before I go to the plastic bag again. Reason?
It's like this. Remember that story were we moved the fillies back to Terry's from his brother's place? And I couldn't get Toffy to go into the trailer? I thought maybe if I gave her a little confidence then she might go in. So, I lead her into the barn over there. The barn actually has a little cement step, and then goes down a little bit, and it was dark. So I got her to go into the barn after not too long, and then I led her back to the trailer. It worked. After a little urging she walked into the trailer.
I'm thinking Dash might need a similar technique. I want to give her some confidence about being desensitized with something that isn't quite so scary. If I can get her trusting that something that happens to her isn't always going to be bad then maybe when I go back to the plastic bag she'll be more ready to accept it. Just a thought.
So that's what I'm doing.
I took a towel and desensitized her to a flapping towel, all over. I even threw it in the air as hard as I could. After that I desensitized her to a blanket, and put that on her. She was very good about it.
And then we just sat there and watched Aleythia work with Frosty. She did loneging. It was very cool to see because Frosty is very responsive. She is just really light. She doesn't hang on the halter, she listens to what you ask. You can basically just look at her hindquarters, and she'll swing them out. They did cantering too. It was with a saddle too.
Wow. I think I missed a little step with training the fillies. Cantering with a saddle. Geez. I can't believe I forgot that.

I just wanna say the fillies are so cute! Believe me I do not use "cute". Ever. And their fur is so soft too.
We were actually at the horses' Monday too. We didn't do anything, because it was raining out. I think there was a little bit of hail too. But we hadn't been over there in a while and Dash would not let us come up to her. So we spent almost an hour just working on that. Actually it was probably less, but whatev. I'll say it's an hour. Makes it a little more entertaining. Though Terry dewormed and vaccinated them that morning, so that might have something to do with it. He said they were very good though.
Terry was telling us that he had something to show us, and that we would be proud.
He said he started feeding the fillies in the trailer. They would just walk in behind him and he would have to hurry up and walk faster so that he could close the dividers, after each horse got in, quickly enough. They just walk right in and are totally fine with the dividers. It's really funny watching them.
So that's what I did yesterday. I had to put it off until today because  I went to church last night and didn't get a chance to finish it yesterday. Talking about church I have some very sad news.
My youth pastor and his family left today. So my youth group and I had a crying fest yesterday. I went by their house today and just looking at it, and thinking about them not being in it, made me really sad. But they are going on to where God wants them and touching the lives of everyone they meet, just like they touched my life and the lives of my church.

So I never posted this. This was from Monday and Wednesday

Gotta Do More Baby Steppin

~Friday~
Aleythia and I decided that Frosty was doing well enough that we could try cantering. I would longe her while Aleythia rode. First we did some groundwork, and I have a couple pictures of Frosty cantering.

happy trot

 

Isn't that a beautiful canter? Look at how far under she reaches with her back feet. Love it! Oh she can switch leads too. Which is pretty awesome.

 

Frosty was just all go. She just wanted to faster.

Aleythia got on and rode around for a little bit and she tried to canter by herself, but Frosty wasn't doing it, and the saddle was slipping forward.

We fixed the saddle and I got in the middle and we tried it again. It went something like this.

I asked her to canter and she did go into a faster trot, but not a canter.... then she started bucking. Aleythia stayed on and we tried it again. Aleythia was complaining that the saddle kept slipping forward. Once again a fast trot, and maybe an effort to canter, but then she started bucking again. The back end of the saddle was off her back and the front end was pushed up against her neck. Aleythia fell off over her shoulder and Frosty kept bucking.

Now go look at that picture of Frosty cantering. This time look at the saddle. That's what happens when she goes faster.

We switched out that saddle for a smaller one. It doesn't fit Aleythia and me very well, but maybe it would help with the slipping.

Aleythia got on again and just trotted around. The saddle didn't slip as much as the other one. I also want to see if a back cinch will help anything. We only have one and it goes onto Misstack's saddle, but maybe it will work. Otherwise we'll have to see about getting a few.

I was riding Toffy and I decided that we would use the small saddle on her too. So we'll see.

But as of yet we've been bucked off of all the fillies but one. Coffie. My goal. Never get bucked off of Coffie. She is usually the last horse we work with so maybe by then we get it right. One benefit of having four horses to train. You can make it better for the next horse.

Aleythia worked with Coffie and Dash. She just did ground work. And had them canter with a saddle.

ooh another thing we decided was that we're gunna get the fillies really used to and comfortable with trotting before we move onto cantering.

Tip of the Day- When training horses the slower you go the faster you progress.

In other words if you can break each training step into as small as pieces as possible training will go faster, because they are getting prepared for that next step.

So cantering will be put off for a little while longer.

I rode Misstack and Santana too. They were pretty good. All I worked on was neck reining and stopping. Both of them have the worst stop ever. Like it takes quite a bit to get them to stop when I pull back on the bit. So what I've started doing is relaxing into my saddle and thinking stop. If that doesn't work I take a light hold of the reins. If that doesn't work we do a one rein stop. I'll let you know how well that works in a couple of weeks.

I think that it will be really easy to teach the fillies neck reining. But I'll talk about that another time.

Aleythia rode Ana too.

So we got seven horses done. Woot Woot!

Yesterday it was hot! I wore a T-shirt and rolled up the sleeves. Standing in the sun was hot. It was nice in the barn. Not so much outside. It wasn't even that bad. It's more like I'm used to twenty degree weather and then all the sudden we're getting sixty degree weather.

But expect another post in the near future on today. I haven't gone yet so I'll have a couple stories when I get back. Whether I finish it today or another is up for debate. 

I'm sad cause I'll be gone Monday and Tuesday so I won't get to work with horses. I'm happy cause I'm going to a FFA state thingy. It'll be fun. 

Mwahahah!

My room is clean!
Just thought I'd say.

I had an awesome day yesterday.
It started with me getting up... and making myself go running. Two miles. Pathetic. Before school started I could run four.
At 10:00 Aleythia and I went to Terry's... and tried to give the horses a heart attack. It didn't work as well as we wanted it to.
Yesterday was fairly windy and we went out and tied plastic bags all around the paddock. I was getting tired of spending an hour trying to desensitize Dash to the stupid bag.
The big horses didn't really care. Well, Misstack did, but it was really minor. And Frosty was like oooh something's making noise! Let's go bite it!

Stretch

I da boss

Blacky!

Dash

Ain't she pretty?

Coffie

 

The reason we went to Terry's early is because we went to ride with HM that afternoon. Well, I did. Aleythia remembered that she had a piano lesson. I went to HM's that afternoon. And I had fun!
I rode Ollie again. Did some more jumping which was totally awesome! HM was also telling me about turning on the hindquarters. I did a little practice on Ollie and it was really bad. I couldn't get him to plant is back feet. HM told me to pull the outside rein to the outside hip to keep him straight and pull him over with the inside rein. I was able to get it maybe once.

HM cantering T with her son. I know. Very blurry. It was dark. And my camera doesn't take good pictures in barns.

Ollie