Good Ol' Harold!

I flipping love my new horse. Well, OUR horse! He is definitely going to be a great 'family' horse. Chloe had her very first ever 'solo' ride on a horse Sunday. He was awesome for her. You could see him almost tiptoeing trying to be slow and easy for her.

I need to get the little squirt a helmet now! Look, how cute is this!!:

Too bad its 50 bucks, ugh. Will have to wait a bit on that. The good thing about though is it has one of those dial things that will adjust and last her a long time.

So! I have a lot to catch up on! I guess I need to start at the beginning. I found him on craigslist last week. I periodically check it out, and a few facebook horse sale pages. Well I called about him and decided he was worth a look. I really liked his sale picture. And PRICE! (I actually didn't pay for him, my parents bought him. I am trading the price of him out for gas. When I go work with their horses they buy my gas (they live on the other side of the county from me), so now instead of that they bought me a horse, lol.)

So I start researching the guy that owns him hoping to find some more pictures of the horse somewhere. Eventually I find out the guy has been on a reality tv show on CMT! I KNOW! So funny. He was on Sweet Home Alabama. It was about 10 city boys and 10 country boys trying to win this one girl. Anyway, he did pretty good apparently but didn't win.

He was super nice and accommodating. He told me he races barrel racers all over the country. He was actually training a nice gelding in the pretty arena he had when we pulled up. He had Harold in the round pen they had in the barn. So he tacked him up for me, well put the saddle on him, and I cinched him up and put his bridle on. He was a gentleman for all of it. Then I hopped on. I found out right away he didn't have any buttons. He also was super lazy and didn't want to stand still after you stopped. Which is kind of strange combination with the laziness. But eventually he figured out if he moved off without being told he had to back up quite a few steps and got better. I bet who rode him before 'trained' him that whenever he was on him he was to be going.

I walk trot and loped him in there, which got pretty dusty, ugh. He was pretty good, I had to smack him a bit on the hiney with my hand to get him to go a few times. The guy was amazed because he hasn't even seen him trot, haha. I didn't really like how he pinned his ears a bit when asked to go faster, but I figured that was something we could work on. I also didn't like how flipping BOUNCY his trot was, ugh. 

After I felt good in there we ventured out into the yard/pasture. The man who owned him went and fetched his horse off the cross ties (I was amazed how quiet and polite he was just standing there waiting) and went on and worked him some more in the arena. So I just moseyed on around and found some scary stuff to go by, over, etc. He did great. I even rode right next to the arena where the barrel horse was tearing it up and he didn't bat an eye. He just trucked on down through the pasture with his head down.

I was pretty sure I wanted him at that point, although wasn't really feeling a 'connection' with him and kept going back and forth. Then I stopped over by the bleachers where my husband and the babies were and he wouldn't stand still very well. Then the man came up on his horse and he neighed at him and after I dismounted he would not be still and stand, Chloe was so excited about petting him and I really couldn't let her because I was afraid he would run her over. So thats when I said no. It was getting late and I felt like I was keeping the guy, so I played it safe. 

We left and went to eat at cracker barrel and I kept thinking about him. Then the next morning I was like, what the crap, I think I want him! I then went back and forth all day, prayed about it. I still didn't make a decision till Saturday morning. So thankful for my awesome husband, he was totally supportive.

So I decided if he still had him I would go get him. He did! He was trailering a horse to bham but was able to get his mom to unlock the gate and take our money. 

I didn't think we would have any trouble with him in the trailer and I was right! He took a look at the pretty substantial step up and then walked right on! Which that huge four horse is pretty inviting, lol. We even stopped at walmart for a bit to get a few things. Never heard a peep or stomp out of him.

Its a good hour 15 or so home. Opened up the doors and had him back off, even though there was plenty of room to turn around. I wanted to make sure he could. He did great. He walked off and just looked around as calm as can be! I walked him to his temporary home in the round pen and let him sniff it and check it out a bit. 

Just off the trailer!

Checkin out his new digs

Then I broke out the Clinton Anderson on him. He wasn't real thrilled with working and I had to give him a few good lashes on the hiney. But soon he was speeding up from just a point and cluck. He did pretty well with his turns, had a few more wrong outside then Stormy. Speaking of Stormy, he is her opposite in so many ways. I kept subconsciously waiting for him to respond like her and was almost confused when he didn't, lol. Definitely an adjustment period!

So I did some follow me stuff, which didn't go too well in the beginning. He was more interested in the grass. But after I sent him back out a few times he was stuck good. I liked how he didnt try to climb in my lap like Stormy did. I put his halter on after that and did some desensitizing and backing up. Which was difficult! Stormy, being very reactive, was so responsive to the wiggle wave. He was just kind of like, oh, are you doing something? Lol, I even tried tapping his nose pretty firmly with the stick and he still just sort of stood there! After two or three days of working on it we are getting a bit better! But a whack on the chest to him is like a fly, lol.

After that he got a good brushing! Chloe girl came in and stood on a bucket to help me. He stood there so good. He was filthy, I don't think he's seen a brush in months. Definitely not a bath in years. If I get a good warm day Friday that will be on the agenda! We are gradually cooling off around here, usually low 80's most days, 60's at night. Fall is a comin!

He has the silliest lazy lip, lol

I looked at his tail briefly and saw a HUGE mat in it. I mean its massive. And solid. I really have my doubts I will be able to get it out. Its a solid mass of balled up hair like four inches long. It's on the inside of his tail so maybe it wouldn't be too noticeable if I had to cut it out. Thankfully he has a pretty awesome tail already.

So that was his first day! I was really feeling good about going back for him! I'll leave our first ride for our next post!

Road Trip Part 2

Yeah, so someone can't make up their mind the first time! I went and checked out that gelding Thursday and nearly put him in the trailer. I talked myself out of him though!

Then I thought about him for two days and decided it was time to go and get him. Womans prerogative to change her mind, right? ;) In the truck about to get him now, will update with more later!

Pic from test ride Thurs

Taking The Four Horse Out

So, this is going to be hooked up to our truck this afternoon!

Why?? Welllll, just so happens I have a good lead on a horse for ME! My own! And since its an hour away I decided we better bring the trailer to save some gas when I hopefully decide I like him.

There are a lot of unknowns about him, unfortunately. All I do know is he is supposedly 10 (no papers) QH, and was trail rode by a 79 year old man previously. The person that has him now bought him solely to use this summer while his younger cousins were in town to just ride around the pasture and not have to worry about them. Apparently he has all barrel racers and none suitable for kids. (They were 5 and 7 I believe?)

So the guy describes the gelding as being a 'dead head' and broke broke broke. Which can mean so many different things to different people. Its pretty safe to say he is very quiet and laid back, but other then that?? Crap shoot! And the horse is only $350, which is kind of a red flag, but also my budget at this point! So I think he is worth looking at! Here is his pic:

So I was immediately struck by the cute ears/head and long legs. Then I see a fairly typey neck and over all build. He looks like a well bred horse to me! I was very surprised to see his price tag. I bet this boy has papers SOMEWHERE. If I decide to get him I'm going to try my best to get the phone number of the man that used to own him.

So wish me luck and all that! There is also something really funny/interesting I found out on facebook about who owns him now that I will share if I buy him, lol. ;)

Friday Is Horsey Day

So I love Fridays. More then most people even, because its my OFFFF DAYYY. Whoo hoo!

And the last few weeks it has also become my go to day to play with Stormy.

The day starts with feeding the babies, picking the house up. Hopefully getting a load of dishes started (depends on the mood of Shelby Marie, my 9 month old) and then off we go to run a few errands and put my youngest to sleep. I try to make sure I have the clothes (usually a cool shirt and my sneakers) I need in the car as well as my training whip and rope halter all ready to go. Then I can just go straight past the house and park by the round pen without having to stop and potentially waking the sleeping beast beauty!

So here we go again, trying to recall what exactly I did Friday!

I had a bit of trouble getting her this week. I approached a little more directly and when I went to reach for her halter she walked off. Drats! So the next time she came to get her cookie I just petted her on the head and acted more nonchalant before I took hold of her. She still raised her head up like "aw,  man!" but I had her then! She's not nasty about being caught, I just think someone has been too impatient or rough with her a lot in her past and that has made her like that.

I took her to the tie post and my little helper and I gave her a quick dust off and mane comb.

Silly girl pulling her hand back after petting her 

She stood perfect. I didn't mess with her hooves since I had Chloe with me so we just went on to the round pen. 

Another review of all we have done before! Except I didn't free lunge her at all. She is still sore on that leg -_-. Her hooves still need attention but I can't get her owner to get anyone (or let me) out there. 

I checked on little girl before we went in the pen, then the father in law got there and he checked on her again and told me she had woke up. So he got her out and held her while I finished up. 

I've been wanting to see how she would do with the lunging for respect exercise for a while now. So I practiced a bit of hindquarter yield and then went for it. She did great. I think she has done something similar quite a bit before because she did it all very well, despite my bumbling around. She was a bit more animated with it then I would like (she can be quite reactive) but I eventually got her settled down where she was even just walking. I think CA usually wants them at least trotting but with her being so reactive/hot I thought it was a good thing for her. So that was pretty exciting! 

I had Chloe take some videos but as you imagine they didn't turn out too hot, lol. Here are a few 

0screen shots.

She got a little heavy on the line a few times but all I had to do was tug a bit on her and she would soften. She actually went around looking at me a lot of the time, wanting to stop and come in, or just being attentive. You can kind of see it in the pics.

So I did very little since she is still gimpy and finished up with some more lateral yielding and such. Great session! Especially after the somewhat disappointing one. We had birthday parties all Saturday and Sunday is full with church, so didn't get out there again. Maybe tonight!

New Name!

So I kind of struggled with my blog name. I knew it couldn't be Riding Ms. Daisy anymore, with her gone, but I also had NO CLUE what to name it! I really started thinking today of what my life is about now, and trying to think of something that would mean something about what I do and who I am. So thus I came up with Riding During Naps! Lol, kind of sums up my problems trying to be a good horsewoman but also a great wife and mom, which are my first and most important responsibilities. Actually being the best child of God I can be is my FIRST responsibility which I fail at so miserably. I really need to put effort there.

I will probably move this from strictly a horse blog to more of whats going on in other parts of my life too. But not as personal as my actual day to day life like I do on this blog: His Goofy Woman.

So hopefully when this new name pops up on everyone's feed and you freak out, you know where it came from!

I got to work with Stormy Friday and Saturday!

Normal face, shes got those silly airplane ears, lol

I'm sitting here trying hard to remember what I did Friday, mama brain, good gosh. It was bad with the first one but now it's just MUSH after my second! I think what I did was went to town that morning for some errands then came back and parked by the round pen in the shade. Shelby girl was asleep thankfully and so I sneaked my four year old Chloe out quietly and we went off to catch grey mare. 

The FIL was there doing some things around the house so he came to see us for a bit. It was a lot easier to catch her this time. Of course having horse cookies does help! She hoovers those things up! So I swapped out halters on her and off to the round pen we went.

It had been a week since I worked her free lunging so I wanted to review that and get her more solid. She did really well again and I was happy to see her gimpyness (which I am assuming came from being kicked when we first put her out with Chatterbox?) was gone, or so I thought. After she worked a bit the other side she started limping pretty bad at the trot, sigh. Anyway, she did a few wrong turns but got it down pretty good. She hadn't worked much of a sweat up by the time I thought she was done, I worked her a lot less then I would have if she wasn't sore. Chloe was a good girl and sat in the shade watching youtube again.

We reviewed everything we had done last week on the lead and I added lateral yielding this time. She did very well. She moved a bit to begin with and every so often, but really softened up and was touching her girth line very fast IMO. She's not as relaxed at it yet as I want her to be, but she had a great starting point. She is still pretty stiff and sometimes bumps her nose up and down when I ask or right after trying to push against the pressure instead of give.

I also did some rope slapping. I thought I might get some fireworks out of her with this, she did move a bit to begin with, I think she thought I was telling her to lunge around me. But she settled down and that was it. 

Think that was about all we did!

Moving on to Saturday, which unfortunately I remember a lot better because it didn't go quite as well!! 

It started off kind of bad to begin with. I had left the two girls with there daddy that morning at the house and headed out there. I caught her easily again and headed on out to the tie post. I had asked the father in law if she tied the other day, and he said oh yeah! I picked her feet out just the other day. So I hooked the quick release to the bottom of the rope halter so I could look at her back leg and see how it was doing. Well it was fine, so I went around to her front to pick them up and check them. She is a major PIA to trim/shoe (the farrier puts a lip rope on her every time if she even starts to act up, probably doesn't help -_-) so I thought I would do some desensitizing while I was there. I smacked on the bottom of her hoof a bit, then went to put it between my two knees, you know how the farriers do? WHAM! She its the end of that rope so fast and jerks her leg out from my legs so hard she about bruises my calves as it swings past. Um, okay! She thrashes around at the end of the tie for a few seconds and then decides she's not getting away I guess, and stops. Good grief! To say I was surprised would be a bit understated!

So I was pretty ill to say the least. I know I shouldn't have any kind of negative emotions around horses, but it doesn't take much to make me mad period. I untied her and made her back up quite a ways then walked back up to the tie post and inspected my halter. She stretched out the bottom lines of my rope halter pretty good, so the knots on her nose are kind of wonky now, but the longer I worked her the better it seemed to get. 

I needed to get her calmed down about being at the post and actually teach her something. So I would walk her up to the post and act like I was putting her back on the tie rope by fiddling with it under her halter. Then I would go to her side and rub and scratch her. If she tried to move off I would back her up pretty fast and then walk right back up like nothing happened and repeat. She finally did calm down and stand still. I did the opposite side and then went on to the round pen.

I found out pretty quick she was still lame, ughh, so I tried not to work her too hard.

Here a few screen shots from that, I have a video but having trouble getting it onto my comp so I can edit the boring stuff out.

Trot trot! She is a pretty nice mover

Got artsy with this one

Roll back to come in and face me, shes pretty quick!

So when I got her working like I wanted we walked back and put her halter on. Again reviewed all we have been learning, adding in the lateral yielding which she was even better at, and the rope slapping. I then did some rope slapping in front of her to each side and then over my head on either side of my body. No problem, mahn!

So then I got the bright idea since I had someone watching the kids to teach her something new! I can't work on the hindquarter yielding that I want to because of her sore leg, so I decided to start her on forquarter yielding. Yeah, that didn't go so well. Part of the problem was the FIL had showed up again and was feeding Chatterbox, which she was quite concerned about. I never had her whole attention but a few times. So trying to teach hr something new was rough. I got a few steps on one side and then proceeded to her off side. She never really gave me much on this side, its her hard side anyway and she just got frazzled and at one point tried to bite my hand and/or the leadrop that was up by her face. NO WAY JOSE! I sent her off quick at a good lope and made her do changes of direction ever quarter or half way around the pen. After that we went back to work. Still didnt get a whole lot of good but finally found a stopping point and quit that exercise. 

I tried to do some things she was good at after that but still didn't have a whole lot of her attention. Hopefully the more we build a partnership the better that will get when distractions come. I quit her after that and we walked back to the pasture. I worked her a little bit by there too so she didn't think she got to come back and and do nothing right there, and then put her back in.

Screenshots from this part:

Obviously scared of the whip, lol

Yielding

March back up

One of our forequarter successes

So I was kind of dissapointed for a few days, but I realized we all have good and bad days. It can't always be awesome! I haven't been out since last Saturday, but hoping to work her either tomorrow or for sure Friday.

Until then!