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.

Day 6

I don't try to make getting bucked off a regular occurrence. I really can not wait for the day when those fillies are well enough trained that they don't do that.
Toffy bucked me off. Again. I really don't understand. It could be a couple things. Either she has back problems, or she was freaking out because there was something wrong with her cinch.
I don't think it's the cinch.
Toffy flinches when we put the saddle on. None of the other fillies do.
Toffy bucked when I first put my foot in the stirrup. And didn't stop until a little later.
Which makes me think it could be the cinch. There was gravel in her cinch when I checked and some more might have gotten up there.
I really don't know. It's extremely frustrating.
When Toffy started bucking she was trotting. She actually wasn't bucking that hard. Either because it didn't hurt her back and was the cinch, or she thought the ground was too slippery and couldn't go all out. I really hope it's the first one. I stayed on for the first half.
She started bucking, and I was like, okay, she's bucking, say calm, and don't jerk the reins. I got her to calm down a little bit so that she was just turning tightly and not bucking... then the gravel flew up from her back feet and hit the side of the barn, and she was off again. I lost it, and fell into the dirt. I got mud on my jeans, my arms, and my shirt. I felt pretty good about staying on that long though.
Dash also went haywire.
Aleythia saddled her up, cinched up the front and back, started leading her out the barn and she exploded. She bucked like the zombie apocalypse was starting where she stood.
We figured it was the back cinch. She's only ever worn it once before.
We got her outside and I got my camera ready.

Here's pictures of Toffy

trotting right before....

after

 Aleythia rode Frosty and she was really good! She trotted beautifully, turned beautifully, stopped okay. It was pretty sweet! She walked nicely too.

 

I rode Coffie and she did just as well as Frosty

So it was quite an interesting day.
I had a FFA officer interview today too. I thought it went pretty well. My first choice officer was Vice President. It'll be fun. Can't wait to see what's decided.

National Treasures/ Going for the Prize

I love old people. Honestly I really do.
I love their knowledge, their traditions, their ways, their stories... and May baskets.

So we just worked with Toffy and we did the same thing that we did yesterday. One difference I rode. She was very good. Not much to say. We think we figured out where the other saddle was hurting her. We think it was pinching her withers. I think Aleythia was checking for signs of pain in Toffy's back and when she squeezed her withers Toffy lifted up her head and side stepped nervously away.
Well that's nice to know.
We have a new goal. Be cantering through poles with the fillies by the first of June.
It was Terry's idea. Mostly I think because if we have a clear set goal it will get done.
It is not an unrealistic goal. It gives us about four weeks to complete and they are all pretty good with trotting. They all know how to disengage hindquarters and understand the concept of moving their shoulders. It needs more work.
I'll lay the plan out for ya.
Toffy ~
The next session with Toffy, we'll start out with Aleythia leading her and me riding. After a little while I'll trot by myself.
After that we spend maybe a week at most getting her really comfortable with trotting, turning, stopping, and backing up. We'll desensitize a little in there too.
Then when we feel she's ready we will canter. I think the plan is that we'll longe her the first time we canter. We'll use the big long longe line and have someone in the saddle and someone on the ground. If we can get her to choose to canter by herself by urging her into a fast trot all the better.
Dash ~
Dash needs a lot more work.
We'll spend the first week or so desensitizing and trotting. We'll tie things to her saddle and have her work with it that way. Noises, movement, ect. I was thinking that to help her get used to someone being in the saddle while cantering we would tie something into the saddle that is heavy and tie it right so that it has a little movement.
After that we'll start the cantering.
Frosty ~
Trot until she's comfortable.
Desensitize, work on stops, turns, backing up, one rein stops (all four fillies will be worked on with this.)
Longe her into a canter with a rider.
Coffie ~
I actually think that Coffie will be the easiest to get to canter. I've done it once before. On accident. It was only for a few strides, but she did do it.
We'll pretty much do the same thing with her as we will do with Frosty.

After they can canter we'll work on turning at the canter, and one rein stops in the third and fourth week.
The second/third week we'll introduce the poles and walk through them. Third week we'll work on trotting. At the end of the fourth week we'll canter.

So that is my grand plan. Definitely attainable.

Soft Coat!

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

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

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

Gotta Do More Baby Steppin

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

happy trot

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aleythia rode Ana too.

So we got seven horses done. Woot Woot!

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

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

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

Mwahahah!

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

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

Stretch

I da boss

Blacky!

Dash

Ain't she pretty?

Coffie

 

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

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

Ollie