Did you guys want more pictures?

Well tough – I’m going to post them anyways. BS was asking me about Abby and I had someone else ask me about her and realized that I didn’t have many pictures of her so I set out to take some last night.

The pony (Nikki) has been locked in the RP for a week since she managed to weasel her way out of her muzzle so last night was the first she’d been out in a while. They were all full of P &V! Chase might be some competition this year in barrels because that little pony of his can fly when she wants to!

Abby –


Yep, she’s healthy! Do you see the blanket on her butt? She’s actually shedding out darker than I expected (she’s still not as dark as I’d like so we might have to try the paprika on her)








Hauling





This one is one of my favorite!



Ok we’re tired now!





It didn’t take long for Sis to poop out.



Ok, no more pictures for a while I promise.

Picture Overload!

So here are some fun shots from this weekend. Look at how much Cat’s color has changed (MIL would probably kill me if she knew I posted a pic of her in her jammies on-line).



I love pictures of her running! She’s getting fat and it looks like she could handle running a bit more!



Look at that face!



Filling up!



Can you see the dapples?



LLL eating a snack after her long trail ride



Sisters



The Three Amigos



Oh fine! I’ll go with the other horses but only because I want to!





Oh crap a truck! Run for your lives!



Where’d it go?



I’m gonna get you!



Hey guys.



Bye guys.



Now I’m gonna get YOU!



The end(s)

What a weekend!

By now you should already realize you will be reading a book. LOL

This weekend the forecasters had predicted severe storms to move in Sunday evening. DH and I decided to try to go for a trial ride but where we wanted to go (north) the trails had been closed due to rain on Friday so we decided to go south instead (their trails were still open).

Saturday night we loaded up and headed to MIL’s. We figured we’d spend the night and then leave out early Sunday morning to ride as the trails are only ½ hr. from her place. She was going to keep the boys for us so that we could have some time to ourselves. When we got up Sunday morning it was foggy, humid and warm. The storms weren’t predicted to come in until about 3:00 so we had plenty of time.

I decided to take Lucy. I wasn’t sure how long she’d last since she seems to fizzle out quickly but I decided I need to start using her more and weaning myself off of Max more so no better time than the present to start. We loaded up and headed out.

When we got there I was surprised there were as many campers as there were still there. They had some severe storms the night before and I know a tent/camper isn’t really the place I’d want to be in a storm. We pulled in the day ride area, unloaded and started to saddle up. We threw our saddle bags on, climbed aboard and headed out on the trail.

Lucy was all ears! She was so excited to see what was around the next corner. Well that was until the next corner was nothing but a mud puddle. Seeing all of the mud brought back memories of Max’s first trail ride. He hated mud but after a day at Stephen’s he could have cared less. LOL

Lucy moved side to side trying to avoid the mud but finally went through it. We pushed on and it didn’t take her long to forget about the mud. Then we hit running water! There hasn’t been running water at Stephens in a long time! I wasn’t sure how she’d do but after a few suggestions to go over it she calmly walked over the water. Woo hoo! No jumping!

A ways into the trail we hit a bad spot. It was deep mud and there was no way around it. I pitched LLL the reins and held onto the horn allowing her to find the easiest way through this mucky mess. She did awesome! The trails were starting to get worse and worse. The hills were slick and greasy and the horses were having a hard time making it up the hills. Going downhill was even worse. I like my horses to go slow and steady down the hills but there were a few where LLL started to slide and instead of slowing down she sped up. She tripped on one scaring the daylights out of me but she managed to regain her footing and take me safely to the bottom of the hill. After that little scare I really made her take it slow and easy down the hills.

I can’t tell you how proud of her I was. The trails were a mess that even wore out seasoned trail horses. On one trail there was a huge tree down on the path. Big enough that going around it or jumping it was the only option for continuing on the trail. There was a trail going up the hill around it but it looked like a mess and LLL was already exhausted. It looked like I could cross a section below it and she’d just have to watch her feet between the downed limbs so we tried. HUGE mistake! She sunk and she was sinking fast. I was afraid that when she tried to back up (the only way out) she’d come up fast and loose me so I jumped off (thank god for mecate reins) and allowed her to find her own way out. She did and I’m glad I wasn’t on her. She struggled enough to make it out that she didn’t need my weight adding to it.

DH tried taking Max the top route and it wasn’t much better but they made it. I decided to see if LLL would jump the tree (the easiest solution it looked like at this point) and to my surprise she did without any hesitation. I mounted back up and we continued on the trail. We finally got to the road and I got off to walk. My saddle had slid clear back on her (I’m surprised she didn’t try to buck me off). I’ve never had my saddle slide with a CSI pad or a neoprene cinch! I moved it back up and we walked for about a mile. She seemed to get a second wind so I hopped back on and rode to the trailer.

She was so good! Max looked just as tuckered as LLL. DH and I unsaddled and offered the horses some water. LLL took a few small sips but Max refused. We let them eat grass and cool down before heading back to MIL’s. Once we got back we turned them out with Cat & Sis to play. They all rolled! I think they were happy to be back.

Here are a few pics from the ride:


Can you see how muddy the trail is? This was one of the better spots.



You can’t see it but up at the top is a huge puddle of water. Hey Jaimee – look at those ears! LOL



DH & Max. This is on one of the maintenance roads so it was rocked (no mud).



This is one of my favorite views at Stephen’s.



If you look really hard in the center of the picture is a big hill that we go back up once we reach the bottom of this one.







Can you see how hot they are?





Look at LLL’s neck. It’s saturated with sweat!





I have some more pictures from this weekend but I’m going to leave it at this for this entry.

Yes I’m playing

I know – I just can’t leave well enough alone! I’ll be making some changes to the “style” of my blog so please bare with me!

American Cowgirl!

This is what it's all about!

Practice, practice, practice

Last night we had drill practice but it was running ½ late so I had time to work LLL before everyone showed up. MIL and I did some ORS’s at the trot in the arena and then moved on to the lope. I swear if LLL could be any slower she’d get passed up by a

One of the other members came so I’d lope LLL around and them pull up between MIL and the other member. LLL would walk along fine and then decide to pin her ears at Scooter (team member’s horse) so off we’d lope away from Sis and Scooter and then we’d come back and walk in-between them. She got the message pretty quickly.

Once everyone started showing up I hopped on Max to warm him up while MIL ponied LLL. Then I took LLL and ponied her off of Max. OMG is my arm sore today. She dragged herself behind us. Apparently we need to work on coming off of pressure with the bridle. Finally after a bit of give and release she figured it out and came up next to me.

We’ve decided instead of trying to have a team of 10 & a team of 8 to just have two teams of 8 so those who are on both teams don’t have to remember two patterns. We ran the first team of 8 and let me tell you we need a lot more practice!

It was time for the second team of 8 (this team consist of a few members who don’t like to trot or lope) so this time I rode LLL. She was cranky at first (never!) but then slowly started to enjoy herself.

After that run the original 8 ran again. This time we were a bit better.

Once we finally finished up I took LLL to the arena and laid her down again. It took a bit longer tonight and she had a little bit of struggle/fight in her but she finally went down.

I’d really like to be able to get her over to the arena this weekend and work on the passenger lesson (for both of us). She needs to do a lot of transitions and I need to learn to stay with her better. She almost lost me a few times last night because she can change directions pretty quickly.

One thing she likes to do (which annoys me) is to try to “hop” a lope when she’s supposed to be trotting. We go no where but we kind of rock this pathetic attempt to get out of trotting.

She’s also having problems with bridling and having my hand on her poll. I see she has a small scrape on her poll but she was horrible last night with bridling so we need to work on it.

Weekend Update:

Yes this is going to be long!

Thursday night we got the ponies out and practiced barrels in the pasture. The kids for some reason couldn’t figure out the pattern so I jumped on Abby to show them and woo hoo the rodeo began.

As soon as I whacked her with the crop her back legs came up and her head went down. This happened a few times so we moved to the RP. She was not a happy camper at all! The bigger the fit the faster we went. Her behavior made me very nervous about taking her Saturday to the show.

Friday night we loaded up the ponies and hauled over to the arena to “practice” at the arena. I let Chase start out on Abby & figured I’d get on only if she was being bad. Of course she was an angel. The kids kept doing the pattern wrong (going to the outside instead of the inside of the barrels) so I figured Saturday would be a joke.

Saturday we loaded up ALL of the horses and headed over to the arena. The kids did all of the classes (it was an all games show), DH & MIL did most of the classes, my sister (who is scared to death of horses) rode in a few classes & actually enjoyed herself and I rode a few as well.

Here are just a few pics.

Chase & Shari doing the egg & spoon race. Chase dropped his egg before they even started the class but they gave him another one.





Then they did the candy bar race



They all got their patterns correct and Chase even won his division for barrels.

Tybo even joined in the fun and did a barrel pattern (I’m standing on the other side of him holding his hand/jeans and MIL is leading Sis).



I even “ran” LLL in barrels and poles. We had a 5 minute pattern time but it was fun. She spooked at a shadow on the ground in the arena though – silly horse. LOL

We had TONS of compliments on Abby. I think I could have easily sold her a few times. She was great with Chase and didn’t give him any flack until the end and I think she was just tuckered.

Needless to say we came home with a lot of happy children (and adults) and a stack of ribbons. We have to wait for them to post the results so we know who got what.


Sunday I helped out with a NBHA event at the arena and then came home and saddled up LLL. We worked on flexing, yielding the HQ, and then ORS. She kept trying to go back to the barn so we had to make that a not so nice place to be. She did get pretty upset with me a few times when I whacked her. Her “defense” it to turn sharp and fast to try to throw you off balance. I just pulled her head around and whacked her on the butt harder and then asked her to do what I originally had asked her to do.

We finally started getting some nice, smooth transitions so we moved into the RP and I just loped. I worked on me more trying to get into rhythm with her instead of riding against her (which I feel like I’m doing sometimes).

After that I hopped off and did some RP stage 2. She wasn’t thrilled. Once she was good and tired and following me around I unsaddled her and put on her halter. I then put the long line around her belly and proceeded to see if I could lay her down. She struggled a little bit and my ½ hitches weren’t hooked right (which didn’t help) but without too much of a battle she went down.

I rubbed all over her. She got VERY upset when I touched her nostrils. I mean to the point of trying to bite me while she was down. So once she got better about it (not perfect just better) I asked her to get up. I had to kick her pretty darn hard to get her to move. Once she came up to her belly she laid there for a minute or two and then went flat on the ground again. I finally got her up and then asked her to go down again.

She didn’t “struggle” as much this time but instead stayed up on 3 legs with her face crammed in the dirt. I swear her teeth have to be dirt covered. This time when she went down she fell like a ton of bricks! She hit hard but she went on the opposite side as last time so I was able to rub her other nostril. She wasn’t as bad about the right side.

When I finally got her up I rubbed her nostrils and surprise, surprise, there were no issues. She followed me around like a lost puppy dog. I think she had a very humbling experience.