Tales of House-sitting

CHICKEN ATTACK! :O

Okay, I can't even tell you, I am so tired of chickens. They are NOISY, and smelly, and messy. And I swear, there were five billion of them. True story, five billion. I spent the long weekend...thursday to sunday, house sitting for the couple that own BeauD and co. Co meaning their 5 other horses. And I developed a dislike for chickens. Especially one that earned the name evil mama chicken. She had one little chick, and felt the need to protect it....very viciously. I would go to put feed in her cage and she would fan out her wings and attack, beak and all....Not nice, chicken.

Besides the chickens it wasn't too bad. Feed dogs, feed horses, ect. And I also got to work some horses if I wanted, and of course I wanted! So first off I rode Azar, the old little chestnut Arabian. I have ridden her before, but this was first time alone. Second time riding her at all. I groomed her, saddled her, walked her around, then hopped on. And she was so good! We walked out in between fields on a little path, then back. And no jigging, no prancing coming home. Totally perfect little mare. Yay! Does that tack look familiar? I am rather proud that I can completely outfit a horse to ride out of the trunk of my car. Hehe. All fit her pretty well too!

Well the next day I decided to play with Silvi...or is it Silve? I don't really know, neither of them look right to me. I will pick Silve. She is a two year old....warmblood thing? Not sure. She is actually pretty- I like how she is built. She is gonna be very nice once she is done filling out and growing up. But she doesn't have much training at all, so I decided to work on ground stuff with her. And at first, my goodness was she a butthead! Pushy, wasn't yeilding to pressure. I round penned her a little, then we worked on leading and moving forward when I asked, promptly stopping, backing up, and yeilding her hindquarters away when I asked. She got a lot better once she knew I was the boss! Couldn't tell if she had learned it before and was just testing me, could be the case. But anyways, I groomed her up and she looked great. She is a really light bay with a huge blaze- almost encroaching on bald face territory- the white covers both eyes and she has two blue eyes. She is going to be a real looker. I would love to keep working with her- getting her in lines and teaching her what a bit is about, and introducing her to saddle and such. Too bad I'm leaving so soon, but I could put a start on, and thats something, isn't it?

I actually only groomed BeauD, but never rode him. I wasn't sure how much I trusted him, to ride him when I was there alone. I had a brief moment of insanity when I thought I'd try and ride Meg (godzilla huge horse) but then came to my senses. She is ....17.2 hands I think she said? And actually a little bit hot from her Thoroughbred blood, and hasn't been ridden in a really long time. Oh if I thought BeauD would get me in trouble, I'm not sure why I considered Meg for even a second. I'd like to ride her, but lets do that in an enclosed arena with others around, shall we? At least for my first ride on her please.. Ha.

The Warmbloods of My Life

Its a bird, its a plane...no, its BEAUD!

And nobody can forget Mr Oscar Man!

Warmbloodville

Well hello hello, and a happy new year it is!
I am a lazy bum and haven't posted in a bit, but I will still choose to blame my lack of internet at home. It makes life a tad more difficult. And I'm pretty sure we are so painfully cheap that we will never be getting internet either...
But anyways. Lets see...whats been going on in the horse side of my life. Winter term at school has started up, so I've been having to cut a tiny bit of pony time off, but at the same time, I'm adding some too. How does this work, you might ask? Well, I am taking a class called schooling the horse III. This consists of me being assigned to a school horse, and I individually schedual times to come and work him on my own, to achieve goals for the horse and for myself. Sweet, my kinda class. Ponies, and no teachers. So anyways, I was assigned to the horse Oscar. You may remember Oscar being the horse that I used to love so much....and then he got feeling better and had shoes on, and then I had a total nightmare of a ride, and was much less fond of him. Ha. Well, I have discovered that when I ride him for the class, and NOT for equestrian team practice where I am having to focus on riding pretty...he is so much fun! I love Oscar! He is a nice big warmblood, oh maybe 16 hands. But he is super broke and is awesome. Fantastic walk to canter transitions, I just gotta say. And so my instructor assigned me to him to more improve myself, rather than him- since he is pretty much broke. There are little things here and there I will work on with him- he doesn't load in the trailer and such. But Oscar is a jumping horse, and so I will get to learn to jump on him! YAY! Rather excited for that.
Also have ridden BeauD, the other warmblood in my life. He is getting so good. I am starting to trust him a lot more. There are no weirdo spooks or crowhoppy bucks anymore. Walk, trot, and canter nicely. I love riding him too! Such a smooth gait and all that suspension, and oh that canter. So lovely. I am realizing that the next horse I get needs to be a warmblood. They are big, they have those big sweepy gaits that I love, but they aren't totally psycho. They are pretty chill. The perfect horse. Oh Yes.
And speaking of the horse I DO have.. I have made a decision in that area. I have decided to try and find a retirement home for her. I feel so bad to ride her, she has had so many years of terrible experiences and bad training- some my fault, some not. But she is so wrapped up in her own head that she just can't relax and work. Trust me, I have been trying to retrain her for years, and have gotten almost nowhere. There is a point where you must realize that this horse is so old, so set in her ways, and her brain is so terribly fried and dead, that it is not fair anymore to the horse. She would be so much happier and it would be so good for her to be put out on a big grassy field to keep another horse company. Get fat and remember what it means to be a horse. She is awesome on the ground and loves to be groomed and such, but she just needs not to be ridden and trained anymore. My poor mare's brain can't do it anymore. So I am poking my nose around looking for a companion/pasture pet home with some possible like...lead line stuff maybe? I couldn't have picked a worse time to try and give away a free horse, but I am in no hurry, and am going to be VERY picky about where she goes. I want her to stay close, preferably on a free lease instead of an actual sale. So yes.
There has actually been some very small talk about possibly sort of leasing BeauD if I find Gypsy a home. I would just pay to keep BeauD at the school barn so that I could ride him all the time at the school. It would be super good for the Beau man....but that is not happening unless I do something about Gypsy....which means it probably won't happen. It is a nice thought though..

Merry Christmas!

Hello all! Its the day before Christmas Eve, and I'm cozy in the recliner chair back home! I came back yesterday so I could work at the vet clinic today. And lots of things have happened that I could write about, but my mind is drawing a blank and I don't feel like writing a huge amount. Go me. Finally something to say, and no motivation to say it. I do have about a billion pictures. So maybe they will trigger some brain waves.

So here is a picture of my boss, well, the man who owns BeauD. This is him riding one of his other horses, Ellie. Ellie was in the school's training program along with Cheyenne. I rode BeauD this day too, and he was great. Let him run around loose in the arena first, get his boogers out, then hopped on. Walk, trot, canter both ways. He was awesome. And we finally got some video of me riding him, although the video was kind of far away so it is hard to see. You can't tell how totally wonderful his canter is from this video. Riding it is like being in a rocking chair, and it's so smooth and comfortable. He doesn't rush at all, and isn't totally heavy on the forehand. Its lovely. Love.

OK. This is where that video was going to be, if the internet at my parents house wasn't painfully slow and lame. It can't upload video to save its life. I will have to go steal library or LBCC internet to upload it.

So yeah. And in other news... Gypsy has been a boogery little booger lately. But I don't quite believe its all her fault. Last few times I've ridden her, she seems just so...in pain. I got her worked by the chiropracter over the summer, because she seemed ouchy, but in all that time, she hadn't been acting like she was in some serious acute pain. But now she arches her neck, pins her ears, shakes the head. Its terrible! So I think I need to get her some work. It doesn't help that I don't think her saddle is fitting her anymore, it slides all around and back...So I have been doing a ton of bareback riding, which used to always totally fix her problems, but now she is even acting up bareback. I never enjoy riding that horse anymore. Sigh, oh to own a horse I look forward to riding. I peruse dreamhorse in boredom and just drool over all the horses I could own. I just want a horse that is big enough for me, and is chill. I don't need to show, I don't need ribbons. I just want a comfortable and nice looking ride where the horse is willing to carry itself and is good natured and happy to work. Boo. Sigh. But the other day, I did have some fun making her a santa hat. I got a cheap hat from the dollar store and cut holes for ears, and stuck it on her. Suprisingly she didn't care at all, and chilled with her hat for quite awhile. Super cute.

And other slightly exciting news...We took horses to the fairgrounds at work the other day. We took Cheyenne, so she could get some good practice and work to get ready for a possible show next month, Troy [the TB cross I worked last year-the other girl works her now], and...wait for it....waiiiiitttt....Beary! Miss fatty Beary!

It was her first trailer ride since she was 6 months old. She hadn't been taken anywhere since she was a baby to come live at my boss'. And she loaded right up in the trailer, no problem. She just doesn't back out at this point, she has to turn around. And she was moving that trailer all over the place during the ride, ha. But we unloaded her, and she was perfectly calm and easy. There was a major scary incident about tying though. I felt like an idiot for it, ugh. She used to pull back when tied, really bad. But I kinda fixed that, and she hasn't done it in months and months. So I tied her to the panels. Everybody ties to those panels without thinking. So I did. And we left her there, and she was fine for a while. And then she pulled back, and pulled all the panels with her, and it was a total train wreck. Horrible. My life flashed before my eyes, as I was trying to get close enough to her to let her loose. But as bad as that was, I will say she settled back down. She was breathing a little harder the whole rest of the time, a little cautious, but she was a saint. I led her all around, I saddled her, I rode her at a walk once around the arena. And so went her very first expedition. I will make sure there are no train wrecks next time. Cheyenne did super awesome. She is so good. She is going to own at the show, if we take her.

Beary on the left, Cheyenne in the middle, Troy on right.

Another cantering pony!

Ok so lots of excitement. Today I went to ride BeauD again...took him and Ellie [another of his horses] to the fairgrounds. BeauD got to have a nice little stud chain while being led around. He finally jerked me around and dragged me off enough to earn it. It is now our best friend. Ha. He was being a bit crazy, so we let the two horses run around in the empty arena and get their boogers and sillyness out, and that did wonders. I lunged BeauD monster and he did NOT drag me halfway across the arena. He minded the stud chain and had beautiful manners, walk trot and, dare I say it, canter! He didn't buck at all, and he didn't pull me around while he cantered. Oh dear me, might today be the day to try to canter Mr. BeauD? We shall see....
So I hopped on, and he was being great, and we trotted around, and he had some impulsion going, he was using his big beautiful booty a little bit....Bueno. And so...ok, lets bite the bullet. Ask for the canter! Don't buck me off BeauD....I just visited the chiropractor and am feeling better. So I asked....and he gave!!
Ahhhh, let me tell you. I was expecting some super quick crazy thing. No such thing! He cantered slow and easily, with lift and some impulsion, with his head held pretty nicely. I held him and he was feeling on the bit, but he wasn't pulling me, and he wasn't trying to speed up. And the canter! Oh, the canter! He is like a smooth rocking chair, so amazingly comfortable and wonderful! I was super excited. Stoked. Go me and BeauD. I was very happy and proud of him. Yay.
In other news, I went to the racetrack- Portland Meadows, yesterday. It was Oregon race day...a bunch of bigger money races going. It was super fun, lost a couple bucks, ha. Saw the vet I shadowed over the summer, the whole clinic crew was there! I said hi, it was awesome. Yay, they love me still. And she asked if I was going to come work a little while I was home on break. Heck yes! Also super stoked and excited.

BeauD

Hello all! Which includes the quite possible nobody-ness that reads this blog! I went and rode BeauD again, the big beautiful warmblood gelding that bucked my booty into the dirt the other day. But I would like to say that today went much, much better! We got into the trailer pretty easily, and lunged around a little crazy, and then rode. We walked all over, and trotted. And there was no trying to canter, and NO bucking at all, and no sillyness!! YAY! And I must again announce that his trot is lovely lovely and he would be a fabulous dressage horse. I was going to take a picture of him, but I didn't get around to it. Luckily, his owner took a few pictures. I have only gotten ahold of this one, but I love it. It was right after we unloaded from the trailer and he was very lookey-ahh scaredy cat about all the things around the fairgrounds. I think there were a couple pictures of riding, and I'll post those when they get to me. Good ride for today.

On the other hand, Gypsy has been a snot lately. I don't have any desire to ride her today....But I really need to. And then study for my finals. Which are this week. Which I have yet to study for....

EDIT-------------------- Got the pictures from our ride!

Welcome to the land of Pain!

Well well...Lets catch up on horsey-goodness news, shall we?
My boss rode Beary for the first time! It was very very exciting!! I warmed miss Beary up and she was being great, So we switched riders..She was nervous at first to ride Beary but fell into things quite nicely! And I must say Beary was an excellent student, and they walked around the arena together and did figure eights. It was a beautiful sight. Made me very proud! I took video proof! Sorry for me shouting VIDEO! in the middle....I forget my phone has noise.



So yes. Fantabulous. Ok, so then yesterday we decided to take the horses for a trip to the fairgrounds so we could get them into a nice big arena to really move. I practiced loading Beary in the trailer, and got to the point where she will get in, no big deal...But backing out?! Insanity! It's asking her to kill herself-backing off a cliff like that! Haha, its almost bizarre how weird she is about it. She will back all the way to the edge of the trailer, then just back up her front legs. She ends up standing so close together that I'm not sure how she is staying balanced. She would maybe put one back foot down, panic that there was no ground there, and shoot back forward. After mucho time of this, I just asked her to turn around and walk out. And no problems there. Huh. I will need to be creative and figure out how to solve this.

So yes, we didn't actually bring Beary to the fairgrounds, we took Cheyenne for me to ride, and Troy and Bliss for the other girl who works there to ride. And Cheyenne was so good! She was such a good girl, and wasn't doing her strange canter thing so much. Okay, I changed my mind, I don't think there is something wrong with her hocks, she just has an attitude. And I don't think she likes cantering in such a small space as the home arena. So yes, I got her to do a lovely little jog-trot nice and slow, and we did canter work. Yay.

But that does not explain my title for this entry blog thing? I will get to the pain now.
BeauD, or however you spell his name, got trailered to the fairgrounds as well. He is the big warmblood 4 year old that is owned by my boss's friend, if you recall. I have worked BeauD twice, once only on the ground. He is a good boy, but doesn't know much, and is a little hot. I am training him now because I guess he bucked off the crap out of his papa. Okay, well cool. So I tried my english saddle on him, it fits great. Perfect. It is a crime to put a western saddle on this horse, trust me. His build just screams DRESSAGE PLEASE!!! Oh, he is so so pretty and warmbloody and beautimus. So anyways. I was walking him around and he was being a great dude. We try trotting, and he is a little wobbley and funky, but in general is good. Then somebody flipped the switch...
He wanted to speed up when we were heading down the long wall towards everybody, and he picks up a canter. I tried to bring him back down, and he just exploded bucking! At first I was pretty sure I would stick him, but nope...I ate dirt, big big time. I jumped up, caught him and plopped my butt back in the saddle. You boogery little boy. I ask for the trot again, and again, he tries to canter and goes into bucking-mode. Oooh, you can fool me once BeauD, but not twice. I was ready for him so I doubled the crap out of him, and I am proud to say he didn't manage to buck me off the second time. We walked around and chilled out...worked a little bit of trotting slowly back in, and by the end we could trot the entire circle of the arena both ways. SUCCESS! :D
Sooo, I woke up this morning [the adventure being yesterday] and my body pretty much did a big fat groan. Oh, am I sore and stiff and icky. I am for sure feeling it today. But I had equestrian team practice this morning and it went SO much better than last week. I was doing things right, I felt in control, it felt good. Ester is a good girl.
Gypsy...well, haven't been doing much there. Shame on me... I feel slightly bad. But, last time I rode her I worked her pretty good, and she did great. I got a walk-canter transition in both directions! Excitement!