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.

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.

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.

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.

Trail Ride with H/Day 10

I am so far behind in reading blogs, that I don't even want to start. It's pathetic.
So the trail ride with H.
We took Ana and Santana out on the first trail ride of the year. I was kinda worried about how they would act. I hadn't ridden Santana in a couple weeks, and I have only ridden Ana a couple of times sense last summer.
We worked them in the paddock for a little while and Ana was doing pretty good. As was Santana. We got going, and headed for the other side of town where we kept the fillies for the summer. It was probably a little over a mile, and it took an hour to get there. Seriously that's lame. But, I had to remind Ana that she couldn't trot on her own whim, so I did one rein stops. So we got to Terry's brother's place, and the train came by. I was trying to get Ana to listen to me, but she wasn't taking any notice of the rope I slapped against her rump. She was running me over, not listening, and generally being disrespectful. I acquired a whip. I got her to move nicely backwards. She turned when I asked, and didn't run me over. The Rosen Farm (Terry's brother's place) is on a dirt road that leads down to a dam. So we went down there. I was getting tired of Ana's energy so there was this nice hill (dirt that was pushed in a pile and hadn't been moved in a while so grass was growing on it) that was moderately steep. I went up and down that thing for a little while and that seemed to help, but she still wasn't done. We went down a path that was next to and above the dam and it turned into a small grassy area. I let Ana go any speed she wanted. We also met a small group of little kids that wanted to pet the horsies. Of course we couldn't refuse. They just petted Santana though. Ana wouldn't stand still long enough.
We headed back towards the "hill" and ended up cantering. When we got back to the dirt road the Rosen Farm was on I just let Ana gallop. H was behind me with Santana and she let him gallop too. It wasn't even a competition. It was a total cream. Santana just shot by Ana like she was standing still. H had fun though. She said her horses don't go that fast.
I figured something out about Ana that trip. She likes contact with the bit. It's so weird. I have always thought that she didn't. I don't even know how I came to that conclusion.
The whole way there she wasn't consistent in speed, she would have failed a drug test, and wasn't listening. On the way home, when I kept contact with the bit she tucked her head, went slow (read trotted really slow), went straight, and was listening. She sped up or slowed down with very little encouragement. She never really walked, but she did do as I asked. I wanted to see if she would sidepass too. I put my leg against her side, and she took four neat little steps sideways. She did it the other way too. I had to show H too. She walked calmly past the scary water and didn't even care about the man holes. She amazes me sometimes.
We met more people who wanted to pet the horses too. Santana got petted. Ana wouldn't stand still. But the little kids were so cute. A woman was holding a little boy, and he slowly reached his hand out and touched Ana, snatched his hand away and giggled excitedly. It was so cute!

Today with the fillies I caught them all and brought them in from the alfalfa field. It took two trips. I was hoping that Dash and Toffy would follow, but once they realized I didn't have a hold of their lead ropes, they were like "skrew this" So it took two trips instead of one.
It was really funny when I fist went out there to say hello. All the fillies came up and said hello, and the big horses followed. So a herd of horses, clumped together were converging on my position. It made me laugh.
Terry and I set out a blanket in the back pen and proceeded to try to get the fillies to walk over it. Toffy would have nothing to do with it. Terry eventually went and got Frosty. Terry led Frosty over to the blanket, and she walked right on over it, without so much as batting an eye. I was like what the heck! Totally not fair!
We ended up putting the blanket next to the barn so Toffy couldn't get around it and I led both horses across... eventually.
Dash was pretty okay with it too. Coffie freaked out though. But after she went and smelled it I was able to lead her across without too much trouble.
And that was about all we did.
Pretty exciting stuff.

Summer Plan

There is one thing I'm really looking forward to this summer. Well, more than one thing, but anywho. Aleythia and I are going to trail ride out to my oldest sister's place. It's around 15 miles away. She lives on a six acre farm just outside of a town that has nothing in it. Literally. There is nothing there but houses.  What we'll do is ride out in the morning and we'll go half a mile in the opposite direction so that we don't have to go through town. That also means that we'll add a mile onto our trip. We have our route all planned out. It'll be fun! I haven't decided how many horses we'll bring. The fillies will have quite a bit of riding by the time we do this and will be 2 years old. So we could bring them.  If we brang four horses that meant that we could switch horses on the way over. And we would be able to have my sister (E) and my brother-in law (N) ride. Trail ride maybe? I told N about riding one of the horses and he said they wouldn't be able to hold his weight. Ha!
We'll stay at their house for three or four days and then head home. Then there's everything else to plan. The horses will need water. They'll need a place to sleep. Food. E and N do have a barn. The place they live on did have horses, but the barn was made more for small livestock like sheep or maybe minis. But they do have a sort of shed that we could put them in at night. There is also an area in front of their house that would serve as a little pasture. The fence is wire. Not mesh, but in squares. There's also two apple trees in there. We're thinking with the water either ask Nate if he has something for it that they could easily hold sixty pounds of water. Or we could take a few buckets and hook them to that fence so that they couldn't tip them over and fill them up every couple of hours. The first thing would be way easier though. I don't think we'll have to worry about them having hay. If we do we'll just bring it over on a Sunday and store it in the barn. We'll also have to bring over the stuff we'll need to stay that long. Anything else I'm forgetting? I have a few friends in that area so we'll go visit them too. One of my friends has access to the lake. ?Nadaba con cabillos? (swimming with horses?) I'm practicing spanish. So if I make a random post in spanish.... almost sounds like fun.

We took care of the horses today for Terry because he had to go somewhere today. We do that sort of thing even if he's around. We didn't do much though. After we let the horses in Aleythia and I got out a couple of lawnchairs and sat in the pen with the fillies. They were a little wary of the folding chairs though. They freaked out when it hit the gate. When we got cold we went inside and watched TV. When we came back out to give the horses their feed the fillies had knocked over the folding chairs.

Stretch isn't doing to well. The last time we went to the horses' Terry had left him in the barn because he could barely walk. Today he was out but he's still in pain. This might be the year we lose the old boy.
I have pictures! I love photography.

ain't they adorable

santana and strudder

supper time!

I like these kind of photos

Random I know, but I  like the random side of photography