Coffee Addict

Hehehehe. I went to work and rode Cheyenne a few days ago. She was good, if not lazy. I can't blame her though, because I hadn't ridden her in ages. But I had an iced coffee there with me, and when I was done riding I let her sniff it. And she decided to eat the straw. Caught a picture, and it looks like she is drinking my coffee, hahaha. I love it.

Going to try and go to work more this term, only two classes a day and done pretty early every day, so I have no excuse not to go. Except for this week. Boss is outta town and asked us to just come next week. Pretty legit excuse right there.

Will also work with BeauD again soon. Met with his papa the other day, and we wanna work as soon as theres some nice weather again so we can try a trail ride. Although right now I'm thinking-just to preserve my life a little- I'd rather have at least one ride at the fairgrounds in an enclosed arena before I do that. Seeing as BeauD hasn't been ridden in...a month or two now? Poor boy. But we will get him rode soon.

Random Things

Well there was baby born at the School barn!! It is totally adorable, a little colt who looks like he might turn out a palomino! I got to see him the day he was born, and watch him get turned out in the arena with mama for the first time! Let it be the beginning of the parade of babies I will get to see over Spring term in my breeding class. I took a video of the owner putting his little halter on for the first time, but my computer is having minor seizures. No really you should see it, it's terrible. Theres three or four windows on my toolbar that are frozen and just won't go away... Sigh.

Also rode Cheyenne yesterday- she was actually really good. Wore some little nubby spurs and made a heck of a difference. Then we tried walking up to this ball and she was terrified of it. Had to get off and show her, and then I could push it right into her. Silly mare. We were working on her walk-canter transitions since she hates them so much, and gets pretty lousy at them. She did great :) Here is a picture of her licking said ball.

Long lost work ponies

I finally made my way back to work! I should be given a big F for failure for not going much. But today was sunny and lovely, and they just finished the new outdoor arena. So I went to try it out, and it is great!! So much better than the indoor, I will actually enjoy riding in here. It's nice and big with lots of room, and a nice sandy footing. A tad deep right now, but give it a month of riding and it will pack down a little.

Anyways, I worked miss Beary today. She was amazing! Did everything perfect today. I am sort of reverting back to drive-training her instead of under saddle. I can't help it! Just look at her, she is just begging to be hitched and drove around a parade or something! She is so adorable in harness, and she really has a great temperament for it. And it comes so easily to her- she does it like a pro and its been ages since I've worked on it with her. So I harnessed her up and lunged her, then ground drove her around. Turning, stopping, backing, trotting. She did everything awesome. Yay! So I brought out ye olde training cart that kind of resembles nothing but a hunk of twisted metal that hapens to have wheels. Haha, desensitizing and de-scarying is all its really good for now. And if she gets weird and hurts it? Well, who cares? It can't get worse than it is now! So she was a little wary of the cart at first but got pretty chill with it. I was by myself though so it was a little difficult doing that part. Might convince somebody to help me next time.

Also rode Cheyenne today. I am starting to ride her in a more advanced bit now. It's about time she progresses in her training a little. My boss has this really bizarre looking bit...Its got a medium sized port, with circle snaffle-looking cheeks. But its got a small ring you can hook reins to that gives a little bit more leverage. And then on top of it all is this weird black thing that goes over nose under chin like a noseband, but in a strange parelli-lets-make-this-totally-weird way. Anyways, Chey was pretty good. I don't think she liked how deep the footing was. She walked and trotted pretty well, but her canter was having some big issues. It's so weird. I always have issues with her canter. I would say I think she has hock issues, but she canters on lunge without a problem. But under saddle she got all upset and pissy, wanted to buck a little, and kept breaking out of gait. Hm. So I rode her around in the arena, then took her outside into the field. And her attitude sure changed! She loves riding outside, and we trotted and even cantered in a big circle out there. And zero problems with the canter. She picked it up right away and kept in it until I asked. Okay..... Well the footing was just grass so maybe she liked that better? Maybe if she has hock issues the deep sand footing would make the problem worse? Who knows. All I know is Cheyenne was great outside, we walked through this big water puddle pond lake thing in the pasture. Sucess. I like this picture of her! She looks sooo quarter horse in it, ha. You can't see the percheron at all!

Oh and It was so adorable. I was bringing Beary through the indoor arena to take her to the outdoor. The minis were in the indoor arena- the mom and the 6 month old baby. And oh boy was the mini colt so interested in Beary! She whinnied to her and ran all around her, she sniffed her and nibbled on her fluff. And much to my suprise, Beary loved the little guy! She nickered to him and sniffed noses. They were best buddies! Ha! And then when I took Cheyenne through the arena, the colt tried to do the same thing. But ohhh no, Cheyenne would have none of that! Pinned ears, swishy angry tail!

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!

Riding Beary Video

HEY LOOK! A video! Apparently blogger likes the school internet and computers way more than my own crappy laptop, so here for your lovely viewing pleasure is a video of beary. She is coming along fantastic. Here she is under english tack [which I can't lie, Im pretty biased] but she performs lovely in. We are just walking around in this video...kind of boring, I know, but I didn't end up trotting in it because my dad, who is videoing, said it was too dark to see anything. It was dark out, so things are kind of hard to see, I apologize. But perhaps the real reason for this video is to make fun of my dad, when he makes his nice little commentary at the end. Haha, he will love that.

Another Beary note, we trotted outside for the very first time! I saddled her up, took her out and we walked all over the place. Across the bridge, through the water, the works. And then we trotted down the driveway, walked back, then trotted back down. And repete one more time. And she was perfect! I'm so proud.

I was less proud of miss Cheyenne who decided to be very naughty outside. She kind of wanted to take off when we tried trotting. It is starting to be Beary who is more behaved than Cheyenne. I am ashamed of my old training pony. Sometimes I really think there may be something wrong with her hocks or something. No, really! Not just an excuse. She even gets upset now when I pick up her front feet [which she never did before] as if it hurts more to have all her weight on her back legs? And she still is doing the weird angry-faced grouchy canter. Sigh, who knows.

And Gypsy...oh Gypsy... She was a total snot for her ride the other day. And yet the two times I worked her before and after that ride, I lunged her with side reins and she performed beautifully! Perfect frame and consistancy and it was a lovely sight to see. And then proceed to be a cow under saddle. What a booger pony.. She is on my bad side right now. So maybe today I will try riding her again, but go bareback. I know, shame on me, avoiding the problem. But whatever, I already had one bad ride today, my poor brain can't handle another.

I had equestrian practice this morning and it went awful. I rode my [previously favorite] warmblood gelding but oh god it was terrible. I felt like I didn't do a single thing right. He was being herd bound to another horse in the ring, and I was a mess and all over the place. A bad bad ride for me. Ugh.

Add in the fact that I haven't been sleeping well at all, and I got a killer migraine yesterday for the first time in years....and I'm not having a great week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, god knows I need it. Going home on Wednesday and staying until Friday. I am glad to have a vacation. I need one. School is getting to be a major chore and it's only Fall term still. Problem.