Horsing Around

Sorry for the awful title, but we've really just been playing around this week which is kind of bad considering that we were planning on going to a dressage show next weekend. So I guess that it's kind of good that I got waitlisted for the show? Since when does that ever happen for an unrecognized dressage show? I'm not too bummed about it though.

It's rare to catch her napping mid-day!

Monday we just goofed around in western tack. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I decided that Misty needed a completely new western set up. So she got new dark teal boots, a gray and turquoise/teal pad and a new headstall (of course with a turquoise buckle). I'm obsessed. It looks great on her. Now I just actually have to ride western more often?

So adorable

I've been searching for a pad these colors for forever!

The headstall is a little iffy since it's an orange-y light brown that doesn't match my saddle whatsoever. I gave it a few coats of Hydrophane darkening oil and there was only a marginal difference. I'm going to give it a bit more, then maybe think of ordering some actual stain since the leather isn't finished anyways and I just want it to match my saddle.

Anywho, any advice is appreciated on how to darken this awful color of leather without stain.

Then yesterday I lunged Misty and then we played around with a new yoga ball that was left in the "toy corner". I can't remember if I've ever introduced Misty to a yoga ball, but if I did it was over two years ago. She acted like she didn't remember it (if she had ever seen one) and while she wasn't scared of it, she definitely wasn't interested in touching it.

I kicked the ball around and we followed it around a bit to get her confidence up, then tried to get her to kick it. No luck. She got very good at avoiding it at any and all costs, still not scared of it, just not understanding. Eventually she realized it wasn't awful if the ball touched her legs and it was kind of neat that she could kick it around. By the end, I could direct her at the end of the lunge line towards it and she'd do a pretty good job of tracking it and kicking it by herself without too much input from myself.

We finished up by lunging over some barrels. I've been trying to do more lunging jumps to improve both her confidence and fitness. So it was a fun day! At least for me :)

Scattered post

I had high hopes for blogging more over winter break, but failed sadly. Nothing was too interesting around here though. I go back to school today tomorrow (ice day today!) I'm slightly nervous for the new term since there will be four "real" classes this term instead of three.

The ponies have been good though. Misty has been getting more attention as usual. We're still playing with western, and I finally put the curb bridle on her. My original one walked away (which is beyond annoying, but at least is was my "cheap" set up). I rebuilt the bridle mostly from extra pieces I had around, except for buying a new set of reins. She was really good in the curb bridle, but needs a tad bit of work on neck reining as she's a little rusty.

Cutest western pony ever

We've been working on flying changes, which we put on a back burner for a while. She's rougher from left to right and had lots of bucks and opinions to say on that flying change. The first time through she wouldn't change behind and was being altogether much too sassy, so she got in trouble. Then she was kind of like "oh, I guess I can't do that" and was much more polite and on time for her changes. We did serpentines where sometimes we'd do a simple canter-trot-canter change, or a canter-walk-canter change or even a canter-halt-canter change or a flying change. That way she won't anticipate anything and will be listening for what I want. It's a fun exercise, at least I think, I'm sure Misty doesn't agree.

I am hoping that this year I will blog more. I'll definitely be busier than ever, but I miss blogging! I have a few blogs in the works, including some reviews. I got some Ariat denim breeches (and tall boots!) as a birthday gift to myself, so I need to review those. And some new clippers for Christmas, which I can't wait to try out.

Before I got my gift clippers, I used my roommate's to do a trim on the ponies. They were looking rough. I decided not to do any body clips since I haven't been riding much. They just got their socks, beards, muzzles and bridle paths clipped. Or in Jetta's case I roached her mane again. It was getting much too long for my tastes, since with Jetta long = mega thick. I could double running braid her mane like a cob or spanish breed or something.

Jetta's looking good! I cut almost 5 inches off her tail...

The horse's got their Christmas bran mash. I decided to do something different this year, as usually I buy some wheat bran and make their bran mash at home. This year I found some pre-made bran mash which sounded cool so I just got that. Less mess! You just add hot water to the bag, it ziplocs shut and then dump it in their feed bin, perfect!

Ingredients: Wheat Bran, Barley, Cane Molasses, Dehydrated Carrots, Peppermints, Soybean Meal, Peppermint Leaf, Cinnamon and Chamomile.

I would definitely recommend it. Both horses loved it and it just makes me feel good to give them a nice warm treat on a cold day.

And the latest dilemma... I'm still drooling over a PS of Sweden bridle (thanks to certain other bloggers... who know who you are). I was hoping they'd have a holiday sale at some point, but to no avail. I got Christmas money to use to buy one bridle. The only problem is that I want two. I need some votes on which one to get!

I only have one black bridle, so it'd be nice to get a second one for schooling. I love both the Jump Off and the Get Set, but can't decide. Thoughts?

I'd love to get Misty the Jump Off in black to replace the Micklem bridle we ride in

Or, I want to get Jetta the Get Set bridle in black

Boring Update

Horse life has not been too exciting lately. I'm currently on a lovely 3-week break from school, so I get to catch up on all the sleep, TV, horse riding and other fun things I've been missing out on.

The horses are both doing well. I've been riding them pretty consistently in the past week and I've missed it so much!

Misty is having fun being ridden western for the time being, for no other reason than just because. It's wonderful to think of when I got her, how far she's come. She has a lovely little western jog - certainly not western pleasure worthy, but fun to ride and would probably do just fine in ranch horse and 4-H/OHSET type of shows. She's getting more consistent at carrying her head and neck low and level. She gets her leads, does nice stops and roll backs and even has a cute little spin going on. It's a lot of fun!

 

Jetta has successfully been ridden without trying to kill me, though the super rainy/windy weather certainly hasn't helped in the spook department. It's been nice and quiet at the barn in that usually I'm the only one there using the arena.

She's looking really good right now though!

Both girls are all blanketed up which I appreciate in respect to keeping them clean. I think I've decided not to clip again this year since I'm not riding much. Plus no clippers = trying to borrow friends clippers and most of them don't work very well so it's hard enough to clip whiskers and bridle paths.

They get turned out occasionally by the BM and absolutely love trying to get as muddy as possible.

 

Freedom

So happy to be done with this term. Not that next term is really going to get any better... but at least I have a week off to hopefully catch up on sleep and have some fun, get lots of pony time in, etc.

Just can't get enough of this weather!

Tuesday was just too nice out not to ride. I couldn't resist, so I dressed Misty up in her western clothes and hopped on her in the outdoor arena. After warming up in the snaffle, I finally tried out the curb bit on her. I've never ridden her in a curb, but I've seen multiple photos of her ridden in one with previous owners, so I was hoping she knew what it was all about...

After a little bit of mouthing "What did you just put in my mouth?!" she settled right down and knew exactly what was happening. Well there's our neck reining!

Official western pony

Besides being quite spunky to begin with (Misty: "Wheeee!") kicking up her heels every time I asked for some more speed in the canter, or a flying change or just because, she eventually settled down and we had a lot of fun doing a little bit of reining work. I definitely need to get some more video because she's improved a ton since the first video I have of her doing a reining pattern. Sliding stops need some refreshing, but otherwise the spins have improved oodles, flying changes are still there if a bit too enthusiastic, circles are fair but we still tend to make funky shaped ones to the right, our jog trot has basically disappeared... But overall better. And SO MUCH FUN.

Today was another fun day. Cleaned stalls, gave both girls a really good grooming, lunged Jetta and then rode Misty. I tacked her up in her western clothes again. She was super touchy when I got on but eventually settled down. I might need to switch to a softer curb with shorter shanks, but we'll see.

Spunky McSpunkerton

She's figuring out how to go fast, but we still need to work on making a clearer distinction between our lope and fast canter. Flying changes were super smooth today. After a little bit, I noticed a flag in the corner. Ooh, let's play with that! I hopped off to pick it up and Misty decided to high-tail it out of there, because flags are SCARY. Luckily as soon as she exited the barn, she stopped and looked like "What do I do now?" so I could easily catch her. We marched back into the arena and after some initial snorting and minor spooking, she eventually figured out that the flag wasn't that bad.

I was able to get on her and walk and trot around carrying the flag. She didn't mind it rustling around or brushing her rump, but we didn't push it. Next time maybe we can canter and see if the snapping sound bothers her. Gosh I love this horse. She is just too much fun!

Future drill pony?

Ranch Pony

Well, we sucked it up and went to our first ranch versatility competition on Sunday! All week I had been stressing about it. Worrying that we were going to embarrass ourselves or that we wouldn't fit in, something would go wrong, etc.

I'm glad that I decided to go though. It was a perfect first introduction to this new discipline. And it was FUN.

Rundown:

Flyer said it started at 9am so I planned to get there at 8:30. Showed up with perfect timing and there were a few people were warming up but no one had a clue what was happening. So we just chilled for a bit then I warmed up and then took Misty back to the trailer.

She was actually being quite bad (for her, which isn't saying much) in warm up. She was plowing through my aids, not wanting to stop, not picking up her right lead and not giving me clean flying changes. Humph. She had been doing so well at home, I was a little bummed and now more nervous about our "debut".

The show finally got on the road at 10am. They had us all meet and explained the trail course. There were 13 obstacles and you had to pick 8 to 10 to do. They gave us a course map, but then explained that you don't have to follow it. You could make up your own obstacles even if they weren't on the map.

I was third to go and running on a lack of sleep so I did nothing spectacular. After watching everyone after me I thought of all the cool things we could have done to gain more points. Obstacles were scored 0-6 based on how your horse performed it, how you rode it and how difficult the obstacle was. Most people did just fine. It was an easy-peasy course.

Then was the reining/cow part. All movements scored 0-10.

Again we were third. The two people before us had rather... interesting... rides. The cows were really, really dull. I befriended an older couple there that were also first timers and they had been at the clinic the day before so were telling me to cross my fingers for a brown cow since they were a little more exciting.

Our reining pattern actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't think she would pick up the right lead but she did. Our circles were a little wonky (circles with corners anyone?) and I wish we had a big arena to practice in at home, but overall not too bad. Flying changes were acceptable, the one from right to left was a stride late behind though. The scoring was kind of weird - we got a 6.5 on the late change, the lateness was also noted, then the next change which was clean, got a 6. Though I guess it wasn't as smooth as it could have been, it's her harder direction so I basically rocked her off balance to make her change, aka not as smooth as it could have been. Our rundowns to roll backs were actually quite good on the stopping front considering how she wasn't stopping well earlier, though we need to work on getting no trot/walk strides after the initial halt. Roll backs could use some work.

Our "sliding stop" was quite good, back up ok. Then the spins. Were awful. I'm just too handsy. We need to work on that a lot. At least we did way better than the two before us, both of which did tight circles/forehand turns instead of haunch pivots.

Then it was time for a cow. We got a brown one! I was pleased. Of course it gets away from me almost immediately, but personally I'd rather have that than one that won't move. Though apparently you score higher with a cow that doesn't move... (according to how placing ended up).

Go Misty Go!

Misty was fantastic. She listened, watched the cow and didn't get too far ahead or behind. I was really worried about circling because it's so hard, but we didn't have much of a problem, even earning a 9!

Here's a video of our run. I apologize to my mom, but she wins the award for worst videographer. I appreciate her effort so much! But it kind of sucks...



So much fun! I thought Misty did super well and was proud of our first outing. We didn't embarrass ourselves. We watched the rest of the riders and I estimated my placing as 2nd or 3rd.

I was super bummed to find we'd placed 5th out of 7 in the Novice category. I can't help being super competitive and wanting to place well. Though really, I went into it just wanting to have a good experience which we were successful at.

At the risk of sounding like a poor loser, my mom and I were chatting after and honestly I think we placed so low because everyone who placed higher had done the clinics the day before with the judge. He knew them and their horses so he probably was able to see the improvement in them, thus scoring them higher. Just my opinion. Because the lady who placed fourth had quite the rough ride - her horse almost ran into the fencing because she couldn't get him to stop, he did simple lead changes instead of flying and didn't do spins (just small circles) and had a dull cow so you didn't get to see how cowy her horse was. But then again, this probably just shows how little I know of ranch versatility scoring...

Pink horse gets a pink ribbon

Despite all of that, I really enjoyed myself. I felt like we fit right in with all of the beginners there, even the "experienced" people weren't that amazing so I felt like we were right on the same level. I was thinking I'd be slightly self conscious about wearing my helmet because I always get "those looks" when riding with the western crowd, but I needn't have feared. Out of 10 riders, 6 were wearing helmets including me, and only one of those was a youth. Way to go helmet people!

I would definitely go back, though this was the last one of the year.

Jack of All Trades

My mom always likes to remind me: "Jack of all trades, master of none." I've always enjoyed doing EVERYTHING possible in the horse world, whether it was dressage, eventing, reining, driving, trail, or anything else I could weasel my horse into doing.

I was just thinking about this yesterday as I drove home from a lesson on cows. I simply can't make myself just choose one thing to be really good at and focus on, I want to do it all, even if it might mean sacrificing "greatness" in one area to just be "good" in all areas. It's just too much fun.

I took Misty to JF's to do some cow work since I'm thinking of doing a ranch versatility show on Sunday, but have never actually worked cows in that context. Misty did really good. She's lacking fitness which made it hard, but she tried everything I asked of her and it was fun. She's definitely still very green in pretty much all areas, but she has a really good basic foundation in place now.

We practiced boxing, fence work and circling the cow. Oh my gosh. This is tough! I really am enjoying it though. It's new and different plus it's really challenging. I'm the kind of person that always wants to be challenged, probably part of the reason I can't make myself settle on one discipline. I get bored. But there's so much new stuff to learn about doing cow work. You have to read the cow and know what they're going to do before they do it. You have to get your horse really in tune with your aids so they can go from a halt to a gallop in a second flat, or come to a screeching halt and spin around the other direction. Then you have to put it all together and get it done.

Circling is DEFINITELY the hardest. You have to position the horse on the cow just right so that you can make the cow turn in a circle, without allowing them to turn and spin the other direction or run away from you. The smaller the better, because then your horse doesn't have to run as fast. Basically you're trying to make the cow pivot 360 degrees, then you reverse. You have to keep your horse's nose by the cow's neck to keep them moving forward and turning, if you get too far back by their hip then they'll just run away from you, but if you get up by their head then they'll turn around and go the wrong direction.

Anyways, it was a good lesson. We spent about two hours playing with the cows and I got a lot of great tips and homework. Can't wait to get to work on it!

Here's an example of working cow horse. First they do a reining pattern, then they do the cow work. I thought this horse was quite a nice example of how to get it done (in my very limited experience). Start at the 2:30 mark for the cow stuff. First is boxing, which is just getting the cow to go back and forth, just showing how you can control it. Then they fence the cow, run it all the way down, turn it, run it back, and turn it again. Then circling, when you bring it off the wall and make it circle 360 in each direction. 

No Regrets

I had such a great ride on Misty today! The weather's been verrry unusually cool lately which means that I haven't been having to wake up early to avoid the heat. I got to the barn in the afternoon and first doctored Miss Jetta, then rode Misty.

I have to say that any misgivings I've had about buying a second horse are pretty much gone. Sure, it was a poor financial decision, but it's working for the most part and I hope I can maintain that. But, I don't regret it because I'm having so much fun with her!

I almost thought about entering the Ranch Versatility show this weekend because she's doing so well...

Such a good girl!

Anyways, I've been working on some western stuff. She still doesn't quite understand why I want her to jog, but she's getting moments where she'll jog along quietly on a loose rein. Her left lead canter (the easier direction for her) is much slower and smoother and "lope-y" than the right lead canter.

Aaaand, drumroll.... we have flying changes! Kind of sort of at least. I asked her for one and she gave it to me, albeit slightly more energetically than I would have liked and she was a stride late behind, but it was there! I asked for one in the opposite direction and got it too.

We worked on roll backs which are definitely going to need a lot of work. I made the mistake of swatting her with the end of my rein when she completely ignored my cue to move her shoulder over and got a panicked whirl around and for the next few minutes anytime my hand came into her field of vision she spooked. Oh, mare. She just needs a lot of slow work to make her relax I think, she tends to get a little wound up and nervous when I ask too much of her at once or if I give too strong a cue.

I'm trying to get her to stop nicely on just a cue with my seat and at home it's 99% there, but when we went to the cow sorting practice she didn't respond at all to my seat cues so that will take some more work.

I asked for another set of flying changes again and she gave them to me, albeit with a little crow hop in the middle. I'll take it though! Much better than Jetta who only changes when she feels like it and if you ask her too much she'll give a big buck and won't change, so I'll take exuberant but clean changes any day! Looking back, I think I just need to give a quieter request for the changes. I'm used to asking Jazz for her flying changes and I think that way of asking is just too abrupt for sensitive little Misty.

By the end we were able to do two full laps around the arena (one in each direction) at a nice little jog trot. Mostly because she was probably a little tired, but that jog is in there! I wish I had known about the one this weekend earlier, that way I could have been more prepared and possibly entered this one!

But, now we have plenty of time to prepare for two shows in September. There's a QH show in on the 14th that has a trail competition that I've done with Jazz a couple time (where 3 of our 5 buckles come from!) and they also have "beginner" classes where you don't have to have a registered QH to compete and you could win a belt buckle. They have a reining and a cow horse class that I'd like to enter. Then, on the 15th, there's a Ranch Versatility Competition. So excited!!

More good news is that I found a place to work with cows that's a lot closer than JF's. I'll probably still haul down to JF's every so often because I really love everyone that's there because I know almost all of them and JF is awesome, but I will save gas and $5 by going to the one near me. Plus they serve you food :)

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 :)

Jumping, Shots & Bits

Finally got around to jumping Miss Jetta yesterday. I decided to set out a jump (just a couple barrels) and then if she warmed up nicely, we'd jump them a couple times. She was super good warming up so I just put her on a 20 meter circle and started off to the left jumping the barrels. She was so good!

Usually with smaller jumps she still has a tendency to launch herself over for some reason but we didn't have any of that. I was able to see our distances and ride her to them. Jetta jumped the barrels quietly then was attentive when I asked her to return to the trot or halt. We started out trotting over the barrels then cantered.

When we went to the right it wasn't quite as pretty. Not our best direction. We had a hard time getting the right distance to the jump at the canter, especially as she got more and more tired. But overall, it was a really good ride and I was impressed with her quietness after not jumping in over a month!

Both girls got their shots yesterday too. Well, half of them. They got a West Nile shot and then I'll give the four-way shot next week just to spread it out. Both girls were fine for it. I'm so glad my horses don't freak out about shots. Especially because I like to give it in their butt muscle which is the prime location for you to get kicked. Queenie didn't even flinch.

Queenie was okay for her rides the past couple days. On Friday there was a brief break in the rain so all of the horses got turned out except for her since I was working with her. This normally isn't a huge problem, she gets a little worried then settles down. But the arena door was open and she was just losing it every time we passed by. "OMG there's a horse out there! And it's looking at meeee! OMGosh! There's a small child! Ahhhhh! OMYGOSH they let the dogs outside!" And on and on. Eventually we got her brain back inside her head and had a good ride where we worked on our canter transition with some very good results. It's almost to a normal canter! It's no longer an out-of-hand gallop, but more of an only slightly frantic fast canter.

I tried out a curb bit on her yesterday. We've been working on neck reining and she's starting to get an idea of what that is. Nothing too exciting happened. She wasn't a huge fan of it, but not bad for her first time. The main problem was getting the whole set up to fit. My curb strap wasn't big enough because I specifically bought small curb straps for my horses because all "normal" curb straps seemed to fit my horses like they were made for draft horses. And now I have a draft horse... But I found a chain that fit just fine.

What is this thing in my mouth?

Started out just asking her to turn and stop from pressure on the bit on the ground and then got on. She doesn't need a whole lot of bit use. She knows to drop her head when I raise my hands an inch or two, even without touching her mouth. She stops when I say "whoah". Mostly it's just steering issues because she's still not the straightest horse and will sometimes cut the corners or randomly decides to go off on the diagonal.

Wonderful Weather

The weather has been so nice lately! I can't get over it. Usually this time of year it's warming up, but it's still super rainy. Not so for this week! It has been sunny most of the time and warm, today it was in the upper 70's which in my book = perfect weather.

I've been cramming as much stuff as possible in my last few days of spring break. Sad to think that I go back to school on Monday.

The girls were both waiting for me!

I had a fairly good ride today, it was nice to pull out my light weight breeches and ride in a tank top. Love this weather. Both girls are shedding like crazy now that it's warm and light out. I rode Jetta first today and despite being silly spooky at some stuff she was really good. Both mares have been super hyper lately so the goal for the day was to tire them both out.

I'm still planning on trying out endurance this year with Jetta and doing a couple limited distance rides. I'd like to do one in May possibly, so I've been trying to figure out what stuff I need to do it and one of those things was a new or different saddle pad configuration. I've been looking at pads and oh my goodness. I really don't want to spend $200-300 on a saddle pad. I don't think I've ever spent over $50 for a pad. So, I sorted through my ridiculous number of pads and found my eventing shaped pad that I got last summer. Perfect! It's shaped so it's got a little less coverage than my dressage pad which will make it cooler, plus it's thin so it will breathe better and not soak up so much water/sweat like my other dressage pads would. It's a little small because it's made for a jumping saddle, but it will work. 

Looks much better on her now than it did last summer when she was so fat!

Jetta was being a dork and spooking on the lunge line at the reins flopping around on her neck. Every so often she would catch sight of one of them flapping around and she'd give a little leap away from it. At first I thought she was getting bit by something, but then I realized she was just being silly. Then when I got on, the BO brought in her daughter's Easter present - chicks. She put them in one of the recently vacated stalls and Jetta thought they sounded terrifying peeping away in that stall. She decided that that whole end of the arena was now off limits as there had to be some sort of monster lying in wait for her, making peeping noises.

But we still had a productive ride, I did a lot of lateral work both in the trot and a little bit in the canter to get her poor spooky brain occupied and work those muscles. By then end we actually (both of us) worked up a sweat so she got hosed off and put away.

Then Queenie. She's been really good lately, save for getting a little attached to other horses. She was in love with the BO's little yearling filly that got sold the other day which she is still upset about. She's settling back down but it's just midly annoying to have a horse that gets upset when her friends "leave" meaning that they're going from their stall to the arena, but hopefully she'll figure out soon that it's not the end of the world.

Our milestones of the day: cantering without bucking for the first time ever and opening a gate without me having to get down (though it did take us forever and was a little rough, but we did it).

With the cantering, she's learned my cue for it (kissing) so she goes into a little more easily. But she still gets really scared about it and right now it's more of a barely controlled hand gallop than anything. There's a little but of steering and we're getting the hang of it so we can now go about two laps around the arena, so there's improvement. The cool thing about her though is that she doesn't always pick up the correct lead, but when she doesn't she will automatically do a clean flying change to the correct lead. Cool!

My highlight of the ride - deciding to test out our "whoa" vocal cue when we were cantering and I was surprised that she instantly halted right when I asked. And it was a nice halt too, light and not heavy on the forehand so it was easy to sit. When I did the same thing in the other direction, she literally tucked her butt and slid a few inches. What did I say - reining draft horse here we come! The thought makes me giggle but seriously, once we get this canter under control she would be a fun horse to play around with reining on.

I was actually toying with the idea of taking her to a schooling show and doing some W/T western pleasure classes just to see how she'd do in a show environment plus she's doing great just poking around on a loose rein at a nice slow jog. It would be funny too to see what everyone thought of the draft horse doing western pleasure :)

No ride for the girls tomorrow, but Monday I'm planning on taking Queenie trail riding! So excited and I hope she behaves for it.

Trail Champ?

Well, we won't be trail champions anytime soon, but we had a bit of fun on the trail course. ML and I went together, she rode her new horse Spider, a QH that she's leasing.

I finished finals on Thursday - YES!! Freedom! I'm so looking forward to a relaxing month off of school. I'll hopefully be working lots though and riding Jetta as well as playing with Colton. So we had Friday to go play on the trail course. You had to pay $25 for an hour, which really isn't long enough! Jetta was instantly scared-stiff when we went into the arena. Talk about a sensory overload! I lead her through the first little hill with logs and such just to let her get a feel for it, though I definitely feel better on her back as I don't want to get run over by my oversized scare-dy cat!

It was funny because I'd forgotten how Jetta thinks logs are scary. In my book, logs are like the easiest obstacle on the trail course. Ahaha, Jetta did not agree. But by the end, logs were the least of her worries.

We never made it into the water unfortunately, though a nice man offered to let us follow him through, but Jetta was not into following in the water! I discovered that ditches are the most terrifying thing ever, definitely reason to try to run away without paying attention to the surroundings, aka tripping and flailing all over the place. Bridges are no problem, though I don't even want to try a suspension bridge in the near future because of Miss Clumsy...

Step-Ups are fine, scary props are fine, the nasty, stinky cowhide was fine. Most horses won't even go near the cow hide, but Jetta waltzed right up to it. It's on a pulley, so during competition you have to pull it up to eye level, which 90% of horses think is terrifying. Jetta stood right next to it and messed with the rope that was dangling, nuzzling and nibbling it and swinging it around with her nose, lol. Too cute. I didn't want to ruin the moment by trying to lift the cow hide.

Didn't really get that many pics, but here's the few that we did:

Climbing hills in the wilderness.

Chillin' on the bridge

The view from the top... of the step up.

Followin' the trail



Look where we made it to!



Lots and lots of logs.



ML and Spider!



Showing off their skillz



Good pony.



Fried

Ugh. Just finished with my Organic Chemistry final. So glad I'm done! Except... I have to take one more term of it. Gross. Definitely not my thing, though I feel like I rocked this last test.

Anyways, it was such a relief to be able to head out to the barn after a boring day of studying. I don't know what I would do without my pony. ML and I finally got to go to the barn together! It's kind of pathetic. We live together, we board our horses at the same barn, yet we still hadn't been out to the barn together this term. Sad.

We just wanted to have a short ride since we needed to get back to studying and it is fuh-reezing out. I rode Jetta in western tack which ML thought was hilarious. I was like - what?! I think she looks cute western ;) Jetta was pretty well behaved save for one minor buck and leap for absolutely no reason, lol. But her canter transitions that we've worked so hard on are definitely improving.

Anyways, here's a cute pic of us looking all western-y. Unfortunately I still have two more finals left this week (though they're not till Thursday), so posts may be short until then.

Bosals

Running with the western mood I'm in... let's talk bosals.

First of all, what are they? A bosal (depending on who you talk to, it is pronounced different ways. I was taught to say boze-all) is basically, most traditionally, a woven rawhide noseband. It is tear drop-shaped and a mecate (muh-cot-tee, say it fast!) is tied to the pointed end. It works off of the nose of the horse and has a tiny bit of leverage action. Bosals are part of the Vaquero tradition in creating a finished bridle horse.


Weaving the bosal



Bosals are created by weaving rawhide strings together. In a finished bosal, these are called plaits (rhymes with flats). The more plaits a bosal has, the higher quality it is and the more comfortable it will be for your horse. A quality bosal on the lower end will have about 20-30 plaits. That's a pretty good quality bosal. A super high quality bosal will have 60 to 100 plaits in the noseband. A cheap-o bosal will have maybe 8 plaits or less. Not good quality. The bosal will be very rough and can rub your horse's nose raw.



Compare this Weaver Leather 8-plait
bosal, with...



KO Trading's 60-plait bosal.
See the difference?

A bosal has a core that helps to keep the shape. The best cores are rawhide as they are more flexible and can help to mold to the horse. A bosal that molds to the horse doesn't rub or move unnecessarily. Metal is another core material, but it is not advised because it does not mold to the horse and is illegal in some show rings.



The parts of a bosal. The knot is called
a fiador knot.


A bosal is a great tool for training or re-training horses. It is typically used before introducing the snaffle in bridle horses. Oftentimes, you start with a larger diameter of bosal, say 3/4" or 5/8" and progress to a thinner bosal and then an even thinner bosal (or bosalito). The more broke a horse is, the less pressure you have to use on the smaller bosal.

Bosals can come in different colors and designs. They can be plain, striped, or two different colors. They can be light or dark, though light colors are more popular. Usually, they are understated as they are meant to show off the horse and are a working piece of tack. But, quality bosals are as much a piece of essential tack as they are a work of art as it takes a lot of skill to weave a bosal with 30 or more plaits!

 


Striped

 




Plain, natural coloring





A bosal being used on a
western pleasure horse

  

Bosals are not only being used on Vaquero-type horses or in training, but can also be seen in the show ring. Typically, they are only allowed on horses 5 and under.

The mecate is another essential part of this set-up. The complete set-up (bosal + mecate + hanger) is called a hackamore. Not to be confused with the mechanical kind though! The mecate is tied onto the bosal by use of the fiador knot. The usual length of a mecate is 22 feet. it is tied so that you have a set of reins (one continuous pair) and a lead rein which is threaded around the horn of the saddle or through your belt when riding.

Mecates can now be made of several different materials. Cotton or synthetic mecates can be seen a lot in the show ring, but horse hair mecates are more traditional. And let's face it, they're cooler too! Horse hair mecates can be made out of mane or tail hair. Tail hair is coarser than mane hair, thus they mane hair are the "choice" material. They come in all the natural colors of horse hair, and are usually striped, with multiple colors of hair being used.

 A bosal hanger, the last part of the hackamore, is usually just a plain piece of leather that goes around the bosal and over the crown of the horse. I personally favor the plainer styles with a small, pretty silver buckle, but you can see a lot of different styles - with browbands, one or two-ears and dripping with silver. It all depends on what you like!



Here's a quick video of how to tie a fiador knot. This makes it seem easy!

More information:

The Care and Keeping of a Mecate

Rawhide Care

About Bosals and Hackamores

The Making of a Bosal