This week

It's amazing what 4 days of consistant work will do for the baby horse brain.  He was so much better for our lesson this week.  We stayed in the arena almost the whole time and he was listening a whole lot better to my leg.  After the arena work, we moved on to jumping a tiny little "grid" (really just a one stride).  The first time through I think his little brain was about 4 strides behind us and he stopped at the second one and then jumped from a stand-still which totally dis-lodged me.  Second time was better and then trainer decided to put up chute poles to fix the drifting issues.  Initiate another baby brain moment.  He finally got the picture and went through well twice and we called it a day. 

Trainer works out of a vet's place so I was asking her about doing his teeth and she was like "well I can do them right now".  So he got spring cleaning: teeth floated (I felt bad, they were really bad), shots, coggins, and then the farrier came in the afternoon.  It's a good thing all this occurs only one the same day around 1x a year since my checkbook had a small heart attack.  He will get today and tomorrow off and hopefully be a much happier pony on Saturday.

Oh, he was argumentative about getting on the trailer again.  Argh!  He's really not scared.  SOOOO ANNNOYYYING!!!

In other news, saddle repair guy called and the tree is not damaged.  He just has to replace the stirrup bar and we'll be good to go.  Super happy about that.  Although now I've been borrowing all these super nice saddles with calfskin seats, I'm getting spoiled and want to shop again.

Good drugged pony

Last week

So saddle got shipped off to Ohio to a guy recommended by the Rep.  I don't really trust anyone around here to fix it.  Hopefully it is just the stirrup bar that is bent and no serious damage to the tree.

I borrowed a saddle for my lesson last Wednesday which fit Cabot pretty well turns out.  Too bad I can't borrow it permanently.  :(.  I'm stuck riding in my dressage saddle for the foreseeable future.  Double :(.  Cabot was pretty good for the lesson.  He thinks that arenas that are not fenced are optional for staying in, which we will need to fix.  He was super awesome trotting one way but not so much the other and pretty terrible listening to my outside leg at the canter.  Then we went out to jump.  He was ok warming up, definitely need to work on straightness and we pulled his boots since he was just hitting rails left and right.  Toward the end we jumped a little roll top which he was not a fan of.  He kept jumping off to one side so he wouldn't have to go over where the actual roll top was.  Finally got him to go straight over the middle and we called it a day.

He got the rest of the week off because I got super busy.  Funny how I was busier last week than when I had a full-time job.  Friday I went drug testing at a AA Hunter/Jumper Show with a vet from the vet school.  The weather was horrible, but luckily the vet had a couple of jackets in his truck because we were not prepared for 50's and raining and windy.  Drug testing is about as fun as it sounds, lots of waiting for horses to pee.  It was nice to be back immersed into that world even for a day though.  Lots of gorgeous fat hunter ponies and we got to watch a $5,000 Jumper Classic at 1.3m and a $5,000 Hunter Derby.

Saturday we went to a reining show and watched.  Also pretty cool.  Western Dressage :).

Yesterday was polo.

3 disciplines in 3 days :).

Another ride...same elbow

Orange pony has been relatively good the last couple of rides.  We are sticking to the round pen for now.  We're supposed to have a lesson on Wednesday morning (more on the supposed to part in a bit).  Here are some pics from our schooling at MeadowCreek.  Clearly we still need to figure out what our legs are supposed to do.

Today I worked Cabot and the Yellow Horse (fellow boarders un-broke 4 year old, who's name is Ethyl and I refuse to call her that) in the morning and let Storm wait for the afternoon so I could ride with Kelly.  Cabot and YH were pretty good.  Rode in the dressage saddle, which is quite different and somewhat uncomfortable, it's going to take some getting used to.  

Storm was ok in the beginning walking around.  I switched her to a Kimberwicke (mimicking polo pelham action) but she didn't seem to be a fan.  I asked her to trot and got half way around the arena to where I had set up a jump.  There are 2 barrels that are next to the jump and one fell over.  Ensue major spook and bucking fit because of said barrel.  I ditch (of course landing on the same elbow that took the brunt of the fall off Cabot) and she takes off down the arena.  Saddle starts to slip.  She still won't stop so saddle slips all the way underneath and then girth breaks.  Investigate saddle all is ok until I go to put the stirrup back on.

Yep, that's the stirrup bar bent out at a 90* angle.  I am thinking she must of stepped on the stirrup (we couldn't really tell) causing the girth to break.  Not sure why the stirrup leather didn't break before causing metal to bend.  Also one of the billet straps came off.  I'm hoping I can send it back to get fixed/replaced since it's under a year old.  Bonus to being tack shop slave is that I have a pretty good relationship with our rep for that company.  Storm might have to go back to being a polo pony...

Bad ponies = sore Ashley

Cabot has hit that stage in his life where he is REALLY ADD.  It is super annoying and he needs to grow out of it already.  The lady that owns the place we went to school XC came into the store and told me it was ok to bring him since his Coggins was only expired by about 2 weeks.  So I figured I better get on him Thursday before that adventure.  I have been warming him up/working him in side reins and he has pretty much figured that out and now doesn't fight the rein contact so much.  He warmed up well so I took him out to to the arena and got on.  Walked around fine, albeit a little lookey at the horse that lives over by the arena.  Did some circles and still listening pretty well.  Cue trot and devil-pony arrives.  Flinging his head everywhere, not listening, pretty much just being a giant ass.  Back to walk - listens well.  Trot - head flinging.  So he got a nice smack in the head.  He didn't like that very much - starting hopping and mini rears.  I almost stayed on (famous last words) but he spun his butt and I came off.  Of course I landed in the strip of arena that hasn't been dragged in forever.  Elbow and hip absorbed most of the impact, with some whip-lash for good measure.  Bruised, but ok.  Devil-pony got put back in the round pen to work his little orange butt off.  I then got on in the round pen and he was awesome.  Listening to the contact and steering like I know he knows how.

Since I wasn't too sore the next day (Friday), I thought it would be a bright idea to take both horses up to school XC and see how they deal with having to be separated after a trailer ride together.  Both got on pretty well (some issues with Storm not thinking she could fit in the rear space), which made me super happy.  Got everything unloaded and tacked up Cabot first.  I figured he would be worse and better to use all my energy on him.  He was HORRENDOUS!  Screaming, throwing a fit, I couldn't even get on because he wouldn't stand still long enough (if anyone has any magic tricks for standing while trying to mount - I am all ears!).  So he got run around on the lunge line.  Then moved to the warm up area on the course and more lunging.  Finally walked out to where everyone else was and was able to get on.  He was slightly better once I mounted but still screaming unless he was actively doing something.  Exhausting!  We schooled mostly just itty bitty questions and the water and called it done with him.  I will have to take him back by himself since I really want to do Beginner Novice with him in June.

Storm was a little better.  Still very lookey and VERY STRONG.  She did ok with her first introduction to jumping.  Hopped over some little logs and x-rails and one little ramp.  I don't know that she will make an awesome eventer and it's becoming quite difficult for me to tolerate riding 2 complete greenies.  She might go back to being a polo pony by the end of the month.

Trainer's hubby was there taking pictures so hopefully we got some good ones and I can make an ad for storm.

Cabot (cell phone pic)

Adorable Zoe-dog in the blue bonnets last weekend :)

Blog silence

Please accept my apologies for lack of updates of the blog. 

It was a quiet few weeks on the horse front due to bi-weekly torrential downpours.  Hard to get any work done when the arena is soup (and never dragged).  And I was sick :(...really sick...stayed home 2 days from work sick (which I never do).

But now, it's time...the ponies are going to work!  And I'm not working! At least not as much.  The closing of the store got delayed until the end of April, so the boss-lady and I are only working Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Almost done with the first week and I am LOVING this arrangement.  The ponies are getting worked.  And I picked up another client - a 2 year old yellow Quarter Horse that boards at the barn.  My job will be to start her.  She got lunged yesterday and has somewhat of a good brain so hopefully it will work out.  And I'm getting housework actually done so our place doesn't look like such a disaster zone.  And cooking dinner...I think hubby is liking this arangement as well.

Cabot got worked on Monday and auditioned for the local rodeo.  I have never seen this horse buck so much.  I asked him to trot off and he took of straight up a la bronc style (back broken in half, feet together, hopping up and down).  He finally worked himself out of that and got to work.  Still working him in side reins letting him work out the head-set issues without fighting me.

I have been concentrating on Storm now.  She really needs to get sold.  I may have someone that wants her in Guatemala (hubby's family connection), so she needs to get tuned up enough so they'll want her.  I'm also going to taking her XC schooling tomorrow or Monday and see what she does.  Hopefully it will be a good experience (Cabot doesn't get to go since I let his Coggins expire...whoops...).

Picture Time

This weekend it rained somewhere between 2 and 5 inches depending specifically where you were at, so no riding.  Plus my best friend came to Dallas to visit so the hubby and I drove up to see her.  We decided to make a mini-vaca out of it since we never got a honeymoon and Saturday was our 6 month anniversary.  Awesome weekend...

We went to Medieval Times...

It was awesome!  Lots more emphasis on the horse than I remember (last time I went was 12ish years ago).  Food was good except that we had chicken earlier in the day for lunch so we ended up each eating about a whole chicken in a day...gahhh...

We also went to the Dallas Aquarium...

Of course I find the horses...even at the aquarium...

It wasn't so much an aquarium as a it was a giant rainforest exhibit.  Lots of birds, and monkeys, a sloth and even a sleepy jaguar...

Came home to find that spring has sprung with new babies. :)  This adorable white-headed creature is at the barn's neighbor's.  They have 4 llamas and I saw that they got a new addition on Thursday before I left.  I have yet to see it again to get a better picture since I think they put it up in the barn because of all the rain and chilliness.

This adorable little being was a surprise.  Turns out one of young colts that belongs to hubby's grandfather knocked up a couple of mares before getting castrated last spring.  This is the third and hopefully last adorable little dun foal born within the last week.  She has 2 brothers that are identical and feisty (one of the mares got sold to Guatemala and they were surprised a couple weeks ago with his arrival).

This is my new buddy...Brahman bull calf from last spring.  He just got weaned and loves to be scratched on his adorable big floppy Brahman ears :).

And hubby found a lady bug while helping me with the ponies yesterday...

Last but certainly NOT least......

Today is Cabot's 4th birthday.  Man how time flies...Happy Birthday orange kid!

Patience and Persistence

So my patience and persistence have definitely paid off.  Yesterday I took Cabot for a little drive in the trailer.  We went in a big circle about a 20 minute ride.  He hopped on right away, which was a good start and then started to fuss once he figured out he was tied and I was closing the door.  He was mostly quiet for the ride as far as I could tell.  Then the true test was to get him back on once we unloaded back at the barn.  He made a little show of it and refused at first, but once I got his grain he hopped right on.  He got on and off a couple times doing that until I closed him in to eat.  Finally close to done, I opened the door and he hopped off.  I wanted to go back and get his bucket and he actually followed me in again.  I'm so proud of him :-D.  Hopefully we can get to the point where we don't need the grain, but for now, that is SO MUCH improvement.  I did this all by myself too btw.

I spent Monday lunging him in side reins.  I've decided to take a couple of steps back so he gets better with the bit contact and doesn't try to whack me in the head when I ask him to turn.  The lessons seem to be paying off. 

Oh and we bought a dressage saddle.  It's a brown Passier that I got a super amazing deal on and it fits him like a dream.  :) So now we're really going to have to do an 3-phased event...