R.I.P Daisy Girl...Plus A New Project

It's taken me a while to write this post. Just not something any of us want to do I don't guess. (sorry, redneck language coming out)

A couple of months ago Daisy passed away. I knew she was getting old at 24, but I don't know, I guess I was expecting at least another couple years. She was in such good health!

We found her laying in the pasture, no struggle around her, no poop like she had been there a while. I think she just laid down and she was gone. :( I guess that is the best way to go. I like to think she was doing her favorite thing (eating) at the time. I just kind of wish I had been there to say good bye, and thank her for all the great times we had together. I wish I had known her longer! At least I have Tuff to see a bit of her in.

Some of my favorite moments...

So, I have kind of been looking for another horse casually here lately. If your a true horse person it runs in your blood. If you don't have one you are automatically looking for one. I went and looked at a gelding that was pretty cheap, looked good in the pictures, sounded good in the texts, and was close. Turned to be a big no go, I didn't even ride him. He was so herd bound to his mama that he was just dangerous. He was 10, but I bet he had never been away from his mama except to maybe wean him when he was young. I liked everything about him but I think he would have been more trouble then I need right now. Time for horses is VERY slim with two little ones! Nap times are precious around here, haha.

So, then I started thinking, well, there are four horses right here near the house for free. And I won't have to buy hay for them! Lol. Five if you count Tuff. Why don't I pick one of them and work with it, get it riding good, satisfy my horse bug, and also take it with me to ride with my mom and dad this fall at their new lake house near the national forest?? No one is riding any of them. So I went through my options:

Chatterbox - Some of you may be wondering what happened to the pretty palomino my FIL bought? Well turns out there was a reason he was so cheap. He had white line. Ugh, took them a year to get rid of it, and I personally don't think he is sound yet, although the FIL does. Anyway, he's big and pushy and kind of a pill, I don't really like his personality per say. Although to be fair, I really haven't done much with him. Plus I would feel bad taking over the FIL's horse when he keeps saying he is going to come and ride him. So no on him.

Rusty - Nah, he has a weird eye cancer thing going on and he is goofy again since no one has messed with him but maybe twice since he got back from the trainer 2 years ago.

Skip - Thought about it, but he is not even green broke, just worn a saddle once and been lunged a few times. That would be a lot of work, even though he has a great, quiet temperament. Too much time needed. He is also too short to keep up with the parents two gaited horses that are both over 16 hands. More about them later.

Tuff - Again, thought about it, but he is still so small, he wouldn't keep up either, plus he also is not even green broke. He has been rode a few times, but still, too much time needed.

Stormy - Ding ding! I decided on her. Another mare, I know. But she has a great mind, tall enough to stand a better chance of keeping up (although I remember how bad Cisco and I left her and the brother in law in the dust, lol) and she has good genes and is a pretty thing. Plus she already rides decent. Green broke I'd say, but not, 'I may buck you off still', green broke, lol. Here is the post about her arrival and bloodlines, etc.

Anyway, I want to put some back story on the reason I want a  horse for fall riding. Mom has always said Cisco was too tall for her, and Dixie is too old now. So I started just kind of looking around for a horse for her. I joined a few facebook pages for horses for sale in my region, told a horsey friend, etc. So that friend sent me a link for a horse one day. I checked it out and was like, ooo yeah, we need to see this one. Convinced the mother to go look at her and she ended up going home with her the next day.

Her name is Chloe, but that is kind of confusing since my oldest daughters name is Chloe, lol. But we still haven't come up with another name for her. Any ideas are appreciated!!

So her she is! She is a 5 year old gaited horse, palomino paint. Around 15.3 to 16 hands. Although we have no papers, and I don't think she is full gaited either. I think she's got some QH in there somewhere. But she does gait! Get ready for some picture spam!!

 Trying her out

Breaking out some Clinton Anderson on her

Isn't she pretty??

Desensitizing her to the stick/string

Dad working his horse, Cisco!

Inside turn

Following...

Our awesome new farrier lady

So we loved her temperament and how she looked, but she had a weird bump on her nose, and she was pretty green. As in, not got a real good handle on her. She would get 'stuck' sometimes if she saw something scary or didn't want to go somewhere and I had to eventually resort to beating her with a small branch, lol! But we liked that her first reaction wasn't to be stupid, it was to just kind of stop and look. And there were ALL kinds of stuff at that crazy place to look at. Pigs, goats, chickens, you name it. (she really didn't like the pigs, lol)

Anyway, we took her to the vet for a vet check, mainly worried the bump on her nose was cancerous. And turns out it was nothing, but ALL FOUR FEET had white line in them! Wha?? So mom really had to ask herself if she wanted a horse that needed quite a bit of attention for a while. She eventually decided she was worth it! So here we are!

We found a great new farrier that has all kinds of schooling, and bought some new stuff they have out to soak her hooves in. The farrier didn't think they were too bad at all, mainly front left, and thought she could get her going good. She is one tough lady, do rag topped hair, muscle shirt, shoulders like a line backer, and tattoos. And so nice and polite, we loved her. She's originally from out west I think. 

So coincidentally I had been watching some Clinton Anderson DVDS and researching him again and when she came along I figured she was the perfect horse to try out my new knowledge with.

I went after work to my mom and dads for about two weeks. Helping them both get their horses going well ground work wise. We kind of stalled the last few weeks with rain, then heat advisories, and now they just bought a lake house so they are focused on getting that all set up for Labor Day weekend this week. But hopefully after that all dies down we can get back to it. I want them both to be exemplary citizens for them to trail ride this fall with.

The lake house they bought, like I said earlier, backs right up to Bankhead National Forest, which has tons of horse trails in it. Woot woot! So glad we have that awesome aluminum four horse to use! Figured we could bring a few round pen panels with us and make them a temporary enclosure and stay over night, go riding in the morning. Or we could just trailer down there early, stay that night after riding, or go home. Its only like 40 mins from their house, little over an hour from mine. Not sure how we would share the trailer, maybe keep it at my house the night before, load my horse up and then drop by and pick them up on the way out there.

So! Cisco and Chloe both know how to:

• Stay consistent at whatever gait we choose by just pointing (in round pen)
• Do inside turns (in round pen)    
• Desensitized to lead rope and stick and string all over body
• Desensitized to string whacking on the ground on either side and in front
• Backing up from wiggle of lead
• Lateral flexing on both sides
• Some hindquarter yielding

That's about all we have done so far. Next I plan on working more on lateral yielding and hindquarter yielding. Then we need to do forequarter yielding I might move off the ground work there. I don't think the parents could handle the other exercises that are supposed to be after these. Such as lunging for respect and sending. I don't know, we'll see! I did a little lunging for respect with one of them and they picked it up pretty easy, I think it was Chloe.

Well I've yammered on enough for one post, more about Stormy on the next!

He's Finally Here!

Well after weeks of rain or conflicting schedules, my mom and I finally made our trade! It all went so smooth and well; way better then I imagined it would!

I was nervous about the trailer part really. I hate hauling horses, so nerve wracking! And Cisco hasn't been on a trailer in years and only a few times period! Also, I was using the two horse of my neighbors again, which was big enough for him but its still a small box he had to climb in.

So we loaded Daisy up with little effort and headed to my parents place. My mom was out in the barn brushing Cisco who was very excited to see a new horse coming to visit! He and Daisy hollered at each other a bit and then I took her to the side gate and put her in the round pen. We figured that would be the easiest way to get them acquainted since it was in the pasture, without just throwing them together.

Mom untied Cisco and let him out and he ran out there and bugged her for 20 minutes, lol. He racked and trotted and cantered around showing off it was so funny. Daisy trotted once a few strides with him and then just walked around or ate grass. She was definitely not too impressed.

Through most of this Dixie, who we were really trying to get together with Daisy, was out in the back pasture! She finally ambled up there after a bit and they sniffed and squealed a bit but that was it. My mom let Daisy out after we left with Cisco and she said they did well. This morning my dad said Dixie was laying down with Daisy standing near her, so all seems well! Yeah, mares!

After he got over Daisy a bit Cisco came over and visited with us. He was so cute letting me love all over him and give him hugs and kisses, all things Daisy does not appreciate! ;) He's just a big love bug.

So my husband got done putting up a garage door opener for my parents and we got Cisco's saddle loaded up and grain to bribe him with. I wasn't real sure how I wanted to go about getting him in there but I knew I wanted to go slow and easy and just let him figure it out.

I grabbed a whip to cue him with if needed, remembering how we used to get my young QH mare I had when I was a teenager, into a trailer. But we didn't need it! I simply walked him out of the pasture, let him sniff the trailer (which he wasn't alarmed about really at all, just curious) and then my dad started shaking the grain can and pouring a bit out, etc, to entice him. And oh! Was he enticed, lol. I sniffed and sniffed, then he would look at the trailer floor and think, like hm, what do I have to do to get that?? After a few minutes he decided to just step on up in there and grab him a bite! GOOOD BOOOYY! Every time he even thought about moving forward I would praise him and pet him, he does really well with verbal praise.

So he chomped on some grain for a moment, but then we realized we had a problem. He is plenty long enough to reach the hay manger without putting his back feet in! Hm! I didn't want to rush him though so we let him relax in there and eat, and I tried pushing on his hiney a bit to get him to step up but he took that as a cue to get off and hopped down. No problem! I let him figure it out again and he hopped right back up and ate some more. This time as he was getting up he almost put a back foot in. Again he ate a bit and this time we tried pulling a bit on his halter after a minute but he backed out again. So I pulled on his lead and clucked to him to get him back in and this time he jumped on up, all four feet! Yeah! We all went SHUT THE DOOR, lol, and in he was! This all might have taken 10-15 mins? Such a smart boy.

He wasn't real happy to be in there after he got in, and of course his mama neighing at him didn't help! Mom opened the front window to check on him and he poked his big old head completely out of it!! I was thinking, oh great, please don't think about climbing out of this window and/or get your head stuck! But he pulled it back in and we shut it to prevent that again! The picture there is right before we closed it back up, lol.

We got Chloe in her seat and jumped in and off we went! I decided to go on down the interstate even though its louder etc, then through town. All the stops and goes are hard on them balancing. He did good! Although my hubby said he moves a lot more then Daisy, you could feel the truck moving a bit as we were going down the road, which made me nervous!! I don't know if it was him being nervous, or just not know how to balance in the trailer.

Anyway we had to make a stop for my brother in law at the dollar store for oil and he was completely still and silent the whole time except for neighing at us when we came to check on him, lol. After that it was straight home! We had a little trouble trying to get into our usual unloading place, the husbands diesel is a 2wd and it was rained nonstop for days here. So we ended up unloading kind of in the gravel drive, oh well.

We thought he would want to race off so I  worked for a few minutes to get the butt bar unhooked before we opened his door, but after all that he had to be told to back off with some encouragement, he was pretty sure the ground was not going to be there, lol. He did finally step off and instead of a horse on the end of my lead I had a 10 foot tall GIRAFFE! He was like where the hades am I?? He listened very well though as I walked him toward the pasture. We did some stopping and backing to make sure he remembered I was attached to his head that was in the clouds, and then went to see his new girlfriend that was very excited to see him!

I parked him in front of the fence and asked for a brush, his shoulders had gotten pretty sweaty, I guess a combination of the closed in trailer and nervousness. (Daisy was a little damp all over when I got her out, crazy, I had most of the windows all the way open, but thats why I would rather haul stock type trailers, better airflow). I brushed him down and bit and let him relax, which he did fairly quickly. Then I let him and Stormy sniff a bit and felt pretty good about tossing him in there with her. They trotted and cantered around a bit but that was about it. Mostly it was Cisco running about checking out his new digs with Stormy following like a puppy dog, lol! She kept having to trot to keep up with his power walk. They settled down and ate hay together and all was well!

Thats about it folks! Oh, while I was at my parents I took a picture of the disaster that happened New Years night.
    

This picture is all that is left of my parents shop. Which housed 3 muscle cars totaling over $100,000, two boats, thousands of dollars of tools and equipment, another muscle car in production, and countless items from when my brothers and I were kids. SO DEVASTATING. I feel so bad for them, but they are doing okay. My dad is still trying to get over it, he lost two of his 'babies', a '66 GTO that he restored ground up basically for 3 years, and a '70 Chevelle that he just bought last year. My mom's car, a '71 Lemans convertible was in there too. :( Won't ever know what the cause was, too big of a disaster, but they think it was something electrical, possibly my dads Chevelle, since that was the spot of the most damage.

We are SO happy though that it was just the shop and didn't get to the house! 'Stuff' can be replaced, but it still hurts. Thankfully it was all insured except for the boats.

Anway! In other news we got a colossal snow storm (for us at least!) Thursday afternoon. Dumped nearly 4 inches on us! The roads were a DISASTER. I barely made it home. But after that we had a awesome time playing in it. Sledding, making snow men, snowball fights. Just wonderful. Chloe loved it! I had put Daisy's blanket on her two days before because it had been raining forever, and the temps were dropping in the 30's at night. So thankfully she was all ready for the snow! I finally got to pull it off her Friday when the sun reappeared!

Sweet baby! I knew she would need that snow suit and boots when I bought it this summer!!

About to go down the hill!

All snuggly!

All nakey again. I wish she would grow more coat!

Well I am finally going to shut up, thanks so much if you made it this far! Another post coming soon about Cisco boy!

Oh, The Deception!

Well now that I am on my computer I can give you a better picture of the gelding we went to see Saturday. Here he is:

Looks nice right?? He sure does in THIS picture. I didn't get a picture of him when we went to see him but this is an example picture of the kind of condition he was in when we drove up:

Of course this is obviously an older horse, but the prominent backbone and croup are all very similar to this gelding above, although I think his ribs were standing out MORE then this horses. Definitely around a 2 on the body conditioning scale. Their excuse? "He's a big horse, he takes a lot of feed!" and "He was like that when we got him" Sigh.

SAD. I knew when we drove up to a ranshackle barn and a rundown dressage arena with BARREL RACING barrels in it that was a bad sign. Not to mention the 2 horses walking around loose with lead ropes dangling. Near a road. Yeah. -_-

So I saw him in the pasture when we drove up and I thought oh no, I really hope that's not him. I looked closer at his markings and I knew it, I knew it was him. He has the same markings as Daisy so it wasn't hard to remember. My mother in law went OH NO, I hope not! I was like, well, maybe not, but I have a strong suspicion!

The lady that ran this 'lesson barn' was sick so she had her teenage students tacking up and talking to us. We walked out to the pasture to catch him and he wasn't happy about that, trotted around a bit before we got him. Then as the little girl was haltering him I asked her some about him, namely about him being out of Impressive blood and if he had been tested. She says, I don't know, but I do know he is a roarer. WHAT?! Your kidding right?? NO MENTION of this in his ad of course. That right there was kind of a deal breaker. But we had drove over an hour to get there and decided to try him out anyway.

So we get to the barn and they can't find any tack to fit him (most of their horses were under 15 hands and he is 16.2). She also can't find a saddle that my father in law can fit in. They finally find reins that are long enough and the girl takes him to the little dressage arena and puts him through his paces both ways. Oh wait, I forgot the part where she said he throws his head a bit so lets try him in a tie down. YEAH. So she puts one of those on him and my father in law are just looking at each other like, man what a waste of time.

Anyway he does fairly decent. Takes his leads well, etc. I notice she is posting his trot, but don't think much about it until later. And then we hear it about the second time around at the lope, HUFF HUFF HUFF with each stride. Yep, definitely a roarer.

She hops off and I tell her I don't want to ride him in the tie down and take it off so I can see how he does, then climb up on the behemoth. I flex him both ways, he does that fairly well. I make him woah a couple times and flex again. He pulls HARD on the bit a few times, can definitely tell he has had beginners yanking on him. Then I trot him. OH MY WORD. Now I know why she was posting his trot. I could. not. keep. my. hiney. in. the. saddle. Awful! And his lope wasn't much better. So I did lope him pretty good both directions and you could hear his roar even worse, poor guy. So! That was the end of that.

We were all pretty disappointed  so I got on my phone again to see if there was anything else down there worth looking at. Found a stable about 25 minutes east of us who had two geldings that sounded promising. But they didn't pan out either. At least they were saddled when we drove up! The father in law jumped on a sorrel and I took the palomino paint. Neither looked like much. They were about 15.1ish, but pretty lanky. Just 'horses', you know? They minded well though and were a nice ride. Definitely smoother then old Red Man. But still not what he was looking for!

As we were driving home I happened to get an email from a guy who had a pleasure gelding that the FIL relaly like, but had said he thought someone was coming to get him. He said in his email he still had him and to give him a call. Whoo hoo! We were pretty excited about that, so maybe he will work out. We'll see!

I used to think horse shopping was fun, but LAWD, I'm having second thoughts.

Got another post in the works! Might get it out today!

Small Update!

Yes, I'm still alive and well! Not much horsey things going on since the beginning of the year. I've pretty much retired Daisy girl. She is nearly 23 now and really would rather not have to do anything but eat!

Chloe and I went out and visited her this afternoon. She is looking good going into winter. I'll have to make sure I blanket her on the cold wet/snowy nights though, she isn't as hearty as she was. I wish she would grow more of a winter coat!

She of course didn't make it easy on me and be available up at the gate. No, I had to walk through 3 pastures to get her fuzzy butt! And of course I carried my 2 year old daughter through nearly all of them to and back because she was "huffing tired" lol! She is so funny.

I had a pocket full of corn so gave her some after I caught her, hopefully she will remember that!
So we finally made it to the house and got her brushed. I also got her nasty mane snarl all smooth and fixed, though it seemed like I pulled out half her mane in the process! Doesn't look like it though. I guess its like me when I take a shower I feel like I lose a half a head of hair down the drain sometimes!

I found Chloe a low bucket to stand on and she was a great helper. Then she found the cowboy magik and had to spray that all over Daisy (and my leg -_-). She even got Daisys nose which I'm sure she appreciated, lol.

I had so much fun sharing with her the parts of Daisy's body, what a hoof pick is for, don't walk behind a horse, etc. She loved feeding Daisy the rest of the little corn I had gotten. Daisy was so careful not to use her teeth too.
After that her papa came up and gave me a leg up and then lifted Chloe up. He gave us a little pony ride in the yard, fun fun! Chloe wasn't real sure about being so high, but with time I think she will be fine! Or maybe she just needs a pony! ;)

After Chloe decided she was done I tooled around on Daisy a bit longer. I was thrilled she still remembers her lateral flexing! She was such a good girl. I haven't rode her since March probaby.

And in other exciting news! The father in law has been on the hunt for a horse for a while. He's only found one worth looking at and didn't like him enough to buy. But! I found him a gelding about an hour from us we will probably check out tomorrow. I'm so excited, love horse shopping! He is a big scutter at 16.2, chestnut reg QH out of a great grandson of Obvious Conclusion. Does english, western, jumping (woot!) and trails. 11 years old. Pretty guy! I'm on my phone or I'd put his ad link up for you.

 I can't really put photos where I want them on my phone so the first two are obviously the horse for sale, Red Man. And Daisy and Chloe and I the next! (And a bonus cute one of Chloe in her 'stang from today , lol.

I will keep yall updated on the test ride!

Great Day at the Equine Fair

Sorry its taken me so long to post about Saturday!

Anyway, in a nutshell it went great. I was soo proud of Daisy girl. She took everything in stride and seemed to really enjoy being out and about! I really have no idea how much 'out and about' she has had in her life but I don't think it has been much. Here are a few clues that tell me that:

1. Miniature mules pulling covered wagons are funny looking!
2. Anytime another horse got near her she had to look at them
3. In the arena with other horses she would walk suuuper slow when one was behind her or next to her
4. Clapping crowds sound kind of scary and she doesn't like it!
5. PA systems really get her attention
6. Galloping horses are kind of strange and definitely garner attention

So anyway! All those things got her attention but she barely popped her head up higher then normal and mainly just pricked her ears and looked. The clapping did get a bit of a skitter, lol, but nothing serious. This was of course at the end of our parade. But it wasn't anything hard enough to even think about unseating me.

There was so much going on! Lots of different breeds and kids and people everywhere! Three different wagons (1 with miniature mules, 1 with a beautiful friesian and 1 with miniature horses) a miniature donkey, three miniature horses, racking horses speed racking up and down the road, a TWH galloping flat out up and down the road, etc. All of it added up to a good bit of activity and she did really great with it. The worst thinkg oddly was the clapping! After lets say, four or five rounds of it though she finally stopped popping her head up and realized it was not something to be concerned with. So funny!

The actual reason we were there, the parade, was kind of disappointing. We were in there for maybe five minutes with about, hm, 8-10 other horses? And all we did was walk. They never did tell us to 'do our thing' so finally I did some trot right before we were supposed to head out. Daisy did really well besides getting us lapped by a few riders, lol, I could not get her past a plodding walk! I think she was trying to take in what the heck we were doing.

Let me back up and go through the whole day. Hopefully I won't bore everyone to tears!

So that morning I got all the rest of my stuff packed up. I drove over to the in laws and headed out to find Daisy while the husband hooked up the trailer. She of  course was out in the back pasture so I had to trot her almost all the way back to the gate so we wouldn't be late! By the time we got there my mom was there already (she was my buddy the whole day) and I tied her up to the trailer while we got the doors open etc and then loaded her up with no trouble at all, she just hopped right up in there. And we were off! We got to the show about 10 mins early even, and I unloaded her and tied her back up to the trailer. And she just stood there! I was afraid she would paw, dance, etc. I should have known she would be golden. She never once offered to pull on her halter or moved a bit the whole day! Even when I was in the trailer bumping around trying to get dressed twice.

So then when I was trying to straighten her out not long after we got there she stepped in a huge cow patty that had a whole colony of ANTS in it! (you can just see it in the photo) They swarmed up her hoof and fetlock in seconds while I screamed at my mom for the brush. I got most of them knocked off and we moved to the other side. The only thing she did was pick her hoof way up off the ground, poor girl!

So by this time I was starting to get nervous because I had less then an hour to tack her up, get to the arena (which was a ways from the trailers, across another pasture, you'll see in the video) and ride, come back, get her tack switched and myself dressed in my english stuff, and back to the arena! Not to mention braid her mane! Ack!!

So I got her western gear on and we headed down to the arena. She was golden, just going along with her head down, made me smile! She was a little slow and ploddy trying to look at stuff, but that was it. We got to the gate to the arena and I saw two people coming out of there and I thought, oh no, did they chase them out? I asked them about it and they said the man was just spraying down the covered part of the arena. See, it was a long arena with maybe a quarter or a little more covered with a cow shoot and boxes for roping at the far end. The rest was open and let me tell you muddy from all the rain a few days ago. So we decided to go on in and check out the part that wasn't getting hosed, which was what I was most concerned about. There were cows hemmed up in the far right corner that she took a good look at as we were coming from the trailer to the gate.

The gate was this wide affair with a cow chute you walk through and two metal bars on the ground. Daisy gave it a good look but didnt hesitate! We headed on in and trucked around for a bit, she offered a trot a few times, which is definitely unusual for her! But nothing crazy. She gave the cows a good look and some panels stacked up in the arena another good look, but went on past them with no difficulty! We walked a bit more and then did some trotting. Then I knew I wanted to get a few lope strides in so we attempted that but it was so durn muddy I barely got those few strides and abandoned it pretty quick. She didn't seem full of it so I didn't press it.

So at this time my watch was telling me I only had twenty minutes to get back and get us both dressed in our english gear so we headed on out of the arena and back to the trailer. I passed the mother headed to the porta potties on our way back, ugh, so I knew I wouldn't have much help. Thankfully she had set all my clothes and tack out for me already! I trotted on back to the trailer and stripped her of her western stuff, got english tack on, got her english reins on her bridle and left her tied up while I hopped in the trailer to change. (remind me not to choose the stall with POOP in it next time!) That was fun hopping on one leg with one in western boots and jeans and the other breeches trying to get my tall boots on so I don't step on the ground with a sock! Boy, a dressing room would have been handy! I did it though!

By this time my mama was back and she gave me my helmet and then also reminded me I hadn't braided Daisy's mane. CRAP! So I quickly determined that I should just head on down to the arena and attempt to braid it there if I had time. I grabbed a few rubber bands and headed back down there. And thankfully I did have time to hurriedly get it up. Theres a bit of it in the picture. It wasn't as nice as the day before but I got all of it in there with time to spare!

Speaking of that picture, you see my mom there messing with Daisy's bridle? Well apparently we got the left rein put on backwards and I realized this just minutes before we were supposed to go in the arena. But the nimble fingered mommy got it figured out for me with plenty of time.

So I got on up in my saddle and we sat a few minutes waiting for them to call the Quarter Horses in for our parade. I talked to a few people there at the gate who were really nice. You should have seen the looks I was getting in my helmet and coat etc. They don't see hunt seat riders round that part, like, EVER! Lol. But we looked so good I was not too self conscious! After I settled in the saddle and relaxed I thought, this is what we have been training for all week and I felt ready!

They finally called us in and I found out we were only going to ride in the covered part! It was a bit small for that many horses but we managed it! One horse in front of us decided he wanted no part of the arena so he started spinning and dodging right in front of us, eep, but thankfully didn't bother Daisy. His rider finally stepped off and lead him back out of the gate area. We made our entrance and got a nice clear spot as the second to last rider in. The cute little white mare behind us (roping/barrel horse = hot) was a faster stepper then us and I apologized to her rider and told her she could pass us if she wanted, lol, which she did a bit later. So we just cruised on around as they told of the breed and I finally decided to do our posting trot a bit right at the end. As we were going by the PA system (which she didn't really want to be by) they all started clapping which made Daisy jump a foot or so to the side and also go down to a walk. But my mom said we looked good! She had the video camera going but apparently it got switched to photo mode so no video, only a picture of our backs, boo!

So the rest of the day we just sort of chilled by the stands kind of near the gate while Daisy checked stuff out or took a nap. At one point I headed back to the trailer and swapped back to western (I couldn't wait to get back into my tank top and jeans!) and we came back to the stands. Daisy was so good about all the tack changes, never had a problem with any of it. Back at the stands my mom was loving the whole show, especially listening to the vet, farrier, and trainer talk. What was neat about it was each one brought God into their talks, loved it!

The mama decided to ride Daisy a bit at this point and I took her place on the bleachers. I warned her that she was uber lazy and didn't neck rein, but she still came back saying how lazy she was! ;) She got her to trot a few times and the last time she tripped so she said that was all she did of that (her hooves are long!) I also got to talk to the farrier about her hoof and he said it was just long and needed a trim, yeah! I got his card and will be calling him today to set up an appointment. He said he charges $40.00 for barefoot. This is about right for around here. What are yalls prices?

On a side note, Daisy really likes sun chips, who knew? She ate about half my bag! I told my mom if it isn't my child trying to eat my food, its my horse! Speaking of Chloe I decided to leave her with my awesome mother in law. I figured it was going to be a long day out in the sun and mom and I would be busy with Daisy, so I knew she would be happier at home. I missed the little booger though! I can't wait till she is older and more able to do things with me. I really would love to get her a tiny mini horse to ride around for her first few years of riding. I figure that thing can only hurt her so much, while a big horse has bigger hooves, bigger teeth and is just plain BIGGER, lol. If she takes a tumble off a mini its just that, a tumble. Not a fall! I figure we have another year before she will really want to be riding (maybe a little less) so maybe we can find her one by then.

Well around 1:15 or so we decided we had had enough sun and went back and loaded up. Daisy I think was ready to go home too because she loaded faster and easier then ever, lol, I basically just pointed and she was in there! I think she was also ready for some hay! Mom asked me if I wanted to drive and with a bit of nervousness I said yes. But it was not bad at all! Although it was definitely nerve wracking and I don't want to do it real often. I'm glad my husband is such a good trailer driver!

Back at the house I unloaded Daisy girl and put her back in her pasture. She immediately took off to go find her girlfriend, maybe to tell her about her strange day?? Most likely to go eat grass, ;)

Thats about it! A good day had by all and I really enjoyed spending time with my mom. Thanks for listening to my long tale!

Oh, and here is the video I put together! Until later!

Day Before The Horse Fair!

Tomorrow is the day! And I am sitting here so tired! I was out with Daisy for four hours riding, bathing and getting all our stuff together. TIRED. I also see I have a light sunburn on my lower arms, the one day I don't wear a tank top!!

I'm SO thankful the sun came out and it quit raining today! They were saying all week that today was going to be our best chance of rain. They don't know my God, I made a request and the day was awesome! I got everything done I was hoping to.

So after running to town to get my mom and dads avalanche (this will be my trailer puller) and pick up a few things I came home and parked by the round pen. The child had thankfully decided to take her nap so I left her in the car and fetched Daisy. A BIL had appeared thankfully and he kept an eye on Chlo to make sure she was till sleeping.

I was very happy to have one more chance to ride before tomorrow. We refined a few things, solidified a few things, and got as good as we are gonna get in this time frame! I really wish I had known about this last week. Anyway flexing was much better today as well as my trotting. It rained a bunch yesterday and all night so the round pen was a bit soggy which was making Daisy even slower then she usually is, lol. I had spurs on today hoping that would save my legs a bit. They annoyed her a few times and she kicked out at them so I smacked her and gave her another jab to keep going each time. By the time we were cantering she was done with her protests and I didn't have any trouble with her. I only did a few strides of cantering because of the sloppiness.

After our ride I took her over and gave her a good bath. Her white socks are white again! She was a good girl for that even though its been years since her last one, lol. With all the rain her hoof crack, divot, HOLE whatever it is flipped up on one edge so I had the FIL snip it for me.

After that the husband got home from work early so he went and got the trailer from the neighbors. Daisy and I went over and checked it out and I tied her up to the side while the DH cleaned out the stalls. Then it was time to do our test load! She wasn't too keen on the first two tries but the third time she hopped right up in there. I had left a pile of carrots in the manger so hopefully she remembers this in the morning, hehe. I am not above bribery! ;) So then we decided to take her for a little ride. I threw her some hay and we took off. She didn't seem to have any trouble and hopped off nice and slow after we got home.

I took her back up in the yard and we brushed her out again since she was now dry and then I tried my braid again. Success this time!! I think the key was braiding SIDEWAYS not straight and it stays up tighter to her neck long enough to get all the hairs in.

She was such a good girl just chilling resting a hoof! The FIL thought itd be funny to braid her tail so he stood back there and did that for awhile, lol. And Chloe also sat on her back most of the time, she loved it.

So thats about it! Almost time for our small group for church so I better scat, I'll be back next with our report on tomorrow! Wish us good riding and a good time!

Ride #2 Great Progress! Ride #3 Okay...

Hey again! So I have two rides to blog about! First our ride on Tuesday, which was awesome. Daisy took everything we went over Monday and doubled how well she did it! Steering was much improved, as well as her lateral flex. She was awesome at that! I got the second half of my ride on video this time, so its not QUITE so boring. Still hard to see a whole lot and my battery was dead in my video camera so we are still with the Nikon!

We also did some vertical flexing, this is the first time I've ever tried this with her and she did great. Any little bit of movement with her nose towards her chest I rewarded and by the end of the ride she was dipping her nose nearly to her chest! One especially good one was what I quit on and jumped off and loosened her girth as extra reward.

I did mostly trotting this ride, my posting was much improved although after watching the video I see I was on the WRONG diagonal nearly the whole ride, well, at least all that was on video! How embarrassing. I also did a lot of two point this ride. I feel like I struggle a lot with keeping my leg under me. (which is confirmed by the video) I read somewhere that that can sometimes mean your stirrups are too short so I decided to try lengthening them a hole next ride.

Daisy did really well with a bunch of distractions as well. Of course Stormy was calling for her, and then two little ankle biters (some sort of fuzzy mutt and a weenie dog) came running at us in the round pen from BEHIND and she just flicked an ear at them, even while I was yelling and waving at them to go away, lol. (there is a house behind the round pen that they belong to) There was also a bunch of chainsaws going off a little ways away and the husband and his brothers and dad were walking around in and out of the woods near us, etc. Such a good girl!

Think thats about it for that ride! Here are a few video stills:

I also got to ride yesterday, even though the husband was not home to watch little girl. I gathered our stuff up and headed out there hoping the mother in law might want to watch her. I feel kind of guilty about it because she watches her Mon and Tuesdays while Im at work, then this week I have pawned her off to the husband while I ride all afternoon! I then finally get to see her around 7 or 7:30 when I'm done with Daisy. What a bad mommy! Its hard to have an extracurricular life with kids, it really is. I'm having so much fun, but also theres this guilt that I'm putting other things before Chloe. Sigh. What do you mommys do?? I guess when she gets older and able to ride with me it will get better...

Anway my mother in law wasn't home so I decided to just get Daisy out and groom her again and practice on her mane for Sat. I'm thinking of the running braid like I do on Dixie sometimes:

Problem is I've tried it twice on Daisy so far and it gets too low before I can get all the hair in, grr. I watched a few videos today so hopefully I can get my act together. I also thought of doing something like this:

Isn't that AWESOME!? But just imagine how LONG that would take? And I'd never get it that pretty. I also think its a bit 'western'. So we will just go with the running braid I think.

So I grabbed Daisy while my father in law watched Chloe for a minute and then parked her in the yard there to brush her. Sweet baby helped of course! She loves any sort of animal. The FIL got on the other side and started scrubbing her too and did my side to shame! He is a lot rougher then I am! There was hair all over the ground on his side, lol. Then I asked him if he had any clippers (he used to show at the QH shows in halter back in the day and has nice clippers) he said yeah so I got her bridle path and whiskers trimmed up! Also the long hairs under hear chin/throat. She looks so much less shaggy. I wish I could do her legs but I have no idea how to do it without making it a hack job and I worry about the flies. Also the reason I left her ears.

Then I decided to try banding her mane a bit so we walked over to the round pen where I left my bands. By then a brother in law had shown up and was able to babysit Chloe. After about 4 bands I decided that was for the birds and ripped them out. Then I set about doing another running braid. This one came out better so I left it in. It's probably STILL in since I forgot to take it out! D'oh! I still had about two or three more sections to get in. I'll try again today if it's not raining!

The wonderful mother in law made it home about then so I had a chance to ride! I'm wanting to squeeze in as much saddle time as possible for both of us. I highly doubt I'll get to ride today or tomorrow :(. Stupid rain! At least there is only a 30% chance Saturday of scattered showers. Scatter around us!! If it does rain I believe the arena is partially covered so we should be good as long as we are in the arena, haha.

So by the time I got her tacked up it was, well, dusk. The sun had set and it was cloudy. Boo. I knew I had limited time so I wanted to make the best of it. I planned on doing lots of trotting sans stirrups and lots of posting with stirrups. So I hop up, Daisy didn't move! Points for her! Then did our pre ride flexing. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Sigh. Minus points Daisy! I kept looking around and seeing how dark it was getting and my plans flitting away. So finally I got some decent response out of both sides, and some good vertical flexing. I had flipped my stirrups up already so we set off at a walk for a good bit, I know the old mare needs lots of prep before trotting, and I don't feel like I gave her enough. By the time we moved on to sitting trot she was okay, but at the posting I could feel that head bob 'off' feeling I talked about after riding her day three a few years ago. So I walked her some more, then moved off in the trot again, posting. She felt fine. :shrug: I think she just has some creaks, I dunno. I did quite a bit more trotting (a lot on a small circle trying to get her to flex to the inside) and never felt or saw her bobbing her head again. I think a day off or two will be beneficial and hopefully she will be good for Saturday. Like others said before I know she still short strides on that left hind for whatever reason, mostly at the trot. And I'm sure she has arthritis! Maybe I can get the vet that is there to answer questions to take a look at her.

Also, I noticed a HUGE chunk out of her hoof Monday that I hadn't see last Saturday. I was like what the?? Here are a few pics of it, what can you hoof people tell me?? I bought some Fiebings hoof dressing and have been putting that on her for the dryness. Her hoofs are so dry right now. But she has never had anything that looked like that before! It doesn't seem to be bothering her, I dunno... I know she is ready for a trim. I hope you all aren't about to tell me its something awful!

 I wish I had some good barefoot trimmers out here, its hard to find anyone to do good horse work around here. I ALSO may get the farrier that is there to answer questions to look at her too if I can! Hey, why not take advantage, haha.

 So the ride went okay, I don't think Daisy was thrilled about running around in the near dark and was ready to go eat her hay. Thus not cooperating as well. I finally quit when I could just still see and took her back to the pasture. Thank goodness its staying darker lately!  

I did have my video camera this time, I set it up on a chair but the panels still block a lot. And it got so dark you can't see much anyway. For some reason it shut off after 25 mins as well. So no posting trot, just some walking and trotting without stirrups. I put both days together, I'm having troubles getting it uploaded so I'll put it up whenever its done.

I feel SO much more secure and in good position without stirrups. I dropped them a hole and felt better but still not as good as without. What am I doing wrong? Just not enough riding? Another big thing I need work on is riding with contact, Daisy too. She immediately wants to halt or slow down when I take up the reins to make contact. I try to be real flowing and keep my leg on. Its just hard to remind myself to do it instead of just letting them be all floppy.

Oh! I almost forgot! I got my booootssss in today!

They are sweeet. I can't wait to ride in them. So soft and supple. They are a tad on the long side but I also was trying them on with no socks so we will see! I know they will be a vast improvement.

So I have yammered on long enough! Until later!