Moon

Moon was born in 2003 with cutting bloodlines. Last August she had unexpected colt call Mister. I would classify her as right brain introvert with a very active mind. The goal in mind is to keep focus on what I would like her to do, not all the things that are going around.
The pic above is Moon standing on the scale calmly. Its amazing how scary it is for a horse to stand on something that shakes under their feet. Pic below is her keeping the eyes on the cows.

Blaze

Blaze is breeding is unknown but an estimated guess is that he is a cross between Welsh pony and an Appaloosa. My sister Anna was looking for a horse and one of our friends knew of a camp that was liquidating their trail horses, and lucky for us, one was Blaze. He was 14 when we got him and he still had a lot of go. He would always beat my horse Cosmo in a race, and my horse didn't like it, and neither did I. Never thought he would be a kids, but this week he went on to take care of a little girl who is learning how to ride. My nephews loved him, but coming out 2 times a year just doesn't justify feeding a horse for a year. Hmm, now what I loved about Blaze would have to be that he was a great horse to ride bareback, he had a perfect little pocket for you to sit plus is gaits were smooth to ride. Probably the funniest thing I've seen him do is submerge is head into a water trough and then continuing to splash around it. It was a good laugh. One day a bucket calf escaped from home and my sister and I saddle up and went after it. Cosmo didn't mind biting the calf to get it to go, but Blaze never bite the calf, he just pushed along, taking care of it. He has also been an victim of my latest hobby, braiding. I made him a nice bridle, tried it out at the Saddle Club and loved it.

Time to Start Again

I am going to start posting more in my blog. Its going to focus on horses that I am working with and tribute those good ones that I have worked. Yup, you can label me as the crazy horse person. I don't mind, and could be called worse. Well I am going to start off with a tribute to horse that I recently sent down the road, his name is Blaze. Then on the horse that I am riding now, her name is Moon, a great friend is letting my play with her for a month, already have a lots fun. Then when I get my rump into gear I am going to do pull out the Sparkling Apple Cider and think about Snoopy.

Loping

Thursday in class, we started working on loping. Rose's lope is very fast and it feels like her rear end is connected to a rocket. It feels that she is a little more unbalanced It was hard to lope with her because she wanted to either bite the horse in front of her or kick the horse beside or behind her. She did well at walking and trotting, I was able to keep a loose rein circling both ways with other horses during class. I worked with her on Saturday morning. She decided to get some frustations out by bucking, biting, and crow-hopping before breaking into the lope, which is a three beat gait also known as a canter in english riding terminology. At the end of the session I can't say we were loping perfect circles, but some barriers were broken down. Rose is also starting to sidepass and move off her front and rear end. I have a week and half to the final where we have to do some ground work, and the an riding portion that includes a walking, trotting, loping, backing up, and yielding front and rear.

Mediation

Hmm, today in class we worked on leg pressure, and we eventually wanted to spin. None of us got close from what I saw, except one person that was working with an ex-reining horse. It helped me personally because I had a "high" with Rose and then an a low, where neither Rose and I really didn't want to work with each other. Part of that is because I see the end goal vanishing, and our progress has slowed. When working on the ground it the goal was to prepare to ride. It is also hard for me cause I am learning so much, and just having hard time breaking down old habits and inserting the new ones. The exercises today we worked on getting our horses to respond to leg pressure by moving off a feel of our legs helped. The first step we had to work on was getting our horses to go in a small circle with slack in our reins( which are still are lead ropes tied to halter) and have the correct bend. We have going to the left down pat, and struggling and little bit to the right. So hopefully next time we can just work ourselves into the smallest pivot.

Play Time

If only she was always looking like this all the time.


Inquisitive Mood, she is hard to keep away from the camera, hence why her nose usually is pointed to the camera.



Rose is not in a happy mood, just look at her ears and her red eyes.

We raced against each at ultimate pole bending, were we just supposed to weaved down and back. As you can see Rose and I still need lots of work. We are on the far side. We didn't win, but we learned.

Sylvia, my peer was working with her horse and was pulling the log with her horse. Rose was interested in it. Maybe we will be able to do this. I got a kick out of, I was glad that she walked over, and wasn't scared of it, but curious about it.

This is the smaller ball, Rose isn't quite for sure what to do with it. The sad thing is that the ball has already been deflated because of use.

March 6, 2009

Today I was able to work with Rose for about an hour. I spent half on the ground and in the saddle. On the ground I spent some time with the bridle. As this was the first time that I even used it with Rose. I quickly found out that she disliked the bridle. We played the friendly game with it for at least 10 minutes. I was able to place the bit in her mouth, and fully get the rest of the headstall on her. I let her play with it a little bit in her mouth, and took it off, and rode in the halter. Rose loved me for that. She must had some previous experience with the bridle that was unpleasant. She is one of the smoothest horses I have ridden, and is very fun to jump, its not very fun for her yet though. After riding her, I just took everything off and we played in the arena. I was super excited because while playing I got Rose to hop on the bridge, and she enjoyed this experience. I just had to suggest for Rose to hop on it. It was one of those moments, that lingers, and makes you all giddy inside, that makes you want to be with Rose 24/7. Its to the point where she will choose me in the arena compared to other horses. I some how instilled that trust into Rose. I am friend and leader.