What’s Red & Blue?

The inside of our trailer! Why? Because MIL and Chase had a great show on Saturday! Chase started off with walk/trot. He looked great (yes I am biased)! He’s still having a hard time knowing what to do with his “free” hand but he kept it off of the reins so I was proud of him. He did a fabulous job and came out with a 1st place blue.

Next it was MIL’s turn. She looked great as well and had a nice ride. Sis was a bit fast for my liking but the judge must have liked her as she placed 2nd (1st place horse was very nice & would have been my choice as well).

Then MIL moved on to WP (Chase is still to young for that). I didn’t get to watch because I was in the class with her (on Abby lol) but they ended up winning the class so she must have had a nice ride. Abby didn’t do too badly. I figured at the beginning we’d be sitting in the middle of the ring before the class was over but the most she did was chomp at the bit. She got both leads well and while I had to push her to keep a trot she was more then happy to lope.

Next it was time for the games! Chase didn’t want to do poles because he always forgets the pattern. I told him to do them anyways and he did and won! He did the pattern perfectly and did most of it at a lope!

MIL and I took Abby in for shit and giggles and that little pony can turn! I ended up getting 5th on her which is sad because she wasn’t even trying (hmmmmm the wheels are turning – just kidding).

Next it was time for barrels. Chase got 2nd in this class but he did great! MIL and I didn’t place but we had a blast. Abby wasn’t as thrilled with it but it was good for her.

Here are a few pictures of “the man”. Doesn’t he look sharp?

Man is it hot!

I’m sure it isn’t as hot here as it is other places but it is what you are used to and for me it is hot out!

Saturday Redfield had their “Old Settler’s Days” and the saddle club was giving pony rides. Since Sis is out for the count at the moment MIL decided to use Abby in the parade. I was a bit nervous since this was Abby’s first parade and I wasn’t going to be riding to see how she did.

For the most part MIL said she did very well. She is having issues focusing on her footing. For example: It took me 5 min. to get her from the grass to the street. Once on the street any pavement that was a shade darker/lighter was an issue. Same for the grass, if there was an area that was darker/lighter she didn’t want to cross it. This is something that I’ve known we needed to work on so I guess it’s time for me to get with the program.

I thought that she looked very nice in the parade though. Here are a few pics.

She’s the very last horse/pony



Next to Anna (the youngest drill rider)



Pretty little pony



The end!

Lean on me

At night I typically put the feed for the am feeding in each horse’s stall. This way I know that they get fed what they are supposed to get fed and so that if I am feeding I don’t get dirty (I have to feed on the days DH works and I’m in my work clothes). Today was a work day for DH so I really wanted to make sure I had the feed ready to go last night.

We had to go set up a round pen for the “Old Settler’s Days” so I wasn’t able to get my am feeding put in like normal. After we were done setting up I decided to go out and get the feed put in each stall for the morning so I wouldn’t be late for work. When I arrived Lucy and Sis were head to butt stomping off the bugs. A storm was moving in and it seems the bugs are always worse before a storm. The horses were miserable so I decided to get some spray and put it on them.

My pasture is split and I have an alley that goes behind the barn and opens up into the pasture I want them to come into. When they are in the “back” pasture they know to go down the alley to come to the barn. When they are in the “front” pasture they don’t like backtracking to the alley to come to the barn so they sit and look at me with sad eyes. As I walked into the barn to get the fly spray Black started to head towards the back of the pasture so she could get to the alley (smart old gal) while the others sat there and looked at me with those big pathetic eyes.

As I come out of the barn I notice that Black has stopped by one of our little trees we planted in the pasture (there are 2) and she’s looking at me. The next thing I know she barrels her shoulder into the tree causing it to bend and then positions herself directly over the tree and rocks back and forth over the top of it to scratch her privates! OMG I was laughing so hard until I realized she was going to uproot my tree!

She finally stopped and stepped off of it so I sprayed down the three horses that were close to me and then headed towards her. I no more then start in her direction and she gets the tree down into position again and “goes to town”. This can’t be the first time she’s done this. Seems she has it down to a science by now. I drag her off of the tree and as I go to spray her she runs off. Little fart!

Movin on up!

After Thursday nights ride MIL decided that Sis was still “off” so she called the chiro. Friday the chiro came and now Sis is on a month of rest. Needless to say the poor gal had more things wrong w/her then mine combined. Her shoulder was dropped down and pushed back (hmmm, drill fall maybe) and her hip was dropped (probably from falling in the hole which was the reason for the call), multiple ribs out, back out, etc. Sis looked like she was in a coma by the time Jen got done with her. She still has heat in her butt muscle so Jen suggested a month off and then for her to come back after that time (this is the first time Jen has ever suggested coming back).

MIL was pretty upset. She is gone for 2 weeks this month so I told her to just use Abby for drill. She was very nervous about this (ummm not sure why, she is Chase’s pony) so last night I went with her to practice. If Abby was going to do anything she would try to kick. We started the pattern and LMAO ¼ of the way through I thought that poor fat pony was going to die. I could tell she was thinking about kicking so I kicked her up a notch and the thought disappeared.

When we got ½ way through she was fuddling out on me so I popped her w/the over/under and she kicked up so I popped her again. Finally she went and when we ended I think she thought she was going to die. I hopped off and let MIL jump on. Their “run” was much better but you could tell poor Abbs was tired. I think this will be good for her.

Oh and yes, the show got cancelled. At this rate we won’t have to worry about showing at all this year.

First Show of the Year

Well if it doesn’t get rained out that is. Saturday is our first show of the year so we headed over to the arena to practice last night. I want Chase to use Sis for w/t instead of Abby (he doesn’t have a chance w/Abby) so I wanted him to practice on her. With him being gone and Ty being sick he hasn’t been on Abby much either so I knew she was going to need ridden before he “ran” her barrels and poles on Sat.

It was a beautiful night. DH’s back was still bothering him so he watched Ty and I took Lu. When we got there I did some LFR w/Abby and then put Chase on and he started off w/his flexing and his ORS. After some ORS at the w/t I had him do the passenger lesson at the trot. Chase really needs to work on his balance so doing the passenger lesson is just as good for him as it is for Abby.

By this time I’d gotten Lu saddled up and into the ring to do some LFR. OMG was she full of P & V! She was trying to crow hop & buck and fart. She was really feeling good until we hit a few good hard turns and then she decided to mellow out. I bridled her up and jumped on.

I told Chase go to ahead and do some ORS at the lope and after about 5 min. of that I let him do the passenger lesson at the lope. Abby hates that. She’s becoming so slow at the lope that it isn’t even funny. She almost goes up more then she goes forward. When she finally stopped trying to be close to Sis or Lu I let him stop her and rest her. By now I was trying to do the passenger lesson w/Lu at the trot but she decided she wanted to lope instead.

Since loping is one of Lu’s issues I decided to let her lope until she was tired enough to trot. To my surprise she went for quite a while. Chase and MIL swapped horses (what a sight) and Chase practiced his w/t with Sis. We worked on passing and only using one hand on the reins.

Lucy still didn’t want to trot so we loped some more. Chase and MIL finished up and I worked on a few more things with Lu & then got off and tied her up. While she was cooling out I jumped on Abby and loped her around a bit. She’s changing so much and it is a nice change. She’s going to be a really nice pony.

Tomorrow MIL will be doing w/t and wp with Sis. Chase will be doing w/t with Sis and poles and barrels w/Abby. I won’t be showing. Lu isn’t ready and I’m afraid if I do then I will want her to do things that I haven’t asked her to do yet which isn’t fair to her.

Pretty Pony

Not much to report here but I took some pictures of Abby this weekend so I thought I’d share.





Can you see her blanket?



Does her belly look like it has the brindle lines to you?





Her little jug head is growing on me (or maybe it’s just growing)

Not enough time

It seems that as we creep further and further into summer I lose more and more time.

Last Sat. DH and MIL rode in the Van Meter parade. I was very shocked and surprised that DH wanted to ride but I was happy to give up the spot. I had planned on riding w/MIL so she didn’t have to ride alone but parades aren’t really my thing. Black was a bit nervous when we got there. I wasn’t sure if she’d ever been in a parade before but she did fine. As soon as they started moving she settled right down.

Last night was drill practice. MIL was late getting there so I rode Sis around to warm her up for her and ended up riding her the first run. One of the members who is new this year said “Are you riding Sis?” I replied telling her yes I was and asked why. She replied with “she looks like a totally different horse with you riding her”. lol Sis did look nice. She had her head tucked and was moving very well. She still needs to work on her breaks and she’s still leaning on the bit a lot but she’s not my horse to fix. ;)

After MIL showed up I hopped on Lu and rode around with them while they cooled down between runs. My saddle was on Sis so I rode bareback. Lucy will teach me balance! She is so small that she is harder to stay on bareback. She was very good though & after some time I felt my body relax and we were moving more in sync. Not much else is going on. The weather has been on/off raining and it seems like when it rains it pours.

Goofy Lucy

Not much to report. Ty has been sick so I haven’t really had a chance to do much with the horses.

Saturday I did meet up w/a friend from the JL board. We road the gravel road (we were supposed to go on a trail ride but they were too muddy) and had a nice chat. It was nice meeting her. We learned that Black has a bit of a “hitch” in her giddy up. We knew she had a stifle issue (it pops) but never gave it much of a second thought since we hadn’t had any issues. Well she has some issues with it going down hills. I’m glad we learned about it on the road vs. on a steep trail hill. I think she’ll be fine once we get muscle on her and we can strengthen that joint.

After the ride I decided to see if I could give Black a bath. I was preparing myself for a long battle. To my surprise she was wonderful! Stood perfectly still even to do her mane and tail. God only knows she needed it.

While giving Black her bath I heard a funny noise. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I looked up and this is what I saw.



I think it started out as her trying to “mouth” the water that was coming out of the hose but even after I shut the water off she continued to do it.





Check out that tongue! Lol



She absolutely cracks me up!

Memorial Weekend 2009

Friday night we hauled over to MIL’s (Lucy, Black and Dozer). It was fairly late by the time we arrived so we pretty much unloaded ponies and headed for the house.

Saturday we decided we didn’t want to go anywhere. We just wanted to be lazy and play around the house with the ponies. DH saddled up Black so he could try his new pad on her (we got her an ESP Bio Fit pad) and it worked great! It is specially designed for older horses with atrophy behind the shoulders or for high withered horses. This was the first time she had a solid sweat pattern on her back.

MIL got Sis out and Sis managed to drop her back leg in a hole in the yard (where an old fence post had been dug up) but seemed ok so she hopped on to ride. She asked me a question about moving her over so I hopped on to explain. That turned into about 2 hours worth of riding. I started to get a bit frustrated with Sis and then stopped and moved back to a solid working point and cooled her down. I tend to forget that a lot of steps have been skipped w/her so I can’t expect as much w/her as I do with my own. She was very good though.

That afternoon we got a chuckle out of watching Lucy chase Dozer. Put a rider on her and she would have looked like a roping horse for sure! I didn’t ride her and later that night we noticed that Sis wasn’t acting right. We think she pulled a muscle when she fell in the hole and then my working her for 2 hours didn’t help. We buted her and kept an eye on her and she seemed to improve a little but not much.

Sunday was another lazy day. I hopped on Lu bareback for a little bit but not for long (I still can’t balance on her well enough to ride her bareback). MIL hopped on her too and did better then I did at the walk but when she trotted she immediately gripped w/her legs and Lu went faster. lol

Monday MIL and I decided to go for a trail ride. Sis wasn’t 100% but she wasn’t bad either so we figured we’d take it easy. Yeah right! The trails started off nice but then turned to mud! Deep mud too and it was mixed with clay so it just sucked them in. Lucy was great. I really have no complaints w/her since I rarely ever really ride her and when I do we do little training.

Lu was very good to set back and go slowly down the hills (charging hills is a pet peeve of mine) and she did well with the water crossings as well. We met up with a group & they asked us if we’d like to ride with them. MIL wanted to so I went along. NOT my style of riding! Run up hill, run downhill and basically just go with no consideration to the safety of the horse (or the rider).

We got to a creek where the drop was straight down into deep mud and then into the water and then up. Lucy was first and she patiently waited for me to tell her what to do. The drop was straight down so I gave her my reins and held on to the back of the saddle. She went through like an old pro! Other then Lucy and Sis, the other horses charged the crossing or jumped it. By then we’d decided to head back to the trailer so that we didn’t push it with Sis. It had sprinkled a bit and we didn’t really want to be caught out in a storm either. It was perfect timing too because as soon as we loaded it started to come down.

All-in-all we had a very lovely and relaxing weekend. I’m glad we decided to stay home vs. trying to ride when the trails were packed.

What a beautiful day!

Tuesday night MIL and I went to drill. I took Black but don’t worry, it was just to ride around while they were warming up/cooling down so I could get her in with other horses. She did a pretty good job too. Not much ear pinning and when she does do it she seems to get over it faster. We walked, trotted, and even loped some. Boy does she have a nice stop! MIL wasn’t very happy that she stopped better then Sis. I told her it was just because Black would rather stop vs. lope.

On Wednesday we had another beautiful day & Chase wanted to ride. What he didn’t know was that we’d sent Abby home w/MIL so we could go trail riding this weekend so we improvised.



All-in-all Lucy was very good with him although he got yelled at quite a few times for being a little quick with his hands. She learned quickly she could grass snatch with him so after that she was happy. He did get along with her fairly well which pleased me since I can’t even remember the last time I rode her.

Shari could ride all day but she was having issues since the grass was as tall as Nikki.



Lucy coming to chase Ty and I on the 4 wheeler



DH even got on for a little bit but I told him he had to walk!



Old girl isn’t looking too bad is she?



We have a new pad ordered for her so I hope it helps make her back feel better since she’s lost so much muscling across her top line. She is filling out but like everything it is a slow process.

(Can you see the kids in the back messing around?)



Man doesn’t lll look good all slicked out?



I hope you all have a good weekend!

Worry over dead cattle

Hopefully this works.

Shopping, roping, and cows

Things have been busy at work (this is a good thing for me) so I’ve been lacking the time to post and honestly I don’t think everyone cares to read my day-by-day/play-by-play post so I haven’t posted in a while.

Since I’ve last posted we’ve been to see a few horses for DH. What we run into is that they are either out of our price range or they are in our price range and they are not what we are looking for. One weekend we headed to MO to look at 3. Here was the run down.

Nice 5 yr. old roan gelding. Very nice presentation. He was a little down hill but not horrible but he was out of our price range. Not UTD on shots, dental or hoofcare.

Next horse was a 9 yr. old APHA solid gelding. HUGE scars on his back legs and very small build. Guy admitted that he rarely rode him. He was goosey and wide eyed. Not UTD on shots, dental, or trimming (owned by a farrier).

Last horse – 16 yr. old AHQH gelding. Said he was a roper & beginner safe. They were trying to dicker the price w/us before we even looked at him. Caught him w/a bucket of corn. Feet were WAY overgrown & he was very ouchy on gravel. He traveled weird in his back end so I asked about arthritis. The guy said no and again offered to take less for him & claimed someone was coming the next day to buy him. I said even if we did like him we’d vet him. Guy says “he’s already been vetted”. Really? When? “Two years ago”. Ok this is starting to feel very wrong. I jump on and OMG you can feel how bad he travels. He didn’t want to stay in a trot going clockwise as I’m sure his hocks were very sore. When I e-mailed the guy to tell him we weren’t interested he said it was ok because he sold him “and at the full asking price”. Really? Then why haven’t you listed him as sold on your ad?

So needless to say we are still looking but not as hard. DH took Black roping and she did well and OMG can she move when she wants to. I think he had fun on her but then his back was feeling it (and still is) so he’s decided that yes maybe he does need to slow down.

Saturday our horse show was cancelled so MIL and I decided to go for a road ride. It was a bit breezy and cool but not too bad. Sis was a little “excited” so I decided to take Black. We decided to head down to the river. It is a nice ride but there are horses along one stretch of the road that are in a pasture covered with trees. Typically they see our horses and come running and it freaks my horses out because they can hear something coming towards them but they can’t see what it is.

I wasn’t too worried about Black & MIL was up for it so we headed out. The horses didn’t come running so ours didn’t get too excited. When we got to the river I wanted to see what Black thought of the bridge and the railroad tracks so we crossed the bridge. She wasn’t any too confident on the bridge and refused to get too close to the side. Of course ¾ of the way across a truck comes down the road. Luckily he was nice and slowed down for us.

Our path down to the sandbar was now closed off by rip rap so we decided to head back home. On the way up the hill I told MIL to lope as I wanted to see if Black would “chase” her. She did and we ended up in a race with Black coming on strong. Both MIL and I were laughing like little school girls and I think the horses enjoyed it too.

Chase got his bottle calf for 4-H on Sat. He’s an ornery little stinker but he’s a nice looking little bull calf. We showed him to the horses and here were their reactions:

Sis – OMG WTF is that and why is it coming towards me! Get me out of here now before it eats me!

Black – if you come one step closer to me I’m going to eat you!

Nikki – well if Black doesn’t like it then I’m not going to like it.

Lucy – what’s in that bottle? Are you going to drink it all? Can I please have some? Please?

So here are the pictures of little Dozer (short for “bull” dozer).



We need some leading lessons!

The long road home

Yesterday the decision was made to take TP back. DH had taken her out for a ride down the road to get to the field (on my recommendation). I told him if a car came down the road to get off (she was a little nervous Monday when cars passed so figured better safe then sorry). He said a car was approaching so he took her into the ditch to dismount. She went up towards the fence line (by this time the car had passed) so he turned her to go back up the ditch and onto the road. He said when she got to the bottom of the ditch again she jumped straight up and started bucking. As soon as he was off she hauled ass out into the field.

I wasn’t there so I’m sure there is more to the story & I’m sure there are things he could have done to have prevented it but at the same time I really don’t care. DH was trying to come up with excuses as to why she might have bucked like “there was a pop bottle in the ditch, maybe she stepped on it” but again, I really don’t care why she did it. We were looking for a broke horse and to me a broke horse doesn’t even consider bucking. Spooking is one thing but bucking is another.

DH said he did catch her and rode her back to the house and she was ok. I think his pride was hurt more then anything else (although his face is pretty bashed up). It’s been a while since he’s come off. He wanted to give her more time but I didn’t think that was a good idea (I don’t have time nor do I have the desire to play with his ponies anymore). I told him it was his choice but if I wanted to “train” something I’d go to the sale barn and spend $500 on a horse to train. I also told him he needed to consider his safety. He is already on light duty at work because of his back (although he was told he could ride at his appt. on Monday) so we don’t need him getting injured and being unable to work.

Needless to say it was a long, quiet trip taking her back.

Hi-ho Silver and away!

Last night I took TP to drill practice with MIL. I wanted to see how she was going to do in a new environment and with all of the other horses.

Our first issue came with loading. I was already aware that she had an issue pressure behind the poll (doesn’t always tie well) and it showed. Since I wanted to get to the arena before everyone showed up I thought I’d walk in the trailer first (normally I don’t) so as not to fight with her. Well she wasn’t going in! So we did a little bit of LFR and finally she jumped in first. Once she was in you could tell she was a bit nervous.

Make a note: work on trailer loading skills

Once we got there we unloaded and I did some LFR to see what she’d do. She was pretty calm. No tail in the air, no nickering and she looked relaxed so we headed to the trailer to tack up. Once saddled, I walked her around the inside of the arena and over the flour that was poured out (from the keyhole race at the show this past weekend) and she could have cared less so I hopped on.

We walked around the arena on a loose rein. She felt even better tonight then what she felt last night (each night seems to get a bit better). We walk/trot/cantered both directions on a loose rein, did some bending and some trotting on a lighter contact rein and she did great. She still needs to work on her stop but everything else felt great.

By this time most of the team was there and riding in the arena with us. She didn’t have a care in the world that they were in there with us. Terry’s back has been bothering her so she asked me if I would feel comfortable going in for her so she could go home. I was happy to so I could see how TP would do.

We just walked the pattern since there were two new horses and one rider that was back that was still having back pain so it was a great opportunity to try her out. She was fabulous! She didn’t care about the horses coming at her, towards her, behind her, etc. She never once pinned her ears in close quarters or offered to kick. Sis was awful pinny so I had TP push into her and move her over.

When we stopped she stood very well (an issue we had on the trail). She is getting a little duller the more I ride her but still the more I ride her the more I like her. Besides we need her a little dull for DH.

Going home she loaded just fine. It is raining here today (of course) but DH was going to try to jump on and go for a short ride so he can start getting the feel of her. I’m hoping we don’t get too much rain. I’d like to see how she does on cattle. If she does well I have a feeling she’ll be a keeper. Heck even if she doesn’t I have a feeling she’ll be a keeper. DH is already starting to get attached.

TP

Last night I tested out TP (temporary pony) to see what her “glitches” really are. We worked in the RP w/the rope and she did very well with that. She was really keeping an eye on the kids. I don’t think she’s ever seen so many before. lol

Once I did that I did a little bit of LFR with her. I’m already aware that we have some issues with her coming off of pressure and she wants to crowd a little bit. She did well for her first lesson. No swishy tail when I whacked her she just didn’t really understand.

After that I saddled her up and jumped on her in the RP. She was pretty quiet compared to what she’s been the last few times I’ve ridden her so I decided to see how she’d do on a short road ride. MIL saddled up Sis and off we went.

She was booking it! She was on a mission to get somewhere fast! Sis was full of it too. She’s pretty lucky MIL was riding her because we probably would have needed to have a meeting. The first few cars that passed we stopped. I could feel her tense but she just stayed still (he said she hadn’t been on the road in about a year since they are on pavement). When we got past the neighbors house we noticed a big coon running down the field and then into the ditch and then it disappeared behind the culvert. Sis didn’t want to continue forward and I told MIL I felt like we needed to trust her instincts on this one so we headed back.

As we walked past the neighbor’s garbage TP looked at it & acted like she was a bit nervous but when I asked her to turn and face she did and she was calm. We decided to head down the short trail behind my parent’s house. There are a few nice water crossings there and I wanted to see how she’d do. She got a bit more excited on the trail but she never felt out of control. She just felt like a ball of energy. She crossed the water well but she had to “test” the bottom first to make sure it was solid before she would cross.

After the creek I wanted to rest for a few minutes. Standing still doesn’t seem to be one of her strong points at the moment. We flexed, then she’d walk off so we’d flex, then she’d walk off. When I got her to stand for 30 seconds I finally asked her to walk on (we’ll fix that issue if we keep her).

When we got back home I had DH pull out the roping dummy and hand me my rope. I threw a few off of her and she did well (much better then the first time we tried her out). I even drug it backwards a little bit with her and she did very well. I had a problem with my bit sticking in her mouth so I got off to take it off. By this time DH decided he wanted to get on her (his back is still bothering him so he can’t push it too much).

We put a different bit in her and he walked her around. He said he felt much more comfortable on her then he did the first time he rode her. I gave him a few pointers and then gave him a “mini” lesson on where some of her buttons were. Not once did he get frustrated with me. I think he’s learning that there is a lot he doesn’t know but he’s decided even if she isn’t the horse for him he needs to know it.

I helped him get her into a slow spin and the shit eating grin on his face was priceless. I think he’s already falling for her.

He’s at work today so I’m going to take her to drill practice tonight to see what she does. I think she’ll be fine but I want to do as much as possible in the next 2-4 weeks so we can make an educated decision when we decide what to do with her. And for those of you wondering no, I’m not going to ride her all of the time. I just want to make sure that she will be able to power down her engine for DH. I don’t need him getting hurt anymore then what he already is.

The Dr. did tell him he could ride though and I told DH I would “help” him with her but I wouldn’t train her for him. I said if he needed me to I would teach her the concept and then he could go from there. Mainly though from what I see now she just needs some time doing ORS & the passenger lesson. She also needs to learn to whoa from the word and we need to do a little bit of desensitizing from the ground. Other then that her shoulder button could be refined but her rib and hip button are pretty nice. Her back is awesome and she tucks and flexes well both vertically and laterally.

We have a visitor

Sunday morning DH and I headed out to look at another horse for him. This horse was drop dead gorgeous! Jet black with just a bit of white on her head and a hip to die for! The guy talked about Parelli so I got really exited hoping she would be just what we needed.

When the son got on she started to walk off. DH lets his horses do that but it drives me nuts. He had her in a medium shanked snaffle and when he’d put pressure on the bit she would chomp and gnaw at it and crunch it between her teeth but she did flex well at the poll.

He walked her around (we were in their indoor) and then trotted some. You could tell she needed refinement on her neck reining but didn’t look too bad. She didn’t want to stay in the lope. You could tell he had to keep nagging her to stay in it.

DH got on and she kept trying to bring him back to the chute area (by the stalls). He didn’t trot much because of his back so he loped and then got off and I got on. She was a prime example of a lazy horse! She had no buttons (I like my buttons) and she ignored your legs completely. When you stopped her head went straight up and I think Nikki the pony could back faster then her.

She didn’t want to go to the far end of the arena (where the cows were) which bothered me since a) we were in a location she was familiar with and b) she is supposed to be a cow horse. There was no drive at all from her back end at the lope and you had to push to just stay in it.

I hopped off and asked the gentleman who owned her to rope his hot heels w/her to see how she’d do. That is when the real horse came out. Head up and braced on the bit.

When we left DH asked me what I thought. I didn’t want him to follow my lead so I said “I don’t know, what did you think?” He of course liked her. When I started listing out all of the reasons I didn’t like her he agreed with every one of them and even added a few more of his own. He admitted that he liked her because she was lazy. I listed off all of the things *I* would fix if she was my horse and the list was quite long. Long enough to not justify spending that kind of money on her and DH agreed.

On the way home I could tell he was thinking. I asked him what he was thinking about and he said the little Truro mare (the one we first tried out). He really liked how she handled for me but questioned if he would ever be able to change his style enough to ride her. I think horses are pretty adaptable to their riders and she was a very willing mare so I think with time and patience they’d be fine together. I told him maybe he should go take another look at her. So that’s exactly what we did.

This time when we went I rode her in a snaffle. I was amazed! She was actually softer, lighter and more responsive then what she was in the shanked bit. She was more relaxed then she was the last time I rode but just as responsive as ever. Her rollbacks were wonderful, her turn arounds were great and her trot was amazing. At the lope I waited to see how long it would take before she would downshift. You could tell she wanted to but she kept going (I like that she’s thinking of slowing down).

When I moved her laterally over to the fence DH decided that was it that he wanted her. Luckily I had talked to him prior to going over and we are taking her on a trail basis. I still want to see how well she works on cattle since that was DH’s main complaint about Max. She also has a big motor and she’s very responsive (not hot but responsive). DH doesn’t realize how much leg he uses to ride (that shouldn’t be used) so he will have to adjust his riding quite a bit in order to ride her but I think it would be great to see him improve himself & I think she’ll dull down to an extent.

DH brought her home today and of course MIL and I plan on playing with her tonight. He’s so excited and so am I. She really does seem to be a nice horse. Nothing fancy, no fancy bloodlines but she’s got an awesome foundation (she’s only 5).

This is the only pic so far (from seller). It isn’t great but I will put more up when I get them.

I love my ponies!

I might complain about my ponies from time to time but I really do think they are great! The more we look for a horse for DH the more I realize how wonderful mine are.

Saturday we went for a short family ride (DH, Chase and I). Lucy was pretty excited to get out and go so she was out in front just clipping along with Chase behind us and DH and Black bringing up the rear.

My “alignment” issues with Lucy are getting resolved. She only veered left a few times and when she did she was easily corrected. The few times that she did do it more then two times within a very short period I decided to spin her to the right to get my point across a little clearer. She decided to listen to my message and for the rest of the ride unless we were stopping or giving my hand was in her mane.

Black decided to pull a few tricks out w/DH but he decided to listen to me so she decided to just go ahead and go down the road happily. I think the light bulb went off for him as well and he realized that by micromanaging he’s also making things harder for himself. The rest of the ride she was great for him.

Abby was wonderful but when we got back we had Chase trot her in the RP for a while just to lock in the fact that out on the road is a great place to be.

Lucy’s stop off of the rein is getting so much better! She’s finally learning that the release comes when she softens her face (before she would have her head up and she’d back up). I can only imagine how nice she’d be if I actually worked her on a regular basis.

When we got back I practiced throwing a rope off of her. It was a big difference for me going from the ground to a horse but she stood very well (almost fell asleep) while I practiced.

The search is on

Even though DH’s back is bothering him, the thought of him not having a horse is just too much for him to take so the search is on. I’ve been trying to talk him into just using Black until he heals up but I don’t think that is going to happen so now I’m trying to talk him into trying 100 horses before he makes a decision so he can feel the difference in them instead of just buying the first one he rides.

The one thing he has done is decided he’s ok with mares now (in the past he has hated mares). I still wish he’d look for a gelding but I’m glad he’s no longer against mares. Saturday we did go look at a mare. She was 5 and had been used to drag calves to the branding fire in South Dakota when she was younger. The weather this weekend was pretty nasty but they had an indoor so I still wanted to try her (figured she’d probably be at her worst with this weather).

The gentleman that showed us to her was very nice & seemed very honest. He said she didn’t want to get caught earlier but he had her up and brushed off for us. I asked him to saddle her up and ride her first. He saddled her nicely (didn’t just yank the cinch up like most) and when he got on he proceeded to bend her into a circle. You could tell she was hot and wanted to go and he didn’t stay in a trot very long before he moved her up into a fast trot and then into a lope.

Her stop was ok. She rooted a little and didn’t stop on a dime but once she was stopped she rolled back on her hocks and backed up fast with her head tucked. He tried to do some spins with her but it was more of a hop the butt over, hop the front end over then it was a plant the ass end and move the front end around. Her side pass was ok but she needed to catch her butt end up.

After that he hopped off and DH got on (in his saddle). He immediately took off trotting and then she broke into a lope. DH stopped her and backed her up but as soon as he released the reins she was off in a trot again and then back into a lope. *I* couldn’t figure out WTF he was doing. I could tell her trotting was starting to jar his back but he decided to try to throw a rope off of her anyways. Needless to say she pretty much ended up speeding up quickly until she was in a lope and he was stopping her again.

He finally got off and it was my turn (with his saddle – yuck). When I started off I started bending her. She was very soft in her mouth and she was very responsive to leg cues. I started trotting her down the side and then asked for her hip. Boom! She moved it right over. Then we went the other way and I asked for it. Boom! She moved it right over. Then I moved her into the center and asked her to bend around my leg. When she was doing that well I applied my outside leg and boom! She went right into a correct spin (not to gloat or anything but I think she moved better for me then she did w/her owner). I asked on the other side and got the same results.

Then I decided to lope a bit. Her lope was quicker. When I asked the owner if she’d go like this all day he replied yes. That wasn’t the answer I wanted. Lol After a few laps she did start to slow down. I loved her back! She never once drug her feet and she backed up quickly. I had DH hand me the rope and when I first started swinging it she wanted to walk off. I asked her to stop and she did so I continued to swing it. It didn’t take her long to realize that I wanted her to just stand still and the more I swung the rope the lower her head got.

On the way home DH asked me what I thought. I told him he honestly didn’t want to know but he pestered me so I told him. I thought the mare was a very nice mare. A little on the hot side but nothing that I don’t think a week of the ORS and passenger lesson wouldn’t fix. But with all of that said I told DH that unless he changed his style of riding that wasn’t the horse for him.

I think he was tense and had a lot of leg contact (even though he swears he didn’t) and I think she though he wanted her to go. I think DH rides with more contact then he realizes (and more then I realized) and I’m hoping by trying out a few horses he’ll realize that. Don’t get me wrong, she was very sensitive and it didn’t take anything to get her to go (I’m glad I told him to take his spurs off) but at the same time isn’t that what we ultimately want?

This is driving me bonkers because I see the potential in this mare. Don’t worry, I told DH that he needed to find a horse that fit him. I told him my ponies have been on the back burner for too long and it is time for them to come first. We have a few that we are going to go look at this weekend. They are higher priced (of course) but they also have more cattle experience too.

My baby is growing up!

Cat is growing up. She’s two now but she’s a very small two year old. Well that is what I thought when she was over at MIL’s but having her at home next to Lu and Abby she doesn’t look so small.

While I don’t plan on actually backing her until next year I’ve decided there is no reason why I can’t have everything minus actually getting on done with her this year. So last night I decided to saddle her up to see what she thought. We did a little bit of RPing first (in my little square pen) and she didn’t do too badly for not being RP’d in a while.

Then I put the saddle and the pad in the middle of the pen and let her sniff, lick, paw, or do whatever she wanted to do to it. We worked on tightening the rope around her belly and when I didn’t get a reaction I decided to go forth!

Here is what she thought of the saddle.



She thought about crow hopping once but I think she decided that would be too much effort and just kept cantering. I flapped the stirrups – no problem. I left it on her for about an hour and then we took a walk down the road with it and I sent her up and down the ditches with it on. She really could have cared less.

I told MIL and DH if I have problems breaking her out next year I don’t need to be breaking colts anymore!

She’s going to start going to the ropings and learning how to tie patiently while the other horses work. I need to start exposing her to more stuff. She’s a good girl though and she retains so much that I have faith she’ll be a very good mount when the time comes.

Gotta Love Spring!

Tues. we went over to the roping arena. I let DH and Chase start out while Ty and I sat at the trailer. I tied Lucy up on a post in the arena next to a few other horses so she could just stand.

Abby immediately perked up (although she didn’t want to speed up) and did well tracking. Chase wanted to throw his rope but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. He always whacks Abby on the butt with it since he can’t get it high enough so right now she needs some desensitizing and he needs to learn how to throw it better.

I think DH (and a few other guys) were surprised by Black. He roped a few off of her and even dallied off a couple of times (he started off w/his breakaway). The only problem he had with her was getting her into a lope and that was just because he was being too nice IMO. He’s afraid he’s going to hurt her but I don’t think it will kill her.

He hopped off and I jumped on Lu. Boy does she perk up when we are around cattle! But on the flip side she also forgets a lot of her training. Her “whoa” sucked! I decided not to ride her very long. I was starting to accept less a then favorable performance from her in order to play and decided I needed to take it down a notch before I let her learn that she didn’t have to listen to me when we were around cows.

DH’s back was bothering him so I hopped on Black and persuaded her to lope. She wasn’t too happy with my persuasion and proceeded to let me know but I won and she loped. I tried to throw a few but missed. I’m going to try to get my first lesson in next week. She told me I could bring my horse but I think we’ll start with me first. I need to get Lu listening to me 100% of the time before I decide to try to rope off of her.

I do plan on taking her over and just letting her track the cows from time to time but I need to start working with her more consistently and expecting more from her.

All-in-all though I think we all had a good night.

Desensitizing the ponies & a bit about Max

Well Mr. Max passed his vet check and he is now with his new owners. It was bittersweet but I think it will be the best all around. She is young (turns 13 tomorrow) so they will have plenty of time to grow together and unlike most horses I don’t think she will grow out of him. She as already sent me an e-mail to tell me how much she loves him and how great he’s been so far (no riding yet) so hopefully they will keep me updated from time to time.

Here is a small cell pic of him checking out his sexy reflection in the stalls at ISU while he waited for the vet to do his exam.



The barn feels so empty without him and DH is starting to question his decision to sell him (a little too late for that). Since he’s still having back issues he’s in no hurry to look for another horse which is nice.

Friday DH had to work so I got the horses out for the kids. Chase was doing very well with Abby without me reminding him so I was very proud of him. His hand was low and he would stop and let her rest when she got farther down the pasture. He did so well I even let him lope her a few times. She did great with him too! No head tossing or anything like last year so hopefully the “bugs” are getting knocked loose.

Once they were almost done since both boys were listening I let them have a bit of fun.



Don’t the horses look excited? lol

After they got done I hopped on Black and roped the fence a few time. She could have cared less.

Tomorrow we’ll be taking them (Black, Lu and Abby) to our first roping of the year. I really want to see what Black is capable of.

With Max gone Abby has been trying to move up to queen “witch” status so she’s been helping us move Black. This morning it was great watching them all run and buck when I turned them out.

Quick (for me) Update

Saturday we brought Cat and Sis home (to my parents’’ house). The weather was lovely so MIL and I headed out for a ride. I decided to put spurs on just in case I needed them. Lucy does a pretty good job of ignoring my crop when she wants to so I thought maybe they’d be a little more incentive if I needed them.

We headed out and the drunken horse automatically appeared. She is getting better but it is still annoying. There is some trash down by the cattle that she doesn’t like. She isn’t bad she just wants to veer into the middle of the road instead of staying on the side so I took the opportunity to do some flexing and rollbacks until the trash didn’t look like such a big deal.

I was a bit surprised. She did the bending exercise very well with the spurs (last time w/bump spurs I still had issues). We headed down the road until we heard sirens. Lucy and Sis both stopped to see what was going on. There was apparently a grass fire down the road as several fire trucks headed down the intersection we had just gone through. Neither horse acted nervous, they more so wanted to just see what was going on.

We continued on and did a little bit of trotting and a little bit of vertical flexion. Lucy’s attention drifted when we got up by the neighbors’ horses so we did a bit of bending. It didn’t take long for her to focus on me instead of the horses. As we rounded the corner onto the next road we passed a concrete planter. Kind of like the garbage she just slowly veered away from it. I decided it was time to fix this as well so Sis and MIL sat back while Lucy and I did rollbacks and circles around the planter. Boy can she move off of her hind end when she wants to! It took about 15 minutes before she would even look at the planter but once she figured it out she was all for touching it.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, some trotting here, stopping off of rein only there, and a little loping up the big hill here. That has to be Lucy’s favorite (not). On the way home we worked on collection at the trot. This isn’t Lucy’s favorite but she did do her best. All in all it was a very nice ride.

Back at the house Lu and Sis got a little bit of patience pole time while MIL and I unloaded hay. Lu wasn’t very happy but Sis is slowly learning.

As for Max – well he’s still here at the moment. Right now I have two people who say they want him. The original people are being slow so I told them they had until Friday to have him vetted. After that I would be allowing the second person the opportunity to have him vetted. I guess I should feel lucky that he’s wanted in an economy like this.

Pleasure pony in the making

Last night I headed over to the arena for a little ride time. I wasn’t sure if I was going to miss the rain or not so I just took Abby over. We started off with some YHQ (under saddle) and then with some flexing. I can’t blame her too much for not being as responsive to the flexing since Chase hasn’t been releasing her in time but she’ll have to learn the difference in riders and what is expected so she got a few “bumps” to get around faster.

Then we did some ORS at the walk. I could tell this was going to be a good day by her “exhale”. I’m not really sure what it is called because it isn’t a nicker but it isn’t just normal breathing either. We started doing our ORS at the trot and she was finally starting to rate me a little bit so we moved onto the passenger lesson.

Keeping her in a trot for longer then 2 minutes is a chore but we continued with our squeeze, cluck and spank. I tried pushing her into a bigger trot but she just took that as a cue to lope so I let her pick her pace (for now) and just continued to get after her when she would breakdown to a walk. After about 15 minutes of this *I* could feel the burn so I decided to move onto loping.

Now if you remember this is where we had most of our problems last year. When I asked for the lope she went right into it with no head shaking or taking off. The only thing she did that I don’t like and that time will fix is that she braced against my hand when I tried to do a ORS the first few times.

Her version of the passenger lesson at the lope was pathetic. She was barely moving. She would try to take me over by Bishop and I would speed her up so she decided that maybe, just maybe if she went faster I’d shut her down. Well it wasn’t fast enough for me to shut her down and it didn’t take her long to realize she was burning calories so she came back down to her almost 4 beat lope. When she was dog tired I put her in the middle of the arena and flexed her while Terry loped Bishop. She was very happy to stand still.

Once Terry was done I worked on stopping off of two reins from a walk. Abby really is smart (which is a concern of mine since she is a ‘kid’s pony” and picks up quickly. I think with time and consistency she could be a very nice pony for Chase.

Round and Round We Go

Tuesday night DH, the boys and I headed out to the barn. We had left the horses in earlier in the week due to a rain/snow storm so we had stalls to clean. Poor Chase doesn’t think he should be responsible for cleaning Abby’s stall and when he does clean it he does it like most kids would do it. I’ll admit I’m pretty picky about how my stalls are cleaned so I wasn’t happy when he was just trying to throw away all of the sawdust vs. actually cleaning his stall.

By this time my niece had come down and started brushing Nikki for a ride. DH helped her saddle up and about 20 minutes later Chase was finally done with his stall so we started on Abby. I sent the kids out into the pasture to ride while I jumped on Black bareback and had Ty join me in the drylot. All I can say is that it is a good think Black ignores ½ of the cues you give her! Ty was clucking to her trying to get her to trot and when I’d take her towards the barn he’d grab the reins out of my hands and try to steer her back over to the gate because he wanted to go out to the pasture with the kids.

After a while of that he decided he was done. It was a good thing too because I nearly unloaded on my eldest child. Looking back I probably shouldn’t have gotten so upset but it is a little too late now. All he wants to do is run that pony (yeah I know I did the same thing when I was young). I had told him several times not to and when I would turn around he would be giving her the cue to trot and then he’d tell me “she just started doing it on her own”. **inserts not a happy mom face here**

Needless to say by the end of that night I was ready to sell Abby.

The next night we sat down and I explained to him what my expectations were for him. I expect that if he is going to have a pony and that if he wants to show (more like show off) then he needs to practice just like he would with baseball or wrestling. So that night we headed back out to the barn only this time I loaded my pockets with a few quarters. I gave both kids (my niece and Chase) $2.00 worth of quarters and told them when they didn’t listen I got one of their quarters. If they lost them all they were done riding. Whatever money they had left over at the end of the night was theirs to keep.

This seemed to work out well and Chase lost a quarter right off of the bat for giving Shari some “training tips’. About 5 minutes later he lost one for not releasing Abby when he flexed her (we had to buy her a caveson because she’s been biting him hard since he isn’t releasing her). I had them do some ORS at the walk and then I let Chase do some at the trot. We need to work on Nikki a little bit but I think her toes are a bit sore from some of the hay we had so I didn’t push her trotting.

After that I brought Nikki in with me and had Chase do the passenger lesson at the trot. Abby kept taking him behind the barn, by the gate, etc. He trotted her for probably 15 minutes and then I had him take her to the far end of the pasture, flex her and just let her stand still for about 5 minutes before bringing her back up to the barn to stand tied.

Then it was Nikki’s turn. Instead of letting Shari do this in the pasture we went to the dry lot so I could help “encourage” Nikki to go. Any time Nikki’s head would go down she’d get a friendly “pop” on the bum. I didn’t ask her to go too fast or too long before we put her up as well.

With DH’s bad back Black has been missing her exercise so I decided to RP her for 5 minutes each side at the trot. She wasn’t amused but she needs the exercise as well.

Isn't she looking good?

Let’s try this again…………………

Well I finally got the e-mail.

Hello, We enjoyed meeting you Saturday and were very impressed with Max and your handling skills. We were even more impressed with Max and feel he would be perfect for XXXXXX at her riding level. We would like to purchase Max pending a vet check if you are agreeable.

So now the wait is on. I don’t know why vet checks make me so nervous but they do. The ONLY health issue Max has had since we’ve had him was his hock sprain last year which they know about. He’s been moving out great this year and actually seems to be stronger on that hock now.

They seem like very nice people and the barn he will be going to is a pony club barn so he will be used. I think this will be a great opportunity for Max. I think he will be able to grow with the little girl (maybe 14-16 yrs. old) and hopefully if she ever does outgrow him or his potential he’ll be able to be passed on to someone else who can see what a wonderful horse he is.

So for right now I’m just asking everyone to keep their fingers and toes crossed for me that his vet check goes just fine.