Traffic Woes

Ok so I think I’ve touched on this before, Buddy is fine about traffic coming up behind him or crossing right in front of him but if they are coming AT him he FREAKS!!  Nothing that had me too worried until last night, after all he’s been getting better about it.  Well, last night, we were met by a car on that part of the road by the pump-house that always makes me nervous anyway.  I was calm, just patted him and told him he was fine but the woman never slowed her noisy car down and when she hit gravel he spazed.  Just tried to spin but we were right on the edge of that stupid steep incline and it scared me.  We went on about our business and he was ok – although we didn’t meet anymore traffic until we were headed back towards home.  We were next to a ditch and a truck came along.  The gentleman slowed right down but despite that and my reassuring pats, Buddy LEAPT into the ditch and up onto the lawn of the house right there – THAT scared me even more!  We went back down to the road and continued on, only to be met by another truck.  This one also slowed down but had a barking dog in the back, Buddy started backing and spun but not as bad as he’d done the other 2 times.  When we got down to the end of the road, 2 cars turned into the road RIGHT BEHIND him, we weren’t even totally out of their lane of traffic having just crossed the road and he NEVER BLINKED!!  I just don’t get it!  When we got back across the field, there were several cars so we stopped in the field and I had him just stand and watch them go by – he didn’t care.

I don’t know what to do to get him over this issue – but I have to admit it’s scaring me – I don’t want anyone to get hurt but other than exposure to traffic, I just don’t know how else to get him used to it, and at the same time – I’m not sure that exposure is even working!!! 

Anyone have any suggestions????

I’m a loping fool!

I took Buddy out again last night on the loop by Alamoosook Lodge.  He went right to the water at the landing and I didn’t have to get down this time for him to step in and take a sip!!  Yes!  Progress!!  He was kind of tender footed on the fire road which has me a little concerned….but that’s another story.  When we got to the trail that cuts from the fire road across he wanted to trot.  Once we got thru a bumpy part of the trail I asked him for a lope – and lope we did!  The trail is a nice stretch of flat 4-wheeler trail, nice soft ground but not sink-y soft.  It was a blast!!  When we came out the other side, we trotted up the dirt road until we got back to the tar.  He is really getting his balance at the trot and feels great at the lope but is still unbalanced.  We’ll get there, I have no doubt about that! 

Today I went out and hopped on Zandy – she seems to be a little “snorty” at first until she has a few minutes to settle into work.  It took me a few minutes to get her down the driveway, just like the other night – she was snorty about the painted “STOP” lines on the driveway.  The kids are home today so I couldn’t go very far, but Buddy and Rowdy were turned out in my riding pen so we just went up the road to mom and dads – today was one of those times that I was glad my Dad won’t let me fence in his yard!  When we were about 20 feet from the driveway, a car came flying down the hill – they moved over but didn’t slow down.  I was a little nervous considering what happened with Buddy and the truck last night (I’ll get to that in a second blog as soon as it’s finished) but Zandy stood nice and quiet while the car passed.

We started out just walking some circles on the lawn and once she got her snorts out about all the rocks, truck cap, stack of wood, old metal barrel etc we started trotting figure 8’s and LOTS of neck reining.  I have to admit that as much as I LOVE Buddy, it’s nice to get on a horse that I can ride with just one hand and relax.  I can relax on Buddy to a point, but not like on a been there done that horse.  I had asked Zandy to lope in the big pasture the other night but couldn’t get it and just wasn’t comfortable pushing her.  Today though, I asked for a lope and got the nicest lope I’ve ridden in a while!!  To be sure it wasn’t just a fluke – I trotted a big circle and asked again – same thing this big ground covering but lovely lope!  The more she worked, the better she got.

I rode for about a half hour – it was pretty warm, more the humidity really and both Zan and I were pretty sweaty.  We took a lovely stroll up around dads garden and up into the woods – but the deer flies were our in droves so we turned and headed back towards home.  Interestingly, the boat that’s along the path and the pile of tires never bothered her – EVERY other horse has had issues with that one section.  We came out of the trail and she was pretty upset about the swarm of deer flies all over her face/ears.  I finally convinced her to stop and let me get them off and we had a nice, flat footed calm walk home. 

Just as I was getting down, Kenneth came out and asked if he could sit on Zandy.  I said SURE!  and tossed him up there!  At first he didn’t want to hold the reins but I showed him how to hold them and steer her and then I just stepped back.  You could see an INSTANT change in Zandy’s demeanor.  Not that she was worked up with me but the minute Ken was in that saddle, she changed.  Instead of walking out like she does with me she took teeny tiny steps.  She stopped once and all Ken had to do was click to her and bumped a little with his foot and she started off again.  I have no doubt that she would be great for us to have for the kids. 

Silly cowpony

Buddy and I have an issue.  I can wave my left arm up, down & around with no reaction but heaven forbid my right arm moves.  I’ve been working with him on this but I had some sort of lapse in memory tonight.  We left the driveway and he was being mr pokey – we’d just passed mom and dads driveway and a car came down the hill towards us.  He’s a little nervy about them coming towards us anyway, but he’s getting better.  Well this car slowed down, and the very nice older couple waved and smiled.  So I smiled….and waved with my right hand.  OOOPS!! That crazy little cowpony spun himself (and me) 360 degrees – this spin was one that any reiner would be proud of!!  Silly cowpony!  So the rest of the way up the road to the field I was waving my arms here there and everywhere!

We crossed the field at a snails pace and came out the other side, waited for a couple cars to pass and then crossed over towards the dam.  With very very few exceptions he didn’t care about much of anything on this trip over.

When we got to the little boat launch, Buddy really wanted to go towards the water but he’d get halfway there and then back up.  Once I got him to calmly walk to the waters edge and then stand I got off and led him right up to the water.  He took a sip and then stepped right in!!  He played in the water for a bit just pastern deep and while he was playing in the water I tossed rocks in.  The splashes at first spooked him but he got used to it.  The whole time we were there this guy was watching us and singing to us.

Sorry the pictures are not the greatest, my blackberry takes decent pics in full sunlight with no zoom but it was dusk and he/she was a little ways out.  We didn’t go very far this ride, it was getting dark too quick.  We went a little ways down this road, it’s always so peaceful and a nice way to help me clear my head.  I really needed a nice relaxing ride tonight and this certainly helped.  I love to just mosey down the trail and just let all of my stresses go.  I know in the grand scheme of things, all that’s gone on lately is nothing much but at the very same time, it’s enough to make me crazy!  Here’s my favorite view - he’s almost always got his ears forward, happy and willing to just be out and about.  I realized when we got home tonight that the incessant whinnying of our first rides is gone.  I haven’t noticed it the last few times I took him out and there was absolutely ZERO whinnying tonight – even when we got close to home.  He’s really turning into a fantastic trail horse and I’m SOOOO thankful that I let Sammii talk me into walking into that barn on black friday last year! 

Now a couple pics of the new addition. I wasn’t looking for another horse.  In fact, I’m trying to cut back my numbers but for some reason it never works.   This mare may not stay, but she’s here for now.  I’ve actually offered her as a lease to a couple people, we’ll see what comes of that.  She’s a nice mare – around 20 years old, she was sold as a QH but I think she’s either a TWH or Saddlebred cross.   Palomino, about 15.1 hands, has a nice build not overly chunky but not a rail either.  She is a been there done that type of ride.  Does great walk/trot – I haven’t cantered her yet but she’s passed my “potato test” where I flop around like an idiot on her back like a sack of potatoes – I did it at the walk and the trot and she couldn’t have cared less.  She does great on the road – I’d almost like to keep her but I just have too many and she’s VERY mare-ish!  

Two bucks – No worries!

I decided after waiting all day for the 11am rain shower that hadn’t appeared by 3pm that I was going to go out and work with Louie.  I went out and yelled for him and he came running – that’s a good feeling :)  I got him out and put him on the cross ties.  He has a tendency to pull back so I was a little nervous about doing this but just approached it with a “who cares” attitude.  He was pretty good about it and didn’t get all high headed on me at all.  I’m starting to think he likes me!

I ran a brush over him quickly and he seemed to enjoy it – this is the same horse that would bite me for trying to brush him when he first got here!  Then I grabbed the saddle and tacked him up – he was a little fidgety about that but that is normal for him, although again there was no trying to bite me!  I put the bridle on him and then tied up the reins so they were out of the way – I wanted to lunge him before I climbed on and was thinking that maybe I wouldn’t climb up there at all but we’d see.

We walked out to the pen nice and calmly – I’ve noticed that if I stop anticipating him exploding, he seems to just not react.  I got him in the pen and snapped the lungeline onto his bit (I have one of those connector strap things) and sent him out – there was no typical antics from him, he didn’t even toss his head he just listened to my voice commands and *gasp* did what I asked!!!  He even switched directions with a simple “whoa” and switching hands with the lunge whip!  I think a sane horse has invaded his brain!!

I decided since he was being so good about it that I’d climb on and just work for a few minutes – it was starting to rain!  Why does that happen?  The hourly forecast said showers at 11 – and we had nothing but some clouds until I decide to go work with the horses.  I snugged up the girth and put my foot in the stirrup – I have a hard time getting on short little Buddy from the ground and Lou’s got at least a hand on Buddy so there was no way I was getting up there!  I took him out on the lawn to use the picnic table. 

Now I know how simple this sounds, but trust me, for this horse this part is truly amazing to me!  I stepped up onto the bench and asked Louie to step up in front of me.  He was a little too far away so I asked him to move up a step and then laid the reins on his neck and said “over” fully expecting to have to get down and push him over towards the table, but he stepped right up to me!!  I told him he was a good boy and just said “STAND” put my foot in the stirrup and hopped up!!  Simple as that!!  We all know by now that mounting is my most anxiety stricken activity – when Louies owner told me “he doesn’t stand well for mounting” I about had a panic attack – WHAT?  How am I going to get on him?  LOL No worries I guess. 

I took him back to the pen and we just were casually walking around, he started fighting me along the backside and kind of grunted and tossed his head – I told him to quit and made him work a couple circles and then he was happy to walk nicely along that back side.  We had a couple more issues with him not wanting to go where I was steering him but nothing major and nothing that made me feel uncomfortable.   I asked him to trot along that back side and he did this head tossing sideways bunny hop bucking thing, the only thing that scared me was that my reins caught the horn when I went to pull his head up so it took me a second but I didn’t have any of the heart pounding hand shaking anxiety that I’ve had in the past. I just got his head up, turned him in a circle and then made him trot trot trot along that fence.  After that he was fine for a while – he started to kind of trot sideways a while later, which I then turned into side passing and after I made him side pass halfway across the pen he decided that walking forward was much funner than going sideways anymore!  Hehehe.

The second “buck” came in when he decided he was done – He headed for the gate and I turned him away and made him trot away from the gate area – he did this head toss started to buck and made this sick whinny sound – I couldn’t help but laugh.  He sounded so pathetic. I just held his head and pushed him into a little faster jog.  Easy as pie!!  I have no idea why I feel so much more relaxed on him now, but I am going to stick with some “arena” work with him until I’m confident that we have the basics down.  I’m one that believes the best training is trail miles but in this case, I don’t feel safe taking him on a trail until we have some of these kinks worked out – maybe with a few more rides and then with some company I’ll give it a try but for now, I think that we’ll stick to the pen and the pasture.

When I went out to do chores I decided to try to clip Louies bridle path.  He hates to have me even TOUCH near his ears so I figured I was in for a fight but he was a mess!!  I turned the clippers on and he tried to sniff them – I let them touch his nose and not even a twitch!  He let me trim his whole muzzle no issues.  So I thought HA!  He’ll be fine – wrong.  He gave me a bit of a fight but in the end I won with very little trouble.  I had to stand on a bucket to reach but eventually he gave in and he has a nice, pretty clean shaven bridle path now.  :) 

Yay! No dry spots!!

I have been on a saddle quest – trying to find something that fits both Buddy and I and that doesn’t weigh half a ton!!  After the show a week ago, I went back to my saddle fit book – I haven’t opened it since I stopped trying to find something to fit Louie, so I dug it out and was reading.

I had an “AHA” moment (or maybe it was a “Duh you dumbass” moment) when I realized that while I’d been going wider and wider, I was making the problem worse!!  First of all, the saddle we bought from my father in law has Quarter Horse bars which means a 6 3/4” gullet – I thought that it had Semi bars and ruled it out as a fit for Buddy…..my Textan had Quarter Horse Bars and I loved that saddle but I didn’t feel secure in the seat and it was leaving dry spots right behind his shoulder blades – so I thought that this meant I needed a FULL QH bar saddle with a 7” gullet.  I bought the roping saddle which weighs a TON and while I thought it fit him well, after the show on the 2nd I noticed that he STILL had dry spots…..what does this mean??  

I came across an ad in the Uncle Henrys, someone wanted to trade a practically brand new Wintec All ‘rounder western saddle and a full set of Weaver nylon tack with a matching Mayatex saddle blanket for an english saddle.  I happened to have an english saddle with pad, 2 girths 2 bridles and a breast plate in my tack room that I don’t intend to use so I emailed.  Pictures went back and forth and she was up for a trade so we made all the arrangements to meet.  I was a little skeptical that this would be my solution afterall, if a 7” gullet is still causing pressure points then going to a 6 1/2” gullet isn’t going to help….right?

WRONG!!  According to my book, those dry spots typically mean that the saddle is TOO WIDE.  DOH!  So we met and exchanged saddles – I came home and tried it on him and it sat nice and level on his back, I hopped on and we took a couple laps in the driveway it’s comfortable for me, the test was going to be a longer ride but I was short on time and the kids were here so it wasn’t going to happen on Saturday morning.

I finally got the opportunity tonight to go on a real ride.  I tacked him up and we headed out – he was being a jerk.  Obviously he thought if he misbehaved too badly I’d give in and get down….WRONG.  We got over to the river and with a little coaxing I got him down TO the water – toes almost in the water but he wasn’t gonna go that far.  I was happy to continue on our ride once I got him to stand RIGHT at waters edge and NOT fidget.  Once he stood still for a couple minutes we continued on down the road.  This area is a little high anxiety for me – it’s LOUD, there’s a dam and a pump house that make a LOT of racket – there are always people fishing and on the other side of the dam is a beach.  All of this would be fine IF the little stretch of road by there had a good shoulder on it – but it doesn’t – it’s almost like a goat trail carved out of a mountain, to one side there is a STEEP bank down hill and on the other side it’s a steep up hill bank.  There’s basically NO gravel shoulder and the road is narrow.  I always stress a little right here, especially after the incident with Louie a couple months ago.  

Anywho – Buddy was doing his best to play a stubborn mule and a couple times he even tried to back up as fast as he could – like THAT would scare me…..ok it did a little but I whacked him and told him to cut it out.   We were fine until we got to the beach area.  Not only did we have scary water – but there were shrieking children in the water!!  He was fine, a little more alert than normal but nothing major, until one of the parents moved by their car!!  Holy cow – all 4 feet went in different directions, I thought for sure he was going to sit down!!  It was the funniest thing!  I laughed it off and told him to stop being so silly and off we went.

We headed down the fire road that we avoided last time because of the tractor.  There were boaters in the water some-what near the road and he was a little spooked by that but other than stopping a couple times to check them out he did fantastic!  We got near the end where there are a couple horses and he started his foolish whinnying.  One of the horses answered a time or two but then shut up and that was the end of it.  It was right around this time that I noticed that I couldn’t hear Lucy screaming anymore either…..and all of a sudden Buddy was perfectly happy to go on about our business and no more funny business!!  We took the trail across to the lodge road and when we got out the other end, it was starting to get dark – where oh where did summer go?? – We headed towards home but we met something we’ve never met before….cars – WITH headlights on….I had this feeling that I was going to go flying, but instead of panicking I just patted him, stopped him by the side of the road and decided to greet the cars head on.  He was perfectly fine!!  PHEW!!!  As I’ve mentioned before, he’s ok with cars when they come up behind him, but a bit spooky when he sees them coming towards him so I expected that he’d have a head fit when these cars were coming at him WITH lights on and on a gravel road!!  I’m so proud of my boy!!

After the cars passed, we trotted for a little ways – my stirrups were a little too long though and his trot is still a little hard to sit to right now, the stirrups were too long for me to post so I had to settle for standing in the stirrups.  I need to work on slowing his trot down but for right now, I’m just happy to have a nice steady trot from him for more than a few strides!  The rest of our ride was pretty uneventful and I was anxious to get home and see how the sweat marks looked on his back.  

He was starting to get pushy when we came out of the field so I made him go the “long way” home – we went up my brothers old driveway along dads fence, thru his yard and then down his driveway to the road.  Why you ask?  Well I wasn’t ready for our ride to be over but really I just can’t stand a pushy horse going towards home and he’ll have to learn that we’ll get home when we get there.  If that means we do laps until he stops pulling on my arms then so be it!

When I got home I pulled the saddle and pad off and set them in my truck so I could adjust the stirrups and was THRILLED to see very even sweat marks and NO dry spots behind the shoulders!!  YAY!!

I can’t wait to do it again….tomorrow morning maybe?  All told this little loop takes me about an hour.  There a couple of branches off the main route that I can take so we can mix it up a little, I’m thinking that this little ride will be one that I try to get in a couple times a week to get some more miles on him.  He’s doing great and I think that the best training for him is on the trail!!  Tomorrow I may try loping one particularly nice stretch of trail!!  Hopefully I can get some pictures of the trail too – I feel bad just blah blah blah-ing along like I have in the last couple posts!! 

Combating Fear

It’s funny to think that a 3 year old horse has brought me so far in my quest to gain my confidence back, but that’s what is happening.  I have been feeling very confident on Buddy, I even loped him the other evening!  We have lots of work to do but knowing that he won’t buck me off or be stupid is a great feeling!

Back in May Louie and I had a really bad ride.  I let fear overcome me and I hadn’t been on him since, except for one ride quickly in the driveway a couple weeks ago when I thought someone was coming to look at him – I wanted to see how he’d behave before I made firm plans.  You can read about that horrible ride – HERE.

I’ve joked with Zephyrs mom several times about her taking him on.  He would be a WONDERFUL endurance mount for her as a back up for now and later when Zephyr is retired as well.  It’s just not in the cards right now for them though and I totally understand that!  She and I had a conversation today about him that left me longing to get on him and just give it a try and for some reason, I was feeling very brave!

I went out and got him from the pasture and brushed him.  He is an overly sensitive horse and really hated being brushed when he first got here.  He really seemed to enjoy it today so that boosted my confidence, it’s the small things that keep me going.  I decided to just “bite the bullet” and get him saddled and see where that took us – I put the pad on his back and he didn’t so much as flinch.  Wahoo!  I grabbed the saddle and just “tossed” it up there.  He really didn’t care…ok, at this point I’m thinking….”who are you and what have you done with the real Louie?” 

After he was all saddled, and he didn’t try to bite me while I tightened the girth I was REALLY feeling good about this adventure!  I walked him over to the horse trailer where I’d left Buddies bridle – he has his own but when I swore I’d never get on him again I packed all of his stuff away.  I bridled him with zero issues, tightened the girth and then walked him over to my tack trunk and climbed up on it.  Figuring here we go, now he’s going to be a dork.  Nope.  He stood stock still and I climbed on on his RIGHT side no less!!

Once I was up there my heart started beating a little faster, but it wasn’t anything too bad.  I started him down the driveway, my plan was to take him up to ride in Dad’s field while the boys swam in the pool.  He started to get a little freaky about something in/near the tall grass….he started his snorting, head tossing and backing up but I just held my legs on him and talked to him and we got past it.  He was his normal snorty self up across the lawn and up the driveway but I just kept chattering away – I’m not sure if that actually helps the horses but it sure helps ME!!

When we got up near the pool, he started to spaz about the kids in the pool.  I had them stop splashing and just stand in the pool where he could see them for a minute thinking that he’d chill out – I was wrong.  He was getting himself pretty wound up so we took another route to the field.  He’d still have to deal with the pool but it put me in a better situation where there were less obstacles to run into. 

We went down around the lilacs and up past the garden.  Dads cows came running – they hear my voice and think I’m going to feed them….silly things I took care of them ONE weekend 2 months ago and they still think I’m the food lady!  Anyway, he was totally engrossed in the cows for some reason – I really don’t understand it, we have a cow at home.  I got him out in the field and again asked the kids to stand still just so he could get a good look at them – he was standing nicely so I had them go ahead and splash and carry on – he got a little spooked by that but nothing that terrified me. 

We started making laps and he was being VERY forward and a bit spooky but I just kept remembering to BREATHE and after a couple of laps he was walking very nicely.  We went both directions and made some circles, serpentines and figure eights – all at a walk but hey, it’s something right? 

The kids got out of the pool and took off for home…..which caused an issue.  I yelled to them wanting to know where they’d gone (aka you’re not drowning right), E yelled back, Lucy started whinnying and that was it.  Louie started his sitting on his haunches, backing up, going side ways, throwing his head and just being a dork.  I handled it ok, even got him to walk in a circle calmly and then decided to get down.  Only he was NOT going to stand still for me.  I was preparing myself to bail off – I didn’t want to, I knew that it would be letting him win but I was starting to panic.  All of a sudden I just took a deep breath, told him very firmly to WHOA and when he stood still for more then 1/2 a second, I praised him and got down.  We walked around in a circle to make sure that he wasn’t going to be a “space invader” and be a pushy jerk, which he didn’t/wasn’t so we started towards home. 

He walked very calmly next to me without pushing me or walking on me – that is something special for him!  I took him into the barn unsaddled him and brushed him.  Again he didn’t protest and I felt myself breathe a huge sigh of relief. 

I put him in Buddy’s stall (the goats are in his stall since he’s been out 24/7 all summer) and gave him a snack.  I am trying to get his legs to dry out, he’s got scratches from all the rain/mud and I had rinsed his legs off and wanted to put some medicine on them but I KNEW that would be a fight so I figured we’d end that session on a good note and I’d tackle the legs a little later. 

I’m very happy with how it went with him and hope to try again tomorrow.  I do think that he and I need to go back to basics and get some solid “arena miles” before we go out on a trail again.  Just to make sure we have the basics/necessities covered – and to boost my confidence some more. 

Of course, I applied to UCB for this fall for their vet tech program so between the kids school, my school and Buddy I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have for this but I think it’s what I want to take on.  I think I need to stick this one out – at least a while longer.  I definitely have gotten into the habit of throwing in the towel at the first sign of trouble!!

On another note – I am temporarily using my old PC and I’ve found a BUNCH of my old pictures – including ones of Buck and Star.  I feel a trip down memory lane coming on :)  I also have an interesting idea for a picture blog……

Our First Show

I’ve stated it many times, although I think most people think that either I’m exaggerating or they just don’t believe me, but I have some serious fear issues.  For someone who used to be hell bent for leather going nowhere slower than a gallop this fear thing is very new and I have to admit overwhelming for me.  The paralyzing fear that I feel is very discouraging to me. 

I’ve planned to go to several shows this summer but always talk myself out of it.  I set myself up this last weekend to NOT be able to talk myself out of it though!  I was casually tossing the idea around in my head but was still torn, I didn’t have a babysitter, I’ve never taken him out in a situation where he was with more than 2 or 3 other horses, etc etc.  Zephyrs mom was supposed to go visit family and her plans had changed so before I lost my nerve I texted her and asked if she had plans for Sunday.  She called me instead of texting back (she’s not a big texter lol) and we started chatting.  I told her about what I was thinking and that if I went I’d have to take two of the kids with me, my oldest is in NY with my mom, anyway, having to take them by myself and not knowing how Buddy would behave was making me even more nervous and she said she would love to go with me!!  I still wasn’t quite sold on the whole idea but now  I had ZM encouraging me some more I was gaining courage! 

The kids and I were getting ready to go swimming and my aunt stopped in with her grandson and invited the boys for a sleepover!!!  YAY!  That freed up that concern!  She said she was ok with keeping them while I was at the show so I was getting pretty excited!  I had dinner with my dad and then made a quick run to walmart to try to find a button front shirt that would be “passable” for the next day.  I don’t have any show clothes anymore except  one shirt that sadly I am too big for so I had to find something to get me by, which I did. 

I remembered on my way home that I’d forgotten to get a red ribbon to tie into Buddy’s tail – I don’t think he’ll kick but I didn’t know how he would be with strange horses in an arena so I wanted to be on the safe side.  It was too late to go anywhere else and the only stores we’d be driving past in the morning wouldn’t be open or would be unlikely to have red ribbon anyway.  I ended up calling my cousin and she had a red bandana so I took it to cut up for a tail ribbon! 

I couldn’t sleep, I kept running over all of the what ifs and the lists of things that I need as well as trying to come up with an excuse to text ZM and tell her I wasn’t going.  I ended up falling asleep sometime after midnight with my alarm set for 4:15, since I hadn’t given Buddy a bath or anything I knew I’d need to clean him up some and still had to pack the trailer. 

Sunday morning I overslept!!  Figures!  I woke up at 5:45!!  ZM was going to be here at 6:15 as I was hoping to be on the road by 6:30!!  So I got up, tried eating yogurt while I was getting stuff done but it tasted funky so I didn’t end up eating much of it.  I had the trailer loaded and most of the stuff in the truck when ZM got here, she was a bit early but that was fine!!  She helped me get Buddy from the pasture, I’d left him out in hopes that he’d be calmer – like he ever gets wound up huh?!  In the process of getting him out, Rowdy wanted to come to so ZM took Buddy’s lead, Buddy leaned on the fence as he went out the gate and he about took ZM out – oops! 

I hosed the mud off his feet and loaded him right on the trailer – he’s such an easy boy!!  After a couple trips back to the house for things I’d forgotten, or not really forgotten we were on the road!!  My nerves were shot and I was full of senseless chit-chat.  We stopped at Dunkin Donuts to grab coffee and breakfast and headed over the river. 

My plan was to get to the show grounds early and let the horses trickle in slowly as opposed to getting there after everyone else and having him have to adjust to 50 horses all at once – my plan worked…we were the first ones there!!  I parked the trailer and then kind of froze. ZM in her bossy tone (;) you know I love you!) told me to get out, get him unloaded and tacked up!!  She wasn’t going to let me out of it!

So, off the trailer my boy came – as you can see from this picture, he was quite alert! He has NEVER given me a real reason to be afraid of how he’ll react and he’s so easy to handle and deal with but when he’s alert like this, or real noisey my nerves just get the best of me.  I personally was thinking that I’d just lead him around and if nothing else, he could just be an “observer” for the day!!  Hehehe – ZM had other ideas.  While I was trying to remind myself to B-R-E-A-T-H-E she was telling me to get the stuff unloaded and get him tacked up! 

I got him tacked up, although I did manage to drag my feet a bit.  I took extraordinary care to mess with this buckle and that strap….and finally someone prodded me firmly to get my butt moving!  I finished procrastinating and slipped his bridle over his halter.  When I first started riding him, he liked to clamp his teeth shut and run backwards, we’ve worked thru that and now I can just loop a rope around his neck or even just his reins or halter and he takes the bit like a champ but it’s another one of those nerve-wracking “things” so I chose to pick my battles!! 

I got on him, and started very slowly walking around.  Right away he spotted the belgians across the road and started going sideways.  Yep so much for my fragile nerves.  That first couple of minutes are kind of a blur, I remember making our way back to the truck and ZM saying she’d walk with me around the outside of the arena.  Talk about feeling like a sissy!!  The more I think on it the sillier I feel!  ZM escorted us around the arena each direction and then told me to get him into the arena.  Me being me, was hesitant – I didn’t know if it was allowed – or maybe I was just looking for excuses to get off.  Regardless, I ended up in the arena.  We walked the fence one way and ZM said, “if it were me, I’d go back the other direction and then trot the entire arena in both directions” **Big grin** “Yes mommy” I do believe is what I said!  It was what I had been thinking but having her say it just meant I *had* to do it right?  She also kept telling me to “BREATHE” – and sadly I did in fact NEED the reminders!! 

After my laps around the rail at a walk and a trot, ZM gave me some more coaching about doing some transitions, walk/trot, trot/whoa, whoa/trot etc and some circles, direction changes etc etc.  I know deep down that I KNOW this is what we need to do, but in all seriousness, it was all I could do to breathe.  When that task was complete, she had me work on a little more trotting with some half halts – Buddy is such a good boy to put up with my nonsense.  He did a good job and we headed back to the trailer to let him eat a little while I went and registered us.  *gasp* was I REALLY going to go thru with this??

On my way to the registration table, ZM passed me carrying a bucket of water……I think she said something like “I hope you know how much I love you, I do NOT carry full water buckets” hehehe – thanks ZM!!  I love you too!!  I registered us for the halter class (I loathe all things halter/showmanship always have) wanting to get him into the ring to see how he’d behave.  I also registered us for the w/t pattern class and was very dismayed to hear “oh that’s hard I can’t ever remember that pattern”, and then w/t western pleasure and equitation.  I grabbed the pattern instruction sheet and started to forget how to breathe again! 

We went into halter class and Buddy would NOT trot along beside me.  He will here at home!!  Dufus!  He set up nice and pretty for the judge though, but even on the way back there was no trotting.  We stood in the line up and honestly, I had no dreams or hopes about winning, my only goal was to see how he would be in the ring with other horses….he fell asleep in the crook of my arm.  We didn’t place but that was ok with me, I had a better feeling about the rest of the classes after that.

While we were awaiting the pattern class, I watched some of the other classes – they really flew by!!  ZM had me drawing the pattern over and over and over – which helped, I could STILL do the pattern now!!  Before we knew it, it was time for pattern class.  Breathe…breathe…um yeah just stay on, to heck with breathing!!

I watched the first person go and started to have a panic attack.  They’d made a small arena inside the arena, which for some reason really threw me for a loop, and then add in the judge seeming to be confused as to how the pattern should go and I was REALLY confused!!  ZM videoed my go – it’s kind of blurry but you’ll get an idea anyway. 

From Joy Valley 8-2-09

 

 

 

 

 

I was very happy with our go, but wasn’t expecting to place – the goal after all was simply to stay on, and I’d done that much!!  Imagine my surprise when we got FIRST!!  We got a cute little trophy!  I really love my little red pony!!

After pattern, we had w/t pleasure – again my nerves were rearing their ugly head.  I had NO idea how he would be actually IN the arena with other horses.  He couldn’t have cared any less.  He did fantastically and we got 3rd place out of 5 horses.  In our equitation class we did ok, he was getting a little cranky and was obviously tired of going in circles.  He started fighting with me over small things and kept breaking down to a walk.  We got 4th out of 5 – which I am still THRILLED with!!  We had a fantastic day and I really am looking forward to doing it again SOON!! 

I could NOT have done this without much encouragement from Rocky Mountain Yankee and Zephyrs Mom.  And I DEFINITELY couldn’t have done it without ZM being there with me and being my “show mom/coach/trainer/support/photographer”!  Thank you both for believing in me and not letting me get away with chickening out!! I think the picture below is my favorite from last Sunday.

You can also see all of the pictures from that day here: JVR 8/2/09 Photo Album