Elk Grove

I’d never been to Elk Grove before so when Terry asked me to go, I of course said…………..no. I was telling myself if I stayed home I could work 3 horses but if I went trail riding I could only work one. After going back and forth I finally decided to join and take Carmella along.

Lori, Beau, and Chuck were joining us on the ride. We picked Lori up along the way and arrived at Elk Grove before Beau and Chuck so we saddled up and headed out for a short ride.

Terry & Lori



Terry & I



Terry’s awesome photo skills



Front to back (Lori, Chuck, Beau)





Waiting on Terry



Terry and her “Stick of Knowledge”



Out in the open



Lori with her pink crop and her fabric softener sheet in-between her horse’s ears.



In the brush



Carmella looking at me like WTH as the riders out front yell “THORNS!”



Back out in the open



More of Terry’s fabulous photography



The water crossing





Heading home



I’m glad I decided to go because I had a great time. Carmella was great after the first few minutes and I got to ride someplace I’ve never ridden before (even though it was a bit overgrown).

Happy trails!

Where is the time going?

Last night I offered to let my niece come out to ride. She hadn't been out to the farm in a while and she's a pretty die hard horse girl. I waited until after she was out of school before texting her (yes, she's 10 & has a phone) because I knew she'd get distracted if she knew she was going to get to ride. Next time I think I'll wait until I'm ready to pick her up before asking her if she wants to go. I think she texted me every 5 min. from 3:30 - 5:30 she was so excited.

I put Carmella in the RP while I saddled up the horses. She was having a bit of a fit about something. I don't know if it was the corn moving or what but she was full of it. It is times like this I wish the kids could saddle for themselves as I missed a perfect opportunity to work her.

Saddled and ready to go the kids headed out to the pasture while I headed up to the house to start supper. It didn't take long before we heard the giggles and saw heads flying across the pasture. My dad asked me "are they supposed to be going that fast?" "Nope but you aren't going to stop them."

While they rode I took Abby to the RP to get some video of her movement for some friends.







I wish she moved like this all of the time but unfortunately she doesn't.

The sun is going down by 8:00 so it feels like I'm just getting started and then have to quit. I'm ready for the fall temperatures but I'm not ready for the fall hours.

Project Horses

To make it easier for me to find things when I want to in re: to my own horses, I'm moving the information/posts about Carmella to a new blog:  http://tuffenuffquarterhorses-projecthorses.blogspot.com/

You guys are welcome to follow/comment but don't feel like you have to.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

It was hot this weekend! Saturday DH decided to plow up part of the pasture to make a makeshift “arena” for me to work the horses in. The footing was so hard the horses would slip and slide and I wasn’t too keen on starting a horse on bad footing. After plowing up a large section we went over it with the disc. There are still quite a few chunks of hard dirt but it was a starting point.

The overcast look is from all the humidity.

I did a little bit of LFR w/Carmella in the newly plowed dirt. She was able to move 100x better and was a little more receptive. She still wants to anticipate me vs. coming off the feel of the halter. So far she is doing very well with the desensitizing so I will be stepping it up a notch later this week with plastic bags, etc. I also started on the flexing w/the halter. I got my exercise! Once she figured it out though she was pretty soft and responsive. She was hot and tired so I tied her up.

I like a sweaty pony!

Sunday DH headed out to the farm early to re-disc the arena (I’m going to call it that for a lack of better wording). Then we headed over to MIL’s to get her round pen. DH wasn’t too happy w/me when we learned it wouldn’t all fit in MIL’s trailer so we looked for a second option. We were going to borrow a trailer from a friend but after thinking about it decided we were going to have to make two trips anyways so we would just go back home and get our big trailer. Instead I trimmed Lu’s feet and Abby’s feet and then went for a short bb halter ride on Lu. I miss my pony! She might have to come home.

I was out in the hot sun too long and got a bit overheated so we decided dh would get the rest of the RP today. Back at the farm we unloaded what panels we did get loaded and made a small (very small) pen. I rested up a bit and then took Carmella out to work her. She did very well on her inside turns. There were a few times she turn into me and then instead of changing directions she went the original direction. I chalked that up to the pen size and backed off a bit. Turning to go clockwise she does better vs. turning to go counterclockwise. Her turn is tighter but there is a bit of an attitude.

Her ears are forward but she's too tired to open her eyes.

DH got the rest of the round pen for me today and got it set up. I plan to work her again tonight and then give her a few days off before trying to saddle her. Its supposed to be in the 90’s this week and I don’t need to get overheated again nor do I need to get any of the horses too hot either.

Post Workout

I'm posting from my phone so I'm not sure how this will turnout.

I was surprised with how much Carmella remembered from having her last year. I took her to the timber to work on LFR after having footing issues in the pasture. That was when I was reminded what a b*tch she is.
Anytime she is asked to give more then she wants her reaction is to pin her ears & rear. My reaction is to whack! HARD! After working her into a sweat I backed her (tap the air & wwww) all the way back to the barn.

At the barn she was happy to be desensitized & then given a bath. She was also a lot more receptive to standing still.

Meet Carmella

She's not the prettiest thing (I'm not a big perlino fan) but as some say - you don't ride pretty.
This was pre-workout. She would not stand still. She was stomping flies and pacing.

Pull Up!!!!!

After a lot of thinking, I made the decision to put shoes on Black. Randy agreed to put Ground Control shoes on her Wednesday when he came out. I was very excited to see how she was going to do once she had them on.

To my disappointment he called me and told me they weren’t going to work. He put one shoe on, walked her off and said she was lame. He thinks there might be permanent damage in the left front foot (the one that had the tipped coffin bone) and the shoe put too much pressure on her sole. We discussed glue on boots, equicast, etc but I opted to leave her bare and boot when needed like I have been.

Last night MIL had drill and I had to fill in for a member that is gone this week. I didn’t warm Black up because she doesn’t have too much energy to spare. During our short warm up she felt a little off. The whistle blew and we were off. She felt ok, a little slower then last week but not bad.

Part of the pattern starts out as one large circle. When the whistle blows ½ of the group does a rollback (well that’s what it is supposed to be) and starts a new circle going in the opposite direction around the original circle. MIL and Sis turn back but the position I was in (right behind MIL) doesn’t. When the whistle blew I saw Sis turn but MIL didn’t. She hit the ground hard! Sis had anticipated the turn. MIL landed on her tailbone and the ground was hard. She climbed back in the saddle (she probably shouldn’t have) and we stated over.

We weren’t 3 minutes into the run and I had to pull Black up. Randy had trimmed her shorter since he anticipated shoes and it was too short. Even thought she was booted it was too much for her & I wasn’t going to risk hurting her to run the pattern. Amazingly they were able to finish with a ‘ghost’ rider.

The second run (which MIL again shouldn’t have done) I borrowed a horse from another member. It was interesting. Her saddle was way too small for me and it was a slick seat. I HATE slick seats. Jazz was a little out of gas and not too thrilled to be carrying my fat arse but we made it through just fine.

On the way home we picked up Carmella. She jumped right in the trailer. I joked and took the credit for being such a wonderful trainer. At home she got her first lesson. Well not really her first – I have worked with her before. It didn’t take her long to realize she wasn’t in Kansas anymore. It was late and MIL was sore so I put Carmella up and headed home. The real work will start this weekend.