Riding Ms. Daisy

An Update for the New Year...

2012-01-05T10:36:00.000-06:00

First off, Happy New Year everyone!!

Just thought I'd put up a short update. All are still alive and well! Tuff is doing so well with his new owners. He has rode him about three times so far in the round pen. I am so proud of him! I feel like I've succeeded in setting him on a good path in life by the work I did with him from birth up. Makes me feel good! His only issue is getting 'stuck'. His owner has even taking to wearing spurs, lol, definitely not something I would do on a baby, but, sigh, not my horse anymore! Anyway, he hasn't figured out what the 'go' button is yet, but it won't be long! What I love most is how calm and nonchalant he is about it all. Such a good boy! I get to see him every time I leave or come back from the house (the pasture is right on the road before my driveway) so thats nice.

Daisy is good too! Her and Stormy are pasture mates. I went out and saw her Monday, she got her feet trimmed up. I brushed her and got all the tangles out of her mane and tail while she munched on her hay. She seemed to really enjoy the attention. She's starting to get a little thinner then I want, and we haven't even had the hard temps yet. So I'll probably start her on her senior feed here soon. We have had such a mild winter so far! 50's and 60's in the day, rarely freezing at night. Love it! Last year it had snowed three times by now, ugh! (that white Christmas last year was pretty awesome though)

Anyway, not much else going on! I haven't rode in forever, not counting my last two jaunts on the BIL's horses. I feel guilty getting on Daisy since she is getting so old and has that leg issue. Maybe I'm just making excuses! I found her papers while I was digging through some stuff the other day, she will be 22 this June. I told the husband the other day when Chloe gets old enough to ride I'll probably pass Daisy to her and get me another horse to ride/play with. I can just see us going down a beautiful wooded trail with me on my horse and Chloe on Daisy while I pony her. Fun stuff!!

Well not much else to report, hope all is well with everyone else! Till later!

Riding Day! Times Two!

2011-11-12T18:20:00.001-06:00

Lots of fun times yesterday! The brothers in law came over yesterday afternoon, my day off, and asked me if I wanted to go riding with them. They were both going to get their horses out. Rusty is back from the trainers, and this was the first time he had had to get him out since he came home the beginning of the week. I wanted to get Daisy out so bad! But the mother and father in law had just left and little girl can't quite watch herself yet, lol. But I did go out and watch/help!

The little BIL got his horse out first. She hasn't been rode in quite a while, at least a year. He had some health issues all last year and is just now getting to feeling better. But she did really well! He lunged her quite a bit before hand, getting her listening and working good. Then he saddled her up and worked her some more before climbing up. She went along nice and quiet. Her only problem is the bit. They keep riding her in that dadgum tom thumb -_-. She does not like it and roots against it a lot. Anyway, he walked and trotted her a bit then asked me if I wanted to ride. Of course! So I climbed up and put her through her paces.

She is very green but willing enough. I worked a lot on trying to get her to slow her trot a bit, which made her round up at the same time, though that wasn't really what I was going for. I did some tight circles with her trying to get her to give a little and she gave in pretty easily.

So after I hopped off the older BIL was coming back with his horse. This was when all you know what broke loose. She had an absolute FIT! See, they used to be pastured together, which if you remember right from a previous post, caused all sorts of problems. When he got back from the trainer they put him in with Skip, the sister in laws gelding. So Daisy and Stormy have been together (Scarlet has left the premises, the FIL gave her to the trainer that Rusty went to, he is going to put some training on her and sell her).

Anyway there was NO containing her, the little BIL was just spinning in circles trying to keep her from running over him. Thankfully he was till in the round pen with her. Rusty was also getting quite excited, but nothing like her. Anyway the big BIL took Rusty a ways away and she settled down a bit. At this time I had to go back to the house to put little girl down for her nap. By the time I got back Stormy was put up and Rusty was being saddled. They had planned originally to ride together outside of the pen, but after the way they both acted, they decided that wasn't wise, lol.

Before we move on to Rusty, here is some Stormy picture spam! Click on the pictures to see it bigger. (bear with me, I am loving my new camera and I get even more picture happy then before!)

Check out the tongue, lol

Baby girl having fun!

The husband said while I was riding she kept clapping for me every time I went by, lol! --->

So this was the big test! How was Rusty going to do after coming back from his training? Same? Better? Would the BIL want to keep him or go ahead and sell him??

Well I have to say I may have to eat my words! From what I saw yesterday I'd say he is a MUCH improved horse! Its like all the fire has been tamed and he is just relaxed and obedient. He got rode quite a bit while at the trainers so I don't know if it was just wet saddle blankets he needed, or someone to put him in his place, or both, but whatever it was it worked! At least as far as I can tell.

The BIL lunged him for just a few minutes and tacked him up. He stood there falling asleep and also did very well while the BIL got on. He only rode him in the round pen briefly before venturing out. The trainer rode him for miles on the trails and was really pleased with him. He told the BIL if he decided to sell him to give him first bid! lol.

He did perk up remarkably once he was out in the 'wide open' but didn't do any funny business. The BIL walked him around near the round pen a bit, then up around their yard, down the driveway, etc.

Before long he was done and asked if I wanted to ride him. I was hesitant at first, but then was like well why not, I'll kick myself later if I don't! So I said sure, and jumped up. Try not to laugh at my high water jeans, sigh, I really need to get some actual riding jeans! They are just SO EXPENSIVE. I have to have a 36 inch inseam to have jeans long enough when I ride. They don't sell those in regular womens jeans! Anyway, I really enjoyed him! We went exploring and he moved out nicely, but not too fast. He responded well to the bit to me, and we walked over some logs and went and saw my husband who was doing very scary things behind our house with a saw, lol. As we were walking to the corner of the house to go behind it, he couldn't see around the house to see what was going on. So he didn't really think it was a good idea to go over there! But I persuaded him he wouldn't die fairly easily and we walked around to where we could see my husband and stood there a bit. He wasn't sure it was a good idea to stay around so I had to make him turn back and face the saw a few times. After he was still a few moments we went on back towards the round pen. He was fairly level headed and so calm most of the time. Such a good boy.

So all in all a very productive day! All of us were busy today but I wish we could have gone out again, its been so pretty here and I just know the cold weather is JUST around the corner. I hope everyone else has a great weekend! Till later!

Visiting...

2011-10-14T13:55:00.001-05:00

So Chloe and I went out visiting today. We manage to see 6 horses today! ;)

First off we went to visit Daisy girl. I felt pretty safe this time since the main trouble maker (the BILs horse) isn't here right now. The BIL decided to ship him off to a cousin of his to get some training. He seems to be doing pretty well so far. We'll see!

Daisy and Stormy are the only ones in the pasture now. They were of course chilling in the shade on the far side of the pond. I just got a AWESOME new camera for my birthday so you will def be getting some picture spam in this post!! Its my first dslr and I feel so inferior!

My little buddy :)

I sent the BIL down the lane to fetch Daisy, I didn't want to be in that lane with Chloe. He tried and tried to get her to come with him back down the lane to no avail. I was just giggling. He pulled and pulled on her head (no halter) and her mane. Then I suggested he try tapping her with his walking stick while he pulled on her mane. Nope! He was smacking her with it and she was like, huh? So funny. So then he gave up and came towards me to get the halter and of course THEN she decided she would come visit!

I then decided to park Chloe outside of the gate because I saw Stormy headed down with us and I was taking no chances this time. Little girl had a bunch of leaves to play with so was good for a while, lol. I had brought a little stiff brush with me so I brushed Daisy girl down and got her shining as well as I could. She definitely could use a bath! Her head is so dusty as you will see in the pictures. After that I sprayed her down with some fly spray and let her loose. I then pulled out my camera and went crazy taking pictures. She was so cute! She just stood there looking at me and posing, lol.

Then I turned my attention to Stormy and got a few of her.

She is such a pretty color, what girl hasn't wished they had a dappled grey?!

After that we left the girls dozing, well Daisy at least, and headed out the gate down the road. At the end of the road is the pasture I jumped Daisy in a few years ago, and where Skip and the FILs horse is now. But they decided not to be sociable and I couldn't get any photos of them. On down the main road back to the neighbors pasture where Tuff now lives! It was too cute when I called his name that he answered me. You think he misses me? I couldn't get many pictures of him because his buddy wanted all the attention and kept running him off. I think he thought we had food and was not going to share!

And thats about it! All seem to be happy and healthy. I REALLY want to get out and ride Daisy but either the time or someone to watch Chloe is not available. And when the husband is home its either late or we are going going going! I guess I need to just set the time aside and DO IT!

Hope all is well with everyone else! Say a prayer for Andrea, she lost her beloved mare this week and its such a heartbreaking story... http://eventing-a-gogo.blogspot.com/

A New (Old) Home For Tuff

2011-09-13T21:33:00.003-05:00

Well my sweet boy has returned to where it all started! The pasture of his birth is now where he will live, hopefully, for the rest of his life. We sold him to our super nice neighbors that I mentioned in my last post who let us use the pasture for Daisy and her foal when he was born.

Baby girl was down for a nap when he came out to the in laws to get Tuff. Thankfully the BIL was able to go get him for me. Chloe woke up a little bit later and I loaded her into the stroller and headed out there. The in laws and neighbors were all standing in the front yard talking while Tuff blissfully ate up all the grass in sight, lol.

We all talked there for a while. His wife just loves him. I told him all the things he knows, and doesn't know. Mainly we all just 'talked horses' for a while. I love it! Very rarely do I get to do that. The hubby is indulgent and a good listener, but definitely does NOT 'talk horses' with me, lol. I also liked how the mans philosophy about horses ran very parallel to mine. Its not often that happens!

After that we headed on out to the pasture to see how Tuff would do with their other horse. He is a 12 or so year old Saddlebred.

There they go! After we got to the gate he went and put a halter on his horse and they talked over the fence for a bit. All seemed to go pretty well. Tuff was mainly interested in eating the grass, of course, lol. His horse is definitely the higher strung breed of horse and was VERY interested in him. He squealed a few times at Tuff but that was about it.

Then the BIL took Tuff in and put him in the far pasture closest to the house. There is a fence separating the pasture in two. He's going to leave them like that a few days before putting them together. I think Tuff will be fine, but I'm a little worried the other horse (Bo is his name) will try and run him and basically be mean to him. Hopefully they will be good buddies though! Geldings generally make good pasture buddies.

There is Chloe chilling in her stroller like a good girl! She is chewing on the pasture gate keys, lol. Little girl is going on 14 months now! Can you believe it?? Still pretty much bald headed, yes, but we are growing a bit more fuzz then we were! LOL.

So after we watched them for awhile I headed on back to the house. Here is the last shot of them:

Bo is trotting along the fence to get back to Tuff who went to meet the BIL and neighbor. I hope they do well tonight! I'm sure Tuff will be fine, he's been in that pasture several times since he was born and the hot wire is very well marked.

So! I went out and visited Daisy the other day with little girl. It was, um, interesting to say the least. Scary actually would be a better word. I'm never going out there with Chloe again. Not unless it is only Daisy. The BIL's horse and Stormy scared the living DAYLIGHTS out of me. That gelding has gone plum crazy when it comes to 'his' mares. Dangerous, really.

Daisy was in the lane by the pond so I pushed Chloe on out there in her stroller and put her in a safe spot and got Daisy haltered and started brushing her down, checking her over, etc. I had already done the same thing earlier with Tuff and had a lot of fun. (Skip is totally harmless and Scarlet ignores us, lol).

Stormy has been on the side with the older horses for a few months now. Somehow she broke in there and we just left her since she did well. There needed to be one less horse on the babies side anyway. So as I'm brushing Daisy, the BILs horse and Stormy decide they want to come in the VERY NARROW lane with us. Well thank GOD the BIL was there and shooed them off with his hat.

That SHOULD have been the end of it. It wasn't. He kept on, and kept on, and kept on trying to get over there to Daisy. And then Stormy came over there as well and they are all trotting around in a very SMALL space with the gate, pond, and lane (with us in it) in a small triangle. I'm getting very nervous at this point. And then all of a sudden Stormy is trying to run over me, Daisy, AND MY BABY in her stroller! I could just see her making a flying leap over the stroller and kicking my child in the head. :heart stop:

So I am SCREAMING and yelling at Stormy to get out of there and NOT to run into/jump over us (BILs horse is on the other side of her STILL trying to get to us and pushing Stormy INTO us; much kicking and squealing is going on). So finally Stormy thankfully decides its a bad idea to run over the screaming crazy lady and gets out of there.

But he is not done. He goes to the other side of the pond and GETS IN. He starts walking into the pond!! I look at the BIL with a dazed expression and say "he is going to try and SWIM over here to get to Daisy" And sure enough he did! Before he got over there though I had taken the halter off Daisy and got OUT OF THERE with my child. We went out the gate and watched as he swam over to a log, tried to REAR OVER it, and then finally got over to the other side of the pond to where his 'mare' was and heaved himself out onto a huge bank. UNbelievable!!

I was just in shock. I've never seen a horse act like that! Ever since Stormy got into that pasture I've heard reports of those two acting strange. And sure enough, there was the proof. My gosh. I guess it doesn't help any that he was cut late and also bred a horse before getting cut. UGH! I swear, it was ridiculous!

You might be asking, what was Daisy doing through all this?? NOTHING. She stood stock still with a foot cocked and her head up with a look on her face like WHAT is going on?? Thank the Lord she is so mild natured. If I had had to deal with her as well who knows what would have happened.

Anyway, I've definitely learned my lesson and will NOT be going out there with Chloe any time soon. I don't know how I'm going to ride either if he is going to insist on being near Daisy at all times. Gosh, what a mess!! I basically begged the BIL to let me put his horse up for sale but he won't do it. Sigh. Hopefully he will see the light soon. Theres no reason for him to have to have a horse that is no use to him as opposed to a horse he can actually work with and ride. I for one would LOVE having someone to ride with AND get rid of a nuisance!

So on that happy note! LOL, I hope all is well with everyone else! And hopefully I will not take so long to post another entry! Till later!

Tuff Goodbyes

2011-06-30T11:50:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! Sorry its been such a looong spell without a post! Terrible of me! But there really hasn't been anything to report! Thanks to this child of mine and the weather horse happenings have been ZILCH.

I did get to tool around on my girlie a few weeks ago for awhile in the round pen. That was fun. The horse trimmer had been out that day and she was in there chilling while the other horses were getting done when I got home from work. So I took my little self over there and thought YES, prime time for a little ride! So I pushed her up to the side of the pen and started to climb up on the bars. And she promptly decided to swing her hiney out. -_- So again I pushed her over, same result. By the third time of this I decided I had better come up with a different game plan, lol. So I thought, maybe if I try to get on the RIGHT side, she will be tricked and stand still! HAH, I am so smart. She stood stock still and I climbed right up. Sucess!

It felt awesome to be back on a horse. Gosh its been a long time. Not counting riding Tuff a few months ago. So we walked around a bit, I had to flip the lead rope over her nose a few times to guide her, but she did pretty well sticking to the rail. Then we did some trotting which was fun! Although my balance of course wasn't as good as I'd like!

Anyway, it was BLAZING hot so I didn't ride long. After that I walked her out of the round pen and back to her pasture. Thankfully the husband came home just about the time I was walking down the driveway and he followed me out to her pasture and drove me back. It is a TREK out there the long way. The short way isn't as bad but you have to go through the other 4 horses. NOT FUN. And grandma walks about .1 miles per hour. She is SO gimpy on gravel. It was really amusing. She would walk as far off the road as she could just to get away from it. And if there was a hill or some reason she had to get back on the gravel she would mosey her self on over to the other side and walk there.

So on to the post title. I may have found Tuff a home! And it will be permanent I have a good feeling. I think he will most likely be a permanent pasture puff! LOL. Which is perfect. He is happy doing that. Although he would make someone a good little trail horse with some training as well. They may ride him a bit, not sure. Anyway its my neighbors! They are the ones that let us use their pasture for Daisy to have Tuff in (the one with the little red barn) and we used it off and on until the man got him a horse a few years ago. They are just down our driveway. Really nice people.

Ever since Tuff was born the mans wife has wanted Tuff, lol! Anyway, the other day I heard some of my husbands family saying that she still wanted him. I thought, what?? Why?? He is small and really has no riding training. But they seem to think she just loves that he was born in their pasture, lol. The man also likes him and has a little horse experience. Tuff is pretty easy going, so I don't think they would have a lot of trouble with him if they did decide to try and 'train' on him a bit. Immediately my mind starts turning. This could be a really great place for him. He'd get cared for very well, have a buddy, and a run in shed. They have a nice two horse trailer. And he is going to fence in an additional pasture, so he'd have plenty of grass. They are a middle aged couple with no kids, so you know what that means. More money and they make their pets their 'kids'!

And I could see him anytime I wanted, and probably work with him as well. It is a little disappointing that I put all that time, work, training into him, and then send him off to someone else, lol. But it wasn't in vain. A horse goes so much farther in the world with good training under him. And lets face it, I have NO time for horse things at this point in my life. My other priorities have to come first.

So I haven't talked to them yet, I don't even know how much to sell him for. I'm afraid of going to high. I might just let them name me a price. We will see! The husband is loving the thought of someone else paying for his care and feed, though! ;)

I will keep yall updated! Hope everyone is well! Take care!

ps, couldn't leave without a picture of my girl! Chloe is nearly a year old! Where has the time gone?!

RidingTuff Part II

2011-02-14T14:29:00.017-06:00

Hey guys! Sorry it has taken me SO LONG to get this posted. Mainly its because I had nearly an hour of video to cut down to 7 mintues! Phew!

Anyway! Like I said before, he was a super star!! I mean even I, who knows him best, didn't think he would do THAT well! I was just editing the video and he even RESTS A FOOT while I am sitting on him. Such a good mind on that boy!

So I was thinking of riding him that day, but also knew it was asking a lot of him since I had not worked with him in nearly a year but once (last week) and he probably needed more time for me to refresh him on things we had done. But I did bring my helmet and the saddle out there just in case. I knew if nothing else it would be good for him to carry the saddle around a bit. I also grabbed the driving lines so we could work on that.

So the husband was on babysitting duty, though she very obligingly decided to take a nap not long after I got out there and he laid her down in his parents house with the mother in law supervising. (the round pen is just in front of it in their front slash side yard)

I lunged him a bit to begin with and he was awesome. You wouldn't believe the inside turns we were getting! They were SO GOOD. Even turning back to the right, his bad side. I was SHOCKED. I guess I wasn't doing too much wrong, he just needed a bit of practice. :D His cantering was good as well, tho a bit lazy. His right lead was a little sticky as usual but if I really got after him to jump into it out of his trot we usually got the lead.

Then I took him to the side and put his saddle on. He was pretty unconcerned. It took us probably 20 minutes or so to just get the darn cinch where we could get it tight enough. Thank goodness my husband was out there, he rigged it up good on the off side so I could get it tight enough on the left. He stood quiet like a good boy!

I walked him around a bit to make sure he was cool, he was, so I brought the long lines in and got those run through the stirrups and off we went! This part was a bit hairy. He hasn't been ground drove in a long time and it took him a few minutes to understand what I wanted. But he was SO calm and 'whatever' about it. After a few rounds we had it figured out pretty good, but he was still really sticky about his 'woah' and turning was still a bit tough as well. All we were using was the halter. So it started getting dark and I figured if we were going to ride (which was becoming a serious possibility with how well he was behaving!) I'd better get over there and get started!

I took him back to the side and the hubby came in for support. I did some hopping beside him, then some stepping in the stirrup, then laying on my tummy, etc. He started getting tired of me pulling his saddle to the side I think and started moving forward. So I went back to just putting my foot in there until he settled, then back to the other. And then up I went! You can see the husband get all startled and nervos on the video! Its so funny! He said to me, "your supposed to let me know before you do that!" Sorry!

And what did Tuff do? Nada! He moved a bit to distribute my weight but that was all! So I slid off pretty quick and then went back up, etc. So fun! Then I moved him to the middle where we had a good 'runway' and climbed back up and had the husband lead us around. He was walking so slow and careful, and when we made the turn my husband said he was moving his legs more sideways then forward, haha. So we stopped a few times and went the other way and then I called it a day! GOOD BOY TUFF! It was too fun! I decided against hooking reins to the halter and guiding him myself since he had been so 'sticky' ground driving. We need more work on that and besides, there is no rush. I need to get him a good bit and have him working well in it. Should have done this already, really. The full cheek I bought him last year is too small now for sure. Next time I may work him some in the bitless bridle and see how he does with it. If that goes well I may ride him in that until I can get a bit.

So that about does it! I loosened his cinch right after I got off as reward and then took him to the side and untacked him. Then the husband took him back to the pasture and he got his grain for the night.

I am SO PLEASED with him! I wanted to ride him again this weekend but it didn't work out. Hopefully soon!
Here is the video! (you m ay want to click on it and open it on youtube, its a little large for my layout and you can watch it in HD there)

As for long term plans...well, the husband thinks we need to sell him. :( He is too short for him to ride (and too short for me really and truly). I guess he is never going to be more then a big pony. He said he would ride with me if I would sell Tuff and buy him a dead broke horse he won't have to worry about. I'd love to keep him for Chloe later on, but what would he be doing in the short term? Thats at least 4 or 5 years from now. And we can't afford 3 horses at this point...

Sigh. Its going to be hard to find him a good home. He is unregistered, small, and green broke. Yeah I'm going to get him riding pretty well before I put him up for sale, but he will still be just starting his riding life, therefore, not good for kids just yet which is really where his niche will be. Much thinking to do!

On the other hand, it is exciting to think of getting another horse so I can actually have someone to ride with! The husband said he wants a Friesan. LOL! But would be okay with a Percheron, oh okay darling. Lol, seriously though, he just wants something that isn't ugly, lol, and will take good care of him. SO DO I. I will have to have one that I know will never take off, buck, or rear with him. Being pluggy/lazy is OK with me though, lol. I shopped around a bit the other day. Most times you need a couple thousand for something like this, but maybe we can run up on a deal. We won't be able to spend more then $700 or $800 on one. And that is pushing it! But we also dont need something registered and it doesnt have to be show quality. JUST SAFE. I'm thinking on at least getting $500 out of Tuff. IF WE SELL HIM. I still haven't made my mind up about this! Lol, Ive put a lot of time and and emotions into this horse. Plus him being Daisys baby. Sniff. TUFF WHY DIDNT YOU GROW?! :(

Okay! After an excessively long post, I will say...until later! Stay safe and have fun everyone!

Riding Tuff!

2011-02-12T20:03:00.002-06:00

Dont have time for a full post but thought I'd tease yall with this picture! Muahaha, I know I'm evil! I will say it went AWESOME! He was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better first ride! Go Tuff!

Lunging Tuff

2011-02-04T14:34:00.008-06:00

Hey all! Hope everyone is doing well, we are good!

I got out and was able to work with mr Tuff the other day! The original plan was to lunge him then ground drive him with the surcingle and halter. Welll, seeing as I had to take little girl out with me I only got the lunging part in. But thats way better then nothing! And I had a lot of fun. It was SO good to work with a horse again!

So I planned going out about the time my girl goes down for her nap, I was counting on the stroller walk out there to put her to sleep. And it worked GREAT. By the time I got out to the pasture and had gotten Tuff tied up to the rail she was just about out, and it wasn't long till she was. Whoo hoo!

So I got him all cleaned up, even brushed out his tail etc, he seemed to enjoy it! He was easy to catch as well (which is nothing unusual he is the first to come up and see you out of all 4 of them). Then I called the BIL out to push little girl over to the round pen for me while I lead Tuff. I wasn't sure if Tuff would be keen on the stroller. But really all he did was sniff towards it and that was about it! None of the horses seemed real concerned when I walked up to the pasture with it, surprisingly!

We got out to the round pen and I sent him on out. We did a lot of walk, trot, walk, halt, etc. Then a few inside turns. Which he remembered pretty good, but still bad to the one side. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong but I can't ever get him to make a very sharp one, I always have to get out of his way :/. Anyway, by this time the BIL had decided it was a good idea to feed all the OTHER horses and then Chloe decided she had had enough and started screaming. So I got a few canters in to the left, which he did AWESOME with, then we did the right which was a little harder to get him in to (his weak side) and he picked up the wrong lead originally but did a flying change and did well after that.

Here is a few clips from it. Chloe is also in it at the end! You can see her after I rescued her from her stroller, lol. She gets to sit on her first horsey too! Which is Tuffs first rider sitting up, haha. You can see him go, who are you? And then keep eating. :) Then later for her first time sitting on the grass! (If you go to the actual youtube page you can watch it in HD. This was shot with my new camera! Looks SO much better!)

So not much else going on lately! The weather has been pretty junky last week or so and haven't gotten out. Today its finally back in the 50s! Although apparently we are getting another winter storm this coming week. OH YEAH! -_- Please hurry spring!

Until later!

Snow Days!

2011-01-12T11:38:00.007-06:00

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year since I haven't talked to ya! All is well here, my girl is growing so much! Over 5 months old now!

We got nearly 5 inches of snow Sunday night!! Thats CRAZY for us! Although its kind of a bummer because we got half an inch of ice on top of that, which makes it kind of scary! We've been stuck here for 3 days! I grabbed my bareback pad and bridle yesterday thinking I could sneak in a short ride, but then I almost fell on my butt 2 feet from my porch and thought, hm, probably not a good idea. :)

Hopefully tomorrow will get better. We are supposed to be almost 60 Sat, weird weather!

Anyway, just thought I'd share a few pics of the horses I took the other day in the snow. We have been snowed/iced in since Sunday night!

Snowy pasture!

Horses down in the trees!

Tuff sampling the local trees, lol

Pretty pic of Skip I made black and white

Hi Tuff Tuff!!

Hey Daisy and Rusty! (notice the bloody fetlock, ughh, its superficial thankfully, probably a stick in the woods)

Icicle tail!

I'm not liking how thin she is looking, she is usually an air fern horse, but she is getting older and its cold! Going to start her on some senior feed as soon as I can get to town again!

Hope all is well everyone else! Chloe says, see ya later!

From The New Mommy

2010-09-16T13:51:00.008-05:00

Hey guys! Just thought it had been a LONG time since I posted so I wanted to just say yeah, I'm alive, and yes, I had my sweet baby girl! Here she is!

Chloe Leeann
7lbs 8 oz 21 inches

This is her not long after she was born, and here are a few more that are a little more recent. She is going on 6 weeks now! WOW! Where did time go?? She is about 3-4 weeks in these down here. I need to take some more pictures with my camera! I have a bunch on my phone, lol, its what is with me all the time.

Anyway the delivery went SO GREAT, better then I could have dreamed. I am feeling pretty good now, I go in for my 6 week post partum check-up today, so hopefully I will hear I can resume normal activities. Like horseback riding! And sex...yeah, thats a good one too, LOL! As well as working out, gotta get rid of that flabby baby belly!

So hope all is well with everyone else! I hope to have horsey goings ons back on here asap! I'm dying to ride Daisy May again! I also got a new HD video camera, so that will make my videos much better quality! Yeah!

Take care!

Picture Update

2010-06-09T10:57:00.024-05:00

Hey everyone!

I guess picture updates are going to be all you get for awhile, sorry! Until this child is born thats about all I'm up to! (less then 8 weeks until her due date!) The farrier came out last Thursday finally and got them all trimmed up. Tuff was, hm, okay, fair maybe. ALMOST good. But he pulled back a few times on his fronts so that keeps him from getting an A report. B- more like, lol. He did great on his backs of course, he just has a hard time balancing that front end. Daisy of course was a jewel as usual. Stormy and the FIL's horse gave him a bit of trouble, but nothing serious, so all 6 of them did pretty good! (that guy made a CHUNK of change off of us! I swear, it took him 5 mins a horse probably with 30$ a pop! Man, I need to learn to trim...)

So last Friday I was getting so tired of the house and decided to take the doggies and Chloe (lol) for a walk. It was still early so not too hot/humid yet.

First we went out and visited with Tuff and his 'gang'. And every time I tried to get a picture of Mr. Tuff this is what I got:

"Where ya goin, where ya goin??" Finally I got him to quit following me and got a pretty picture. I think he was watching the puppies.

Skip also decided to give me a good one! I'm going to email this one to his 'mommy', she loves taking pictures too.
After we visited them a bit I called the dogs and we took off for the back pasture. Tuff decided to accompany us.
He started off pretty far back but I'm so slow these days that even his slow stride caught up with me by the end of the lane. So I had him breathing down my neck until I shooed him to the side, lol. I know they are used to following nose to tail with theyre horse buddies, but I didn't want him on MY heels! Lol.

Then he decided the grass was more interesting then I was ;)

The look on his face here is hilarious, lol. He's like, now why do you want to go over there??

So I continued my walk, going along the fence line. I didn't see Daisy and Rusty yet, but I figured they must be over by the pond in the woods where it is cooler.

Going into the woods...and lo and behold, there they were! In the little lane between the fence and pond. Just hanging out!

Such a great background for pictures! The last one I made black and white, it looks like a winter scene now. Far from! Although it WAS a lot cooler in there and the gnats and flies were GONE, whew. Although the horse flies were NOT. Poor Daisy had them just chewing on her legs.
Anyway, I went up and said hi and then started trying to get that huge knot out of Daisy's mane thats been there for who knows how long, lol.

This is after I've been working on it a bit with just my fingers, and it still has a looong way to go, lol. I did finally get it though! I've always been kind of good with knots, tangles, etc. No idea why. Its kind of strange.

Pretty girl! So we chilled in there for awhile as I did her mane, it was really nice. Rusty kept trying to sniff the dogs, who wanted nothing to do with him, lol. Then he would come and pester me until I finally elbowed him good. That would keep him away for a bit, until he decided to come and sniff me all over again, lol.

Then we ressumed our journey on down through the lane and out the other side. Here's a few pictures of the pond.

Good place to fish here! Which was exactly what I was planning on doing, going home and getting my tackle and pole and coming back out, but then I got home and was so hot and tired that I never made it back out, lol. Someday! I wish the husband enjoyed it more, but its just not his thing. He is a good bait and pole setter upper though! ;)

Looks like the horses have some well worn paths going on!

Can you find Missie??

So thats about it! I walked on back through the pasture and found Tuff back with his buddies. Guess he got lonely, lol. Then on back to the house!

Thanks for walking with us! Till later!

Picture Spam!

2010-05-13T10:25:00.013-05:00

Hey everyone! Not much has been going on, obviously. Horses are all doing well, everyone is fat and happy, well Tuff could stand some more weight, but Daisy looks GREAT as you will see. The hooves need to be trimmed soon, so we are going to get that lined up, also need to do a worming, but thats about it!

I don't plan on doing much with Tuff until the baby is born, he has a good grasp on about everything I want him to know. Daisy of course is just Daisy, she doesn't need anything. The BIL might ride her a few times, dunno. She looks so
great, nowhere NEAR her 20 year old age. I don't think she has lost a bit of muscling at all. I wish I was riding! But I'm going to lay low with that until Fall. Ms. Chloe will be taking up MUCH of my time for a while. I may not get back in the saddle until next spring, who knows. We'll see!

So anyway, yesterday afternoon I went out and war painted Tuffs ears up and under his belly. The gnats are EVIL out there. Then the older BIL and I drove out to see Daisy and Rusty. I haven't seen her in months! She looks beautiful. I also war painted her up and checked her over and then had the BIL take some pics of us. She was obviously much more interested in eating grass as you will see, lol.

Oh! And lets not forget, Tuff is a three year old now! He turned on April 29th. Happy birthday Tuff Tuff!

So without further ado here are a ton of pictures I took.

Tuff Tuff coming to see us, hes so coot

Who me??

These next two pics are to show you his color now that he is mostly shed out. Do I have a flea bitten gray?? What do yall think?

The group!

And on to Daisy girl! I just love her face! Dont you guys love the mustang mane? Eeep, need to get some show sheen after that mess

Wondering what this crazy lady is doing

Lookit those dapples! So cute

:D

Pretty girl

Rusty thinking there has to be something left!
Missie girl! I just wuv her. Yeah, she needs a hair cut, lol And lastly, the pasture. Doesn't it look great? Thats just part of it

Thats all folks! Until later!

Tuff Has His First 'Riders'!

2010-04-12T14:28:00.007-05:00

Hey everyone! Sorry its taken me so long to get to this post!

Last Saturday was a really fun day! My husband didn't go to work like he has every saturday for at least 2 months, and we just hung out at home and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Well later that afternoon I got my stuff together while he was mowing the lawn and headed out to the round pen. Dropped my stuff off, tracked down the western cinch I was going to try with my english saddle, and went and got Tuff. They were of course down in the other pasture again, but this time I just called them up and had them follow me up to the barn, instead of going and fetching Tuff and leading him. Worked great! After we got to the house they all went on up the fence line to the hay rack and Tuff walked right up to me. Nabbed him and we were out of there with no trouble at all!

So on out to the round pen. I put his full-cheek on again, this time under the halter, that seemed to work well. Then I put his saddle on and tried the cinch. FAIL again, lol, way too short still. Sigh! So anyway I took that off and walked him a few rounds on the lead to make sure everything was good with his bit and then on to lunging! Which went a lot better this time. I kept my cool, patience, etc, and did everything slow and as obvious as I could. He did great! Was cantering on the left lead in sync (no cross firing!) and he got his right lead about three times. He even did a few good right inside turns, I think he's finally getting the idea a bit. Just takes practice!

All this time he was carrying his bit and had no trouble with it at all. His mouth was quiet most of the time, he chewed a bit, which is totally fine with me. Thats a good sign. Clenched mouth = bad sign!

So after we did a good bit of lunging I went back to the gate and decided I would go ahead and just try the FILs western saddle on him. This is the point where my memory card completely filled up in my camera and I didnt get anything else on video until my husband came out and I cleaned a bit off to get the last bit of our work out.

Anyway, the saddle was still in the hay barn from Scarlets ride, which is right next to the round pen, so not problem finding it. The problem was carrying the huge thing while leading a horse! Not so fun! I about broke my back lugging it over there hunched over with one hand (I made Tuff carry his saddle blanket, haha, he didn't mind) and we made it, thankfully its quite close to the pen.

I settled him in there, straightened his blanket, let him sniff the saddle a bit, and up it went! I think he might have blinked, and that was it, lol. That thing is a good 25+ lbs! So I moved it about a bit, got my cinch attatched, and tightened him up a bit. Still no problem at all. He was more interested in chewing on his grooming bucket, lol. I flapped the stirrups on his sides a bit and then we moved on out into the round pen. He looked a little confused but walked along well and didn't offer any trouble at all. So for the next 15-20 minutes I would stop every so often to wiggle the saddle side to side, pull on it as if I were getting on, (also hopping up and down like a fool next to him, lol) and then after he did well with all that I started putting my foot in the stirrup and putting a bit of weight in it, not stepping up in it yet, just enough to make the saddle pull a bit. After that was boring I started hoping up into the stirrup for a second and then back down, all of this on both sides. He was so good! I called my husband somewhere in there and when he got over there I had him hold him while I stepped up in it a little more.

At this point I was feeling pretty brave and had my husband hold onto the outside stirrup while I stepped up and layed on my chest/stomach over the saddle. I was holding my breath, pretty positive I wouldn't have any trouble, but you never know! But of course, I didn't! So I did that a few times, and then I told the husband to give it a try. When his much more substantial weight stepped up Tuff moved quite a bit to get his balance, but was in no way alarmed. He got back down and stepped up again and that time he didn't move at all. Good boy!

So then! I leaned up over him again and told the husband to lead us a few steps. THRILL OF A LIFETIME. He did great. Of course he was a little hesitant about moving but so calm about it all. I slid off again and then we repeated and he did even better about moving out that time. We only did like 3 or 4 steps, but it was huge to me! :D

So there you have it! Tuffs first 'ride'! Very good and uneventful! If I wasn't pregnant I probably would have swung over, but I'm not going to risk that. Plus I want him to do some more growing. By fall I think we will be set!

So here is the video! Mostly lunging, and at the end you get to watch the husband walk and trot around with Tuff dressed in his bridle and saddle, hehe.

Next steps! Start working with the bit. I haven't touched it so far, just been letting him carry it, so we will start doing some flexion with it next time I'm out. After I'm sure hes got the concept we will move on to ground driving, probably wearing his western saddle with the lines run through the stirrups. I'm so glad I tried the western on him, seeing as I can't get a girth to fit the english. I'm going to be riding him in the western anyway, I was just afraid it would be too big for him. Seems okay for what we want to do with it right now though.

After that? Well I can't think of anything else besides refining everything he has been taught and then actual riding. So we will probably work him off and on this summer when I have the time (and feel like it, I'm less then 3 months from my due date now!) and then sometime this fall start putting some rides on him.

Have a great week everyone!

Scarlet Gets Rode

2010-04-06T11:40:00.005-05:00

Hello again everyone! Hope you are all getting the gorgeous weather we have been blessed with lately! Its been in the 80's all this week and most of last. Love it!

Anywho, the same day last week, Wednesday I believe, that I worked Tuff the FIL got his little mare out as well. My memory card was full of Tuff from earlier, so didn't get as much footage as I would have liked, but I got a bit!

So at first she was a little spazzy. He lunged her to begin with and she was a little racecar in there. She kind of looks like she is running scared. But when he asks her to woah, she WOAHS. And then looks at him hopefully like, "can I come in to you now??"

So he did that for a few rounds and then got out his saddle and bridle. That was a bit interesting, lol. We're not sure how many times she has been tacked up (and rode for that matter) but it can't have been many. You'll see how skittish/nervous she is in the video below. It's almost like she is expecting someone to mistreat her. She has a hard time keeping her feet still when you are messing with her. Even just brushing.

Anyway after he got the saddle on her he lunged her around some more with the saddle, she didn't buck or anything but she was definitely moving on out. After that he put a bridle on and thats where she had serious problems. Any time he tried to pull on her outside rein just standing next to her she would have a complete come apart and he would have to let her go. So he would calmly go and collect her and try again. Same thing 2 or 3 more times. So finally he told us to watch her and went and got some driving lines.

Now at this point I'm thinking to myself, okay something is not right, we need to go back to the beginning here and sort it out. And get that dang tom thumb out of her mouth. But of course its his horse so I'm not going to tell him how to train her.

Anyway, he comes back and hooks her up to those and she has one nasty episode (its hard to describe what she does, she doesnt buck or rear or jump, she just has a spaz attack!) and he hauled her in and made her back up and give to the bit. And BAM. She was a different horse. Head down, docile, do whatever you say, whenever you say. He walked her around that pen turning her both ways for another 10-15 minutes and she never picked her head up or offered anything that he didn't ask for. When they woahed, she stopped and stayed there. It was like a light switch flicked on! Crazy! He said is the way she has done when he's worked with her before, its like she has to have her little moments and then she just gives up! His phone even rang when he was on her and he walked around one handed talking on it and she didn't have any issue at all with it.

I'm hoping its because of the way she was handled before and that eventually she will figure out that we aren't going to hurt her and she doesn't have to put her defenses up every time we work her. Hopefully!

So after that he took the lines off and started pulling on her saddle, putting weight in the stirrup, etc, and then just swung up and walked her off. No problems! They rode around for quite awhile just walking and trotting. She looked relaxed and a okay with everything the whole time.

Here is the video of the saddling, a little of her spastic lunging, and them walking and trotting
around the round pen. (thats my handsome hubby assisting, hehe)

So anywho, definitely ended on a good note. I hope she remembers that and starts out that way next time!

Next Post: Tuff Has His First 'Riders'!

Tuff Lunging With His New Bit Video Added

2010-04-03T12:16:00.014-05:00

Wow, I'm getting chatty lately, eh?

So I tried out Tuff Tuffs new bit! I'm not sure about it...I think I'd be happier if it was another 1/2 inch wider. But, he doesn't seem to mind it as far as I can tell. He chewed on it for a bit, so I just left it on him while I went back to trying to brush off 20lbs of hair, and he quit after just a few minutes. Yeah! If I moved his halter around at all (which is under the bridle) he would start chewing on it sometimes, but he wasn't gaping his mouth, or putting his head up, etc. I can get my finger between his lip and bit easily, its not tight, but there is def not anything extra.

So! Here are some pictures of him wearing it that yall can look at and give me your thoughts about it. Too small? Okay for now? Just see how he does with it? Gracias! (they should get bigger if you click)

Sorry I didn't get a face on shot! Anyway, what are yalls thoughts?

Other then that yesterday, we started some work on turns on the longe line. Well, that was...uh hum...interesting. He was a bit of a pill at times, but I'm not altogether sure I wasn't contributing to it. I have a bit of a low patience level! So after we had a galloping fit done with we settled down and he started doing inside turns to the left when I pointed my arm in that direction, quite well! Quite quickly. But then the right was a totally different story. Sigh, he was just not getting it! I didn't know how to make it any clearer to him! He was at least starting to turn his head towards me but I still had to step in front of him and push his head to the right. Every time. But we will keep working on it! He is definitely a left sided horse, as are a lot of them.

I have a short video of us doing a few lefts and a right or two (thats when we go out of frame). I also took off his reins and left his bit in, leaving the lunge attatched to his halter of course. He didn't seem to mind a'tall. It was a beautiful day! I'm glad I put sunscreen on though, or I'd have been a bit crispy. Yeah for spring!

**Okay! Got to work, here is our video! (its short for once!)

A good note! His cantering was much improved yesterday! I was watching closely and didn't see him cross canter once either way! Whoo hoo! :D I did have video of that part too but somehow it got corrupted on my memory card. 30 minutes gone! GRRR.

I found my girth that goes on my bareback pad but it was WAY too short, I swear! So anyway I have a 30 inch western cinch that has a buckle on it, might try that next time. I know some of you are thinking "just buy one!" Well I would if I lived near a good tack store, or had the extra money right now to order one. But we are just floating with all the doctor bills and other baby things going on right now! Before I start riding him I will of course get a proper one.

So thats about it! After we worked quite a while on turns etc I took him back to the side of the pen and took his bridle off. I had taken it off once earlier and he put his head up but this time he stayed calm and wouldn't open his teeth to let it go! lol. Then we headed back to the house and I hosed him off a bit (he was a very good boy for that; he likes to drink from the hose) and let him graze for a bit. Boy did that make the other horses jealous ;)

I wanted to get out there again today but it rained this morning, so its probably a mess out there...its supposed to get sunny later on (which its 2 o'clock now and still cloudy boo) so maybe I'll go out there and just work on our turns and him toting that bit and saddle around.

Next Post: Scarlet Gets Rode. The FIL got her out and rode her for the first time yesterday.

Lookie What I Got!

2010-04-01T14:08:00.005-05:00

It came in the mail yesterday, yeah! I cannot wait to get out and try it on him. I'm pretty sure its going to be too small though, what a dummy. I got caught up in the moment of only 15 seconds left at .99!! ;) It's a 4 inch.

Anywho, I was getting all excited about getting out there to work him this afternoon until I remembered the husband had already asked me yesterday if I had anything planned for today (which I said no at that point) and hes got me painting shelves all afternoon. Yeah. (we are painting a 5k sq foot house to pay for the babies doctor bills)

Oh well, I don't work Fridays anymore so maybe I can get out there then! :D

I'm trying to be optimistic and saying to myself, well he is pony SIZED so his mouth should be too! Haha, I did stick him the other night, still right around 14.1. GROWWWW!!! I swear the stud must have been a shetland pony. -_- *sigh* But at least he is a pretty 14.1. I keep telling my husband he is destined to be our little girls jumping pony, ;).

Ta ta!

Tuffs First Saddling/Bridling

2010-03-29T14:31:00.010-05:00

Tuff says "um, what did you put in my mouth,
and why is it still there??"

Here it is! The promised post! Sorry it took so long to come about!

So anywho, last Wednesday we had a gorgeous day! High 60's, low 70's. When I got home I left the husband mowing the lawn and packed up my saddle and bridle.

I was hoping the horses would be up at the house eating hay, but of course they were out in the pasture eating grass! So the two dogs and I traipsed out there. I was calling them the whole way and once I heard Tuff call back, but no sign of them. So I finally hit the back lane and saw all of them clustered at the top of the hill. Then they all came running down the hill, eep! I still worry about Missie (my mini schnauzer 5/6 month puppy) around the horses (not to mention my unborn baby!) so I yelled WOAH and put my hands up. That got them all to stop in front of me. Scarlet and Stormy were up front of course, but Tuff was right next to Stormy a little back from Scarlet, so I called to him hopefully and he actually stepped right up and I got him hooked! Phew, did NOT want to get into the middle of them in that lane.

So I walked back with him, Stormy and Skip following, and Scarlet was my little pest the whole way on my other side or right next to him. I think she didn't believe that I had not hid grain from her in the bucket of brushes I had, lol. "What? I just know your holding out on me!" -->

We made it back to the gate without incident. (Missie ran on ahead, she is pretty determined about not getting near the horses. I'm glad, harder to get stepped on that way!) The gate was a little hairy, with Scarlet wanting to escape with Tuff, but thankfully he knows the drill at gates and I was able to keep her in. Phew!

We walked to the round pen and parked just inside by the gate. The older BIL had come out and was my helper the rest of the afternoon, which was super of him! I so much appreciated it.

So first we tracked down the lunge line and whip and then I brushed him for a bit. He is starting to lose hair and it had been awhile since he'd been brushed, so that took a good 30 minutes I bet, lol. His mane was a mess. But finally I got that straightened out and clipped the lunge line on.

I sent him out on the lunge, just acting like it was something we do every day. The first time I had him in there I walked him around myself a few times on the perimeter, just to give him a chance to acclimate. But I didn’t think it necessary that day. He was a little lookey, but not terrible, and we just did some walk/trot for a bit. He was better about the pulling this time, probably because he wasn’t as giraffe necky trying to pay attention to everything but me!

So I decided the footing was well enough to do a little cantering, it was a little loose, but only muddy in a few spots. I tried to keep him out of the worst. He has only cantered on the lunge once two summers ago and I’ve been wanting to get him comfortable doing it for awhile.

So anyway, he did pretty well! He transitioned up to it very easily, like he had been doing it forever. I used the standard kiss and "canter" in a higher tone cues. He dropped back to it pretty quick once he hit the corner and then rocketed away again after he got into it. I think some of his playing up etc was him trying to stay on his feet/get his balance. Anway, I was pretty happy with him! You’ll see all this in the video I’ve got below the BIL was nice enough to take.

So after the first canter (actually I think he was galloping, lol) he was pretty up, so I did some trotting with him a bit, then some walking, etc. We did a few more transitions that way and then reversed. This way he got a little cheeky and bucked up a bit and kicked out which I growled at him about and the last transition up and down was very nice. Quiet and easy. So its something we just need to work on a bit and I’m sure it will be ho-hum in no time.

Question! When I was editing my video, I started looking at his legs…they look…funny. Like, he isn’t cantering, so I thought…is he galloping? At times when I slowed the video waay down I can see a distinctive 1,2,3,4 footfall sequence. But then I’m like, is he really going fast enough to be galloping?? Is he cross-firing in the back maybe? Or what? The hind legs are what look wonky. I don’t know enough about footfalls to be sure. So yall more experienced eyes let me know what you think!

So after we were calm and doing well on the lunge (every woah he did was excellent by the way, yeah!) I gathered him in and we went over by the gate again and the BIL got my saddle and bridle out of the car for me. I had tried to find my bareback pad earlier, but with no luck. I’d planned on using the girth off of it for the saddle, since Daisy’s is way too long for him. Boo, well I still wanted to get him used to it being on and off his back. I sat it on the panel in front of him for a few minutes while I swapped the lunge for his lead rope and he sniffed it a few times, ladee da. Then lifted it off, let him see it, then just plopped it on his back. And he did SUPER. No problems at all. On and off a few times, wiggle wiggle. Baby stuff for him, apparently.

So then I decided well, what the heck lets just waltz around. I of course was sure to admonish him before we started to NOT, under any circumstances, dump my pretty saddle that was given to me in the dirt!! (thanks again Becca! ;) If I thought he was going to be a problem though, I wouldn't have done it. But I've had stuff on and off his back since he was 6 months old with no difficulty at all.

Here he is looking so cute and grown up:

So I didn't do that but maybe one or two rounds and then had the BIL grab Daisys bridle from the car. (Did I mention he was a good helper??) I was pretty sure it would be much too big for him so I shortened it up and then looked at it and thought, okay too much. So I let it out to one smaller then Daisys normal setting after I held it up to his face. I definitely would rather have it hanging in his mouth then choking him! Well turns out that was about right! I always knew Daisy had a cute little head ;).

So he did well when I put it in his mouth, I was just patient with him and let him figure out what I wanted. It took a little bit for him to decide he wanted to open his teeth but after that no probs slipping his ear in the bridle, etc. I love having a horse that will keep their head low and calmly take a bit, so I am very careful to be slow and easy with him. Who loves bridling a horse with his head in the air like a giraffe?? Not I!

Well of course all he did after that was chew chew chew on it. You'll see at the end of the video how he is concentrating so hard he isn't picking his feet up high enough, lol. But he was calm and pretty okay with it all, so I was happy. I took it off and put it back on again, being careful to not bang his teeth, etc. and he did awesome. He even stopped chewing for a second! I took it off real quick when he did that, lol.

So here is the video!

So all in all a good session with Tuff Tuff! We do need more lunging work (kicking out and playing up are not to be the norm) and only time will get him doing well with a bit. I'm still so happy to see that he is okay with leaving his buddies and not being able to see them, and not being distracted by that at all. I will try to remember to measure his height next time, I'm curious. I'm hoping we are real close to 14.3! But not holding my breath...lol ;).

I ordered him a full-cheek off ebay, maybe I'll get it this week. I'm afraid it will be too small...I forgot to measure his mouth when I was out there! But it was only .99! (well, $8 of shipping, lol) So I jumped on it. We'll see. Like I keep telling my husband, you can NEVER have too many bits. Its impossible. ;) He doesn't believe me.

Well, until later! Have a great week everyone!

Some Pictures...

2010-03-24T11:20:00.012-05:00

Hey everyone! Still alive and kicking! (and being kicked! No, not by the horses, my little cowgirl! Yup, we're having a girl!)

It is starting to get nice around here!! Supposed to be 70's today. Though we still have those 60 days. But I think we are about done with the freezing weather, maybe one more shot! But hopefully not.

Nothing to post as of yet...just thought I'd share some pictures from the other day. On one of my days where I go into work later, I took the dogs out for a walk, and myself of course, to the in laws and then on out to the horse pasture. There they all are on the far side looking at us and the two puppies. They all seem to be pretty good buddies! Yeah, Scarlet is in with the other three, I think the FIL was afraid she'd get beat up on in the other pasture, plus she is able to come up to the house in this pasture to be fed, messed with, etc.

So without further ado!

The 'girls' coming to check us out, you can see Tuff is real concerned, lol

Stormy girl!

I love this pic, they were staring at the dogs, too cute. They seem to get along well

Next Post! Tuff wearing his first saddle and bridle!

Another New Addition!

2010-02-22T12:00:00.011-06:00

Hi guys! Hope all is well with everyone! All is going good here, still in a holding pattern waiting for the warm/drier weather! I had a bit of interaction with Tuff Saturday. He was out dozing in the lovely sun and I gave him a brush down and leaned over his back a bit. He's a good boy :). I saw Daisy from a distance as we went for a walk through her pasture Sunday, she was too busy eating grass for visiting ;). Doesn't look like she will be the pony ride horse this Sunday like I thought. Another lady that goes to our church is bringing 3-4 of her horses so I thought it unnecessary.

Anywho, on to the subject of my title!

Her name is Scarlet (tentatively; its in her registered name, but that doesn't mean thats what they will name her!) I forgot her registered name, but she has a lot of old foundation blood way on back there. Doc Bar, King, Leo, etc. She is to be the father in laws riding horse.

She is a March '02 model, so almost 8, right? And about 15 hands is my guess. And probably a couple hundred pounds underweight. She was a freebie and also a rescue, I guess you could say. Her owner had a stroke or something of that kind and is not able to get out and care for the horses anymore. So they sit in their stalls in huge piles of manure all day. They don't have any pasture. Thats so ridiculous to make a horse life like that. They also have feet that look like this and worse:
Anywho, when he first walked her up to the house (the people that owned her are only about a mile down the road so he walked her home) I looked at her and went, ick. She looks like a TB racehorse just off the track. All scrawny and drawn up. She had her head up and her neck looked short. Her mane and tail are all scraggly and pulled out, and she needs a hoof trim and bath in the worst way. I have to say I was expecting something different from what I had heard him saying about her. Supposedly the guy liked to cut, and so I figured I'd see a stocky, thick QH sort of along the lines of my Daisy girl, but shorter. Hm, not so much! But, after a few months on pasture and some good nutrition I think I will definitely have to reevaluate her.

So he took her up to his house so all the folkes there could look at her and they brushed her down some. She was pretty antsy, watching the boys and Stormy (they were talking to her, lol, although we never heard her make any noises) and wanting to go visit. He took her to the round pen and let her loose and worked her a bit in there. He's worked her before when he went over to their house to help with the horses after the man had his stroke. She did really well. Listens to his body language well and even walked up to him on command after he was done. Here's a video of a bit of that.

So, as you can see her feet are making it impossible for her to move naturally. But she seems to genuinely want to be be around people. She would come up to us at the side of the pen and just hang out there, rather then be away from us. Her eye just has something in it that says, "love me, please?" So we will see! I'm betting she will get put out with Rusty and Daisy, I hope they get along well. There's already 3 horses in the other little 'herd', although that herd would probably be more welcoming. I have a feeling the other two are going to run her around quite a bit.

She is supposedly saddle-broke and labeled as 'cold-backed'. But the FIL thinks its because someone cowboyed her and didn't take the time to train her right. So we'll see how she does with quiet, understanding training. The only think I'm worried about is the FIL being too big for her. She is more of a 'lady sized' horse to me, not a 200+lb man size. I don't think its real wise...but what can you do? Maybe she will fill out with good care... :/

Here are a few shots I took of her:

I think she was happy to be out of her stall in the pretty weather! This was
her darting away from the fence back towards us

Her head is her best feature. It is adorable! Sadly I missed her cute little ears, they are also adorable (the sun was so bright on my camera screen I was guessing at most of my shots!)

Relaxing...ugh those feet! No white at all on her
except for a little bitty star on her forehead. Sigh, bays are so boring!

I think they are both smitten ;)

So not much more to say! I will keep you all updated of course.

In case anyone is wondering, my pregnancy is progressing well! I am in my 17th week now (just over 4 months) and we have a big event this Friday! Ultrasound day! So hopefully we will be finding out if we are having a little cowgirl or a little cowboy! We are both leaning towards boy, but will be estatic with a girl as well of course. I'm mainly praying that the ultrasound will show us that everything is looking great and just as it should be with my little guy/gal. I should start feeling little kicks and punches any day now! So excited.

Have a great week everyone! (and say a prayer for in2paints mare Lilly, she has a ultrasound this week as well on an injury, we want to hear about good results!)

Daisy And Pony Rides

2010-02-05T11:49:00.005-06:00

Daisy at Old Fashion Day ‘06

Well I figured it had been too long since I’ve posted, so decided to update yall on something that is going to happen at the end of the month.

A few weeks ago I was approached at church by our AWANA director. He said they are having a Western Days on the Sunday at the end of the month (28th) and heard we had some horses! They are wanting to get a few out there to do pony rides as part of the festivities. Sounded fun to me! I told him I only had one horse that would be suitable and he said he was trying to get another lady to bring at least one as well. There isn’t a lot of kids, so it shouldn’t be a problem if it is just Daisy as long as they do it in small groups. It won’t be near what it was the last time she was up at the church!

The year I bought her we had Old Fashion Day at our church and we were recruited to bring a horse for pony rides then as well. I think we went in circles for hours! Daisy did so good though! And this was not long after I bought her where she had been sitting in the field for who knows how long.

Here are a few pics from then! I didn’t get any of her actually doing the rides, I was a tad busy, lol, but here are a few afterwards. It was HOT as you can tell. Ignore the hack job I did on pulling her mane, ewwy. That dark spot is gone now, that was where the stud they put in her pasture chewed out a chunk and it grew back.

Daisy getting hand fed hay from her net, lol, by the little ‘uns

A handsome mule team that also came, check out them comfy seats! lol

Family portrait! As you can see Daisys only concern was her hay ;)

So anywho! Its going to be cold this time rather then hot, boo, and I’m going to be over four months pregnant, lol. Lee might be the one leading this time as WELL as lifting all them chunky kids into the saddle. (He loved that last time, I’m sure you know) This is when he probably wishes she were 14 hands instead of over 15, haha. Although I think I will bring some sort of mounting block this time. The kids are youngish up to 5th graders. I’m sure a lot of the older kids could get themselves up there with the stirrup but Id rather not have them trying. Lots of saddle torqueing and belly/butt kicking would be involved naturally. I’ll try to spare Daisy that, ;).

The older BIL is going to get out and ride Daisy a bit for me in the weeks ahead, although I’m not really worried about it. As long as she gets rode 1-2 times the week of I’m sure all will be a-otay. I’ve got to wrangle up a horse trailer, but I’m pretty sure I know where to get one easily. Thankfully Daisy is a piece of cake to load.

Anywho, its been either bitterly cold or rainy for weeks, so no horsey goings ons. Its a mess out. Boo rain! I visit them every so often, they both look great. They are both just on pasture and hay, no grain. I’m glad this isn’t the winter that Daisy starts going down hill. She will be 20 this spring!

Ta ta for now!

BIG News!

2010-01-15T16:35:00.007-06:00

First off! Sorry, but its not horse-related!

But it really IS big news! Something I've been wanting to share with yall for a long time now! But I wanted to wait for the big confirmation, and we got it yesterday!

I'm pregnant!

:D

Yup! No joke! Although when I saw those 2 lines the first time I thought it was a joke! Lol! Anyway, I'm due July 31st. Summer baby! Yesterday we had our first ultrasound and saw the baby bouncing about all over the place! It was SO NEAT.

The husband and I are super excited! We weren't really trying to get pregnant, but we are so happy we are. I'm almost 12 weeks now, so almost into my 2nd trimester. The fun one!

Part of the reason horse activity has been so low lately is yes, its winter, but also because I've either been:
1. Sick/Nauseated
2. Exhausted!
3. Hungry (you might laugh, but that is a serious one, lol)
4. The husband wasn't home, and I feel like I need supervision now when I work with the horses, kinda silly right? I guess my maternal protective instincts are already popping out.

I probably won't be doing much, if any, riding. I just don't want to take the risk. I know a lot of pregnant women ride up till a month or so before, but not me. I trust my girl, but she is still an animal with a mind of her own! I'm sure I will probably not be able to keep off her the whole time, though! Especially when the weather starts getting perfect! But I definitely will be limiting it. And no more jumping for awhile. :sniff sniff: Daisy is getting a bit old/arthritic anyway! ;)

So anyway, sorry for the lack of posts lately, and sorry in advance for the probable continuation of lack of posts! Whew, that was a lovely sentence. But I will do my best!

Just an FYI, if you want to know all the gory details I am documenting my life (which is mainly revolving around my pregnancy/baby now) on my other blog His Goofy Woman, for anyone interested!

Until later!

P.S. Still working on the Tuff Undersaddle project, waiting on a pretty day and TIME!

Tuff Gets Worked!

2010-01-02T11:40:00.005-06:00

First off, Happy New Year everyone! I for one am happy to see 2009 go! And looking forward to a great (and totally different) new year.

So Tuff finally made it into the new round pen! Which isn’t so ‘new’ anymore, lol. But it was to him! I got out of ‘jail’ early yesterday (yes, had to work on new years, yipee) and knew I had about an hour or so of daylight so I rushed into the house put all my warmest clothes on and grabbed my trusty, rusty steed (bike, lol) and got out there. I met the husband on the way out (yes, HE was off, sucker) and we headed out together.

The little bro in law has been training them to come up to the sound of a whistle. So he whipped that out and about 3 or4 minutes later here them came sashaying up the lane. Yeah! That definitely saves time (and effort, lol).

I was a little shocked when I got a good look at Tuff. He is a wooly beast (that didn’t shock me) and he WHITE! He’s lightened even more. He is also a good few inches taller. We may have made 14 hands finally! ;) He is bigger all around, hooves and all. His neck needs to catch up though. Which all the fuzzy hair doesn’t help it look longer either! I noticed I can’t lean over his back on my stomach anymore! I’ll have to bring me something to step on now to put weight on his back. ('I’m 5’7 by the way in case anyone is wanting to compare) I’m glad to see he is keeping his perty head his momma gave him!

So I took him straight out to the round pen. He was very alert! It was cold and a little breezy and he was checking it all out! We walked into the round pen and I led him around the perimeter a few rounds both ways to get him acclimated. He was pretty good, but like I said, very aware of everything! No spooks or yee haw moments though.

Once I let him out on the lead rope a bit to lunge he was looking all over and then walking with his nose on the ground on one half of the circle. It was pretty funny. I guess he was smelling all the other horses that had been in there. Everyone but his mama.

So after he showed me he wasn’t going to be a wild thing I took him to the side where our audience was (both BILs and the husband) and we swapped for the lunge line and got the whip. I rubbed him with that a few times (he’s only seen it once last summer) and off we went! I did a lot of transitions from walk to trot and vice versa since he was so interested in everything but me most of the time. As is demonstrated to the right, lol.

He did good though. Was quite responsive to my cues of walk, trot, woah, etc. I was pleased. He hasn’t been lunged in a good while. He does need some work on pulling though. He was making my arm sore with how hard he was leaning on the line. Ugh! Definitely need to work on that. It has never really been a problem lunging in the open though, strangely.

I called the husband over after a bit and he came in and lunged him as well. He did good! It was funny because Tuff kept looking at him with his ears pricked like “your not the one that usually does this!” lol, it was pretty cute.

By then it was pretty darn dark so we called it quits! I had Lee hold him for me while I picked his hooves up, then we took turns leaning on his back (which I was able to do because he was resting his foot) He wasn’t too sure about Lees weight on him, but we did it a few times until he settled then the husband lead him back to the pasture. After he let him go he started looking around like, hey, where did my peeps go?? They had apparently ditched him! So he looked a bit more then he did this funny half rear thing and bounced around a bit and took off up the lane after them. Silly boy.

Well thats all for now, till later!

Next Post: Tuff Undersaddle!

Rusty & Skips Day

2009-12-02T15:33:00.010-06:00

Hey guys! Look, HORSES on my horse blog! Lol, sorry its been so long since I've had a good update! Although, this is still not a post about the main horses this blog is about. Oh well! I was planning on playing with both my horses Sunday and of course it decided to start raining –_-.

Anyway! I haven't had a post specifically about either one of these horses yet! Rusty is of course the bro in laws gelding. And Skip is my sis in laws 2 year old gelding. I thought about getting my two out with them, but then I felt like I should step back and let them use it first, seeing as it is theirs. Plus it was getting dark FAST. I didn’t want to rush either one of them. Next time is my turn though, baby!

So first up was Rusty. Isn’t he pretty?? The FIL had decided he was getting on him that day. EEP! Thats what we all were thinking! I mean, Rusty is so unpredictable. He can be good, and then all of a sudden your hand moving in a different way can cause him to jump like he is going to die.

So they have had him out there at the round pen to lunge two times now. This time they lunged him again, then brought out the saddle. Tacked him up and then a few more times around the pen, and then time to mount up!

He did well! Didn’t even move off while getting mounted, and the FIL isn’t as spry as he used to be, so it took him a minute to get on, lol. He walked on out when asked, trotted when asked, and was overall a very good boy. I was impressed! They ride him in a tom thumb, which I don’t like, and he seems to be very touchy with it when turning/backing. He makes sharp movements. It could be that the FIL is a little heavy handed, or a problem with his teeth, or something else. Not sure.

Anywho, great first ride in two years!

So after that the BIL (who was feeling too icky to ride that day) took him back to his pasture. By then the SIL had come home and she wanted to get Skip out. So she brought him over and the FIL lunged him for a bit and then she came in. She has never lunged a horse before so the FIL stayed in there to help her a bit (although I think he could have explained a few things better, like DONT LET YOUR LINE DRAG, lol)

So as far as I know this was Skips first time in the round pen. He’s never been a real fan of lunging, or moving about in a energetic manner, lol. At first he tried a few ducks and dodges and stalls, but pretty soon he gave up and trotted around like a good boy. Rusty’s saddle was still out there so they decided to put it on him. Kristy said something about how “saddles don’t bother him” so I’m guessing he has had one on at some point?? I didn’t ask. He acted liked he had at least, didn’t move around etc. He looked a little worried at first but when she put him back out on the line he was perfectly fine with it. Darn, no bucking fits to video. ;)

By this time it was getting pretty dark, as you will see in the video. My camera kept trying to refocus. So they lunged him at walk trot and canter with the saddle and that was it!

Here is the video. I warn you its long and pretty boring, lol. I trimmed as much as I could! I should have made a seperate video for each of them. Oh well!

Rusty & Skip from Britnieann on Vimeo.

So I was disappointed I didn’t get to work with either of my two, and didn’t even get to ride Rusty! (no one offered and I didn’t ask, I figure the BIL will want to get on him before I do) But! Tomorrow is another day. So stay tuned! Just gotta find that tomorrow that doesn’t have dark descending at 5:00, which is only 30 minutes after I get home!

Have a lovely rest of the week all!

True Love In Boot Form

2009-11-27T11:26:00.009-06:00

I can't....stop....looking....at....these.

I NEED THEM!!

Okay, I don't NEED them...well I sort of do since I don't have any riding/cowboy boots...so yeah, I NEED THEM!! ;)

All the hints are out for Christmas, so maybe I will score! I have never seen a pair that I like as much as these. Just beautiful! And they are so functional for riding.

Here's the link: Ariat Womens Legend Riding Boots

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! Now get your Christmas shopping done before the last minute! Don't be like me!!

This Face

2009-11-12T17:28:00.008-06:00

Okay, sorry I have been so lacking in posts lately! No excuses! Okay, one, or maybe two. One; its been RAINING NON STOP. Finally the last week or two it has cleared up. So anyway, muddy, icky, slippery round pen = not good for horsies.

Also, another reason would be this face:

Ohmygosh, have you seen anything cuter?? Well, you probably have, but she is pretty darn cute, I do have to say! Her name is Missie and she is MINE! :D So now we have 2 mini schnauzers and someday will get some puppies out of those two, hopefully! But right now I'm just having so much fun having a dog of my own. Thats never happened before. I've had cats, horses of course, hamsters, fish...never a dog of my own. I am loving it. But she is also a 24/7 job! Gosh. Out of your sight for a second and something has been peed on or pooed on or chewed up. Phew. But I am loving it. Like I already said of course...

I took her out to see a horse for the first time today, she was a bit overwhelmed, although Tuff was trying to eat her...sorta. ;)

Anywho, maybe I will get some horsin around done this weekend. I hope so!

On another note, Daisy fell into a sink hole in her pasture. Yeah. No joke. I guess that big butt of hers was a detrement this time. The ground just couldn't hold that glorious thing up. Lol, just kidding, well sorta. Mostly its because it has RAINED SO MUCH. She is fine, was just a bit muddy. None of us really know how she got out by herself. It was so slippery and deep. Which it did take her a while I think since there were two piles of poo down there, poor girl! Lol, sorry its not funny, but it is!

Anyway, hope all is well with everyone else! Everyone say a prayer for Beccas girl Lilly, shes got a tendon injury (more specifically a DDFT Lesion, yeah, what she said) Here's hoping it will be healed completely soon and have them out there kicking butt at the shows again!

Ta ta!

Stormy In The Spotlight

2009-10-21T10:24:00.009-05:00

At certain angles she has such a pretty, feminine face

Okay, first of all I'm kinda ticked at blogger. Apparently my posts have not been being published when I tell them to be. -_- I had one from a few days ago that never showed up, so I went and REpublished it and now it is finally showing up in my list. So annoying. Anyway! Yesterday afternoon I pulled into the drive and saw the little BIL getting his horse out of the pasture (they are in the front one by the road right now). I was like oh! Horsey goings ons! Of course one of my favorite goings ons there is! So I stopped and he said he was going to go lunge her, so I asked him if his dad was helping (the only one at the house with a good bit of horse experience) and he said he 'reckoned'. So I hurried home and changed out of my work clothes, grabbed my camera and waved at the husband as I went back out, lol. He had just got to the round pen basically by the time I was dragging my bike off the porch.

She was pretty nervous for about 15-20 minutes. Trotting around pretty quickly, neighing and calling when she heard her 'beaus' calling for her (they were a bit upset at her departure!). The round pen is about half a mile? from the pasture she was in. Maybe less. She did good though! She settled in and was listening pretty well. Of course the little BIL is a newbie to horses anyway, so they did good for both being green!

He lunged her for quite a while, took him a bit of work to get her to lope, he hasn't figured out how to use the whip and control her at the same time real well yet, lol. Then they got the saddle out and put that on her. You could see she was a little iffy about that at first, but within seconds she was fine with it. The FIL decided to lunge her around a bit (after a comment from me) with it before the BIL mounted up. She was pretty unconcerned.

So without further ado he mounted up! She stood very well for that and all the stirrup fiddling. When they first walked off she had a few issues with wanting to turn and go her own way, or trying to back up. But the BIL did very well with correctly her quickly but gently, and that was all the trouble they had! She seems to have a good mind on her. Thank goodness!

The round pen is GREAT. Its a good size and was very helpful for something like this. We have no idea how many rides this filly has on her, and they have only rode her once since we bought her. So its nice to have a round pen to keep things controlled!

After he walked her around a bit he decided to try trotting her, something they had not done before. She did super! Did not take much urging at all and off she went! She quit on him pretty quick, but it didn't take him much to get her going again. Super job.

I wanted to ride but we had plans that evening, so it will have to wait! I left soon after that to get ready, but I heard later that the older BIL and then the FIL also rode her, and she did just as well. Good girl!

So that is about it! A good showing for Stormy, and a great start to our round pen usage, ;). Can't wait to get my horses in there!

Here is a video I put together of all that went on!

Thanks for reading, have a good weekend all!

BEHOLD!

2009-10-20T12:54:00.004-05:00

The Round Pen.

:sounds of awe:

Two Videos!

2009-10-16T14:54:00.006-05:00

Hey guys! Sorry its taken me so long to get these up. But here they are now!

First one, Tuff Ground Driving

And Tuff being a good boy for the farrier (who likes to talk way too much)

There you have it! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Becca, how did your show go at the fair??

Farrier Part Trois! Good or Bad?

2009-10-13T19:29:00.011-05:00

Drum roll puhlease!! Was Tuff the monster and major PIA that the guys all said he was last time?? Or was he the angel we ALL know he is?? ;)

Well he was an angel of course!

So last night I had a dream that had me waking up pretty happy. I dreamed the farrier came out and he did so great and everyone was complimenting me on him. Now, usually I would have had an anxiety dream with him being a total terror. But thankfully that wasn't so!

I was not too happy when I got to the driveway though and saw the farrier already out there doing Stormy. I was like crud! He was at least 10 minutes early! I had wanted to be out there to brush him down and work him a little. So I rushed home got my nice work clothes swapped with my comfy ones and tried to get my camaro to get out of the mud where I park it (the rain is endless here!!). It wouldn't come out! So I flew out of it and into the truck, yelling at my husband to hurry who by then was coming from his parents. I got out there and walked up to Tuff and saw he had a huge brier in his tail, so I reached back to get it out and he starts walking off. -_- I reach for his halter and he walks faster until he is basically running from me, but I got the sucker! Hehehheh. So got the brier out and held on to him until Stormy was done (who did well for her first set of shoes! We weren't sure how she would react, haven't had the farrier out since we bought her, although I heard she did roll the farrier across the ground a few times, haha, apparently her shoe hooked his chaps).

Then it was his turn! He did pretty good with his first front, he tried to pull away once but I held him, and then called in the husband for back up. (he's stronger them me of course!) So I handed him the lead and took pictures. After that he did pretty good! No trouble with the backs of course, and his other front he thought about pulling back a few times but didn't. (I got that leg on video but can't upload it until tomorrow when I get to work) So all our work has paid off!

I bet it didn't take 5 minutes. And after that I was like wow, what an anti climax! Which is totally fine with me. Of course he needs to be a good boy another half a dozen times at least before it is likely that he won't be a problem. But this was a good sign! I joked with the guys before I left, how I still didn't believe he was such a pain last time. ;)

So after that we headed to the house to get the checkbook and a halter for Daisy while the BIL and FIL went on out to the other pasture to round up Rusty and Daisy. We did Daisy first, she was a star as usual. Although she did think my fingers were carrots a few too many times for my comfort, lol. I brought some out for Tuff to distract him and he didn't even want it! Neither did Stormy or Skip! Weirdos! Okay, yeah, they were a little frozen and really old, but still! I knew Daisy would eat them, of course she did. And Rusty even liked them. So those youngsters need to stop being so picky! Lol.

Rusty was next, he gave a little trouble with his fronts, pulling back until the farrier lets go, thats his usual stunt. But he wasn't bad. At one point he picked up the farriers rasp from his little roll around cart and held on to it by the handle! It was so funny, the farrier tried to get it back and he wouldn't let go! He is super silly. Lots of personality. And goofiness!

So thats about all! Sorry I still haven't gotten the ground driving video up yet. Stupid vimeo took all day to get to 84% just to tell me that there was an error and it couldn't finish. GRRR! So I'll try again tomorrow! (I got it down from over 10 of uncut video to 5 minutes, yay me! lol)

Have a good night/morning all!

Ground Driving Part Trois

2009-10-12T15:03:00.010-05:00

Or part three in case you aren't up on your french, lol. (believe me I am not, had to google that one!)

So first off, Tuff hasn't been ground drove since March of this year, and if you all remember (post here: A Tough Tuff Day) it didn't go as well as I would have liked! Although in his defense, it was only his second time.

So Saturday morning I drug my surcingle and lines out to the pasture with me. I had a little bit before we had to go get hay and wanted to get out there and work with him. (D-day is tomorrow!! Farrier part trois as well)

He did SO good. I was very proud. First of all I lunged him around a bit, just to make sure he was listening and acknowledging who was in charge, and that would be moi. Gosh, what is it with the french words today?? So sorry. By then the little BIL had showed up on his four-wheeler. I was thinking, oh good! Then if I need help for any reason I have an extra set of hands. I thought about having him stand at Tuffs head to begin with and then gradually go off, but I have never done that with him, and he's always been pretty good. I also didn't want Tuff watching/listening to the BIL and not me...sooo, I just had him stand close in case I needed him. And then I asked him to video for me, thats why its on the ground at first, and then up, lol.

Turns out I didn't need him! That little grey fuzzy butt went out there and waltzed around like he had done it thirty times instead of three.

Of course he wasn't perfect. We still need to work on:

Stopping on cue better
Backing up better
Not moving forward after backing
Turns could be better
A little 'pluggy'

Now for things he did good!

Walking off on cue, very well!
Yielding to the halter fairly well most times
'Parking' nicely most times
Staying steady, not speeding up
Staying calm and unconcerned
I saw him licking and chewing a few times, very good!
Totally unconcerned with the surcingle, only his second time in it!
Also very unconcerned about the long lines

So all in all a very good lesson. I have never tried backing him on the lines before, so that was a first. He did pretty good! Except for always wanting to step forward again right afterward. I'm not sure what that was about! You'll see it in the video. Next time we might try a bit of trotting! We'll see!

I worked him in the halter that day mostly because I forgot my bitless bridle. He had no problem in it. The first few turns were a little sticky but after that he went pretty well! I'm halfway thinking of measuring his mouth and getting him a full-cheek. See what he thinks. He still has such a small mouth though, that it will have to replaced sooner or later when he gets bigger...

So we practiced the farrier routine a few times after that. He did pull away from the BIL once -_- I just told him to quickly pick it up again and he tried a few more times but didn't get away and he quit. I wanted the BIL to do it because he is bigger, more like what the farrier will be, and I knew it would be harder for him to keep his balance. Thats why he pulls away, he thinks he is falling and has to get his balance. So after that he was good, and did well when I did the rounds.

I'm gonna try to get out there again today one last time before tomorrow. Not sure if I'll make it, depends on what is going on. It is my birthday today, so not sure what they might have planned. :)

Backing...

I will try to get the video uploaded tomorrow and posted. Its LONG, I think I need to go through and cut it again, lol.

Have a great week everyone!

Heartland

2009-10-06T12:07:00.002-05:00

Okay, the first episode of the new season just started Sunday, so I thought, hey, I need to let my horsie readers know about this GREAT show.

Most of you probably haven't heard of it, and its no wonder. This tv show is actually filmed and shown only in Canada. But thanks to youtube and torrents (utorrent.com) anyone in the world that has access to the web can watch!

It is based (very loosely I might add) on the book series for young adults by Lauren Brooke that began in 2001 and has 25 books and some 5 special editions, named Heartland.

I read the books when they came out and when I heard about them filming a tv series I was super excited! And then super dissapointed when I found out I wouldn't be getting them on my tv. Some of you lucky people that have the CBC channel on their satellite can watch it!

Anyway, here is a link to the first season on youtube, check it out! Its addicting, my husband (not so horsey) even loves it! As do my in laws, and my mom and niece...etc. The scenery is beautiful, and its CLEAN. No sex, drugs, smoking, cussing, etc. Thank God! There are SO FEW programs out there like this.

I admit some of the horse stuff is cheesy, but its better then a lot of things I've watched!

Heartland Season One

And here is the first part of Episode 1:

There ya go! Enjoy!

All I Need Is A Tuff Pick-Me-Up

2009-10-02T11:54:00.005-05:00

Well yesterday started out fine, was going good...and then I found out my violin was stolen. :( In case yall don't know I've played for about 15 years, I taught for about 7. It's a big part of my life. And its gone now. I don't even want to think about it. I'm going to trust God with it...(it was stolen out of my car behind work) Here's me playin a while ago...

So I got home feeling pretty crappy. I was like, okay, I need to see my horse. I'm sure you all can relate!

I got my shoes changed and grabbed my camera and a light coat (its getting cool at night!) and hopped on my bike. I left it at the end of the lane that opens into their pasture and walked down the hill. I was hoping they would be close, but there I saw hide nor hair of them. *sigh* So I started calling "Tufffff, TUUFFFFFF" and rattling the bucket I had picked up with brushes, lead rope etc in it. I wasn't real optimistic, but I figured I would try. And then lo and behold! Here he came!!

Let me tell you that is where my whole night turned around, folks. Such a sweet boy. So we walked around a bit doing the same sort of stuff as the day before. Pivots improved! Trotting off promptly did as well. Then I decided to lunge him a bit. Did some good trot circles. It was getting DARK though and all of a sudden Tuff flew off in the other direction spooking bad at something. I knew it had to be Lee, who had called a few minutes ago saying he was coming out. It was so dark I couldn't seem him but Tuff could!

Well he flew to the end of the lead rope (and drug me a bit, but I wasn't letting go yet!!) and I just held on and yelled WOAH at him and finally he stopped backing up and I reeled him in, lol. Right after he spooked he calmed down and that was it! I put him back out on the line and we resumed our lunging. Good boy.

Then I had Lee hold him while I played farrier again. He did very well and no pull backs with the hinds at all. He also wasn't slamming his fronts down when I put his hoof down either, which he does most times. Then Lee did the rounds and we let him go because it was DARK. But our eyes had adjusted pretty good and we got back to the house without any trouble.

So talked to the FIL last night about the round pen again. He says it needs to try out more before he can work it more. *SIGH* It rained again this morning a it, so hopefully it will dry out soon. I want to be using it!!

Bye for now!

The Object Is To Be A Good Boy

2009-10-01T14:12:00.008-05:00

So the brother in law said he was going to call the farrier out sometime this week the other day. And immediately I was like, uh oh, I better get out there and work with Tuff! I usually go out there about once a month to refresh him up a bit on all the things he knows, and have never had any troubles with him really. He remembers things pretty well I think.

But allegedly, yes, ALLEGEDLY, he was a major PIA last time the farrier was out. I had to work so I wasn't there. Ugh, I wish I had been there! Apparently they had to twitch him and STILL couldn't get him to behave. Lee said he was striking out with his front feet and everything. What the?! My ANGEL! No way! I still don't believe it. He has NEVER even half way acted that way before. Not even when he was a colt! Anyway! It apparently happened, though I have no idea why. If I had been there I might have figured it out and fixed it, I don't know. I definitely plan on being there this time!

So yesterday afternoon I drug Lee out there with me to play 'farrier', lol. Drug being the key word here -_-. So as we were walking down the lane to the pasture my lovely husband thought it would be amusing to find a stick and hit me on the butt and legs with it. Thanks a lot. So I was making quite a bit of racket trying to get him to stop. And then we heard rustling and out popped Tuff Tuff! Yeah! :) Thats him coming to see us in the top picture.

So I grabbed him and did a bit of walking and attempting to pivot, which he was doing terribly that day! And then trotting off and stopping promptly. And some setting up, which he is getting quite good at! (he should, I've been dong it with him since he was 5 months!) Then I held him while Lee picked up his feet a bit, but when I told him to put his front hoove between his knees he said no way! I'm not a farrier, so I had to get him to hold Tuff while I did it, picking up a rock and 'rasping' on it as well. Which he stood very well for.

Now his hind end was not so good. He kept trying to pull his leg back, not hard, but it was annoying. I growled at him a bit and smacked him on the butt a few times, no help. So I grabbed the lead rope from Lee and whipped his butt around in little circles both directions a few times and then gave him back to Lee and picked up his back leg again like nothing happened. He tried it a few more times but after the butt smack he decided it wasn't worth it to go through the circles again I guess! Because he stood very well. I went up and did his other front, then his back, and had no further issues! He stood like a good boy. Which IS the object, right Tuff Tuff?? ;)

Then I took the lead rope from hubby and told him it was his turn, lol. He did the rounds again while I took pictures (of course). We were out there for about 30 minutes I guess. This picture here is hilarious, have you see a horse blink with one eye before? Or maybe he is just winking at me, lol. Yeah, thats it.

So thats about it! Stormy and Skip of course were a little pesty. Wanting in the bucket and getting in the way. But we chased em off. It was funny, one time I was trotting Tuff towards them and they scattered like we were chasing them.

Skip has beefed out! I don't think I got a good picture of him, but he is CHUNKY and still short, haha. I think he will have another growth spurt soon though. Tuff is filling out a bit, but nothing like that. Thats okay though, I don't want a chunky monkey! Nicely muscled is good. I can still see a huge difference from a month ago to now though, check it out:

First of August

And yesterday the end of September

I know the first picture is a terrible angle, but still. I see a big difference in his overall body condition and he just looks more 'mature'. Looks like hes going to have no withers like his momma though, and a longish back. Forgive the terrible feet and mustang mane! Both are being remedied soon ;).

So good news! The round pen is all painted and ready, but the bad news is that its STILL not up. -_- The inlaws are a bit slow about things. Although it DID rain nonstop virtually all of September. The FIL is wanting to get the ground leveled out before we set it up. He has done some work on it, not sure how much he lacks. I'm SO READY to use it!

Things I Want To Do In The Round Pen With Tuff:

Lunge
Ground Drive
Free Lunge
Saddle Work
De-spooking Stuff (work with tarps, bags, etc)
RIDING (when his body decides to grow into an adult horse)

So I'm pretty excited! There are a lot of things its going to be soo useful for. Sure I can do these without one, but it makes it SO much easier and makes me a lot more comfortable.

I'll keep yall updated! I'll leave you with a few more pics!

Other side!

"Good boy"

Now does this look like a wild thing?

A neat tree in the lane

Tuff following us back

My New Favorite Picture

2009-09-30T17:53:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone! I don't have time to blog right now, but had to share this totally adorable picture of Tuff and I from this afternoon. (well, just ignore the dumb dumb on the right, actually) Is he not the cutest thing ever??? ;)

We did a mini training session with his daddy (aka my husband, and dont tell him I called him Tuffs daddy). Just mainly getting ready for the farrier who is coming hopefully at the end of the week.

Have a great night all!

Bitless Bridle Plug

2009-09-15T11:33:00.005-05:00

Daisy in her beta bitless bridle

So I stumbled across an article on a horse news website talking about an experiment with Dr. Cooks Bitless Bridle. Which most of you know is what I ride Daisy in when we go english. I really like the bridle, although I won't call it a miracle and have a spaz over it like some of the users do. Its a good tool, my horses have liked it, there you have it. It is still not legal in a lot of recognized show organizations. Though hopefully that will change someday.

A little background on the bridle first. I have used the bitless on 5 horses so far:

Cisco - I actually broke him out in this bridle. He never had a problem with it and did well in it. Although we have never tried him in a bit. He has been rode in a Noavel and a bosal also. I can't really say which he did better in at this point, it was so long ago. Right now he is rode in the Noavel. Can't say that contraption is my favorite, but it works for him okay.

Doll - My QH mare I owned as a teenager. She did really well in this. She was very unsettled and annoyed in a bit. I tried tons of them. She just never was happy with any of them. In the bitless I could get her to flex and stop her constant chewing.

Dixie - Out of all the bits and bosals and headstalls Dixie does best in the bitless bridle. She is very nervous and jittery under saddle, but not dangerous. In various bits she has thrown her head a lot, acted VERY annoyed, etc. She responds well to the bitless and it helps me to know I can get up in the reins and not be afraid of hurting her, since she is so sensitive.

Daisy - Of course you know I like the bitless for Daisy. She is another like my QH mare, chewy, unsettled. She doesn't misbehave, but also you can tell she is not comfy with a bit. With the bitless there is of course no chewing, she responds quietly and without annoyance (most of the time, sometimes you can tell she doesn't care for the noseband pressure).

Tuff - I haven't had anything but the bitless on him, besides a halter of course. And he does well in it. I have ground driven him a few times and he still is learning the woah, but turns quite well in the bitless. Overall I like his response with it.

So! I watched the entire thing, and I think it is pretty consistent that the bitless did make most of the horses happier. (the appaloosa obviously has other issues going on, and did the worst I think)

I do want to say I'm a little disappointed in the partiality. You can clearly see the judge (Mitzi Summers) was a bit more optimistic about the horses performance without the bit then she should have been. Not quite as objective as she could have been I think. But what can you say, lol.

The first horse was my favorite. CLEARLY he was much happier in the bitless! (super cute also)

Intro with Dr. Cook

Horse #1, Bitted

Horse #1, Bitless

Horse #2 Bitted & Bitless

Horse #3 Bitted

Horse #3 Bitless

Horse #4 Bitted & Bitless

Final Results & Questions Part 1

Final Results & Questions Part 2

So let me know what yall think! Hope all is well with everyone. Until later!

Jumping FOOLS We Are!

2009-09-03T15:06:00.020-05:00

Okay, I had like the funnest (ya, I know, not a word) time this morning!! I decided to go out and ride Ms. Daisy May since I had a little extra time before work and it is SO nice out right now! Plus I needed to check on her leg anyway. Originally I was planning on just put putting around bareback. But then I saw my beautiful english saddle sitting there (thanks again Becca!!! ;) ) and I thought...now that sounds like fun! Its been too long! So I was like, I'm not going to do any jumping or anything, just get out there and have some fun trotting around, etc.

Heh, yeah right.

Anyway, loaded my stuff up, left a pouting dog behind, and headed out there. I get there and Daisy and Rusty are not far down the fence from where I want to be, so I start calling them and shaking the bucket while I get my stuff out and over the gate. They start moseying on over so I give Daisy a piece of carrot and get her halter on and then bam, it hits me. I forgot her bridle. DANGITDANGITDANGIT!

So I have to take her halter off again, put all my stuff back over the fence and drive home again. Once I get back, TWO MINTUES later they are GONE. I'm like what the?! I was just here! So I start calling again while I set up the jump (you never know, I might want to pop it once or so....heh) and get my camera in position.

I'm done, but still no horsies. So I sigh and head off to the pond, knowing thats prolly where they are. Its a bit of a trek, through nasty sticky bushes and thorns, etc. So I finally grab her and head on back, getting my arm stuck STUCK in a thorn on the way out. That was not cool, I mean I saw my skin getting PULLED out away from my arm! So gross. Its just a scratch tho, thankfully Daisy stopped and backed with me so I could disentangle my SKIN. :shudder: Sorry, I'll get over it now.

<---sorry yall, I know I need to get some proper tall boots, but gosh, these are my favs and I only paid a few bucks for them at the thrift store! lol

Got the fat girl tacked up and on up I went! Side note, don't you love english girths! I know Daisy should be in the 3rd hole on each side and that is it! I really don't have to worry about it being too tight/loose now that I know thats a good place for it and its easy. Sighhh, okay, done.

So before this I was shooing Rusty away from my camera about ever couple minutes. After I got on, I had to do the same thing. Then, while I was occupied he knocked it off the bucket it was on. Great. So I had to get off and on again, geeze. Then while I was over pulling branches off the tree that were in my way, he somehow knocked it over AGAIN and this time chewed on my tripod so its screwed up. GRRR, at least he didn't hurt the camera, right? So off and on again. Also had to get off and on again after I dropped my whip when I was pulling branches off. -_- Lets just say my muscles are going to be loving that tonight!

So we walked about a bit, letting her get stretched out. I also started teaching her how to do a turn on the forehand. That was fun, lol, lets just say she had her tail going a mile a minute while I had my leg behind the girth trying to cue her. She was a bit confused! But she did do some good step overs and I quit, then a little later on did a bit more with it. Just easing her into it. I eventually want to be able to do some side passes, too fun! I'm following mugwumps advice on this.

Then we did some trot work, which was a little bumpy to begin with. She was REALLY bouncy for some reason! I was having a hard time keeping my butt in the saddle, and I'm usually a good trot sitter! I tried posting first to begin with but then quit to feel her trot better. I think she was pretty stiff, its been getting cooler in the mornings. So after a few rounds that smoothed out and we tried a figure eight. Well right as I sat 2 beats to change my diagonal she quit on me, so we tried again and that time was great! We did that a few times and she was a star. She was actually really moving out (for her) in her trot today. It is cooler out and it was morning, so that probably has a lot to do with her energy level.

So on to the really fun stuff! I saw the jump...it saw me...and off we went for it! Now, I was looking for a fight with Daisy like last time. Weave, wobble and stop. Then proceed to trip over it.
So instead of this:

I got THIS!
And this...
And this!

She was JUMPING yall, not just stepping! It was SHOCKING I tell you! Now it probably doesn't look that big/high or whatever to you people, but to me, it was like jumping 5 foot, lol! Our very first try at it I was SO not ready for her to launch herself like that! As you can see from my fetal position in the first picture, haha. I was like holy smokes! I think I was even prepared to hit the grass after that one, I remember thinking that in the back of my mind, and being totally okay with it, lol! You can hear me laughing in the video and going DAISYYY! But I was having oh so much stinkin fun.

A lot of it was her stopping and then LEAPING over it, lol. As we progressed she got better and was trotting over them instead of stopping and jumping from a standstill. Our last one was really good so I quit on that! But really no balking or quitting on me this time! Last time she needed LOTS of whip slapping and encouragement and was weaving all about trying to avoid it. This time she was keeping a good trot to it (and in fact was getting ill if I kept urging her as we went towards it, she was kinda like "I SEE it, okay, I'm GOING!") and staying pretty straight and locked on!

Oops, guess we should have backed up from the camera a bit more-->

I have to tell you too, this horse is a saint people. I mean, one look at the video and you will see why. She put up with a LOT of my crappy/weak riding! Gosh I wish I had legs of steel! Thats my biggest problem, I just don't have the muscle strength to keep myself where I should be. Oh and my lurvely roach back. :roll eyes: But I digress.

She was noticeably off a bit today. :( After watching the video I can see it is definitely her left hind, which I knew. I would think I'd know if she was in pain, so I don't think she is. That makes me feel better. I may start looking into an arthritis supplement... She was so willing today, that I just think its stiffness/age, not pain, you know? Who knows, she could have an old injury there that I have no idea about, that makes her stiff, etc. Hard when you own a horse in their later years and have no idea what went on before! But its probably just age.

Heres our video! Took me all day to edit it. We were going in and out of frame the whole time so I tried to cut it so yall wouldnt be watching the grass for long periods of time, lol. Try not to laugh too hard, though I know I did! (sorry about the gnats! gosh, no idea why they were so bad!)

So there ya go! Also, her wound looks GREAT. I think its closing up so that there will be little if any scar. Thank God!

Till later!

Daisy Wound Update

2009-08-20T15:14:00.014-05:00

So its been a week! Gosh, time flies!

It looks pretty good. I'm pretty happy with how it is healing. Sorry no pics, I keep forgetting to take one before I put medicine on it, doh.

So I've been out every day to put junk on it and then some swat. I hose it about every other day. The biggest trick is keeping the gnats out of it, ugh.

It still is a bit raised up above the actual wound...not sure if it will ever go back to normal. She might have a lump there for the rest of her life. Oh well, no biggie as long as it doesn't hinder her way of going, which I highly doubt. She is moving out just fine even now.

I gave her bute for about 3 days. Just a pill a day. She definitely enjoyed the carrots! :) But don't really see the need anymore.

So hopefully it will keep on progressing and get well quickly!

Yesterday I checked Tuff over too, his little cuts are just fine. The worst one, down by his coronet band, is all scabbed up and healing. I practiced picking up and holding his feet for awhile. Putting his fronts between my knees ect, and he did pretty good. I'm not much worried about his back, he's never had problems with those. He just finds it hard to balance on his front leg sometimes. Typical of a baby.

So, I really wish the BIL's four wheeler was running. Seriously, its getting old biking all the way out there every day!! But, it is good for me...I guess.... :grumble:

Here's some neat pics I took of Daisy and Rusty. I LOVE this one of Daisy, she has such a beautiful eye. And the sunset light is PERFECT.

And Rusty, showing his curious (and handsome) side perfectly here. He is SO NOSEY! ;) He would make someone a really nice horse if they wanted to work with him and embrace his quirks instead of be annoyed by them...so hard to find that someone though!

So thats it for now, ta ta!

Why Can't Horses Be Indestructible??

2009-08-13T09:00:00.001-05:00

Okay, it happened. Here I was congratulating myself the other day about how MY horse was not the one that got cut up, hahahhahaaaa. Sigh. I can't say that anymore!

This is what greeted me when I went out to see Daisy this afternoon, warning, its NASTY.

Icky Wound

Nice, huh?? So I'm thinking she did it either last night or early this morning. It wasn't bleeding when I saw it, but was really swollen. I patted around it a bit, and she didn't freak out, but you could tell it was sore. So I was like, okay, I have to get her to the house and hose this sucker down, get some stuff on it. But, only one problem. Four other horses were in my way. -_-

I had just come from messing with Tuff, who is in the pasture next to them. I had my bike and a bucket with brushes, etc in it. And Tuff, Skip and Stormy were between me and the house. I also had to keep Rusty from getting through the gate with us.

I COULD have gone the long way around, which is like a 5 minute walk at least, but I didn't want to put her through that. So I was like screw it, I gotta get to the house. (I had tried calling the in laws house for help twice and even left a message, no answer)

Well I put the bucket on down the fence-line a bit to make the other horses go check that out and got the gate open. Partly. Its only on there with ropes right now. Yeah, I know. So it has to be UNTIED and TIED and then it doesn't move right, so you have to pick it up and still I couldn't get it open enough for her to get safely through (plus my bike was RIGHT there in the way)

So I'm trying to get the gate open some more and Daisy starts trying to get through the little gap nearly running me over!! Thank God she listened to me and didn't smoosh me into the dirt. I thought something had got in her wound or something, horse fly ect. But it was just Rusty coming up on her butt and she did NOT want him there. (this is the mare in perpetual heat, remember -_-)

So I shooed him away, got the gate farther open, and then of course I have the 3 stooges on the other side all back up in my face. -_-'

So I start yelling and waving the lead rope at them, they back off, momentarily of course, but long enough to tie the fence up again. I was just happy Rusty didn't get through, what a disaster that would have been. So we head off across the pasture, oh and I had Bowser out there with me too, thank God he knows to stay AWAY from the horses, because I didn't have enough in me to watch for him too. I tried!

So I'm screaming at the horses, spinning Daisy and I in circles to keep them away from her butt, lol, I didn't want anyone launched. We finally get on down to the bottom of the hill where there is a lane that goes up to the gate that connects to the house-pasture. I did NOT want them in that lane with me. So I chased them off a ways and tried to walk as fast as I could down and then up again to the gate. Hoping of course, to get there before the others and shut the gate. Heh, didn't happen. Stupid, retard, idiotic Stormy comes BARRELING down the hill with the colts right behind. I tried to shoo them off but it didn't work, they all crashed into her. Skip scattered up to the side, Stormy tried to roll back into the woods, and Tuff came up her other side into a little corner made by the fences. So I tried to shoo him out of the corner and back up the hill. But what does he do?? He tries to JUMP THE BARB WIRE!! Gahhh!!! I screamed NO TUFF! And he got out of it and ran off the other way, phew. Scared 10 years off my life. SERIOUSLY, why he thought that was a good idea, I've no clue.

So I'm like okay, what do I do NOW! I don't want to fight with them all the way up the other lane to the house. So I get Stormy behind us again, the colts have already gone up through the gate. So I keep her behind us and shut the gate on her. Phew. So I had the biggest trouble maker in jail, just had to get up to the house without any more mishaps. (oh, and add to all this Rusty screaming his head off and galloping around because he got left behind)

I shoo the colts away from her butt and head to the house, Thankfully they decided to stay behind us quite a ways and I was able to get to the gate and through it with no trouble. Thank GOD. Finally something that went right.

Okay, Time Out! Just heard from the vet. He looked at the picture I emailed him and said he wouldn't worry about proud flesh in that spot, thank God, and said to hose it once a day for 10-15 mins for 10 days. He said its going to get worse before better, and more stiff. I prolly should have picked up some bute, poor girl. I didn't get an answer about wrapping it or not tho...hm. Any thoughts guys?? I think I'm gonna leave it open with a bunch of medicine on it, seems like it should drain.

So back to my harrowing experience. Well, its past the harrowing part now. I got her up there, grabbed the water hose, and hosed it off for about 40 minutes. The swelling got a bit better. She was SUCH a good girl for everything (well, aside from wanting to run me over to get away from Rusty, although she DIDNT) just ate some grass, didn't mind the water or anything. And so calm about all the other horses running amock around her. Phew, just thinking of it makes my stress level jump, lol.

So I put some gunk on her wound and then we moved the colts out of the close pasture and put Daisy in there. The BIL came by here (work) earlier (he went to get a tetanus shot for me) and he is going to give the shot to her and I'm gonna try to get some bute on the way home. Might need to get some carrots to shove them into as well, heheh, thats how my mom always did it. Carve a hole and stick it in! Might want to get something for dinner, the husband just MIGHT be hungry when he gets home.

So before all this happened, Tuff and I had a good time! We did some lunging with my trusty long green lead rope (lol Becca) and some showmanship stuff. He was actually pivoting on his leg a bit! I was shocked, haha. Hopefully he was doing it halfway right, you'll have to tell us Becca! Then we did a little head lowering, and I did a little vertical yielding with him for the first time. He caught on to that quick! Then some lateral yielding. Then I got on the bucket and leaned over his back a few times each side. He was very good for that.

Pics of course!

Ratty mane, didn't bring a comb with me! I like the lighting tho...

Oops, cut off his ears, I was trying to be quick. Angle is bad as well, not flattering!
Oh well.

"Whatcha got in the bucket??"

And here is a vid I put together of all that we did. I did get one of me on his back but it looked like junk, I had to sit the camera on the ground and Tuffs whole head was not in frame, oh well. He looks wormy, I know, got it covered!

So I am pretty anxious to get home and check on her. The little BIL was supposed to be checking on her every so often for me, so I'm sure she is fine...

Everyone think good thoughts and pray it gets well quickly!

Till later!

PS! I didn't post this entry yesterday, Thurs, cause I couldn't get the video uploaded before I left work. So! Here it is today!

Update on Daisy: It actually looked better tonight when we went out to give her the tetanus. It's not as swollen. She is noticeably ouchier about it though. She was picking her leg up a bit and holding it when we were hosing it, etc, but still not real concerned. She was eating fine, looked fine, etc. Thank goodness. So we put some more medicine on it and put her back in the pasture by herself. Today we are going to move Rusty and her into the close pasture and the colts out to the far one, to keep her more accessible.

Visiting!...in pictures, LOTS.

2009-07-17T10:29:00.009-05:00

So I went out and visited my 'babies' yesterday! They were doing well, mostly. Tuff still isn't where I'd like him to be with his weight, but he is MUCH improved. Daisy had a small cut on her neck from the barb wire, but nothing bad, and some icky gnat bites. Sprayed her down so she is good to go for now.

The cut is from the 'visiting' that has been going on between the babies and her and Rusty across the dividing fence. Which has prompted us to get put a hot wire up now that will be charging the barb wire. So THAT will keep them off it! Jesses mare got the worst of it, she has a pretty nasty gash on her pastern. It probably should have been stitched :/. I haven't seen it myself though. Rusty got a cut in the same place (from pawing I am pressuming) but not as bad. Although it was in the same place he had a similar cut a few months ago.

Oh! And some really good news! The FIL found a round pen! Its going to be HUGE. Its at least a 72. Its an old one that he got a good deal on. They are sanding it down and repainting it (some was green and some was red, some are 16 ft and some 12 ft, lol) so it will look great when its done. I helped paint a bit of it yesterday. So now we have a safe place for starting the babies! (who are still not big enough to ride -_-)

So not much else to say! I got some neat sunset pics of Daisy though, so I'll post those and a few I have of the other hosses too. Enjoy!

This where we found her, just chillin, didn't bother to move even when the truck pulled up, lol

Love this one... ^

I was trying to take a pic with Daisy and Rusty decided he wanted a close up too ;)

I'm proud of this one! Its too cool, IMO

Happy Daisy...

My absolute fav of the day! I was crouched taking pictures of her
and she saw something interesting

Another happy Daisy...

And also for your viewing pleasure, the FIL was shooting his gun (for some unknown reason) and I got the babies standing pretty good for it! Skip especially is like, eh, whatever, haha. He shot about 4 times and they all jumped but didn't leave, so they are getting on there way to being gun-proof!

And just a few of Tuff, he's not very camera worthy at the moment, a little gawky looking!

I just wuv his cute little face!!

I don't do many of Skip, so here he is! Looking more 'horse-like'

The huddle, lol, Stormy has bleached out bad!
Skip always looks like he as actual socks on, lol

So thats all, ta ta for now!

Tuff Goes On A Field Trip

2009-06-22T10:46:00.015-05:00

I had so much fun with little Tuff Tuff Saturday! I went out to FINALLY check on him (its been over 2 weeks I bet, so easy when you know that they are havin fun eating all day and know they have all they need, to just leave them be! (especially when they are waaaay on over in another pasture, sucha lazy butt!)

Well that came up and bit me though. I got out there to the in laws, expecting to have to bike all the way through the close pasture on into the other where they are SUPPOSED to be. Well they were right there in the pasture just behind the in laws. The one with NO GRASS. I was like GRRR, because at least a week ago or more I noticed them out there and asked the little BIL WHY they were not out on grass. He said the fence needed fixing. I was like, well you know there is NOTHING to eat out here?? He's like theres a bit of grass, don't worry, we are going to fix the fence. I was like, okay, I got pretty annoyed with him, so I figured it'd get done, you know?? I even told him to call Lee and he would help, seeing as his horse is out there.

Fast forward to Saturday, and they are STILL IN THERE!!!!! And my poor horse looks like an ethiopian nag!! Okay, not that bad, but NOT good either. He is really ribby and it shows in his neck and top line as well. I was NOT HAPPY! When I saw Lee's dad come out I basically had a fit at him wondering why the fence hadn't gotten fixed so they could get out there. I mean, they could have even moved them to the FAR far pasture because Daisy and Rusty are not in there either. BUT NOOOO, they didnt! And so all our horses have been starving! The other two are ribby as well. -_- I mean, there is a LITTLE bit of something in there to eat, but not much.

Unbelievable. I mean, I guess its sorta our fault we have trusted them to be sensible and not checked on him, but geeze, I didn't realize that was going to be an issue. I mean, all they have to do is LOOK at them, and the lot they are in, and know something is wrong!!! >:(

Sigh. anyway. Enough of that. So if you see Tuff looking a little thin in the pics/video, that is why! Believe me, Lee and I are getting out there TODAY to fix that bloody fence! Or at least move them to the other half. :grumble grumble:

So after I got over that I brushed him down and combed his mane. (and had to whip him in fast circles 2 or 3 times to get him to be still when I say whoa! I was walking away from him trying to get pics and he kept wanting to follow or step forward)

And then we walked over to see what the dad in law was doing (fixing his truck) and tried to find some scary stuff to check out. Well I found lots of stuff I THOUGHT a horse would think is scary, but not him! Coke cans, tarps, plastic bags, etc. The tarp did startle him a bit when I flapped it up real high, but that was it, good boy!

It was SO HOT out. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, and brought my little 'necklace' fan with me, so you'll hear it buzzing in the videos, lol.

After that I walked him over to some grass and let him graze awhile, poor baby. He was SO HAPPY that he started grazing backwards! It was hilarious! He would grab grass, step back, grab some more, step back a few more steps. He has always been inclined to back up. I wonder if we will have problems with that when he gets ridden the first few times. I got it on video, check it out (yes the gnats were TERRIBLE!):

So to get him to backing up I finally braced my lead rope hand against my leg and he couldn't go anywhere but forward, so he finally quit stepping back, lol. Then I left him there because I needed to find out what time it was from the FIL. (I knew he wasn't going anywhere!) He didn't really know...so I started thinking, I really need my cell phone... (we were going to a baseball game that night and my husband was working, and had to call me to tell me when he was going home so we could meet up with my bro and his wife, etc)

So then I thought, hey, great opportunity to take Tuff on down the road! I've always wanted to just walk around with him, and see how he would do without other horses. Well he did WONDERFUL, even better then I could have expected! It made me feel good, because he just plodded along behind me like I was the lead horse and he was good with me. :)

Here's a goofy video of us doing that (goofy as in, I AM goofy -_-):

So I let him graze in the front yard and got my phone from inside, tried to get the dog to drink some water, and then persuade him he wanted to stay in his room (which he didn't) and then came on out. He was perfectly content to graze in the yard all day I think, lol. I was burning up though, so I tugged his head up and headed back. We did a bit of trotting back, that I got on vid (I was video happy that day, I know! Yes, I am jogging backwards in flip flops, not smart, I know)

And then walked a bit, then trotted nearly all the way back, he did so good! Didn't break once! He is also very good at traversing bad terrain. We went through a few ditches filled with big rocks inside and on the landing and he did awesome, slow and careful. He is always slow going down hills too. I LOVE that, so not fun to ride a horse who likes to race down AND up hills. I think he is going to be a super trail horse. It helps a lot that they are pastures all day with lots of natural obstacles. (side note: I heard the inlaws are saving up for a round pen, BONUS!! but shhh, you didn't hear that from me!)

Anywho, we walked around a bit more then I decided to hose him off a bit. This is only the 2nd time he has been hosed all over and he did SUPER, he didn't move a bit after the initial wetting, I think he was quite enjoying himself, haha. Then I led him to a diff part of the yard and let him graze some more while I sweat scrapped him, then put him up after a little longer.

On a side note, I have a suspicion Tuff is turning into a flea bitten grey! I KNOW, lol. I meant to get a close up of his coat, but forgot. Its like his little chestnut hairs from when he was born are separating and turning into the flea bitten grey pattern in certain spots...I'm not sure yet, but I will let yall know! Its hard to tell with the glare from the sun of his light coat in the pictures...

So there ya have it! Our fun little afternoon. Until later!

The Head Bob Mystery!

2009-06-17T10:23:00.004-05:00

As some of you may remember, I was concerned about Daisy bobbing her head in my 2nd english riding video, day three of riding her in a row, in this post here: More Riding
This is the video, its towards the end when I have my sweater off and you can see my blue shirt.

Daisy English Again...

Well I was watching my video of us jumping again today, and noticed that dang head bob again! And it is ONLY when I was posting. Check it out, she is fine before, and fine after, but when I'm posting her head is going and it looks like she is lame!

Argh, what am I doing to her?? Is her back hurting when I land, or is it her legs? It doesn't make sense why it would only show up then, and not any other time she is trotting. Or is she just weirded out by me doing it, lol?? Just looking for some opinions! :o/

Other then that, not much going on, its too blasted hot to get out and ride!! Gonna be 95 today, ugh! I do need to get out and check everyone over tho, war paint them up, etc. I'm hoping Tuff has grown a hand since I've seen him. Hah, pigs might fly!! ;)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Lunge Line Refresher

2009-05-26T14:39:00.007-05:00

Hey everyone! Okay, took me about 3 tries to figure out a title. Seriously, why are there so many ways to write lunge? There is longe, long line, lunge, etc. Geesh!

Anyway, not much of an update. I went out with the little BIL Saturday when he went to feed the princess to check on mr Tuff Tuff. He and Skip were out grazing, the princess was in the barn row of course, lol. She seems to be very sensitive, about rain and bugs at least.

So they came up to see us though, and of course Stormy was very excited to be getting fed. She was running them all off and made me a bit nervous because there is not much room at all in that shed row, plus there is a tractor in there. Skip got knocked against that trying to get away. Not cool. I dont know if itd be better to just block it off in front of the tractor or what, so they can only come into the barn one way, you know? I know I dont like the way it is now though!

Anyway, he put her in the stall to feed her and I played with Tuff outside a bit. Making him pick up his feet and STAND there because I am messing with him, not just walk off and do whatever he wants once I put his foot down. He learned that pretty quick. And did very well picking his feet up. Although I did notice one of his fronts is already chipping up in the front. -_- Too much to ask for Daisy's rock hard hooves I guess. Oh well, he's young, maybe he has to grow into them, haha.

After that I brought him back into the row and clipped him to the lead rope tied on the post. He's still shedding so I attacked that, then brushed his icky mane and tail out. They feel really greasy. Overdue for a bath! Also got him all War Painted up. (fly repellant, looks like a bar of deoderant haha, works REALLY well)

He kept wanting to move forward and stick his head over the stall door to see Stormy, and I want him to be still and stand right where I put him. Of course a foot moved is fine, but after I put him back and told him WOAH, he would move up there again and stick his head over. I must have moved him back at LEAST 7 or 8 times before he figured out it was easier to just stand still, lol. Genius! ;) After he did that I let him go.

The BIL was done feeding and let the princess out. I then saw the lunge whip in there and asked if they still had the lunge line out there. He said they did, so I got that and decided to see how well he would do on there, its been awhile. He was perfect of course! :) That picture up top is from my phone, and no he wasn't pinning his years, its the blasted gnats!! I'm sure he was in the process of flapping them around, lol. They were on the ATTACK, I had a hard time keeping them out of my mouth and eyes. SO ANNOYING. I'm glad the horses have the barn to get away from them, for some reason they won't go in there. Weird.

This is another I took (its really hard to lunge a lazy horse and take pictures!) and it looks so weird. I don't know if he was about to stop on me or what, lol. Very awkward! Anyway, I can see his neck needs to have another growth spurt, lol, I love a nice long neck! Of course his is def adequate.

Anywho, we walked a bit, and did about a circle of trot each way only because it was SLOPPY out there. I swear we might need to start driving boats around with all this rain. Then I practiced a bit of setting up and let him go. He's a good boy.

So thats it! If it ever stops raining I want to get out and ride my Daisy May again. Maybe we will try putting the solid pole across after she does some good cross-pole jumps! :-D (and after I get some more energy out of her!!)

Comment Mess-Up

2009-05-22T09:48:00.004-05:00

Okay, I don't know if anyone has tried to comment recently and had a problem with it, but I changed a setting yesterday and apparently it doesn't work with my current layout (I couldn't leave a comment when I tried) SO, its back up now, sorry!

P.S. For your viewing pleasure, we have the husband and his dog Bowser, doing Daisy and I's jump. He says I am jealous cause they did better....whatEVER! ;)

Jump, Jump (Video!)

2009-05-21T18:04:00.000-05:00

Weee!

Hey everyone! I finally got the video edited for yall, there were like 5 different ones (the husband apparently was getting ate up by mosquitoes and thinking I was done, so kept turning the camera off, thats how he missed our best jump too!!) and it took a while to get the good stuff, and edit out the boring stuff. And I'm at work, so I have interruptions! The nerve! ;)

Again, excuse my atrocious position and be gentle with us! lol, this is the first time I've jumped in YEARS and even then I only did single or double jumps every once and awhile, never a course. None of us on the IHSA team were in the jumping classes, so we didn't focus on it much. PLUS she is SO PLUGGY and it took all I had to keep her going and get her over, that was where all my focus was, not my position unfortunately! So with practice we will both be SO much better! I'm excited. :) (Though I heard the rain is moving in AGAIN for the next 3-4 days, grrr)

So get ready to hear a lot of crop smacking (which doesn't seem to phase her), conversations about hot dogs, and my annoying voice saying high pitched GOOD GIRL's a million times! (goofy Rusty makes an appearance as well) It's nearly 6 minutes, sorry guys, you can fast forward through it if you want!

Seriously, after watching it for the tenth...or maybe 18th time, I think she goes so slow up to it to begin with mostly because she's not real sure what she's doing, lol, and also to make sure I really want her to go over it. Its so funny! I mean, her ears are always forward like okay, I see it, I see it...are you sureeee?? lol.

Towards the end you might notice a little hop in the pasture, lol, well that cracked me UP! Okay, there was like, a crater, I guess is the best way to describe it, there. It was VERY shallow, and VERY short, nothing for her to have a problem with, just a divot in the ground, but she decided to hop it! HILARIOUS! I guess she was really into it and enjoying herself, haha. She did it as calm and nonchalant as you please.

So I think our trot poles were placed a bit too far away for her slow pokey stride. What do yall think? And I'm not sure if our pole before the jump was in the right spot either. I heard it should be 9ft away? But our jump is so teeny right now, mabye it should be closer.

Anyway, shutting up now. Constructive help is always welcome! (but you have to stop laughing at us first!! ;) )

The proud mama! The husband cut off her legs...but I think we look GREAT!
I love her color right now.

Who Said Fat QH Mares Cant Jump??

2009-05-20T21:40:00.010-05:00

Because I need to have a talk with them, and show them a video!!

So this entry is dedicated to my friend in2paints who gave me her beautiful lynn palm! I told you I'd get you a video of us jumping in it!! :-)

I can NOT even describe how happy, excited, and proud I am of my Daisy May! I mean, you love your horses, and you know they are great. But, sometimes they just surprise you and amaze you! TODAY was Daisy's day for doing that.

So to begin with she was a bit hesitant, lol. She was missing all the trot poles, and not doing so well over them either. Then we got that better, and she didn't want to go over the jump! She kept just going off to the side, lol, but a few slaps with the crop and we got over it! (thank God for that crop!!) Well, she walked it with her front legs and hopped with her back! Took me TOTALLY by surprise, haha, so of course I was way behind and pulling on her mouth. But I had her in the bitless so of course she didn't mind much.

But then I really started waking her up with the crop before hand and she started getting it!! About 3 tries in she did a GREAT one and of COURSE the husband had stopped filming!! GEEZE! Oh well, lol. We never did do QUITE that good again, but the last jump was pretty close.

She stayed CALM and happy about it all, and I couldn't have asked for ANYTHING better!

So anyway it is nearly 10 at night and I'm tired and at home, so I will have to wait to show you the videos and expound a bit more tomorrow. But here are a few stills to hold ya over!

Jump, jump! Okay, I know my back looks terrible and my heel is too far in the stirrup, but look how cute Daisy is!! (we got a bit crooked to this one, lol)

Speaking of cute, enlarge it and look at her ears!

So until tomorrow!

Bestest Friends

2009-05-19T15:37:00.008-05:00

Hey everyone! Sorry I have been SO BORING as of late. (IT HAS NOT STOPPED RAINING!!) I just wanted to get on real quick and say things are going well and not much has been going on.

Good news though! Like I was predicting, Tuff, Skip and the new princess are all doing VERY well with each other. As you can see from these pictures:

ahhh, this is the life, me n my boys ;)

Seriously, they are grazing like that nearly every time I see them! So funny and so cute. I did notice a bite mark on Tuffs side (just the hair snipped off). Thats good that she is keeping him in line! Someone needs to!

I swear, looking at Tuff, I don't know how he is going to make it to the 'white' phase of graying out, he is just 2 and is almost there already! As for his height, still nothing impressive there. Actually I'm kinda getting worried. I haven't sticked him in awhile, but I don't know that he has even passed 14 hands yet! GEESH! I never thought I'd have to worry about him being too short to ride by adults. Seriously. Well he has some time still, I guess. But I am not real optimistic.

Okay, for the BAD NEWS. First of all, the farrier came out and did the horses last week, and of course it worked out where I was not there (working, o yeah) and of course Tuff was a TOTAL hiney apparently. So much so that they had to TWITCH HIM!! >:( Durn horse! Wish I had been there, you know how you are always sure you could have done something to make them behave?? Yeah, totally my thoughts. Anyway, he just wouldn't stand still, didn't want him near him, etc. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense on one hand, because he was NOTHING like that the first time he got his feet done, and then on the other hand this was only his 2nd time being trimmed and I haven't been working with him a lot lately, etc. Oh and yeah, I wasn't there. :-)

So anyway, now the REALLY bad news.

The little BIL finally named the new pretty grey mare.

Wait for it...

It's really quite bad...

Prepare yourselves...

No, really PREPARE YOURSELVES!!

Stormy.

STORMY!! I knew it was going to be bad!! I just KNEW IT!! :tries to calm down: Okay, okay. It could have been worse, I admit, he said he almost called her Storm. Eye yi yi. And he will not be moved on it. Believe me I TRIED. So there you have it. I have a seriously hard time even referring to her by that name. It won't come out of my mouth!!! GREY MARE is better!! Okay, I forgot, I'm supposed to be calming down. Okay, phew.

Anyway, back to the first bad news. That day (yesterday) that I took the above pics I picked up his feet, yada yada, moved him around, etc. NO PROBLEM. And they look great. I mean, he had his head down and was grazing and STILL he didn't ever offer to pull back or move or anything, picked them up nicely and held them. I mean, seriously, HORSE. Why weren't you like that when it COUNTED!?! :sigh: Hopefully he will be his good self the next time around. (and I will have him better prepared!)

On the other side, Skip, who was a pain last time, was an angel this time. Naturally. -_-

Oh, and in unrelated news, I found another blog with my name! Well, almost, and she has a chestnut QH named Daisy as well! WHAT ARE THE ODDS?? Well, pretty good actually, but anyway...here it is! Riding Miss Daisy

Enter The Princess

2009-05-05T13:25:00.001-05:00

Well exciting news here! We have a new arrival! And man is she UGLY! Wait until you see her. I don't know what they were thinking. They got her from an auction house, so...

But I'll let yall be the judge! I am tentatively calling her 'Belle' at this point, because that is what popped into my head first. But her new owner, the little BIL, does not like it, so who knows what her name will be. I'm not holding my breath for anything near as good as that, from his previous choices of names for his dogs, etc. (the husband wants to call her BellA, but I dunno...I'm rereading the Twilight series right now, so that may be why I think it doesn't fit, lol)

Here she is!!

Kisses!!

Notice the huge clump of grass falling, lol, our ground is sooo weettt
Also notice how tall the little BIL is, lol, she is a good 15 hands, so she will need to get to growing a bit more for him!

As you can tell, I was fibbing when I said she was ugly, lol. And as you can also tell I really enjoy taking pictures of her, lol. She is just so pretty I can't help myself. Its hard to get a 'bad' picture of her. It would have been better if it hadn't been so overcast, though.

So a little info! And I mean little, lol, since we don't know a whole lot about her. She is 3, a registered QH, although she has Appendix papers. Her dam is half TB, her grand dam, full. And you can def see that little bit reflected in her! I think her head is very Thoroughbredey to me, its that blocky type, you know? But it is very small. We haven't had this slim and elegant looking of a horse around in a long time, and we are all smitten with her.

She is broke, so they say. Apparently they have been riding her quite a bit. And the little BIL rode her a little bit at the horse sale in the little pen she was being held in.

So there is a horse sale the first of the month about an hour away from us, that the father in law likes to go to. His work has been really good lately, and since the little BIL lost that mare he was taking care of, they decided to bring this little girl home. They got her for a smokin price too. Guess how much?? If I owned her I know I wouldn't take less then 1500, although I know the market is bad.

They paid $500 for her. I know. And she has some decent lines too. Check it out, her grand sire is a son of Peppy San Badger and won over 28k in cutting money, and is a Millon Dollar Reining sire. His get have made $469,719 in NRHA events, and $262,945 in NCHA events. Cool, huh??
Here is her pedigree, it will have pics of her daddy (who is VERY PRETTY himself) and her grand sire. Yeah, her name really is Docscockylilcutter. Sigh.

As far as I can tell her TB side is nothing to talk about, but I don't know much about TBs. I can't find anything about her dams side either, just some Leo and Doc Bar. Who she has on her sires side as well. Her daddy is at stud here in Alabama, but I don't think he has done anything but sire babies.

So she is bred to be a cutter, but looks like a pleasure horse to me! Lol, she looks like she will be smooth as butter, if I'm any judge. Though her pasterns are a little longer then I'd like. I've just heard about unsoundness issues, but I doubt she will be working hard enough to worry about it. I bet her hardest job will be truckin down a trail, lol. She does still have a lot of growing to do, I bet she will really fill out.

She is very good getting into a trailer, standing in one, and getting out (though she did sort of leap out and then imediately start chuggin down grass, lol) and seems to be a sweet girl. She is a bit more 'alert' then I think will be necessary for the little BIL, but we shall see once they start riding her. She was a bit spooky when she first got there, but seemed to settle down. She did well with Tuff and Skip. They were a bit scared of her though, especially Tuff. His mama and Rusty have put the fear of God into him! Skip was more brave and that got him a kick in the leg, which he asked for it, she warned him 2 times to stay away from her hiney before nailing him. But he was okay.

It was kind of funny because she would start following them because she wanted to be near them and they would take off trotting because they thought she was chasing them! And shes like, "wait up guysss!!" LOL, but after a few hours they settled down, and she is like their big sister now, it seems like. Shes really just a baby herself, although she is so much bigger then them. I wish they would put the fast track on their growing! (BTW, Tuff turned 2 last Wed!!)

I'll have to watch them together more to know for sure. But I think they will all be fine. We moved them up to the top pasture near our house (and the road, which I like, gets them used to all the car noises, we live near a 4wheeler park, so there are lots of scary noisy things that go by!) and where Tuff was born. A bit of grass up there, so thats good. Tuff needs to put some weight on.

Here is a video of her right not long after we got her off the trailer.

I will definitely keep yall updated on her progress. I really hope she is going to be a good horse. And I may finally have someone to ride with!! :)

Here is a vid of us trying to take the horses to the pasture, and then finding out that the FIL can't get the gate open, lol. I'm leading Skip and Lee has Tuff. 'Belle' also managed to get away from Jesse, but you don't see it on there. She got her foot under the rope while grazing (he wasn't paying very good attention to her) and then he couldn't get it unwrapped and she started pulling so he let her go. She trotted about a bit then she walked right back up to him so he could get her, lol.

So, that is all for now! Until later...

Video!

2009-05-05T13:20:00.000-05:00

Here is my bro and I riding from last Sunday. Notice the lovely part where they start talking about my 'getting bucked off'. Thanks little brother -_-'.

You'll also get to see Dixie's drunk walk, lol.

Horsey Riding

Weekend Ride with the Brother

2009-04-28T14:39:00.011-05:00

Well sorry I have been so sparse on the posts lately! Not much has been going on, obviously, on the horse front.

But I did go riding last sunday. Although not on the two horses that this blog is about, lol.

My younger bro (by two years) and his wife, and my husband and I all went on a backpacking trip this weekend. When we got home we decided we wanted to take our dads boat out to the lake. Well then my brother gets this idea he also wants to ride Cisco! (my moms spotted saddle horse pally gelding from previous posts)

Anyway I was all for that! Lee and the sis in law much less so, lol. Sis in law is scared of horses and Cisco in particular (she rode him and once [I wasn't there] and said he 'freaked out' on her, which means he shook his head at a fly or tripped, lol, she has rode a horse all of 2 times in her life I think and Cisco doesn't help allay her fears by being 10 foot tall either)
And Lee well, he said to me afterward he wants a horse that will do exactly what he tells it and wants to walk quietly more then anything else, I laughed and said oh, so you want a push button 10k show horse huh?? ;)

So Lee and Chris went to the barn to saddle the hosses up while Jamie and I went into the house and used the bathroom. Oh how lovely bathrooms are after you are stuck with only trees for 2 days. *insert blissful sigh*

Then we took them out to the round pen to work the kinks out and for me to make sure Chris remembered how to ride a horse (hes been on one maybe a dozen times, so he isn't ignorant but its been awhile, and he isn't a horseback rider either, if you know what I mean) Well he was doing well and I tried to restrain myself from being the 'instructor' and know it all, lol. So I said a few things to him (like be VERY AWARE you have your hands connected to a metal bar on your horses nose, lol) and then we headed out. (although I told him three times not to bounce on the horses back when he gets on and he still did it *sigh*)

Heres a few pics of us in the round pen:

The brother looks a little unorthodox on a horse, but Cisco is a good size for him (the bro is a good 6 foot 5)

Dix is so perty :) Poor girl, everyone else thinks she is psycho, but I think I love her, shes just misunderstood, or else I'm the only one who wants to deal with her 'issues' which don't other me at all really

Pretty boy posing, he loves the camera I tell you!

Usins :)

Well things got a little dicey after we left the round pen. I guess Cisco started feeding of Dixie and became quite a handful. Chris did well with him for a beginner (hes a daredevil not much scares him) and we didn't get far, just around the gravel road before he was ready to head back. Cisco was being quite a PIA trying to go faster then a walk, not turning, head straight in the air etc. So we get back to where Lee and and the sis in law are standing and I told Chris to get off to see if I could get him to behave. I didn't want him to leave with a bad taste in his mouth, you know?

So I walk over to him and he starts to just walk off and I SNAPPED that bar down on his nose once and said WOAH and barked a few mean short sentences to him. He got this look on his face like OMYGAHH!! It was kinda funny, so I reached up and made him put his head down (I taught him that when he was really young and he is STILL excellent at responding to it, I just have to place a hand on his nose and top of his poll and bam his head is downnn)

Then I adjusted the stirrups and climbed aboard and he was like yes ma'am! (which getting on itself was no mean feat I tell you. I was on the downside of a slope and the stirrup was WAY UP there, like level with my chest almost! But if I can get my toe in, I can get on!) I walked him up the drive and around, checked out a scary picnic table, etc, and he had his head level and just plodded along, like he usually does. He is SUCH a smooth, fun ride. His stride is huge and you just gliddeee. And its beyond fun to be on such a tall horse with his big ole head just hanging and goin along. :)

So I got off after just a few mins and Chris got back on (well I also convinced him to get on Dixie at one point when I was fixing to get on Cisco but that didnt go well, he SLAMMED on her back and she did not like it at ALL. So I waited a few seconds to see if she would settle; she didn't. So I was like OKAY GET OFF, haha.) After he got on Cisco he did just as well as with me, but we didn't try going off again with the two of them. I dunno, maye he just does better by himself. My dad took him quite a ways one time alone down a trail etc, and he did great, and my dad is def not a rider either. *shrug*

Stills from the vid:

Perty Dixie again

Playboy ;)

Drive-by! (mouth open talkin to the sis in law) Thats the parents house, they were out of town in AZ this weekend. That bay window there used to be my room :)

Anyway I had a great time. I've got a video of him and I riding in the front drive but the internet her is going off and on so I can't ever get it finished. I'll try to get it up tomarrow.

Short Update

2009-04-16T16:03:00.003-05:00

So, first off I have some sad news. Sugar died Monday afternoon. :( If you dont remember her, she is the palomino mare my father in law borrowed from his brother in law for the little BIL to ride. Who also was very lame and only got rode once since we got her last summer. Anyway, she was very old and lost a LOT of weight and finally gave up this week and couldn't get up anymore. They got her to some nice green grass and she went happily eating. Every horses favorite thing of course. RIP Sugar. :(

Anyway, that next day (I heard about it late that night before) I went over to see Tuff Tuff. I was worried he might miss her or something, but he wasn't phased. He still had his buddy Skip. They are so cute. I went out and loved on him, so glad he wasn't the one that got took off dead, and put some fly stuff in his ears, brushed him, etc. I noticed at one point Skip was really dirty on one side so I started to brush him, and walked to his opposite side to do it, and Tuff followed me over there acting like, hey, what about me?? lol, it was super cute.

Soon I'm hoping we will be able to put them out on the pasture for a few hours a day. That will really get him in good weight and shiney. Well, got to go, thats all for now!

Tuff Flashback!

2009-03-31T11:59:00.006-05:00

I was bored this afternoon and was looking through old photos and videos and found this gem. It is too funny! So here is the little Tuff Tuff at 5 months old, right before we weaned him. Daisy is so long suffering! I was wanting him to run amok so I could get it on camera, but as you can see he thought I was much more interesting, lol.

Tuff at 5 Months

And heres a few AWW pics for your day, :) He's 1 to 2 months old in all these.

And PS if you have had too much cuteness, go watch this video, it is truly horrifying:
Country Pleasure Driving Class Gone Wrong!

A Tough Tuff Day

2009-03-31T09:32:00.007-05:00

Tuff says, "Who me? Whatd I do??"

So I know its been awhile since I've blogged last! Its been raining nearly every day the past few weeks. SO ANNOYING! Finally got a clear day that I had nothing else to do on, so I went out to brush Tuff and work with him a bit. I knew he'd be a hairy shedding beast because I haven't brushed him since they started shedding.

I was right! I got all my gear together and tied him to the hitching post and got to work. The little BIL came out and he got on one side with a curry comb and I got on the other and away we went for about 10-15 mins straight, and still was getting a lot off! But we did get most of it...for now, lol. I can't wait till he's all slicked out. I think hes going to be just as white as he was last summer if not whiter. (thats a weird looking word...)

So he was okay for most of that, more fidgety then I'd like, and wanting to get into everything. He has gotten a little annoying with his feet too, well mostly just fronts, but he's always had a hard time balancing himself. He was pretty good though.

So I had brought out the surcingle because I was wanting to ground drive him for the second time. As I was putting his pad and that on, and then his bitless bridle, I was thinking, maybe I should be getting him hooked up to the lunge line instead and letting him get some of this energy out. Because I could tell he just was in one of those fidgety "I'm not listening!!!" moods. But I decided to just see how things went first.

So I walked him around a bit just to make sure the surcingle wasn't going to bother him, then back to the post. Hooked up his lines and then drove him back up the slight hill over towards the main part of the yard (where I was driving him in the video I have of it) and he was going at a pretty good clip. Which meant our stops were very slow in coming (like last time). But the thing that most annoyed me was he wouldn't be STILL. I'd ask him to woah, he would woah and IMMEDIATELY take off walking again. We did this dozens of times. I was getting so frustrated. I thought eventually, hes going to get that I want him to wait on my cue. He's gonna get it!! But finally I just took the lines off, unbuckled the reins from the surcingle and made his butt work around in a little circle around me. And I mean WORK IT. He was loping a few strides sometimes I had him going so good.

Boy was he surprised! He was defenitely paying attention to me NOW! We did that both sides for a bit and I also made him hustle backwards a few times, and then I let him rest, adjusted his pad and such, like nothing had happend. Then I got the lines and put them back on. We had moved away from them a bit and I told him to woah, went and got one, then the other, and guess what?? HE DIDN'T MOVE. Eureka! ;)

So lets just say after his come to Jesus moment, we had a much better go of it. He was stopping quite well, and was STANDING until I told him to go off again, which I did very clearly with loud clicks and WALLLKKK and a wave of the reins on one side. So he knows exactly what means go. Of course he wasn't perfect he would take a step or act like he was going to move a few times, but the thing is when I said woah and pulled on the reins he STOPPED. And stood. A lot of times when I would halt him he would stop and cock a foot, I liked that, that meant he was relaxed and going to wait. Thank youuuuu. Why couldn't he have done that to begin with, geesh.

I think that at first he was thinking "oh, I'm out here by myself and I can just waltz around and do whatever I want, no one is controlling me! Ladee da.....mmm, grass, ohhh, I want to go here, or here, not there. Why do I need to stand still?? Thats no fun! Whats this over here??" Sigh. Terrible 2 year olds!!! (Tuff turns 2 in less then a month! April 29th!)

Sooo, I was a little dissapointed, but he did work out of his stupid moment, so thats good. But I don't want to have to whip his butt around every time just to get him to listen and respect me. Maybe he will get it soon and that wont be necessary.

The surcingle was a lot of help, kept the reins out of the way and also kept my lines up out of the way of his hooves! I think it also helped with the turning cues being more precise. Its not snug on him yet, but it tightens enough to stay in place good enough. He did well with it, thats the first time I've had that on him and done any work in it. No issues at all with that.

So after he did a few good stops and walked around calmly I was happy with that and took him back to the tie post. He stood like a good boy there, better then he has in a long time, and I untied him and put him back in the pasture before he decided to do otherwise! lol

So in conclusion: not a bad session, but not a 'good' one either. Just a learning experience I guess. I feel a little worried I got a little harsh with him a few times, I have a hard time controlling my temper at times, but I did my best and I think he was okay. I tried to be my best impession of mugwump, lol, I love her training methods and whenever I work with horses now I strive to emulate her. Go read her blog if you don't already! Mugwump Chronicles

I wanted to go ride Daisy but I was kind of tired and down about the session with Tuff, so didn't want to bring my bad attitude out there. Besides I think we will be moving them into their spring pasture soon (the one where there is a nice area to ride in! Thats where we did our lope last year) so I might wait till then. I found plans yesterday for jump making! Can't wait to get one put together and pop her over it! (pop will probably be the key word, a pop from the crop! haha) That over there will be a much better place to do jumping. I hope she (the owner) doesn't mind if I have one set up there, I don't know why she would though...she seems like a nice older lady.

I think I will have the hubby put jump cups at the 1ft and 2ft marks. Lord knows neither of us needs to go any higher then that!! I'm not going to spend the money on actual jump cups so I found a design they use for dog agility jumps that I will prolly use. Or something similar. Its out of pvc pipe. I will def have to adjust the design, but its a good idea to start with.

Anybody have ideas for homemade jump cups?? I've heard of the detergent/bottle type...little ugly though, lol.

Anyway, no pics of our session! I had my camera but I was definitely not in the mood to document! So theres one at top, and heres another, of him the other day. Still very fuzzy!

Oh, ps! I went on another ride with the mother the Sat before last. Had fun! It was a lot less windy and a lot less cold! The horses were still raring to go though! Even Cisco, he usually poops out about 10 mins in, but not that day! We had fun though and went a bit farther then before. And spent a lot less time in the round pen, haha. Heres a few pics:

Dixies mane I braided! Hers is the perfect length and thickness for it. I did Tuffs like this yesterday but his isnt as thick so it didn't look near as good.

And heres us, my meme took the picture for us :)

And here is Ditzy dog cooling off in the pond afterwards, hehe, she followed us.

Ta ta!

More Riding...

2009-03-05T09:26:00.010-06:00

<--Daisy takin a nap, shes a wild thing...

So since our first english ride, we've had 2 more! I rode again the next day, Tuesday, and then again yesterday, Wednesday. (hey, I know my days, aren't you proud? ;) )

So! Tuesday didn't go nearly as well as the first ride. First I had to catch her, she and her bf decided it would be fun to run amok while I and the little BIL tried to catch them. But I just kept cutting her off and looking at the ground and she got tired of that pretty quick and stood still. Yeah! Sometimes her laziness really comes to my advantage.

She was fine for tacking up, although it took me longer this time, trying to make sure I had the saddle in the right place. It is so much easier for me to feel like I have a western saddle placed right. It just seems like the girth on that saddle falls too far toward her belly, so then I have to move the saddle up, but then I'm like, hm, is it too far forward?? Lol, o well, we will figure it out. I also lowered my stirrups a hole (thanks Becca!).

Anywho, I get on and walk up to our circle area (which is a circle around the BIL's deer stand, lol) and she decides, uh uh, she isn't going to go! And she proceeds to kick out, stop, swish her tail, and basically throw her version of a hissy fit. Sigh, so I smack her a couple times, kick her a lot, lol, and finally we get going. At first I thought maybe something was hurting/bothering her with the saddle, or bridle. But then I learned she only started balking when we were going away from the car area, so she was just not wanting to do anything. As usual. So after that we did some trotting, which felt like trying to get a slug to run. She was incredibly lazy, and I was tired/sore from the day before still, and it just didn't go real well. I don't have a whole lot of problem keeping her trotting while I'm sitting, but posting?? Ughh, she can quit on me a lot easier before I can do anything about it. Oh well, working on it!

So I got her to go around a few times without breaking and called it a day. I did a bit of two point back to the car, not sure if I was getting out of the saddle enough tho.

Yesterday! Went a lot better. I went out early afternoon before work, parked the car, and called Daisy. Daisy looks, goes back to eating. Sigh. I wasn't hoping for much, lol. I gathered up the bridle and trekked out to her, armed with my apple! She moved a few steps but stopped pretty quick and then I gave her a bite of the apple. Yum she says! Brought her back to the car, and saddled her up, while she took a nap (she picture at top). Rusty of course was a little pest, trying to eat my car, etc. So hopped on and we did some walking both ways, no balking or fits! Yeah! Did a little two-point, and then trotted working on my position. Which was hard because she was slow as molasses again. She broke gait a lot, but I think did better then yesterday, so thats good.

One thing I'm worried about. In the video, she looks like she is favoring her right fore, see the head bob? Its after I take my sweater off towards the end when we're trotting. Is it just me? I don't notice it until then. :( I don't know...I was wondering if anything would show up after riding her 3 days in a row...she is getting older. :( I vaguely remember thinking she felt a little off at one point, but its hard to tell out there, the ground is so not even.
Am I seeing things??

Anyway, I had a good time yesterday, it was just her and me and the WARM wonderful weather. (although sweaty helmet hair, not so cool) Daisy was pretty happy about her apple too, lol. Shes a good girl.

Here's our video! I tried my best to shorten it down! You get to see us chase Rusty off, lol, and then at the end her eating her apple and me taking her saddle off, brushing, etc. Just a ride with us!

Daisy English Again...

Have a great day everyone, the weekend is almost here!

Daisy Goes English! (Redneck style!)

2009-03-03T09:52:00.010-06:00

So first of all! I can NOT start this blog without a huge, MONUMENTAL thank you to a very generous and lovely person ALL THE WAY AROUND, in2paints! *clap clap clap!* She GAVE me an english saddle, girth, stirrups, and a saddle cover! Gave them!! Don't give up hope all of you, there are still REALLY great people in this world. Rebecca is one of them!! It is a beautiful lynn palm collegiate that is in great shape. And I just love it! I am going to the tack store today to get it some soap and I'm going to rub rub rub on it when I get home! ;) (no, I won't kiss it, I can restrain myself...I think)

Anyway, I can't thank her enough and I hope she knows how appreciative I am.

Okay, now, I am hesitant about putting these pictures and video up, because well, we look TRASHY! *cringe* Daisy has a western bridle on (at least it has a d ring in!) and I have camo boots on, jeans, and a browning sweater with a bulky jacket over that. But hey! I have my fancy velveteen helmet on! *cringe* Oh and lets not even mention how NASTY Daisy is! She was a MESS when I got out there, and of course I just grabbed my tack and went, not a brush in sight! So I tried to knock the big parts of it off with my coat sleeve, lol. *cringe*

Daisy looks cute though. And my position!! *double cringe* Hm, anything else?? How about we play the "how many things dont belong in this picture?" game! Oh well, if I can laugh at myself, its okay, right? ;)

(sorry in advance for some of the pics, they are video stills and are quite poopy in quality!!)

<--Look how nasty she is!!

Anyway, all that to say, I DID have a lot of fun! It's been SO long since I have sat my hiney in an english saddle. Not since college, which was 4 or 5 years ago, geesh. I missed it! And back THEN I didn't ride english well. I have a horrible chair seat, I guess all that time riding western and being sloppy with it. My h/j coach used to say I rode 'dressagey' too, *shrug*.

I have a hard time keeping my lower leg back, any tips guys?? If I reallllly concentrate on it, I can do it, but boy it takes a lot of effort, lol. (I have some sore legs today!) I also have slumpy shoulders, you can't really tell here though because I have like 3 layers on. My shoulders were my riding coaches nightmare, hahah. One horse show my coach made me sit pin straight no matter what I was doing until my class. Didn't help, sigh. I slump through life, its my build, unfortunately.

I also had a lot of trouble not riding her 'western' with my hands. I'm so used to trying to get her to neck rein that I was laying the rein over her neck, or moving my hands out to the side to turn her, not just tilting my wrists, you know? So that took me about 10-15 mins to quit doing, lol. And of course Daisy was so happy about me being up in her mouth -_- chew chew chew chew x100.
<--wow, I look so goofy in that helmet!! Daisy looks cute though. That helmet is OLD, I bet they make much lower profile ones now! (that sucker is seriously over 10 years old) Then on to posting the trot! Been awhile, but I actually can still 'feel' when I should be going up without looking, yeah for me!! At least I can do something right, lol. Although I was very wobbly the first few times around, which Daisy wasn't helping either. She was trying to quit on me and going "what are you doing up there??" So I was trying to kick her and go up and down, and then I was falling forward etc, and it didn't go so well. But! I persevered and after a bit we got it and she went around like a pro! I still fall forward every so often, but it got better.

My reins were also a bit of a problem, they are made for western pleasure, not english, and are WAY way too long. So I felt like she was almost stepping on them, and they weren't fun to ride two handed english style with. SO, next time the bitless bridle is definitely coming out with me. I just was too lazy to go and get it from the in laws barn. Toward the end of the video you'll hear the hubby saying something about cutting them off, haha, he thinks they are a rediculous length, but they are made to have a big drape in them!

Here's the vid! Any tips, tricks will be appreciated! What do yall think about my stirrup length? Good, too short? My knee seems awful close to the front of the saddle to me, but what do I know? Also, is the saddle in a good position on Daisy? It sure makes her back look long, I don't have it too far forward do I? The girth seemed to fall in a good position. That saddle pad is ancient and not made very well, need to get a new one! I have 2 homemade ones from many moons ago I did when I was a teenager, I was going to put one of them on over the white one but it was really dusty and a mouse chewed a hole in the top layer, boo. So I figured we looked redneck enough already, lol.

Daisy Goes English

So, the husband said Daisy doesn't look 'right' english, I was a little offended! I thought we looked pretty cute, haha. Although I do at this point prefer her in western tack, but we don't look wrong! ;) He was standing out there saying how cold it was and are you done yet, and I was not cold at all! I had even forgotten my gloves. (or so I thought, they were actually in my car -_-) I guess I was having fun!

I cant wait to get some cavalettis built so we can do some pole work! Then I want to get some jump standards built so we can practice going through them (just over a pole) and eventually work up to a baby jump :).

Here are a few stills I pulled off the video:

Walkin...looks like I'm smiling?

Hey, my leg is back!

I love this one! ^ We look pretty decent!! (durn tail of hers, Im gonna glue it to her butt!)

Daisy looks a bit stiff in the hind end...well she is nearly 19! And we had 3 inches of SNOW the day before! (shes also pretty post legged, lol)

This is what our yard looked like sunday!

And it got even deeper! We had some serious fun in it.

Okay, shutting up now! I hope yall don't laugh at us TOO hard, don't bust a gut! ;) And another HUGE THANK YOU!! to Becca!

Daisys Show Days

2009-02-26T16:58:00.013-06:00

Well, not a true title, actually. Since we've only been to one show! But days sounds better then, dayyy ;).

Anyway, thought I'd do a 'background' story on my girl!

Thats my mom and her to the left. Look how proud she looks, like, "yes, I know I am great" lol!

Anyway! I had bought Daisy just that summer, and I was pretty close to a college friend of mine at that time, who had horses. (we rode on the college IHSA team) She talked to our old coach a lot, and found out about a local show she was hosting at her place in November. So she told me about it and said she was bringing her horse. So I was like SWEET! (I love horse shows!!)

My very crude drawing on paint of the pattern!

That summer the BIL and I had been doing a bit of trail riding and such (that was when his horse was rideable still, lol) so I had been riding, just not with a purpose. And this gave me a great purpose!

So I decided after seeing the class list, to show in the halter (always a easy class to get your feet wet in! And I personally like Daisys conformation overall) and the walk trot classes, and there was one beginner pattern class. I was SO excited!

So I would go out and practice setting up with her, and trotting in hand. All very easy for Ms Daisy (who knows, she may have been there done all that!)

Side Note: During all this Daisy was 6 months pregnant! We were CLUELESS! That next month we finally found out!)

Anyway, I wanted to get some arena time in with her before the show, so I borrowed a trailer from a guy at church and we trailered down to a local arena. She was AWESOME. I mean, I couldn't have asked for more. It was dark, she had never been there before, who knows, she may have never even been in an arena at all. She was alone, and a train kept going by pretty darn close, lol. Oh, and the mud/sand was ankle deep. Worse in the middle!!

Not a prob for her at all. It was a lot of fun! She did spook once, jumped sideways a bit, when something over in the dark woods cracked, sounded like a tree limb fell or something, of course when Lee was riding her, lol. But she recovered pretty quick.

Here is a video I compiled of us practicing our pattern (that was like the 2nd time through it, she ROCKED! Check out our square stops!!) It also has pictures (a lot that I have in this post already) and then Lee riding. She is trotting funny because of the mud, lol.

Daisy

So I was very happy with her. I mean, before this she had basically been a pasture pony for years. (I bought her as a 16 year old) With occasional trail rides. Until I bought her! haha

On to show day! The weather before show day, had been verry very mild. Notice the tank top at NIGHT!
Well! Show day was COLD. And I mean COLD. Of course. And it was even drizzling on the way over, because I remember being worried about Daisy's footing in the trailer. We almost stopped to get some shavings, but didn't. She was fine. Although she did half way slip or something because we found a small blood spot on her coronet after we unloaded her. I it might have had something to do with her hay net though. It had come untied and she went down for it I'm sure!

Anyway, it was a good 40 min or so drive to my instructors place. Daisy is a good trailer rider though. I got her unloaded, and met up with my friend. Whos horse was fidgety and hollering every few seconds. He is ancient, but sure doesnt show it sometimes! Brushed her down, got her tacked up. I had been riding her in a billy allen curb, which she did okay in, but brought her pretty grazing curb for the show. She had done okay in it before, and the father in law insisted it was the best bit. She did awesome in it. I really dont remember her chewing on it, but I might have been distracted by all that was going on.

I mounted up and headed toward the arena. We were a good ways away and Daisy was so excited to get to the arena where all the action was! But her excited is walking a bit faster and having her ears pricked, lol. I made her whoa and wait a few times, and then went on up there. As you can imagine it was pretty chaotic near there. So I grabbed a spot on the rail outside the arena (which is not big by any means) and we just watched the warm up for awhile. She was enthralled by all that was going on. I really think she has never been to anything like that before! So then I heard a HUGE trailer start coming down the driveway (which was right behind us) so I told the gate guy, uh okay let us in!! I did not want that thing behind me and a arena fence boxing us in!
So we dove in! She was so confused, it was really funny. I laughed at her the whole time. She was looking and watching the other horses, like, "what are yall doing??" But she really did great. I was proud! I still had to plow rein her, since our neck reining was not up to par yet. And after a bit I sent the husband after my spurs cause she kept breaking at the trot! I have no problem with needing spurs, lol.

At one point this older woman on a pretty bay came up RIGHT behind us, I mean basically slammed her horse into Daisys butt! I was like O MY GOSH. And the woman is laughing and saying how her horse doesn't do this or that, etc. And I'm like WOMAN! Your lucky my horse isnt in heat! Daisy looked a bit surprised but didn't get annoyed or anything, thank GOD. I mean, I was not happy, lol.

So! I rode in there for quite a while until Lee told me I'd better get my butt outta there and get ready for halter! So I hustled out of there and got her saddle and bridle off, and put her pretty show halter on that I borrowed from the hubbys dad. It was a MESSSS when I got it! And I shined that baby up to perfection. It looked great. And I got my show shirt on (which matched my purple saddle pad perfectly! hehe) and hat all fixed.

So we head on down to the arena again and by this time my mom and niece had shown up. I should have given her my camera!

I was quite nervous. While I was waiting to go in I was going through all the bad things that could happen. I was afraid she wouldn't trot, set up, etc, lol. But it came our turn and she did perfect. We walked in, trotted, and lined up, bam! Great! We did get landed in the biggest, muddiest PUDDLE. Yeah. And at one point I had to fix one of Daiys front hooves and she put it down hard and SPLASH! Mud all over my leg, lol. The people in the stands thought it was funny ;). The judge when he came by to inspect us even said "wow you got a really great spot, didnt you!" He was very nice, and I could tell he liked Daisy!

I knew we had a good chance, most of the horses in there were school horses, although I had rode 2 of them at college, and they are nice animals. One is a paint I rode a lot, (and got 2 blues on at the same arena Daisy and I practiced at! He is a saint, the horse every parent wants for their kids) and another a western pleasure palomino mare.

So! We placed behind those two, a third!! I was happy! You can see just a glimmer of our yellow ribbon on her halter here, hehe. Can you tell it was cold! We are all bundled up, lol. Man I look goofy in that hat!

So, the riding classes that I was in were towards the end of the show. And it was running late of course. My husbands uncle, his moms last remaining relative, had passed away that week, and his viewing was that night. We had to be there, and it was going to be so late by the time I got to ride, we were going to have to scratch the rest of my classes. :( I was dissapointed, but not a whole lot, it was the first cold day of the season and we were pretty much ready to go HOME!

And thus, Daisys first show day ended! I am glad I got to ride her a lot in the warm up, even though I didn't get to show off our STELLAR pattern! Hopefully I will get to go to more, Tuffs appearance kind of messed that up the next year, lol. Maybe this summer we will get out and about! I love my instructors shows, they are small, fun, and I know the people there. Daisy is no fancy show horse, so I'd feel funny trying to be 'competative', you know?

Thanks for reading!!

Oh, and ps, does this guy down here remind you of anyone??

Not Daisy, right?!? Well of course! This is her grandsire, Win Or Lose. The father in law loves to tell the story about how he only lost once with a halter stallion of his, to a Win Or Lose colt, heheheh.

He is the sire of Sonny Dee Bar! Neat huh! I thought so :) I think she resembles him a lot. Her head especially.

Here are his gets achievements:

Stallion Offspring Record for Win Or Lose
World Champion Offspring
Reserve World Champion Offspring
Superior Halter Offspring
Superior Performance Offspring
AQHA Champion Offspring
ROM Performance Offspring
Race ROM Offspring
NCHA Money-earners
Race Money-earners
Halter Point Earners

Next Blog: Daisy goes ENGLISH! ;)

Finally! Tuff Ground Driving Video

2009-02-26T14:51:00.006-06:00

Well, it only took me nearly all week, but here it is! lol, I had to finally download a whole new program to trim the video with and then it wouldn't let me put it in the format I wanted without looking like JUNK, so I finally just uploaded it!

Here it is! Be gentle with us! ;) Its kinda long, sorry, you might need to fast forward a spot where we get stuck by the lawn mower out of frame, lol.

Tuff Ground Driving

Next Blog: Daisys Show Day!

A Blog...Not about Tuff, Not About Daisy!

2009-02-24T09:28:00.032-06:00

So I know this blog is supposed to be about Daisy and her son Tuff, BUTTTT, sometimes its just about my life as well! And don't worry, this post is still about horses! Just...different ones, lol.

So enter Dixie and Cisco! (Dixie pictured at left)

They are mom's horses. She's had them for years, I rode them when I still lived at home. They are both Spotted Saddle Horses (SSH for short!) In fact, I broke Cisco out. Okay, wait, I don't like that word...I saddle trained him, there, thats better.

I actually did just about all his training. We got them both when I was about 16 or 17. Dixie was to be my mom's riding horse, and Cisco was a 4 month old colt sold with her as a bonus! She was also supposed to have been bred back. (These people popped who knows how many foals out of this poor mare. My mom says she remembers there being FOUR of her get there still at the place we bought her from!) But she didn't take apparently. She was about 15 or 16 at that time.

Anyway, I was a typical horse crazy girl that loved being out with the horses messing with them, so I was his 'trainer'. Gosh, let me see if I can dig any pictures of us up.

Here's one! This is one of the first times I sat on him, (he's 2 here) and the retard that I am, I just climbed up out in the open with no thought of it! GEEZ, idiocy of youth, lol. I got off right after that. At least I was smart enough the next times to do it in the round pen, lol. I have a neat picture of that but can't find it! Anyway, he WAS comfortable with me bouncing on his stirrup and laying on his back, so I did do some preparation, lol. (man look at those ugly jods and boots!! agh! Theres the bitless bridle again, lol, very useful little thing!)

So! Fast forward to last Saturday! The night before I talked to her about riding the next day, and she thought it was a great idea. She's always trying to get me to come over and ride since she has no one else to ride with. The niece, her granddaughter, likes to ride, but she can't handle Dixie, and is not experience enough to make Cisco do what he knows how to do, but won't if you aren't persistent about it, lol. And I also don't think I'd trust her out of the round pen on him, you know the riders that you know do fine in the arena, but you would be really nervous to see them on the trails?? Thats her. She just doesn't have enough experience.

Anyway, sorry for all the needless information! I do get carried away so easily. So early that morning I dropped the husband off with my dad at the Mcdonalds, they were going to work on a rental house of my dads. (in exchange for no more sea doo payments! We bought it off them. Its ours now, yeah!! Now we just need SUMMER.) And then I drove to the mothers! Got there and get out and I'm like, gosh, its breezy today! And it was a little cooler then I had origionally thought, lol. But I was like, oh well, it will be okay. Heh. ;)

My mom says the same thing I was thinking when she meets me at the door. "Its windy today! Yesterday would have been the day to ride!" It had been really nice Friday, but work, alas, got in the way.

So we head out to the barn to put her rabbits out in their 'play pen' (they are soo cute btw!) And I got Dixie out and started brushing her while my mom got the van and loaded the tack up. She keeps it in the car garage since the barn has no tack room walls so the dust gets on EVERYTHING. Then I had to go back to the truck and get my bitless bridle, I felt like I'd need it that day, I usually ride her in a bosal, but last time she didn't do to well in it. Thank goodness I made Lee go to the inlaws and get it that morning even though we were late, cause I was REALLY glad to have it!

I also went to get the husbands cowboy hat I had planned on wearing, but it is a little loose and with all the wind I would never have been able to keep it on my head. That picture of Dixie above is her going "what is on your HEAD??" ;) She has some really cute fuzzy ears!

So as we were brushing, la dee da...BAM! Both horses FREAK OUT. They are zeroed in on something outside the stalls, like they've just see a mountain lion! (the stalls that are right in front of them open out into the pasture)

Both my mom and I are like what?? We look and look, see nothing. But they are both snorting and jigging and still staring out the door. So my mom goes out there to figure it out and is gone forever it seems like. I untie Cisco and make him put his head down, walk him in circles make him back up. He calmed down a little bit. Finally my mom comes back with some bags of trash, like a soil bag and something else. So! Apparently the wind was blowing them around and they thought they were monsters! Who knows!Is this not one of the cutest pictures ever?? My mom is 5'6, not sure about Cisco, but he is in the 16h+ range, definitely!

Anyway, they were still antsy for another five minutes or so, and my mom and I are like, we might not get out of the round pen today, haha. I was a little dissapointed, but I knew we still would have fun so I got over it.
The horses finally calmed down and Dixie proceeded to doze while I groomed her up the rest of the way and got her tacked up. The bitless bridle fit her pretty good, had to let it out a bit though, apparently Daisys head is smaller then her's, lol. She does have a cute little head! :)

The mother and I had one little yelling fit over a misunderstanding with the saddle pads on Cisco, lol (don't ask) but other then that we got along GREAT the whole day and had a lot of fun. (I was with her from like 8 to 9 that night, go us!)

So we finally got settled and headed out to the round pen, which connects to the barn as you can see in the picture to the right. (Cisco is sporting a novell headstall in case your curious, in a really ugly glaring orange!! Not a huge fan of it, but it does the job)

So we walked them around in there for a bit getting them loosened up, mainly so we could get their cinches tight enough! Cisco especially is a chunko!! But also to get them using their brains out there before we hopped on. Man , my mom looks like an midget! lol.

Another funny picture of my mom and Cisco -->

So we finally got everyone cinched up and ready to go, I had to hunt around for something for mom to use as a mounting block, finally settled on a chair. Got her on and stirrups done, and then I got on! Now, usually Dixie is a wormy thing when you try to mount, she will back up, move sideways, etc, unless you kind of bend her head to the side and hold it while you get on. Which is what I usually do. Today, I was just very quiet and calm with her and she did back up a little but then I put my foot up there and just hopped a bit, and then she settled and I swung up. AMAZING! My mom and I were like, wow! Yeah, for Dix Dix!

There we are going around! Hehe, I set up my camera on *drum roll please* listen to this: a trash can, with a bale of hay on top, and then a cat carrier on top of that (thats what the mother totes the rabbits to their play pen in, lol) and then a cat dish on top of THAT. It worked great! Hopefully I'll be able to upload a bit of it, it really is quite funny to watch. We both get to racking in there (well, attempting to, we're probably doing more of a running walk or really nothing that has a name!) and then Cisco trips and its pretty amusing.

So anyway we had a lot of fun in there, Dixie was a bit sporadic, she likes to dive this way and that. She's NEVER heard of a straight line, lol. But I'm okay with it. She is a REALLY fun change of pace. And I never feel unsafe on her. Cisco was lazy as usual, and you can see him swishing his tail and acting annoyed when she makes him go faster, lol.
So mom got tired of that pretty quick (she's a trail girl big time) and asked me if I thought I could handle her outside. They were both acting pretty good, but Dixie wasn't real responsive to my reins, so I said she's a little heavy in my hands, or something like that. And mom said well its up to you. So I asked her how he was dong and she goes, well we'll see when we get out there! Lol.
<--one of my moms dogs, Ditzy, she is half chow half aussie and a sweet girl (although a bit ditzy ;) )

So I got down (much easier for me to get on and off then the mother! :) ) and opened the gate, walked her through the barn, and opened the other side. I got on her in the barn knowing it'd be MUCH easier, she turns into a rocket after you leave the arena. She had parked herself at the tie spot, lol, guess she was hoping we were done! So it was easy to just hop on her without her moving.

And the fun begins!! They were both pretty wired up out there. Looking this way and that. Oh whats that over there?? Oh, lets walk faster! Haha, but both did a really good job considering the wind storm etc. They haven't been on a trail in way over a year. I was really quite worried about my mom though, she really really does NOT need to fall off. Specially of that giant! So I kept asking her, are you okay? Is he okay? Lol, I wasn't worried about me at all. Dixie is fast and a bit sporadic (we went from one side of the road to the other in half a second quiet a few times, lol, did a few spins) but totally manageable. I was very thankful for the bitless bridle a good many times. She did well with it. And it doesn't tick a horse off and make things worse when you have to get up in their face.

So we went down their gravel driveway and cut across a neighbors field, went through their yard a bit and then tried to go back down the driveway a different way to go back home, but a car came out of the house we had just been at and totally wigged the both of them out. Dixie would have been fine, but Cisco was not happy and I didn't want to risk mom getting hurt so we walked back up the way the car had gone, and went back the way we came. They settled down but of course Dixie started her OH WE'RE GOING HOME routine of her fast running walk thing and "no I will not just plain walk, thank you." ;) I tried for a bit to get her to walk but then just gave up and went along for the ride. At least its smooth! I let her get away with a few things, shes so old and it doesn't hurt anyone, so whatever.

Here's a few pictures we took of each other along the way :)

And a few videos!! I warn you, if you get dizzy easily, don't watch these!! ;)

This video has a highlight of me dropping the camera (which was attatched to my belt loop for just this reason) to stop Dixie from heading home, lol.

And the highlight in this one is Cisco stopping to smell the...no not roses, poop. And me saying woah and easy a million times trying to get Dixie to walk.

From the Back of a Horse

So we made it back in one piece with no mishaps! And were very proud of ourselves! (we had so much fun watching the videos after we got inside)
I worked with Dixie a bit outside the barn making her mind and not just walking her into the barn and getting off. Once she was doing better I got off and loosed her cinch and noseband and then walked her in.

Thats Dix over there saying, "stop taking pictures and get my saddle off woman!"

So there you have it! If you made it this far HUGE PATS for you! I'm so sorry I get so long winded. Have a great day everyone!

ps, I know I said I'd get the video of Tuff ground driving today, I'm working on it!!

Tuffs First Ground Driving Lesson

2009-02-23T15:09:00.015-06:00

<--Tuff says, whatchu doin back there??

The grey fuzzy butt had his first real lesson today and it went pretty well!! I tried it last year once and it did not go as well, (he was TOTALLY confused) so I gave up until I had someone around to kind of help him at his head.

Well today I got him out early and brushed him, etc. I had brought out the surcingle (sp??) with me to see if he was big enough for it yet. Alas, no. :( But he's not far! It just won't adjust up enough around his belly. It's at the tightness of say a back cinch right now.

So I took it off (he did very well with it btw!) and we walked around the yard looking at scary stuff, lol. The inlaws have tons of stuff to look at in their yard. He's funny, if something looks scary he doesn't run away from it, he wants to go see it! Thank goodness. So we had to nose a few things, and he jumped back a few times when they moved/made sound, lol. But then decided finding something to eat on the ground was way more important. He was a bit 'up' today with the breeze and coolness. But still a good boy. We walked over a few things and even a LOG, I mean, this was a big piece of wood, and he did it like it was nothing, sucha good boy. It was really short too, but he didn't try to avoid it, yeah.

After that I tried the bitless bridle on him again. Last time I tried it his head was still too small. But today it was a-okay! The noseband still won't tighten like it should, he has a itty bitty nose. But it was doable.

So we walked around with that, yielding to the side, stopping, etc. Then we worked on some trotting in hand, pivots. I saw on a QH world show video the halter people trotting their horses at a slow jog and they would just walk beside them. For some reason I thought that was really cool, lol, so I did that a few times. It was fun! I am easily amused sorry! Then I worked on him picking up the trot faster (yes, I jogged with him this time, ;) ) and worked on setting up, etc. One time we stopped from a jog and he was square already! I watched a vid of in2paints where she did a pattern and her horse basically did that. Was neat! He's still pretty slow on setting up. But getting there! Our pivots, eh, well I'm really quite clueless on how to teach that, so we mainly worked on him crossing over his front feet. He did pretty good!

Then went over to the shed to drag out the long lines. It was a bit of a struggle to get the things going like I wanted, they were not the type of material where it is easy to coil them up, so after a little while I just let them drag behind me.

So first I rubbed him with them a bit, but I knew he would be okay with them. He was. I tried to lunge him in a circle around me with them on first, but that was a disaster. He didn't have a clue what I wanted and I couldn't get him going out onto the circle. So I finally just stepped behind him. Aha! Much better! (that was supposed to be step 2 after step 1 was good!) Anyway, he took a bit to figure out when I tap him with the reins he is supposed to move, but he got it! (that was our big prob last time) and pretty soon he was walking all over like he had been doing it at least half a dozen times.

It was so fun!! He responded pretty good to turning, not so good in the beginning, but got a lot better. And he did very well with the 'go' cue. Woah? NOT so good. Really quite bad actually. But he has plenty of time to improve! He did so good when I walk at his head, but if I get behind him and ask for it, I have to REALLY put some serious pressure on the lines to get him to stop. And then he doesn't stick there. He will try to move off again. Frustrating, but we will work on it! He did one really good one and I quit on that. Lots of pats!
Look how cute he is in this picture to the left!!

Anyway, I tied him back up to the hitching post and there he lost some 'good boy' points. I swear he was trying to try my patience. I could see it in his eyes!! lol, anyway, he has gotten on this kick where he does NOT want to stand quietly when tied if your not messing with him. And sometimes when you are! So that went on for quite a while, me trying to keep my patience, and I think I did a pretty good job! Anyway, finally he was still for a bit and I decided to not push my luck. I wish he would just realize when he's tied he is TIED. So just stand there until your UNTIED. *sigh* Yeah, he LOOKS like an angel in the picture above, but don't be fooled! ;)

Oh well, I need to remember he's still young! But he still has a long way to go on giving to preassure. At one point he stepped on the long line and kept yanking until part of the leather crown broke. Thankfully it was a part where I could just put it on a higher hole. -_- And he still tests the lead while he is tied up. One of the scariest things is to see a horse pulling back with all his might. Gives me butterflies just thinking about it. I should have worked on this more when he was younger. *sigh!*

So thats about it! I put him back in his pasture and he stood at the gate like, "well, we're done? Aw!" then walked off, lol. The whole time the other horses had been getting their breakfast and eating, so he behaved like a good boy even with that going on.

I'll keep yall updated on our next sessions! I'm not going to drive him 'naked' again though, he got his leg over the line too many times (won't keep his head up the heifer!!) so I'll have to either use the surcingle or a saddle. I also want to get his 'daddy' out to drive him after he's going pretty good :).

Check back tomarrow, I'll have a video of us ground driving up! (hopefully! windows movie maker is being a pain in the you know what as usual)

Next Blog!
My Weekend Ride With The Mother :)