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.

Woo Hoo!

I finally have 30 rides on Cat!  It has only taken me a year an a half but I can officially say she has had 30 rides.  Now onto our new goal - 60 rides!  Then I can "officially" do a clinic on her.

Last night I took her with me to drill.  It was pretty muggy out and she was sweating before I even unloaded her from the trailer.  I opted not to do any groundwork with her this time.  She was moving out quickly but wasn't uncontrollable.  I *tried* to work on the bending again.  She does ok to the left - not so well to the right.  She likes to snatch her head back as soon as I release.

I also worked on our "Whoa" off of voice commands.  An empty arena would have helped but I have to use what I have.  There was once she got testy with me but after meeting Mr. Popper she settled right down.  I know she's going to be a stopper once she figures out my cues.

Black got to run the performance twice.  I had to ask her to slow down a few times.  I think she's enjoying being out again.  She was scheduled to get shoes this morning but it didn't happen.  Randy put on one Ground Control shoe and said it put too much pressure on her sole.  I don't want to do glue on boots so we left her bare for now.

Black and I have drill again tomorrow night.  I don't think I'll be taking Cat with me this time.  I'm supposed to be picking up a filly to put 30 - 60 days on (calendar days, not all training days).  She belongs to a friend who knows how slow I work.  It will be interesting.

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids!

No, it isn't a rabbit and no, it isn't a kid!

Saturday after the rain went away the CIDH hosted a horse and pony ride after the parade in Redfield.  One of the team members purchased this bear and it spooked Sis.  It wasn't a bad spook but enough that MIL took care of the problem!  I'm not sure what it is but that horse turns her into a kid!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Last Friday night MIL came over and we went for a ride. I saddled up the old lady and she saddled up Sis. We rode down behind the house where the fields are open and unplanted and just let loose. It was such a wonderful feeling for both of us to just let go and run. I’m not so sure the horses would agree however Black wasn’t too fond of letting Sis get in front of her. We rode into the timber and stopped for a brief moment to check for mushrooms. I found a few but the horses found a swarm of mosquitoes so we decided to head back.

Sunday my father, BIL, nephew, Chase and I went mushroom hunting. My Father, BIL and nephew rode down on the four-wheeler so Chase and I doubled up on Sis. Chase and I had a good time but he doesn’t think it is very comfortable to ride behind the saddle. I’m not sure if Sis has ever ridden double before but she did a great job.

Monday night I decided to get Miss Cat out. We did some LFR Stage 1, LFR Stage 2, the outback exercise, yhq stage 1, yfq, circle driving and some desensitizing. She very much wants to please but I find we end up fighting a lot. I’m sure it is me so I’m trying to “chill” and just go with it. During LFR she has an energetic departure but she also has a lot of draw when I yield her hq. Where our first argument comes into play is during the outback exercise when I try to back her back to the outside of the circle. She tries to take off vs. backing which usually gets a “fight” (for a lack of better words) started between the two of us.

LFR Stage 2 she is doing awesome. She was starting to get nervous when I would move the stick and speed up but she was also anticipating so I spent some time just moving the stick back and forth until she relaxed a bit. She really didn’t relax a lot but she did relax some.

During the desensitizing w/the stick/string she is getting much better. She usually flinches once or twice when I whack the ground but she doesn’t move. By the time I go to the other side she’s standing quietly.

YHQ Stage 1 she is doing very well. I just need to refine it a bit and get her to plant her foot more. I didn’t push it as she does have yet another injury on her front left leg.

YFQ was very ugly and I’m glad no one was around to see it. I’m hoping it is a bit better tonight when I try again.

Circle driving made her nervous. She was afraid she was going to get whacked with the stick so I changed things up and put the string on my stick and “flogged her with kindness” as she went around the circle until she relaxed.

I ended the night by clipping her. She HATES the clippers so I’ve decided to clip a bit each night after working her when she’s dog tired. It seemed to work well as I was able to clip a bridle path, her jaw line and muzzle, the exterior of her ears and part of her legs.

Last night I rode over to drill practice with MIL. I wasn’t sure if I would ride since my last ride on Cat was 03/16 but took my saddle so I could at least work her in it. I saddled her up as soon as we got there and headed to the arena to do some LFR. I didn’t stay on stage 1 very long as I didn’t want to “fight” the backing with an arena full of horses. The sand was nice and deep so she had to work twice as hard. Her turns weren’t quite as precise as I would have liked but she was listening to me and trying. I can barely move in the arena so I decided to cut her some slack.

I’m not sure how long I did LFR Stage 2 but it was long enough to make her want to die. She was pretty warm and when I drew her into me I don’t think she could have run fast enough. We left the arena so the drill team could run their routine.

I took her behind the trailers and did some desensitizing with the stick/string and then flapped the stirrups. She was good as gold so I decided to go ahead and mount up (ride #18). I rode her in small circles around the parking lot until I felt comfortable and then we ventured off. We went out of the arena grounds and onto the road. She was a bit nervous but not bad. I had forgotten how fast the cars drive on that road so I was thankful she didn’t mind them. She called a few times for Sis but she did keep moving. When we got to the end of the road I turned her around and headed back. The team was still practicing so I dismounted and let her eat grass.

During their break I mounted back up and went into the arena. To my surprise Cat is ok with me opening the gate while mounted. We went into the arena and trotted a bit but we weren’t able to stay in long before the team ran again. I decided this time to stay on her and just “sit”. I don’t do that often so it was good for her. It took her a little adjusting to figure out how to maintain her balance while just standing. She tried for grass once but once she was told no she left it.

When the team was finally finished we went back into the arena. The sun was quickly disappearing but I wanted to lope her before leaving. She did pin her ears at a few horses but I’m going to ignore that for now. I think if I start to pick on everything I will create more issues. If she still pins after she’s been ridden around other horses consistently then I will get after her but I don’t think she will.

Once the arena was free I asked her to lope. I didn’t do a bunch of ORS but I did temporarily shut her down after a few strides the first two times and then I let her go. She was literally running circles around Sis. She broke a few times and once or twice I had to whack her. Each whack was followed with a small kick up. Once she was loping out freely and away from Sis I shut her down and dismounted. She really wasn’t arguing about that.

Our high today is 67* but it won’t be raining so I’m hoping to get just one more day in on her tonight so I can get my three days in a row.

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. ;)

Not much going on

I know I’ve been quiet but not much in the world of horses has been going on. Right now we are more in the “fowl” world. We have 40 eggs in an incubator set to hatch around May 4th and 8 eggs each under two different hens set to hatch the same time (good timing huh?). The boys both got 5 ducklings each. Ty got some Indian Runners that I think will be fawn/white and Chase got his “pudgy” Pekins. He doesn’t like it when I tell him they are meat ducks.

Cat barreled through the barn the other day to get breakfast and smashed my big toe. BIG mistake! HUGE! I can’t and won’t put the blame on her though. She bangs on the door and people open it and get out of the way. Now she gets to come in last, with a halter on and backwards.

I hauled MIL to drill practice last night so took Cat along for the ride. I decided to saddle her and do some LFR while they practiced. She took the saddle well but got a little humpy going downhill during the LFR. I think she was feeling the saddle in a way she’d never felt it before. Guess I need to go find some ditches and work her in those. Nothing bad but I got a chuckle out of her “attempt” to crow hop.

I did get on and we walked up and down the grass alley and did some ORS. She was a bit more excited compared to what she has been but then there were 10 other horses there too. We did some ORS and then just sat and relaxed while the horses did their run. She’s learning to enjoy stopping. I did pick up the popper once and she remembered that one! Guess I’m going to have to desensitize her to that a bit unless it is needed again.

At the end of practice MIL decided to run Abby around and of course Abby started up w/her humping up in protest. I told MIL to make her go one more time and when she did well to get off. She started her out and Abby turned and off came MIL. She was ticked too! MIL just lost her seat (the first time in 9 years) but thankfully didn’t get hurt. I told her to take the emotion out of it but she was too mad so I got back on Abby and moved those feet! Poor girl was dripping w/sweat by the time I was done but she didn’t once think about bucking either. I honestly think she knew right off the bat that she wasn’t going to be able to pull anything w/me. When I finally sat and said “whoa” she was more then happy to stop.

I had to remind MIL that nothing has been done with her all year. Chase has ridden her 3 or 4 times and she’s ridden her twice at drill. She needs to be worked with more then that. This is an ongoing issue w/Abby that has never been resolved and it won’t be by me unless I miraculously come up with more time this year.

A New Horse?

The last horse show for this season is quickly approaching & the drill team will be running their last performance at the show. Since the show is on a Sunday, MIL won’t be performing. I hadn’t planned on taking a horse but they couldn’t find anyone to run the flag so I offered.

The weather here has been “iffy” lately so practice was changed to last night in order to avoid the rain. MIL has Sis and Abby at her place and my truck is broke down still so I hitched a ride and took Lu. You can pretty much look back at this blog to see when I rode her last. No, I’m not proud of that.

When I unloaded Lu off of the trailer I heard “OMG, you got a new horse! When did you get a new horse?”

What?

I had a few other people ask me the same thing and I responded with “umm, this is Lucy”.

They were all flabbergasted. I don’t see that she’s changed THAT much. She’s a fat tub of lard at the moment but I didn’t think she’d changed so much that people didn’t recognize her. Maybe this is because I see her everyday?

Needless to say she was “Lu” at practice. We had a nice/lovely trot and then we “ran” (it was running for Lu anyways) the flag in (fake flag – we didn’t actually carry one). She was a good girl. I really couldn’t ask for more from her considering how little I’ve done with her this year.

Black is feeling pretty good. She likes the new pads in her boots. She’s started trotting again to come up to eat. She’s looking great too! I’d like a few more pounds on her before heading into winter but I really can’t complain about the way she looks.

Cat – Cat on the other hand needs to learn the words “exercise” or “diet”. I think she’s going to be an easy keeper like her sister.

I’ve been working on putting in new fence in the dry lot. The electric fence just wasn’t holding up and I wanted something a little more “solid” in case we get another calf. I must say – I DO NOT ENJOY BUILDING FENCE! But what must be done, must be done.

It’s been a while

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog, but it seems like a lot of stuff has been going on (not all horse related). The horses got some much needed time off after the Carson Rodeo and MIL has been keeping me (and Black) busy with parades. They aren’t my favorite thing in the world but I can’t let her go alone. I have decided that this is Black’s calling. She just loves the parades! Walk, stop, yawn, and repeat.

This was taken at the Sweet Corn Festival:



Abby was a bit of a handful for MIL but the more she does the better she gets.

These were taken at the State Fair Parade in Des Moines. I love that you can see our gorgeous Capital behind us.



Notice Black’s tongue?


Last week the boys were gone for a week so I was actually able to get some ride time in on MY horse. I’ve been lunging Lucy on the 22’ line and watching her move. She seems to be improving and her cross-firing is becoming very minimal now. If I give her a minute to go into the lope, she has more time to think and set her self up and go into it correctly. Clockwise is still her worst direction but at least I’m seeing improvements.

On one of the nights MIL, DH and I all went for a road ride. Lu was perfect. Her alignment issues seem to be getting resolved and I barely had to move my hand at all. She is also moving out more willingly as well. If finances are available I’d like to board her this winter so I can actually work with her.

On a positive note: Sis is improving and the vet no longer feels that surgery is in her future. MIL has been able to kick her up into a trot and was even able to use her for the State Fair Parade. It is still going to be a long recovery but it looks like it will be a promising one.

In addition to the above I’ve decided to become a distributor for Gomers Inc., the manufacturer of Karbo Combo. This has been very nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. I feel this is a wonderful product and that it does sell itself but at the same time, I’m not a born entrepreneur so it will take some time to get off of the ground.

Chase started school on Monday and I have about a month and a half before DH leaves for his vacation up at the farm for 1 ½ months so things will be dwindling down and I have a feeling my horse time will become less and less.

Blast from the past

Sat. night we headed up to Carson for the rodeo. It was a long 2 hour drive and we had to be there early to practice (the drill team was performing). Abby is getting better and better with each run. This is just what she needed & MIL is enjoying her more and more all of the time.

Black was a bit off when we arrived so I booted her all of the way around. When we hit the arena she was off and running so I’m not sure if adrenaline took over or what. We ran our run during the middle of the rodeo and all-in-all they had a good run.



We decided to stick around and watch a bit of the rodeo after the performance and to my surprise one of my old college professors was running. I knew she ran barrels but she was a little ways from home. She had a nice horse and a nice run but I don’t think she was in the money. Seeing her face brought back a lot of memories. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to talk to her as we wanted to try to leave so we didn’t get caught in the traffic. It was nearly midnight before we pulled in the drive to unload the horses so I’m glad we left when we did.

Sunday was kind of a lazy day for all. MIL loaded up Sis and Cat and headed home and DH and I started to lay out the fence for the drylot. Luckily the tractor was broken so we couldn’t actually work on the fence like planned.

I got Lucy out and worked her on the long line for a while to watch her movement. She seems to move better on the 22’ line vs. the 14’ line. I did a lot of long trotting with her in both directions until she was fairly warm and then took her out to the hot walker & tied her up (using it as a patience pole). Around and around she went. She kept it moving (who needs a motor).

Mom had fixed supper so we headed in. I looked out and notice the walker wasn’t moving anymore. Woo hoo! She’d finally decided to stand still! I looked out again about 5 minutes later. It was in the same spot so I started looking to see where she was and guess what? She wasn’t on the walker anymore! I walked down and found her in the barn happily munching hay. Little snot!

I grabbed a cross tie and took her back out to the walker and tied her up. I sat and watched her. When she gets mad, she reaches for the middle of the rope, bites and pulls down. This is exactly where the quick release snap on the chain was.

While she was throwing her fit Chase hopped on Abby. We’ve been working bareback in the round pen to get Chase’s balance. He did much better this time sitting Abby’s trot. She’s not very easy to sit. He says he wants to ride her every day this week. I guess we’ll see if he holds true to that.

Where to begin?

I’m not even sure where to begin with this weekend. Saturday I got up, headed to the ATM to get some money as we had two shows to head to. One was for a drill performance and the other was to actually ride/show. When I got to the ATM I got a message saying “card restricted” and no money. It was too early to call the bank so I headed to the barn to finish cleaning up ponies.

While finishing up I got a call from the bank asking if I had authorized two internet purchases. No I hadn’t. So needless to say my card was cancelled & I will be watching my account closely. Thank goodness for mom and day (I had to borrow cash from them).

We finally got the ponies loaded and headed out. The performance was less then perfect (our worst of the year). Black did great (we have an easy job) and I do think she really enjoys it. Abby popped her butt up once but MIL was quick to whack her. She is getting a little bit better with each performance. I’m not sure what happened but someone got out of place. When you get out of place it is very hard to get back in and it messes up everyone else. Needless to say they managed to make it “look” ok but we were all pretty embarrassed. Thankfully, most of the crowd had no clue what happened.

We loaded up and headed over for the show. I had to do registration so I needed to be there early anyways and I wanted to have a chance to ride Lu a bit before the show. I decided to go ahead and take her in w/t at least. She really needs to get the experience even if we don’t do well. I had been having issues bending her but she was doing great! Her head was low and soft and her trot was to die for. She was getting a bit nervous when the other horses would get around her (looks like I need to take her to a few drill practices) but for the most part she was great. I rode for maybe 20 min. or so and then took her to the trailer until closer to my class.

Once the classes started I saddled Lu back up and headed over to wait. Chase was in his w/t class and he was as stiff as a board but somehow managed to come out with the first place ribbon. There were two more classes before my class and Lu would not stand still. She’d either back up or want to walk off so we did flexing and bending but she still refused to stand still. By this time she’d started to sweat and laid down on me. I hopped off and kicked her and then whacked her w/the reins until she got up. We then went for a “behind the trailer” session. Nothing big, just some LFR to let her know that wasn’t a good idea.

I mounted back up and headed in for my class. By now she’s dripping with sweat (I think it had more to do with nerves vs. heat) & I could tell the sand arena was very appealing to her. The class was so bit they split it in half. I tried to keep Lu moving so she wouldn’t go down. The class finally started and she was moving beautifully. Her head was low and tucked and her knees were flat and flowing. She was getting annoyed (by the sweat) so she tossed her head and as she did my headstall came flying off (the new one DH just got me). I got it back on and we continued w/the class. After lining up and backing I dismounted so she wouldn’t go down with me again. They called for the second batch so I left the arena and headed back to the trailer.

At the trailer I put on her halter but did not untack her. For those who have followed my blog and have followed my “adventures” with Lucy you will know that when she gets hot (even if I’ve only worked her 15 minutes) she will try everything in her power to lie down, even if she is tied. A lot of those times she’s succeeded so it has ingrained the behavior even more. This was one of the reasons I refused to unsaddle her. She needs to learn how to deal with it.

I walked her behind the trailer and anytime she’d tuck a knee like she was going to lie down I’d back her a few strides (I had my crop ready in case she actually went down), nothing hard or fast but just me saying “no”. She was fidgety and would not stand still. She tried several times to tuck her knee so she could go down. When she got close to the trailer she’d throw herself into it to try to rub/scratch my saddle off so I’d move her back over (another reason why I didn’t just tie her up).

I had already decided that *if* by some odd chance I was called back in from the split that I wouldn’t be taking her in. As expected, I wasn’t called back in so it was no big deal. This is when things started to get fun. Another participant decided to come back and offer me some advice. She politely (using the word politely very loosely) suggested that I needed to untack Lu. I thanked her for her concern but assured her that she was fine and told her that I would not be untacking Lucy. She again politely (again using the word loosely) told me (this time she didn’t suggest) to untack Lucy. I again assured her that Lucy was fine and informed her that I would not be untacking her.

I was then informed by her that she has been in the consulting business for over 40 years and knows when a horse is tying up (Lu’s abdominal muscles were tight but so where about 50 other horses at the show). She then proceeded to threaten me that if I didn’t untack Lucy that she would call the Humane Society on me. I encouraged her to do so (by this time my patience was gone).

Now – as for the “concerned citizen”, let me give you a little bit of background on her. She is IDK how old (50 or so). She has trust money (and lots of it) so she hasn’t worked a day in her life. She buys OTTB, uses them up and then dumps them. I’ve rarely seen her keep one more then a year. NO ONE can stand her! The only reason they put up with her at the shows is because of her money (which I think is bullshit). She can not keep workers because she is such a xxxxx that no one can stand working for her. I was ok with her concern until it became a threat.

Needless to say about 5 minutes later I had about 10 people at my trailer looking over Lucy. ALL of them had seen her pull this before (getting hot and laying down) and they all knew I wouldn’t put her in danger (still not sure how untacking her would have kept her from tying up if that is indeed what she was doing). I stood my ground and they stood behind me. 15 min. later when the sweat had started to dry Lu was being a pain in my butt trying to get hay and treats. After she had fully dried off I untacked her and let her stand at the trailer the rest of the night happily munching on hay.

Now while this “concerned citizen” was all over my ass about Lu she never once said anything to the gal who was riding a weanling (gal said it was a 2 yr. old but it looked like a small yearling at the most).

I’m still very irritated that she felt the need to threaten to call the HS on me. How would you have handled this?

I forgot to mention - I was told by the ring steward that the judge REALLY liked Lucy but that she didn't feel like she could call me back in due to my tack mishap. She said she debated over and over because she really liked her. I guess that is good to know once I get her to quite laying down with me. :-)

Ready to run!

Here is the video of the Friday night performance. Sorry there is no music. I had to mute it due to the camera man forgetting that everything he said could be heard.

A fair affair

Thank god the fair is finally over! I’m exhausted! I’d like to relax but unfortunately that isn’t going to happen.

Thursday night Black was great as she entered the arena before the drill team carrying the flag. If I didn’t know where she came from I would swear she was an ex-barrel horse. As soon as we entered the ring she immediately turned sideways and did a flying side pass down the back of the chutes (but close to the cutes, she wasn’t afraid of them).

Unfortunately I can’t say the same thing for Abby’s performance. She decided humping up and offering to buck was a good idea. Since MIL hasn’t ridden her enough she wasn’t sure what to do. I told her next time to knock the snot out of her!

Friday night as we were preparing for our practice run our drill captain mounted up and noticed her horse was very sore/lame. She asked if I felt I could fill in with Black and I said I’d give it a try but I couldn’t guarantee she could make the entire run. Typically we don’t get a practice run before a performance but we were able to get one in. Black did great! I didn’t push her because I wasn’t sure how much she had to give. After the practice run we decided to give the performance a try.

I have to say, we had a lot of things stacked against us (her age, her feet, her lack of conditioning, her dislike towards other horses, etc.) but when it came time to perform I can guarantee no one knew any of those issues existed. She was wonderful! I only had to “ask” her to speed up a few times. And even better she didn’t act stiff or sore at all afterwards! Our performance is almost 8 minutes long too!

Abby was better this time. She didn’t hump up but she did kick one of the horses during one of the maneuvers. MIL was pretty upset. I tried to explain to her that Abby has just been thrown into this and she hasn’t been eased into it like the other horses have. ALL of them kick at one point in time (including Max). The difference is, in practice you can correct them. Abby had only had 3 practices (one with MIL) and then was thrown into the two performances. I’m not trying to dismiss the kicking but at the same time I do feel MIL should cut her a little bit of slack.

I have a video I’ll post as soon as I can figure out how to edit DH’s comments.

Off to the rodeo

With MIL gone and Sis out of commission I’ve been taking Abby to drill practice in MIL’s spot. I think it has been very good for Abby. For one thing she’s had to run & we all know how much lazy Abby likes to run. But it has also helped her get used to having horses next to her, behind her, in front of her and coming at her from all directions (this was the one thing I did like about drill).

We have been practicing in the arena that Chase shows in (the only arena Abby has been in) so I asked if we could go to a different arena last night. The team will be performing next Thursday & Friday at the rodeo so I wanted to try to get in that arena to see what Abby would do. When we first got there she was a bit nervous but not too bad. We’ve been working on vertical flexion so she had her head almost between her knees (she’s an over achiever). One of Abby’s biggest issues is that she is very aware of her footing & if she doesn’t like something on the ground she won’t move. I’ve been working on that through groundwork but there is still room for improvement.

She was very aware of her footing last night and refused to move a few times. When she did she was quickly greeted w/Mr. Crop. After that she decided it wasn’t so scary. In the arena she got tense. I wasn’t sure what she was nervous about but quickly discovered it was the stands and the noise from them. I asked a gal in the stands to make some noise while I did rollbacks on the fence and she finally decided they weren’t very scary when she had to work so we proceeded to move around the arena.

She was fine with everything else in the arena including the chutes but it will be interesting to see what she’s like next week when the stands are full, there are little kids running up and down the sides of the arena and there are bulls in the chutes. This is another reason I like drill, it gets them exposed to lots of different places/experiences that I wouldn’t be able to expose her to by myself.

One thing that keeps surprising everyone on the team is how fast little Miss Abby can go. Just because she’s a pony doesn’t mean she can’t run! She can keep up with the best of them (although the crop does help with that). MIL gets to practice with her next week prior to the rodeo so the boys and I will be making lots of noise in the stands!

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.

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.

Iowa Horse Fair 2009

Here is the video from Saturdays performance. I think MIL and Sis look great for only their second time in this spot!

The good, the bad, and the snow!

Well Horse Fair finally came and went. On Saturday I got Sis all cleaned up for MIL and I have to say I think she looked pretty darn good! I have their performance on video and I will try to upload it later this week. It went well and MIL did wonderful for only practicing the spot she was in a time or two.

Saturday afternoon I met a gal who came to look at Max. She was around 16 yrs. old and a VERY timid rider. Max did superb! She wasn’t used to riding on barely any contact so that was different for her. I made a joke about riding with a death grip and her mom replied “yeah that’s normally how it is”.

They loved his breaks. It almost sounds like the horse she has now took off on her and scared her quite a bit. I was so surprised to hear she jumped as timid as she was on Max. I haven’t heard back from them yet but that is ok. I was just so happy with how Max did since I’d only had a chance to jump on him a few times before she came.

Sunday the rain and snow and sleet moved in. A lot of the people left so the horse fair schedule was running ahead of schedule. This of course put everyone in a panic and the horses new it. There was no warm up either since the weather was so nasty. I didn’t get this performance on video which was probably a good thing. Some horses were going backwards, others were bucking, and even Sis was in a mood (although I was the only one who noticed that). At the end when the sent the two little girls in the one girl lost control of her horse and my worst fear came true as she came off nearly hitting the concrete wall. I won’t comment much on that.

Once all was said and done we loaded the horses up as soon as possible and headed home. MIL took Sis home with her so Cat was happy to see her big sister come home.

I’m so glad it is Monday!

Not all of this is horse related but let me quickly re-cap my weekend for you.

Friday DH was hurt at work and taken to the ER. Nothing life threatening but he was having pretty severe back spasms. I had to go pick him up and he is so drugged up he is almost comatose. He went back in today and they are not releasing him back to work as of yet (which is good).

Saturday DH’s 70-something year old grandpa had his small garage blow up with him in it. He was taking to the ER with 1st & 2nd degree burns all over his legs. We were told it was a miracle he’d survived. Apparently he was working on his motorcycle when it fell over and the gas line ruptured. He had a kerosene heater running and it caused the bike to explode. He was in ICU all day Sat. and then they released him to go home on Sunday (what were they thinking).

Sunday we had drill practice. Chase and I went early since I wasn’t riding with them. He rode Black and I rode Abby. Both were very good. Chase had a blast trotting and loping Black and she seemed pretty content. Abby was very well behaved. We trotted and loped with no attitude at all.

During practice one of the riders was thrown from her horse and was injured. I’m not sure how bad she is (if it’s just muscles or more) but I can tell you she’s probably hurting today!

When we got home MIL and I were unloading horses when my dad yelled at us. I assumed we were being called in for supper. Nope! Chase had been playing baseball w/his cousins with a board (2 x 4 consistency) when it jiggled out of his hands and into his face. He managed to knock out one baby tooth and one permanent tooth. The permanent tooth he managed to break in half almost all the way at the gum line. We were able to find half of it but it must have shattered. We will be seeing the dentist this afternoon to see what they can do.

So needless to say I was actually looking forward to work today!

A trip to the arena

Sunday the weather was lovely and the drill team was finally going to get to practice in the big outside arena so DH and I hauled over early to play around. My niece and Chase went with as well.

Sis was a bit of a basket case when we unloaded her so we did a bit of LFR and then tied her on the opposite side of the trailer while Chase and I cleaned up Abby. After we got Abby cleaned up I did some LFR w/her and some backing and then threw Chase up on her. I told him to do ORS at the walk only. About two minutes later he was asking me if he could trot. **bangs head**

DH was riding Max in the arena and Terry had decided to bring Mr. Bishop up to ride too. Sis was settling down so I tacked her up for my niece to ride. She was good as gold as soon as I got Shari up on her back.

As I looked over though I noticed Chase was having problems with Abby. I wasn’t sure if she was bucking, kicking or what she was doing but bless his little heart he got her into a ORS and held on. She did not want to be around Sis. So I had Chase just flex her and when she’d give him resistance I’d let him bump her until she came around. I think he was enjoying that a bit too much.

When they had that down I let him walk off and ORS. Abby was in a bit of a hurry so they didn’t get very far at all. By this time DH had gotten off of Max and was picking up rocks in the arena so I had Chase get off and get on Max. There is only so much I can expect him to do on Abby w/o getting frustrated. So I put my saddle on her and away we went. The first thing I reminded her of was yielding her HQ. Then we just flexed and flexed and flexed. She’s at the “I’m gonna bite your foot” stage when she flexes so she’s going to get a caveson the next time we ride.

By this time the other horses for drill were starting to come in. I did manage to get her to trot and even lope some without any resistance but she did feel tense. When I was done I had her stand in the middle of the arena for a while and then dismounted. I think she was happy to stand back at the trailer.

The first drill run went fairly well. We had three people filling in for individuals that were gone and we were in a bigger arena. The second run………it didn’t go quite so well. As we were rounding the corners to go from two sweeps into one I noticed a horse go down. As I got closer saw Sis on her side and MIL face down in the arena with her leg still under Sis. Sis struggled to get up but finally did and MIL had managed to get her feet out of the stirrups and free.

Sis seemed ok. MIL was shook and worried about Sis but was able to walk it off. Apparently one of the other horses jumped over into Sis’s space causing her to try to get out of the way and slipping.

They have one more practice left before the horse fair but it is raining this week so I have a feeling they will be in the smaller arena.

We Loped!

Saturday we went to MIL’s to help her get ready for Sunday. Cat is shedding and I had white hairs all over my jacket just from touching her. She’s kind of an orange/cream color at the moment. She is still very short but she is wide. She’s going to be built when she’s done growing.

Sunday we had drill practice. Two members were gone so I had to fill in. I was told we were just walking & maybe some trotting so I figured Black could keep up no problems. When we got to practice we started off by walking around to warm them up like normal. She proceeded to pin her ears and look nasty but never acted on it. She seemed to come out of it quicker then she did the last time we were there.

We started the pattern and she was doing well. They started picking up speed so I pushed her up into a trot. There were a few spots where they went into a lope and I had her going as fast as I could at the trot but we weren’t keeping up and I wasn’t going to push her anymore.

After the first round I decided she was tired and got on Omar (Terry’s 20 something ½ Arab gelding that I rode last year for the last performance). Matt (our drillmaster) jumped on Black and I jumped on Omar. OMG was his saddle uncomfortable & his stirrups were a foot longer then my legs. He looked like a jockey in my saddle though. LOL

One of the little girls put her hooded sweatshirt over her horses head for grins and giggles. To all of our surprise Black’s head came straight up in the air and her eyes got very wide. She didn’t move but she definitely didn’t care for it. We all got quite the chuckle out of that.

We ended up loping parts of the second run and on this run MIL and Sis were in with us. Sis was full of it. This really was her first time out this year (I had jumped on her bb for 5 minutes the day before but that doesn’t count). Sis was foaming up by the time the run was done. We did another run and this time I used Sis to burn some of her energy off.

We did one final run and MIL needed Sis back so I tried Black again. When we got to the first pinwheel I pushed her a little more then normal and she broke into a lope and stayed in it! I ended up getting her in and getting her to stay in a lope in several places. She feels so weird compared to the other horses when she is loping. When I sounded so surprised that I got her into a lope I had a few members ask me if she was young. I had to chuckle when I told them she was 24.

It is supposed to be lovely tomorrow and Wednesday so I am hoping to get little Ms. Lu Lu out for a road ride sometime this week. I can tell she’s getting bored. She has to mess with everyone that walks by her stall. She has to make sure we realize she is still there.