Slobbers

Hahahahahaha.

Slobbery Pony!
I was too tired and lazy to ride miss Gypsy today, So I threw my ghetto surcingle on her and hooked her to lines, and trotted her around. And gosh, Gypsy had FABULOUS frame pretty much the whole time! I was very proud! She was so on the bit, it was great. So she got all nice and slobbery, and I felt the need to photograph it, because I am strange. Yes.

Oh and here is a picture of her actually trotting around :) Ahh loook at that frame. I could drool. Haha. It's too bad its a tad more difficult when she's under saddle. I want to take her to a little schooling show one of these days....probably this summer. Just take her in some real chill walk/trot class. Since I've never shown her before, apart from that IHSA show she was used in. But that really doesn't count.

Speaking of shows... Theres a little schooling show in the weekend after this one, and I am taking my mare from training class! It should be real fun. Thinking about either doing a green horse W/T or a W/T/C. I can't decide... She would probably do good at the canter though so I might go that direction. At the same show, I might be riding mr TB cross from work at it! Which could be very interesting, ha. I would definately only do walk trot with him I think. He is so rough around the edges, haha. And speaking of rough, I am becoming more and more sure that he is such a bouncey, somewhat uncomfortable ride. Haha. Shame on me, but his trot is so.... so... I don't even know. His canter is fun though, when he isn't dropping his shoulder. Haha, all things I need to work on with him.

Dentist Day

Well, this last friday Gypsy got a visit from the dentist! She needed it bad, but I didn't realize just HOW bad until the vet got there and was working on her. My poor pony! I felt terrible!

So apparently, Gypsy had some very sharp points that gave her some pretty ouchy ulcers on her cheeks. She also had a little ulcer on her tongue, which the vet said she doesn't see all that often. Worst of all though, is that on one side, Gypsy had a sharp top tooth that was pressing down on the bottom teeth. It seperated the bottom teeth so there was a big gap, and food and stuff was in there and rotting! Oh my poor pony! So the vet got that all cleaned out and filed nice, and now Gypsy gets to be on some antibiotics for the next little while.

So...I got on her today for the first time since her tooth fixing, since I have been out of town all weekend. And...well, to put it lightly....Who is this horse and what did she do with Gypsy?! If I wasn't a firm believer in the wonders of teeth care, I sure am now. The vet said to ride her very easy on her mouth, see just how light she could be on the bit. So I did just that, and I got on bareback, asked her to round up a bit, and there she went and did it! I was amazed! I barely asked! We walked all over and she was wonderful! Trotted around, was giving her head pretty well (better than before definately!). Then rode her bareback and all outside and down the trail. And even though we were by ourselves this time, and bareback, there was ZERO prancing again! Gypsy turned a corner in her trail riding mindset?! I was so excited. So yes.

Bahahaha >:D

Well today was interesting for sure! Ahahahaha, this is my evil cackle! I'm not so positive Gypsy is as amused though! Today I took a nap right before I went to work her, so I was zero motivated and awake enough to work her for real, So I hopped on bareback. Walked her around the arena working on her frame, then took her outside. Rode her towards the river, but there is a huge puddle/lake thing at the bottom of a steep hill in the way.

Well, what the heck, I'll just walk her through it, was my thought process. So I hopped off, and switched my reins to a lead on her halter. And, well, that puddle was a lot deeper than I'd thought. Like...mid thigh! Haha, but off I led her through it, with my jeans and tall boots and all! (My tall boots are ghetto rubber, not leather, so I promise I'm not insane).

Finally got to the river, and walked Gypsy right in! It was very deep. Haha.... But I walked her right in anyways, because what the heck, I was already soaked! Got her to walk all the way in up to her belly pretty easily! Couldn't tell if she was enjoying it, but I think not because she kept trying to get the heck outta there! Haha. I was trying to hop on her, but my soaked jeans were weighing me down, plus my absolute failure of being able to jump onto my 14.2 horse. Haha. When I finally managed to get on, she took off! I was trying to right myself, hold on, and stop her all at once. Lol. After running into a few small trees, I got her stopped, and tried walking her into the water. She was less than amused. Got her to her knees or so though. Then walked her home, and gave her a bath because she was SO muddy! Haha.

And it was kind of sad how 'afraid' she was of the hose and the bath, after she had been wading in a river. But thats Gypsy for ya! Anyways, it was fairly hugely haphazard, but way fun anyways. I was proud of my pony for putting up with me! And now excuse me while I sip coffee and try to get warm. Lol.

The great pee mystery...

Okay so... Every time, and I mean EVERY single time, I've ridden Gypsy down that grassy path thing I've been talking about, she has peed while I ride her town there. Okay, weird. She has never peed while I've ridden her, If I remember correctly. And yet... Haha, I am confused. And it's at about the same spot every time too! She's done it bareback, she's done it with the saddle...she never dissapoints! Do horses mark territory?! Haha, what is she doing?

But anyways, today I rode her down there [And after she peed...] I took her all the way around, instead of turning her around at the end of the grass path. She was her usual prancey self while going through the field, and then I saw this! Okay.. Crappy picture. But I swear in real life, they looked SO close! I walked right into a pair of turkey vultures, with one holding his big ol' wings wide sunning them! It was insane! One flew off, and I managed to get a picture of this guy before he took off too. Gypsy was at first scared, then kinda interested in a sort of scared way.
Ok they really did look much closer than this picture shows. They are big suckers! I've never been so close to one, it was neat! :)

Skillage

I'm attempting to teach Gypsy a new set of skills. Yep. I might bust her brain, teaching her to ride in frame, and now this. But anyways, yes, I want to teach Gypsy to set up like the Arabian show halter horses. Like so:

So yes. This is the Arabian stance for halter classes, unlike the stock breeds that just stand square and call it good. Oh and don't ask me who that horse is, ask google images. On a sidenote...I don't think I'm a huge fan of this horse, looking at him. Although I kind of do like how flat his croup is...But that's beside the point.

Gypsy doesn't know how to at all, which makes sense...seeing as I've never taught her. Funny how that works, right? So step one? Teaching her to scoot her front feet forward without stepping forward with her hind feet too. A more difficult concept to grasp than one would think. Session one was today, and she was kind of getting the idea though.

I found some article or something somewhere that gave tips on teaching it! You halt your horse just as he is lifting up his right hind, and his back feet should land in the right place. Then you kind of rotate your horse slightly from side to side to ask the front feet to step forward a little, to stretch out. Then you just have to teach them to stretch out their neck!

Ok any Arabian people. Is this the right track to teaching a horse to do this? It seems nice to me, but what do I know? I saw someplace that a good halter horse will also use his stomach muscles to bring himself up...But yeah. Who knows really? Gypsy isn't going to be world class miss Arabian fantabulous. So I am not gonna be pickey about it too much, ha. It would be fun to throw her in a halter class or two someday though, and have her able to do this! :)

Mucho Excitement

Well theres been a lot of horsey activity. I finally made it back to work on...oh was it Friday? Yes.. And I ground drove miss Drafty in the harness. She did real good, and I drove her outside for the first time! She did great, wasn't scared at all. Which was nice. Tried to eat the grass a bit lol, because I was driving her in the open bridle, not the driving bridle. But she was good, expecially for not being worked in a week. Afterwards in the arena, I put the driving bridle on her, just for her to investigate. I think she thought it was a little strange that I killed half of her vision field, but she was fine. I led her around a tiny bit, and then took it off.

And then I went back home this weekend to see my boyfriend. We went back to my friend's house and saw the Gypsy Vanner again! :D And it was thrilling, and he was just as wonderful as he was last time. We also rode her Clydesdale, who is also just a sweetheart. And my boyfriend was impressed- so take that, you quarter horse fanatic! So yes, and then today before I came home I saddled Gypsy Vanner up and rode him down the road for a while, and boy is he brave. Diesel trucks passed us, and motorcycles, and car after car after car, and he was a-ok! It was great! :) So of course, there are many pictures of the two gorgeous boys that we rode.

'My' wonderful horse that I love. And oh if only he WAS mine. Can you say parade? Ha

And who says you can't ride Clydesdales! He had wonderful manners!

Gypsy, gypsy, gypsy..

Interesting sort of week.... after my miraculous week of riding Gypsy being fabulous, things took an abrupt falling-off-cliff sort of action. She was pissy and naughty, and all sorts of not wonderful things, when she had been so lovely all week before. That horse confuses me so much. And I, with my bad habits, got very frustrated with her. Cue the vicious circle.

Sooo last time I worked with her, I attempted to go about it quite differently. Wasn't planning on riding her at all, actually. Lunged her for quite a while, WTC.. Then sacked her out with plastic cans filled with pop cans. She learned very fast what those were all about! Had them sitting on her, dragging them next to her, and all sorts of horse-eating-scary-activity.

Exhibit A.

And then I found a basketball, and played with that too. Tossed it around her, rolled it between her feet. Strangely enough, it was a little more scary than the plastic bags, but thats all right.

And if that wasn't enough weirdness for one day, I loaded her up in the stocks. She was nice and calm...I've done it before ha. Played with her in there, then threw her in the trailer to chill for a little while. Nice and calm there too.

Nice and chill in the stocks!

And her 'trapped like

a rat' face in the trailer

I had been dreading riding her, since she was so bad for the last few rides, but I caved in and hopped on. I rode bareback...she is always better bareback, strangely, even though my new saddle fits her really well. Who knows. I tried to be real soft on her face and such, and she was much better. Sweet relief. And now miss Gypsy has a dentist appointment in a couple weeks! Yay! That should help plenty ! :)

Discouraged

Well, I can safely say I am now having a very off day. Didn't feel like riding Gypsy, so I lunged her around and that was all great and fine. Got out the clippers again and shaved off her whiskers, attempted a bridepath, but the dang clippers were kind of dull. Ventured to try her ears, and discovered that- while she is fine and dandy for everything else- clipping her ears is an act of war on her poor little self. Fun.

Then had an iffy ride in training class. I mean she wasn't terrible, but I was getting annoyed, and just felt so hopelessly discouraged. Now that she is finally giving me baby haunches and shoulders in, she is being stubborn on moving her hindquarters over. And I have yet to get her to canter at a decent pace. There is no speed control...it's fast, or break into a trot. Ugh! If I had more room in the arena, I might be able to work on it. But it is so hard in there. We put out a mini trail course for the first time. She was great at most of it- cross the bridge nicely, walk over poles, back an L decently... But oh boy the gate. Not that she was real afraid of it. She wanted to push it over, and didn't want to be manuvered around it. But yes. She is still a work in progress, but if I step back from today and look at her, she is still doing well and is getting better. Sigh, I just get discouraged and worried about the rate of her progress is all, I suppose. I'll be over it in the morning, I'm sure.

In other news, I fed a duck some tortilla out of my hand at the park today.

Cart Pony Extrordinaire

Well, Drafty Mare from work is certainly coming along wonderfully! The owner and I decided to teach her to drive, because A. She's built for it....B. They have a cart....C. She would be adorable pulling a cart. So far, I can harness her up and ground drive her. So today I brought out the big scary training cart to desensitize her. But, to my surprise, she wasn't really afraid of it. YAY! So we sniffed it, walked around it...Then led her behind, then next to the cart as I walked it around. Let it fall on the ground and make big noises. All perfectly fine. Then lowered the shafts around her sides, and brought it back up many times. And she didn't care at all, not even the very first time we did it. So I attached the breast collar to her harness, and ground drove her. I put my weight in the traces as she walked around and let her pull my weight as she walked, and she did fabulous! I am so proud of her! And I'm super excited too, because this will be the first horse I've ever trained for driving. I kind of know what I'm doing, but I'm kind of feeling my way along, haha. With the advice of my buddy who DOES know what she's doing in this arena. Haha, I'm so excited, I can't wait till I can hitch her up.

Oh, and I had a picture of her harnessed up completely, and then I accidently deleted it. Kick me.

In other news, Gypsy was excellent for our ride today too! She is really learning to lift her back and duck her head, and really reach for the bit. Her walk is a million times better than even what it was last week, and now I'm adding trot back in. Which is nice, because walking gets very boring ha. And she's trotting very very nice now! The smoothest, most comfy trot I've ever had on her! Success!

Look a very bad quality picture of Gypsy in the scratched up mirror in the school arena! Haha

And her investigating who that

other strangely gorgeous horse is. Hehe