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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Pathetic. I know.

News I have.
I go to camp this Sunday. Found out Wednesday.
Ok, I knew I was supposed to go to camp, I just didn't know when.
I'll be gone for a week. I don't want to go, but then I do. I want to go because I will get to see old friends, and make new friends. I love to go to camp. I'll get to ride new horses.
I don't want to go because I'll miss most of Toffy and Frosty's beginning of cantering. I'll start it though, so that's not so bad. I'll miss yet another cross country practice. Yes, I'm in cross country. Don't judge. Cross country practice started about three weeks ago, and I haven't made it to a single practice yet. I've been busy okay! It doesn't help that I don't even know when practice is. I think it is supposed to be on Tuesday. I was worried about missing a week of running too, but I found out that I can run in the morning. It'll be fine.
Aleythia and I spent Wednesday night at a friend's house, and we went running together Thursday morning. I died. She had us running an 8 minute mile. She can't keep that pace up, but jeez. I am a slow runner. Usually I make a 10 minute mile. I'm working on it!
Horses were great. We are going to canter Toffy and Frosty tomorrow. Should prove entertaining.
With Misstack and Santana I worked on neck reining, rollbacks off the fence, and getting control of their rib cage. I also tried to get Santana to do a nice easy lope. My success was small.
Coffie is doing really well. I just worked on her gaits, and turning.
I'm feeling really lazy today, so that's all I'm going to write.

Settin it Up

Today went pretty well. The videos help. I've been uploading them to youtube because it's way faster. I wish I could take pictures, but my camera is with one of my sisters in Tennessee.  

 

When I told Aleythia to stop and rest after every canter, the thinking behind that is as follows: If she can get Dash to associate cantering with a rest, her cantering will be way less fanatic. Also it will teach her that she can be calm after she goes fast. A valuable skill. I would know. I have a horse that doesn't have that skill.  

 

Toffy is amazing. She has come very far from bucking us off. I can't wait to start cantering.

 

Santana is getting some nice little exercise ponying Frosty. 

Frosty is getting more relaxed about the saddle every time I pony. I'm thinkin that tomorrow I'll have Aleythia get on and ride while I pony. Should prove entertaining. I had a thought occur to me as I was ponying Frosty. It would be really easy to teach a horse to canter with a rider if you taught him to pony first. The horse has learned to follow the lead horse's movements, so if the lead horse canters, so will the follower. Just a thought that I will totally have to use.
I didn't ride Coffie because she looked like she was limping. Very minor, but I'll give her a couple days rest. I rode Misstack too. She didn't do too bad. I need to get longer reins though. I've been using barrel reins, which is fine, its just that I could probably do the things I wanted to do with her more effectively with longer reins. I need to get her to listen to what I ask. I need her to let me position her around the barrel. She needs some work.

Happy Days are Here Again

Awesome day just barely describes it. Aleythia and I took Dash and Coffie out on a trail ride again. This time we didn't have another person, so we went without Santana. It went pretty good. The whole trip was less than two miles. Aleythia got bucked off. Coffie was brilliant. And ya.
Hahaha! I'm sorry. I'll tell you why Aleythia got bucked off.
We were going along, and I was trotting Coffie. Dash was cantering behind me, and all was good and right in the world. We walked for a little ways, then I wanted to canter. Coffie was a jewel and did it very well. Dash started getting faster. Then out-a the blue she starts buckin. Aleythia falls off, I keep cantering. It's just a fall, no biggy. I get Coffie slowed, and stopped. I turn around and I see Dash trotting back towards home, and Aleythia trying to catch her. Ya know what I love about living in a small town? You're bound to run into someone who knows a little about animals. Aleythia comes back with Dash and she said a guy got out of his truck and caught Dash for her. We continued on.
Once again there were a few freak outs, but nothing major. Coffie didn't buck.
Oh one of my other sisters was with us on her rollerblades. When we got back she went into the paddock with her rollerblades on and limped around. Right away Frosty and Toffy come up to her. The rollerblades don't bother them. I told her to go chase Santana. That was entertaining. He was extremely wary of her. The paddock is just barely hard enough to roller blade on. The fillies didn't care if she wheeled around them.
We chilled for a little while and convinced ourselves to go ride the other horses. I rode Misstack and Santana. Misstack was just going around the barrel correctly, and neck reigning. Santana worked very hard. Aleythia had Frosty out and was longeing her because she is really tense about the saddle for some reason. I decided that we would probably get better results if I ponied her off of Santana. We walked, trotted, and cantered. When we cantered I had to let go of the lead rope because she started bucking. By the end of that she was way more relaxed about it. I'll do the same thing tomorrow. Though I'll probably take a lot less time. After all the running around I worked on barrels. I also did poles. He kept predicting where I wanted him to go and as a result was extremely close to the poles. I corrected him by turning him the opposite way he wanted to go every time he did it. He got it. Eventually.
We had Toffy out tied to the trailer and I just wanted to do something simple and be done, so I got on bareback and moved around for a little while.
Aleythia got Ana out too, but didn't ride.
I felt accomplished.

Success Comes in Different Sizes.

Just for the heck of it I'm going to share today in a story format.


The morning came and I didn't go running. Instead I watched Doctor Who. It is very easy to talk yourself out of doing exercise. Two o'clock rolls around and I was set to see what the horses would throw at me today. I go down in the basement, grab my maroon bike, haul it up the stairs and out the back door. It's a little strange, I think, to see someone riding a bike with cowboy boots on.
I roll down that black driveway past the house, the hay barn, the chicken barn, and the trailer; scare one of the fillies out of the barn, park my bike in that dusty barn, and took a deep breath of horse.
Remember that filly I scared out of the barn? Well I went to go say hello to the horses, and there was Coffie, Dash, and Frosty tearing around the pasture and having a good time. Bucking as they raced around. I watched as Coffie raced to catch up with Dash. She was turning, and all the sudden she stumbled! Her feet scrambled for footing, lost the epic battle of gravity and her body slid across the grassy ground. She promptly got up and started running again. I laughed at their antics, happy to be in this place.
Walking out to the horses they look at me and watch my approach. Toffy and Dash come to say hello like they do every time I walk out there. I go around and say hello to all the horses; Santana, Stretch, Misstack, Frosty, Coffie, Strudder, Ana, and left Blacky to graze; she prefers it that way. And all the while Dash follows me, like she always does, vying for attention. The funny thing is though, is that the moment I decide to go back to the barn she stops following me. It's like somehow she knows I no longer intend to stay.
I walk in the front of the barn, walk to the back of the barn, unlock the black and white door, and let it swing outward. Whistling those two notes that let the horses know when to come in, I walk towards the pasture gate. Whiiiiii, whooooo. The horses look at me for a while, but none of them move. I whistle again. Whiiiiii, whooooo. Still, they look at me without moving. Inwardly, I sigh. I guess I'll have to do this the hard way. I go back into the barn and grab three halters; Santana's, Ana's, and Misstack's. Santana is easy to catch. He walks away from me, and I let him. I look at his hindquarters, he swings them away and that's that. He lets me catch him. Ana is quite a bit harder. She has no desire to be caught, and it takes another five minutes for me to do so. I'd get close, and she'd trot away. But I am patient and take my time. Eventually she'll let me catch her. Misstack was about as easy as Santana to catch.
I lead those three back to the barn and try very hard not to get the ropes tangled up as I put them in their pens. As I am finishing up this task the other horses lazily walk into the barn and start wandering around. I get all the horses sorted, but don't worry about Stretch and Blacky. They don't have to stay in a pen if they don't want too. They won't cause any trouble. I bring Misstack, Santana, and Ana out of their pens again and tie them up to the posts on the back wall. I catch the fillies with the no complaint attitude that I always get from them, and tie them up to the posts on the South wall. I look down the row of horses and think, "Seven horses ey, better get started."
It took a little less than an hour to get those three horses caught, and all the others ready too, and to get all the horses brushed with clean feet, sprayed with fly spray, and the tack out and ready to be used.
The barn is quite as the horses stand quietly in their places, knowing that moving around will gain them nothing.
I got Frosty ready and walk out that black and white door on the South wall, next to the back wall. The sun finally decided to show its face while I was in the barn getting ready. I walk Frosty through the barrel and pole pattern. When I finished I get on and ask her to walk. She goes a few feet and stops. I ask again. This pattern repeats itself until we are a further away from the black and white door. Frosty walks with confidence, and strides out. She does not fear the world. I ask her to trot, and she shakes her head. No! she goes. But I insist I tell her. After a little more urging she trots... and then stops. I let her. I want her to be calm, and not stressed too much when we ride. We trot again for a little longer. At the end of the lesson she is trotting almost the entire length of the paddock which is long enough to accommodate room for poles, and not much more room than that.
I put Frosty away and saddle up Ana. She throws her head as I tighten up the cinch. I led her out of the barn, and try to get on as she walks away. I correct her, and try again. This time I am standing in the left stirrup before she starts walking. I do a one rein stop, and swing my leg over. We stand there for a little while. When we started going again, I let her choose the pace. At first it worked. She slowed down sooner without my nagging, then she got hyper. She was bucking when we cantered. Sadly I don't think slapping her does anything to her. She has realized that it doesn't hurt so bad and therefore ignores it. She was tearing around the paddock like your mother on Thanksgiving Day and the relatives are coming! I finally decided that was enough and did one rein stops. I got her walking nice and we stopped and stood there. Terry had pulled up in his truck with the lawn mower sitting in a little trailer behind him. We talked for a little bit about what we'd been doing and I quit with Ana.
Toffy was doing really well. We were just walking around, and I was having a little discussion with myself about whether or not to trot her. Terry had gone and got Frosty and was clipping her feet and I decided to trot her. I called Terry's name and he came walking over.
"Can you longe her while I ride?"
He laughs and says, "We both need each other's help. I need you to hold Frosty for me because she moves around too much so I figured I'd wait until you were done." He goes back and gets the longe line and the whip.
We took off the lead rope hanging from her halter and secured to the saddle horn and I instruct Terry, "When she starts trotting only let her do it for a couple of steps, then pull her slowly and gently towards you. We don't want her to think about it too much. The longer she has to think about it the more time she has to freak out."
Terry asks her to trot, and she does. He slows her down and we pet her and tell her she's a good girl. We ask her to trot one more time and this time we let her trot halfway around the little circle before slowing her down. I slide down and lead her into the barn.
Misstack had gotten ridden this morning, but I rode her anyway. I get on and asked her to do flexing. She is a little stiff, but not too bad. We work on neck reining. I barely move my hand to the left, wait a second, direct rein her to the left as I slide my left leg back and move her hindquarters over. I also work on her enter and exit of the barrel. Sometimes she likes to go too wide, so I circle the barrel until we're closer and take off all pressure from my legs when we get there. Other times she wants to get too close. I push her out a little bit with my inside leg. She is very inconsistent with the barrels. When I finish I do flexing again before I get off and take her into the barn.
I get Coffie and lead her through the barrels and poles. I lead all the fillies through the barrels and poles. Mostly we do trotting. We are on the South end of the paddock and I ask her to trot. Then a couple birds dive out of a tree and she spooks away from them. My heart skips half a beat, but I calmly pull gently on the reins to the right, which is where she wants to go anyway. She settles down and we start walking again. We trot, and her trot is beautiful. She does it so easily and without worry. We trot a little more, farther than Frosty did, and call it good.
I saddle up Santana and Dash. Terry brings out Dash while I bring out Santana, and holds onto Dash while I ride Santana. I work on neck reining. He's not too bad at it. It just needs a little fine tuning. I work with him on his turns around the barrel like I did with Misstack too. I ask him to turn the third barrel, and he shoots out of that turn bucking. I turn him and do a one rein stop. I do the barrel pattern one more time before going and getting Dash from Terry. Dash is wearing a back cinch and has had the most trouble with it. That's most of the reason why we haven't been riding her. We've been longing and ponying trying to get her as used to that back cinch as possible before we get on. We walked for a little while and then trotted. One thing I love about Santana is that he doesn't care were the other horse is. It doesn't bother him. That's why I use him for ponying. That and he's one of our only horses that can neck rein decently. I get off Santana, and get on Dash. Terry leads her around and she's totally fine with it. Tomorrow I might add walking alone to it.
We tie Santana and Dash back up to their posts, unsaddle and put the tack away. By this time it is six o'clock. We undo the halters from the horses and watch as they run outside, around the back of the barn, and through the pasture gate. It was a good day.

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

I feel like I'm on a roll. I haven't gotten bucked off and I have been riding consistently sense Friday of last week.
I rode Frosty and Coffie today.
Did trotting with Frosty. I feel like I should work on being able to trot for five minutes before I canter. Talking about cantering. The last time the farrier was in the area he said he would show us an easy way to get the fillies to canter.... but he was in a rush. He'll be in the area again this weekend. Terry's brother wanted to know when he would be in the area again so that he could do his horses so Terry called him, and I told Terry to tell him that he needed to show me how to get the fillies to canter. I'm really excited.
The farrier, Craig is his first name... I don't know his last name, is quite a character.
Coffie did pretty good. We just walked. Ya know I really don't know why I stayed off her for so long. It's not like she did anything wrong. I think it might have had something to do with her flinching when I rub the brush at a certain place on her back. She's not bad. I can't remember if I have ever ridden her with a back cinch before though.
I rode Misstack! Britney had ridden her this morning (I could tell because the saddle stirrups were changed) but I figured it wouldn't kill her to be ridden again. I didn't do too much. We worked on neck reining, one rein stops at the walk, trot, and canter, flexing at the poll, and backing up. I didn't spend to much time on any one of those things.
We have a Sunday show to go to! The horses were taking are; Misstack, Santana, Blacky, and Dash. It should prove entertaining.
Santana did well too. Mostly worked on neck reining in a snaffle. I'll have to put up how to teach that. Then I ponied Toffy with him. We trotted around, and I really wish Santana was better at neck reining in a snaffle so that I could hold onto her lead rope without interfering with my directions to Santana. Toffy did well. She kept up most of the time. I was going to pony Dash off of Santana too, but that didn't happen.
Terry went and longed her beforehand to see if she would freak out at the back cinch which she did. She wouldn't longe very well though. She was basically side passing  a circle. She was afraid of the string on the end of the whip. Silly horsey.

I'm kinda really glad I at least have some room to work inside the barn on crappy days.
It was raining, so I worked with the fillies in the front part of the barn.
Before I got there Terry's grandson was working with them on leading. Like in a halter class. Dash is really good at it. Every time she stops she squares her feet.
On account of the rain we didn't use Santana as a lead horse. I did trot Frosty anyway. Somehow she learned that she could get more comfortable by just stopping. Which, I must say, is very nice. It means she doesn't get to the bucking part as easily.
With the other three I got on bareback, and Terry led them. After that I put a saddle on, longed all of them but Toffy, got on and Terry led them around again. I longed Dash and Coffie, because I'm still not sure they are totally okay with the back cinch.
Dash is now quite fine with someone getting on bareback. Heck we can even get on from a bucket. That did take a little bit more work though.
We've decided to take Frosty and Dash to the fair. Terry's grandsons will do halter classes with them, and Aleythia and I will do the riding.
Terry wants to go to a Sunday show and take Misstack, Santana, and two fillies. He'll see what Britney is doing and see if she wants to ride Misstack, and Terry's grandson will ride Santana. The fillies are just there for the experience. If either of those two don't show up I'll ride their horse. I really do want to ride Misstack in a show. Terry says that taking the fillies won't be a problem because they tie so well. They don't worry about being left alone.
Ya know I think the reason Misstack doesn't trust me is because I'm very inconsistent with her. I ride her when I feel like it. The fillies are all gung ho about anything we ask them to do. Every time I see them I ride, or at least most of the time I ride. With Misstack it depends on how much gumption I have. I really need to ride her. Maybe the Sunday shows will give me a little incentive to do so.
Why do they have to have shows on Sunday? That is a very inconvenient day. Some of us have Church to go to! Why can't they put it on Saturday? Nobody does anything Saturday anyway. Lest not in the Summer anyhow.

Day 12/Vet Visit

At 1:00 the rain was coming down in sheets. At 1:30 going to Terry's seemed unlikely. At 2:15 I got a call. I was definitely going to Terry's. I walked over as quickly as I could (I really want a car) and Terry had the trailer hooked up and his grandson was also present. We were going to the vet.
Now I know what you're thinking. You're wrong. It was just a coggins testing. Which the vet says is completely useless, cause there has only been two cases in the last twenty years. It's required for all horses who will be with another huge group of horses or going out of state. We loaded up Frosty, Santana, Misstack, and Strudder. Ya know I'm pretty sure I'm spelling Misstack and Strudder's names wrong, but it's how I've spelled them from the time I first met them so what's the point in changing it now.
So Frosty was a complete angel, Santana was like "this is old hat," Strudder was good, and Misstack was awful.
She was better than she was at the fair though. She didn't completely ignore my presence. I made it clear right from the beginning that she would not come into my space and that if she did she would get smacked. Hard. She wouldn't go into the vet's barn, and would back up really quickly. I did eventually get her into the barn by zigzagging across the entrance and going in at an angle. When the vet tried to get some of her blood she kept tossing her head and making it extremely hard for the vet to do anything. She then backed up the whole 40 meters out of the barn, and I just kept pressure against the halter so that she knew that she wasn't supposed to do that and went with her. We brought Santana over so that she would calm down and the vet was able to get some of her blood. After that I took her away from Santana and out of sight of the other horses, and worked her. I wanted her to stop when I stopped, not invade my space, and calm down. We went into the barn again and eventually she walked straight in. There was a platform covered in red carpet outside and I eventually got her to step on it. When she finally walked on it I led her back to the other horses. I stopped quite a bit to make sure she was watching what I was doing though. I remembered something else too. I remembered that I had once made it a requirement that Misstack stay behind me. I didn't care what she did behind me, just that she stayed there. So I reinforced that rule a little bit.
When we got home they all unloaded really nicely. Terry told us that we should have seen Frosty unload. He said that she just slowly lowered her foot until it hit the ground. He said that you could have put your foot where she would have landed, and it wouldn't have hurt because she did it so softly.
We also got on all the fillies bareback and just moved around; sideways, backwards, front, pushed ourselves off their back, moved backwards and forwards, that kind of stuff.  Dash didn't buck Aleythia off, Toffy seemed more comfortable, Coffie was moving around quite a bit, and Frosty didn't care.
So was asked Britney to help us ride the fillies as I said before, and Terry also said that his other granddaughter wanted to ride the fillies too. I'm really looking forward too this summer. Talking about this summer: TWO DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!!!!!

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. 

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.