Growing Up

I am really proud of the fillies right now. Neck reigning is coming along very nicely, we are teaching them to sidepass and they're getting it, their canter circles are getting better, and their stops are getting better too. I have had a very successful week with them. Aleythia and I have also started them on the pole and barrel pattern. It's really fun. Mostly for me. I don't think they like the arena very much. I'm thinkin we'll go trail riding today.
I rode Misstack bareback yesterday. That was fun. I even cantered through poles. I didn't try that around barrels. When she canters around barrels it gets a little rocky. Which probably means I should fix it....
I really need to put pictures up. The fillies have grown so much!

Poor Little Snowman

Let's see. It's been a little while. The weather has been awful, and that makes it really hard to ride. We had one really nice 40 degree day a couple weeks ago and Aleythia and I went and made a snowman in the paddock, just to see what the horses would do. Ana decided his head didn't look good that way and started to eat it. I have pictures, but I'm too lazy to get them on the computer. The horses all crowded around it and one of the fillies decided it would make a good hoof rester. Ya Mr. snowman was dead in twenty minutes. And we went a couple more times in the last few weeks, but I can't remember those.  Saturday we rode! We are working with Ana on something. Ana responds really well to voice and body language. The two combined can usually get a result, but it's mostly just voice. So Aleythia has been lungeing her and telling her in a really slow calm voice "slow walk" or "slow trot" and then uses a different voice to see if she can't get her to go faster too. Saturday Aleythia rode and I lunged. It was amazing. Ana is brilliant. We could get her to do these slow mincing little steps at the walk. Trotting was a little harder because when we tell her to slow down she wanted to go back to the walk, but she did definitely go slower. It's a huge improvement. The fillies are doing good. They are just getting so big! We aren't doing a whole lot with them. Right now all we really want them to learn is neck reigning. If it was warmer I would be doing tons of trail rides, but it's no fun when it's always below ten degrees.
Ya know what's the problem with growing horses? Saddles don't fit! It helps to shimmy them up with like a towel or something in the front, but sometimes it doesn't work. Especially with Frosty. Aleythia was riding and the saddle pretty much slipped forward on to Frosty's neck. She didn't like that and bucked. So I think that until she levels out we're just going to ride her bareback.
Sunday we went to Holly's and rode her horses. I rode Olly bareback! It was so much fun! I think I have better balance when I'm bareback because I don't have the saddle to rely on. We did trotting, and cantering, and even a little jumping. He was such a good boy. Holly thinks he moves better without a saddle. I rode him for two hours, bouncy trot and all. I. am. sore.  And to top it all off he has a pointy back. That started to hurt after two hours. Whenever I go to Holly's my goal is to get sore. It means I'm actually doing something. I'm working on muscles I don't normally get a chance to work on because I'm training. It's nice not to have to train and just concentrate on your own riding.

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.

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.

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.

Messin' 'Round

Well, I was able to ride three horses yesterday. Unfortunately it's getting dark to fast! I started with Ana, then Coffie, then Toffy.
I gently threw the saddle on Ana because she throws her head up whenever I put it on and slide it off (she needs to go to the chiropractor, which is probably why she doesn't want to canter.  I did mention it to Terry, but he's harvesting so it will be about a week before we can get her over there).  When I went to get on her she started to walk off before I even got a foot in the stirrup, so I, very aggressively, wacked her butt around... she stood quite nicely. I thought about cantering her, but she was already way to eager to go, so I kept it at a walk for a little bit, working on neck reining and pulling her head to my foot whenever she went faster than I wanted. Then I asked her to trot. Oh she loved that. I have never had a horse so willing to go forward. She went over the jump nicely though, but apparently she doesn't see fit to actually jump such a lowly object.
I calmly asked her to walk, which as to be expected she didn't do for very long, so I pulled her head to my foot, stopped, and stood there for a bit. Again I asked her to walk and she did the same thing, so I pulled her head to my foot, stopped, and stood there. I asked her to walk again, but when she started getting like lets go faster, I want to go faster, faster is my favorite word,
"Easy," I sad and she's like okay, I can relax, walking isn't bad. She walks calmly for about 20 feet then; let's go faster, I want to go faster, faster is my favorite word.
"Easy."
Okay, I like walking.... let's go faster, I want to go faster, faster is my favorite word.
"Easy."... I did this for about five minutes not once pulling back on the reins. Each time she settled down into a nice walk.
"Woah," I said, breathed out, and sank into the saddle. She stopped I got off and we were all hunkey-dorey.

When I worked with Coffie I did groundwork because I wanted to see if she would enjoy being ridden more if I spanked her hind end a little bit. You should have seen the rollback she did when I lunged her! It was a sight to see! Spinnin' on a dime like no other.
At the end  I trotted her over the jump; she did a beautiful jump....with her front end. Then with the laziest attitude ever walked over it with her back feet.  *sigh   Nobody can say I didn't try.

I rode Toffy; mostly trying to get her to go over a metal ladder. I led her over it first. Then rode her over it. Both times she was a perfect little doll. It took a little convincing to get her to go over the first time, but she did it.
The third time she stepped on the opposite side of the ladder with her back feet and it smacked her on the back feet. You'll never guess what she did... yeah, jumped forward as if the world was going to end. I went over it again, with Terry standing on it. She nimbly jumped over the dang thing which I was not ready for. I stayed on, but Terry still laughed.
I tried it again and for some reason or another she spooked before she even stepped over. A 180 degree pinwheel turn was executed. Guess what my chiropractor told me NOT to do...fall off. Guess what I did...fall off. In my defense my back was bugging me all day, so falling off didn't make it much worse.

So, that was my day. For all you horse riders out there I would highly suggest getting you and your horse to a chiropractor at least once a year. Even if you don't think there's anything wrong go anyway. All that falling off your horse is NOT good for your back. See I went in for my lower back and found out that between my shoulder blades was worse than my lower back. I didn't even know that part of my back was messed up, but on further consideration I figured out that I'd had that problem for about four years maybe more, but I'd just put it off as the woes of playing violin. So, go to the chiropractor. You'll be glad you did.

Time is Valuable When You Have Little of It

It has definitely been a long while. School started about three weeks ago... and I have gotten to ride horses three times. It really stinks. I have cross country practice after school and we get done at 5:15ish. If I think I can manage the homework I have, I go to Terry's and ride for two hours. Makes Then I get home take a bath and stay up till 9:30 doing home work and fall right to sleep because I am exhausted.
The fillies are all doing well. Though I'm really glad that we're keeping Toffy for another year. She's just not as far along as the others and could really use the extra year to become that much more reliable. She's a scardy cat. She does great on trail rides, but random objects do not go over too well with her, and she has a little trouble doing things that have never been asked of her before, but I learned something about her the other day. She needs to be rewarded for every little try. Example. I wanted her to step through a tire, and she lifted her foot. I rewarded her for that. Later she might place her foot on the tire, and then go back to just lifting her foot. She still gets a release of pressure, and praise for trying. If I quit rewarding every little try she quits trying.
I've started working on circles with the fillies. I'll get them to trot a tight turn around, and canter a large circle. Right now they can't do it real well. They fade out on the circle, but they'll get it. Just takes practice.
Misstack is loads of fun to ride. I start with her. I worked on lead changes last time, and the time before that, and today I had a I-don't-care day. Basically I let her go wherever she wants she just has to go what speed I want. We galloped too. That was so much fun! Next time I think I'll tell Aleythia to bring the camera and we'll get some pictures of all the horses. I haven't had pictures in a really long time.

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."

Five Lazy Hours of Riding

Yesterday was amazing! We went to a horse show and took Blacky, Santana, Coffie, and Frosty. We left home at ten, got there at eleven, and stayed there until four. Coffie and Frosty did beautifully! We led them around for a little while, then got on and stayed on for about two hours. We walked around, let them eat, trotted, cantered. Nothing real stressful. Then for the other three hours we were on and off them. I rode Coffie and Aleythia rode Frosty. Coffie learned how to side pass. It was kinda by accident. I think I just wanted to see what she did and she eventually just took one little step over. After that I was working on it on and off for the rest of the day. Frosty learned how to move her shoulders over. Coffie sorta did. Not quite as good as Frosty. Frosty will just plant her back foot and boogie right over. Coffie will take maybe two steps. Oh and two of Terry's grandsons rode Blacky and Santana. And we had their dog, Rebel, with us too. It's funny. Rebel will be sitting there and one of the fillies would get curious and go and sniff her and she would go hide. The last hour I took the saddle off, and when Santana and Blacky's classes were called, I hopped up on her bareback and her lead rope tied to her halter for reins. And we walked up there. When we were going back to the trailer I trotted, then asked her to canter. She did a nice easy lope. Woot Woot!!!

Can I Bite It?

Gosh I love those fillies. They make me laugh. They are all doing extremely well. I'm still not riding Toffy, but I've got her walking across a tarp. My goal is to get her to be under the tarp. Frosty did. It was hilarious. After I was done riding her I unsaddled, and took her over to the tarp. Frosty has a motto. If I can bite it, it must be okay. When she first comes across a new object she'll blow at it, then try to bite it. After that the world is a beautiful place. I picked up the tarp, and it is a huge tarp. It's supposed to go over a rack of hay bales. I picked it up rubbed her for a sec, then pulled it over her back and drownded her in it. She just stands there like yea whatev it's all cool. We took a video, but unfortunately left it there. I'll get it up eventually. My ride with her was great too. It was windy and she likes to put her head up really high and look at stuff. She is getting a whole lot better with turning and going where I tell her. We're working on circles. Just getting them to find their balance and get on the correct lead. Actually we're working on a whole lot of other stuff too, but it takes too long to explain. Main goal. Circles. Not overdoing it though.
Misstack is out of commission currently. She doesn't want to trot or canter. She doesn't have any cuts so we're thinking that she has a rib out of place. Which she has done before. Terry will take her to the chiropractor tomorrow. Sadly I won't be able to come with him. I have to work all day tomorrow. Fun. But I'll get a nice fat paycheck and then me and my oldest sister will go shopping for boots. It'll be grand!

Jittery Bug

Yesterday. Hmm so we got there around 2:30 and then stayed inside for two hours until it cooled off a little bit. I discovered I can say "a little bit" in four different languages. I have skilzs. We talked about what we were doing with the fillies come fair time. We're thinking they'll do a western pleasure class, a trail class, and maybe a timed event. We'll take Dash and Frosty. They'll probably do a halter class too. We don't want it to be too stressful, so they'll only be there one day. So we need to sit down and plan what we need to train in the time we have. I'm smart guys. Ya know how Toffy has been landing wrong on her foot, well because of it I haven't been riding her. Or doing anything with her. Cause there's not much to do. And I just had a thought. I could do ground stuff with her. Like a tarp, getting her to pull something, ect.. Yep.
Misstack was great yesterday. She gets better every time I take her out. She was getting on her hind feet when I asked her to do a rollback off the fence, her turns are getting a whole lot cleaner. She is neck-reining half way decently too.
With Coffie I have just been working on getting her to go where I tell her, and not pop her shoulder out and run through my cues. It is something that I did not anticipate to be a big problem.
We shouldn't stay in the ring for everything we need to teach them. Some of it can be taught outside of a ring on the trail and it is more fun. It just takes up more time, but we can deal with that.
Terry wants me to do kalcuta with Santana. I probably spelled it wrong. It gives me butterflies just thinking about it. Everyone who enters gets lined up in the arena and people bid on who will win. There is one barrel. You get a running start through the gate, go down, turn the barrel, come back, and then you have to stop inside the arena. The person with the fastest time, without knocking the barrel over, wins. It's extremely stressful. I think Santana would do wonderful with it. I'm slightly worried about the running start, because usually I have to have someone lead him into the arena because he acts all jittery. It'll be fine though. I need to fix his third barrel. He anticipates the turn so he goes too early and usually ends up knocking it over. He needs to quit anticipating a turn. I'll fix it by turning him away from the barrel and circling and then go around it. I discovered riding him in a snaffle through barrels and poles does not work very well when he's hyper. It's funny when he turns that last barrel I know he's going to bolt for home. It's still a little bit of a surprise even then. When he turns that barrel you have to be hanging onto the saddle horn just to keep from flying out of the saddle because he speeds up so fast. I love it!

These last two days have been a lot of fun. Thursday we went to Terry's late. It was cooler at 6:30 than it was at two. Rode every one but Toffy and Santana. Two of Terry's grandsons rode a few of the fillies too. It was really funny. The fillies did great. They didn't understand what the boys were asking, but they tried there best. The boys couldn't figure out how to direct rein. We really need to teach those fillies how to neck rein. They were also having a little trouble getting them moving, but a little spank on the butt fixed that. They just walked. With one of the boys it was his first time getting on a horse in about four years. Terry got on too! He hasn't been on a horse in about four or five years either. Then I hopped on Ana bareback and bridle-less, and she hated it. She would grudgingly do what I ask, but she was not happy. She does leg pressure, just sometimes you have to kick a little harder to get her to do it. Ana is limping though. It is not good. We don't know why. We were thinking about giving Toffy a bath too, but it was getting late.
Yesterday HM came over and we took the herd out on a trail ride. Seriously. We took three of the fillies. She rode Coffie, I rode Dash, and Aleythia rode Frosty. And then another two boys, brothers, and grandchildren of Terry rode Santana and Blacky. It was fun. I kinda felt that if anything set Dash off I would be on the ground and she would be running toward home. We let some people pet the horses too. They new something about horses. They were surprised at how well behaved the fillies were for only being two. We got back and then got Santana, Misstack, and Strudder all tacked up and in the paddock. HM got to try some barrel racing and pole racing and also saddle seat with Strudder. She was loving Santana's turns around the barrels. And she loved Misstack's canter. Misstack loves to canter. She was trying to get Misstack to go through poles, but kept knocking poles down because she couldn't get her to move out far enough. We tried figuring that out. She went through fine with me. Aleythia rode Santana a little bit too. Both Aleythia and HM were having a hard time getting Santana to canter. Don't know why. I thought he was just fine. They were also really surprised when they turned that last barrel, and he just took off. It takes a little getting used too.
HM has a new appreciation for how different our horses are from hers. She rode Strudder and he was great for her. He kept wanting to quit though. He looked gorgeous. If only he got ridden a little more consistently.
But that was the last two days. I really want my camera. My sis said I couldn't have it.

Ziggidey Zaggidy

So I can't remember how many times I've gone to Terry's this past week, and not blogged about it. So I'll just tell you what we're working on.
With the fillies we are starting to train the barrel and poles. Which means that we are getting control of their hindquarters, ribcage, shoulders, and head and neck. Which you should do with any discipline. We will also start doing more trails.
Toffy is lame. We have no idea why or where. Something is wrong with her left front that causes her to do an awkward step where she brings her knee in and then her leg goes out and she lands on the outside of her hoof first. Next time the farrier comes out we'll see if he can do some corrective trimming.
With Misstack it is mostly working on her turns around the barrel. I want to get control of her shoulders, so I am doing rollbacks into the fence. Her turns are getting better.
Santana just needs to be ridden.
Ana: working on the walk an trot. She seriously needs to get ridden more often. *cough-aleythia-cough*
We rode HM's horses this last Sunday. It was fun. We did jumping. I love jumping. One thing we talked about was picking a speed in an arena, and keeping that speed. You let the horse go wherever he wants, you just gotta make sure he stays in one speed. If he goes into a corner, kick him out of it. He'll learn pretty quick how to get outta that corner. You can help him out a little bit though. Otherwise LEAVE THE REINS ALONE!! This will help the horse physically and mentally. The physically is that you'll be trotting for quite some time. Mentally it will help him to listen to your commands and do them until you say other wise. It will also help the rider to zig when the horse zigs, and zag when the horse zags.
Just something to consider