Snow, Snow, Go Away

Don’t come back another day. We’ve been getting snow and freezing rain is in the forecast for later today and into tomorrow. I was however able to take LLL to WWF last Saturday to ride. I went with the friend who owns Mr. Bishop (remember the OTTB).

We started off with some desensitizing and then some yielding the FQ and HQ. Then we moved on to LFR Stage 1. I really can’t believe how much information LLL retains. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing but she was calmer in the beginning like she was at the ending of our last session. When I bumped up to stage II she wasn’t as reactive and didn’t trip on her feet but moved with a little bit more finesse.

I’m starting to get a bit picker on her backing. She backs fast but she doesn’t back straight so we are starting to work on straightness vs. speed. She’s not thrilled with that.

Once up and on we worked on flexing. She’s soft but she’s not very fast to bring her head around. Then we refreshed our ORS at the walk and trot. Since it has been so long and since it was cooler out I refrained from loping her. I think we need to build those muscles up at the trot first.

We also worked on yielding the HQ. Yielding off of my right leg was not so good but yielding off of my left leg was great. After that we moved on to the passenger lesson at the trot (her least favorite exercise). She was very vain and wanted to constantly check herself out in the mirrors. LOL

She decided that trotting was no fun and bumped herself up into a canter hoping I’d do a ORS and shut her down (which I did). We moved back to the passenger lesson at the trot and sure enough she popped back into the lope. I remembered CA telling a gal at the NE clinic to let her horse lope as she’d get tired soon enough so instead of shutting LLL down I let her lope. She kept picking up speed hoping I’d shut her down but I didn’t and sure enough she quickly dropped back down into a trot.

I tried working on the bending exercise with her but a) I didn’t have any spurs on and b) I think I’m confusing her. I think she thinks I’m giving her a cue that I’m not. I’ve found working with her is harder then working with a normal horse since she does retain so much and since I have no clue how she was ridden before. She has so many buttons that I have no clue how to push.

She was hot so I jumped off of her and jumped on Bishop (he looked stiff and gimpy) so Terry could see how he was moving. I ground tied LLL in the corner while I rode. Bishop moves slowly but man was he rough! Terry could see what I was talking about and while I was trying to get him to move out and stretch his legs LLL decided she needed to get down and dirty. Terry headed towards her and LLL looked upset that her spa treatment of sand and grit was cut short.

In the meantime I put Bishop into a lope. He wants to kick up at the lope on the lounge line but Terry said he hasn’t tried it under saddle. Well he did! If he is asked to move out at all he bucks. I wonder if his knee bothers him or if he’s just being a shit but I didn’t feel comfortable pushing the envelope so I put him in a lope one more time and then dismounted. I’m just now healing up after Max and the last thing I’d need to do is push him and mess up his knee or get myself hurt.

We decided to finish and loaded the horses up to head home. WWF entrance/exit is not a fun one and we were in Terry’s truck with her trailer (she picked me up). It is a small lane that goes out to the highway and it is pretty flat for the most part but you have a slight incline before the highway. To the right are trees and a small hill that people “pop” over and to the left are trees and a blind spot so getting out is tricky even when the lane is nice and dry.

As we approached the highway we saw cars and had to stop. When we tried to accelerate to get on the highway the truck tires just turned. We were going to have to make a running start again. Terry tried backing the 22’ trailer down the hill but she doesn’t back well so in her frustration she stopped the truck, put the emergency brake on, got out and told me to do it. I got out and as I went around to the driver’s side the truck started to slide with no one behind the wheel. I got in and started slowly backing down but my front tire got off in the small ditch which was enough to put us at a halt. I was NOT about to call a man for help so after putting some hay under the tires and rocking the truck/trailer a lot we finally got it unstuck and got our run up the hill.

Terry stood in the road and gave me the OK and out we went. It was pretty uneventful from there. We are getting more snow and we are expecting freezing rain tonight so between that and the holidays I doubt you’ll hear too much from me in the form of blog updates.

I hope everyone has a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Blogger Is Having Issues

It wouldn't let me put this video in the last post so I'm going to try it here. It's just a video of Bishop walking around the pasture. It's not high quality by any means.



I will also add for all of my NH friends that Bishop only has his feet trimmed 1-2 times a year because that is all he needs them trimmed. He has beautiful feet! I need to get pictures. He has a thick hoof wall with a natural bevel to it all of the way around.

He has naturally squared his toes off though and I find that interesting. It’s amazing how pretty those “nasty TB” feet can look. ;)

Meet Mr. Bishop

Mr. Bishop is an OTTB that a friend of mine took in as a rescue several years ago. He had a slab fracture to his knee. One of his eyes is a bit cloudy because for some reason they decided to do a cornea transplant. She isn’t sure why but other than it being a bit cloudy he seems fine. He is HUGE (well for me anyways) but he is beautiful too. He is also a very graceful mover which for some reason I didn’t expect from an OTTB.

My TB experience is very limited. In high school I exercised some TB’s for a gentleman when they weren’t on the track. Other than that, I just picked them up from the trainer at the track or dropped them off. I did however learn that you don’t pull back on them to get them to stop!

T (that’s what we’ll call my friend) has a few horses that will never be placed due to injuries but Mr. Bishop was cleared by the vet to be ridden (even raced) again so she’d like to get him going so he can find a good home. I know her time is limited (she also does wildlife rehabilitation and has 12 baby raccoons and a couple of baby squirrels at the moment) so I’ve offered to help. I’d like to get back into horses the way I “used to” be into them and the only way that is going to happen is by getting a bunch of different horses underneath me.

So last night the weather was lovely (a bit sticky but I won’t complain too much). T got Mr. Bishop out of the pasture and brought him down to the RP for me. I took off the lead, put on a headstall and sent him out. I’ve worked with him once before and had a heck of a time getting my inside turns from him. Anytime I’d step in front of his drive line (even if I was moving backwards) he’d turn away. This time I got my inside turns! I moved back and then over and slowly caught his attention. Anytime he’d start to go into the fence I’d go right back to the hip. It didn’t take much pressure at all to get him going.

He was beautiful moving around the RP! I wish I would have gotten some footage (maybe next time) but it was later than expected and I wanted to keep moving forward. He drives up under himself so naturally and he keeps his head & neck level while he moves. He’d make a beautiful hunter/jumper!

After I got him moving out I decided to saddle him up. I threw my saddle up on him and checked to see how “grithy” he’d be. To my surprise he wasn’t girthy at all so I finished cinching him up and then attached the back cinch and sent him out. That’s when the crow hopping began. Silly boy!

He crow hopped around the arena a bit. I kept changing directions to take his mind off of it but his undies were in a bunch. When he finally quit I retightened the girth (front and back) and sent him back out. He was fine so I brought him in and put my reins on. We did some flexing from the ground. He was stiff! I needed more power! We got some minute gives to the left and some decent ones to the right. I decided to see if I could get on (with the help of a step stool of course.

He felt weird but it was a good weird. When I got on we immediately did some flexing and then I did some yielding of the HQ to loosen him up (and to make sure I could stop him if something did happen). I slowly began to spiral him out and we finally were walking around the edge of the RP. We did some ORS until I felt comfortable enough to trot him. Wow! For a big horse he had a nice trot! I really like this guy. He could be a lot of fun and he could make a really nice horse for someone. The only “problem” I ran into was after a bit of trotting he decided to start tossing his head. I think he was just tired (it had been a while since he’d been ridden and he’s quite plump) so when he’d do it I would turn him hard into the fence and send him on the other direction.

I was amazed at how slow he could go when he got by the gate. Needless to say I let him rest on the opposite side of the RP.

We had a huge storm this morning (I had water in my kitchen) so I’m not sure if I’ll get to work with him tonight or not. I’d like to try to work him every night this week weather providing.

Here are a few pictures (DH took them so this is as good as it gets).



This isn’t me riding (T got on after I rode) but it will show you his size. T is as a little bit smaller than I am and she looks so tiny on him! This was about as high as his head got.