New Horse and Horse Shows! Part I

So it's been a LONG time since an update! Here's a quick run down.

Fourth baby girl is now days away from being 9 months! Oldest girl is almost 9, middle girl is 5 and about to start Kindergarten! She has also been in three shows this year already! Third baby girl is finally coming out of the 'whiny' stage at about 3.5 years and is now daddies best friend.

BIG NEWS. We bought another horse! The husband remarked he would ride with me if he had a horse he trusted and liked. And that's all it took to get the wheels turning! We decided to sell Snowy, who really was not being used much. And look for a smaller horse that would work for the kids AND be big enough for daddy.

We found her!! She wasn't EXACTLY what we were looking for but she WILL be. Meet Darlene! She is a just turned 6 year old APH, bay tovero. We tried her out in the dark in a arena under lights (which she had never done) and she was foot perfect. Quiet and calm, listened well walk, trot, lope. I liked her a lot. We came back the next day and tried her out again in a wooded area to make sure we liked her, and then brought her home!

She did awesome for about three weeks. And then all of a sudden turned really nervous, spooky, just unsettled. It was so weird. It coincided with spring and her first cycle so we put her on mare magic and changed her to a low starch feed. Wha la, 2 weeks later she was great again. :shrug: We aren't positive what caused it but jut happy she is back. I have taken her off the mare magic the last few weeks to see if that changes anything. We shall see! Don't you wish horses could talk?!

Here is some Darlene pic spam:

These two are from her ad. I passed over her already based on these pictures! She looks small and homely, lol. We had traveled to TN to look at a buckskin that was TOTALLY not what they said she was, and had another person cancel on us. So I jumped on FB to look again on a horse sale page and saw her. I thought, well she's sort of on the way home and sounds good, let's just go for kicks. I'm SO GLAD WE DID.

These are from the night we brought her home and the next morning, isn't she pretty!!

From one of her first rides at home, before she went Jekyll on us, lol. My man looks so good up there. He really likes her, and not just because I think he is doing it for me, but because he genuinely likes her.

Slicked out! She had bad rain rot we are STILL battling, and took part of her mane out, ugh. But thankfully it is white lol and blends into her neck. It's starting to come back now!

The last two are from her first off property ride! We went to my instructors place and rode her after my lesson on Harold. She did great! Trailered perfect, stood tied great, and rode great. I think we have a winner. We haven't gotten to trail ride her yet, so that will be another big test. Chunky baby girl is still eating too often to go off without her yet, so that may be a fall adventure, or even next spring. 

I had a great informative conversation with her trainer on messenger. She has only been under saddle maybe a year, which was a lot less then we were wanting, lol. But she said her mind was so good she always felt comfortable on her, even her first ride. She told me she was starting lope circles with her, and had put her on a barrel and pole pattern a few times. She also used to take her to the stock yard and work cows there, and she seemed to be pretty 'cowy', which was kind of neat to know! They have only trail rode her once so I hope she will be ok doing that, I think she will be though.

Anyway we have just been riding her around here, mainly me. Getting her started neck reining and guiding and stopping well at all gaits. Teaching her to be still for mounting and standing when we stop her until we say to go again.
She has come a long way in a few months! Her trot still needs lots of work and we are just now starting to do a bit of loping. I did some at Lee's and she was basically galloping lol! Speed control is something we have to work on. She would rather go slow, but she has PLENTY of pep and energy. She likes to just make random laps around the pasture for the fun of it. She even got Harold into playing one day! It was adorable.
She is a lot more 'wary' of things then Harold, which I hope with more riding and exposure she will improve at. Hubby does great riding her and taking care of her. It has been a blast having him be involved in the horses.

So on to my favoritest, Harold! I finally feel like we have got a pretty decent bit of conditioning now. We both can ride and jump for a good while before getting tired. In April we started back jumping. Whew, that has been a bit of a mess for both of us. But thanks to my instructor we have slowly been improving. Well mostly slowly for me, Harold has done great. He's so good at taking care of me.

We had our first show in March, which I got 2nd with Intro B I think? It was SO COLD, Sadie was being the devil for Lee, we were in an covered arena with no where to warm up. Let's just say that was all grounds for a sub par couple of tests. Shelby did her first test and did awesome! I had to DRAG Harold around but she sat up there so pretty and did her favorite part (the halt and salute) perfect.

Don't let this photo fool you. We were pokey and stiff
all ride -_- (check out my hair coming down too, sigh)

The barn that hosted the show put this photo on their Instagram story :). Anyway there was no one else in leadline so easy blue. Our next show had no one either. She loves her blues! And she doesn't care if she's the only one.

Our next show was a few weeks later. And ALSO cold, but this time we added rain! Yippee! My gosh. So the kids spent much of the time in the truck out of the mist. I spent most of my time warming up in the indoor next to the arena. I popped out right before my test and then waited a bit for my next test before tying him back up and untacking. It was Easter weekend so they had a fun little egg hunt the kids participated in.

Harold did quite well. I mean, the warm up in the covered helped a ton. I had a horse that was supple and bendy. BUT, I wish I had brought my whip. By the second test he was dodging puddles and running out of steam and my legs aren't strong enough to be proper motivation. We got 1st for A and 2nd for B.

Not quite sure he likes all the commotion outside.
There were jumping horses above us in the jump arena.

Fancy in the mud, notice my leg, lol. Go pony!

Sadie: Can I eat this? Thanks.

So Sadie was a bit less of a devil then she was at the other show, thankfully. Or the husband would be banning me from further escapades until she is weaned. She is a good baby but she is very sensitive. She wants what she wants and now. If she doesn't get it she SCREECHES or pitches a fit. And WILL NOT STOP until she gets it. I'm not exaggerating.

So the end of March I knew I had time to start jumping again before shows in April. I aimed myself at the Full Circle show the end of the month. I wanted to do Intro B and a jumping class. Which specifically was the 12" crossrails.
The video above is our first jumps back since BEFORE baby. It wasn't horrible! But that was to come...lol.

So back to lessons we went! I took Harold to Lee's and showed her what she was working with first, lol, then let her get on and school him for me. She had warned me a few times to get onto him for putting his head down and kind of twisting it. I was like yeah, I'm trying. But frankly I was trying to do SO much already it was all I could do. I was still so out of shape, had been off my meds quite a few days, and hadn't ate breakfast. All this added up to me hitting the dirt (sand) at the end of my lesson. Whoops! Harold did his silly snakey head where he pulled me out of the saddle over his shoulder. I landed just fine on my side/hip still holding the reins! A little shook up but not horrible. Lee got on him and got after him and then I rode again with success.

I'm not gonna lie. Knowing that your not invincible and you CAN come off, put a bit of nervousness in me for a while. I am doing better now after quite a few subsequent rides, but it's still there. I'm gonna work through it be better for it though. He hasn't done it in quite a few rides so I'm hoping he has decided to kick that behavior, lol. I'm also much stronger and getting my technique back also helps.

Lee schooling Harold for me

You can see at the end of the vid below the snakey neck I was talking about that pulled me off, lol. Don't look at me, my eq is HIDEOUS.

Anywho! We practiced at home as much as I could. Many times we didn't come in to eat supper until almost 8 clock. Thankfully the kids love playing outside. In between jumps I also worked on his canter a lot. We can do a decent canter now sort of with contact and not breaking every other stride which is so huge for us! Lee also has me cantering up out of my seat. She said that's how I have to ride him around a course. That's hard yo! It's getting better though. Come on thigh muscles, work!

Our next few lessons went great. Lee always rode him first for me and got him going well so we could really work on us both as a team.

As you can see I look a lot less like  monkey
on his back!

Well I better split this into two posts, part II to come! Our first jumping show and the Arabian Fun Show!

Hello 2019!

It's January 2019! It's going to be a great year.

I am almost 4 months post partum! I've been riding off and on as much as I can.

I should probably change the name of my blog to Riding During Nights because the last 4 rides at least have been after dark around 7 or 8, haha! No joke. I just don't have time to ride in the day time on work days. And every NON work day has been busy or RAINING. So I just park my truck by the pasture with the lights on bright and wear a headlamp so I can see to tack up etc. Works like a charm! And of course the bestest horse in the world, AKA Harold couldn't care less. Of course if I was doing a lot of trotting or cantering it wouldn't work as well I have a feeling. But I am just walking 90% of the time right now getting us BOTH back into shape.

This baby threw me for a loop. Pregnancy was hard, labor was hard, recovering was, guess what? HARD. Know what was way too easy? GETTING PREGNANT. Lol. Well, we won't go there... :)

So I'm starting back lessons Friday! Super excited. I just know we are so far from where we were before I got pregnant. I hope she isn't too dissapointed with where we are. I mean, I have done maybe two full circles of trot, lol. I may have done more lately if the ground hadn't been a SWAMP every time I ride. It has been like monsoon season in AZ here. Never ending rain! We have finally gotten a break lately and dried out a lot. I rode two nights ago and it was still squishy down in the bottom where I ride tho, -_-.

I bought Harold a new bridle the other day off a used horse tack website. It's his 'big boy' bridle, lol. It has a nice monocrown and thick lovely leather. Can't wait to show him in it. I also got a $100 gift card for Riding Warehouse for Christmas that I plan on buying him a new show hunt seat bridle with. I also need some shipping boots...maybe I can find some newish used ones on a facebook group.

UPDATE: I started this in January and never finished it, so just going to post what I have and move on!

New Pasture Pics and Planning

So I thought it would be fun to sit down and type out how the pasture is going and also plan out a bit (a very loose plan!) of what I want to do in my horsey life after I'm no longer prego.
I have about 2 1/2 months until my due date and then am supposed to wait 6 weeks post partum before doing strenuous activity. So that puts me right around the first of November. Unless baby girl decides to grace us with her energetic little self earlier! (She's a kicker and mover!!)

So I will have all winter to leg Harold and I up. Then hopefully be ready to hit some dressage shows in spring, maybe some jumping classes towards the middle late summer.

I'm hoping after Harold gets moved into his new pasture right by my house I can go out and start doing a bit with him now. Just walking and stretching, ground work, walking up and down the hills. Which will be good for me too, I have been pretty inactive this pregnancy right up until we started building the fence, lol. So getting some fitness in before labor day will be GOOD.

But I also worry about my comfort level in all that. I trust Harold and have never had him do anything dangerous but I don't move real fast these days and my belly is WAY out there and pretty vulnerable. I'm not sure if I will be worried all the time and not enjoy it, or get comfortable again after I start into it.

So after I get Harold going again, I think I will start back lessons with L in January. November I will need to get some fitness under him and then December is just too crazy with holidays and my middlest has her birthday also that month. I will probably do one or two private a month. I used to go every week in her oldest girls class, but I don't think I'll be able to swing that anymore with four kiddos and all. We'll see! L may have another idea also.

SO! Today MAY be the day my pasture is done! We have one run of barb wire to do on the bottom of one section, and then three to run on the short end by the house and I think its DONE. Yay!! It is going to be so awesome. I mean right now I don't even feel like I own a horse I see him so little.

I need to get him some mineral blocks, water trough, and grain buckets for him and Snowy. Other then that they are good! I just have a little anxiety about how long the grass will hold up before I will have to move them off. I really hope it does well. I plan on getting a bale of hay and keeping his slow feeder net full at all times so he will not be constantly grazing. Maybe.

Here are two pics from this morning!

I'm standing by the shop which is just beside our house. All that in the pasture is
fireworks from the brother in laws -_-

See our little gate up there to the right??

So this is the end closest to our house. I'm going to store all his grain and such in the trailer, and put his water trough and feeder up there by the gate so it will be convenient to the water faucet and trailer.

I have a feeling WE are gonna have to go out and clean up all the firework crap. Sigh. Living near in-laws can be so annoying. We had a fireworks show there last Wed, like we do every year, that my husbands two brothers put on and pay for. Well it is now almost a week later and it is STILL all over the pasture.

The heat is still unbearable after about 11 until nearly 7 when it finally starts cooling off a BIT. I feel so awful for the husband having to be out in it nearly all day. The humidity makes it even worse. I tried to go out and help him yesterday afternoon around 5 and I had to stand in the shade the whole time, lol. Being pregnant makes it worse, I'm not normally such a pansy!

So that's all for now! I will update next with pictures of my ponies in their very own pasture!!

Huge Recap/Catch Up Post!

It has been almost a YEAR since I wrote a post, good gosh! So I will attempt to do a brief recap of the whole year, ugh! That's gonna be fun!

Anyway, in whole I was so very pleased with Harold. I mean, I drug him out of the pasture being 11 years old and strictly a pasture/trail pony. And we ended up with ALL THIS in just a matter of months!

I have such a great instructor to help me along and she is always there for me when I need her and that is a huge part of our success! 

I was hoping to move us up to Intro C this past show season and also do some crossrail classes, maybe do the lowest combined training level after winter but then I went and got myself knocked up for the 4th time! LOL. So that all will have to wait until next year. I am due in September so am hoping I we can both be back in shape to do some showing by spring season. Our canter is a huge work in progress but it was getting lots better when we were able to work on it and keep him limber with massages from my bestie. 

So anyway I usually photograph everything. I'll try and recap through my photos which help me remember what went on when!

He was SO fit August through September. I was getting such good ride time in and he was really muscling up and getting stamina. L rode him a few times for me in lessons over jumps to try and get his timing etc better for me. I'm still so green at jumping myself he really needed someone to know what they were doing to progress him for me.

In September we had our third show. It went really well again! We just did Intro A and B. I think we got reserve champ again in our division. There are few adults at this particular show so it's not hard, lol. Ignore my wonky braids. His mane had grown out a bit too much by this time and I should have cut it before I braided it! 

We got to do our first clinic that fall also! Caroline Weaver is her name and she is so sweet and had a lot of new insights, or even just a new way of saying what L had already been saying, that made a lot of sense.

In October my suburban decided to break its tranny so we decided to trade it in on THAT beauty up there! Ive always wanted a truck and I flipping love it. Its an '08 four door Silverado. It pulls my trailer pretty good, although I do wish I had a 3/4 ton. One day!

So the next picture is from our last show of last year. We KILLED it with scores both in the 70's! Two blues baby!! I was so proud of us. It was the perfect way to end the season.

So after dressage season was over I started focusing more on jumping with Harold. We moved up in height a bit and he was doing really well! Jumping is NOT his favorite thing though, too much work, obviously. So I try not to do too much. The last pic was the last time we jumped that winter. It was getting dark and he made SURE he did not touch the pole, haha. I stayed on miraculously! And I was actually very early pregnant at the time, though I didn't know it yet!

So we took a pretty good break after that with holidays and cold and such. In late January we had a fun outing at a place my bestie was boarding her horse at the time. The lady that owns it does a lot of obstacle/Parelli type stuff so we had all kinds of things to play with. Harold did all of it with barely any hesitation. We even did a horse see saw twice! We played in the indoor first and I did my best position jumping yet, I think! Then I got pregnant and stopped jumping, lol.

In spring I did two shows, one this March and one in April. After that it was getting too hot and I was getting too BIG. I already had bought 30 inch used breeches (I wear 28) and had to leave them unbuttoned AND unzipped with a belly band, lol. So both shows went okay. The spring had been SO WET we had not been able to have but one lesson the entire time. It showed too, ugh. We got many comments about impulsion and forwardness etc. So my main goal was to move him out and forward our last show. I still didn't get the score I wanted but it was better.

So! Since then Harold has been a pasture pony again, lol. I haven't even been out to see him hardly at all. With three kids, a house and husband to take care of PLUS this pregnancy has kicked my butt, it has been really hard.

BUT! I'm super excited to say that he will be moving to pretty much right outside my door soon! We are FINALLY about to get the 'arena' pasture fenced in. It has a little less then half the wire up, and almost all the posts. We got some more corner posts this weekend and a few gates so hopefully another week or two and he will be out there! The husband builds houses all day out in the 90 degree weather so I usually don't make him go out and work on it when he gets home, lol. This summer has been brutal so far. Super high humidity and 90+ temps every day makes for a miserable existence outdoors. Even at 7 or 8 at night! Thanks, Alabama.

Anyway, it will be so much easier to get to him and I will be able monitor everything about him. He won't have anyone else stealing his food or biting him etc. Snowy is too small to push him around, lol. And I won't have to deal with the in laws untrained idiotic horses. Can't wait! 

I sold my white trailer we fixed up this spring and bought this baby! Sold my other for $2500 and paid $1300 for this one. PRETTY good deal, if I do say so! It's still not any where near NEW but definitely a decade or so newer, lol. It's a Cherokee brand and really neat! It has a decent sized tack room that I can change in, and a ramp and really roomy horse area. Much wider and taller then my previous. It is also definitely a fixer upper, but nothing too major! Needs a paint job, new springs on the ramp (that thing is freakin heavy!) and some new hub covers and new light covers. It is just chilling behind the shop for now since this mama ain't hauling anywhere anytime soon!

Snowy has been doing good too! The girls adore her, well, my oldest will pet her and that is about it. I'm pretty sure I ruined any chance of horse love with her when she fell off her trotting last year, lol. She was never my horse girl anyway, but that definitely put the last nail in the coffin!! My youngest, the last picture, looks to be headed to horse girl land with us, whoo hoo! Sorry, daddy :D. Shelby loves to ride her, brush her, tack her up, anything. And she is so good for her.

Well I leave you with a belly shot and a Harold grazing in his soon to be pasture. Hopefully update more soon!