Borrowed Steeds

First off, I am absolutely green with jealousy for everyone going to Rolex! It seems like so many bloggers are going this year and I'm so sad I couldn't make it. A classmate and I discussed trying to make it "school-related" to get excused absences to go, but it's right in the prime midterm time and it would just be too much hassle to rearrange midterms and too much $$ :( So have fun for me everyone! Maybe one year I'll make it.

But I finally have (somewhat) exciting things to blog about!

A different view

I haven't been riding Jetta at all lately and I've been BORED. I need a pony to ride. So when a fellow boarder was at the barn (one of the 3 people I actually like!) I asked if she would be interested in having me ride her horse since I know she's been super busy lately with her new baby and working as a nurse. She said yes!

Meet Vante (rhymes with Monty). He's a 5 year old spanish breed cross (not exactly sure what breeds). He's the sweetest, most curious guy ever and I've been eyeballing him forever. I'm so glad I can ride him!

He's normally ridden western, but I'm using my own tack. He looks quite wonderful in dressage tack I think. My bridle is a touch big, he's got a small head compared to Jetta so I think I need to get some cob sized cheek pieces for my bridle so it'll fit better. I think I also need a black breastplate to go with because he's so narrow my saddle slid back a good 3 or 4 inches.

I had a lot of fun riding him. He's more green than I thought he was, but he's very honest and listens very well to voice ques. We just need to work on steering, getting him to move off my leg and giving to the bit. His default mode of travel is giraffe-style and while he's soft to the bit, he doesn't want to seek contact and is quite fussy with the bit, which I can't blame him since he's normally ridden in a double twisted wire.

He has the most uphill canter ever though and it was so fun to ride him! The goal is to ride 3 days a week since his owner usually rides him twice a week (though only lightly).

Much uphill, so giraffe

I'm excited (obviously).

And then I got to ride a second pony! PR, my fellow eventer vet school buddy, is taking care of some horses at her barn for people going to Rolex, so she asked if I'd want to ride her horse Bailey while she rode another horse to save time.

I rode last night and I get to ride again tonight - Bailey is amazing. She's a prelim level eventer who loves her job and she's impeccably trained. I had such a fun time riding her, though I think by the end she was a little annoyed with me bouncing around since I'm so unfit. Plus I just had too much fun playing with her adjustability and she was just like "pick a speed and stick with it!".

So it was a great horse-y day. I might even be able to ride Bailey this summer since PR is doing several internships out of state.

I'm glad I have some opportunities to ride and keep my sanity!

Hunter Pony in Progress?

I finally got to ride Misty! Poor girl has been so neglected lately. Luckily she doesn't seem to mind. I took off her blanket this morning and dare I say, she looked like she had gained weight since I last rode her? She has absolutely refused to gain weight since I got her. She's filled a little bit out, definitely gained some muscle, but the goal was to get an additional 100 pounds on her and she got, like, 20. But she's not looking quite as ribby, so fingers crossed she is actually starting to gain and the 6 pounds of grain + fat supplement + 3 meals of orchard grass + 2 flakes of alfalfa a day is starting to work. Geez mare. And I thought Jetta was a hard keeper?

Foggy, cold morning at the barn!

My friend ML and I decided on going to a hunter/jumper schooling show (tentatively) the third weekend of November. My plan is to hopefully take Jetta on Friday evening and do the 3' jumper classes then take Misty and ML's horse to do the baby hunter classes on Saturday. Dear lord I haven't jumped in a while...

ML is originally a hunter rider, but she got really burned out on it for some reason and now does dressage. I think part of the reason she got burned out is just because of the snobbery that exists in the circuits she showed, despite the fact that she always placed quite well and definitely had the money to compete. She kind of laughed when I told her I wanted to take Misty - my short, roan and tobiano paint horse? But hey, I don't care, it's just for the experience! She decided that if I was going to ride my (very) nontraditional horse, I might as well try to fit in and insisted that I try her standing martingale on Misty. It's one she never used and since she doesn't do hunters anymore said I could have it if it fits.

I think it fits? Also, doesn't have a rubber stopper, is that necessary?

I've never used a standing martingale. I don't typically use any kind of aid like that - standing/running martingale, draw reins, etc. so I was curious to see if it made a difference at all with Misty. One thing she does if I half halt her too strongly is to fling her head, so I was hoping it would make that impossible for her to do. It appeared to fit ok, but the leather needs to be oiled a few more times and rolled/broken in because it's quite stiff. Misty didn't have any objections, but I think we need to jump in it before a final verdict is made.

I'm excited to take her, regardless of how well she might do. I plan on showing her in Jetta's hunter bridle with her own Happy Mouth (which she seems to like!). I'll switch out the reins to the laced ones and since I don't own a shaped fleece pad anymore I'll just either use my white square one or just my white half pad.

Can I join you in the tack room??

I'm getting excited already! Lots of jumping is on the schedule for the next few weeks :)

But speaking of our ride, it was really good. She definitely prefers the hunter headset to the dressage one. We worked on a more forward stride, especially in the canter. Worked on flying changes, specifically from right to left. They're hard for both of us, but in the opposite direction it's pretty much flawless. Transitions have become tons better and ohmygoodness we have real circles now! She can maintain a lovely bend on a 15 or 20m circle.

Good ponies gets treats

Other than that, not much new! Both horses look absolutely feral. Misty needs a bath very badly and her mane needs to be re-braided. Both girls need their bridle paths trimmed. Jetta needs her endurance number scrubbed off her butt and her mane pulled. If only there were more hours in the day! Hoping to squeeze in lots of ponytime this weekend.

Model status

Melting

It's. Too. Hot. Cannot. Handle. It. Blegh...

It's been in the mid 90's over the weekend and going to continue into the majority of this week. I tried to get up as early as possible this morning to go ride both mares, but ended up only  being able to handle one ride in the heat, ending up with sweat dripping down my back and literally off my nose as I picked out Misty's hooves after the ride. Yuck.

I'm finally getting around to putting some rides on Misty. It's going well, but we have a TON of work cut out for us. I really did think that she was a lot further along in her training, which both my BO and the lady I bought her from led me to believe. It's not a huge deal because I don't mind doing the training, I just didn't expect to have quite so much work to do.

Sunday after I cleaned stalls I sucked it up and worked her on the ground because it was already 92 degrees and there was no way I was riding in the stuffy barn. My BO set up a couple little trail obstacles outside so we worked on those. While Misty is very polite on the ground, it's clear that she's like that simply because of her personality, not because anyone taught her manners, as she'll occasionally try to run you over or completely ignore you.

I worked on teaching her to be sent over obstacles. She'll lead over them fine, but by sending her over stuff it will build her confidence by doing things without me and it's easier for the tougher obstacles if she does it by herself that way if she tries to leap stuff I won't go flying out of the saddle :) She walked over the stall mats arranged in a narrow bridge okay after some convincing, though it took a bit longer for her to send from the left side. She doesn't quite know where her feet are, especially the hind ones, so she kept tripping over the poles on either side. I'd like to work on her with trot poles some.

We moved onto the tarp and raised poles, which she did quite well. Much better than two weeks ago when I introduced her to the tarp and she wouldn't go within 5 feet of it. There was a raincoat sitting on a barrel so we did some desensitizing with that. She spooked at it when I first presented it to her, but when I tossed it on her back she stood stock still. I think she was thinking that if she didn't move it wouldn't hurt her, but I'll take that spookiness over running away any day! She gradually accepted me rubbing it all over her, then I tied it to a rope and drug it around. I'm suspicious that she was never actually roped off of. I haven't gotten my rope from home to practice with yet, but dragging ropes across the ground (such as the lunge line) scares her, which sets off alarm bells in my mind. A rope horse should not be afraid of ropes.

She wasn't a huge fan of dragging the raincoat around, but tolerated it. We had a couple spooks where she tried to run away from it, but ended on a good note when she was able to slowly drag it backwards (towards herself) and then I reeled it in and petted her with it.

Today I went to get her out of the pasture and she didn't want to be caught so I made her run around a bit until she decided that she'd really rather be caught. Saddled her up and away we went. Here's what we need to work on.

Misty's Summer Goals:

-Learn to carry her head low on a relaxed rein at the walk, trot and canter
-Learn to jog
-Fine tune canter transitions, especially to the right
-Learn to reach into contact, not curl away from it
-Fine tune forehand/haunch turns
-Teach her to sidepass
-Begin teaching lateral movements
-Get her to have a quieter mouth
-Teach her to "whoa"
-Backing
-Play with cows
-Trail obstacles/desensitizing
-Ground work
-Learning to be caught in the pasture
-Bridling

She's able to carry her head relatively steadily at the walk and trot, but completely forget about that at the canter. She has a rough time picking up and holding the right lead canter. She has no jog whatsoever. She does not like contact and will curl away from it and gape her mouth. I am going to try putting a cavesson on her since I'm already using a mild bit, but if that doesn't help may actually try a flash because it's really bad. This is why I like buying unbroke horses - so that I can start them correctly so that problems like this don't crop up. It seems like she wasn't ever introduced to the bit properly, or it may just be something she learned from her last home since her owner used a Tom Thumb curb bit on her (hate those things). Her idea of stopping is to slam on the brakes, heavily on her forehand with her head in the air. She doesn't do any lateral work, though she does have an idea of how to pick up her inside shoulder when asked. She does forehand/haunch turns albeit sloppily. She strongly resists backing. Bridling is a struggle, you almost have to pry her mouth open to get the bit in. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. We've got a lot of work!

I bought Misty a new Cashel fly mask since her cheapy one gave her a huge rub (hence why I love the Cashel masks and will never use anything else every again). I didn't notice that it was one of the new ones with the patterns, but I love it! I think it suits her well, though she is not amused...

Triple the Trouble

Managed to ride all three girls this morning!

Everyone was inside which made it a little easier since it was super windy and raining out so at least they were all dry and I didn't have to trek out in the mud to catch them since apparently Misty doesn't understand the whole "come here" thing and Jetta has decided that since there is a new mare in her pasture, she is under no obligation to come when I call and instead chases all the other horses around the pasture. Brat. If she doesn't watch herself I might ask that she gets put in the small dry lot paddock by herself!

Anyways, all the mares were pretty good. Misty was up first. I started her out on the lunge line with side reins. They were super loose because 1) they don't fit her cause she's so tiny and 2) I wanted her to get used to them since I'm sure she hasn't worn them in a while since my barn owner last owned her. She wasn't too happy about them, but they weren't restricting her, it was just basically the weight of them coming into play. Regardless, I think they helped her get an idea of what I was asking her undersaddle since I thought our ride was better today. I also rode with a dressage whip which was helpful in getting her to maintain a steady tempo and asking for that right lead canter.

I tried to take some pictures of her being pretty on the lunge, but mostly failed.

At the walk she gets behind the bit and breaks at the 3rd vertebrae instead of at the poll so we worked on that a bit. I've decided to focus on more dressage stuff first before we move to western and going to a loose rein/slow pace, etc. She really does have a nice trot, but the canter needs work. We'll break out the trot/canter poles eventually to help with that. I asked for a little bit of leg yield at the walk and she tried. We'll need to work a little more on getting her to move her haunches over. Regardless, it was a good ride.

Jetta was next and wasn't quite as good. She was a little uppity and kept trying to canter, but other than that we had a good ride. Our leg yields are feeling quite nice even without carrying a dressage whip! I think that Jetta's feeling left out or is just plain trying to destroy herself because she came in from the pasture with a nice cut on her knee, a kick mark on her flank, several large bug bites and a patch of hives on the left side of her neck. Geez mare.

And then Queenie was last and she was just her plain old good self. So it was a rather good morning at the barn, though it culminated in me locking my keys in my car and having to wait another hour for AAA to come unlock it. So they all get a good grooming.

I got to run home and get some of my western tack that I haven't used in a while to try on Misty. Hopefully the saddle will fit better and I hope my bridle fits her too!

Yes, those first three faces you see are mine. I basically own half the barn.

Day One

I went out and rode Misty for the first time this morning. She was out in the pasture and didn't even look up when I approached her. In fact I had to put the lead rope around her neck and pull her head up to halter her because she wouldn't stop grazing, lol. Definitely food motivated.

She was quite antsy in the cross ties, but she hasn't been ridden in a while. She has a habit of picking up her front leg and holding it there instead of pawing, because I guess she knows she's not allowed to paw. I put my barrel saddle on her and it fits ok, but I think it's too wide so I'm going to get my other western saddle from home to try on her. She's soooo small! The saddle looks big on her. I couldn't find my height tape but I need to see how tall she is. JS said she thought she was 15 hands but hadn't measured her. I don't think she's even that...

I didn't have a western bridle to use on her, but I used Jetta's dressage bridle. It was almost too big, so I might have to get her a cob sized bridle. It worked though.

After a quick lunge I got on. She knows a little bit of everything, but she's not finished. She knows how to give to pressure on the bit, but she doesn't know how to maintain contact or to carry her head in one place. She doesn't maintain gait very well, her right canter lead is a little sticky. She has a pretty good halt and back, but she isn't very good about being straight. She knows how to move her shoulders and her haunches but doesn't know how to leg yield or do any lateral work. But she seems pretty game to learn. She wasn't too sure what I was asking, but she tried.

Afterwards I decided to forgo the bath since it was a little cold out and she was just going to be turned out in the muddy pasture again. I put some thrush meds on her hooves, some meds on her leg for the scratches and then gave her a good brushing. She's got a really pretty mane, it's long and has a white stripe in it. Her tail is rather nice too, though how all of those things did not add up to a nice forelock, I don't know. It's just kind of floofy. So I just rubber banded it. After our ride she stood in cross ties just fine.

"Get my good side"

Cute stuff

The Details

So, the full story. Remember when I talked about how my barn owner went through horses really fast? I mentioned a certain mare, her name is Sissy.

Well, I bought her. Her new owner that bought her from my BO was selling her, I noticed via Facebook. I made the comment to my BO that I wish I could afford her, since she was listed for $6500. Soooo, the BO talked to the new owner, JS, and told me that she'd take $2500 with payments. I talked to JS and got the price down to $2000 if I came and picked her up on Saturday (today) and hauled a horse for her. Basically it was a - "come get her tomorrow at this price or she goes back up to her original asking price".

I've been oscillating between panic and excitement. I spent the whole entire day yesterday messaging my BO and JS determining the terms of our agreement. I'm super stressed. This is the most expensive horse I've ever bought. I mean, my last three horses were FREE (well, ok, I didn't actually own them) and here I am buying a horse for $2000. I've never spent over $750 on a horse (Jetta) so this is crazy for me. Add in the fact that I haven't even sold Queenie yet, and I have THREE horses at the moment. What is this craziness???

Anyways, today went fairly smoothly. It was a LOT of driving and I ended up spending about 6 hours on the road. I had to go pick up JS's new horse - a 17.2hh TB that hadn't been handled for the last 6 years. That was fun. Reminded me a lot of getting Jetta. It took forever to wrangle the horses since a couple weren't halter broke. Luckily the big guy loaded up with only a slight hesitation.

JS lives in the middle of nowhere so it was a slightly worrying drive - I made three wrong turns and ended up having to turn the trailer around to go back the correct direction. Let's just say my trailer turning mojo was not with me today, but we made it.

I got to JS's barn, signed the papers and loaded up my new pony! I've decided to name her Misty since I didn't like Sissy that much. Still needs a new show name though (recommendations welcome!). Her registered name is Henny Penny which is just AWFUL. Ack. She's six years old and maybe 15 hands so she's way smaller than I'm used to. The plan is to turn her into my all around horse. The person who owned her before my BO supposedly had a ranch and moved cows on her and did breakaway roping. I'd like to do some sorting and reining on her, as well as competitive trail in addition to doing dressage and possibly teaching her to jump. 

She's a nice mover and easily tracks up at the walk and trot and has a lovely natural headset. She's straight paint/QH breeding so no TB in her. Her only fault I think so far is her feet. She has front shoes on, but threw one of them so she only has one shoe. Her hooves are a little bit upright, but at least they're big, no tiny halter hooves here. She has a definite toe-first landing and contracted heels so it'll take a bit to get them in shape, but I don't think there'll be a problem transitioning her to full barefoot. She has a scar on her left front pastern that's hosting some scratches so I'm going to get to work on getting rid of that pronto.

Tomorrow is going to be a spa day/first ride. Eek! I can't believe I bought a horse with this little preparation. I've seen her be ridden maybe three times at my barn, I've never ridden her myself. Just crazy. I don't know what got into me, but I'm blaming my barn owner for talking to JS and getting her to bring the price down... It's still a lot of money for me, but I just have to think that it's "just money". I can earn it back and if I need to resell Misty (though I'm not planning on it) after a little more training I think I can make a nice profit.

QATV

I had a great ride on Queenie on Monday. I decided that we'd go explore some new trails since it was going to be possibly the only sunny day this whole week and it's now back to raining.

We had the lot all to ourselves...

This set of trails is closer than the other park we've been going to, only 30 minutes away, but boy is the road curvy and narrow!

Starting off

We made it there safely and had the whole horse camp to ourselves. It's really neat because there's campsites with corrals if you want to stay overnight. Neat! I'd love to go horse camping someday - well, that's basically what endurance is going to be, but still.

Queenie was bright eyed and bushy tailed coming off the trailer. She LOVES going on the trails. She had her head up and was looking all around. The first half of the trails I had to keep her on a short rein, simply because she's so ADD that wherever she looks, she goes, so we're weaving all over the trail, going through bushes, etc because she's like "Oh look! Over there, let's go over there! No wait, let's go that way! Ooh, ooh, what about that way?!" I have to remind her that I'd rather not go offroading through the thorn bushes.

The first part of the trails we went on were all graveled. You almost immediately cross a very pretty stream. Queenie had no qualms about going through. Her hooves were great on the gravel too, even with some big sharp rocks mixed in. We crossed a narrow bridge, then came across an old road that had been closed off with a large bridge to cross. All no problem. We cantered a little on the flat road, then reached where the trails started going up hill. These trails were all dirt, but with the recent rain they were a little slick, especially for Queenie with her big hooves.

Crystal clear stream

We went uphill for a bit, just walking on a loose rein. Queenie was so good, I could just ride her on a loose rein all day. There were a lot of downed trees and logs and stumps, and besides giving them a good snort and stare, she didn't spook at them at all. When the trail started to go downhill again, we turned around because I didn't want to wear poor Queenie out completely and I wasn't sure how long the loop we were on was going to be, and we retraced our steps back the the trailer.

Pretty sure we're not 20 tons... just 1 ton, lol.

The old bridge for cars to drive over

Such a good pony - her new nickname is QATV - Queenie All Terrain Vehicle :) We stopped at the creek for a quick drink, then untacked at the trailer and I let Queenie graze for a while. We loaded back up and got back to the barn just in time for the girls to get their toes trimmed! A perfect way to spend the day.

Well deserved graze

The Weekend

I had a busy, fun weekend! I'm going to write about our weekend in two parts just so this post doesn't get crazy long :)

On Friday I took the girls home for the weekend. I agreed to horse sit for my friend/trainer JF for the weekend, plus I had the show on Sunday and the barn it was held was closer to my house than my apartment at school. And since I was going to be gone the whole weekend, I thought it would be good exposure to ride Queenie somewhere new.

I got Jetta all bathed and loaded the horses and all my stuff up and off we went.

I have to say it's so nice to have the horses at home. Sure you have to be the one responsible for feeding, watering and cleaning stalls but I don't have to drive anywhere, I just walk out of the house about a couple hundred feet. The horses get nice big stalls with runs, they have a huge pasture with lots of grass, and I can feed them however I want. I have my neighbor's outdoor arena to ride in and hot water wash rack to use, or I have my own little wash rack set up (cold water only). I have a whole entire tack room to myself too :)

Anyways, Saturday I rode both girls. I did Jetta first. She was WIRED! I let her run around a bit before I decided to get on.


She was super hyper and had the mega trot going on. Why can't we have a trot like that when we're doing our lengthenings?

Four off the floor! Overachiever.

After she settled down she remembered how to free lunge like a good girl.


And then we rode! And she was STILL wired. I felt like I was riding a rocket or a kite. Or a combination of both, a rocket strapped to a kite. The tiniest leg movement would cause her to canter and she got very upset if I didn't let her. She was forward, forward, forward but too much so. Floaty and light on the forehand was nice, but not at 100 miles an hour. I felt like I was riding my horse from two years ago and was dreading having the show the next day...

The weather was gorgeous so I should have taken one of the girls for a trail ride but that option completely slipped my mind :(

Such an awesome view

Queenie was next and she was near perfect. A couple circuits of the arena to scope everything out and she was golden! She's definitely getting fitter because the canter's getting a lot easier for her. We even were able to open and close the arena gate without me having to get off and I didn't have to take my hand off the gate!

Queenie enjoying her luxury accommodations

More about the show tomorrow!

Queenie on Film

Ok, well it's not film, it's digital, but you get the idea. Pictures and video!!!

How could I forget that I had this amazing magical device that allows me to take pictures at the push of a button from many feet away? Best $30 ever spent! I should have remembered this little piece of electronics when I was taking conformation pics the other day.

Anyway, I remembered that I had a remote control for my camera so I brought it with me to the barn and had some fun taking pics and a video. 


Hmm, what is this contraption?

She wasn't too sure of it clicking away, especially when I turned the flash on so she was a little tense and not as nice as she usually is - usually she carries her neck a couple inches lower. The funny part is when the other horses heard her snort at it, all the other horses stopped eating to stick their heads out and see what was going on and then they started snorting at it and Queenie got really worried. "Why are they snorting?! Something scary must be happening. I should be afraid."

After I deemed we had gotten some acceptable pictures I took a video. It's very long and mostly boring but I find it amusing. Of course taking a stationary video means that I accidently went outside the field of view every time I went down the long side of the arena. Oops. But at least it will give people the idea of how she moves, etc. I give to you the unedited version.

The canter you see is actually one of the best quality we've had yet to date, especially to the left, despite her wanting to buck very badly, which you may or may not notice. Also, we almost took out the camera which was terrifying. My fancy, nice, expensive camera. I almost had a heart attack. 

At the end, I tried to show off her whole ground tying unsuccessfully which I thought was funny. I should have given up, but I finally got her to stand still. Queenie: "But I thought you wanted me to follow you?"

Note: I'm pretty much the prime example of what not to do. The whole, "do as I say, not as I do" thing because I tend to do a lot of stupid things, which you'll notice throughout the blog. Such as sitting on the ground and using a hair dryer to blow dry a four year old horse's feathers. Or riding a horse with another horse turned out. These are bad ideas. Don't do them. Also, standing on your horse. Another bad idea. I may end up editing this out of the video, since I always tend to cringe when I see other people do this. Not because I think they're necessarily doing anything bad, but it's not a safe thing to do and I hate that it implies that it's a good idea especially to younger kids... who might not have such trustworthy horses. But, at least I'm wearing a helmet (the one thing I do 99% of the time that IS a good idea) and I do consider Queenie trustworthy. She doesn't budge. So take it or leave it, I just don't advise trying this at home :)

Out of Shape

Ugh, I am so out of shape. I've been good about riding consistently recently, but I haven't done anything in my jump saddle, much last jumped, in the past month. I'm taking a Physical Activity Course (PAC) class that's required at my school and it's kicking my butt. Then deciding to maximize my amount of pain, I decided to ride in my jump saddle and do some two point practice.

I hurt all over.

Plus, my ride on Jetta was just a super bummer. She started out fairly good, it was mostly just me. I felt out of balance and insecure in the saddle which is mostly a result of how little I've been riding in it, but also the fact that I want a different style of saddle. And any of the saddles I want are in the $3000 range, sigh.

Anyways, since Jetta's becoming more balanced in her canter and will occasionally do a clean flying change, I decided to ask her to do one just to see if she would. Mistake. Jetta got very upset and was tearing around the arena on the wrong lead. Lovely. It took a while to settle her down and get back to a nice-ish canter again, but it made our ride more tense and not as nice as it started out.
 
We took a walk break to regroup and ended on a good note, but it just made me realize we have sooooo much work. I really need to figure out some sort of lesson plan. The KO lesson I was looking forward to on the 20th got canceled (OMG PEOPLE QUIT CANCELLING THINGS!) and the trainer at my barn I don't really like her methods so I'm scared to ask her for a jumping lesson... I think I'm going to call up the trainer at another barn somewhat close by and see what she charges for a lesson. I've taken a lesson with her before at an eventing clinic and while it wasn't an amazing lesson, it was really good practice for us, I didn't disagree with anything she said and it was challenging. Then the main part is just taking the time to set up jumps at least once a week and practice. I need to get back to doing some a ton of two point!

fresh arena

With Queenie, she has been good. I love having a project horse because ever ride you can see visible improvement in leaps and bounds.

I turned Jetta out in the arena while I rode Queenie the other day because I didn't have the time to ride both of them. Plus it was good practice for Queenie to be in the arena with another crazy horse. Every so often Jetta would take off running and bucking for no good reason. Plus she would follow us around, ride up on Queenie's butt and cut us off, so it was good practice for riding in a warm up arena, lol. We had one big spook, but mostly Queenie just had her cutest alarmed face on. It's kinda adorable.

Heyyy pretty lady

Jetta was in major heat so she would trot up in front of us, then stop and position her butt towards Queenie. Sorry girl, wrong gender though.

Better

Well, things are better. I found a jumping show to replace the dressage show that got canceled and in addition entered the other dressage show that's on the 27th.

Queenie is no longer footsore so I rode her today. I just got on bareback - I am the epitome of laziness, but she sure made me work today! She was a little squirrley today and she's so round that it's very easy to just slip off and I found myself grabbing mane a couple times to stay on. She's like a couch though. So comfy.

I looked around for a little schooling show to take her to, but there's nada. I just think it would be hilarious to enter her in a couple W/T western pleasure classes. She can look the part! Today we worked on haunch turns. I don't think she was ever taught them, but she's learning. She still gets mixed up sometimes when I cue for it and moves her hip, but she's getting there. If only she could move her forehand around as fast as she can move her haunches... she'd make a reiner yet!

I thought this was amusing, her perfect pivot hole.

I don't have to use spurs with her any more, she's learned what all the leg cues are and doesn't blow through my leg near as often. Now we just need to fine tune the canter and teach some neck reining. She's getting more and more comfortable in the canter, but it's still in its "bunny hop" stage (aka still tense and slightly lateral). Love having a project pony :)

Untitled

Lots of little things happening this week and I completely lack inspiration for a relevant post title. Oh well.

I decided on a spur of the moment to enter a dressage league show on the 20th. Hope we'll be ready for it by then! It's fairly close and even though I missed the closing date they still had room for me. I've never been to this facility so I'm just hoping the footing is nicer there than at the last place I went to.

I'm just so excited for this spring and summer. There are so many shows I'm hoping and planning to go to, I can't wait! I'm doing a jumping lesson with KO on the 21st after our dressage show and I have possibly two or three shows that I want to attend in May. Hopefully I just don't run out of money - shows are such a drain on the finances.

Short toe, long toe. Looks so much better trimmed now!

Both ponies got their hooves trimmed. Queenie was in desperate need of a trim, her hooves were quite long. My trimmer AC could only come out Tuesday or Thursday this week and since I didn't want to wait, I decided I could squeeze in on Tuesday in my hour and forty minute break between classes right? Not a very smart decision on my part - it's a forty minute drive both ways and trimming Queenie took longer than I thought it would since her hooves were so long, whereas Jetta just needed her back feet rolled with the rasp and her fronts trimmed a tiny bit. Luckily, my twenty minute tardiness went unnoticed for my class so it worked out ok :)

My two girls had the big grassy pasture all to themselves

I rode Jetta and lunged/bathed Queenie yesterday. Jetta was very good. I did Queenie first and so when I left Jetta in the big pasture by herself she stirred up the geldings next to her and pranced/galloped back and forth along the fenceline. It was pretty funny - she was having a grand old time and the geldings were huffing and puffing to keep up with her. She was barely warm when I brought her in :) But at least she got all her excess energy out.

Queenie was also very good. I cross tied her for the first time in the wash rack. I've just been having her ground tie since she was scared of the hose touching her so every time I needed to wash her right side she'd panic. We've been working on that a lot so I felt that she'd be fine for today and she was! She eyed the hose whenever it touched her but there was no spooking. I also clipped her bridle path for the first time. She was perfect up until the point that I thought "Wow! She's being so good for this, I bet she wouldn't mind me doing her ears." Ha. After that she didn't want me touching her poll period so we'll need to work on that a few more times. 

I tried to get a nice conformation picture of her, but taking pictures by your lonesome isn't the best way to go about it...

This one would be my favorite, if her nose didn't get chopped off.

"You want me to pose?"

"Hey look, a penny!"

"Don't I look purdy?"

"Meh. I don't like this whole picture taking thing."

"Om nom nom"

I'll take it! Ears forward and mostly standing normally.

Water Crossing

Just wanted to add this video in, see the full post about our trail ride from earlier today! Proof that we did indeed cross the water and didn't just stand and take photos that made it look like we were in the water but weren't.

It's very shaky so if you get motion sickness easily, don't watch it, lol.

I had to steer her across one handed (she doesn't neck rein... yet) and she wanted to go downstream, I wanted to go upstream, plus the current was really strong and pushing her towards the bank. But we survived :)

Trail Queen

I took Queenie for a trail ride today finally! And I've got a ton of "ears" photos for you :)

Hitting the trails

I finally decided to stop waiting around for a riding buddy to go with me - everyone seems to be too busy or just plain doesn't want to go trail riding - and went by myself. I have to say that I much prefer it! It's always nice to have another person to talk with and help out in case you get bucked off or lead if your horse decides they don't want to do something, but being by yourself means you can go whenever you want, leave whenever you want and ride for as long as you want at your own pace. Bliss!

Queenie was very good. I was expecting her to not be as good honestly. She loaded up perfectly (first time I have trailered her) and I squeezed her into my little trailer. It was a long drive because the closest trails I could find were a half hour away and I already know I don't like those trails (very, very rocky and dark forested creepy trails) and all other trails were 40 minutes away so I decided I'd just go to my favorite state park that's an hour away because I know the trails well, they're perfectly maintained and set up for horses and it would be perfect for Queenie because it's flat and there are bridges and water to cross.

I lunged Queenie briefly in the round pen (love that they have this!) then got on and made sure she was going to pay attention to me, then started off! She felt tense and was doing her best llama impression with her neck up as high as it would go but she wasn't spooky, just excited.

Deer in the background. Queenie didn't care.

In fact, she was LOVING it - striding out, looking around and she wanted to trot so I let her. She's definitely not lazy. We started out along one trail and went to look out over the river, then turned around and went back on the maintained trail loop that crosses the large creek (or small river, whatever it is!). 

The "river"

In the water

We only had two "big" spooks. I say big in quotation marks because she was over it in about 2 seconds. The first was when we came up on our first horse eating log. They are called horse eating for a reason after all. Queenie saw it from about thirty feet away and stopped to stare at it. When I pushed her to walk forward she flew backwards into a blackberry bush and then I prompted her to go forward again and she almost pranced up to sniff it. Then she was fine, no big deal. On the way back when we passed it again she barely looked at it. The next was when we came around a corner to one of the bridges and some very startled wood ducks took off out of the water quacking which gave me a heart attack almost so I can't really blame Queenie for taking a couple of side steps at that.

The long bridge back to the parking lot

 
She crossed all the water with no problems, same with the two bridges. We even had a fairly nice canter! I was just thinking about what a perfect trail horse she was when we came up to an open meadow and all the way on the other side, a long, long ways away she saw two people walking their two dogs (BIG dogs). Seriously, she must have been a guard llama in a past life. Head went up, she snorted a challenge at them and if she could have talked, probably would have been saying "OHMYGOSH we have to go meet them! We have to go meet them!!" She was prancing around in place and trying to race across the meadow to go say hi. Not ok. So we worked on standing for a little while until she decided the danger had passed and walked back to the parking lot on a loose rein.

The sun came out on the ride back

So basically, she was really good, but she's not going to make a beginner's horse. I don't think she needs an experienced rider because she was very easy to manage despite her two spooks and the drama llama incident, but the rider would have to be confident. I really enjoyed riding her on the trails though because she was forward but listened to me, didn't have any qualms about charging through the mud or water. It was fun!

Some well deserved grazing for the tired pony