On the road again

Harvest time is here so my riding is coming to an end. Knowing this I decided to take Lu on a ride Sunday. The weather was perfect so I saddled up and we headed down the road. She was a bit full of herself so I kicked her into second gear. Halfway down the road I noticed my dog was following behind. He was far enough away from the house that I turned around and ran him back home. Lu was pretty excited thinking she was done until we turned back around.

I kicked her back into second gear and we finished the road at a trot. We crossed the highway and headed towards rollercoaster road. When I got to the cross roads I checked the time and then headed on down rollercoaster road. This road gets its name from the massive hills. There are three hills and they are long and steep and take the energy right out of any horse.

Half way down the first hill a deer jumped out and spooked Lu (I think the cool weather has increased her awareness) so we did some circles and I decided she had enough energy to move out. Heading down the hill she was in a hurry so I put her in reverse. She finally decided walking was a better idea (I have a thing about going fast down hills). At the bottom of the longest hill I kicked her into 3rd gear. I really had to push to get her to finish the hill! When we got to the top of the hill I reached for my phone to check the time. Oh crud! Where did it go? Yep – I lost it.

Knowing that I had it at the beginning of the road I turned Lu around and headed back to look for it. No luck! Well I wasn’t cutting my ride short so we turned around and did rollercoaster road again. Lu was not amused! When we finally finished our normally 7 mile ride (assuming closer to 9 with the back tracking) Lu was ready for a break! She was a very good girl though.

I grabbed DH’s cell phone and the 4 wheeler and headed down the road. Can you believe it? I found my phone. Right about where I noticed I’d lost it. Oy!

DH is gone to harvest now and it is getting dark by 7:00 – 7:30 so I have a feeling my riding will be very limited. I guess now is a good time to work on my groundwork huh?

Not what I wanted to read

I don't usually cross post but this one is near and dear to my heart. For some the fugly horse of the day blog can be too much. I still read it from time to time just to keep up with things. I was taken back today when I read the story about a rescue in VA called Hidden Meadows Equine Rescue.

You can read the article here: 56 horses, 2 cows seized from rescue organization

So why do I care? This is where Rain went to. Do you remember Rain? She was the palo/paint that I rescued and sold to a gal in PA. When she couldn't keep her any longer I introduced her to Mary after meeting her on the NWC forum. This was before Mary formed her rescue. I can only hope that Rain is in good health and is adopted. I will be doing what I can to find out what her status is.

Ground meet Courtney, Courtney meet Ground

Last night I was asked to fill in for MIL at drill practice. Wanted to ride I accepted and headed straight to the arena after work so I could work Lu before practice. I figured I’d use Sis for practice since she is the one that will be running it and she needs to work on the pattern (not Lu).

I took over my big red ball to play soccer with before practice. The young girls were having a hay day and their horses caught on quickly. Lu was a bit nervous about it so we worked on getting her to focus on me (instead of the ball) and rate my seat. She did very well so we moved up into a canter. I’ve been trying to post a lot more (although not the 30 min. a day CA recommends) and I’m noticing that it is placing my body in a different position compared to how I normally ride. I seem to be more upright (like I should be) and more in cadence with Lu although I am still struggling to maintain my seat rhythm when she canters clockwise (her bad side).

Before I headed to grab Sis I had Lu move the ball some. Once she got the hang of it she was all over the ball. I put her away and grabbed Sis. She acted like the ball was going to kill her even though she’d played with it the entire weekend. I moved her out trying to stretch out her tight muscles (from her injury last year) and she quickly got with the program. We ran the run and it wasn’t very pretty. I’ve watched the pattern quite a few times but haven’t paid attention to MIL’s spot and apparently neither have some of the other riders. I’d get out of place but quickly fell back into place.

I got a chuckle out of a few gals when they said “so Sis can run”. LOL yes she can! I was in MIL’s saddle and the stirrups are too long but I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal – Sis is pretty easy to sit compared to Lu. As we came around the one bend Sis decided to turn before me and I popped out of the saddle and my hands landed on her neck. I recovered but I shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Then around another corner she tripped. That time I maintained my seat much better.

As we were cooling down from the run one of the younger gals grabbed her weanling and was leading it around from her gelding. I was working on getting Sis to soften and tuck her head. One of the other gals asked me about my mecate wondering “isn’t that dangerous tying to yourself like that”. I explained to her that it wasn’t tied and it would come out if I’d come off. It wasn’t but about a minute later when I gave her a demo on how it worked.

I don’t know what happened but Sis jumped sideways and over her shoulder and off I came. The mecate got caught under my leg and Sis reared trying to get away from the pressure and whatever was scaring her. I thought a few times she was going to come down and land on my legs but luckily she didn’t. I finally got the mecate loose, got up and put her feet to work. She looked at me like “you want me to what”.

The gals watching think the foal spooked her. I don’t think she saw it on the side of the gelding and as he turned I guess the foal bucked and kicked out. I really don’t care why she spooked. I was very happy that I was able to maintain my composure and not let frustration get in the way when I got up off of the ground. I can honestly say that I wasn’t upset with Sis. While my body was a bit sore today I can say that for the first time my pride wasn’t hurt. I know I’m not the best rider but I am working towards being a better rider so if people feel the need to judge me – so be it. I’m frustrated that I can’t find my “center” but I know old habits die hard. Guess I just need to post some more. ;)

Beautiful weekend to ride

Friday night the boys and I headed over to MIL’s with the ponies. I took Cat over to stay at MIL’s so I could a) get some horses off of my pasture and b) focus more on Lu. Bell will be joining Cat and Black as soon as DH leaves to go harvest.

Black was very happy to have company again. She’s moving very well. Her abscess ended up being a sub solar abscess so her entire sole is lifting off. Hopefully it stays dry so she doesn’t get gunk underneath it.

Saturday was beautiful. We got the ponies out to ride (Chase on Abby, MIL on Sis, Ty on Black and I was going to ride Cat). When I unwrapped Cat’s leg it was pretty nasty looking. The wrap kept the fluid from moving down like it was supposed to but it also re-opened her cannon bone injury that had been healing well so I opted not to ride her.

The boys rode for a good while. I had to teach Ty how to spank Black because she was being super lazy (not a bad thing). He enjoyed that a little too much so I had to get after him a bit (not that he whacked hard). MIL worked on the clover leaf pattern w/Sis and Chase messed around.

I made Ty get off and got out the big ball. Black immediately got nervous (hence why I took Ty off). Very few things freak that old mare out but the big ball is one of them. Abby wasn’t quite sure about it so I rolled it away while Chase and MIL followed. The wind was blowing quite a bit so it wasn’t helping much. After a while I got on Sis and got her to move it around some then let Chase have a go. I gave him a crop and Abby got a little frisky so he got off and had grandma get on.

The next day I went out to work Abby. I worked on the clover leaf pattern but decided we really need to go back and work on our gas pedal. She’s all over the place because she is so lazy! I made her move her feet and soon enough she did go better. Then I put Chase on her in my saddle. That kid has some long legs but he wasn’t quite able to reach my stirrups so I took him to the RP (with Sis loose in there) and let him just ride while I moved Abby (and Sis). It was very good for him and he’s got a pretty good balance when he doesn’t have to worry about other things.

It didn’t take him long to get tired so I hopped back on. The ball was in the RP so I decided to play with it some. MIL hopped on Sis bareback and bridleless and rode her around with. Anytime Abby wouldn’t kick the ball I’d make her move her feet. It didn’t take that fat pony long to figure out the ball was the place to be. At one time Abby was flying around the RP and Sis decided to join. I thought MIL was going to come off but she didn’t. We were laughing so hard – man I love my horses!

I’m going to go fill in for MIL at drill tonight and I plan on going early so I can play with Lucy with the ball (using Sis for drill) and work on our stops. I think Chase is going to go with so it should be a blast. I’m really happy with the way Lu is going. I had to ride her w/my leather halter last week (MIL used my bridle for drill) and she was just as light and soft in it as she was with her bridle. Really makes me wonder what she’d be capable of doing w/a patient trainer.

Also, I want to thank John and Ranae for the tips on the bending exercise. I’m gong to try a few of them w/Lu tonight and see if I can get it to work or at least get a starting point.

1 month, 2 weeks, 6 days

Until the fun begins! Wow has time gotten away from me. When I put my deposit down for the clinic November seemed so far away. Now it is just around the corner and I feel so unprepared. My new helper asked me if I was nervous about going. I was, but now not so much. I just want to go have fun and learn. I don’t much care for riding in front of people but I’ll get over that quickly I’m sure.

I have been riding Lucy, just not as much as I’d like to. I think it will be a good 15+ years before that happens and by then she’d better be dead broke! Hopefully I’ll have 60 rides on Cat by then too. What I’m noticing is that the more I focus on me – the better she does (another duh moment I know). I have sore muscles where I didn’t know I could have sore muscles but I’m also noticing that along with that, I’m started to get more centered in my riding. I still have a long way to go but this is a start.

I have a horrible habit of looking down at my horse instead of where I’m going – I’m working very hard on that. I’m hoping this weekend to get the big ball out and play a little bit of horse soccer to get us both focusing on something so we can have fun while learning.

If I had one exercise I wanted CA to help me with it would be the bending exercise. I just can not for the life of me get Lucy to do it. Anytime I pick up on the rein and put my inside leg on her she sucks back and tries to go into a spin. If I try to squeeze to get forward movement she just increases her spin speed. A lot of the other exercises hinge on this one so I’m hoping he can help me fix it while in Texas. If anyone has any suggestions before then I’d love to hear them.

Play Time!

The weather was just beautiful last night so Lu and I went to the arena to play. On the way to the arena we stopped and picked up a friend to play with us. We had a blast and boy can I feel it today! Ouch am I sore.

For whatever reason she wasn’t nearly as soft when I started flexing when I first got on. She’s normally very light so I wasn’t quite sure what the deal was there. I rarely yield her hq under saddle so I decided it was time to get with it and do it. She did fine and only needed tapped a few times but those few times got her a bit wound up. After that any time I’d flex her she thought she needed to yield her hq and wouldn’t relax. This tells me we obviously need to work on this more.

After that we did some follow the fence at the trot. She follows the fence fine (sometimes too close) but I used it more to warm her up and to give me time to post. I’ve got to get this out of shape body somewhat in shape before CA kills me in Nov. On his last DVD he said if you could post for 15 minutes 2 times a day for 5 days……………..bwaaaa haaaa haaa haaa lets start with 5 minute increments and be happy with that.

After that I set up a pylon in the arena and did the clover leaf pattern at a lope. I figured Lu would be a drunken sailor but she did really well. What I found is that when she didn’t go straight – it was because I wasn’t looking far enough ahead to where I wanted to go. Duh I know but sometimes you have to catch yourself doing it. She was better on the right lead which was expected but she didn’t do too badly on the left. Next time I just need to start on that side. After a while I waited for her to lean so we could go the opposite direction she wanted to go. To my surprise she waited for me to give her directions on where we were going.

She got ample rest in the center of the pattern and was very happy to stop when I asked her. She did have difficulties standing still. She was very fidgety and wanted to back up and would flex w/o me asking (that is a nice problem to have I know). I really think she wanted to just drop to the ground. I didn’t want to let her end that way so after she aired up some we did some ORS at the trot. I want her to start rating my seat better then she was. She was tired enough that she reverted back to trying to rub me off on the other horse so I determined if she had enough energy to do that she had enough energy to do what I wanted. Finally when I sat she immediately sucked back and stopped, then flexed (w/o me asking again) and stood in the center of the arena w/o moving. I let her air up for a while and then repeated. After she did it again I dismounted and called it good. She was tired!

I had a blast though and it was just what we both needed!

Full of beans!

What a beautiful holiday weekend we had! The weather was just perfect and grandma was in a good mood so DH and I slipped off for a ride down the road Saturday evening. As we pasted the neighbor’s house their white (wolf looking) dog jumped out behind the trees barking at the horses. Lucy jumped and so did Bell but I think I did too. As we continued down the road Lucy found lots of items shy at so we did lots and lots of circles. When she wasn’t shying, I was working on getting her to rate my seat at the trot. It was a fun ride but I don’t think she’s been that full of beans since I first got her! Hopefully she was just feeling her oats and she’ll be back to her normal lazy self next ride out.

Cat’s leg is healing well. It is still pretty swollen but it is going down slowly. She’s self medicating (cleaning her leg) so I’m letting her do all of the work. Here she is resting her leg on the fence so she can lick the inside of her leg (she just got done licking as the camera snapped).

It is starting to get cooler here (54* this am) and the ponies are starting to fluff up. Black went over to MIL's to give my pasture a rest and Bell will be joining her in a few weeks when DH leaves to farm.