Romping at the River

Ha, well, Gypsy has been pretty good. I gave her a day off after the show to recoop, and rode her the next day. Apparently she thought 'oh, I got to run around with my nose in the sky at the show, so must be able to do it now too!' So pony got a very rude awakening, and was not a very happy pony for a little while there. But she got better, and decided it would be a good thing to trot around nicely with her head down.
So rode her again today, and she was very good! Yay! Trotted nicely around in big circles and small circles, and serpentine-type things, and some figure eights. Was a little more hot after we cantered a bit, but was still behaving well. So I took her outside and we walked down to the big field/woods we can ride in. We rode down into the little trail thing that goes down to the river, except that it was kind of flooded, so all squishy and puddley. Haha, Gypsy wasn't too positive she wanted to go down there, but she walked through just fine and packed me through. Was a tiny bit prancey coming back, but not bad at all.
I had a couple fabulous pictures courtesy of my cell phone to post here, but the stupid thing won't send them to my email. Gotta love technology, right? If I can get them to go through, I'll edit this.

Gypsy at the River!

IHSA

Ah, the IHSA show that Linn Benton put on is finally over. I am rather glad. This has been one massively stressful and exhausting weekend. But the show went really well...
I rode in class 2B- Advanced Walk, trot, and canter in the Hunt Seat show yesterday and today. Drew a nice little paint yesterday- went great. What a sweetheart. Took second place! (YAY!) and then was there most of the rest of the day (BOO!) cleaning stalls, feeding horses, and god knows what else. Today, I drew a mustang mare...although I could swear she looked like a percheron midget to me...who was so lazy. No, really- SO lazy. They warned me about her, and so off I went with spurs and a crop. Unfortunately, the spurs got taken off me because they are apparently not allowed for class 2B. Well oops. I then proceeded to try and beat my heels into this lazy mare as she pointedly ignored me and did not canter. Oh joy. So I took 6th place on that class...Out of 6. Fabulous.
Freakin' lazy horse. Gah.
On a lighter note- I used Gypsy for the show! Ha, laugh if you'd like. I did. But she made me proud. Her first show in all her 18 years! Unloaded her from the trailor and I thought her eyes would bug out of her head. Prancey, prancey, prancey crazy pony. But I lunged her around and she calmed right down. Had a teammate warm her up, and then I rode her, and she was high-headed sure, but was calm. All I asked for. So she was used in the more upper level hunt seat classes... And she was high-headed for all of them, but most of the riders were able to keep her fairly calm and slow! One guy rode her today, and I could have hugged the hell out of him! Made her go beautifully (if not high-headed). He took 3rd, but I say she should have won the class- as hard a ride as Gypsy was being.
I was super proud of her though. Holding her on the ground in the 'staging' area around mass confusion and hubbub, and she just stood there like a champ. Riders thought it was kind of funny how calm she was on the ground, and how hot she immediately got when someone hopped on.
No pictures, sorry :( Pictures of me in breeches do not need to plague the internet at all, and I haven't uploaded the pictures of Gypsy yet. I will eventually.

My dearest Sam

Today, we had to put down our old pinto gelding, Sam.

Mom called- told me he was acting strange and she was worried- and was getting ahold of the vet. I had a bad feeling, and rushed home from my school. And the bad feeling was confirmed.

Sam colicked pretty bad- twisted his small intestine up. Was absolutely covered head to foot in mud this morning- I take it from thrashing around on the ground all night. Vet took his heart rate- 104. Gave him 2 or 3 cc's of Xylaxine- and still he was uncomfortable and was moving around and in pain. Given his age- he turned 33 this month- we decided the best thing to do was euthanize him. Not an easy decision for us at all.

My dear, dear, wonderful old Sam. I will miss you so much. And it was hard for me to let go, but I had to. You didn't deserve to be in so much pain. But I can only imagine the wonderful place you are in now.

You are sleek and shiny and smooth again- so young and fresh. No more navicular, no more cushings or heart murmur, no more tumors, and who knows what else. You will never be hungry again, never feel old and hurting. There will never be pain again, my Sam. I can see you now, running and running in some meadow like you haven't done in years- and you'll never be tired again.

And so I will try and forget the horrible image thats just engraven in my mind- of your knees buckling and the aweful way your eyes looked when the light was finally gone. I will try and remember the lessons I taught on you that one summer, our rides through the snow, trying to

ride backwards, riding doubles even! I will remember how sweet and wonderful you were, and

how at peace you will now forever be.

Success!

YAY! Finally some headway! So Gypsy has been iffy for the past week or two, and so today I decided to do something completely different. She has been refusing to walk nicely, and especially around the rail of the arena. So today I hopped on bareback (she's usually a bit calmer bareback) and set up some cones and a ground pole. So today all we did was walk calmly and nicely all around the cones. Lots and lots of bending, and lateral work, and occasionally we would walk out to the rail and walk down it. And Voila! Gypsy was calm and bendy and was going marvelously! Success!

Also asked a teacher of my equine training class about Gypsy and her issues and got some tips. She said to come off the rail way more. Do nothing but circles and serpentines, and bending bending bending. Rarely go back to the rail. Sounds like it makes sense to me, so I am definately going to try that. Put out the cones again and trot all around them like mad.

Speaking of that training class I'm in....drama today in there! Gah! My partner and I are assigned to a QH/Percheron mare who is about as sensitive and dead sided as a brick.

<--Exhibit A.

Love that horse- such a sweetheart, but boy can she be difficult.

Anyways, put an english saddle for the first time on her today, to see if she would be easier to get momentum if we rode that way- with the ability to have some more leg on her. I got on first. So much better! The saddle fits too narrow for her fattyness, so she was throwing her head a bit (planning on bringing my other saddle for the next class-its so wide, it could fit a house), but she was acting better than she has before! Yay! Had her bending a little, the very beginning baby steps of some lateral movement, and a bit of trotting. More success!

Ah, but it was foiled. My partner climbed aboard- she doesn't ride english- really, not at all. And before too long, I look over to see My buddy go flying. Apparently she got ahead of our Mare's motion or something, Mare got upset, hopped around a little, smashed Buddy's head with her own big fatty head, then sent Buddy to the ground.

Gah. All with the owner of our Mare standing up in the viewing platform to watch it all. What a mess. Talked to the owner. She is massively worried about my Buddy- who took quite a spill- and also worried about the bad fit of the saddle. I assured her we were going to use the wider saddle on Friday, and that the saddle was not the cause of Mare's blowup. Owner still seemed very nervous and unsure of what to say about this little event. I can hardly blame her, really. I would feel the same way in her position. We just need to realize what went wrong, and be sure to fix it.

Sigh. Drama. But still some success for today. I am happy enough about it all. At least Mare was good for me to ride. Ha.

January Eighteenth.

Shame, shame on me. I skipped the last day or two for riding Gypsy. But did get out there to ride today...She was okay.. Was doing pretty well until I started working on her canter-trot downward transitions. Then decided to try and pull some crap. Also was continuing with her strange new aversion to walking like a normal horse. Sigh. But all in all, she wasn't too bad, especially for not really being worked in a few days, and she's been inside in her stall a lot the past few days, instead of being turned out to her paddock.
I really need to learn to continue normal activity and life while my man comes down for a visit. Ha.
Anyways, getting dangerously close to the IHSA show this weekend, and getting more and more nervous about Gypsy being used for it. I figure she will suprise me and be pretty dang good- like the time she was used for Equestrian Team practice, or she will be a minor train wreck. Lets hope it won't be the latter. Walk, trot, and canter? She can do that...She might not be as pissy because she isn't getting trained in the process! Ha. She can probably handle just going through her paces on the rail. Gah.
In other news...I have a big ol welt on my leg from my first paintballing experience. But it was actually pretty dang fun, I'd for sure go again. Didn't realize how much exercise it actually is, until the day after and I was stiff and sore from all that crouching, bending, running, ducking, shooting. But yes. My life. Very exciting.

Better?

Well, still in a bit of a funk, as far as riding Gypsy goes. Lunged her a bit with side reins on loosely, she was doing just peachy. Got on, and she was better than before, but still a little hot and silly. She is becoming very noticably better tracking left, and a pissy little mare tracking right.... So here comes lots more tracking right work. Not too excited about that though, ha.
She has recently decided that she has forgotten how to walk nicely, so lots of that too. And starting to revert back to her old habit of throwing her head when she gets annoyed. Thats no good. Might ride her next time with a running martingale or something... I promise I'll take them off. Just a reminder to HEY get your head out of the sky. She is so sure it belongs there.
I was lazy and didn't ride yesterday... was so tired, so instead ground drove her a bit. Did very very well with that, though!
Pretty much just chipping away at the ol grindstone. Hopefully I will have some good news soon.

Being Positive?

Another day, another ride on Gypsy. Boy she gave me an...interesting...time today. Gah. Was real naughty at first ie-pretending not to know how to do things I have taught her... But she kind of turned it around and was going somewhat well. But then another rider came in the arena and Dear Lord that was cause for the apocolypse! Trotted like a little racer around the arena...but she was trying to give me the correct frame so I decided to pick my battles and let her go a little quickly :P Bad decision?

And then I decided to practice some walk-canter transitions, since she needs to be able to do them for the IHSA show... okay. There might be some issues there. HA. I pity the poor booger who gets put on Gypsy and has to control her after you ask her to canter off from a walk. She gets a tad excited and thinks she doesn't know how to walk anymore.

Ahh, all my ranting makes Gypsy sound like some kind of evil, terrible horse from hell. But to give her fair credit, this was a bad day for her. She really is actually a pretty good horse, and she is still learning. At 18 years old, but Hey! You gotta learn sometime, right? :P When I'm not picking on her and asking for weird things she's not used to, she trots around like a pro!

I love my little mare no matter how stupid she decides to be that day... But it's days like today that I find it somewhat difficult to remain upbeat and positive. Gah. Just a little exasperating. But tomorrow is another day, and I have to just think tomorrow will be better. Right?

Hello New World

My, my, my.... A blog?

Yes, a blog. Ha. You can laugh if you'd like, but I really just needed to find an excuse for yet more hours spent on my handy dandy laptop. Ok hardly...but you don't need to really know that. You'd think that with the long day I had, and the busy week ahead of me, I could find something important to do, and I am sure there is some massively important task calling my name...but I can't seem to think of any of those things!

Well I feel rather bad that I didn't end up riding Gypsy today, or even exercising her really...But today has kicked my butt inside out and backwards in the tired department, and I just couldn't make myself climb aboard the little booger Arabian. Ha. She was a little naughty for yesterday's ride, although we worked through some of it. I've been slowly teaching her to actually [gasp] travel in a correct frame. Who knew it was so cruel to ask her to move with her back up and her head and nose down? Apparently, Gypsy thinks it is. But I love my little mare. Actually hopped over a couple low low jumps the other day...and she was pretty good for it! I was rather impressed :)

--> note to self. Draw reins are far too easy to get addicted to.

Ha... its amazing how much more difficult it is to ask for a nice frame without all the frills of training devices...which are good, yes... but not when they become a crutch like they did for Gypsy and I. But Gypsy is slowly learning to travel quite nicely....Rome wasn't built in a day, right? I'll keep telling myself that....

Here's hoping that tomorrow's ride goes smoothly!... and actually happens!