Spring time fun!

For Mother's Day I went with my friend Robin, who owns The Gifted Pony, LLC to help her with her booth/tent at a horse show up in Mass. I was really impressed with the little show, and love the fact that they have a green horse division. I'm seriously going to try to bring UK up there for his first show. Not too big, not too small and nice people.

I rode him western this week as I was trying out a used saddle. The tree was too wide so I ended up giving it back, but it was tons of fun riding him western. His pokey western trot is so comfy, and then his canter was fun, as he just kept getting lower and lower as I gave him more reins. I wasn't even riding him in a bit with a curb, just a sweet iron eggbutt snaffle. I think he was partially showing off for his girlfriend as Kristy was riding Dacharia at the same time.

Yesterday I decided that I should start getting him ready for a show environment... I purchased fake flowers at the local dollar store. *Evil Laugh Here* Because I know with my luck UK would have a heart attack if his first time dealing with them was at a show.

As predicted, UK was not sure how he felt about them when I first presented them for his inspection.

What do you mean they're not for eating?!

I brought the plastic bag full of the fake flowers with me to the ring and left it sitting in the middle of the ring while I had UK do some free-lunging flatwork. He did really well, listening and reacting to my voice commands better then ever. He actually worked instead of just running around the ring like a crazy man. When he'd gone both directions, I let him chill while I put up an outside two stride line with flowers underneath each. Because I knew he'd be chicken at first I left them as little half rails, so he'd be able to stay safe if he got awkward.

Turns out I was right. He cantered right up to the first jump like a pro, then BAM he saw the flowers, threw on the brakes and booked it for the other side of the ring. He repeated that twice, I just talked him through it and then with a great show of nerves he jumped the first jump but cut out in order not to jump the second one as he didn't realize that one had flowers too! I talked him through it, and he came back and did the line. We then changed directions and did them the other way. Lots of praise ensued and he got to take a break again while I put poles up so they were now verticals instead of half rails. 

It's not the best video, as I used my cell phone. But it still shows how cute he is, and how much he loves to jump. I'm not even holding the whip, or urging him forward with my hands. All I use is my voice and I just stand in the middle. 

It is so satisfying to see all my hard work start to pay off. He's less fearful and more confident of himself, and I'm so very proud of him! 

Now hopefully it'll stop raining so I can ride him again soon!

Verticals, Outside Lines and Bareback

So here I sit, heatpack pinned between my shoulder and my neck in an attempt to sooth very angry muscles. The human body is a funny thing. You can crush it, maim it, and do all sorts of things to it and you manage to be just fine. My body has survived some crazy things and let me come out none the worse for wear. But then there are some days where my body just gets weird.

I have/had a lot of injuries, I'm not going to lie. I have torn my ankle, broken that same ankle, two bad knees, torn inoperable rotator cuff, broken elbow, broken arm, fractured back, fractured cheek bone, 2 or 3 broken noses and countless broken tailbones. And I feel I forgot some things...

As for my current injury, I really don't know why my muscles are so mad, I didn't do anything unusual. It started last week when I dragged the ring, I got home afterwards and the muscles started screaming. I managed to get them to calm down until last night. I'd spent the day up in Egremont, MA for the South County Riders Horse Show running The Gifted Pony tent with Robin. I got back, went to the barn and decided to hop on UK bareback to hunt for Dacharia's missing flymasks. It was really rather fantastic. We found the flymasks, and then let ourselves into the ring. We hacked around for a bit, worked through his spooks and attitude problems (they only crop up when we go bareback now). Then I got up the nerve to canter him bareback for the first time. Dacharia took off bucking and cut us off, but UK and I stayed united and enjoyed a good canter each direction. Other then grabbing his mane as a backup I didn't do much with my right arm. Yet all of a sudden while we walked around the ring my muscles from the shoulder socket up into my jaw became a line of fire.

I rode UK last week while I was still sick and he was pretty damn good. We did our first line of jumps undersaddle! Both were little verticals, and we had a crossrail on the diagonal. Our only hiccups were when I asked him to walk over the tarp... I fell off, totally my fault. My reaction time was way off as I really was too sick to ride and had jacked up my stirrups to help my ankle which was acting up.  I got his brain back and we jumped around again, then we were walking and the wind blew a jump standard down on top of the tarp. He shot sideways while dropping his shoulder and I slid right off. Both times I had landed on my hip with my head never touching the ground. I was barely sore the day after.

Once I get the pain down to a level where I can turn my head again I plan on riding again. ^_^

Never Ending April Showers

It has rained every day for over a week straight. And when it isn't raining the bugs are swarming. Then this week the heat started. Yesterday reached almost 80degrees, which is far too hot for horses that haven't finished shedding out their winter coats.

Then on Easter Sunday I got sick. I've been battling a sore throat, chronic cough and congestion plus generally feeling like utter crap.

I went to clean the barn and bring the horses in last night and I was shaky and coughing and just bleh... Then I had a strong impulse to ride. I had tried riding the day before, but just as I finished grooming UK it started to pour.

So I groom and tacked up UK, while almost coughing up a lung. It was muggy, buggy and the sun was starting to set. I lunged UK briefly, walked him over the tarp covered calvaletti and then hopped on. UK was fantastic. We did some lateral work, circles, poles, etc. Eventually we jumped a small vertical at the trot and the canter. He wasn't paying attention at the trot, so we knocked it down once each direction. This was another way he behaved himself, as I had to dismount each time and put it back up, then get back on. He could've care less about me hoping on and off.  He jumped the vertical at the canter like a champ.

In mid air over the vertical I realized something. I trust UK. This is the first time in a long time that I've had that feeling. I know UK will still spook and occasionally be fresh, but he never does anything with ill intent.  Tess was a whole different story, she would randomly drop a shoulder and slam on the brakes or dive sideways.

UK has this huge wish to please, he trusts me to not hurt him or put him in a dangerous situation. He only gets anxious when he thinks he isn't doing exactly what I'm asking. He was that way last night, we were cantering a bending two stride line of poles, and he got so mad when he didn't listen to my leg and wasn't able to stay balanced. It was adorable!

It's raining again now, but hopefully I'll get to ride him again on Sunday!

Lunging and Free Jumping

So after two days of rain, today dawned sunny and warm. I had lunged UK despite the gross weather yesterday. All this climate change has been making my ankle hurt like the dickens, so riding hasn't really been possible.

I managed to drag the ring before the rain started earlier in the week (I think it was Monday, not sure) only to have the battery die in the tractor... So it's been sitting in the ring with the dreaded tarp on top of it. I've been moving it around the ring and making UK lunge near/around it. Feeding him on the tarp seemed to really be the step we needed to take. It's still scary but not enough to send him flying across the ring, it only warrants a small spook now.

So after lunging him on a lungeline, I let UK loose to free jump. This was after getting him to follow me over the calvaletti with the tarp over it!!!! MOMENTOUS OCCASION! He got a whole carrot for that.

Below is a video of all the pictures I took with my camera of him free jumping. He had a couple knockdowns, mostly due to getting distracted, but no problems otherwise. He's really starting to adjust himself as needed. Not only did he canter everything, but he also trotted everything as well. I think the jumps ended up being 2'6", but I honestly am not sure.

Anyhoo, enjoy!

I think it may be spring finally!

Be quiet though, wouldn't want to scare it away! So on and off for the past week the weather has been generally 50degrees and upward, with occasional days of rain and gloom, like today. Yesterday was almost 80degrees at one point, it was so nice to not have to wear multiple layers!

I've been lunging UK pretty regularly now. I'm going to try to ride again soon, the last few times I tried to get on it started pouring on my drive to the barn. Talk about feeling cursed. Then the weather was finally nice enough but I had to be other places and doing other things. Damnit. Oh well, I'll ride him again soon.

Ok, this is just so cute.

Om, nom, nom, nom. 

So last weekend I decided to take some extra pictures to show you all a bit of 1832 Farm. It is our own little horse heaven. Most of Connecticut is either, woods, swamp or pavement these days so I count myself lucky to have a place where there is some actual room for my horse to be a horse.

Ok, so a big chunk is swamp, but they sure learn how to be surefooted. 

The above view is  looking towards the back of the barn from across the swamp. To the left, behind that fencing is where our ring is. Betsy's house is to the right, you can just see it.

See, it's not all swamp.

A view of the area around me. The fence you can see to the left is the border between us and some neighbors. Soon this will all be beautiful green grass, yeah!

And if I turn the other way, more grass! Behind those trees directly ahead is another paddock they usually can play in, but at the moment it's fenced off. The winter did a number on the fencing back there and it is literally falling apart.

All together Betsy owns a very large chunk of land, and the horses get to use the majority of it. When the grass comes in, it's lush and plentiful. There is a constant breeze due to it's high elevation, which is a blessing in the summer and a bother in the winter.

Well, I'm going to attempt to get some good photos of UK free jumping soon. I'd really like to get him to jump the tarp without spooking, but we'll see.

Toodles!

UK's Birthday

So Wednesday the 6th was UK's 9th birthday. The weather was wet, cold and dreary. So he got an intensive grooming and much spoiling, along with copious amounts of carrots. 

LOOK! Shoulder muscles!!! All that conditioning work is paying off!

It's very nice to have a horse that actually likes me again. If I had tried to do this with Tess there would have been at least two attempts on my life and an attempt to poop on me while picking her feet. 

Yum! Carrots!

We played around for quite awhile, making him do stretches for the carrots and attempting to remove more hair from him. All his white markings have two to three times amount of winter hair that his chestnut areas do. It was cool when he first grew his winter coat, as all the white really popped, but now it's just more work.

Could you say no to that face? The cute factor is at 9 here.

Now then, UK's one request for his birthday is that he would get to write something his own words for once. I've shown him Jack & Jill's adventures and it helped him understand the whole blog thing better. 

HI!

I'm UK, well you probably know that already... I'm new to this whole internet thing. Mom has shown me a lot of cool things on here, but she also keeps putting up embarrassing videos of me. I don't like that much, that tarp is going to kill, just wait and see, I'm right!

Mom keeps using that camera thing, I do not understand why she is always making me pose for it. It's really annoying in the morning when all I want to do is enjoy my morning hay and try to stay out of Dacharia's way. (She's a bit cranky first thing.)

Did I mention that I love to jump? I really do! I like what Mom calls "bounces", she says they're good for my agility or something but I just think they're fun. Jumping is so much more fun then going around and around the ring with my head low like I used to have to do when I was a western pleasure horse. That was SO boring. 

Mom keeps saying I think too much, but she's one to talk, I know she does it too. Sometimes though she is right, but don't tell her I said that. 

I have to say though, she keeps life interesting! I had never even heard of eventing before I met her, and I had never been ridden english before either. I'd seen some of my old barnmates being ridden english and watched them jump, it was pretty cool but I never thought that would be me eventually! Now she keeps telling me about things she reads about on a place called Eventing Nation, then she showed me some of the stuff they have. WOW! Some of those horses are really cool! I like how they get to jump different things. Not sure how I feel about that dressage stuff though, what Mom calls "flatwork" is not my favorite. At least we don't just go around and around the ring, she makes me do all sorts of things.

Well, I have to go, Dacharia doesn't like being alone very long. I didn't think having a girlfriend meant I would never get time to myself... Ugh. Well, off I go.

Bye!

-UK

I RODE! THANK THE WEATHER GODS! I GOT TO RIDE!

YES!

This morning: 2nd time eating off the tarp. Yes!

First time since JANUARY I've gotten to ride my horse! It was windy as all heck but I persevered! All the ground work I've been laying really paid off. He's in excellent shape all together, while lunging him yesterday I noticed he now has studly shoulder muscles! I'm rather proud considering he had no muscle when I bought him last June, he looked like the equine version of a pole bean.

I lunged him briefly first, just to be safe. He had some spook in him but I ignored it and made him just keep moving forward. Then I hopped on and immediately made him start working. Lots of bending and flexing, stretching and collecting. Biggest thing I've found is if he's trying to spook in a specific area I make him stare at it by doing an outside bend/renvers, it took all the scary out of it and helped him focus. *fist pump*

I'm at that lovely point where he trusts me more and we're really starting to figure each other out. The good is outweighing the bad now!

As an added bonus I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was, all my riding muscles were there and working despite everything that's happened in the last 6 months. I rode him for a good half hour after lunging him almost as long (we had a chat with Betsy in the middle of lunging) and then proceeded to clean the barn and feed them. I felt pretty damn good considering I had outpatient surgery on Monday and have needed some serious painkillers till today.

Right before I brought them in to feed I played with my camera and took some pictures.

Curiosity is starting to outweigh fear.

Begging faces (I have a carrot in my pocket).

Classic Quarter Horse face! Love it!

Well it's very late and I need to be conscious in order to teach tomorrow. Toodles!