I'm Back...

 

Hello, bloggers.

I was never really gone...just not at all motivated to post. Not for lack of things to post about, because I had a lot of stuff I wanted to post over the last month.

Here's a short overview (that really doesn't do it any justice).

I've been riding basically only bareback or with my new Abetta endurance saddle (see above) which Jean's sister sold to me for a very very generous price (Thank you!!). I love it! It's very light; I think Daisy enjoys it as well.

I've simply been enjoying Daisy, and getting back to basics. This month included a lot of work on stopping in the snaffle bridle. I regret not doing the schooling in the snaffle; she would have been fine. She's excellent in it now. I've been trying very hard to use all my aids when I ask for the stop, and my hands and reins as a last resort. She's doing well.

I've been trail riding often as well, and have taken her just in a halter and reins numerous times. She's been not quite as good as in the snaffle, but very close. One day I meant to only trail ride, so we went without a bit, and I ended up out on the road anyway because the trail was too wet. Once I got out there, I realized I only had a halter and reins. I took the chance anyway, and she was just fine, even on the road, cantering toward home, I had her stop right there. I've been riding carefully lately to make sure everything we do is a result of me asking her for it, not simply her guessing correctly what I want. Normally, in places where we canter, Daisy knows it and I just let her choose when we start cantering and that's all there is to it.  Now, I make sure she's at a very nice, controlled walk or trot and not anticipating the canter, before I ask for it. I've successfully gotten her to walk very calm in areas where before all she'd do was jig.

Daisy's hooves have held up excellently. This was our first full season on the 'natural' barefoot trim...if I wasn't 100% convinced before, then I'm 200% convinced now. She doesn't even avoid stones now; the majority of the time she'll walk/trot/canter over gravel without a flinch. Her hooves are never bruised (except a tiny spot that we found when she was trimmed yesterday from her bars being quite long) and she's a happy camper. I use her easyboots when time allows; she loves those as well. She seems to walk extra hard on the gravel those days, just to prove how awesome they are. 

I love my mare. She makes my life complete. I can't imagine what I'd do without her. She's my go-to whenever I need a picker-upper...and she always succeeds in making my day. Some rides start out sour, but at the end of it, I look at the little things we've accomplished that day and I'm always immensely proud.

I've ridden over 60 horses in my almost 12 years of riding. There are very few moments where I am afraid on a horse. I realize however that one fear I do have, and admit to, is my fear of being run away with. I'm not sure why it's such a fear of mine. The last time it truly happened (at the trail trial, on Daisy), I wasn't really scared while she was really running; simply angry that she wasn't listening. So I guess a better way to phrase it is, a fear of being out of control. I know they're big animals and I have a lot of healthy respect, and I never let them get away with things. But if they truly want to do something, they will succeed. I feel almost constricted when I ride Ladd or Bubba, because they are truly very strong, and I feel like I lose control with each passing moment at a canter (mostly only out on the trail). I hate that feeling. I know deep down if they took off, it wouldn't be that bad, they'd eventually stop, and I can always one-rein stop. But it still scares me.
I've resolved to fix this fear, at least on Daisy. I'm going to practice letting her go all-out, and then get her back to a stop. I tried it a little today...such a silly fear. She was going full-speed, and I had her to a walk in 10 seconds, tops. It all depends on the day, though.

 My oldest brother and I shared a trail ride together at Jean's. It was a lot of fun :)

 And last Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting my friend who lives about an hour away and I went riding with her, on a delightful draft-cross named Allie. :)

 

Ahhh...That Time of Year Again

 Almost exactly (to the day) a year ago I went to my first cross country schooling with Daisy. It was a complete and total blast. I still count it as the best day of my life ;)...besides the day I got Daisy. 

Here's the video from that day (and...I apologize for all the spelling errors...they are truly typos...I watched the video a ton of times before I noticed :P now it bothers me):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSDcW7jVg10

And so...on Monday...a year since our first schooling, we are....DOING ANOTHER ONE! 

I'm psyched. :) Truly. 

We're doing beginner novice height. Mmmm hm. :)

My only decision to make right now is....snaffle or kimberwicke?

I'm leaning towards kimberwicke. Hate to switch it out though...

Until later :),

I'm Still Alive...

 So I'm trying this new blogger post thing right now...so far unimpressed. Only upload one pic at a time now?! They should at least allow the "Ctrl" option so you can choose a lot at once...but anyway.

I haven't posted in a bit, school has been keeping my incredibly busy. I also don't feel very motivated due to the fact that I never get comments anymore...I'm doing this for myself now, I guess. I happen to know that people still read, and if you wouldn't mind commenting once in a while, that'd be great. No need to linger in the shadows.

Daisy and I have two events this upcoming weekend. Our last game show of the year is Saturday, and our first ever Trail Trial is on Sunday, to benefit Happiness House. Our club's ride time is around 10 o'clock. We'll also be there all day to run concessions and food...should be fun!

In an effort to prepare for the ride, I set up a vine obstacle like I once saw Lisa from Laughing Orca Ranch do. Daisy was definitely skeptical about it...after a few days of working on it, she went through relatively easily. I both walked her through and rode her.

I got Daisy's snaffle a few weeks ago. It's a loose ring double joined snaffle. I honestly have only ridden in it about 5 times because I've been riding more western to prepare for this coming weekend, which I'm riding all western. The few times I took her out in it went well though. There were one or two times where she tried to take off, but I simply pulled her in a circle and stopped her. The last couple days I've been working on her stop more. Going away from home, she can be going at a good canter, and with me simply sitting back and saying "whoa" she'll go to a dead stop from a canter. Unfortunately, going toward home she's not this good. Not at all. So I've been working with her on it, as well as asking her for different leads from a standstill like I did with Ladd at the show. She's good. :)

Lastly...I made the sweatshirt above on zazzle.com. You like it? :) I love it.

I also want to, at this point, reiterate how important it is to ride with a helmet for all you riders out there who think you're above it. A couple weeks ago, Jean's sister-in-law was on a horse simply walking without a helmet, and she blacked out, fell off, and fell on her head. She now can no longer be left alone at home and isn't herself at all. A week later, Jean was out with a woman on a trail ride, the woman on Bubba, and Bubba tripped, somersaulted, and the women came off. She was out for 3 mintues, and now has "paralysis" (sort of) in her right hand and it doesn't function correctly anymore. Granted, she had a helmet, and this all happened, but...if she hadn't had the helmet, more than just her spine could have been hurt. I know when I go to the game show Saturday everyone besides me who's over 15 and no longer legally needs to wear a helmet won't be wearing one because it looks stupid. 

You know what else looks stupid? Brain injury for not wearing one. So invest in a helmet people.

I've only had time to post today because I'm home from school with a bad cold.
Until I find time to post again,

A Bit About Camp & List

Camp was really fun! It's good to be back though.
I had a really really super duper great instructor. I'm gonna miss her.

I worked Daisy with a Kimberwicke until Thursday. We worked on direct transitions Monday morning and they went well. Tuesday we did about 40 minutes without stirrups, and it helped SO MUCH. First we did stretches and things to loosen up our muscles and be more relaxed in the saddle, then we worked on walk/trot/canter a bit without stirrups and focused a lot on body position. It was really helpful, and my stirrups went down two holes; felt good. :) Probably should have done that earlier. Tuesday we worked a little on getting horses to track up, and Daisy actually tracked up! I was really proud, but it gets better. :D

We went to horse pond on Wednesday morning and untacked to swim. Daisy went in without too much fuss. It went down gradually with an area where you were able to stand (the horse could) with a radius of about 6 feet before it dropped off. Daisy splashed through all content and then suddenly she was swimming. She was surprised! She turned around in the water and went back to where she could stand. I made her go out again and she turned back again. On the third try, I was persistent and got her to swim her way for real across the pond. It was a really short swim-about 15 seconds-but I was still so proud that she did it! I don't think she really enjoyed it, but she did it for me and I was happy :). My good girl!

Wednesday evening we jumped cross country. Daisy didn't refuse the first jump, but all the ones after that she did. They weren't dramatic refusals; I think with a lot more leg I could have avoided them, but the jumps would have been messy. She would go to a jump with a really good canter, and then just before she'd falter and die out and stop. She'd stand and look for a minute, and then going back and trying again she'd go over fine. Once we did the entire course at the end there were no problems. My instructor said that she thinks Daisy's a good jumper, she just needs more miles and experience because she loses her confidence and sort of second guesses whether she can make it over by the time she gets there; not so much a fear issue. I was still happy with the ride; she jumped well when she did jump, and she got to gallop a bit and she really needed that :P

I had already said that I wished I could try Daisy in a snaffle, and so on Thursday morning my instructor got me a loose ring, double jointed (aka french link) snaffle bit for her. Daisy LOVED IT. I'm so so happy with that, and am definitely getting one soon. (SOON). She stopped pretty easily; she got strong a couple times, but had trouble grasping the bit I think like she normally does to ignore me, so I think for now loose ring is definitely the way to go (perhaps...one day...bitless. ;)). We worked on extending and collecting strides. It went so well! I got a lot of tips. Once we'd worked on both, we did a cool little exercise. We trotted through two poles that were pretty spaced apart and counted how many strides we got in in between. Then we'd extend the horses trot and go over again. If we got one less stride (or more) we'd successfully extended! We did the same for collection. I thought it was a cool way to check ourselves. I was really happy with how Daisy rode over all in the snaffle.

That afternoon we rode again in pony club games--mostly walking or trotting races. They were fun! Our team won :). The best race involved walking your horse down the ring and stopping at the end, dismounting, and getting down on your hands and knees. There were three bowls, and you had to bend down and pick up a marshmallow in your mouth in one bowl, dip it in maple syrup in the second bowl, and dip in rice krispy cereal in the third bowl. You were of course forced to finish running back with rice krispies and syrup running up your nose :D lol!

Friday was so bittersweet.
We worked on flying lead changes (again in the snaffle). We each asked for the changes over a center pole, working on changing our horse's bend as we went. Daisy made me proud! Better even then some camp horses, she changed both her front and back leads in both directions. :) After we went successfully a few times changing over the pole, our instructor had us aim to the side of the pole, still changing in the middle but not over it. Daisy did it! :D I'm SO happy! I can't wait to play around with that tactic more and be able to get a real cue for it. yey! :D And then she got this shot:


Your thoughts?
I think she looks relaxed and in about as much as a frame as I've ever had her in! Her head is down perfectly and she's truly on the bit, and she's almost tracking up! I think I had her tracking up but she was relaxing so much she was getting dull :P. I think she looks really great! I'm a little leaning forward...but otherwise... :)

Sooo....I need to take note of a few things to remember to work on them in winter:

1. Get a snaffle, lose ring, preferably double jointed (don't wait until winter)
2. Get a dressage whip, and use it to "tickle" Daisy back just below her stifle to get her to engage her hindquarters more. The more she engages, the stronger the muscles, the easier it will be.
3. When extending a gait, widen the hands and run the bit, half halting but squeezing and driving forward with your seat at the same time. Work in the ring extending on long sides and collecting on short sides.
4. Squeeze with legs on the inside of a bend to get her to engage
5. Keep hands higher up to encourage Daisy not to be so much on the forehand, but keep in the inside hand just slightly lower and give small tugs to get her to bend.
6. Work on flying changes, really exaggerating body posture and how it changes when leads change.
   

Can't wait for winter and that arena. :)
Possibly more pictures to come, and more news on Lopez, the camp gelding I used in jump lessons :)

A Day In The Life...

Of Me:

5:42 AM-

BEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!

Time to get up and go out to the barn to feed Daisy.
Grabbing a bottle of hot water at the same time to give the cats, because by now, there is snow on the ground and their water is frozen.

Later in the winter I will also bring a hot bean bag with me for their comfort.

Scoop Daisy's grain. 3/4 quart sweet feed, 1 1/4 tablespoon of Sho-Glo vitamins, 1 tablespoon of Vita-Calm.
1 flake of hay

5:52 AM-

Head back into the house, after laying out hay for Daisy to eat during the day, which my loving mother gives her throughout the day.

Daisy is spoiled.

5:54-6:30 AM-
Eat breakfast and get ready for school

6:40 AM-
Sit in the car at the bottom of the driveway and wait for the bus.
Board the bus.

6:40AM-7:14 AM-
Ride the bus through the country and to school, watching the sunrise on good mornings....it's very pretty.

7:35 AM-2:15 PM:

School.

Favorite classes: Orchestra and Math. I really like Math this year. I'm taking an algebra class, and the teacher is really nice. I've been playing violin for 5 years and I love it, hence I love orchestra.

Least favorite subject:
French/Earth Science: French used to be my most favorite class, and I was good at it, but this year we have a new (BORING) teacher, so it's not as fun :-/....Earth Science is just stressful and challenging, and I never much liked science anyway....

Subjects in between:
English:...alright...nothing special....English isn't hard for me, but it is for others, so she works making us do stuff that some kids struggle with, and others (like me) already know and get bored with...but it's a decent class, I suppose.

Social Studies:...not as good as all the other years. It used to be my favorite subject, besides Orchestra and French (which I liked before)....social studies is just all about wars lately, and it's not as interesting....

Rotating Classes (switch every 6 weeks):
Computer: Done. Fun class, I have a wpm ave. of I think 85 or 90....I did the final and got a high school credit...It was a class that is better then others.
Health:...Done as of yesterday
This speaks for itself.
Technology:
My next class. Starts Monday. We'll see.

PE:
What can I say? It's a class where you are forced to get all sweaty and then go back to regular classes. "yey".

It's not too bad. I'm learning to enjoy it more.

Home & Careers:

We are learning about the "careers" portion. It's ok....kinda boring, though.

Lunch:
Best class of all.
Cafeteria food as greatly improved this year.

2:15 PM:

My darling mother normally picks me up, or I take the bus.
One day a week at this time I have an extra choir rehearsal afterschool, which takes me up to 3 PM

I go home and ride Daisy, then I clean her stall, bring in more hay to the barn to feed her, and I close her and the cats up for the night. Then I go in, do homework, practice violin, eat dinner, and blog....not necessarily in that order.

Another afternoon a week I have Bible study, too......

So that is my day.

For lack of something more interesting to write.

I just went riding, and when I rode Daisy up the driveway, she was very piggy and stubborn--she wanted to hurry home, and I mean hurry. So I forced her to walk first 10 steps, t then back up 5, then do that over again....then I progressed to 15 steps, 5 back up, then 20, then 25...it took a longggg time to get up the driveway that way, lol, but it calmed her down and she was better behaved.

That is my day.


Sooooo.....yeahh.....

Jr. Cutter Curb Bit

Hey! Sorry I haven't posted, but I'm back! People kept bugging me to post, sooooo...

4H requires that if you are riding a horse that is over 6 years old one handed (neck reining western) that you use a curb bit instead of a snaffle. I've been riding with a snaffle the whole time (this is what a snaffle looks like) so before the fair I had to borrow a curb bit (the one Daisy's wearing in the second pic) and ride in it. It was like riding a different horse! Daisy behaved MUCH better-she moved better and was easier to control, and she liked it as well. If you use a snaffle bit riding one handed it's a harsh bit because of the way it moves, but the curb is meant for one hand reining. You also use a curb strap (curb chain) under the horses chin. When you pull back on the reins to ask the horse to stop, it first puts pressure on the top of the horse's head. Some horses will stop because of that pressure already, but if they don't the bit then comes back farther and causes the chain under their chin to dig into their chin and make them stop. I bought my own curb bit now (the one above) and I use it on Daisy, and she's great. Although, it is a lot harder to stop her when we're galloping on the road-I've learned to use my seat and my voice more often now (sitting deep in the saddle, leaning back, squeezing my thighs, putting my heels down, and saying "Whoa".). I kind of wish it'd be easier to stop Daisy (ESPECIALLY when I let her out in a full gallop along the road-she's FAST!) but I suppose it's a "learning experience". LOL...so, here's my not-that-great post. :)

2:03 PM