Riding Miss Daisy

Wordless Thursday?

2012-01-26T08:10:00.000-08:00

Wordless ~~Wednesday~~ Thursday

Dated September 2007, the year I got Daisy. I was 12.

Riding Gracie, etc

2012-01-20T12:04:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday we went and visited my aunt who lives a couple hours away.

I had the pleasure of riding her 5 year old Percheron/Thoroughbred cross mare, Gracie. I had a great time on her!

Gracie has a lovely canter. She's a horse whom you truly ride through your seat rather than through your legs. . . it worked better to sit into her to make her go, than to squeeze with your legs. It was an interesting experience.

Below is a video. . . not exactly the most shining part of the ride, but a good example :)

Commentary by my mom ;) :

Lastly. . . I'm going to Canada this year to study with Lisa Huhn, and she just posted this to her youtube. It's a simply beginning video. . . but I do love it! I know that's weird but. . . I do. I get so excited about horse feet ;)

Daisy and I have been riding; today we barrel raced, which put her in a good mood. Monday I gave the usual lesson on her and Daisy was excellent! My student is getting better and better, and it's so fun to watch :)

Team Sorting, Wednesday January 11, 2012

2012-01-12T07:09:00.000-08:00

I headed to the barn around 2:30 yesterday and did Jenny's stalls. Once Jenny got home, we brought the horses in and got to grooming and tacking. We're currently experiencing the mildest winter in awhile; yesterday's high was 41 degrees. We've had very little snow, and more rain than snow. Everything is muddy, which of course includes the horses. ;)

Jenny's sister Jean pulled up around 5 with her two horse trailer. Jenny loaded her horses on her trailer and Daisy hopped up on Jean's trailer next to Jean's lovely new gelding, Ace. And off we went!

The drive was about an hour and twenty minutes long. We unloaded and brought the horses into the barn. The barn is set up so that the center is the arena, but it doesn't stretch to the walls. There is space left on the outside of the outside of the arena for horse stalls and an aisle between the arena and stalls. We brought them in the aisle and let the horses check out the cows already being worked in the arena. They were all ears; Daisy stretched up high watching, she was twice her size ;). We bridled (and helmeted!) and took them in. They were all stunned at the sight of the cows, and yet as soon as I was on, Daisy seemed to get over it. We were all pleasantly surprised at how quickly they got over it; we thought we'd be spending a lot of time teaching them not to be afraid. We were instructed to pick a cow from the group and follow it around, essentially ;) . The funny thing was that some cows, when you approached them, wouldn't move. You just awkwardly stood there hoping they'd make a move. Daisy and I had some fun chasing cows around, cantering behind them until they'd outsmart us and turn around too fast for Daisy to keep up.

Then we moved to sorting.

We were all complete newbies to the whole experience. We didn't have a clue at all how it worked.

The cows were all at one end of the arena, and three riders would stand facing them. The center rider started by crossing the start line, at which point a number for a cow was called out and the other two people would move in closer. The center person's job was to find that numbered cow and drive it out of the group of cows, over the start line, while the other two riders held the other cows back from crossing over. Once the first cow was sorted out, another rider would sort the cow with the next number up (the whole following numbers thing was a rule I didn't quite catch on to ;)) and the first person to sort became a person holding the cows back, and this cycle continued until all the cows were sorted out one at a time.

The short video clip below is of Daisy and I :)

With each round of us sorting, the man who owned the arena would give us more tips to improve. Even so, we weren't exactly experts by the end of the (almost) two hours. And we were later told that we were practicing on older cows. "We use young cows for real competitions. They're quicker."
".....oh..."

Jenny's horse Jordan got really into the sorting, as did Jean's horse Ace (the black and white pinto in the next video), who has cow experience. They knew they were chasing a specific cow and were good at honing in on it and driving it off. Daisy didn't catch on quite as well. For one thing, she was afraid of the end of the arena where the cows were; not the cows themselves, but the strange shadowy areas behind the arena wall. She was a bit difficult to get toward the cows for that reason (however, we had a short break and I spent some time working her down at that end, and she got better). She also wasn't quick to run into the group of cows. The man instructing us said that was usual for a horse that was just starting. He said they generally weren't comfortable with running right into the group of cows right off the bat. I ended up borrowing Jenny's crop and giving Daisy a good smack a few times to get her to just go, as she was very reluctant at times ;).
By the end of the night, once we'd have a cow, she'd kick it into a canter and pin her ears flat back against her head and chase it. I do think she enjoyed that part ;). She did do a lot of snorting in between, so I think she enjoyed herself, and the experience of trying something new.

Jean is on Ace, the black and white pinto, Jenny on Jayda is the chestnut mare with the white saddle pad, and Daisy and I are the liver chestnut team with the gold breast collar.

My apologies for the language of the videographer in the video below ;) :

We rode from about 6:30-8:30, at which point a new group of riders came and we left the arena. We untacked and threw coolers on the horses. Daisy got a good amount of treats, and we loaded up in the rain for the ride home.

I do love coolers. Daisy's sweat was all gone by the time we pulled in at home. She was totally dry.

If and when I go again, I would probably switch to a snaffle bit or tom thumb, as I ended up two-hand reining a lot and that was difficult in the western curb. I'd also definitely bring a crop. Or spurs. Or both!

I had so much fun last night! Daisy wasn't awesome at the sorting, but it wasn't competitive and none of us were spectacular anyway, so it was a lot of fun. Cantering around and chasing cows, like barrel racing, is something Daisy evidently enjoys :)

Off-Farm Trail Ride and Upcoming Events. . .

2012-01-09T20:06:00.000-08:00

On Saturday afternoon, Jenny decided short-notice to go for a trail ride on a set of pathways in town, and invited Daisy and I along. . . We were too happy to oblige :)

Daisy walked right on the trailer, no fuss (as usual) and proceeded to get down to the business of emptying the hay manger.

We arrived tacked and were surprised to find it very windy in town. . . luckily it seemed to die away, or maybe we just didn't notice, as we headed down the trail, with Jenny on her newly-acquired mare, Jolee.

The pathways go for about 20 miles I think and connect all the way through our county. As a kid, I spent a lot of time walking and biking the trails closest to home. We parked at the county fair grounds where Daisy and I show in summer and crossed the street to a trail opening.

We rode until we reached a bridge with a tricky, small opening at the other side, and decided to turn around. That section took us probably an hour and a half or so (. . . This is a rough estimate, I never really kept track of time. . . ). Daisy was thrilled to be out and about on new land! She had a real perk in her step, her ears were forward the whole time and she swung her head side to side to check out the sights. So cute! I love when she's happy; it makes the ride so much more enjoyable. I can't wait until one day when I have my own trailer and the ability to drive it and can take her places. Something to look forward to :)

We headed back and continued in the other direction past the trailers so we could reach this big bridge a short distance away.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the bridge is high up! Neither of the two horses wanted to cross it, but I didn't want to give up, so I got off Daisy and after a few minutes of coaxing her and praising her for every step toward the bridge, I got her to get one hoof on it. Once we got that first hoof on, her fear was gone and she was fine with it. Jolee followed suit. It was so cool to be on that big bridge over the water with the horses! I walked her across and re-mounted on the other side. We headed back over the bridge, back to the trailers.

We mostly walked for the ride, with a little trot and canter. I had such a good time! Daisy and I needed that off-farm activity :)

And we have more coming our way!

Wednesday is our first step in the direction of fulfilling one of our goals for 2012. . . we. . . are going. . . .

Team penning!!!

Actually it's team penning practice, but. . . yey!

Daisy is afraid of cows. But I think once she has a few minutes to warm up to the situation (ok . . . maybe a bit more than a few minutes) she'll be fine about it.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Hello 2012 :)

2012-01-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

Sometime last week (whoops. . . back in 2011) Daisy and I visited these horses. There is actually a third, a black and white pinto, but (s)he didn't come up to the fence. They seem like sweet horses. There used to be two, but their herd moved up to three at some point. I've talked to most horse owners in our riding radius, but not these ones; I've never seen them. Hopefully one day we'll get to chat so I can find out more about these cuties.

Yesterday was a cold day here in New York. . . I went to the farm around 1 o'clock yesterday and it was 9 degrees Fahrenheit. When I left a few hours later, it was only 7 degrees. Daisy and I went for a quickie ride in the indoor. I was bundled up in many layers, and glanced in the mirror and laughed. I thought I'd share ;) :

I purchased a Tough-1 medium weight blanket for Daisy this year, as her old blanket was a couple years old and smelly and torn. I splurged and bought her one with a fun pattern. I love seeing her in zebra stripes :)

I received a smartphone for Christmas, and I'm liking the photo aps. Below is "retro camera":

This was taken on our ride today. We went out in the snow to stretch Daisy's legs after a few days in the indoor; She loves to canter for long stretches. This is extra fun in the snow, where she has to use extra effort to move her legs up and down through it. She's so good. :)

Stay warm!,

Review of 2011 and Plans for 2012

2011-12-31T02:00:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again; time to reflect and plan. :)

2011 was a little quieter in the competition aspect than former years, but it was still fun and full of new experiences.

Such as Daisy getting a pasture buddy! Daisy had spent 4 years with no other horses in her pasture, but that changed in February when I had her on pasture board with Dixie at Jean's farm. I was surprised to find that she's actually not dominant at all in a pasture. . . mostly just passive. She was also on 24/7 pasture board for the first time since I've had her, and she survived ;).

We took a few dressage lessons, which didn't amount to much but it *was* the first regular lessoning I'd done on Daisy since I'd owned her. . .

The opening days of April brought the worst colic that I've experienced yet. Daisy and I spent a lot of time walking up and down our driveway to keep her from rolling, during which time I prayed and cried to God to heal her.

Which in due time He did, of course (and I'm thankful for that and that it was not as violent a colic as some colics can be). This colic lasted three entire days. I've been able to keep her from colicing in Fall the last two fall seasons, but not so far in spring. I'm planning on putting her on apple cider vinegar in mid-March already this coming year to try to keep her digestion in balance to avoid that, because. . . it's horrible.

In May I joined United States Pony Club with Miss Daisy. A few days after registering, we went to our first PC clinic, a jump position clinic. Daisy was a speedy terror, but we got good pictures! ;) I had fun anyway, even if it was crazy.

With joining pony club, I started going to weekly mounted lessons. What a great opportunity to lesson at a great farm, on a regular basis! I was also really blessed that the farm was close enough for us to ride to for lessons and that the farm owner graciously allowed this. We even tried some dressage tests in June, which I really enjoyed.

Our Pony club organizes a hunterpace twice a year to raise funds. Jenny graciously trailered Daisy over and she and I rode the hunterpace! It was such a complete blast. Daisy loves going new places, and was game to canter away to my heart's content. We also had the opportunity to do lots of cross country jumps! I'm definitely looking forward to more hunterpaces; they're probably my favorite form of the competitions that we do. Jenny and I placed fourth in the hunter division.

July brought more pony club lessons, with a new instructor that I absolutely love! She was very positive in all her teaching, which makes a huge difference! I can't stand the instructors I've been under in the past who focus on the negative for the whole ride. Abby did such a great job of being positive and upbeat while still being firm in her teaching. Such a nice change!

July also, of course, brought County Fair. This time I rode Ladd for English day. What a blast! I made great memories with him and I will never forget him and what a good boy he was.

And of course Daisy was fabulous as well. She was her usual well-behaved self, in Mounted Games, Western pleasure day, and Gymkhana. We placed first in Versatility for the second year running and for the third year, we were awarded Overall High Point for the week in our division! The only thing different this year was that since I'd taught her voice commands through ground driving, she took it upon herself to simply do what the announcer said. . . before I could even convey the command. I suppose that wasn't too bad ;)

August was even more pony club lessons, this time at a new farm. God blessed me again with a person to trailer Daisy and I to the farm multiple times! I was really thrilled that I still was able to attend, despite not having a trailer.

(Daisy and I to the left, Lydia and Bella to the right)

These lessons were focused on show jumping. I was always under the impression that Daisy was terrible at show jumping because the jumps were so open and airy, she didn't respect them. Not so! She was certainly not, and will never be, a flawless amazing jumper, but she accomplished much more than I had originally thought she could, and I was pleasantly surprised! She always seems to amaze me with her talent. I love her! I also found out more about how my anticipation of jumps was making her rush. When I sat back and was careful not to anticipate, she did much better. She's a pretty fearless jumper, which I love.

As an added bonus, Daisy can load and unload herself onto and off of trailers as of this year.

In August I also purchased an easy-entry cart on craigslist that I'd been eyeing since February. My brother drove an hour away to pick it up with me. Daisy and I started taking regular driving lessons.

When it came time to take Daisy home in September, I rode her home from Katie's house! This was fun because it was through a small hamlet which I had sort of hoped to ride through sometime, because who doesn't like riding their horse through a town? It was such fun.

We continued driving lessons at home, until eventually Daisy was good enough to not need our instructor anymore.

Daisy and I also rode in a trail trial again in September. This one did not go as well as the one in 2010, in which we placed 5th, but that's ok, it was worth it anyway for the experience. We also did a second hunterpace with my Pony Club and placed third!

In October I took on my first regular lesson student. I love instructing! Daisy can be a pill sometimes, but I think it's good to experience ;) :

I also purchased saddle number six, a kid's sized saddle for lessons.

In the first few days of November, Ladd was placed in a new home, and I went to say good bye. I was sad to see him go, but I know he's in a great new home and hopefully I'll see him again one day.

The goals I had for 2011, which I posted on the eve of the year, were as follows:

Teach Daisy to truly drive...a cart. Obtain this goal by doing a lot of bomb-proof training style stuff. Accomplished
Take regular lessons! For dressage. Accomplished
More trail trials...GET TO A HUNTERPACE AGAIN THIS YEAR! Accomplished (One trail trial and two hunterpaces!)
Saying this is sort of far fetched, but seeing as how anything is possible considering I'm actually teaching my horse to drive now....try team penning! Was not attempted, but this goal will continue into the New Year
Swim with Daisy some more. Unfortunately did not happen because no one else was going who could trailer me along to a swim spot.
Haha...do what I can to keep Daisy from colicing! Which, I've never mentioned it, but....this fall was Daisy didn't colic AT ALL! I didn't want to jinx it, so I didn't say anything all fall, but it got later and later and...no colic! I'm not sure what did it, but I changed a few things this year. She had a selenium block that she's never had before because I read that selenium deficiency can cause colic, she was on ACV every morning and evening instead of probios, I cut her off grazing earlier this year than last year. As discussed, we had a colic in April. . . but none in fall again!
Celebrate our 4th year together (wow...time flies!) and have a blast next show season. :) Accomplished, and then some

I'm very happy with how the year panned out.

Goals for 2012:

Team penning, for real this time. Tentative plans are already in place for this. (at this point, Daisy is afraid of cows. I am not deterred from at least trying)
NO COLIC
Personal goal: Take equinextion trimmer 1 (and 2?) course in Calgary, Canada with Lisa Huhn.
Sledding with Daisy
Drive on the road!
Do all the fun stuff as in the past (Hunterpaces. . . . trail trials. . . swimming!. . . county fair. . . cross country schoolings!. . . pony club. . . etc)

This is the end of my goal list. I've accomplished a lot in the past, leaving little left to do. And I know I don't need a goal list to have fun and find new things to do that I haven't even dreamt of yet. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas from My Barn to Yours :)

2011-12-24T13:39:00.000-08:00

Daisy in her pasture at Jenny's upon my arrival:

I brought Daisy in, groomed her a bit (Yep, there was nothing I could do about the muddy legs. . . ) and headed out with buckets and hat in tow to a spot behind the barn with a nice woodsy backdrop.

We are located in the hills above our town, and so we have a good two-inch covering of snow. It's absolutely beautiful. Just in time for pictures today!

It's a good thing Daisy ground ties well, as I had to run back and forth for the self-timer shots, for which I had my camera set up on two buckets.

There is a hole in the seam of the hat, perfect for sticking the halter through to keep the hat from falling off Daisy's head ;)

At random intervals I'd pull peppermint wrappers out of my pocket to get Daisy's attention. It's tough getting her to put her ears forward. You literally get a split-second.

I'd press the shutter, and run back over to her for the self-timer photo. When it was over, Daisy would get a treat ;) Yummm.

After we were done, I put her rain sheet back on and brought her to her pasture, with extra hay and water. I crouched down, took this picture, and all of a sudden. . .

I was ambushed by Hannah ;)

Panorama shot in which you can see the set-up of the barn. The green and red building to the left is the barn and indoor arena. Daisy is in the pasture to the right -->

<-- And (Left to right) Jordan, Jayda, and Skyler, are to the left

The tan building is Jenny's house.

And thus, our card. Merry Christmas!

Christ by highest Heaven adored,

Christ, the Everlasting Lord;

Late in time behold Him come,

Offspring of a Virgin’s womb:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail th’ Incarnate Deity,

Pleased as man with men to appear,

Jesus our Immanuel here!

Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace!

Hail! the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Risen with healing in His wings.

Mild He lays His glory by,

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth,

Born to give them second birth.

Fun Stuff :)

2011-12-23T17:13:00.000-08:00

I went to New York City this week for three days. Unfortunately, sans any horses, so I guess I won't share anything besides a picture ;) :

Daisy wasn't ridden Monday-Wednesday, which for this horse, is a big deal. We went out in a drizzle on Thursday. We rode past this water pipe (below), which we have passed many times, but never with water flowing apparently, because Daisy was spooked a bit as we went past. I love that when she spooks, it's not dangerously dramatic. She stands still and freezes and raises her head and snorts. Sometimes she might spin to run, but she spins slowly and never without warning. We simply rode past in each direction a few times until she was over it.

Today I rode Daisy bareback and planned to jump a small crossrail. . . after going over it a couple times, I thought I'd grab this road work (nylon) sign to throw over the jump to fill it a bit. She spooked sideways a bit as I picked it up (while on her) so I dropped it and got off her. We spent about fifteen minutes desensitizing with it. I tried a new method that I found out about recently. . . I'm not sure if I read it in a horse magazine (of which I subscribe to three: Equus (Favorite!), Horse Illustrated, and Horse & Rider) or saw it on HRTV, but it worked well! The method was as follows: to apply "pressure" through the object you're desensitizing with, and then when the horse submits or stands still, you 'release' the pressure by removing the object from where it was.

With Daisy, I started out waving the flag on both sides of her. I would wave for a bit and she would circle around me or away from me; once she stood still and wouldn't move I'd stop waving and put the flag behind me and rub her for a bit. Then I'd start again, and then move to her other side, and then slowly touch it to her until she didn't move away, and finally moved to putting it on her. I gave her breaks (releasing pressure) throughout. It worked so well! It makes so much sense, but I've never really thought of it in that way.

For an added bonus, I had Daisy stand on it and walk over it as well, since she has trouble walking over tarps.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, when us Germans celebrate. I'm excited!

I'm getting a second lesson student in January. Funn!

I love my mare :)

The Journey to Driving

2011-12-17T10:47:00.000-08:00

I feel like reflecting upon Daisy and my latest feat of this year, 2011.
In the waning days of 2010, I found myself stuck inside an arena once again, and after quickly exhausting my options of what to do to keep us busy and entertained, I sat twiddling my thumbs and wondering. . . English, western, jumping, barrel racing. . . besides parades, I had yet to try something with Daisy and truly fail(the parade wasn't a complete fail). People would often comment that my mare "does everything" to which I would quickly reply "Well, she doesn't drive." December of last year brought me to wondering whether it was really that difficult a skill to master. So I set my mind upon teaching her to ground drive. I emailed with Sydney for some helpful tips on how to get started, and consulted a ground driving article I found on google.

And so we began. Our first, few days I believe, looked much like this, just doing some sacking out and helping her get used to the feel of *things* brushing all over her legs:

Once she seemed fine with that step, we progressed to actual ground driving, with crude tack; english saddle and two longe lines, laced through the stirrups. It looked silly, but it worked. Many thanks once again to my good friend Lydia for filming help that day as well as being an assistant. She was there from the beginning with the driving training, and was helpful both back then and this summer, as we practiced with the real cart:

Notice how the title of the next movie is no longer "Ground Driving Training Part III" but rather " *Driving* Training Part III". Daisy took to the ground driving rather well, and I decided to go a step further and teach her to drive. I added "driving harness" to my Christmas wish list, and began doing more desensitizing. This video featured the barrel, however I also worked dragging a pole and soda bottles on a rope.

We ground drove once a week or every other week for a few months. In August I purchased a simple easy-entry cart that I found on craigslist, and hired an instructor, Gracie :)

I used the driving bridle with the blinders for the first time. . .

Daisy was a little confused that she couldn't see me, no matter how far she turned her head behind her, but otherwise she was fine :)

The first time we hooked her up, we had a spook that sent Daisy and cart, with me in tow, doing a 180, followed by a pony frozen with fear and snorting at the crazy object behind her.

The next lesson, we took it literally two steps at a time, as she got used to the feel of the cart around her.

Lesson after lesson we made our way around the field at Katie's, slowly eliminating the helpers at her sides.

I brought Daisy home and we continued, until finally. . .

The helpers became passengers ;)

Lydia and I drove Daisy once or twice a week for a couple months up and down our driveway to gain more experience. Sometimes Daisy still had trouble turning up by our house, but I think this was a barn sour issue, not necessarily a training one. I really appreciate Lydia coming out to help so often! Especially since Daisy seems to like her quite a lot ;). Hopefully in spring we can start up again with that, introduce a car coming from behind (as the sound without seeing the car will be a new situation), and then move to the road.

Driving Daisy is really a lot of fun; she's so talented! Notice the tight turn that is required of her on our driveway. . .

Trotting is such fun too!

Driving has been an excellent experience for Daisy. She's very accustomed to the feel of lines and harnesses all over her back. She hears the clacking of the cart behind her and doesn't worry. The voice commands are put into use in our every day rides, which makes things much more fun. And Daisy has learned to trust me more, and I her!

As I write, it is snowing heavily outside. I'm excited to get back to this in spring :)

Daisy's New Digs

2011-12-12T17:45:00.000-08:00

Firstly. . . (is that a word?), how do you all like my new layout? The blog was seriously in need of a change. I like it.

We decided to just leave Daisy at Jenny's farm because of the worse weather that is likely coming. . . not that it has come yet. All the photos are taken with my cellphone. . . one of these days I'll actually bring my camera along to the barn. Above are Daisy and her ex-pasture buddy, Jolee. They got along fine; the last day they were out together I actually came up and saw them eating together nose to nose on the same pile of hay! Hence the above picture. Daisy didn't seem to care either way about whether Jolee was near her or not, but i do think it was nice for her. Jenny decided to put Jolee out with her other new boarder instead because Daisy gets different hay from everyone else ( my hay instead of Jenny's) so it it would make things simpler.

Daisy's hoof marks are below. I love when I move her off the concrete and find these. . . concavity, anyone? :)

Below are photos of Daisy's old evening arrangement. . .she was on that side of the fence, and Stuart (the only gelding on the farm, the other boarded horse) was on the the other side. It's essentially still the same except that they swapped spots. These photos are already outdated (by a couple days). Shows what a *great* blogger I am! (Sarcastic remark).

I was really happy with where she was because she actually felt safe enough to sleep lying down at night; I found shavings in her tail for days. When she was in a stall at Jenny's last year she rarely slept lying down, and I figured it was because the stall was small. . . here in the run-in she slept lying down! I'm hoping she still will on the other side. She probably will once she has a couple days to get used to the situation change. Notice the board placed over the water trough; that is there because the little Missy pooed in that big trough while I was gone! Poor Jenny had to clean it out. So now most of it is covered. . . anyone have any tricks for getting horses not to do that? Daisy has a habit of pooping in buckets.

Yesterday Daisy and I went on a road that we haven't gone on since last winter, so naturally Daisy was all excited and energetic. I love when she's like that! It's so much more fun to not have to squeeze her along every step. We met a mare out hand walking with her owner. We rode up to this farm and this draft-cross came cantering down the pasture to visit. Daisy whinnied out loud! Sweet horses. We'll visit again soon.

A fellow rider stopped to introduce herself, and we're hoping to swap numbers and go trail riding sometime this winter. I hope it works out. It would be a nice change!

I gave another lesson on Daisy today in Jenny's arena. We had fun lunging and learning to post. It's so funny to teach someone to post, as I've never taught it before and I'm not sure how to go about it. I just repeat "up down up down up down up down" over and over as one of Daisy's fore-legs moves forward and back. It's so fun instructing!

How are you all holding up? We've had a pretty mild December so far, snow and temperature wise.

Happy trails,

Home Again

2011-12-07T18:05:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed Florida for a week. My Mom and I went riding on Wednesday last week at a tourist-style farm. It. . . left things to be desired. But here are the pictures anyway.

I rode a horse named Bush. He was 3x grumpier than Daisy, which I didn't think was possible, but it definitely is.

My mom rode a sweet Belgian cross named Flare.

Most of the week was spent enjoying the nice weather and the beautiful beach,

within the dunes.

I'm happy to be home though. Daisy was pretty happy to see me, I must say. She was completely muddy, she apparently had a grand time out with the other horses for the week. I groomed her and let her loose in Jenny's (60x60) arena and free lunged her, joined up with her. No matter how many times I join up, it's still so cool! Daisy followed me everywhere afterward and even side passed away from me as I stepped toward her, something she's never done.

Today I joined up with her again (I just couldn't resist) and then I rode her for a bit. I spent 95% of the ride not using my hands, just my legs, and I rode her walk/trot/canter with no hands. I sometimes had to use a short tug to reprimand her when she tried to turn to the barn gate, but otherwise it was such fun and she was sooo good! I love my mare :)

Senior Pictures (And, Inevitably, Future Plans)

2011-11-27T20:19:00.001-08:00

I am a homeschooled, high school student.

I attended public school from Kindergarten-10th grade.

I raise chickens.

Then I decided I'd had enough. I'm homeschooling myself this year and I love it. When I planned my homeschool year, I realized that I could easily obtain the necessary credits, and graduate a year early.

And so, these are my senior pictures....

I considered what I wanted to do... go away to college to study equine science? Equine business management? Go to Colorado and work on a ranch? Go to Canada and study for 8 months? And what about Daisy?

My plans as of now are this:

I plan on studying business at a community college here in town, to gain some knowledge in how to run a business, business background, etc. At the same time, I'm going to head up to Canada for a 10 day natural trimmer course taught by Lisa Huhn, of Equinextion (http://equinextion.tripod.com/equinextion/). While taking college classes, I'll apprentice under my own trimmer here in town who is certified in Lisa's methods.

I've played violin since third grade

Repeat for 2013, at which point I'll go for another trimmer course and continue apprenticing.

Our 11-year old dog, Abby. ♥

So yes. I'm pursuing my passion, which just happens to be feet. I'm hoping to help restore the horse world's hooves to the way God originally intended them to be.

Eventually, I hope to have my own farm. It will be an 'all natural' approach type of farm. But that is for another day :)

For now, I'm Florida-bound for a week of fun in the sun (and possibly some riding?!). Daisy is over at Jenny's farm again where she's well taken care of, not that this really keeps me from worrying about her ;). She has a pasture buddy for the week, a bay mare named Jolee. Jolee tried to put on a show for Daisy today. Daisy flat out ignored her. Like the scene in Black Beauty where Beauty puts on a show for Ginger, who just ignores it. ;)

That's all for now :) Talk to you all in a week.

Friday Morning at Red Gate Ranch

2011-11-20T10:59:00.001-08:00

Second day of snow this fall.

Have a happy Sunday :)

Blogging Failure

2011-11-16T11:24:00.001-08:00

I looked through my photos and realized...blogger failure that I have become, I missed out on posting a lot of stuff!

In August, I boarded Daisy at a friend's house a few minutes away. I had a lot of fun riding trails with her and her two mares. Daisy spent a bit of time each day out in a big grassy pasture:

We cantered over logs on our good mares through the woods:

Some days I cavorted through the woods on lovely Miss Phoebe, Katie's horse:

She's a halflinger. She has the quickest little trot. LOVE her! Such a good girl.

We went up and down hills, pausing to enjoy the marvelous view:

(These are all cell-phone shots. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera along that day)

When it came time to bring Daisy home, I decided to mix it up with my easily-bored horse and ride her home. It's about a 4.5 mile ride; not long, but it includes a huge hill. Unfortunately, I have no picture of it, but believe me, it's big. So big that we often have different weather on the top of it than at the base. Daisy's leg muscles are very used to hills, as we ride hills all over the place every day, but this was easily the biggest one we've ever ridden. ;)
Just below our house, on the base of the hill, is a small hamlet. Just houses, a hairdressers shop, a gas station and convenience store, and an ice cream/barbecue place. I've always wanted to ride down in summer and to get ice cream and ride back ;). I never did that, but I finally had the opportunity to ride Daisy through the little village anyway.

Daisy likes being ridden and has a lot of energy, but when she does the same thing or rides in the same place often, she gets lazy and uninterested. Understandable. Riding through the town made her completely excited! She had her ears forward the whole time and walked forward with an energetic step. We left at 9 am I believe. It was just under a mile ride from Katie's house to the hamlet, and then we rode through. Our first shocker came when we went to pass behind the convenience store and Daisy heard the air conditioner going, and I think she associated it as coming from the garbage Dumpster behind the building. She backed nervously into the street and tried to spin. I attempted to calmly talk her out of it for a bit, but eventually I gave up and got off her and hand walked her around the dumpster, placing myself between her and the Dumpster, as my riding instructor once taught me when I was little.

Once past, I got back on. We passed the playground below, situated at the bottom of the hill. Daisy thought it looked suspicious.

We passed a cow farm. We couldn't see any cows, but all of a sudden the stench hit us like a wall, and Daisy's nostrils flared and she looked all around her. She wanted to spook, but she couldn't tell where the scary thing was! So funny ;) I urged her on, and she complied. She marched full of energy up the big hill. She didn't spook anymore.

Once we reached the top and went along a little ways, she suddenly recognized where we were, a place we'd ridden in the past, and her interest in the ride was gone instantly. She walked slower, her head hung low, and she walked relaxed back home the last mile and a half.

She was such a good mare though!
I love trying new things with Daisy, taking her or riding her in new places. She gets excited and interested, and that makes it fun for me too! I hope we ride through the hamlet again sometime. Maybe if we do it enough, she'll get over it and we can get ice cream ;).

My brother got engaged to the lovely Stormy in August, and in September I took them both on a ride at Jean's farm.

From left to right:
Me on Phoenix, Markus on Scout, and Stormy on Buttercup
(The happy couple got married in October)

I've been enjoying Daisy, as always. I drove her often in September and October. I haven't driven her in weeks now; my driving-helper's schedule and mine haven't meshed all that well. Saturday her and two other girls from our pony club are coming over to drive Daisy with me; fingers crossed she behaves after over a month off from driving. I think she will; she always surprises me with how quickly she picks up something again, even after time off. I have a video of us driving that I've posted to youtube. I haven't posted it to the blog yet, but I'm preparing a compilation post and it will be in it.

Daisy has been on Mare Magic for a few weeks now. It's a supplement for mares; literally just raspberry leaves. It had a lot of good reviews, so I'm trying it. It's hard to gauge whether it's working or not, but I have a feeling it is. She's been more pleasurable to ride lately.

Daisy yesterday as we embarked on our ride:

Today I got on her bareback with just a halter and reins for a quick ride up and down the driveway a couple times in the rain. I've been incorporating voice commands into all our rides; Daisy responds well to whoa, trot-trot, canter (pronounced caaaann-ter!), and back. It's made rides so much more relaxed! I still use my reins sometimes from canter to stop, but it's not as much of a struggle; I sit deep in the saddle and say "and waaaalkk" as I exhale, and she slows. She listens to "easy", as well, when I ask her to settle into a more controlled canter. Today, with only the halter, I used voice commands the entire ride. I picked up the reins a couple times to reinforce commands, but I never have to jerk back hard; it's a slight movement of my finger, and I get a response. She's incredible! At the end, I backed her with no rein pressure, just repeating "back" over and over, and sidepassed her both ways as I said "step-over" and used my leg pressure. It's so awesome to ride like that!

Then I stopped her and gave her a hug, did a cycle of 'around the world' ;), and stood on her back for a few seconds. This all with her standing feet from the gate, where she normally just wants to walk to. She stood stalk-still. Good mare!!!

I've been giving weekly (weather and health permitting) riding lessons to a 10 year old.

My mom graciously drove me out to pick up a kid's saddle I found on craigslist for $50. Worth the purchase! The leather was a little dry, but after two times of oiling it, it's supple and wonderful.

Lastly, Daisy knows the word 'cookie' now. I'll let you see her reaction ;) (and this coming from the mare who has her ears pinned back 90% of the time):

It's a shame that I was so negligent about posting stuff this summer.

A Tribute to Laddie ♥

2011-11-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Some horses come into our lives and quickly go, but others leave hoof prints on our hearts that will never fade. . .

June 2010

In the later half of 2009, my 4H leader aquired Ladd, a ~17hh thoroughbred gelding of 7 years. Ladd had successfully evented up to Training level all over the country, from New York to Florida, until he suffered a suspensory injury and ended up at Jean's.

She began riding him in October of that year after he'd rehabbed. I remember the first time I saw her ride him, and she let me get on and take him for a short cool-down spin. Whoa was my first impression. He's *so* big! And his strides were huge and long and smooth.

June 2010

In spring of 2010, I rode Ladd a few times a week to get him started for Jean. I rode him in the arena and on trails. Most rides gave me something to 'write home about'.

In September of that year, I took Ladd to a show; probably his first open show. After getting it together, he won first in two of the three classes we rode in.

First Show together; September 2010

Hunter Hack in the rain; first place. 9/10

June 2011

Jean said I could take him to fair for English day this year. I was pretty excited. :)

Prepping for county fair!

I spent five weeks riding him about five days a week, sometimes more.

I'm not saying every ride was wonderful . . . We had one ride where I got off at the end and could only think What. Was that all about?!

And then those road rides where we found ourselves backing into a ditch because 'we' couldn't handle walking back to the farm?. . .

But he was my first experience with a typical thoroughbred. And holy cow! Do I have respect for people who ride them. He's sooo incredibly talented, but it's completely different to ride them. Their minds! So opposite everything I was used to up until him.

I had such fun riding Ladd; I love my Daisy, but Ladd is different. Taller, more leggy, more dressagy, more flowing, more forward, and he makes jumping so easy. Some videos from this summer as we prepped for county fair:

Riding at Pine Hollow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t40JApHryL4

Jumping Ladd & Allie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPI0EHjWvc

We had a jump lesson the week before fair. What I said about him being opposite? I learned how to jump him. Want to slow down after a jump? Go ahead, pull back on your reins, but he'll only go faster. And he's likely to take off and jump a standard. Which yes, he did. We didn't clear it ;) I was completely humiliated, but I got it through my head, that the only way to slow him was essentially not to try.... the only way was to sit up straight and tall and quiet. Once I slowed all the motion of my body, he was a different horse and slowed down. Crazy!

And then it was fair. The first class after showmanship I don't think we placed, he was getting used to it all, but after that we were in top placings all day.

The last jump

Ladd and I with Jean during the schooling portion

Yep. I'm destined to jump off-center.

I was very happy with our class over-fences. Despite his eventing background, the judge loved him as a hunter horse. And we placed first! It wasn't a perfect course, but watching the video of it, I feel like it was pretty close :)

For some reason the jump below made all the horses antsy. Many refused during the schooling. As for Ladd, he handled it like an ex-eventer. I could feel him start to slow but as soon as I felt it I urged him on and he never refused. He was such a good boy!

The jump they all looked at.

Jump courses. . . wow. So invigorating to do. Such a high!

Happiness

Our 'Working Hunter to Jump' trophy

Working Hunter to Jump on Ladd (the video compilation of the course)
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDVY7D870Sc
He even surprised me by getting us a blue in trail class. He walked over the bridge, trotted poles, and backed through barrels. I unfortunately don't remember the rest of the course, but I have the trophy to prove it :)

Since fair, I admit I haven't been to ride Ladd. He's a horse that is best in a consistent riding program. He wasn't getting it, and so to go out once a week to ride him would be torture for both of us I think. But the fact that he was there on the farm to be visited and ridden if and whenever I wanted to was what mattered.

Jean has decided to place Ladd in a new home. She's moving on from eventing, which I totally understand. Ladd is never going to be an all-around pleasure horse; no way. He loves to jump. So Jean found him a home where he's going to do what he loves.

She offered him to me multiple times, but I had to say no. I don't have an adequate barn to keep him in, and no arena to ride in. I'm taking college classes next year(and hopefully doing some training in Canada to become a natural trimmer; but that's another story), so my time will be even more limited, and I already have Daisy, whom I love dearly and can never part with. And I'm not looking to event. I have no horse trailer, and the costs and stress involved with eventing are not something I really want to pursue.

Today he left for his new home, a college about 45 minutes away to be a mount for the equestrian team. I'm ecstatic for him and the great opportunity, but that didn't make it any easier to say good-bye when I went to see him one last time yesterday.

He's such a lovable horse. He adores people. He's so sweet. No matter how bad he is when you ride him, as soon as you hit the ground and see his face, you can't stay angry.

He will always always always have a place in my heart. Taking back out to the pasture and letting him go made tears stream down my face. Writing about it now is hard too. I never knew I could love a horse I didn't even own so much.

How lucky I was to have known someone who was so hard to say good-bye to.

I'm hoping to visit him at a show sometime. And maybe...who knows. In ten years, when he goes to be retired, maybe I can get him back as a pleasure horse. But for now, he's out of my life.

I love you Laddie boy. Whoever rides you and takes care of you now is going to adore you. Maybe this isn't 'farewell'. Maybe it's just 'see you later'.

The song has ended, but the melody lingers on.

Stacy Westfall

2011-10-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

I watched Stacy Westfall's 2011 Quarter Horse Congress Freestyle reining pattern today.

Most horse people have seen the video of her tackless 2006 championship run. She's an amazing horse person.

She's incredibly inspiring; if I could spend a day with her and watch her work, that would be amazing. I so wish I could have a relationship with even one horse the way she does with all of hers. What gets me in the 2006 video is that the horse is so willing; you can see it licking and chewing as she rides. The horse is so submissive, even with Stacy on her back.

The 2011 run is equally captivating. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it, you won't be disappointed:

2011-10-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

I went for a trail ride today with Daisy. I like to mix it up a bit with going with my mom when she walks the dog. Daisy enjoys that :)

For the first time ever, I trail-rode helmetless! I didn't realize I forgot a helmet until we were already away from home. I normally always ride with one!

Daisy lovesss trail riding :)

This is Daisy and I with the new dressage saddle.... the girth from smartpak is great! Maybe we'll get some dressage lessons this winter?

Driving, Riding, Friends, and Colored Feet

2011-10-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well hasn't this picture been a long time coming:

That was Daisy and I and my driving instructor. I'm supposed to get Daisy out driving at least twice a week but it's tough because I don't have many helpers to come along and pull Daisy in the right direction when she misbehaves ;)

The woods around here are beautiful this time of year:

Daisy and I have been emarking on our usual road rides.

Visiting the minis is pretty much Daisy's favorite thing to do:

There are now only two mares. The little girl in the pictures is Jewel; She's Daisy's buddy.

Daisy's hooves were a shocking orange/red color the other day when I picked them out. I called my trimmer immediately, thinking it was something serious. Upon further inspection I realized she was completely sound on her feet and they weren't hot at all (a sign of inflammation). We're not really sure why they were such vivid colors, except perhaps that the leaves she's been eating have changed the color. As long as she's sound, I can take a colorful-footed mare any day ;)

I bought a dressage saddle off a friend a few weeks ago, and yesterday I got my new girth from smartpak in the mail :) So hopefully today we'll be girthing up the saddle and taking it for a spin.

That's all my news for today.

Still Playin' Catch-Up

2011-10-06T20:54:00.000-07:00

In August at one pony club lesson, Lyd took some great pictures.

The one below is of a 2'7" vertical. I was so proud of Daisy!

Pony Club was an interesting experience this year. While I did think some rules and such were over-the-top, I'm glad I did it. For one thing, it was very cool to have weekly English lessons; I've never taken regular English lessons, and it gave me stuff to work on.

For another, it made me realize that Daisy can in fact jump stadium-style jumps, and isn't too shabby either. We had fun! Our biggest issue is both of us trying to rush as we get close to the jump, and me anticipating too much.

We jumped a full course a few times, which is something I've never done with Daisy, and I don't think she's done either. We met some great new instructors who graciously volunteered their time. I had a blast! And I might just jump Daisy at fair next year; who knows?
This jump below "Ok, she's probably going to refuse this one. I'm just saying, this one will make her look."
Umm...nope. Just went over :) I love her.

Fall is here, and Daisy is turning dark again.

We're finished competing for the year. We're keeping busy with driving and riding and giving lessons :)

Last, I rooted through an old box of photos and found this beauty:

Me on Dancer, when I was 5 or 6. I look so tiny, yet I was riding by myself! I love it.

And without Further Ado, County Fair (July 26-30, 2011)

2011-10-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

English Day, July 26, with Ladd:

Laddie arrived at the fairgrounds quaking with nerves, and after trying to tie him in his stall and him looking like he was ready to explode out of it, he grazed on the lawn for a little while until he settled in. Once he did, he had no whims about the tie stall.

He and I did well. As I recall, we didn't place in our showmanship class or our first riding class, but from then on we placed, and I think mostly in the top three placings, mostly first. I know we placed first in Sr. hunter under saddle,and then in our jump class, Sr. Working Hunter to Jump.

We schooled first and had pretty smooth schooling. The jump below was refused by most horses, and although I could feel Ladd looking and slow like he was going to stop, I just spurred him on and we were fine over it. He's a beautiful jumper. I had to really concentrate to remember to slow him by sitting still, not so much using my hands, but we did it and made it around the course in the end to place first :). Such a good boy!!

I made a video of our jump round like I did with Bubba last year. Here it is:

Ladd and I even got a first in trail class! I had decided we would just do trail class for the schooling experience; considering how spooky he can be on a real trail and how unmanageable, I didn't count on placing. Boy did he show me! I unfortunately can't remember the pattern anymore, but we did place first. :)

Mounted Games with Daisy, July 27th:

There isn't much to say about relay games with Daisy; pretty much the same as every other year.

Daisy did a fabulous job as usual as far as I remember :))

At the end of that day there was a draft horse show going on, and the wash stalls were empty (and free of cows). Daisy has been worried about the wash stalls in the past, but I seized the opportunity and took her in. She ended up being fine, and I had two fine helpers to help me give her a bath.

I had to get her clean and pretty for western pleasure classes the next day.

This photo below is one my mom took at the draft show. A friend of mine, Lisa, has owned this horse since this past winter. He's a 5 year old percheron named Max. And he stands 19h tall. This is him in his halter class with Lisa's sister. He may be young, but he ended up placing quite well in his driving classes! He's one big boy for sure.

Western Day with Daisy, July 28th:

I, unfortunately, have no photos of western day. I did Daisy's mane in a gypsy pattern again. We showed in the pony class. I chose to show pony because our senior class for English day was very crowded and uncomfortable in the ring. I had the choice of riding pony or senior, and I chose pony because the class was smaller and I hoped for more room in the ring. And yes, at 14.2hh, Daisy is considered a pony in 4H.

We placed really really well all day :) Daisy was a good girl.

We participated in the reining class again. Last year we did it but were disqualified for pivoting 5 times instead of 4 (oops. . . I had lost track.). This year we were careful with our pivots and placed first (not a great feat; it was only out of one or two in the pony class):

On our last roll back and lope, we had the wrong lead, and I couldn't get Daisy to switch it either, which was a shame. . . but otherwise it went alright. We never ever practice reining stuff, and Daisy is disgusted with pivoting ;) so I was happy with it. And considering it's just flat work, it really gets your adrenaline and your nerves up, but it's fun!

Gymkhana Day with Daisy, July 29th:

Nothing memorable to say about this day. We were in pony division and there were faster ponies, so we didn't place that well, but that's alright :) It was fun. We did place first in the quadrangle pattern.

Cloverleaf:

Straight line:

Potato Race(for the first time, I rode it too confidently and didn't get the potato. Oops :P):

There it goes. . .

Second to last race was ribbon race. We didn't really race though ;) I rode with Katie and her sweet mare Phoebe. Phoebe kicks out at the horse beside her if you go faster than a walk or very slow jog, so a slow jog was as fast as we went. Our "sunday stroll".

Last event was ready-aim-fire, squirting water at balloons. Just thought I'd post this funny photo ;)

Open Gaming Show with Daisy and Paulie, July 30th:

I ended up last-minute deciding to show Paulie, a 4 year old I believe?, as well. It was for the schooling experience for him, we didn't go very fast. He has a very lifting trot.

And I rode Daisy as well:

And had my first fall during a show! I rode in my endurance saddle because it's lighter, but I've never barrel raced in it and I slid across the seat on the return of a run and slid off her. We had passed the finish though, so we did get a time! ;)

And that's pretty much county fair 2011 in a nutshell. Best week of my year. I love it.

Hey, maybe next year we'll do some driving classes?!

A Few Short Snippets

2011-09-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

I took Daisy out on a-what turned out to be- short ride yesterday between rain showers. Daisy is part thoroughbred, and so she loves, loves, loves to canter. I get easily irritated because she doesn't like to stop on my terms, which are a) now. and b) when I ask, not seven strides later. I try half-halt slowing her down to stop, remembering to exhale, sitting deep in the seat, saying whoa, slowing the motion of my body, and then I resort to one-rein circle stops, or 'pulley reining' (emergency stop). So yesterday on our ride Daisy again didn't want to stop, and so I threw in the towel after so long and after asking nicely, I pulled hard on the reins. I felt bad, but somehow, she got the message. She FINALLY stopped, and the canter-->stop transitions after that were much better. All along, here I am trying to be just, and I finally give up and I get results? Oh mare.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I took Daisy driving with my mom this week. Our last lesson, Daisy was great and didn't need anyone to get out and guide our (rather tight) turns on the driveway. For some reason, with my mom, she would refuse to move in the middle of a turn and she'd need assistance. Today I took her out with my cousin, and after two times turning with help I insisted she do it on her own. I growled at her and hey! she CAN do it! She's a little actress ;)

------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a video Jean put together of our group of 4H kids at the trail rally two weeks ago (which I haven't posted about. ..). Daisy and I didn't place this year. We couldn't do the noodle-curtain obstacle, although the people there were incredibly nice about letting me have time to try schooling it and ultimately get off and walk her under it for the experience. I also practiced on a tarp all week long and yet when we got to the tarp obstacle, I was told to move on after a very short time-20 seconds? Because apparently Daisy refused twice (two minutes or two refusals). I was irritated because it let her think moving on was ok ... but I know others have complained of that in trail trials as well. :-/ I did write a comment about it on their survey, so hopefully next year they'll have more schooling opportunities like the curtain obstacle. Anyway, the video is fun and includes some jumping-enjoy :)

Just Plain Busy

2011-09-25T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
Daisy and I have been busy. . . trail trial, driving, giving riding lessons, and today was our last event of the year, a hunterpace!
Daisy was a good girl. Lots of galloping in a group with 4 other horse and rider pairs, and jumps! She was one tired girl at the end. We won third place!

We're officially finished with the driving training under an instructor, cleared to practice on our own! Can I just say how much I love my horse?! She's such a smarty. She was nervous a few times while training, but when you'd give her a few seconds to think about it, we'd be able to move on. We've been driving on our driveway, and the only option to turn her is to turn pretty tightly, so she has to cross her front legs over really far, but she's doing it! And in both directions.
I have my own laptop again! I'm hoping that I'll be able to post more again about everything else that's been going on. Until then,

Trail Trial Coming Up!

2011-09-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Quick question. . . I'm going to be riding in a trail trial again this coming Sunday, and am trying to pick out what tack to use. I'd rather ride western because it's so comfortable, but I learned last year when I did that that Daisy will not respect a western curb when in the midst of a cantering group of horses. . . so it would be smarter for me to ride English with a snaffle, because if worst comes to worst, I can easily pull her in a tight circle to stop her. So I'm wondering, is it ok to put the english snaffle on my western headstall, like for a young western horses in training? Does anyone have any experience in this? Thanks :)

Daisy and I are keeping busy. . . I rode her home from my friend's house last week ,which required riding through a small hamlet near us. How fun! Unfortunately a couple of Dumpsters freaked her out and I had to hand walk her part of the way ;). She can drive pretty well at the walk now; she needs an occasional helper to come up and reinforce the 'walk' command because she doesn't go right away, or she tries to slowly back up. I had a new laptop for a day and then it was broken accidentally :-/ So unfortunately, my posts are still limited. I have pictures of fair I'd like to post, but we'll see when that happens. We're riding in the trail trial next week, and another hunterpace in two weeks! I'm excited. This has been a quiet year for us showing wise, and I'm surprised that I really do miss it. . . so I'm glad we'll be getting out a couple more times.

I hope you're all doing well! Sorry I've not visited your blogs and commented.

Just a Quick Hello

2011-08-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

I apologize for my lack of posting. My laptop was hit with viruses and is kaput for good, so I'm waiting on a new one in the mail still. Which is why I haven't posted in the last two weeks (before that, I have no excuse ;) )

I purchased a cart and have been taking driving lessons with Daisy. We've had three so far, and it's going well! Her first time hooked to the cart, she took a few steps and then did a quick 180 with the cart because the shafts spooked her. At our last lesson on Wednesday, she was great! We went around the field a few times at a walk with people on either side of her, and she settled in. Tomorrow is our next lesson, and we're hoping to eliminate the helpers.

We've also been jumping with pony club (header pic). We did a 2'7" vertical at our last lesson! We're rating up to our D3 this weekend, which requires jumping a bunch of 2'6" jumps, including a 2'6" oxer.... something we've never done. I'll work on it with her this week.

Yesterday morning when I came to the barn, Daisy had hives on her neck and belly and was swollen right behind her jaw on her neck (glands?). She's on benedryl now, masked in applesauce. I'm heading out in a few minutes to give her more and check her progress.

Hopefully I'll have my laptop back soon, and then I'll try to post some more pictures of driving and jumping.

County Fair is Going Great!

2011-07-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Just a few teaser pics; had a great day on Ladd, and LOVING my mare as much as ever! More details to come. Tomorrow is Gymkhana (barrel racing) with 4H, and Saturday is an open gaming show--then we are done!

The Month of July So Far

2011-07-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

So many things to post about.

I was riding Ladd regularly at Jean's for about a week.

My mom was kind enough to take photos of us, as she did last year.

Every morning I went and rode him, first warming up in the arena, then heading out on the trails. This is Ladd's tattoo ;)

Last week I rode him a couple days in a row and had good rides, but then Thursday he completely changed. We headed out on the trails, cantering along as usual, but he was stronger than the other days. I had trouble slowing him down to make a turn so we were trotting quickly as we turned, right into a field of freshly cut hay. He sidepassed madly into the field, his legs getting tangled up with hay, and he hopped on his hinds and spun and turned. He was flipping out, for no reason. I mean, yes, there was hay on his legs, but I could feel it happening before we even hit the hay field. I turned him around, to head home back the way we came. He wouldn't have it; he didn't want to go forward, nor backward. He sidepassed the length of the field we had just cantered up, and I decided to just give up and let him cross the field and head straight home; I was trying hard to balance and not come off, and I just wanted him to stop. We weaved in and out of big round bales, and I tried to get him a job to do in the middle of the field, to teach him that his behavior wasn't acceptable.

I tried big and small trot circles, canter circles, etc, but nothing worked. He planted his feet, and spun, and backed up, and rocketed forward, completely ignoring all my requests. It was all I could do to stay on him pretty much. I finally gave in completely and headed back to the indoor, intending to work him there.

He refused flat out to give me any sort of calm walk circle worth mentioning. I finally got off and found him dripping sweat. It was crazy.

Then he was moved to my friend Katie's barn, where we have been riding together almost every day.

This month of July I've ridden him 16 times so far. I had a riding lesson on him yesterday with Karin, an instructor I've lessoned with a handful of times. I left yesterday's lesson feeling bummed about my ability to ride Ladd. I do feel I learned more about how to correctly ride and jump him, but I realize now that I'm more in over my head than I thought. He's not a horse that jumps just because you point him at something; his striding, lead, take off, landing, etc, must be perfect, or else he throws a fit of sorts. He's very in-tune to the rider's body position, and I'm not very good at controlling every small motion that I make. He's a difficult horse, and though it's been a pleasure to ride him this month, I'm not cut out for him in the long term.

I posted two videos to youtube, one of Katie and I doing flatwork at her farm, and one of us jumping.
Flatwork:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t40JApHryL4

and jumping:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPI0EHjWvc

I went to my first pony club dressage rally at the beginning of July. I went as stable manager, meaning I didn't ride, only helped the other riders with whatever they needed. It was a lot of fun! On August 13th there will be a show jumping rally 3 1/2 hours away that I had planned on taking Ladd to, but I've decided to take Daisy instead. I'm excited for it! We will be trailering over the day before and leaving the horses in a stable overnight. The jumps aren't going to be higher than 2' for my division, so Daisy can definitely handle it.

This was our club at Dressage Rally:

I've taken two lessons through pony club with an instructor named Abby who actually instructs hunter-jumper riders. I love her! I'm excited to take a few more lessons with her before show jumping rally; she's very positive and a great teacher.

Today I rode Daisy with western spurs because she was being incredibly bull-headed. Once I got her through that, she was excellent! I have been struggling to train Daisy to give me specific leads on a straight away, and it's been very frustrating. I was getting the impression that she either didn't understand what I was asking, or knew very well but was just being her stubborn self and refusing to do it.

It was the latter. Today with the western spurs; voila! We have our leads! I'm so excited to say that she totally knows what lead I'm asking for when I press her with certain legs with the spurs on. I don't even need to touch her with the spurs, just their presence makes a huge difference! Success at last. I have a feeling the flying lead change is in the future :)

County fair is this coming week! I will be showing Ladd on English day, Tuesday, and Daisy Wednesday through Saturday in mounted games, western, and barrel racing.

A fellow 4Her has also offered one of her draft horses for me to show in a draft horse show Wednesday night. I'm going over to ride him today to get to know him a little; the classes are very laid-back.
I probably won't post for a bit; busy week ahead!

Ground Driving, A Ladd Update, and Expanding Our Horizons

2011-06-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening I ground drove Daisy for the first time in at least a month and a half. I wasn't sure what to expect, but. . . she was excellent! She was completely responsive to my voice commands, which is interesting because I don't really use them while riding (at least not the forward commands; I do use woah). I really want to get a cart and hook her up, but I'm leery. . . I was hoping I could find a cart in the area that I could borrow just for the first time to see if she could even handle it, but I didn't have any luck. So if I do it, it would require driving an hour or so away to pick up a ~$500 cart, in the hopes that Daisy even takes to it. So at this point, I haven't done anything more than think about it.

Monday morning finally left time for me to ride Ladd. He was full of it, as seen when he came cantering up to me full speed in the pasture and almost plowed me over. He had canter on the brain the whole time we were in the arena; I was trying to ride my PC dressage test with him, but the trot circles were turning into fights to see who would win; me at keeping him at a trot, or him at winning a canter. He was lathered up and sweaty after a half hour, and I took him out on the trail. He was surprisingly well behaved. I admit I'm a little anxious about riding him outside because when we canter, I always have the feeling that I'm on the edge of losing control, and I hate that thought. Not so on Monday; he was right in my hands the whole time, energetic, but disciplined.

This is him and I before our ride:

Tuesday morning I took Daisy out for a ride Western. We headed out on a road we generally ride on, but we didn't turn back where we normally do. She was getting bored and lazy with the roads we always ride on, so we carefully crossed a busy road onto a new road. As I expected, she instantly perked up and was curious about her surroundings again. Love that!

The last time she was trimmed, I fear she was trimmed too short (in fact, I know; her sole was visibly too low to the ground) and as a result, she's been sensitive on stones. This aggravates me, because trimmed correctly, I know she (and all horses) can be sound, but being an advocate for barefootedness is not easy when my own horse isn't sound. I've been using her easyboot gloves for every single ride, which solves the issue and she's fine that way, but I still wish she could just go bare.

Ah well. Onwards and upwards,

June 19, 2011 Hunterpace

2011-06-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

The hunterpace took place this past Sunday, and I waited to post hoping that the other photographer on site would post the pictures, but he hasn't yet, and so I'm going to go ahead and post.

What a great hunterpace it was! It was an absolute blast. All but the last picture are by Lydia, and I love them :)

Jenny picked Daisy and I up at our house at 9am. We were on the grounds less than a half hour later. The weather was perfect! About 70-75 degrees, not buggy on the trail.

I was pretty excited to wear a pinny. ;)

We rode in the hunter division, which is described as being ridden at the gait that the terrain calls for, mostly trotting and cantering. We ended up trotting and cantering all of the places with open flat or uphill fields, and walking only in the wooded areas and downhill paths.

I had switched Daisy's snaffle out for a kimberwick, and I'm happy to say she completely respected it this time, unlike our first hunterpace. There were jumps spread out throughout the course. I remember jumping 13 of them, although there might have been more. There were lots of log jumps, and then some more interesting ones. The second one we did was a stone wall. The last time we jumped a stone wall, we took three tries to do it decently, the first time over Daisy had literally crawled her way over it (haha; our first cross country schoooling). This time, she jumped it perfectly! The logs on course were nice; not small jumps at all, but tall and wide. We jumped the majority of them, and I was thrilled with how she handled them. She never refused the entire time, and she didn't knock a hoof anywhere either.

The pic below is of the first jump, taken by photographer Bill Gamble. I think he probably got one more mid-air over the jump, except Skyler (Jenny's mare) was probably blocking us because she freaked out a bit :P oh well.

On jump in particular was my favorite. It was a tire jump, with lots of different sized tires. The sides of the jump were just a jumble of rusty metal tractor parts. Apparently people chose not to jump it because if their horse were to duck out, they could injure themselves on the tractor parts. I didn't think that far however; I just thought it looked like fun, so Daisy and I jumped it. She was great! She didn't spook at any of it at all, and it was relatively big and such a blast to go over. Gosh, I can't make it up, she's just good at cross country :)

Jenny's mare Sklyer gave us both a pleasant surprise with how well she handled everything. She took everything like an old pro, even went first in front of Daisy to cross a wide stream of water. She kept up with our gallops and was just really good :) It was great to have Jenny along.

Oh, and best of all ---- we placed fourth out of thirty in the division! WHOOT! :)

Until later,

Dressage, Conditioning, Summer, Homeschooling, Thoroughbreds. . .

2011-06-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

Much good has been going on on my life of late. . .
Tuesday was my last day of school; now I only have state exams the next two weeks (Only two left now). I've decided to home school next year, so the last day was bittersweet. This was Daisy and I when I got home.

My cats are basically the most adorable things you will ever see. This his Gronemeyer:

With his sister Genevieve, lounging together on our patio table this morning.

And then there's Miss Daisy, chest-deep in grass for an hour or two a day, depending on how bad the deer flies are. Nom, nom. . .

We've been riding over to Pony Club mounted meetings every week, which have been fun. We've worked on flat work and jumping. The last two weeks we practiced in a dressage ring. This past Wednesday was amazing! I remember to wear spurs and Daisy's dressage felt absolutely wonderful. It probably didn't look that great from the outside, but as I rode I could feel how awesome it was. Our instructor had me focus on sitting up straighter at the trot and canter, and boy. . . as soon as I fixed myself, Daisy's canter was much lighter and less forehandy. Funny how that works ;)

Tomorrow we're riding in our first off farm event of the year! I wasn't sure if we'd be doing anything until county fair, but our PC group is hosting a hunterpace as a fundraiser, and Jenny agreed to take me along and ride in it with me! We trail cleared last week and it looks like it's going to be a great time. I'm so excited! I rode 5.2 miles with Daisy yesterday to prep and she was marvelous. It was the first time doing the 'long' block this year, but she was full of energy, so we did lots of trotting and cantering (in her easy boots) and it was just grand :)

I'm going to be showing Ladd at fair next year! I'm going to try to get out and ride him more often from now on. He's a 17hh TB that I was riding last summer already; he's a riot :)

Until later,

One Last Patchy Tribute

2011-06-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge photo
June 3rd, 2010, my mom surprised me with a visit to the lesson barn I learned to ride at, and rode at for 8 years. My favorite boy Patchy was still there, and I was thrilled to see him again. I owe a lot to him.

A friend told me that he was put down in February due to a bad colic.

I love you Patchy.

Memorial Day Parade 2011

2011-05-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

The above gorgeous mare is Jordan, owned by Jenny. I rode Jordan three times this past week to prep for the memorial day parade I rode her in this morning, to get to know her better. She's initially very quick; very sensitive and responsive to any sort of leg movement, constantly looking for an excuse to burst forward into a trot. Besides that however, she's surprisingly easy to stop. She's more comfortable outside on a road than she is in the arena, and she seems to have a 10 minute warm-up period, after which she suddenly settles in and settles down. She's responsive both to speeding up and slowing down, within the gait itself as well. At first I wasn't sure if the parade was such a good idea, but she really grew on me this week as I rode her.

She was excellent during the parade today! She wasn't really phased by anything, not the cars/firetrucks/band/color guard/children/other horses, etc. Only during the last two minutes, when she stopped and pooped, did she suddenly get anxious. It was very sudden and random, but luckily it was the end of the parade so it didn't really matter. She was a pleasure to ride :)

This picture is from our ride up to our house on Saturday.

Happy Memorial day, and thank you to our veterans and soldiers.

Pony Club Clinic - Sunday May 22, 2011

2011-05-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

I officially joined Pony Club two weeks ago. My best friend Lydia is part of a pony club which holds some of the mounted meetings at a farm a mile down the road from me.

With monetary support from my parents (Thank you :) ) I joined the club!

The first event I took part in was a jump position clinic yesterday with instructor Karen Marcotte.

It was my first time seriously jumping Daisy in only a snaffle, and well. . .

It was interesting.

We warmed up a bit over trot poles, then each person schooled over a course of 8 jumps twice. I was in the "green" horse lesson, and boy am I glad considering the shenanigans Daisy allowed herself once we started jumping.

I like to call the picture below "The Flash". She was relatively lazy during warm up. It didn't last long. As soon as we started jumping, she was off like a rocket. Our first jump was a biggish vertical with a box underneath, and it was the one jump I was thinking she'd have trouble with. I was right, but not in the way I thought she'd have trouble.

She took off coming up to it, and by the time she got there she was flat out galloping without any sort of brakes and she launched herself over it. To be honest, that first jump was a complete blast, but totally out of control. It was moderately embarrassing, however it was so much fun I don't really care about how much of a fool we made ourselves.

I didn't really think Daisy would refuse any jumps, because she rarely does. She refused this jump though. I don't have any pictures of the other side of it, but it is painted white on the other side with bright neon green horses stamped on it. Plus, the way the pieces were set up, the jump had a tiny bit of depth and I think that added together made her stop. It was not a real whole-hearted refusal though. If I had had leg on her as I should have, I think I could have kicked her over. Instead, we circled (*choke*. I HATE circling before a jump! It teaches them the wrong thing and I know it. I would have rather kicked her over from a standstill like I always do, but I wasn't sure if that's frowned upon :P) and she backed up and refused for a couple steps, but then

I got her over.

The rest of the course was just as the beginning, not quite as bad, just very quick. She didn't jump flat though, I'll say that. The thing with jumping is that, no matter how terrible it goes, it's still a blast :)

This is my friend Lydia on her TB/Percheron cross Bella.

This is from our second time through the course. Daisy was a bit slower, but still speedier than she should have been. We didn't really work on my position because we were trying to edit hers :P. The instructor made a good point that I shouldn't stop giving her leg simply because she's racing already. She encouraged me to maintain leg pressure so that we could keep in a rhythm, and that Daisy would eventually learn that it would be easier to go slower since I would be forcing her to keep a steady rhythm either way. It makes sense.

We looked pretty silly racing through the course, which makes me think I need to go back to a kimberwicke for jumping in the future. I'll talk to my instructor about it.

Overall, I had a great time, and my mom took great pictures :)

Next event is a mounted meeting Wednesday afternoon. Should be fun :)

April Showers Bring. . . Wait a Minute!

2011-05-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

We've been getting a lot of this lately:

Which means riding has been a bit halted. I ride whenever I can, whenever the weather is decent enough. I'm not a big fan of riding in rain. . . not because I dislike being soaked (Well, I do, but. . . ) but because Daisy has always been funky about cars driving past on wet roads. Plus it decreases my visability as I ride, makes the road slippery, affects my ability to hear cars coming up behind us. . . etc. So I generally don't ride if it's raining at a good clip.

Today Daisy went out on the lawn for a half hour, for the first time this year. She enjoyed it.

I was taking photos, until I was ambushed. Miss Genevieve:

Besides some cropping on the one below, these are SOTC. :) I love my new camera!

These last two required a bit of zoom, and so I edited them on picnik.com. Not the greatest colors. I was headed into the house when I realized the other barn cat was visiting with Daisy as she grazed as well, albeit much closer. Daisy and Gronemeyer:

Gronemeyer has been known to plop down in the midst of herds of deer (. . . are groups of deer herds?), only to stand up after awhile and surprise them, making them scatter.

I went riding on Wednesday and has a great time. You know those moments where, despite the fact that you've heard it a million and one times, something suddenly "clicks" and you GET it? I was riding and thinking about this photo I saw that Smartpak posted of a Rolex dressage rider. Someone commented on how very closely the rider's legs were literally wrapped around the horse. Having seen the photo, it was all of a sudden much easier to understand and do, and voila, Daisy framed up really quick! :) I love it.

My silly horse. So many times I ride and feel bad and think she's tired. . . but the last week she's been so FULL of it coming home. We always gallop the same straight stretch on the road, about a quarter mile, and she was hauling this week. And proceeded to gallop her way up hills following as well. And I thought she didn't have the energy. . .

I'm so gullible.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

I'm so thankful for my Savior who rose on this day. I often think that people must think I'm a Christian because my parents are, or something of that sort. . . but that's not it at all. I've experienced the love of Jesus firsthand. Our family went through some horrible things in the past, and we would not have made it without Jesus. When I think back on how blessed I am and how he has been my rock through so many things. . . I feel like dancing with the people in the video.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day full of food and celebration with loved ones.
Much love,

Everything, All At Once

2011-04-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on everything, all at once and not in the right order.

This photo was taken while Daisy was colicing. She ended up spending a full day with lots and lots of sleeping lying down.

This was one of her hoof prints on the drive from us walking up and down.

Sunday evening I gave Daisy some hay and she actually enjoyed it.

This was before Sunday evening, this was Sunday afternoon, as Daisy napped in her stall. I sat right next to her as she lay down, which was a sign that she was feeling really bad.

I set up this fun craft for my 4H club. I cleaned 25 old horseshoes. . . I like how mine turned out :)

Daisy got over her colic. The vet came the following Wednesday and I discussed it with her and she suggested I put Daisy on a daily dewormer to prevent colic. I thought about it, and have decided to put her on Apple Cider Vinegar again like last fall instead, and only resort to the dewormer if it doesn't work. I'd rather have her on something natural like the vinegar.

This photo was taken Tuesday April 12th, when I took Daisy over to Jenny's for the night.

Itching on her tree :)

I love my new camera. . .

Daisy tucked in her old stall at Jenny's farm. She slept there Tuesday night, and Jean picked her up while I was at school on Wednesday and brought her to her farm because I needed her taken care of while I. . .

Vacationed in Germany! :) This is a panorama shot of houses along the Rhein river in Mainz, Germany.

I went to Germany with my friend Stormy. This is us in the vineyards of Kiedrich, Germany.

This was us at a castle tower in Eltville, Germany.

The view out of the Eltville tower.

The "Mouse Tower" on the Rhein.

Us leaning out our bedroom window in the Castle Stahleck youth hostel.

The only horses I petted while in Germany :) some cart ponies in Obersdorf in the Alps.

I was surprised to see them come down the street soon after I said goodbye to them in the middle of the town.

Two cuties.

Daisy is home now, still trying to gain back weight she lost when she coliced, but she's close to her regular weight again. She is almost shed out and feels and looks so soft and pretty. I bathed her legs, tail, and mane today. I love when she smells like baby shampoo :)
Sorry for my lack of update,

I'm Not Sure What to Think

2011-04-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

Daisy is still sick. Not as dramatically as the first two days, but she's not well. I've been doing a lot of hand walking, a lot of monitoring (including at 3am), a lot of thinking, a lot of wondering.

Plus, considering the time I take to provide fresh water (with ACV added right now), she just drank out of a muddy puddle in her pasture. Figures.

We have an appointment with our new vet for spring vaccinations and to get more Banamine on Wednesday.

Spring is Right Around the Corner. . .

2011-04-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

I came home from school yesterday to a colicy horse. This is evidence that spring is here, or on it's way.

I headed out to the barn around 3:30 and found Daisy completely muddy, soaked through to the skin in places. This was weird considering that Daisy is not a big roller at all. I took a look at the ground and realized that there were paw marks... everywhere. Some places it looked like she'd been digging to China. I could also see a roll spot, and eventually found two more spots, plus evidence that she rolled in her stall. I took her right out on the driveway and walked her a bit, then brought her back and let her loose. She didn't paw again, so I threw a cooler on her and cleaned out her stall. I came back fifteen minutes later and she was pawing again; more walking. After about 15 minutes my mom reminded me of the banamine (I'm really not sure how I forgot about it. . . ) and so I gave her a dose and kept on walking. She started shivering even in her cooler, so I took it off and put her thick blanket on. I let her loose one more time, but she pawed again, so we kept walking. We ended up walking up and down the driveway for over an hour. The banamine took a long time to kick in, but it finally did and I could leave her with a bit of hay.

This morning she seemed better, though lacking her usual zest for food. I left for school feeling the worst was over, but got a text from my mom later on saying she was pawing again. I got picked up at 11:30 already and came home to find her doing much better. I walked her up and down once and splashed some apple cider vinegar in her water for digestion, put her cooler on (she was soaked again), and left her. She seems to be better now and eating normally, but doing a lot of sleeping lying down in her stall. I'm not really worried about it though; She's closed in with the bottom half of her dutch door and I think that makes it inviting to lie down. I think she's just recovering; she seems fine otherwise.

Needless to say, I ordered 10 16oz bottles of organic ACV again. I used it last fall and she didn't colic so, fingers crossed it works from now on as well. I'm making an appointment for hopefully next week to have her new vet come see her for her spring vaccinations and coggins, and a fecal test and to buy more banamine (I'm down to one dose).

Ahh springtime . . .

More Fun with the New Camera

2011-03-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Barn cat-- Genevieve

Gorilla-pod + self timer shots

2011-03-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

After a month+ hiatus, I'm back.

Florida was warm. I returned to cold and snow. That doesn't really bother me.

I rode in Jean's arena. Daisy was a good girl. She got along well with Dixie, and actually lost a bit of weight because surprisingly, Dixie was the alpha mare and though she's really not very aggressive at all, Daisy still respected her and her food completely.

Jean trailered Daisy home for me on Tuesday. Daisy is happy at home :) and I'm happy to have her home. We've been road riding again, starting to build up her muscles again. We've only gone with the bareback pad this week because it's fun. All the snow melted, and then we were dumped with over half a foot again on Wednesday, so until it melts, I'm going bareback. Because that's my excuse.

Daisy has started shedding (oh goody). This means our appointment for a spring vet check will be right around the corner, along with a visit from her dentist. I'm planning on going the new "alternative" root for deworming this season as discussed in the February issue of Equus. If you didn't read that edition, get your hands on it. It's important. It talks about doing a fecal exam instead of deworming "in case" they have worms because worms are becoming resistant to dewormer. This is not a really new piece of knowledge, but this year I plan on putting it in action.

Yesterday was my 16th Birthday and I recieved a new camera from my dad. I love it! It's a Kodak Easyshare M580. These pictures were taken with it yesterday and today. I'm really enjoying it.

I'm in the process of joining Pony Club with my friend Lydia. If it works out, I'll be able to ride the mile and a half down the road weekly for mounted meetings and lessons over the next few months. It's pretty exciting.

I'm keeping busy. Hope you're all well,

Pasture Board & Our Latest Lesson

2011-02-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

(Above picture by Jenny)

Daisy left Jenny's last week Wednesday to move to Jean's for about 6 weeks. For various reasons... bigger indoor, more friends, more kids to ride Daisy while on vacation, ... etc.

I've chosen to put her on 24/7 pasture board because it's cheaper, and because less people will have to handle her while I'm away (the last few times I went on vacation ended in injuries... and I'm not even exaggerating). Daisy's a jerk. I know that. And as it so often happens, she's not around me; she knows better, but I cannot be there all the time to keep her in line, and so of course she takes advantage of that.

During the day, she's out with another mare (actually, the only other mare on the premises out of 13 horses). At night, she's alone in her run-in.

She seems pretty content.

It's about ten feet deep.

We got a ton of snow on Saturday, pretty much out of the blue, and it was incredibly windy. Stalled horses stayed in. Daisy's roughed it in her shed. :)

Nom, nom. haha

I rode her english on Thursday and did some jumping, about 2'. She was very good, but I think it was hard on her... that or she slipped while out playing in her pasture, because Friday her back was a little sore towards the back. I rode her lightly Friday and Saturday, and she had Sunday off. Today I had a lesson with Anne!

I love lessons. They're just fun. We worked more on bending Daisy and asking her to bring her head down in the bend to encourage her to step through. We did some spiraling exercises in both directions to get her to be more accepting of the outside rein, and did walk-trot and trot-walk transitions. She's improving immensely. We did some jumping at the end, working on having her jump centered and without rushing. Anne set up guide poles to the left of jumps, and that helped a lot. She said she jumps better than I give her credit for. *smiles*.

This said, I'm going on vacation tomorrow (to Florida!) for a week. Why must this lesson be so great, knowing I have a whole week of no Daisy ahead? ;)

Stay warm wherever you are.

Oh Hey There . . .

2011-02-14T17:31:00.000-08:00

Just a short post. Lots has been going on that I could post about, but... no one really cares anywayyy sooo.

I went riding with Jenny's other boarders yesterday. We went on a dead-end road first and galloped the horses full out. So fun! Daisy really enjoyed it. (so did I).

Afterward, we rode up to my house so I could show them the barn.

I was supposed to have another lesson last Tuesday but it was only like 5 degrees out so we canceled. I'm probably going to have a lesson this coming Monday instead.

Daisy moves to Jean's on Wednesday.

Daisy's going to stay at Jean's for 6 weeks, all on 24/7 outside board...with a pasture buddy! She's had neither for at least 5 years. I'm actually pretty excited about it. *Crossing fingers* that she's nice to Dixie.

I leave for a trip to FL on Tuesday in a week, and Jean's lessons students will ride Daisy while I'm gone.

Oh you know, the last... 2 Weeks.

2011-01-24T16:54:00.000-08:00

If there was ever a time that school was keeping me busy, it is now. Midterms are this week. The good news is, I don't have school at all on Thursday...and technically not Friday, although my Friday is filled. But Tuesday and Wednesday I have testing. Joy. So here I am. Posting. ;) (I should be studying..... )

I took these pictures last week Monday, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Below are Jayda (right) and Skyler (left), Jenny's horses. I love how the photos turned out. These are just two. The one below is slightly edited....the next ones aren't at all.

Jayda again.

And Daisy-- Her friendly face. ;) She really only comes in one flavor: grouchy. But it's generally just an act ;)

Enjoying her hay.

I took her home soon afterward. My parents went on a week long trip, and even though the barn where Daisy was at is only a mile down the road, we thought it'd be easier to have her home and not have to get rides there daily.

I ended up only taking her harness home, so this week was just harness stuff.

I was surprised to find that she was a little spooky going out the first time on the driveway in harness. It wasn't extreme in any way...but she's normally very stoic, not looky or alert at all. Under harness however, she was alert and a little hesitant to proceed. Once I talked to her a bit and convinced her it was ok, she went.

I learned something this week: appreciate the length of reins used in riding. Because there's a big difference in ground driving with long reins and trying to discipline a horse, and simply riding and disciplining. Daisy tried every chance she had to turn around and go home; whenever I asked her to move onto the driveway from the side. The frustrating thing was that I had no real control over it; it's hard to figure out how to be demanding in what you ask when you have to legs to use on her sides. I ended up walking to her side each time and shoving her in the right direction. She figured it out.

Thursday I worked with her and a sled. First I just walked her around the sled on the ground, then I walked at her sides, pulling the sled next to me on each side until she was comfortable with the noise and appearance, and then I looped the sled's rope over my arm while I ground drove her. There was a slight initial shock, but she was completely over it in 5 minutes. And don't let the snow kid you; the sled still made a loud scraping noise.

Saturday I had my friend (Lydia) sit in the toboggan and I sat on Daisy's back and pulled her. It was hard to get moving from a stand still; I almost slid off the back. So Lydia would get the sled moving, and then we'd pull it. Daisy did really well with the weight! She wasn't spooked by it at all. We even did a tiny bit of trotting.

At one point this week, I went in the house in the middle of stall cleaning to get something, and got held up. I was gone about 20 minutes, and came back to find this... I think this was her escape / steal dinner plan. It didn't work either way. Haha :)

Today Daisy has a cough. She coughed a couple times yesterday, but I didn't really acknowledge it. Today she's been coughing all day...mostly when she eats hay or finishes eating it. I don't think it's really caused by the hay; it's the same hay she always eats, it's not visibly dusty, and she gets most of the hay that she eats shaken out anyway. The one horse boarding at Jenny's got a bad cold a couple weeks ago, and now two of Jenny's horses are coughing too, so I think Daisy has the same thing. Even though, it's a shame. I'm going to give her a few days off (although I may end up riding her back to Jenny's tomorrow) and see how she is.

What do you do for a sick horse?

Talk to you all soon.

Lesson 1/11/11

2011-01-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

I had a lesson today...first one since camp in August ;)

I've decided to aim to take a lesson every two weeks...it went well! I'm using a new instructor...she was much more positive than my old one. I won't say more on that topic.

We worked a lot on having Daisy bend and supple, and transitions from walk to trot to walk to get her energy up, and direction changes across the ring. I thought it was a pretty good productive lesson (spurs next time!) but then I saw the videos...she looks lovely! ;)

I know the beginning she's pooping. Figures; how awkward ;)

But otherwise.... hint: 1:10 is particularly awesome ;) I'm very happy how it went.

Another Year Gone By

2010-12-31T20:01:00.000-08:00

2011 is just around the corner... just over 8 hours away now.

So. I picked out some photos that showcase my accomplishments through this year. These are in absolutely no special order. :)

Bubba and I at fair. I had never jumped 3 feet before, but we ended up doing three classes, all including this rather large 3 foot oxer. Was I nervous out of my mind? Absolutely (just ask Bethany, who took this photo). Did I have a blast? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. I'm always going to look back and think the first sizable jump I did was on Bubba. That said, I think that was (and will be) the last time Bubba jumped so high... I'm so honored that I had the opportunity to enjoy him.

Ladd and I!!! Our first show. What a blast! He really blew me out of the water. We didn't place in our first class out of four, but the next three were all blues. He's really that awesome :D.

I'm looking forward to showing the big guy at fair this coming year!!

I did two schoolings with Daisy this year, plus a cross country lesson at camp in August. This photo is from the October schooling. I LOVE. SCHOOLINGS. My goal for the year was to do an event. We didn't accomplish that, but I honestly don't really care. I will keep doing schoolings, and that's good enough for me, whether we ever really event or not.

County fair western day (and Gymkhana and Mounted Games) with Daisy! We recieved western high point for the day for the senior division (and High Point award on Bubba for English day...and overall senior high point division trophy!). Looking back, I remember our first class that day was horrible. We won 2nd, but I totally felt like as an individual pair, we didn't deserve it. She did everything she had to do, but we weren't clicking. We ended up spending a good amount of time in the warm up ring afterward getting the focus back on me. The rest of the day we shined for real :)

We did our first western reining pattern, very impromptu. We were disqualified for a minor error in the pattern that I didn't even notice, but I was glad I did it, and I definitely want to do it again this coming year.

More jumping Bubba pics! This one was from the schooling period. Notice I jump everything off center? Yup. I treated it all like an eventer would have...little did I realize it was judged like the hunters. I'm not complaining, we still got two seconds :)

I hadn't really noticed this picture until picking through the CD today. By the end of western day, I was just plain happy, and smiling like a dope :P. We did the versatility class, and Daisy was found the most versatile out of 20 horses. That's m'girl.

I don't judge everything in awards...I'm obviously thrilled with individual accomplishments as well, it's just easier to explain in saying what we won, because...well, they reflect what we can do.

Anyway, I swam with Daisy this year! Three times to be exact. The first time (picture below) landed us with a large article on the front page of two different papers. That was pretty awesome for me because since I'm not on any sports teams, I would normally not be in the paper... but we're covered for life with that article, I think.

And the second time we swam in the lake... we really truly swam. She's the lock-ness. :)

I had some goals for this year. I didn't accomplish them all...but lets just take a look.

This is what my goals were for this year, per my last year's New Year's post:

1. Skills: Turn on the hindquarter and forehand, hopefully flying lead changes.(<--We can do turns on the forehands just fine now. hindquarters still confuse her; she won't plant her one hand for the complete circle. Any tips on that? We worked a lot on flying lead changes, and she still won't get them on a straight away, but she'll do them on a figure eight)

2. Events: Eventing. More schoolings, lessons, boarding, jumping, 3 phase eventing...that will be *quite* an experience. But I'm up for it, and I'm pretty sure Daisy is, too.(<-- a) I sound incredibly stupid the way I wrote this and b) we didn't accomplish it. We had the schoolings, lessons, boarding, jumping down, but no eventing. But as I said above...I've come to a point where I know whether or not I event does not determine if we're successful or not).

3. Personally improve in the english riding department :P and work with Daisy to improve dressage. (<--Yes! And still in progress. We got somewhere at camp with our lessons and dressage, and I truly realized at camp that lessons can be fun. So we called a different instructor, and are waiting on a phone call back. So...hopefully we'll have some regular lessons soon)

4. Do incredibly at county fair, SENIOR level this year...but we'll see. :P (<-- Bingo, bingo, BINGO. First year in senior and Bubba, Daisy, and I made it to overall senior high point. A little bird told me that certain people resent me because I came in with Bubba the ex Prelim horse, but you know what...I was on my own pony the rest of the week, and we still got western day high point. So no excuses )

5. Excel at everything *despite* (because certain people think it's a bad thing) being barefoot. Advance my barefoot knowledge and be able to show others the benefits. (<--Just today Daisy and I were out on the road and we were flying across gravel. She doesn't even attempt to avoid it. There's the proof. Daisy is completely happy barefoot. Whats more, I did a presentation for 4H on natural trimming in February, and have another one coming this February. )

So I didn't accomplish all my goals. Not for lack of effort though.

Goals for Two Thousand Eleven..oh goodness. Looking back, I'm not really sure what to say. I accomplished so much more than I thought I would this year already, that I could say anything really... But here are some general goals.

Teach Daisy to truly drive...a cart. Obtain this goal by doing a lot of bomb-proof training style stuff.
Take regular lessons! For dressage.
More trail trials...GET TO A HUNTERPACE AGAIN THIS YEAR!
Saying this is sort of far fetched, but seeing as how anything is possible considering I'm actually teaching my horse to drive now....try team penning!
Swim with Daisy some more.
Haha...do what I can to keep Daisy from colicing! Which, I've never mentioned it, but....this fall was Daisy didn't colic AT ALL! I didn't want to jinx it, so I didn't say anything all fall, but it got later and later and...no colic! I'm not sure what did it, but I changed a few things this year. She had a selenium block that she's never had before because I read that selenium deficiency can cause colic, she was on ACV every morning and evening instead of probios, I cut her off grazing earlier this year than last year.
Celebrate our 4th year together (wow...time flies!) and have a blast next show season. :)

Pretty humble goals this year...haha. I've done so much with her now, my goals are dwindling!

In any case, the New Year is 62 minutes away...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Harness News & Clinic Details

2010-12-31T07:08:00.000-08:00

Tuesday evening, Daisy was trailered over to Jean's. I have absolutely no pictures, but that's alright.

With the help of my friend Lisa, we harnessed Daisy for the first time. It mostly went well!
Except for what you see below.

I have no idea what those straps are called, but the two parallel ones are supposed to be right there....but there are no keepers to keep them from sliding. How's that supposed to work? What's more, this is a horse size harness, but Daisy's a small horse. The harness fits her fine, but how it would be able to fit a bigger horse, I don't know. In a few places, we have it on the looses hole possible. Like I said, it fits her, but her being a "small" horse, I can't see this fitting anyone bigger...which is a little strange.
But the 'biggest problem' is still those straps.

We simply put them through that other strap (so I have no idea what the terms are for the harness parts. Crupper I know... that's about it.), which works, but I just wonder if that's where it belongs? That's where I'm putting it from now on in any case, though.

I ground drove her in Jean's arena with the harness. It was so fun, it's much easier to do with the harness. Lisa gave me some tips as she watched me go around...I hold my reins and whip the right way now ;) I was holding them like a lunge line for whatever reason, but now I can hold them like regular reins.

The pictures in this post were all taken with my cellphone; I forgot my camera.

Yesterday I took her out and ground drove her outside in her paddock.

She was a really good girl.

We have excellent weather right now.Yesterday and today it was in the 40's!

The clinic was very cool as well. It was done by Joann Long of Gentle Dove Farm. Various obstacles were set up around the ring...in the end, there was a "car-wash" (tarp cut in strips to walk through), followed by cardboard and flowers to step on on the ground, then a tarp with pool 'noodles' and empty plastic bottles all over it to walk over. Along the way, there were noise distractions. We all rode in a long line with a leader (me) through the obstacles, one after the other. It was cool the way it was done because you were constantly keeping your horse busy trying to keep up, or turn at the same place as the horse in front of you, that you didn't simply ride up to an obstacle and try to get your horse through. It flowed nicely. By the end, Daisy went over the tarp half way unfolded, didn't even flinch over the crackling water bottles under her feet, and got through the car wash with all the strands down (we started with no strands, then went to one, then two, then a few more, etc). We practiced a technique called "head-away" where if there was an obstacle that could potentially spook your horse and you didn't have enough time to completely work through it, you bend their head the other direction and shift there hips toward the object. At the very end of the clinic, we rode the horses around, getting closer and closer to, a flare in the middle of the arena, which the horses were surprisingly good with. We also heard and air horn, and if the horses handled it well at distance 'a', we would step closer, and then closer, etc. Most of the horses were alright with that.

If I have time, I want to do another post tonight. But if I don't get to it... Happy New Year's eve! ;)

I Just Can't Help Myself...

2010-12-27T16:10:00.000-08:00

I want to blog!

Today was an excellent day at the barn. The last few times I've gone to ride or ground drive have not been stellar. Riding as been alright, but she's already getting bored of the arena some days, and so the riding doesn't go as well. Before today, the last time I ground drove (I don't remember one) was sort of chaotic. I was trying to enforce the "whoa" by voice command, and then "back" by voice command. She would stop, but then she'd get impatient and want to walk, so she just would. Or she'd stop, and then all of a sudden move sideways, so that the lines ended up over her back. At one point she turned so sharply from a standstill that the line went over her back and slid under her saddle. She tensed up into a spook (a stationary one). I talked her off the ledge, fixed the lines, and had her going again, but she was just too antsy that day. She was in more of a mood for galloping hills than placidly walking the arena. I was a little worried about how that all ended.

Today I ground drove her again, with her English saddle (tomorrow a friend of mine is going to harness her for me and show me how to do it when Daisy gets over to Jean's house). She was the opposite of last time! She was really excellent. She had the voice commanded "whoa" down perfectly, and she stood until the moment I clucked, and then she'd move right off without any help from the whip (I found what I think is a driving whip in Jenny's barn. It looks like a long whip, but with a much shorter line at the end...so I'm going to think it's a driving whip). I realized that I was probably confusing her last time I ground drove because 90% of the time when I asked her to stop, I asked her to back as well. Today I made sure to do very little backing, so that each time we'd stand it would be only for standing. She backed very well as well. Her only problem at this point with it is that the lines keep pulling on her mouth even when I want her to just stand, so it sends mixed signals and takes her a minute to realize I only want her to stand. But considering that, she's doing well.

I longed her a bit before I drove her, just to see if she was lame, or how much energy I was up against. She was great on the longe, even at the canter she didn't buck, so I knew it would be a good day. It was. :)

I emailed with the clinician for Wednesday about what we'll be working on. Police techniques for handling situations like tarps, gates, flares, balloons, horns, and dragging stuff (etc). I'm so excited! I've never gone to a clinic.

Alright, I've got the blogging out of my system.

Christmas, Hay Net, and Barn Tour

2010-12-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Daisy did. She had a nice salad of apples and carrots (like every other Christmas...) and a little bag of skittles (no, I do not feed my horse skittles on a daily basis, just her birthday and Christmas). She happens to love skittles. :)

I had an excellent Christmas as well. The biggest (and only) horse gift was the harness my parents got me for Daisy! A friend of mine is going to show me how to harness her on Tuesday...but that's for later.

When Daisy is kept at home, she is given a flake of hay about every couple hours. This is for a few reasons. Partially to give her something to look forward to and do while I'm not home and she's alone in her pasture (and to keep her from eating other such things like...manure...trees...dirt...etc). We also do this because it's better for horses to eat continually (or at least in small meals like that) throughout the day because it mimics how they eat in the wild. When Daisy goes to board, however, she's given 3-4 flakes at 6am when she's brought to her pasture, I imagine she's done within the hour, and that leaves her with nothing to do the rest of the day, as well as cold, when it's winter. Similarly, at night she's given 3 flakes that she quickly eats, leaving no entertainment or heat for the remaining 12 hours.

Enter hockey hay net! I first saw this idea a (long while) back on Laughing Orca Ranch's blog post. I decided to try it myself this year. I ordered the hockey netting online, and when it arrived, I cut it into pieces and tied up the sides of two of them. Today we went and got screw eyes and carabiner clips and hung it on the stall!
It wasn't actually that easy. The walls are oak and I had no drill so I had to use a nail, then remove it, then screw in a screw eye, lose the nail in the stall, find the nail in the stall, attempt to make another hole, lose the nail again, find the nail again so Daisy wouldn't wake up with a puncture wound, finish making the hole, screw the screw eye in, have it break in half half way into screwing it in (yes...I couldn't find the perfect screw eyes at walmart), be forced to make another hole, almost lose the nail again, and screw in the last screw eye.

Needless to say, if you do this yourself...it probably won't be that frustrating. :)

But it's finished! And stuffed with Daisy's dinner hay.

It looked very small hung on the wall, and I was a little worried it wasn't big enough, but it stretched perfectly and held all her hay. If I ever need more, I can just put a flake or two on the ground anyway, and I'm sure she'll survive ;) For now I only have one in her stall, I have to figure out a way to make it possible for her to have one outside.
I brought her in for a test run.
This is a dark video, but...here it is:

On Saturday when I rode shortly, I took Daisy out bareback and bitless on the trail in the snow, had a wonderful time, and then took her in for a little Christmas barrel racing...she slipped going around one barrel and her hind end went down; for a second, I thought she'd completely go down. She didn't, and she trotted out fine on the lunge and didn't seem hurt, but I called it a day anyway. Today when I brought her in, I trotted her out again..she seemed totally fine. I didn't ride today anyway though.
Tuesday Daisy goes to Jean's...and Wednesday... !! We're doing our first ever clinic! It's with the mounted police officer who hosted the trail trial we did in September. It's going to be all about bombproofing and sensory training your horse...pretty exciting!
That said, did I mention I love being at Jenny's? I love the use of the ring, and the trails, and the cleanliness and how small it is; just me, two other boarders, and her horses. It's very homey. :) So I took an impromptu tour on tape today...I didn't mean to, but I wanted to see if my camera flash would turn on if I taped (it didn't). So anyway I decided to upload the tour anyway. The dark opening behind Daisy is the entry to the arena. Lydia said it well when she said it's like a 'farmette'...has a little bit of everything. :) Here it is:

And so I leave you until later, bloggers :),

Merry Christmas from Our Barn to Yours

2010-12-24T07:42:00.000-08:00

I have a German heritage, a large part of which means "the day" for the Christmas season is actually Christmas eve.

So I know I'm a 'day early'...but I just thought I'd cover it now.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas celebration!

Gloria in Excelsis Deo.

Glory to God in the Highest.

Much love and good wishes,

Mish-Mash of Subjects

2010-12-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

Bonjour Bloggers!

Just a quick post..first of all, I've read many a horse quote in my time, but the one I found today (above in photo) is by far the winner. So well said. :)
The photo is of Bubba and I at fair this summer... He's a champ.

I rarely talk about things outside of my life with Daisy. But this is not to say that I do nothing besides work with Daisy ;)

The picture above is of the friends I had over for a party on Friday... (minus 2). I love the picture is all :)

And above, last but obviously not least, Daisy, standing in the cross ties at Jenny's barn. I have yet to talk about how much I like having her there, but... there's a picture. :) We've been doing a bit of playing around, some ground driving, some bareback & bitless barrel racing (probably her favorite ;)), some outside riding and galloping...and such.

5 days until Christmas! We all finish our shopping yet? ;) I did. I can hardly wait. :)