Changes...

After a chat with one of my best friends, Fran, I got to thinking about change. How change affects everyone, and how things change without us realizing it. One major thing I've noticed is how I notice changes so much more since starting parelli 3 years ago. Not only do I notice the changes in horses, but changes in people.

So here are some changes that are happening currently, or have ust recently changed:
-My dads company is being sold to another company who is shipping the equipment to Mexico, therefore my dad is out of the job soon. He has worked at this company for about 25 years.

-Nic is becoming more of a people horse. Since he has been locked in a stall for 2 weeks or less (crazy amounts of snow, 6+ft foot drifts), I have been doing little stuff in the stall with him. I've played with bridling, mouth handling, and porky and friendly. He's really making a change. He always has his ears up towards us and is just more into everything. Last night I played with bridling and worming practice. The bridling went even better than last time, and he got some of his favorite berry goods. Then I found an old, empty paste wormer tube that still smelled like wormer, so we went to work on that. He was actually not that bad, compared to when we brought him home and we were trying to get banamine down him. I got him where I got easily put the tube and his mouth and hold it there until he stopped licking so much. So today I am going to try and worm him for real, because he needs it.

Skinny Horse

*sigh of relief* I think that Nic is alright now. We discovered that he was coughing a bit, and now that that has stopped he has been eating WAY better and more alert and awake. We also got him alfalfa and he loves that, so now he's eating better. He did however lose a bunch of weight during this little phase of his, so now I'm trying to get weight back on him. I actually think that he has already put on a little weight within the past couple of days through the alfalfa and grain.

Today was the first day I played with him for awhile because of him being sickly, then weather, then there was Beauty and the Beast auditions (I'm assistant directing again), so finally got a chance to play with him today. I started with some friendly, then I did Day 1 of hill therapy. I actually didn't do the last five minute walking section because he was getting a little too into the circling thing. Every time I asked him to back up he thought it was time to circle, so I just said "No.. i think you'll just stand." and yo-yo'ed until he decided it was a better idea to stand, and within a couple seconds he was licking his lips. He seems to be a fairly fast thinker and not overly afraid of anything. I took the beach ball and let him smell it and then put it on his back, all while he was loose in his stall eating. Then I bounced it up and down, and it makes a lot of noise, but it didn't bother him a bit.

Pictures of Nic

I had a really great session with him today, and then a stressful day. Session was awesome, he wasn't jumpy at the carrot stick, starting to understand driving and yo-yo more, also did some circling and squeeze game. I can't really teach sideways in the arena because theres no fence around it yet.

And then I turned him out and he laid down.. ok, whatever. Then went and got hay, he got up, ate some hay, then laid down in the hay. I went out a little later and made him get up so I could listen to gut sounds and they were fine. Basically he's spent the whole day off and on laying down. Its weird and freaking me out because he hasn't ate much of anything today. ARG!! horses..

Tractors, Dogs and Strange Horses, Oh My!

I have officially survived two more RIDES on Nic. Me and gma loaded him up on Saturday morning and took him down to Angies for the "open ride" before the actual practice, but I didn't want to go to performance practice. When he loaded up he was pawing, but settled down once we got on the road. Off the trailer like a gentleman, then it was like OMG! New place! Strange horses everywhere!!!!! lol, He wasn't that bad, just a little excited. When I got into the arena he was all starey eyed and snortey and whinnying, and then Bonnie came through the door with a horse and the HERD of dogs. He was looky, and he's not a huge fan of dogs, but he got over it. I put on the Parelli Halter and went to playing, just lots of getting him to move his feet, driving, and some moving circles, investigating the corners of the arena. He started to calm down, and then in the meantime, the farrier comes and is making all kinds noise, the dogs are barking up a storm, but Nic is getting over it.

After a little while he calmed right down to where he was just standing by me while I was talking, and standing calmly with a foot cocked and his head down. So I saddled up, moved him around a little more and got on. I need to work on getting him to stand still while mounting. For the most part the ride was good. I didn't canter him because I was working on getting him to stay an even tempo to the trot and not do the wavery, slow/fast thing all the time.

2nd ride- I took him to gaming practice yesterday and he did even better. Was whinnying when we got there, but it was feeding time for all the other horses and they were making noise, so he thought he had to. Mary had to work up the arena, so I took him into their amazing covered round pen and played with him for awhile in there. He is starting to get the principle games, and he seems to be a nice mix of LBI/LBE, not extremely overreactive, maybe a little lazy, but not so much that its hard to deal with . After that, saddled and went up the arena. Played a little bit more in there, then put the bridle on and had a good ride. He was doing pretty good with the gaming stuff, though I need to not let him stand in line with all the other horses because he really gets to where he doesn't want to leave. Thats not a big issue though.

List of what needs to be done with Nic:
-Work over Cavelletti to learn where his hooves are
-Start asking/teaching for vertical flexion
-Braid his tail
-Pull his mane
-Play more with porcupine game
-Get him to accept the bit/bridling (has a bit of a mouth issue...)

Nicolai's First E-team Practice

Well, the first practice for Mr. Nic was tonight. I didn't ride him, but rode okie and bought Nic along. One good thing about that horse is that he is absolutely amazing in the trailer, load/unloads nice and travels awesome. Nic was OK tonight.. pretty nervous when we got there, but eventually started to calm down. Gma played with him while I was practicing, and he definitly started to get better, although I wish gma would do things "correctly" lol. We need to rewatch the levels together.

His race horse side definitly comes out when I'm ponying him around. Acts just like a racehorse, on TOP of me and Okie. Okie got pissed at him a couple times, but Nic didn't care. My leg got squished ALOT. But, it wasn't horrid, and he could have been worse. We just have to remember that he is only 5 years old, and has been sitting in a pasture since June.

Good news:
He loves the berrygoods.. of COURSE, he has to love the most expensive brand of treat. ARG. Oh well... lol

Picky Eater

I think me and this horse are made for each other....
"Hi, my name is Carissa and I'm a picky eater."
-Hi, Carissa
"Hi, my name is Nic and I'm a picky eater"
-Hi, Nic.

I noticed that he didn't want to eat an apple I gave him when he was sickly, and then yesterday he wouldn't eat the carrots. Then today he wouldn't eat the horse treats that all of our other horses LOVE. He would lip at them, pick them up, not chew and spit them out. ARG. So I asked Dad to pick me up some BerryGoods, because I know he likes those, the owner was giving him them when we bought him.

Today's session- good. Played with the principle games more. He's good with yielding HQ, but not FQ, telling me he's a bit more of a dominate horse. Still not horrible though, not rearing or anything, and he does move, just not willingly, and I think a lot of it is that he doesn't understand. Played a lot more friendly because he's kinda jumpy about the stick and string. I walked backwards with him at the end of the rope, swinging the stick and string over the rope, like Pat does all the time with the demo horses. Played with porky as well, that was OK. Once again, better with the HQ. I also worked with desensitizing him to a cell phone, lol. I had the music go off on my phone a couple times while holding where I would be while riding, he was a little iffy about that, but when it was by his face, he wanted to eat my cell phone. Also was lipping the CS when I let him investigate it. Seems to be a curious horse. He got distracted when JJ came up to the water tank because he really bonded with her, but just got his attention back when some driving and yo-yo. Shows tongue when he licks and chews.

First session with "Nic"

I took a few pictures before I caught him, but they're crappy, so none for now.

Nic wouldn't let me catch him the other night when I wanted to put a blanket on him, so I decided to go out today and make friends with him, lol, well he just walked right over. Apparently, he doesn't like carrots or apples.. but I think mostly he doesn't know what they are. He will not eat them, he eventually started to lip at the carrot piece, but never ate. All of this time JJ is chowing down on the carrots.

I took him into the little field and just did a little friendly with swinging the rope over his back. He was a little nervous about that, and then I did some lowering his head by combing the rope and he was great about that. However, lowering his head by pressing behind his ears he doesn't like and doesn't understand yet, probably will improve with more porky game. Also, put the rope around his front leg, he leads by a leg pretty good. Well, didn't do much leading, but he would lift it up and bring it forwards, I decided that was enough. Did a little driving and porky, both were better on the "on" side, no surprise there.

I honestly didn't do that much because I was soooooo exhausted. This whole week has been draining like no other. Want a run through? Okay.
Sunday- get up at 4 am to leave by 5am to get nic.
get there 5 hours later, buy horse, go home
get home at like 6-7ish, horse colics
In the barn until like midnight.
Monday- don't go to school, but stressing over nick all day, then had a tech rehearsal for the play
starting at 6.
Tuesday- relaxed mostly, and did lots of homework
Wednesday- school, dress rehearsal for play, got home LATE
Thursday- School, first night of play, once again, LATE
Friday- School, 2nd night of play, late.
Saturday- get up early for drill practice from 9-11
First show for play at 1
2nd show at 7
Then went to Jack in the Box afterwards for a long time to hang with Ash, Kevin and Cory. I'M TIRED!!!

Finally, new horse!!

Sorry, no photos yet..
But, I have a new horse. His name is "Were in the Red" aka Nic.. or as I've been calling him, Nicoli. He's a chestnut, star, one hind sock, 16 hand, 5 year old gelding. He had 7 starts on the track, and then went to another owner who started him on barrels, then was sold to the lady we bought him from who started to really work with him, and then had knee problems. Knee problems so bad that if she rode for 30 minutes she couldn't walk for 2 days, which led to a knee replacement, which means that he had been on pasture since late june.

We got there and he was standing quietly in their trailer (they hauled him to an arena so we could ride), guy tacked him up, then took him into the round pen and ran him around a couple laps, rode him a couple laps, then took him out into the huge arena. Nic did really well, especially for not being ridden or messed with since June. I got on and things went pretty smoothly. He spooked at some cows, but only went sideways a couple of steps. We decided to buy him.

Mind you, it was a 5 hour drive from our house to see Nic, so he has a long trailer ride. We stop at a rest stop and he's shaking and gaunt looking, so we give him a break for a bit, then go on our way. he got another break when we stopped to eat, and then gma noticed that he was really watching cars outside of the little vent thing, so we closed that and it seemed to help. He hadn't pooped and that was really worrying us, well finally he did poop.

Got him home, walked him out a bit, put him into the stall, eats some hay, and starts to want to lay down and roll, well that was NOT gonna happen. I immediatly took him out and walked him..forever, while gma made a late night run for banamine. All in all, it was LONG, TIRING, STRESSFUL day, especially for the horse. He had a mild case of colic. Was way better monday, and then today he pooped 3 times, which is better than Monday, and the poop was looser with no mucus on it. Been giving him equine senior in a mash, with some grazing, but no hay. He is much more relaxed, and not as gaunt looking. Not drinking much, but he is getting water from the mash, and he's peeing a lot, so I don't think he's dehydrated. Also been putting electrolytes in his mashes.

Nic seems to be pretty level headed. He's watchfull, notices when things happen. My gma and I were cleaning out the used-to-be spare stall, and we were bringing out the pool noodles and he was definitly interested. Not scared, but like "Whats that????" and gma put them on him and he didn't care. Then I brought out this mini-massager thing and he liked it, tried to eat it. Also tried to eat a bag of stall pellets I was carrying by.

So, I'm pretty hopeful about the whole thing, just the colic really scared me, because he's not on a trial, he's ours.
heres is his pedigree: http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/were+in+the+red he's got a really nice sire(won over 400k on the track).. and even though Nic didn't race much, or win anything, he has a race Register of Merit (ROM).

oh, and one good thing about the trailer ride was that he is a REALLY good hauler. Stands super quiet, loads very nice, is good to bring out of the trailer, just generally good.

"Whoa..."

"There are no garden tools in my barn, the word is 'woah!' not 'hoe'! "

Lol.. so, that was the quote of the day on saturday when I was trying out another horse. 'twas funny, and I really liked the horse, and then she came down $1000 on the price to $2500, so we're thinking about him. I want to go ride him again and have larry look at him, and its nice because, for once, this horse is local!! yay. Back to the quote, I tend to say "ho" when I'm riding a horse that does voice commands, and rocket listens to Whoa, and when I finally got that through my brain he stopped really really nice.

I had a good session with Mr. Okie last night. I played with more sideways without a fence, because he still wants to leak forward especially on the off side. Played with a little circling, which wasn't that great because he kept coming in, but thats not that bad, considering what he used to do, lol. Then i hopped on and worked a lot on him stopping with just my body and the savvy string around his neck. also, on following my focus. With that I actually got a couple pretty good trot to halt tranistions basically bridleless (obviously still had the halter with reins, we're not ready to be naked, lol)

Bad me.. no updates

Dedicating myself to writing some during school is hard!! lol..
ok, where to start..

So, on my last post, I said that I was going to have a session with Belle with the whole "go" thing.. In the end she threw a pissy tantrum, and by tantrum is was a "You're getting off NOW!!!" She moved about a foot during the whole thing, but it was rear, buck, rear, buck, buck, rear.. I lasted for about 8 seconds and then came off, and I'm glad because it was just getting worse.
We don't know what to do with her, and she's been sitting basically since. me and gma have both played with her a couple times since then, but not anything in the last couple of weeks.

We took a horse on trial, fell in love, then he didn't pass the vet check, RAWR, so back to searching. We're going to go look at a horse in Pasco this weekend, and hopefully that will work out.

Okie scared us by getting this GIANT lump on his stomach, we thought it could be pigeon fever, but its gone down, and as of tonight it was really no longer there.. weird horse.
I had a really good time with him tonight. He was FULL of it, and not having played with him in a couple weeks he was a little rusty, but not bad. Got some decent sideways without a fence, and had a blast just running around like idiots in the field (he did a lot of that, like I said, he was FULLLLLLLLLLx10 of it).

A good day with both Belle and Okie (pics!)

Yesterday's session was pretty good. I started off playing with Okie, mostly to see if he was still limping, which if he was, it was slight. I did a lot of sideways, and worked on some downward transitions in circling, because he's definitely good at upward trans! Also did some figure 8 pattern and that was getting better, it helps him to think and not just get impulsive and GO. I hopped on him and just rode around for a little bit, he had some energy which came out in the form of some crow hops when asking him to canter, LOL, it just made me laugh. Part of it is I've gotten him to where I can gather him up and do a halt-canter transition, with maybe 1 step of walk, so he's expecting that collection, and when he's feeling good it comes out the other end..silly old man.

Then I got out ms. belle. First I took her for a run through the hay field, basically traveling circles because I was looking for Okie's lost fly mask, and I found it (it was in the blackberries), she was pretty good during this and only a couple times did she put her ears back at me when I asked for faster or a change of direction. After that I went and saddled her up, she was being rather impatient tied at the trailer, pawing and stuff (she has her days...), then I went and played with her in the arena. She was a little looky/spooky because we put up a new fence the other day and she hadn't seen it yet. The riding went better than the other night. She was going forward more, though, as the session went on she kept getting stuck more often, I had to have gma come un-stick us, lol. When I was trying to get her to go she kept turning her head and trying to chew on my saddle, just curiously, not aggressively.

Today gma is going to saddle up Rhythm and have Belle follow him when I'm on her, so maybe she can understand the whole "go" thing.

Pics:

Belle tied to the trailer looking adorable..yes my saddle pad is insanely crooked.. oh well... (the string is a "best friend" thing given to me at fair by a 10 year old girl, lol..used to have a bell, but it came off during gaming day)

Just got on, going forward pretty good. (neon green shirt is REALLY un flattering-its my mentor shirt from last year) My stirrups almost look too short when i'm on her, but they look perfect when i'm on a bigger horse, lol.

Then I got the cs to assist me in the go department.

Then gma had to help us get unstuck, and here she was running so that belle would trot with her.

Belle and Abby are having a moment. Abby has this funny thing with the horses, she goes over to them, sits down, and follows their nose while looking into their eyes, and she gets super still when they come to investigate her, and even if they bit her, she does really move, she'll even lay down, and when they take their nose away she wags her tail and searches for their nose again... its so interesting to watch.

The past couple days...

..have been depressing, fun, hard, sweaty, full of acomplishment.. and I don't know what else. I feel really emotionally detached after my near breakdown when we took Steel back after fair. I've been pretty down about that, but other things have been good.
I finally went to go look at a horse the other day.
Name: Maddox
Age: 8
Breed: TB
Color: Bay
Height: 16 hands or so
History: Came off the track, ran a lot, but came off sound, and wasn't ran into the ground. Tamara bought him as an english prospect, then got interested in the western side of things, her friend said he wasn't exactly what she would use for barrel racings and such, and he's been ridden enough, but not consistently. Has been on trails and all that. Owner says he's usually laid back (wasn't when I rode him)

My opinion: I'm not sure.. I definitly need to go look at him again, and have larry come out with me and see what he thinks of him, I need to ride him again, and decide if his high head is something I want to deal with, not that I haven't had to deal with that before, lol (OKIE). Maddox really had some GO when I rode him, but like I said, tamara said he's usually more laid back.
---Enough about Maddox-----

I rode Belle last night!!! It went pretty good. She didn't really want to go forward, but she did, and she kicked out a couple of times when i asked her too, but thats just her little protest thing, and I didn't really feel any fear come up when she did that. She kept stopping at the same places in the arena, but she backs up well and definitly will stop! lol, going is the problem. But she was yawning and getting rid of some endorphins, its been a LONG time since she's been ridden. I hope that she will get this whole forward concept with more riding, she's just sooooooooo green. This is where I wish there was someone to give her 30 days, just the basic Walk, Trot, and Canter. and then I could take it from there.

Busy and a hot Fair week..session with Belle yesterday

Fair went ok. Actually, it was pretty good for the amount I've gotten to work with mr. steel this summer. Showmanship we got a red because being a LAZY LBI he fell asleep in line, and even though I tried to wake him up, he wouldn't trot out of line, BUT he did trot with me on the off side. It was funny though, he was so asleep that he grunted as I tried to get him to trot, lol.
I got a blue in western, red in bareback, and red in english, and a red in trail. Trail went pretty good though, better than Okie has ever done, so that was really nice.
Gaming was either hit or miss like usual. He's just not consisitent at all. I won barrels, YAY. with a time on 16.3. I ended up with 2 blues, 2 reds, and 2 whites. So when it came to state, I'm 3rd alternate, which means I could get called. I am going up for judging and groom squad as well. We won groom squad again, yay.

The session with belle yesterday, was... amusing. She was SOOO full of LBE energy it was crazy. We played with sideways a lot, she is getting better with that offside, but she still doesn't get going sideways over a barrel from that off side at all, the on side however, is perfect. She's missed me playing with her. I know that because when i was getting another cavellti pole before I got her, she saw me and came RUNNING up the pasture looking at me like "PLAY?!?!?!???" and then she broke away from me during a LBE buck, fart, run thing, but she stopped quickly and I just said "Belle" and she came trotting back to me (this is with no fence around the arena). It was then I decided to just take her down to the little fenced field, turn her loose and encourage her to get rid of some energy and fat. With that fun little time she did some really good stick to me's and a couple times cantering back to me.

The joys of jumping and Dressage..and weird judges

Do you know those people who really shouldn't intereact with people at all, especially kids/teens at horse shows? The judge for jumping/dressage was like that.. when we asked for clarication on the pattern he talked to us like he couldn't understand that we didn't understand the pattern. Oh well...people will be people.
Anyways, because of confusion over the pattern I got a white in showmanship, as did most of our senior class, 1 red and 2 or 3 blues. Nothing more. In the words of Kristi, our jumping/dressage superintenant, "That judge is a Dick."

As for Dressage, I was pleased. Usually I'm not pleased with white ribbons, but you know what? I did my test correctly, didn't get confused on the pattern or anything, and Okie was resonaably good. AND I wasn't the lowest ribbon out there, considering that there was only ONE RED in the entire class. I scored higher than a lot of other people, and I felt pretty good about how it went. Okie was extraordinarily relaxed in warm up, accepting the bit, nice and round and cantering good. When I went out for my test and walked by the truck at the end of the arena, something spooked him and he got tense. Which resulted in most of the test him being tense, but it wasn't too bad. I got a couple of 6's, he picked up the wrong lead once, but I fixed it and the resulting circle wasn't too bad. I thought the day was going to be worse because when I went out in the morning to feed and all that Okie had that look and attitude about him that tells you that you might not have a good ride today, so i went out and played with him and rode him a little for about 20 minutes, that helped so MUCH, thank you Parelli!!!!

I did Hunter Hack and trot-a-course for jumping. I probably COULD have moved on and did low hunter, buuuuuut, those jumps were like 2'6" and thats probably the highest I've ever jumped, and I didn't want to push okie.

Hunter Hack went well, my rail work was decent, not amazing or anything. The first jump was a little rough, but in the judges words "the second jump was very nice." My equitation wasn't too bad, and the judge left lots of comments on all of our comment sheets so that was really good. A reocuring theme was "use legs and back instead of hands" which I know.. lol, but Okie was kinda strong, and he said that to pretty much everyone. I got a red, and only one person got a blue, so I ended up getting reserve champion!!!!

Trot a course was pretty good with some nice comments on my sheet, the first jump my timing was off so it wasn't pretty, but other than that it was pretty smooth.

All in all, it was a good day!

Bad me..

...Busy week and I haven't updated! arg. Oh well, its better than sitting at home doing nothing, right?

I've played with Belle I think twice since the horse camps. The other day it was a pretty good little session. Played around with sideways, concentrating on the off side and did some circling with transistions, also did some more "wipe that look off your face!" things when she was snotty and it seemed to help. I was super tired so I didn't play with her too long, afterwards we farted around with liberty. Did some good stick to me's and such. Cantered with me once, but for like 2 strides, lol. At least it was something right?

SO, I'm doing a presentation about horseanalities at fair, to be judged. I haven't planned it all out yet and I really need to do that because fair is in like 2 weeks, EEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!! its very scary. But, like grandma says, if I can do a presentation in 1 night, then I can do a presentation in 2 weeks. I called Parelli to make sure that it was ok to use the charts and everything and they said it was fine and good luck on my presentation.

I'll post more on what I'm going to talk about later when I get it all laid out.. speaking of laid out, I absolutely HAVE to work on my educational poster.

I'm going to go ride mr. steel tonight, so that shall be fun.

On the horse search-
it sucks.
We can't afford anything...

Phew... done with Horse camps

I haven't updated in a while, and bad on me for that. BUT I have a semi-excuse, lol, and that is the fact that I had two 4H horse camps in a row, the first one being teen camp where we get trained, and the 2nd one being where I'm a counselor for the little-ins. That was interesting.. and these kids NEED PARELLI!!!!!!

One thing about camp... I had a camper that is a cutter. I saw her arm the first day and immediatly knew. I told meghan(friend and my other counselor for our group) later that day, and meghan told megan(in charge of counselors), who told monica(camp director) and she brought it to the the nurse. Monica had never heard of anything like that before, and to me that is SO hard to believe... its so common and people know nothing about it. It ended up that the nurse didn't think it was that because the way the girl had an explanation for it(blackberry bushes), but I know what I seen. Blackberry bushes do NOT make straight scratches only on the underside of your arm.. they just don't. and Cutters always have excuses pre-made up, I would know.

I had a good session with Belle tonight, she only reared ONCE and it wasn't that bad. Worked a little bit more on sideways over a barrel on her bad side, and didn't really get anywhere, but she sideways perfectly over it on the good side, so I'm a little stuck. I had her come to me over the barrel, and we played around with some more stick to me stuff, had some fun, and ended on a good note with me combing out her mane and tail and giving her a lot of attention.

Okie did good at drill on saturday up at Youth Camp. He was full of energy and not lame at all. I was worried because to me he seemed a little off at the last drill practice, even though no one else could see anything wrong, and he worked out of it anything that I felt. He has a pretty deep wire cut right above his hoof on the back of his pastern, which I think thats why he was sore, it was pulling on it. So I'm doctoring it twice a day with peroxide, shriners and vitamin E on the edges to keep it moist. Monica (vet..asked her to look at it up at horse camp) said that I should keep it moist, bandage it (which I haven't, it's staying pretty good) and use some cortizone stuff thats made for people to help keep it soft, she also said use vitamin E.

Water and Hot Days

It was pretty hot today so I thought "This is the perfect day to work with belle on her hose/water issue!" and it was definitely perfect!

Lol, so belle HATES the hose, her mother however seeks it out and likes to get all nice and wet and enjoy a roll, not belle, as soon as that hoses comes out she heads for the hills, and I've never been able to give her a bath. I think the last time I played with her with the hose was about 2 years ago or so. I didn't expect today to go well AT ALL, but it went extremely well. She never really got too upset and when she started to move I just stayed with her until she stopped (yay for approach and retreat). By the end she was eating grass and I was spraying her tail and butt without her moving. I call that a good way to end.

I put her back in the field, let her roll, then put her fly sheet back on.

GOOD NEWS!!!
My grandpa Dee came through with two drags for the arena for us. Apparently some people had them at this farm down the road and grandpa dee went and got them, I have no idea what they're like or what shape they're in, but they'll probably work just fine. I'm really happy because the hard dirt is really hard on legs, especially old legs like Okies.

A Good Session!?!?!?!?

*dies* I had a decent session with Belle last night. I really love that little black mare even though she is my struggle and sometimes I just want to give up.
I took her out and lead her to the trailer to tie her up, take off her fly sheet and put some spray on her(except we're out of spray.. grr), and my saddle was in the trailer and I had never put it on her before--my barrel saddle I got for xmas--. And I know that the more times I saddle her, the better she will be, the more it will be a non-issue. So I saddled her, she didn't move around or anything, and lol, even though she was tied, it was a veeeerrrrryyyyy long tie, though it was soon to become a short rope because she was chewing on it.. anyways, my saddle seems to fit her pretty good, I thought that it might be a little too narrow, but I think it will be alright. and it looks very smexy on her.

Took her out to the arena and made her move around a little, tightened the cinch the rest of the(she didn't even notice) and did some more stuff, some circling, some sideways, ect. She desperatly wants something to stand on, lol.. she kept trying to stand on the barrels, which you can imagine, doesn't really work out too well.
then I was like.. what next? I know! I'll work on mounting because last time we were riding her regulary she got really bad about not standing still. Well, she was perfect. i did it from both sides, and I think it could be because my saddle doesn't roll completly over her back like the hook saddle did.

my sports medicine boots were hanging from my stirrups and I realized I had never put those on her before so I decided to.. LOL.. she was like WHAT is on my leg? Can I eat it?? then when I had her move she was steping all high in the air. It was pretty funny.

Belles of...joy?

I've been playing with Belle again the past couple of days (consistency..I know, I need some of it, but with the gaming show, drill practices and riding steel, belle got put on the back burner). The little beauty can be such a beast... but I love her anyways. My session with her on tuesday was..well.. not so good. It started out ok, and I think that I just start asking too much and she gets confused and then defiant, where she doesn't even try and then I ask harder, and then realize what I'm doing and its just like..AHHHHHH!!!! and she's up in the air half the time rearing.

I've also made my horse ridiculously one sided. She gets so confused about stuff on the off side, and its awkward to me when I do that..so heres my game plan

1) Read belle more, just PAY MORE ATTENTION to what she is telling me
2) Take the time it takes, recongnize a try
3) Don't focus on one thing too much
4) Release my pressure when she starts to paw, because when she does that, that means its some sort of threshold, and when I push her, there she goes up in the air.
5) UPDATE MY BLOG AFTER EVERY SESSION!!!

p.s. there was one good thing out of these sessions, last nigtht I played some stick to me online, and she cantered with me, even though she was a little frazzled, head throwing and stuff she still did it.

A Couple More Pictures..enjoy

Really awkward jump photo, lol
Rhythms eye.. I really like this pic for some reason
Sideways over a barrel, yay

Happiness is a warm gun.. or perhaps a Nikon d70s.

The arena
Belle looking gorgeous as usual, lol
Yea.. That butt is on my FOXTROTTER! Be jealous, btw, thats her snotty face
G-ma and Rhythm having fun.

Ok, so I stole dads camera today and had some fun. I want to enter some pictures in fair this year, so I took it out to play and get pictures of g-ma and rhythm playing, along with pics of the arena.

G-ma and rhythm are doing soooooo much better, I played put your nose on something with Rhythm for about 10 minutes, and it took him like 10 passes by the barrel before he would put his nose on it, funny horse. I like to play with him because he's a LBI and my horses are both extroverts, so its something different.

After gma and rhythm played I went and got okie and I wanted g-ma to get some pics, well, lol, she got like 2 usuable ones. I was having him jump the barrels several times so she could try to get the pic, and lol, I forgot that that stuff makes Okie frazzled, so he got a little buzzed, and then calmed down again. I worked on sideways over a barrel from both sides and it was MUCH better. I used to not be able to get this horse to do sideways over a pole, much less a barrel. I hopped on and rode for a little bit, worked on leads and that went well, then trotted around the barrels a couple times, had fun.

Yesterday something really cool happened. I was playing stick to me and he cantered with me!!!!!!! That was the first time any of my horses offered that, and I was really happy. He didn't do it today, but thats fine, lol, that it happened once is pretty much enough.

It FINALLY happened!!!

Well, Two things actually...

1) The arena got leveled yesterday!!!!! This is amazing because we talked to the contracter more than a year ago, and its just know gotten done, but whatever, because its done! woot! Megan had the first hoof prints in it, and Okie got the first ride, that was fun, lol, in a flat halter and crappy leadrope, me wearing flip flops and Bruce still on the Cat finishing stuff up behind the barn.


2) I went out to get Megan to move her off the grass and I ended up giving her to gma so I could just mess around with Belle. Belle ended up doing circling game and change of directions at LIBERTY(!!!) without running off(!!!!!!!!!!x10). She has never done that before, so that was really big, she was being super sweet and nice last night, still protesting the change of directions, not seriously though because if she didn't want to do then she could have just run off like she normally does at liberty. Oh, and this was in one of our big fields, not one of the little ones.

I also went to a gorge girls drill practice with Okie yesterday. That went really well, and for seeing the pattern for the first time, I think I did really well, and I'm now an alternate. Yay. It's fun and it gives me more chances to ride Okie and get the beast in shape. I'll probably not take Okie to fair at all, because g-ma said that larry wants to me show Steel as well as game him. I might be riding him this coming weekend at a gaming show, and if I do, gma is going to take Okie and just mess around, not hardcore run or anything.

My Test of Savvy

Belle really is my test of savvy. I'm getting some great transitions, change of directions and sideways w/out a fence with Okie, and I've been playing with these tasksfor FAR less time than I have with Belle. Granted, I have not been playing with her consisitently and I really need to do that. She NEEDS to be played with every day, or else she never progresses, which the normal for many horses.

So I had a bit of a BFO today... I know Belle is super sensitive, everything about her says that, right down to the way she reacts to flys and such. So why haven't I adjusted my phases for that?!?!??!?!???? DUH DUH DUH! I thought I had, but not nearly enough, it takes SO little for her to become offended. I'm used to having to use some big phases with Okie and forget to make that switch to my belle phases, which are considerably less pressure. I've pretty much got what a phase one is to her, have yet to see what really is her phase 4. I noticed it today when I was playing the squeeze game with the shed and when I yielded her HQ, she did a sliding stop/turn and threw her head up like "WOAH!!!!!!!! NO NEED TO YELL!!!!" whereas, with okie, that would have been a nice polite yield.

One thing that Belle is being really bad with is rearing. Everytime she doesn't want to do something, or gets confused, she goes up. I ignore it, give her a sec when she comes down and ask again.. I think it's right.. but I'm not really confident about that. The possibility of her rearing while I'm on her back scares me, it always had, so I think until she gets over this rearing thing, me riding her is kinda out of the question, well, it is anyways until we get the arena, which may be never. The rearing never used to be this bad, just has gotten bad because of me not playing with consistently.

I think that I can get through this thing with Belle by myself, but it would be so nice to have some help, to know what to do. I've needed a clinic or something with this horse for a LONG time, but they're are SO expensive.

Cow Sorting Fun

Last night grandma and I went cow sorting out at Silver Buckle Youth Equestrian Center, which is a really cool place where they have programs for at-risk kids. The sorting was a little unorthodox, with giving people 2 full minutes to sort, as opposed to 1:30 to sort. But, we had a lot of fun. First go we 0, then 5, then 9, then 10!

Okie- He was kind of a bugger last night, but overall did well. When we were riding before it started he was doing some super nice jog trots for me. Cantering was crap, him all counter bent and such, but I really can't expect too much, considering he's had a whole winter off and he's not a horse that does too well with time off. He was being kinda slow and dull during the sorting at first, so I grabbed an extra set of reins and used them to encourage him, where his dominant side come out and he kicked out when I tapped him with them. But he started to do better at the end. It's still weird to ride him after riding Steel for so long. Speaking of Steel, Larry was there and was riding him. I love that horse so much, I wish he could be mine.. but since he can't, I'm still on the search for a new horse.

Rhythm- I was really proud of my g-ma and her horse rhythm. He's always spooky in arenas, mostly at the corners where theres stuff. But she took the time to introduce him to it, and let him get used it, using patience and approach and retreat, and the confidence that Okie offered. Rhythm did really good and G-ma had a lot of fun. She's been playing with him more consistently and I've been giving her more helpful tips on rhythm, and she's starting to understand his horseanality more than she used to. I played with him on the 22 the other day, and, lol, the horse does have energy hidden under his LBI tendencies.

Exuberance and Dominance

I played with Belle today and it definitely was an interesting session. I had my grandma come out with me with the Puzzles booklet and pick out puzzles for me to do.
We did:
Porcupine, Zone 3, Hula Hoop: rather easy, just porcupined her front legs inside the hula hoop
Sideways, Zone 4, Log: I just had her sideways with her butt next to a pole. It wasn't too bad.

Then I started to do some figure 8 with barrels. Belle decided she did NOT want to send to the right. Absolutely was not going to. and when Belle doesn't want to, she throws a fit. She reared more than 10 times during this session. I ignored it and just kept asking her to circle to the right. She also coupled this rearing with pawing and general Belle-spaz-ness. As soon as she went right, i released.

By the end I got some good circles with her going over the barrels, and mostly staying on the circle, which is hard for her, because she thinks that after she jumps she has to face me because of playing the squeeze game so much. Even got some OK circles to the right with the jump.
So back to my title:
Exuberance- Belle is the horse who loves to destroy things, loves to run around and be showy, does 'star jumps all the time, and is generally just rather exuberant. Belle loves life.
Dominance- Coupled with this exuberance is slight dominance. She throws her ears back A LOT when doing change of directions and other little things, so I "wipe the look off her face" with a phase 4. When I do this, she definitly puts her ears forward, but being so sensitive, she hugely overreacts to it.

I know Belle gets better the more I play with her, and I have to keep reminding myself that I haven't been playing with her consistently at all lately. I really like this horse, she's gorgeous, smart, charismatic, good conformation, all of that.. but I definitly have a fear of being on her back that I need to overcome. and thats really hard when she's still super green. But I think I can do it.

Hello

So this is my first blog. Yay. I think having somewhere to write(type) what I'm thinking will be good, and help my track my progress with the horses and with myself.
Speaking of horses, this is where I stand with them right now:

Okie- Starting some lv.2 ground skills, sideways without fence and change of directions and transistions online. He's coming along really nicely after his winter off due to lameness. Once the weather clears up for good, I'm going to start him on a conditioning program of some kind. I'm hoping to this summer work something out with Angie so I can board Okie there and work off board. That way, I'd be able to ride him everyday in the arena that has good footing.

Belle- oh, my little problem child. Belle is definitly my "allure" right now. She is a huge LBE that is also really sensitive and the combo of that makes her rather difficult at times. Once our arena gets done (should be within a couple of weeks) I'm going to start playing more with saddling, mounting and short riding sessions to build up my confidence. I think Belle is going to be a super horse, she can be a super horse, it's just my confidence and lack of stick-to-it-ness that holds me back.

Horse searching- ..is not fun. I haven't had any serious leads yet. I've seen a couple horses that I liked, but they weren't exactly what I want/need. There was one horse that we totally would have bought if he had been certain about his age and didn't have a "diet problem". I used to love searching dreamhorse and now I'm not liking it as much anymore. Its old after awhile.