Splendid, Brilliant, or Both!

It's been a lot of fun with the horses. I've given Santana and Misstack almost two weeks off. The second week was an accident. It got really hot. The above picture is one of the pictures taken from my friend.
Right now, with the fillies, we are focusing on getting them to neck-rein. Another main one is getting them to do scary things while we're riding. They have no problem going over or next to something when we're on the ground. In the saddle is a different matter entirely. We'll also get them to get used to scary noises and random objects.
I was talking to a fellow horse friend, and I told her how we can't get the fillies to canter a circle. She suggested that you do it on a lunge line, with a rider. I'm thinking that if you do that for a couple minutes every day, they will get the muscle to do that, learn how to balance themselves and a rider, and you'll eventually be able to do it without someone on the ground. Brilliant!
My long lost sister is home from Tennessee! We have grand parents over there. She brought the camera too! Yay! Aleythia and I rode the fillies bareback yesterday. Just slid the halter on, tied the lead rope on opposite sides of the halter, and hopped on. Indian style no less. We have now cantered all the fillies bareback. Tis a monumental occasion.
I am very proud of Dash. We were able to open and close every gate we had to go through without me getting off. Splendid!!!

 Aleythia

 Lydia ... me

Photoshoot Day!!!

Today was amazing! Aleythia didn't have quite as much fun as I did because Toffie was being a butt, but Dash was brilliant! We trail rode to Heritage Acres and got pictures taken. Mostly bareback. I can't wait to see the pictures!! I cantered Dash bareback! It was a lot of fun. When I fist asked her to canter she bucked and reared a little bit, but I stayed on, and she figured out it was okay. We were cantering all over the place after that. I've cantered all of the fillies bareback except Toffie. Aleythia tried doing it today, but she reared and did that little spin move and Aleythia fell off.
We are slowly realizing that Toffie needs a lot more work than we originally thought. She is scared of everything. We need to do a whole lot more desensitizing. And we need to do it every day. Currently we are brain storming.

This Is How We Do It! (gangsta voice)

Fair is over!!! So glad. I love fair. I love getting to talk to people I haven't seen in a while, walking around, not going on the rides, and the horses. The reason I'm so glad it's over is because Aleythia and I have been at the fair sense Sunday of last week. And the fair doesn't even start 'till Tuesday. Sunday we had a horse show, Monday we worked at St. Pauls Lutheran food stand. Tuesday we worked at a booth selling pro-life t-shirts. Wednesday we worked at the booth again. Thursday we brought horses in, Friday was 4-H day, Saturday we showed, and Sunday I showed. I've pretty much lived at the fair all week. The only thing we did with the fillies was a halter class on Sunday. Toffy got first, Dash got second, Coffie got third, and Frosty got fourth. Terry's grandsons showed Dash and Frosty. Frosty was the youngest's 4-H horse so he did lead line with her. Aleythia, was leading and he was riding. They were lined up, and Aleythia was circling Frosty, and she decided to roll! Right in the middle of the class! The judge went over and said that Frosty must be really calm that she would roll in a place she's never been. She asked if she was a two year old, and then she asked if she could see her papers. We have yet to see what will come of that.
Today we went on a trail ride with one of my older sisters. We took, Frosty, Dash, and Toffie. We headed out towards the fair grounds, by way of the train tracks. We skirted the back side of the fair grounds, and followed a tractor trail. Well, we ended up running into a place where it was possible to get the horses to go into the stream. They went in eventually after we convinced them to stop eating the grass. They got in the creek, and immediately started pawing. We got them moving and five minutes later Frosty decides that laying down would be a good idea. My sister managed to get her up without getting too wet. Then Toffie decides that she needed to roll, and Aleythia can't get her up. She ended up actually getting off and stepping in the water, and she still couldn't get Toffie to get up. She went behind her and started clapping, and yelling. Toffie got up this time. But now Aleythia's boots were full of water. It was fun. I reaffirmed the fact that Dash is way too stiff. She does not give to the bit's pressure very well... And if she decides to gallop, it takes a while to slow her down. Aleythia discovered that Toffy can really speed up fast. She'll make a good barrel horse because of it.
When we got back it was maybe a half hour later, and we were sitting underneath one of the apple trees eating apples, when a lady and her granddaughter pulled up. They knew Terry and said that he had invited them over to ride. I called Terry to make sure he knew about it and that it would be okay, and I gave the granddaughter a little lesson. We got out Blacky and I gave her a crash course on the basics. Haltering, saddling, bridling, riding, ect. It was a lot of fun. She was a confident rider too. She loved trotting. She even cantered albeit accidentally. Blacky thought it was a good idea. I love Blacky. She knows exactly how much she should or shouldn't do depending on the rider. Yesterday she was being ridden by a little boy, and she just walked around real lazy like. Today she was like, let's mu fasa! She was trottin all over the place. The girl enjoyed herself immensely.

Evil Lovable Horse!

I didn't even tell you guys about the funniest part of Sunday! I must make amends.
I was sitting on Santana behind the arena, all ready, with my number on the saddle blanket, and Santana warmed up, and Aleythia was next to me on Frosty. I look over at Frosty and she is chewing on paper. I laugh and was just like, "Were did you get that?" I look down at my number and it's half gone! "You little ..!!!!!" She just looks at me like, "the paper's good".
When I was first getting Santana all saddled up, I put the saddle blanket on him, and went to go get my saddle, and when I come back out of the trailer, the saddle blanket is on the ground, and Frosty is just like "I am innocent, and I am cute." The saddle blanket went back on Santana and I was just about to throw the saddle on, and the saddle blanket starts getting pulled away. I grab it real quick, and we commence a tug o' war, and I yell at Frosty, "No!!! Bad Horsey!!"
Later that day we were standing around and Frosty was a couple feet away, and then I hear a rip. I look down and there's Frosty eating the rest of my number! I didn't even hear her come over!
I had just completed barrels, and had picked up my white, fourth place ribbon, and I didn't want to hold it, so I stuck it on Frosty's halter, and she immediately tries to bite it, but she can't reach it. It'll be fine then, right? No. A little while later she is being led a way and I see white ribbon sticking out the side of her mouth. "Frosty's eating my ribbon!" Aleythia gets it away from her and the bottom half is green. The little devil. Frosty's all like, "Hey! where's my snack!"
Aleythia was describing Frosty to one of my sisters and this is what she said, "Frosty would walk into hell out of curiosity."

Sunday Show

Today's show went very well. We brought Santana, Frosty, Misstack, and Blacky. It was fun. I got to ride Santana all day because Terry's grandson was at a hockey game. We did poles, barrels, jumping figure eight, and four-in-a-line. I got second on poles, with a 12.65 sec time. We got fourth in barrels, with a time of 16.somethin sec, and we got third in jumping figure eight. I can't remember that time though. With four in a line we didn't place at all. We got a no-time. We used Santana, Misstack, Josie (from the Rosen farm), and Frosty. It was Aleythia's and Frosty's first time showing. It was also Frosty's first time going through barrels. We got a no time because they said Aleythia hit Frosty with her reins, which is not allowed. Aleythia says she didn't hit Frosty. Or at least not intentionally. She might of done it when she was trying to turn. Frosty figured out that she was supposed to canter at the last two barrels of the pattern.
Misstack did great. She got a third in jumping figure eight. I think that she would be fine at barrels and poles if she went fast, but I'm not the one riding her, so it's not up to me. Misstack was way calmer than she has been. She wasn't as uptight and worried about everything. She gets better every time she goes out.

Fair, oh, Fair

Fair is next week! I wish the fillies were a little bit further along so that they could be doing barrels, but that's okay. I'm just gunna roll with whatever they give me, and can do. I really want to do a trail class with them. But so far it looks like we'll be doing a halter class, a walk/trot pleasure class, 2 year old snaffle class, and a trail class if we can manage it.
The fillies are getting quite good at going were we tell them. Walk, trot, and canter. You would not believe Toffie's sliding stop. Gosh it's beautiful. I'll be cantering and I'll breathe out, sink into my seat, and pull lightly on the reins. She just sits right down, like nobody's business. It's not like I taught her to do that. One day I just wanted to see how fast she could slow down, and that was the result. I love it! Oh I know an exercise that will give your horse confidence, improve your balance, focuses on keeping a constant speed, and will teach your horse that going towards the gate will gain him nothing. I'll put it on my other blog. (Here's the Link) Not my idea, but it definitely works.
Besides working with the horses on the same stuff we've been working on, we gave Dash and Coffie a bath. It rained a little while ago, and it rained today, but anywho, they went rolling. Baths were definitely needed.
And we have a horse show to go to tomorrow. It'll be fun! I get to ride Santana!

'Tis All Fun and Games....

You would not believe how much fun I am having. I am so busy. And I love it! It's not like I have many, many things to do, they just take up a lot of time. I wake up at seven, and go running at eight. Go to work at nine thirty, get off at one thirty, go work with horses at two, and get home around five. Then I stay up until ten doing worthless things like watching TV.
But I have not blogged in what seems like forever. I can't even remember. I know what I did with my horses around that time though. Aleythia and I took Dash and Frosty on a trail ride! It was fun. We headed out of town towards the fair grounds. I got bucked off. I was riding Dash. She got scared of a white cardboard box laying on the ground. And naturally Frosty goes right up to it, bites it, and then steps on it.
We reached the train tracks and followed the train tracks down through grass that was too the fillies' withers until we were in the very back of the fair grounds. We cantered down there. Then we went back to the train tracks and followed them to the Rosen farm. We visited MD and she got to ride Frosty in the pasture. Frosty was great. Then my mom stopped by and told us she was having a picnic so we rode over to where she was having the picnic, which was on our way home, tied the horses to a tree, and had a picnic. That whole trip took about 4 hours.
The next day I couldn't get Dash to move willingly. Two weeks before fair, and I can't get her to move. I gave her a couple of days off. But I think she just doesn't see that much point to riding around in the paddock. She has more of a work horse attitude. I ponied her off of Santana on a really short trail ride, just to see how she was feeling. She went perfectly. Walk, trot, and canter. So today I tried to give her more of a job. We set out some cones, and layed a blanket on the fence. I'm going to work more on teaching her barrel racing and pole racing. She might enjoy that a little more. She was moving a lot more willing. I got off and Terry comes out with a bag full of pop cans. So I had her drag that around while I led her. She was an old pro by the time I called it good.
Toffy is getting pretty good. Mostly I am really working on the shoulder control with her. I'll make a post about it on "From the Back of a Horse".
Oh we got rain that day too. Dash was trotting along, and we were turning. She slid, and fell. I fell off her left side, and she landed on my left foot. We both sat there for a second contemplating what just happened, then I got up, and told her, "come on, get up." She sat there for another second contemplating whether she really wanted to get up or not, then got up. My foot was fine. It hurt a little like if you sprained your ankle. I woke up this morning, and could barely walk. And I was gunna go running. Like seriously, I really wanted to go running. Ughhh! "Dear Lord, please help my foot to get better. Amen."