Winter Wonderland

Ok, so the cold spell is over and I am supper excited. I mean I know a lot of you go through a lot colder but up here in Northern CA were not used to it. I mean water in the rabbit barn was frozen it was insane. My horses thought they were dying and I hardly spent anytime with them... Well now were back to the good old Del Norte County Sunshine ( what we call rain around here ) and I am loving every minite of it.

The horses are all snugly in there blankets enjoy the good life, because they know when it rains mom don't ride. My mare has been on hold for a long time now and I am just itching to get back in the saddle with her. Her colt needs to be weaned, however he will be a challenge and so it still hasn't happened.

I have decided after many hours of thought, many different feed dishes and many pounds of feed wasted. My mare will know eat out of a food bag on her head. It will also mean she will not have to stand in the mud the create by there feed dishes every winter. Our gelding will also dawn one to, he likes to run everyone off there food and spill food in the process.

Pictures of Jazzmine

Just thought everyone might like to see a few pictures of Jazzmine my angel...

One less horse

Well we just got home from Red Bluff CA, we dropped of our mare Lunar Shadow So Fair to her new home. She is on a breed lease and will more then likely become a perminant home. All the horses are doing wonderful, all have there blankets and looking at us like where did this frezze come from!!!

Well heres another promise to keep this updated!!

Barbara

A big delay

Well, I don't know what to say about this long delay in posts. I seem to be slacking off considering my last post was back in October!!!!

Well November has been a great month, I have done a lot of different things with the horses and I am super excited. Well start of the month mom pulled out of the driveway for 2 weeks with the trailer in tow off to a national rabbit convention.

For the next 2 weeks it was me and 7 rugrats. Before work and after I was at the ranch feeding horses and making sure they were all ok for the night. More then once I was out there putting blankets on in the dark. Yep, we got some very spoiled horses.

I decided to tackle my mom's gelding that has been out to pasture. He has a limp from a bad accident at a trainer so he don't get ridding much. So I pulled out his saddle dusted off and rode him. He did wonderful, I put 2 rides on him in the pasture without much problem and then I went for an adventure to the neighbors. His old owner/breeder, he just loves to go over there to visit and the minute he knows where he is headed there is no stopping him!!!

Then at 9am I received a phone call from a friend who was having issues with her bridle so I drug myself out of bed and drove over there and fixed the problem. I asked if she wouldn't mind me tagging along on the trail ride and she said sure. So I drove to the ranch caught him up, tacked him and hit the road. We made it to the trails alive and ready to go, until then I always had the understanding that the horses mood from the start of the ride will show you just what kind of ride you will have. Well he was calm, level headed, and just plodding along then all of the sudden 45 minutes into the ride he realized that he was out in the world and that we needed to have fun. Did I mention that is was wet, muddy and raining on the trail!!! So here we were, just enjoying the ride and he decided he could fly ( that is what I call his rearing games ), nothing major just throwing himself up not far from the ground. At one point I dismounted and lunged him from the ground and got him listening to me better. I got back on and he proceeded a lot more willing but still a ticking time bomb. The trail we were on were just continual loops through trees and then he learned that the main road was and he was determined to get back there. Well once he was listening and not rushing to the road. I rode to the road, got off uncinched and gave him a pet. We were at the point going on a 2 hour ride, and I knew it was time to call it a day. I walked home because he was being so well I didn't want anything to happen on the road to ruining what I had accomplished. We walked half way home, then we stopped by the neighbors and talked a bit he happily grazed and hung out. Then we finished the rest of the walk home and called it a day. He did so wonderful I was super proud of him.

Then I decided it was time to teach our 7 month old filly how to pony, so again I grabbed the gelding and took off in the pasture. The filly and him did wonderful so after 10 minutes I got off let her go and got back on. At this point he thought he felt good enough to completely rear on me and I slid right off of him onto the ground!! I wish I would have been able to get him completely over but he is so good on his feet that he caught himself.

I have been working with my mare off and on just counting the days tell the foal is weaned and I can really start working her. She is doing wonderful, we have mastered the walk, trot and canter on the lunge line a big hurdle for her. It has been so wet that I haven't done much with her besides just walking around and a bit of lunging. I pull the gelding saddle on her and it fit her better then my western its a Aussie saddle. My old trainer has a few saddles for sale so I might take a look and see what I can find but not sure just yet what I am going to do. The first step is to put my mom's other saddle on her and see how it fits it will tell me what to look for her.

Alright off to bed good night.

Another great day

I got her out today and she was amazing, nailed all the reveres without a hitch. Then we worked on the dreaded walk, she hates that gate but she is going to love it. Once I got her walking on the line and chaning directions without speeding up and then we called it a day. A few more days and we should be going good.

After a break

I decided to give her a break after our adventures out to the Gymkhana. She did wonderful, plus we finished up the pasture fence and got her moved into her own paddock and she is much friendlier and wanting to please. I got ahold of my old trainer and I asked him his advice on her head set. He suggested I get a German martingale ( his verison of it ) and so I went and bought one from him. I know its just a quick fix but for events and such I think it will help her a lot. I rode her the other day in it and I see a lot of things come to the surface. I decided to hang the saddle up for the next few weeks.

What I noticed, she is very hard mouthed ( thanks to above trainer, but I know it will come around ). I trained with him and learned alot and wouldn't trade it with the world but I didn't like everything. He insisted on having contact at all times and I prefer a lose rein horse. She is a Western horse not an English horse.

She needs a visit from the Chiropractor, I think that will fix some problems. I want to make sure her head raising at a canter is not a result of pain. We are sticking to slower gates for now, they don't seem to bother her. Once we clear that up it will be back to faster gates.

She needs a lot of biting up on the line to learn to give to the bit better, she hasn't had much work in over a year and I think it is time to pull out the surcingle and go back to square one.

Plus my saddle, isn't the best saddle for her. She needs I believe a semi and I got full quarter bars. I plan to put moms saddle on her and see how it works. Then it will be on to find a new saddle, my saddle has been through a lot in the last almost 5 years.

Yesterday I got her out, without her baby who was just on the other side of the fence. I dummy tied her to the trailer so that if she flipped out she wouldn't get hurt. She stood there like an angel not caring about her colt. I groomed her, clipped her up and made her look like someone actually dose groom her. The whole time she stood there only a few minor issues and her baby was on the other side running around screaming his bloody head off.

I learned something else about her, instead of fighting her when she gets scared them minute you see her start to act out stop. I know this goes against everything I was taught but with her it is the best way. If you show her that is no reason to get scared, and she will stand there. Normally when I fly spray her it is a rodeo for a few minutes. But yesterday when I did it everytime I seen her think about backing up or start flinching I stopped talked her and reapplied the pressure. The same result came in the end, she stood like angel. So I have to options, give into her or fight her.

After the grooming session I took her out on the lounge line, and my handy stick. I started lunging her and found the first issue that needs to be fixed. She doesn't like to change direction, she will pull back, run the same direction ignoring me and act like I am going to beat her. I worked her solid on changing directions at a trot when she did it twice without a second thought I stopped and called it a day.

Today I got her out brushed her out and got a shorter line ( 8 ft instead of 12 ft ) and a smaller whip to work her on changing direction. I let her pick the gate as long as she was listening to me, of course she picked the trot. We only had 1 major blow up on the changing of directions, a huge improvement from yesterday!!! I worked her for a good 10 minutes and called it a day she was doing so good.

The plan is to lounge her for the rest of the week on the shorter line and smaller whip and work on stop, turn, maintain said gate, and to change direction without flipping out. I think the changing direction is going to get her on her hindquarters more so should be a good thing. I think plan on adding the tack.

We survied

We got up at 7am and headed out trying to beat the crowd to the arena well they had the same ideas as us. We got Dolly and baby caught without a hitch, blanketed her and fly masked her and put fly mask on baby he looked so darn cute. I lead Dolly out of the pasture thinking the colt would fellow suit. Well that didn't happen and for the very first time I walked up to the trailer stepped in and she followed right in normally you have to get someone behind her!!! I put her in shut up the trailer and went and helped mom get the baby out of the pasture and into the trailer. I had his head and mom gave him a shove and he jumped into the trailer without a second thought. We made it to the fairgrounds and settled them in for the day. We picked a nice quite stop kinda by everyone but a little out of the way and made sure in an emergency we could get out. I am so used to the Gymkhana's and it is sometimes the only place I get to see people and hangout so I ended up leaving mom alone servel times before the event started cause I wanted to go visit and she had the colt to deal with. We got to the gymkhana about 830am and the event didn't start tell almost 11 and she stood tied to the trailer almost the whole time. So when it came to the first event we were up by the gate and that is where we stayed the rest of the day!!! They both didn't care about the different people or what was going on. Dolly did wonderful first her ever Gymkhana, I believe her first time being around a show setting of any kind, ( correct me if I am wrong ) and having her colt there. I did the first 2 events wonderfully, we trotted a little and lopped home. There was some acting out but nothing major, I kept her under control the whole time. Then came the dreaded event that always confuses the heck out of me Skill barrels. You have to run up the area and then weave around barrels that are set up long ways and then come home. Well poor Dolly had never seen this event in her life and so we take off up towards the barrels and she just freaks out slams on the brakes like she had never seen a barrel in front of her before and needless to say I however didn't stop forward. I ended up going over her head and landing almost on my feet but my bad hip couldn't take it and just gave out. I crashed hard and since I was running I had looped reins and my hand got caught and she yanked pretty hard on my bad shoulder. She bolted for the gate at top speed of course and so I got up dusted myself off and walked up caught her and got back on. I took her out of the gate away from her colt and everyone and made her feet move. And I wasn't nice about making them feet move either. She was huffing and puffing but the end of our 5 min. lesson. When I went to take her back anytime she nickered she got backed and it took a good 10 min. to get back to the gate area. I only did this because she knows better then to bolt after a rider dismounts and I want her to know that was not something I wanted to her to ever do again. If she had just did her normal walk away towards the gate I wouldn't have cared. But to run full speed a head like an idiot I think not, luckily it was the second to last event. So the next event was barrels which she knows best and loves. I knew I could get her through that course without a problem had it been something else I don't know if I could. So we go in and she takes off but by the second barrel she was determined to get me off again by acting stupid, she however never bucked or reared. I managed to keep her going and when we came around the last barrel she knows to pick right up into a lope and I checked her back and made her walk most of the way home when she relaxed I let her lope to the rest of the way. Its really cute because she hates to walk and she had her ears pinned tell I let her lope. I walked her out of the gate stepped off loosened her cinch and called it a day I was so darn proud of that girl she did wonderful for her first show and she ended it well. I took her over to the trailer untacked her and gave her a quick hose down got the excess water off her and blanketed her. She was exhausted but enjoyed herself and all the attention. This is the first of many to come, I think each one she will get better and once the colt is no longer with her she will excel faster. He by the way did awesome to, he did throw his fits but by the end of the last event he was standing quietly outside the gate waiting for mom-- another wonderful way to end the day.

Excited

Well yesterday I went out and got pictures... Sorry haven't gotten them updated yet, but hoping to get video and pictures from tomorrow!!! Even thou its an in town show I always pack lots of things just incase.. so the trailer is load with extra halters, bridles, different levels of bits, 2 girths and such. The hay and feed will go in tomorrow then its off and running. Yep it all starts at 7am I can't hardly wait.

Barbara

Bad Day

So I went out planning on having a wonderful morning with my mare. Well it went to hell in a matter of mintues. She restored back to her ranch behavior of I am not going to let you catch me, corner me or bribe me with food. I was so frustrated, I fed the other group breakfast and kept her back with a lunge whip. When they were done I left the pasture totally ignoring her, when I came out with the other groups feed in the lower field she nickered and walked up towards her dish. So I walked out, with a food dish in my hand and when she started eating it I petted her, asked for a leg and had her fellow me. I didn't push the issue any further than that, I gave her breakfast ( she is the alpha mare so I can get away with this ) if she hadn't let me come up and mess with her she would have been left tell dinner. It wouldn't have hurt her our horses are not on a schule because we need to know if there is an emergency there not going crazy or colicing because were late. We do the same thing with our rabbits. Then mom goes out tonight was able to catch her without a problem ( go figure ) and fitted the new bit on her. So she decided to jump on her bareback and see how she worked in it. This was moms first ride on my mare ever, guess she did good for her, so I was glad that the day ended with what I intended it to start with. So it is 2 days tell the gymkhana. I plan on riding tomorrow, getting her blanket washed and giving her a quick ride and bath on Friday. Then it's show time. If everything goes as planned pictures will be added tomorrow of her in her gymkhana attire!! Orange Headstall, breast collar, and saddle pad cover then green boots and reins!!!

Nice Ride

Today was awesome, I spent the extra time to groom her really good before the ride today. It is coming into fall so I keep lots of cowboy magic in the mane and tail to keep them pine needs out or if they get in there they come out real easy. She wasn't thrilled about the extra grooming session, hmm a horse that don't like to be groomed anyone else have one like that? I got on her and started riding her around and I noticed my neighbor out in her pasture and so I rode her over to the fence line. My neighbor came over and we sat there and talked for about 30 minutes. My mare STOOD there the whole time. I was amazed this has taken me a long time to get her to this point and I was so proud of her. So when I went to depart I asked her for her favorite gate the lope. This is a reward to her, punishment to her is walking. We loped around a little bit and then got down to the actual training part. I am teaching her a kiss means change gaits, I kiss once she walks out, I kiss again she picks up into a slow trot, I kiss again she extends the trot and then I kiss again and she moves out into a lope. We are now working on the transition down, when I say easy she is supposed to step down a step and she is getting this real well. I can be loping and say walk and she most of the time will come right down to a walk. I am so proud of this girl she is coming along so good.

Barbara

Gymkhana is in 5 days I will try to get pictures but we will see so excited.

First Ride new bit

Well I went out yesterday and tried the new bit on Dolly, she has such a little nose. It is fit for our little arab HighDive but it was still to big for Dolly. The bit worked great, just need a little tighter on the nose band and it will be all set. I tend to add new bits and ride bareback, I feel that this gives me a complete understanding on how it is working. First I lunge the horse and watch out they react, then I get on. I feel that with extra tack you risk something else bugging them and not getting a complete view on how they like the bit. Dolly is a very rounded horse, and if I do it right will have a headstall and bit for each level event she works. I got my combo bit on my nylon orange headstall which is her colors. Then I got my snaffle on my nice leather headstall, it will be transitioned over to curb once I get her teeth floated and a new curb for her. I plan on a different headstall for the snaffle. Of course if she goes english that will be a complete different set up. And for trails I use her bitless bridle or a halter for her.

Barbara

New Bit

I have decided to try my mare in a combo bit, plan on biting her up tomorrow if I get a chance, if not on Monday. We will only have a few days left tell the show, so I will be ridding her everyday then giving her Friday off. I plan to wash her blanket tomorrow so that way I can giver her a good bath on Friday, then blanket her for the night. I have rode her in both a bitless bride and she did wonderful in it, you just don't have as much control as you need. So then I switched her over to a snaffle, and I got the control. I think it is now time to introduce her to my combination myler and see how she dose. It will give her nose pressure then turn to bit pressure if needed. I think she should excel in this bit. If I think she is ready to run in it then I will try it out on Saturday, but will have my good ol back up bridle with me.

Barbara

HMM

I have not rode in a few days because I just have been extremly busy. Planning on working her again today or tomorrow. We only 2 weeks tell the Gymkhana. This should be a pretty interesting one because we will have the foal there to. This is her first show, she has been in public before but not very much. She loves to go and so I think we will make a great first show, if she shows any signs of blowing up I will take her the round pen work her and then call it a day. They always run barrels first so it will be good. I will more then likely enter Jackpot barrels just to get her in the arena twice on barrels. Not like I will be in the winning for awards or money!!! I am competing in the big dog group, theses guys travel all year and most go to state. I think this will be a great first show because it is so small, laid back and were usually done by 3 at the latest. Normal gymkhanas start at 5am loading into the trailer and driving the 2 hours and then riding all day and then loading up and going home. We used to roll end about 7 or 8 from those.

WHEW

Ok, So Friday I had a beautiful ride on my mare. My mom came out and caught the colt and had a good lesson about leading with him. I got on my mare and rode her, we loped around worked on stopping and backing. I would take her out of sight of the baby and she never took a wrong step. At one point he was screaming his head off and she just kept a level head through it all. I tried yet another saddle pad have one more to try before I can't do anymore. On Saturday I rode her again and again she did wonderful. We worked a lot on transition of gates, maintaining said gate through turns and such. She is a very willing but watches over her rider quite well, when I asked her to canter a circle if she felt me slipping she would drop down and I would just cluck and she would pick it back up. I did something I never thought I would be able to do, I was canter around the pasture with only one hand on the rein and my other hand on my side. I still have to get confidence in turning at a high rate of speed but that will come over time. Every ride has been a great ride so far, with a little bit of a challenge here and there.

Havn't been riding

I haven't made it out to ride again but I am going to tackle that tomorrow. I have to locate a new saddle pad, I have used this one on her for the longest time and since she gave birth it is now causing dry spots. I am more then likely going to have to buy a new pad but I should have an old one for now. We are in the middle of complete barn reconstruction, we are moving the rabbits to a new barn to allow the horses a good barn. This winter we are hoping to have real stalls and not just thrown together ones or ones that flood. We are doing a little at a time and should have it set to go in just a few months. Our horses are not going to know what to do, there used to trees and blankets. Yes, the trees kept them very dry if they used them. But have you ever noticed that if you give them shelter they don't use it. My mothers new mare will not use a shelter unless she is locked in, she has stood out in a rain screaming her head off most of the night getting completely soaked. Every other horse in the pasture was dry in the morning nope not her, so we had to put up an ER stall to get her out of the weather.

Mondays Ride

So I didn't get out there today but I cleared up some old business with my old horse trainer so that was nice. Yesturday was my 3rd ride on her since she foaled the beginning of Aug. and each ride she is starting to test me more and more. For the first time ever she tried to bolt on me into another part of the pasture when we were loping straight lines. After her second failed attempt and her attempt to fool me and try and buck she got to go where she wanted and I worked her solid there. We did circles and spins and pretty much made her move her feet extremely quickly. After a few minutes I took her back the the middle of the pasture and let her rest. I did this two times and by the end of the second round she had dropped her head into a nice western pleasure headset and licking her lips. I then walked her up to where I do the straight line canter work and turned her around and asked her for it. She went right into it keeping her head low and not even offering to step out of the straight line. I made her to 4 straight lines * down and back twice * and then I got off of her and loosened the cinch. She was pretty worked up so I had to keep the foal back for a bit to cool her down, it didn't take long. She is coming along nicely.

I am sorry..

Ok, so I decided to start a blog and never have posted again I won't let this happen anymore. I have been riding my mare and its going great now to get a daily journal.

Lets start here by introducing the horses I will be referring to.....

Dolly Doc Springs AKA Dolly - 8 year old Registered American Quarter Horse Dun Mare. She is my main riding horse. I bought her last year but have been riding her for 2 years. She had only 60 days of training on her but hardly knew much. I have been her sole trainer for the last 2 years and she is doing wonderful. I plan on training her for many different events, our main focus is Gymkhana however.

Docs Town Jester AKA Jester- A 2009 foal by Dolly Doc Springs Register Pending unsure of his color possibly a buckskin colt. When I bought my mare she was in foal and my mom paid what the normal stud fee would cost on my mare. So he is hers and she plans on raising him up to be our heard sire.

Impressive HighDive AKA HighDive - Is between 10 and 13 have to ask my mom, Registered Appaloosa/Arabian Strawberry Roan Gelding. He is my mom's horse but I play around on him from time to time. He was injured by a trainer so is unsound for most riding. We can get on him bareback and play around on him a bit.

Plaudits Roman Star AKA Casey - Is a 5 year old Registered Appaloosa Chestnut with a body blanket. We just bought her in December 2008 as my mom's main riding horse. She was a stall horse so she is slowly learning about pasture life. She has been trained for western, halter and war horse events.

Hannah Bell Lectra AKA Hannah- Is a 2 year old Registered Appaloosa Bay with blanket and spots filly. She is out to pasture tell next year and then we will start her. She is full sister to Lunar Shadow So Fare and is built completely different. We plan to train her more towards English and jumping. This little filly can jump.

Lunar Shadow So Fare AKA Luna- Is a 4 year old Registered Non Characteristic Black Dun Mare. We started her as a 2 year old but the trainer that injured the gelding did more harm then good mentally to this mare. She has been ridden a few times since coming home but threw my mom breaking her arm. We decided to breed her and let her be for a while and let mom heal before restarting her. We plan to send her out to a great friend for a year as a ranch horse soon. Unlike her full sister she is built more western and moves like it to.

Cast A Copper Shadow AKA Shady- A 2009 foal by Lunar Shadow So Fare Register Pending Liver Chestnut Dun filly. We plan to sell her soon as we can't keep them all.

New to the blog world

Well this is my first attempt at blogging, I believe this is a perfect time in my life to start because I am just starting to train a new mare. I grew up riding and for the last 4 years really learning the ends and outs of training and such. I am no expert at it to say the least, I prefer to take a misunderstood or abused horse and turn them around then break out a colt. In 4 years I have rescued and bought misunderstood horses and trained them and resold them to wonderful homes. I put my love of that aside to fellow my other dream and that was to raise American Quarter Horses. I rode at a ranch for a for free, the lady did not ride much so they were all barley broke to ride. I had a blast and she knew I loved Dolly so when the day came to say good bye to all the horses she emailed me and said I will take $500.00 down and $100.00 a month if you come get Dolly this weekend. I told her the price at $4500.00 was still high and she said don't worry I am giving her to you for $2500. She was in foal but I have spent the last year riding her and getting her used to lots of different things. We have bonded beyond words and I could not have asked for a better horse then here.

This blog is to keep you up to date on whats going on in my horse world.