I Rode I Rode!!!

I'm so happy and proud of myself! Lol, I've been saying I need to get out there and just do it but I can always come up with so many other things that need to be done, want to do, EASIER to do, etc. But tuesday around 7:00 it finally cooled off a bit (still SO HUMID) and I decided to get my pants on and gather my gear and go.

I was going to go by myself but the husband wouldn't let me so he came too. (he says, "what if you fall on your head??" lol, after I told him I had a cell phone if I needed him)

I'm glad he came though! He was my camera guy, tho as you married women know you really can't expect much from them lol. He was also my tack boy, hehe, got it all out of the back of the car, saddled her up, etc. (if you notice the saddle pad is way far forward that was my fault not his, lol)

Anyway I couldn't get her to come to the gate (she was over near where I want to ride) so I called and called and finally we got back in the car and drove over to the other gate I was at the other day, near the 'arena'. Worked out better anyway, since it was near where I wanted to be. Should have drove there to begin with!

Well I was hoping Rusty would stay where we were (HE came racing to meet us!) and then I wouldn't have to worry about him being a pest. But of course he followed the car and was right in the way. But Lee brought his slingshot and little steel balls and made him keep his distance, lol, poor Rusty. Of course he was sure to only hit his body and not hard, just enough to sting a bit! He wasn't any trouble after he figured out we weren't feeding him and were staying right in that area.

So I grabbed Ms Daisy and went ahead and bridled her up, then combed out her mane, ran a brush over her body, checked her hooves. Then came the blanket and she didn't want to be still! I got her still finally and then the saddle came over and that was even worse, I wonder if she is just showing her lazy side and saying oh no work! Or its making her sore...but surely I haven't rode her enough to make her sore, even if she was going to get there. I mean I was on her for very little time the last two times I rode her and before that she hadn't been ridden in a LONG time. So...dunno, she is usually good for saddling.

I think she just didn't feel like being ridden, hussy, lol. So I put her bit down another hole and I think that worked well, thanks for the help on that in2paints! Did some flexing to each side then hopped up. Just walked around the area I had found to ride in and I think its going to work GREAT. Its big enough for nice trot circles without worrying about careening through a corner. My natural barriers worked pretty well, though she kept wanting to go
through the natural barriers lol, where there were holes.

Here's a vid of us doin some walkin and trotting...



Neck reining was okay, not terrible, but not as good as last ride. But not as bad as the first ride! So I'm good with that. We also LOPED. I know!! I've always been an apprehensive loper/canterer, lol, nice word I made up. I had a 2 year old filly as basically my 2nd horse ever when I was younger (never should have happened, thanks great riding instructor! -_-) and she bucked at the lope BAD. So anyway, its sort of a stigma to me.

But if something scares me, I NEED to do it, or it just looms over my head and makes me miserable! Am I the only one??

So I got pretty comfy with her and then Lee said something about the extreme cowboy horse race we've been watching and I was like watch this! Haha, and we attempted to lope. Well first round was mostly her bounding in place nearly bucking with her ears laid back. Mare. She is OH SO LAZY!! My butt was seriously out of the saddle more then it was in it. I had both reins in each hand but they were both down near the cantle so I could grab for leverage if I had to, but Ms Daisy is so fat and lazy I don't think she would put up too big of a fight if she were to buck, lol.

So anyway I wasn't really kicking the crap out of her to get her to transition because see, I didn't want to get bucked off! Or make it a bad experience for her. So I kept on kissing and squeezing, lightly kicking, and finally got it! Did a few strides and then asked her to walk. PHEW she says! Lee was like "she had her ears back" lol, I was like I know, she was ticked! But I don't think she ever bucked or anything thankfully. This is the first time shes been loped undersaddle in TWO YEARS. And before that it was only one ride when I tried her out, and before that WHO KNOWS. She was only trail ridden by those people (ridden by the timid wife) so I don't think much of anything but walking went on. So, good girl!

Our next attempt went better, I've got that on vid here:



Yes, we did go around once and some with no transition, but like I said, not pushing my luck, haha, besides the corners are a bit short and I had to keep steering her, etc which had me making contact with her mouth, causing her to slow down, yada yada. Anyway, as you can see each transition got better. Yeah! I was proud of both of us :) And she got her leads! Might have got the wrong one second time on her but you can see she fixed it without my help! (I was just trying to keep her going! My legs were DYING! I got the biggest cramp at one point.)

Man I've forgotten how hard it is to lope a horse, its just a lot of work!! Unless of course your on a hot blooded thing, or a very well trained horse. Neither of those pertains to Daisy! lol

So I can't remember if I did anymore loping after that, maybe once, and then I just walked her out a bit, did a few more trots and then practiced a 4 stride woah, 4 back, woah, four stride, rinse repeat thing I came up with. I was trying to get her to back up with my reins and legs to begin with but then keep backing with only my legs cueing her and dropping most of the rein contact. She took awhile to get that, finally did it once or twice. I don't want to have to hang on her mouth when backing, not pretty. Which that paints a bad picture, she usually backs well, I just dont want to have to keep up rein contact.

I have one vid of us doing um, turn arounds? Lol, thats the only thing I could think of to describe it, def not a spin or rollback or turn on the haunches, tho I would have liked any of those. Basically it was me showing Lee we could do a circle each way inside one of those little boxes like on the cowboy race! He didn't think we could! I said oh yes we can, though it won't be near as pretty! Lol, I'd LOVE to teach her to do a spin, you know, not fast, mainly just get her to plant that rear hoof. No idea how to teach that!

Here we are rockin it, lol

So anyway all went pretty well. Although I have defintely seen things that need to be fixed with that area. Needs some mowing, and wacking of weeds on one side. Also a few tree branches need to be cut! I found this out personally when I about went off the back of the saddle at one point, lol! Got a cute cut on my neck and chest, thankfully they were little skinny ones.

And I need to ride more! I am STILL sore and this is SATURDAY, and I rode on tuesday! GAH, if I hadn't loped her I would be fine, but she is serious work to ride in higher gears. But more riding will fix that. She is also very out of shape, you should have heard her puffing!

Here's a pic of her before we put her up, as you can see it was quite dark by then! Aint she cute? lol, she is like you crazy woman. Well thats all for now! Hope everyone else had a good time with their horses this week!

A Possible Place To Ride!

So I started thinking about my main obstacle the other day, really HARD. And I decided this is something I really want to do (be able to actually work on our riding in an area at least big enought to trot a circle) and I just knew there had to be a way to it! So I started asking my BIL if there was ANY flat area at all in the pasture where Daisy and Rusty are. (He's traipsed all around in there) and he said there is by the old house that was torn down, but it was messy. Well I thought, maybe I can clean it up.

So yesterday afternoon the dog and I (Bowser the Schnauzer) drove out there and braved the thigh high weeds/grass. At first I thought I was going to have to drive back around to the area I usually ride in, because they had the chicken wire type fence with a barb wire across the top, not climbable, and not uh...scootunderable, lol. (this is a big pasture, I wasn't wanting to walk around in my flip flops a whole lot! I know, stupid choice of footwear, but I didn't plan on being out there long, and I wasn't feeling too good, so I was lazy and put those on)

But! I finally had the bright idea that I could climb the gate where I was parked, and Bowser scooted under it lol. Anyway I start looking around and found the area they were talking to by the torn down house, but then walked on over a bit more through a small strand of little trees and found IT! A really great looking place to ride. It has mostly small grass, pretty level, and large enough to get a small trot circle in. And it also has natural barriers to use as arena 'walls'; the strand of trees I was talking about and then another bush/tree strand behind that as my back wall, and so I only have one other side to worry about (the other long side) because the other end is the fence/road. YEAH! There are some baby pine trees or something, could be bushy weeds, on the open long side that need to be dealt with. That would give me some more room, but other then that, looks like it has lots of potential! It is a bit of a trek from where I usually park and tack up (and where the horses usually are over by the other gate) but I guess I can just mount up and ride over there.

Potential Problems:

1. Rusty. Ugh, he's such a pest and Daisy gets so pissy/hussy-like at certain times with him, or maybe all the time, never know when she's out of heat, seriously. And I don't know how that would work if she acted up while I was aboard. Rather not find out! I would just tie the sucker up, but he pulls back. -_-

Solution?: What I've thought of so far is maybe saddle her up outside the arena, then lead her in, chase him off with the reins/lead rope, scare him a bit, and then maybe he will leave us alone and I can mount up and ride to the 'arena'.

2. We were only supposed to use that pasture for 4 months. (the old woman that lent it to us said we could use it free if we fixed the fences ourselves.) Which is almost up. -_- It just figures that I finally get my brain working when its about too late. I mean, this has been a major prob ever since I got her, and I just NOW come up with a solution? Idiot! I just had in my mind that that whole pasture was a hilly mess (a lot of it is).

Solution?: Well we could ask for an extension. She doesn't use it anyway, don't see why she would mind, she seems to be very nice.

3. Getting it cleaned up. It does need some mowing, bush hogging possibly even. My husband mows the church lawn so we get to use the nice thousands of dollars zero turn lawn mower. But dunno if he will let me use it to mow down knee high grass/weeds, lol. And I'd have to get in there and whack those trees or whatever they are.

Solution?: Hubby does have a machete thing I could get the trees with, and I could use our weed whacker to get the grass thats tall. Or I could convince him to let me use the lawn mower haha. Or maybe say HE should do it so I don't mess it up... :)

4. Marking the arena. What could I use for that?? Anyone have any ideas? Any type of fencing is of course out of the question being as its not ours, etc.

Solution?: I was thinking of maybe some cones, I only have three, but could get some more... I've heard of milk jugs being used but don't have any of those, I throw them away, lol. Don't think I have enough five gallon (or whatever gallon they are) buckets. I dunno, might research it a bit later on here...

So I think thats it. Nothing that is insurmountable, well maybe if the woman wants us off her property, that could be bad, lol. Sorry for rambling, but it helps me collect my thoughts. I think I'll get out there this afternoon and try cleaning up a bit, see what the husband says. I'll keep yall posted!