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.