Gaited Pony!

Today I went over to a friend's house, who owns the Gypsy Vanner and Clydesdale and such. And of course, I hopped on those two and rode them around a bit...because well really, who can play with their horses and ignore those two? I could tell they haven't been worked in a while- they were both pretty rusty. But not terrible. Still fun, ha. But this time I decided to try riding one of their other horses too. She owns three tennessee walkers, along with two minis. So today I pulled Poseidon out of the field and decided to try and ride him. I'd never even touched him before haha, but he always acted like he wanted some attention and stuff... And WOW he was fun! I've never really ridden a gaited horse that knows how to do his gaits, but this boy did! And let me tell you, it is so much fun! I now understand why trail riders love them to bits! They are so quick, and oh so smooth and comfortable! And he was so easy to ask to gait...all I did was give him a little rein contact and ask him to go faster with my legs, and whoosh he was off! Haha so fun. I'm a fan. I'm going to have to ride him again.

In other news, I also played with Gypsy today. I want to enter her into the trail trials on July 10th...don't ask me why I am attempting this suicide ha. But you know, I think she will do pretty well, if she can handle being trailered out and being in a new place without being all prancey. I think she could probably do all the obstacles. Taught her to drag objects from a rope today from her back. And grabbed just about the scariest object that could possibly come out of my barn to do it! A long snakey black plastic tube...attached to a lunge line, and I said 'Hey Gypsy! Lets drag that around the pasture!' And suprisingly, she didn't decide to kill herself, or me! She was very looky and sort of snorty at first, but she kind of chilled out a little and we walked around with it! So if she can do that...She should be fine with pulling a log or something at the trail trials! Ha

Success story

Well, kind of. Gypsy has been super naughty since we got back home, so yesterday instead of working on dressagey equitation type stuff, we went out on an adventure. To remind myself why I like riding, you know? So we walked down the busy road to the tree farm and walked alongside the trees for awhile, then turned around and came back home. She was such a good girl! A little prancey coming back in the trees, but as soon as she hit road, she was quiet as can be. And she isn't afraid of cars one tiny bit! So yay for that.

Then then my buddy came today and gave me a mini-lesson! She took control of the reins and had me focus on legs-only...and wow what a difference it makes when you only have to think about one thing at a time! And a sidenote...having perfectly correctly positioned legs is so painful! Equitation and I aren't friends, ha. I have a bad habit of letting my toes rotate so they point out, instead of making them point straight ahead. Pain! But anyways, I got to watch my buddy ride Gypsy, and got some pointers and help, so that was all great.

And she is doing really well learning her halter stuff! She is getting really easy to set up her feet, and we are still working on getting her to stretch her neck out. So far, she will do it for food, grain buckets, falling dirt, and strange leaves. Haha. But we got a Gorgeous picture of her today with the full halter business going on...I was happy! And then tonight I clipped up her face and bridlepath and such, and that was great as well. :)

Yay I love this picture now, It's official. And I cropped out the grain bucket we were using to get her to stretch, ha. If only her ears were pricked forward...

Home Sweet Home!!

Ahh, how wonderful it is to be back home! Spring term is over, and so I moved back home with Gypsy. It is so nice to have her in my backyard again! And she is loving the pastures she gets to be on now....at school she only got a dry paddock, but here the grass is taller than she is!

Its a shame though, that Gypsy is welcoming home by being a nightmare to ride. Apparently, since we are home, it means she doesn't need to do anything I ask anymore. Sigh, ah that pony. She's so frustrating. I guess its just being in the 'new' place, a different routine... I guess I will just have to give it a couple weeks to see if she stops acting like a cow.

The Scary World of Training

Well, today I was wandering around the internet like I do, and I ran across this little beauty..

DEAR GOD what is that supposed to be?? I don't know, maybe I'm a tad old fashioned or something, but this looks a little like bit-on-crack to me. Oh, but then I got curious, and searched for more bits like this. And believe me, I ran across some bits that I would die before they touched my horse's mouth. Would you like a horror show? Look on.

Well well...here we have what looks like a double twisted wire that is offset. Not to mention that this is a gag bit, and has a mile long shank...which is fairly straight. Oh goodness...I can only imagine the horse's mouth just being ripped clean off. I mean....do people actually use this bit??

Oh and take a look at this one... What is that, chain for the mouthpiece? But not even chain...it looks somewhat like...what, a chainsaw chain?! With the big old long shanks to boot. What do you really need a bit like this for? I mean, sure, a horse is sure not going to run through this bit if it values its life....but it is going to create about a million other problems, I bet.

And then theres these.. Both are gag bits...The left has an itty bitty wire mouthpiece that just may shred your horse's tongue, and the other has a hackamore piece on it made of bicycle chain...

Sigh. I mean I could go on and on. There must be hundreds of these bits out there. And thats just bits! I can't even imagine the amount of weird pully systems created to yank heads down, hold horses still, or keep horses from bucking. I mean don't get me wrong. I'm all for training devices- I myself used my draw reins today on Gypsy to remind her that she can't ignore my rein cues. But I used them for five-ten minutes and then took them off. Draw reins do not cause pain. Martingales, training forks, draw reins...these things don't cause pain to get the job done. Thats the difference. I mean, sure! Ride your western horse in a shank bit, your big warmblood jumper in a pelham....but it doesn't have to be these bits that I've pictured here. There is a huge difference. If you can't ride your horse in something nice and soft like a snaffle, then I think you have more training to do. A bigger bit is not a shortcut for training. A bigger bit is something to graduate to. A bigger bit means less rein contact, more neck reining, more softness. It does NOT mean 'I can't control my horse so I will throw this huge barb-wire gag shanked bit THING in my horse's mouth'.

Really people. Just spend a little more time creating a softer and more responsive horse, and sure, use the humane training devices if you need them. But they are aides, not something to be relied on. And if you do that, there will never be the need to resort to these painful, inhumane bits that intimidate horses into submission.

End rant.

Proud Mama!!

Well hello world! As (I think) I said, our training horses went home. So today I went to work to see her, and work ponies. Also, my friend went with me because she is gonna take over my job, since I'm leaving. But anyways, I rode my girly, and she did well. Except she did her buck thing going into the canter, and the saddle was apparently super loose from her bloating, and the saddle kinda...well, fell off the the side, and me with it. So I ate some major dirt today. Then I hopped on her bareback and tried again, and it went much better. So it was all good. She doesn't buck bareback, its great. haha.

But the best part was when my boss, my training horse's owner, rode her for the first time!!! We threw the western saddle on her, and she climbed aboard. They walked around, and I taught her how to ask Mare to do haunch and forehand turns, as well as two-tracking and backing up! She did awesome! Got some very beautiful two-tracking, thats for sure! My owner was very happy with her, and said she was super soft! YAY! I am a proud, proud mama right now! I'm so happy that she liked my little booger mare...err.... HER booger mare. Haha. Next time I want to try and get them trotting. I wish I'd been able to take a picture but I forgot my phone at home.

In other news, I gave Gypsy a bath today... I rode her around a little bit bareback. I am trying to teach her to still be soft and give her head when we aren't on the wall. She is kind of rail-dependant. And I found a schooling dressage show I want to take her to in the next month or so, so we need to fix that. She got a little better at crossing the arena on the diagonal, and trotting down the middle long-ways. Then she got her bath, and got to be super pretty and clean! And of course, me being the picture-happy weirdo I am, took lots of pictures of her cleanness!

Umm...yeah that picture is sideways. Picasa is being retarded and won't save it if I edit it to be right-side-up. So just turn your head. ....

Summer?

Well, as we all know, this summer really isn't acting much like summer. Its been so rainy and cold and icky! Its June for crying out loud! But today it is actually summer-like! Its been sunny and super warm all day. I'm a fan of this, it can stay. And I found out yesterday that because of this stupid weather we've been having lately, people all over the Northwest are having difficulties in breeding their horses- the mares don't know what to do! It acts like winter or fall or whatever, when it's really summer! So yes, Gypsy has been bred twice now, and was still in heat today. WHAT?! Yes, she was flirting and talking to the tease stud, so back Mario came today and we bred her yet again. We are desperately hoping that she takes this time- my teacher, and the lady that is in charge of breeding, is feeling more confident about this one. So lets really hope this one takes... Third time is a charm?

Anyways, I rode her today before all of that, and decided to finally start riding her over jumps. I set up a baby little cross rail with a trot pole in front, and over we went. We just trotted over it, and she did great! So I put the jump blocks standing up, instead of laying down, so that the cross rail was a little bit higher, and we jumped that too. Gypsy did awesome! She stayed pretty calm and controllable, and would come back down between jumps and listen and lower her head. I am thinking she will be a good hunter...She's getting to have that real low, level headset without a whole lot of rein contact! That's her trot anyways, her canter is still really crappy, but her trot is beautiful! I want to get a chiropractor to work on her when I bring her back home, and I think that will probably help a lot.

In other news, spring term is over! Finals week is this coming week, and that means that my horse training class is over. So I had to say goodbye to my training mare yesterday....it was bittersweet. I mean, she has been getting on my nerves lately because of the whole random bucking issue, but for the most part I thought she was pretty fun to ride, and had a really friendly personality. I will probably miss my big sausage horse. Did I write a blog entry about the OSU Colt challenge we competed in? I don't recall, and if I didn't, I don't feel much like writing about it now. But I got pictures from the trail course today. So this picture will be dedicated to my training mare. She came such a very long way, and taught me a lot about training a horse from scratch. I am proud of her!

Breeding

Ok well so yes. We have been having Gypsy-in-heat issues, so we popped her a pgf2a shot the other day to bring her into heat, and it worked just like magic. She came into heat around Monday or Sunday or whenever it was, and we bred her on Tuesday. But I wasn't able to be there [BOOOOO] because I had to give a presentation in Animal Science class. Lame. But she did not go out of heat like she should have...instead, she was SUPER in heat today hahaha. So Gypsy was re-bred today to Mario, and I got to be there this time! It was cool! Mario is such a wonderful boy. Gypsy is usually teased to a stud who is very noisy and kind of wham-bam about this breeding business. But Mario is the wine and flowers sort of guy. Gypsy saw him from a hundred feet away and started neighing to him. My horse is officially a hussy. Ha. So anyways, Gypsy got used as the tease mare for the AI collection from Mario today- a first for my mare. They teased, and they loved each other! It was adorable.

And then we went to collect, and Gypsy was like...UHHH? Haha, it was funny. And when he leapt up on the shadow mount, Gypsy squealed like she thought he was jumping onto her.

So yes. She should definately be good and bred this time. Ha.

In other news...Do I have other news? Um.. Well, I am moving back home on the 12th of this month. Which means that I will have to unfortunately leave my work ponies behind. But I am so ready to get out of here and go back home. It will be nice to have Gypsy in my backyard again haha, and be able to go out whenever I want to ride and see her. And I'm sure she will appreciate being able to be out on grassy pasture....theres no such business here at school. Except now that she is bred, I was told she can go next door where school horses get put sometimes- a big lucious grassy field! See Gypsy, there are perks to having hands shoved up your butt!