Play in the MUD!!

Today Liz and I met to play for awhile. It has been raining still. It was MUDDY! In fact someone said to me as I pulled up, "You aren't going to RIDE today are you?" Turns out I did. And it was fine. Yeah we mainly played on the ground on the 12 ft (so I wouldn't totally soak and get my 22ft muddy). We practiced stick to me and some sideways. Then we did a little bit of liberty. Our very first time doing any liberty with another horse in the arena. Duck stayed with me the whole time. She didn't want to do what I did (especially jump) in the beginning but then we got going and we even got a close circle at the trot at liberty! I was so excited. And cantering with stick to me. She is so dominant though, head tossing etc.

I've also been teaching her to bow with cookies. Well I need to make my cue clearer and different than "pick up your foot" because now every time I ask to clean out her foot she bows! My bad! So I just need to think of a different cue and refine it so I don't confuse her! I am so happy that she is trying so hard though!

I ended with riding bareback for a little while and still practicing transitions with my seat. It is getting better. Today I got 3 stops with just my seat. It isn't anywhere close to reliable yet, but going in the right direction!

And Liz seemed to have fun with Eli even though it was so muddy. She turned him out first and he ran like a Banchee, but didn't even come close to slipping. Very fun!

Hopefully it will dry out. I am not complaining though because we really need the rain, especially after last years' horrible drought.

I'm glad I checked first

Well in my quest to search for a new saddle I thought I would try and make due with what I have. My current english saddle is too small for me as I have mentioned before. Funds are tight so buying a new saddle is out of the question unless it is a used saddle AND I can sell my other one first.

So Tuesday I headed to the barn with my western saddle. I haven't ridden western in at least 4-5 years, maybe longer. But I figured I soaped and conditioned my western saddle and it seems to have a bit more wiggle room in the rear if you know what I mean, so why not give it a try?

Well I got there and Duck was only interested in eating grass. Can you say food monster?

So I was also doing back tracings to see if I WAS able to come by a good used saddle what size/tree width I would need. I have currently been looking at the Duett Companion Trail saddle. I am thinking this would be a good fit for all purpose and trail riding that I want to do.

Back to the back tracing. My theraflex was too thick and big to be able to put on my saddle and then get a tracing with the saddle on so I decided to do it with no pad. Saddle up, walk around let the saddle settle. That all went pretty well besides trying to keep her head out of the grass to get the tracing! LOL

Then I brought my western saddle and figured I'd ride in that for the day. So I drove Duck to the saddle in the back of my open van from her grazing spot in the field. No issues. Had her sniff it and the pad. No issues there either. So we saddled up and did some driving from zone 4 ish out in the hayfield and then to the arena with no problems (with the saddle that is)

After a few tightening I decided to try a circle game at the canter to see if she was truly ok with the saddle. Well I asked her to trot, no problem, then canter. WOW! She cantered about half a lap before taking off full speed ahead bucking! I could see then what was bothering her, the long straps on the back of the saddle I had put on when I originally bought it to tie on camping gear.

Well after a couple circle laps full blown ahead I backed myself into the arena wall so she would have to stop sometime while running crazy! It took several half laps and then she finally calmed down, licked and chewed and stood waiting (and sweating.)

I decided to try again with the circle and off she went again, this time I shut it down much quicker. So then I decided to just flap the straps on her butt while she stood there. She kept trying to come into me (thinking I was asking her to move) but soon got it and stood still much more relaxed. We played stick to me for a bit at the walk/trot and did some sideways and backing and then I decided it was safe to mount up for walk/trot.

She went pretty well in the saddle although she had pretty cranky ears (which could have been from the other horses in the arena.) It felt so different to me to ride western I was having a hard time trying to decide if I was on my balance point or not.

Duck was ridden western in Illinois when Brian rode her, I remember he rode her in Carol Coppinger's clinic western too. I think Jody rode her english. But she hasn't had a western saddle on since moving to NC a year and a half ago.

Long story short, I am glad I did the groundwork and preparation to make sure she was OK with the saddle BEFORE I got on and was able to fix the issue on the ground (although next time I need to match her energy more and much, much quicker in hindsight). But you bet I'll be extra vigilant in checking it out on the ground until I know 100% that she is ok with it! WHEW!

More zone 5, transitions and a demo (gulp!)

Yesterday after an extremely long day that consisted of a 6 am run for 30 minutes, morning chores at the barn (walking horses out to pastures), going home for 45 minutes and cooking Niels lunch (he has been sick) and then back to the barn to hostess a b-day party and walk ponies around for an hour, and then afternoon chores (walking horses back into the barn) lets just say my legs were really, really tired! They ached. I almost went home. But then since I haven't played with Duck for 2 weeks I decided to buck up and play/ride!

We played in zone 5 with driving. It took me a lot longer than I was hoping to get us back in "sync." Or maybe it just felt that way to me! We grazed and drove our way to the arena. Played figure 8 around some cones outside the arena to which the first time Duck just pretty much gave me the finger and didn't want anything to do with it. So I switched sides and made it so she'd have to go up/down a little hill (and over grass) while figure 8'ing and increased the energy of the "send". That did it! And we got some good figure 8's on the 12ft line with the hill.

Then we went in the arena and I did a few things on the ground such as sideways over a pole, and then I just decided because she was so distracted (there were about 5 other horses in the arena jumping etc) that I would just have her stick to me a bit and we practiced hindquarter disengagement from the ground.

I mounted up and Duck is getting a little too good at going towards the mounting block. She wants to go over it while I am standing on it sometimes! The nice thing was that when I got on she stood quietly for a couple minutes. That is a good improvement over her needing to just move right then. In fact her energy overall was less than I expected for the amount of time she has spent inside with the rain and me not being able to go play because of sick kids etc.

Started where we left off last riding session. Doing downward transitions. This time since I was in the main arena I used some outside line jump standards as the visual markers. The first 4-5 times she still just wasn't getting it. But then after she became "gate sour" for a minute I put her on the cloverleaf pattern and she was stopping in the middle rather quickly. So we went back to the original exercise and then towards the end the last one we did was really nice! She stopped pretty much right at the standard just off my seat! Yeah! Mixed in with this was also upward transitions, including into 2-3 strides of the canter (which the first time I thought she was going to buck but she didn't) and then back down to a trot. I then did a few trot/walk transitions at the standards and ended there! I still can't get over her canter. It is just SO up and down I feel like she is going to toss me every time! More fluidity practice I guess!

Looks like on April 18th I am doing a Parelli Demo at our barn for the Parade of Barns. The Parade of Barns is a fundraiser for a theraputic riding center in Huntersville. Basically they are selling tickets and there are 10 or so barns locally that will have demo's, lessons, etc. Our barn will be doing the Parelli Demo, UNCC Equestrian team demo and a lesson demo as well as pony rides all day.

I didn't want to do this all by my lonesome so I recruited a Parelli friend that is very close to being done with level 3 to help me, and hopefully some other students at the barn that are familiar with Parelli will too. Should be fun stuff although I admit I am a nervous about talking in front of a possible crowd. (That would be my very introverted personality. LOL) GULP! So we are working together to come up with what to say/demonstrate so far!

This is the website if you are local or want to check it out -

Hinds' Feet Farm

Not much play

Between the awful weather and sick kids I haven't been at the barn very much! Well scratch that. I've WORKED at the barn but haven't played much! I was bound and determined to play with Duck last Saturday though. It was pouring and 35 degrees. Originally I was just going to graze her but I decided to do some driving from zone 4 and grazing all around the hayfield. I am playing with lessening her thresholds around the property. She is very unconfident in new situations (clinics, trail rides, etc) so I am going to play as much as I can around the property in addition to the arena to see if I can increase her overall confidence in new situations! She did pretty good walked out rather quickly even in the pouring rain but I think that enthusiasm was more adrenaline and pent up energy from being cooped up in her stall for a few days. We went towards the road, and then towards the woods and WOW she still is scared to death of the area by the woods. We played squeeze game from well over 100ft away and it took several passes for her to go through slowly and confidently. Now I know what to play with later if this rain ever decides to clear up and my kids finally get better. As of yet they both still have fevers of 101 so I won't be going anywhere anytime soon. :(

Duck the escapee

Yesterday I went to the barn to ride with the kids in tow (didn't work out so well) and the barn workers told me Duck had too much to eat. Come to find out she had escaped fro her turn out pen to graze in the hayfield. (hmm, not food motivated at all huh?) She was out for about 3 hours.

Today I went to the barn to clean as I usually do on Thursdays and my horse was in her pen. On my way out my horse wasn't in her pen! Yep out again! I guess it is because for some reason the fences aren't electrified right now and there are just 2 tapes that keep them in.

So in the picture you can kind of tell she is out. If you look to the back fence you can see how she got out! Thankfully she isn't a wanderer! I was hoping to get a picture of her in the hayfield but she moved closer to Kay by the time I got back from the house getting my camera!

As for the ride Wednesday we played a little at liberty (but I wasn't as prepared as I should have been ) then rode practicing downward transitions off my seat using cones as a visual marker. Duck was pretty distracted with the beagles running in the rabbit field! But we played with it to the right walk/halt and trot/halt. Next time we'll go left.

Duck is officially a Wuss!

So all day Saturday and Sunday it was raining pretty hard and temps in the 30's. So the horses were all in their stalls. So I grazed Duck in the rain on Saturday so she could get some outside time (and played a little) and then Sunday when I was working the rain let up around 11:30 when I was leaving from the morning shift so I decided to kick her out until 3pm when I would be back to feed for the afternoon.

My horse is a WUSS! She has now been stalled for almost a year (usually only in bad weather) and now she can't even stand 2 hours of cold rain. YIKES! My horse from Illinois where it is -20 can't stand a cold NC rainstorm for 2 hours! She was shivering up a storm and extremely eager to get back into her stall! WOW! Well I am guessing that I WILL need a blanket after all just in case!

Too funny! The thought did cross my mind though that it may be the combination that she is already shedding her winter coat and she doesn't have much of a winter coat anyway. She was much, much fuzzier in Illinois.