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!