Crazy but VERY fun weekend!

To continue on with my "time to get over it" mindset, this past Saturday after work Dean picked me up and we headed to Charleston to the rodeo!  Dean really wanted to ride a bull and Sammii and the kids were meeting us there.  Mason had a blast watching the pole benders and was too cute when one of the horses kind of reared every other stride Mason yelled "WABAAAH" little cutie - pop wheelies and stunts are so fun to him!!  So then came the bull riding.....I said "Daddy's gonna ride a bull" and Mason said "NO!" and shook his head!  HAHA - Oh yes buddy, daddy most definitely is!

  
He didn't win any money - but he's now hooked!  August 3rd he's gonna try again!

After the rodeo we followed Sam home to get the trailer and then sleep drove home to get a couple hours sleep so we could head to Dexter to North Country Riding Club for their game show Sunday morning.

5 am came WAY too early and we ended up running behind the schedule I had in my head but we got there.  I took Sierra this time and I had NO idea what to expect - I've never taken her to a show, I've never ridden with more than one or two horses and I've CERTAINLY never tried any games with her.

She was a rock star!  For the most part - she is a mare and she is pretty opinionated about being with a buddy.  She had a hissy fit a couple times but none of her shenanigans scared me.  A year ago, it would have terrified me.

The morning started off with COFFEE...

Right after the picture below was taken something happened, I'm still not sure what exactly it was but the two on the inside STOPPED, we were cantering. GAH!  We bumped into the little black one and Sierra gave a MIGHTY buck when the horses behind up loped up close.....MUST work on that with her for sure!  Even THAT didn't shake me to the "I have to get down" point....I think it probably just made me more determined NOT to get scared and work through it!

Mason would come over and hold his hands up and say "UP LYSHA UP"....And of course, Lysha does what Mason says and would lean over and grab his little hands and lift him up!  Thank heavens for little horses!

He took my reins and said "MY HORSE LYSHA" haha no sir little man this one's MINE!

Pretty girls ribbons for the day - we didn't go in all the classes we registered for, by 4pm I was hot, sweaty and exhausted and Sierra was done and getting cranky.  She did so good and I definitely don't want to make her NOT want to go in the ring so I untacked her and sponged her off and let her eat some hay while Sam and Toad finished up their day.

All in all it was a GREAT day!  I will admit, I got frustrated with her refusal to settle down when Sam and Toad would go off and leave us but she needs to get over that.  She would have a fit in the ring when we went in for ribbons if she wasn't RIGHT next to him.

All just stuff to work on.  She's green, still young and we just need more wet saddle blankets...BOTH of us!!

Speaking of that - I finally found a saddle that fits her AMAZINGLY well, and while I was afraid it would be too small for me - it's not.  I feel secure, safe and totally comfortable in it!  AND I can get on miss thing from the ground which is not something that I have attempted since my incident with Doc.  But I figure, if I can get on Toad the giant moose from the ground, I can get on my chunky girl from the ground!!

I am truly in love with horses and riding again and am SO excited to be back in the ring!!

This is why we do what we do

It's been a long...LONG while since I've posted! Lord life surely gets in the way sometimes!  We moved, then got divorced, then I moved again....and again and yes....AGAIN!  WHEW!  Through it all I managed to hang onto Sierra and Rowdy - I let all my other horses and my goats go.  :( That was rough.  Through the last 2 years I've probably ridden less than a dozen times and I've seriously found myself wondering....WHY?  WHY do I invest my time and SOOOO much money.

That answer is simple. This is what we do.  My best friend in the world reminded me of this just last week.  Her daughter and her daughters horse were in a horrible wreck.  Freak accident - her daughter had to have surgery and looked like a boxer who'd lost several rounds and they initially thought her horse would eventually be ok but in the end, letting her go was the best thing for her.  Her injuries were just too much.

Sam said it the best - so I'm stealing it from her -

"This is what we do. It's in our blood, it always has been from the time we were little. If you don't have it you will never understand it. We can go some time without it. But we always, always find our way back to it. It will always be there.. You just wouldn't understand it, there are only a few words that can explain it. Those that have it, know it, know that it's like the air we breathe. We know there are risks. Every time we put a foot in the stirrup, we know. Ever since she was two weeks old, she has ridden. They are the air we breathe. We may wander away from it but we always wander back. This is who we are and we can't explain it but if you have it, you know what we mean. Tami Hoag explained it best in Dark Horse. I even have it tattooed. " On the back of a horse, I felt whole, complete, connected to that vital place in the center of me and the chaos within found balance!" "

I've wrecked.  I've lost my confidence. I used to be a pretty good rider.  Seeing what Jo has gone through, and knowing that when her Dr's ok it - she's gonna Cowgirl Up and get her ass right back on a horse, and listening to Sam's words - has made me realize - this IS what we do!  This IS who I am!  I have wasted FAR too much time on a cop out excuse and being "scared".  To hell with fear!  I used to live, sleep, breathe (I was going to say eat....but well...) horses and without them, I am not me!  A ride, even the SHORTEST one on the back of a horse is enough to improve my mood ten times over.  I have a good horse, she's green but she's probably the sanest, most forgiving, loving horse I've met (besides Buck - no one will ever be him).  

Last weekend I decided after looking at hundreds of pics on FB of other people having a blast at game shows this summer that *I* wanted to go to one!!  I borrowed one of Sam's horses, Sierra didn't have a current rabies vaccine (which is being done today so we can hit the ring Sunday!) - I'd never ridden this horse before.  I'd only seen him from the driveway - he looks like a moose, he's pretty huge, which anyone who knows me, knows I like "ponies" not giants!!  But I hopped on that horse and I fell in love.  Toad is a kind, well broke, forgiving old man.  Been there, done that ranch type horse and he is very much like Buck.  Get in the ring and LET'S GO! Leave the ring and he falls asleep.  I <3 him!

I have no pictures as I was WAY too nervous and worked up - I had Dean and Sam and Tate there to cheer me on - Sam was riding too and she's such a good coach and calming force for me.  I am truly blessed to have wonderful people in my life who fully support and encourage me to do the things I love.

Look for pictures next week - Sunday we'll be at it again!  And I can't wait!!  :)

A Brief Overview

 

Wow! SO very much has happened since I last posted anything!  I think my few followers are friends who already know about these changes but I’m going to post anyway!!

We survived the winter :)  Time just kind of passed us by – not too horrible of a winter, certainly could have been worse. 

On February 25/26 in the middle of the night, in the middle of a horrible rain/wind storm one of our huge spruce trees (I think is what it was!) broke off and landed on our house.  It landed right on the peak at the end of the house where the kids slept.  Luckily, the damage was minimal but it shook Vince and I up pretty badly, the kids, who luckily were all asleep in the other bedroom slept right through!

Just after this happened, we were informed that all repairs were on us (we were renting from a family member) and that the property would be signed over to us as the owner no longer wanted the headaches.  That never happened.

In April, the neighbor (who happens to also be family and is living with the owner of the property we lived on) decided to have a bon fire.  No big deal right?  Wrong.  He built a huge pile about 40 feet TOPS from my fence, with all of the horses out in the pasture he proceeded to dump gasoline and who knows what else on the pile and lit it on fire.  We had no idea this was going on.  The EXPLOSION clued us in and I ran to the window to see the horses tearing around like maniacs and fire-y debris raining down around the pile of brush and lighting the grass on fire all the way down into the gully behind the pile.

That very evening I started looking for a new place for us to live.  Livid doesn’t even begin to cover it.  We looked but our credit isn’t great so buying right now is out of the question (although we’re getting closer NOW) so we were looking for rentals but how often do you find rental properties that are affordable and that are willing to let you bring a whole zoo with you?!  The next day, I was a little more rational in my thinking and had decided that I’d check Craigslist REAL quick and if I didn’t find anything, fine.  What will be will be.  I took the boys to school and came home to hop on the computer.  One of the very first listings to pop up was a trailer on 9 acres for rent and I jumped on it!  Emailed right away and from the one picture that was posted I was pretty sure I knew right where it was so I dragged Vince out of bed and we took a little trip to drive by where I thought it was and check it out.  On our way home, we got a phone call that if we could be there IMMEDIATELY we could see it right then so we came right back!  The property is completely fenced with barns/sheds etc and animals were very welcome!  So guess what?!  We moved!!  Within 3 weeks we were completely moved it and I can’t even begin to describe how much better things are for us!! 

I spent the month of May driving the kids back and forth to Bucksport to school, this fall they will be going to new schools though.  Life is truly good and we are all very happy.  The initial period was very difficult for me.  The property we were living on (and had been on for 8 years) was family property and was supposed to be mine one day anyway but that didn’t happen.  Family ties have been broken and I’m afraid will never be repaired – at the same time though, my immediate family (mother, father, brother) has been strengthened and while it’s still a little hard for me to think about, and driving past my old house is very hard for me, this was for the best. 

Ok this one is getting pretty long – I will end this hear but there’s more to come….the skinny mare with her foal and the starved dog that I’ve taken in will be in my next post!!!  :) 

Big Scary Bridge!!

Since my laptop died on me 2 weeks ago and I didn’t have access to my pictures/video – the updates I wanted to post got delayed! Of course, now, it’s been weeks since those rides so I’m just going to post a couple pictures and the video’s and call it good!!

Becky and I took Zandy and Louie up to the Wildlands to spend a GORGEOUS afternoon on the trail! We explored a road we hadn’t yet been down and came upon this new, big, VERY scary bridge! Louie was very forward and walked right out onto the bridge – I was a wreck but he couldn’t have cared less until Zandy thumped her big feet on the bridge behind him!! He flinched a little but kept on going! Zandy and Becky made it across and we had a gorgeous ride!!

B and I both loved this rock. If you look closely you can see the rather TALL tree growing ON TOP of the rock – you can see the roots coming down the back side. There are several smaller trees up there too – we were both fascinated with this rock!

B and Zandy looking happy – this picture was actually supposed to be of the tree that B is looking at. Looks like a Porcupine has been chewing on the bark – but Louie was moving and I got B and Zandy which is a good thing because the next picture I took was supposed to be of the two of them and yet B’s eyes were closed and Zandy was looking away and unimpressed!!!

The scary bridge on our way back. It’s a very nice bridge and I am actually excited to go back and ride over it again – probably sounds silly but once my irrational “oh god we’re going over the edge” thoughts disappeared it was FUN!!

Video’s of the two brave ponies. Zandy was pretty insistent that she needed to walk down the MIDDLE of the bridge where there is only one layer of planks.

Ride Catch Up!

Wow!  Ok so I’m sure that you guys are getting sick of my “ride updates” but it helps me to “get them on paper” so I can go over it all whenever I want to and try to keep track of what we’re doing well with and what needs work!!  Of course, that means that I have 5 decent rides to share and a clinic too!!  I promise to try not to be too boring and I won’t force them all into this one blog!!

The day after Louie and I did our solo ride at the Wildlands, a good friend of mine who has a young horse wanted to go – so we did!  We did quite a bit of trotting and cantering – basically staying on the main road that runs thru.  It was fun watching my friends young mare who’d never been on more than a short little loop trail.  She wasn’t spooky or twitchy about anything and seemed quite happy to be out and about.  Except for the dreaded little water falls that come down off the side of the mountain and make splashing noises in the ditches!!  And the road barriers – for some reason those piles of wood are always “scary”.  We survived and had a great time!  I don’t have any pictures to share, we were  having too much fun!!

The very next day, Meg and I got to explore some new trails!  It was a blast although we learned not to ask her Dad the trail conditions hahaha!  He said there was very little water, just a small stream…..uh huh.  We didn’t take into account the nearly 3 inches of rain that we’d gotten the weekend before!!  I hauled Zandy and Louie to her dads place in Frankfort and we left from his place going a ways down the road to start of the trail.  It was a gorgeous trail, a nice wide leaf covered trail.  We just walked since we were chatting about various things and it would be our last ride before Meg headed back to PA so we were just enjoying it.  When we came to our first “obstacle”.  The stream that was only supposed to be about a foot wide was closer to 3 feet wide and the water was running thru it – I’ve learned with Louie that still water, while he doesn’t WANT to he WILL step into it.  Running water though….. nope.  nu uh. no way!  At least not with me on his back.  So, since Zandy balked at the water too – the blond headed twit, I decided I’d just get off and make my way across and he’d follow – which he did.  Course he tried to hop on top of me but we survived and I got right back on easily.  So on we went.  When we happened upon another “Caution” sign….uh oh what now?  This one though was just for some big boulders that were sticking up out of the ground on the trail – we picked our way over/around and kept on truckin’!  And then it happened.  We came upon this 
mess here.  That water was BLACK and there was no way even if Louie didn’t have water issues was I going to head across it.  I did that once with my boy Buck when Sammii and I were on a trail ride and he “disappeared” from under me…..talk about scary!  But that’s a story for another time!!  You can see on the right side of this picture that the ATV’s have made a go around but that was just as wet.  If you look really closely there’s a “blue spot” in the middle of the top of the picture – that’s Meg.  She got off while I held Zandy and scouted a way to get around.  We still had to get muddy and sank some but we made it around.  Once we got around and were remounted, Meg noticed that Zandy had picked up an extra decoration on our excursion thru the brush.  That stick stayed in her browband for the majority of our ride!  She didn’t care.  So on again we went!  It was nice, kind of an overcast day and a little chilly but it was a nice day.  We started playing in the mud puddles, trying to get Louie to go THRU them instead of tip-toeing around the edges!  We were successful for the most part!!  He’s such a good boy – even if he is a tester!  And then, as we were riding along enjoying the trail and the leaves and visiting and just having a good time….we came to this.  It’s fairly hard to tell from this picture, but the banks on this side were fairly steep.  The water on the left side was shallow and you could see it had a nice gravel base BUT *gasp* the water was MOVING!!  Oh no!  Zandy of course, went right down the bank and up the other side like it was nothing.  Louie though.  Louie said “NO”.  He was NOT going to go down there with that scary running water!  No way!  Meg ended up ponying us across and after a scary moment where he started to spaz we came out the other side like it was nothing.  That scary moving water didn’t eat him after all!  The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful and the trip back was nice and easy too.  At this spot, he hesitated a minute and then walked right on thru like it was nothing.  We played the puddle game back thru too and when we got back to the boggy ATV trail we stayed on and just let the horses pick their footing thru the muddy part.  At the stream I stayed on too.  He stepped a toe in the water and then LEAPT over.  Jumping is not in our future but it got us over the water that day!! 

So there’s 2 rides down only 3 and a clinic to go!!  I’ll try to get those ones done later today –  I actually have to be productive this morning!!

2 Long Years Ago Today

 
Today is a very sad anniversary for me.  2 years ago today I lost my one true love, my soul mate, my best friend.  Buck came into my life on a cold December day in 1991 as a Christmas gift from my parents, and on a windy dreary November day 16 years later I laid my head on his neck and told him it was ok to let go.  The absolute hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

Buck saw me thru summer 4H camps, horse shows, MANY trail rides, swimming and eventually kids – we were inseparable for years and not a day goes by that my heart doesn’t ache with missing him.  I have finally been able to make it thru days, weeks and even months without crying for him.  I know this may sound silly to many people, but he was more than a horse.  He was just as important in my life as my children, my husband, parents, brother etc.  He was a family member.

Rest in peace my beautiful boy.  You will never be forgotten.

Solo Trip to the Wildlands

After my last ride with Meg in the Wildlands I was itching to ride some more!!  I had made plans to ride with a friend on 10/25/09 but at the last minute some stuff came up and I wasn’t able to make the trip to her house which is about an hour away.  I tried to find someone to ride with me but no one was available!  I was pretty bummed, but then decided to put my big girl boots on and take Louie to the Wildlands myself!  My dad telling me over and over to be careful did nothing for my jitters and when he asked when I’d be back “so we know when to start lookin’ for ya in the ditch” almost made me change my mind!  I love my dad and know he worries about me a lot since my fall but sometimes he lacks tact! 

Louie is really getting good about just hopping right onto the trailer and is standing like a pro instead of the “in, get jittery, back out” routine we had going on last spring, so he hopped right on the trailer and away we went. 

I’ve been leary about tying him because somewhere along the way I got it in my head that he pulls back.  I don’t know if, like everything else, now that he’s got a job he’s just content to stand most anywhere or if I had made up this pulling issue but he will stand quietly tied to the side of the trailer with no issues.  So I unloaded him, tied him to the side of the trailer and quickly ran a brush over him and then saddled him up.  My jitters started in – is this really a wise idea?  To ride up here all by myself – am I crazy? 

I walked him to the gate, took a deep breath and swung my leg over.  He was a little more “up” then I would have liked but away we went!  He was forward but not naughty in any way.  We went at a nice, brisk walk and a little trotting.  We followed the Hothole Pond Trail and got in a nice canter.  We’d gotten a bit of rain the day before and there was a puddle that stretched across the road.  I was afraid he was going to be a jerk about it but to my surprise (and delight!) he not only got his toes wet, he drank from the puddle!!  We continued on down the trail until we got to the pond – where the new rock was put in, the water was rushing out of the pond over the rock and Louie

wasn’t impressed!  He wasn’t naughty, he just didn’t want to get anywhere near that noise!  I did finally get him up to the pond and he took a drink and then we headed back the way we came.  Save the big fights for another day!

We did more trotting and cantering until we reached the puddle again and then I decided to tackle the “noooo I don’t wanna get my toes wet” thing we had going on!  It only took a couple minutes and he was standing fetlock deep in water and not objecting.  When we got to the end of the road, he started to fuss about going to the right which would take us away from the trailer.  I don’t want him to get into the habit of picking our direction – before long we wouldn’t be leaving the barn/trailer!  So I decided to force the issue.  There wasn’t too much fighting about it honestly!  When I insisted we were going on instead of heading home he decided I meant it and on we went.  We didn’t go far, just around the corner but far enough that I felt ok about turning him back towards the trailer. 

The day after our solo ride, we went riding with another friend and her horse who has basically no trail miles on her.  Both horses were wonderful and I can’t wait to ride with them again!!

I’m feeling very good about the direction Louie and I are heading in and we’re even starting to set some goals for next year!

Don’t Skip A Beat, Fear, and more riding!

Don’t Skip A Beat, AKA Louie is a very good boy.  A very gorgeous boy.  He is also the source of a lot of frustration for me.  I have touched on this before I’m pretty sure, but Louie came to me on a trial lease in March, and he is the half brother to my little brat Rowdy.  It was my understanding that Louie was a solid trail horse and that he’d had 6 months of Dressage training.  When I went to pick him up, little things came up like he doesn’t load easily in the horse trailer, his training wasn’t a steady 6 months it was more sporadic and the big one for me, he doesn’t stand to be mounted.  I could feel my anxiety right off going thru the roof but I wasn’t going to back out.  Me and my stubbornness. 

So our first few rides were good.  Louie is different then Buddy.  Buddy walks along head down, rarely snorts or spooks at anything Louie has a higher head carriage and gets snorty and excited at the drop of a hat.  We rode with Sharon at the wildlands and that went well although we were both exhausted when we were done.  My breaking point came when I took him on a ride over to the dam intending to make a loop. 

In retrospect, there were several factors this day that were working against us, Louie hadn’t been ridden in a few days, it was a crisp breezy day, we were using a different “bit” (I’d been riding him in a snaffle and had a hackamore on him this day) and there was a pinto eating rooster in the woods.  When that rooster crowed, Louie’s head came up and he started dancing and I got scared and started messing with his face and we started fighting and I got even more scared and ……do you see where this is going?  Well I did what I swore not to, I gave in and we headed back to the house.  Great, right?  Well, yeah except that we were on the road, in my very unfavorite place and there was a car coming and there were kids yelling and the leaves were blowing and someone was using a lawn mower and I completely self destructed.  I jumped off and Louie walked me home.  This all happened in May and I haven’t ridden Lou but a handful of times since. 

Louie is now mine, well, we’re awaiting the official transfer paperwork but it’s in the works.  About a month ago, I bought a side pull, I bought it to work with Rowdy but I decided to try it on Louie.  He is a completely different horse under saddle in that side pull.  We’ve ridden in my small ring a few times walk and trot and he’s had his moments, being the smart boy that he is, he figured out that when he has a tantrum I’ll get down so he’d work nicely for a couple laps and then have a tantrum only I stopped getting down and giving him his way.  I dug down deep I guess and found comfort in the safety of my ring and just kept at him and it seems to have worked. 

About a month ago I got him out and decided to trim his feet.  He was fantastic which I hate to admit it but it surprised me tremendously!!  After I successfully did all 4 feet I gave him a good grooming and then he and I went for a walk.  He was fantastic.

So with that in mind, I decided to get on him last week.  I saddled him up and climbed on and walked out into the back pasture.  He was snorty and spooky and I was a little nervous but I refused to give in.  I got him settled in one direction and then we went the opposite direction.  We got around that way once and about halfway around again it was tantrum time.  He sat on his haunches, launched himself into the air and then started towards the barn.  It took me a minute to get myself together and I turned him away from the house.  I got him bending and yielding his haunches and we did some figure eights and serpentines and he settled down and seemed pretty happy to be working.  We rode for about a half hour and then I headed out to the driveway to see if the kids were home from the neighbors yet, they weren’t so I headed back towards the field, I figured he’d have a fit but he didn’t he settled right back into work and we had a decent ride! 

On Tuesday Meg and I made plans to ride on Wednesday and since they are logging on one of the trails we can ride to from here we decided to head to the safety of the wildlands.  Tuesday evening I hitched up the trailer and then decided to see how Louie would be about loading on the trailer.  Given the issues from the past, I figured he’d be a brat about it – much to my surprise and delight, he sniffed the ramp and walked right on.  And there he stood quietly!!!  We very quietly backed off the trailer pausing a couple of times and then loaded up again.  We did this several times and then I put him up for the night!  YAY!  The divider has to be open but so what??  And really I think now he’d probably load with it “closed” but who cares honestly?  He walks right onto the trailer without hesitation now and that’s all I care about!! 

Wednesday was a BEAUTIFUL day!!  The sun was out and it was just gorgeous!!  Meg got here and we got the tack loaded and then grabbed the horses.  Louie again walked right onto the trailer and Zandy of course walked right on too – that mare is fantastic!!

When we got to the North Gate we parked and unloaded the horses.  Meg tied Z to the gate and I tied Louie to the trailer.  Now tying was another issue that I was having with Louie – when he first got here he’d pull when he was tied so I was pretty nervous about him being tied to the trailer and next to the road but he was perfectly fine!! 

We got tacked up and both of us mounted without incident.  Once I was in the saddle, I was a little nervous simply because riding him out of the safety of our ring.  We headed off at a nice brisk walk and were enjoying the colors and the the beautiful day.  We took Hothole Pond Trail and met a porcupine.  Those little creatures are adorable!!  He waddled off down the trail ahead of us and then off into the brush.  We got down to the water but Louie wouldn’t get his tootsies wet.  Zandy of course waded out as far as she could go and pawed and splashed and had a grand time! 

On our way back out of this trail we stopped for some pictures and then crossed back over the rocky part of the trail and decided “what the heck” and Meg urged me to canter!  Wahoo!  Louie has a HUGE stride and is very comfortable – however, he doesn’t have balance for corners yet and we’d get going at a canter and come to a curve in the road and Lou would keep on straight!  It was quite funny!!  We loped quite a bit of this trail on the way out and then headed towards the southgate again.  When we crossed the meadow where the life flight helicopter can land (yes I’m weird but those signs always make me smile – knowing that when I am on the ground and in need of emergency care they can get lifeflight in there!)  Anyway!  We took Great Meadow Trail – it was beautiful.  The coloration of the leaves along Great Pond Mountain was just gorgeous there was a distinct line across it where the ever greens up top met with the beautiful leaves/colors of the trees lower on the mountain.  We had a great time over all and I can’t wait to get Vince out there when he gets home!!  Meg will only be here for one more week and I’m not sure that we’ll get to ride again but the couple times we’ve been able to so far have been wonderful!  Louie is doing great and I really think that I’m moving past my fears. I have felt like a failure for being so scared since my fall but I’m realizing that a bit of fear is healthy, when we let fear overtake us, that is when there are problems. 

I don’t expect all wine and roses with Louie, we have a lot of work to do, but with the more time I’ve put into him lately, the better he’s gotten.  He’s stopped fighting/testing me at every turn and in general he and I are just getting along much better.  I’m very excited for what our future holds – I have big plans for this big goofy boy!!  Stay tuned!!

A Ride on the Wildside

At some point hopefully I will catch up on all that is going on around here.  I went back and read some of my older posts and realized that there was more that I wanted to add/say but I just never got there!!

So anyway – my best friend is here visiting from PA this month and it just so happened that the day after she got here, there was a benefit ride/run/walk/bike out at the Great Pond Mountain Land Trust.  My good friend Sharon was manning one of the aide stations and it promised to be a great day.  The trees were gorgeous shades of yellow and orange and although it was overcast, the temperature was mild and there was no breeze to start with!  The basic idea of the ride was a gate to gate ride which covers 8.8 miles.  There were 4 aide stations along the way and at the start each person was given a card, if you got 4 punches your card got put into a drawing at the end of the day.  Sharon also did a couple of raffles at her station – Meg nor I won anything but we had a blast!    There are plenty of side trails off the main road that goes thru the wildlands but we stuck to the main strip.  We met several other riders and there were A LOT of bikes and walkers as well.  Some of the bikes were not very considerate of the horses, whizzing past without saying anything.    The first bikes we encountered were at Sharon’s station, we were standing still and when I saw the bike I hopped off Buddy.  Given his traffic issue I figured he’d totally flip over bicycles.  Not so.  The goober couldn’t have cared less about those bikes.  Buddy was phenomenal, I guess I probably shouldn’t have expected anything less from him, he is by far the most level headed horse we have!  Meg rode Zandy and she proved yet again what a great girl she is!!  This was her first ride since she had the abscess and although she did seem a little ouchy trotting downhill she was completely sound on the flat and going uphill – I think the downhill ouchies had a lot to do with the actual “cut” where the abscess burst thru than anything else.  On the way out, Buddy had plenty of pep.  On our way back though, he was acting like I’d just ridden him 1000 miles non stop.  Nevermind the fact that we’ve gone out and ridden two and three times the distance/time that we’d spent riding on this day at least once a month all summer long.  It didn’t occur to me until the end of the ride that we have always come in from the South Gate so climbing the hill that was the mid point of this particular ride would have been the end of our “normal” rides so he was dragging his feet like crazy not wanting to go any further when we turned around.  Zandy knew that we were headed back to the trailer though and she kept leaving us behind!!  All in all it was a great day, it was nice to be riding with Meg again although I do wish that Sharon and Zephyr had been able to ride with us!!  We made it back to the trailer and the horses loaded right up and we headed home.  I did have a little difficulty walking for the next couple days – my hips have really been bothering me lately and I think because we did a good bit of trotting and even a little cantering my body was protesting!!

What I’ve been up to….

As usual, left to my own devices I manage to get myself into trouble!!  Nothing too serious this time so let me recap what’s happened since my last post!

We now have a boarder.  Snowflake came to us “temporarily” at the beginning of September.  There were some issues at the place she was at before and I was able to help out.  Snowflake had a gorgeous pinto foal earlier this summer, I got the pleasure of meeting her when she was about 2 months old.  Sadly, she injured herself seriously and had to be laid to rest.  This was understandably upsetting for Snowflake and the poor sad mommy was on the thin side when she got here.  Snowflake also has cancer in the skin around her eyes.  She’s ok but wears a fly mask to protect her eyes and has a couple spots that need to be removed.  She is such an easy mare to care for that having her here isn’t an issue and she’ll be staying with us indefinitely now.

Louie has been an awful pasture bully.  He was picking on Snowflake and then decided to pick on Zandy.  Zandy came in from the pasture pretty lame one Sunday afternoon.  She had a lump on her shoulder that was warm to the touch and she was VERY sore.  I put a call in to the vet and we decided a dose of banamine initially and then bute as needed and hot packs as many times a day as possible – if she wasn’t showing marked improvement within a few days we’d reevaluate.  2 days later she was almost falling over lame.  We decided to have Dr T out.  Dr Tanja came out on Wednesday and the best we could figure out was that she’d injured her shoulder – probably kicked or ran into the hay rack in her stall when she was being stupid a couple nights before.  Basically a wait and see approach, cold hosing for her left foot because Dr T was worried about that foot from taking up the slack from  her right side.  But just basically wait and see how things go – probably a long recovery but we were hoping for a full recovery.  A couple days later Zandy blew an abscess!!  WHAT?!  Yep, after all that apparently the bump on the shoulder was just coincidence.  Go figure huh? 

Louie’s owner has come to the decision that she can not keep him anymore and has asked me to keep him.  I’m very torn on this issue – I love Louie, but we aren’t the best match, I’m admittedly high strung and he is too and we feed into each other and cause a huge mess!!  I’m working on it – I think I may have a plan in the works but we’ll see!!

Buddy has GROWN!!  He now measures a level 14.3!!  HOW did that happen??  He has hardly grown since I got him and then BAM he shot up seemingly overnight!!  Last night while I was cleaning stalls I had to do a double take standing next to him his hip was at my shoulder – HUH?  So I went and got my handy dandy tape and measured – yes I know the tape isn’t as accurate as a stick but I don’t have one of those and I didn’t need either to tell me that he’s taller than he was when I bought him!

Now for the most exciting news.  Vince has a horse of his very own!!  A friend bred her Percheron mare to her QH stallion and in May 08 this “little” guy was born.  They are thinning their numbers and while I definitely wasn’t looking for another horse, this cross is one that Vince and I had talked about as a good compromise for him and the price was most definitely right.  He has always said he wanted a draft horse but our barn is short and there is just no way one of the giants that we’ve casually looked at in the past would have fit.  Vince has renamed him “Rocky” – he was “Blaze” with his former owners but that just didn’t fit him.  He has been here less than a week but is fast becoming a part of the family.  He is a LOT pushy at meal times – we’re working on it.  Vince only got a couple days with him before he had to go back to work but he spent some time with Rocky and although we agree he’s a project, he seems quite smitten with him.  The plan is to get Vince riding on Zandy and come next fall I’ll get both colts started under saddle.  Both of course will have ground work and have been saddled etc but I won’t get on either of them until next fall.  Both of them will also be gelded very soon.  Rocky string tests to 16 hands but right now he’s not much taller than Rowdy.  Where Rowdster is smooth and flowing in his gaits out across the pasture, Rocky has that “doop de doop de do” about him.  I’ll try to get some pictures up soon!

That’s it on the horse front, kids have settled into school, I’m using my quiet time during the day to make jewelry and I am hoping that I can get my butt in gear and get on a schedule to start working some of these lazy ponies on a regular basis!!

Stay tuned…..

Updates!

Wow!! Time has flown since the kids went back to school!!  I kind of fell into a slump and haven’t done much of anything for the last two or three weeks.  No riding to speak of and really barely any time with the horses period. 

I have so much to say I may break this up into a couple entries just so I don’t bore everyone!!
  Yes I know he should have a helmet and boots on but it was spur of the moment and I was RIGHT there.

Zandy will be first because she’s fresh in my mind!!  I think I briefly told you about her in a past blog, but just to recap – she’s a late teens QH “type”, about 15 hands, formerly was a camp horse and she’s FABULOUS with the kids in the ring.  She’s got plenty of get up and go for confident riders outside of the ring too, but you can see her eyes change when you step down and put a child on her.  She totally switches gears and her steps become very deliberate and she lowers her head and just takes care of her rider.  Really she does this for any rider – she does it for me too but she can also kick it in gear when asked – but she has to KNOW that you mean it.  Some might call that lazy, me?  I call it being a good, sure mount!!

Zan is reminding me how to ride again, and while we did have one incident that scared the hell out of me we overcame it just yesterday and I’m VERY happy with my decision to keep her.

The kids have been having an absolute blast with her.  Kenneth has been trotting her all by himself – talk about a heart attack for mommy!!  Yikes!! 

I have been having a blast with her in the ring and in the field but when it comes to leaving the yard, my anxiety kicks in like crazy and that makes her nervous.  We were doing ok until our “incident”.  I was excited to take her over to the loop by the Lodge – I haven’t had a horse that liked water since Buck died and I really just had this feeling that she would love to play in the water and that she’d be a great trail horse for me.  We got half way across the field and there was a kayak in the river.  I tensed up, I know I did but I kept talking to her and told her she was fine.  All of a sudden, we were spinning and she was snorting and I was FREAKING OUT!  I never grabbed at her mouth or anything, I never reacted badly – or I don’t think that I did. But once I got her stopped, I stepped down and we walked home.  Her snorting the whole way.  I decided that she wasn’t the horse for us.  After all, if she’s going to do that crap then I didn’t feel safe with the kids on her on a trail ride.  In the ring FINE nothing flaps her but there was no way I was going to put the kids on her for a trail ride……So for the last 3 weeks she’s been ridden maybe 2 or 3 times just in the ring and once in dad’s yard where I learned that she does kick ass roll backs and really likes to “play”.

Yesterday I decided I was going to try one more time to go ahead to the Lodge Loop.  We got to the end of the driveway and I was tense, she spun and snorted and I took a deep breath, smacked her and said walk on!  And we did!  We ended up going up the path instead of the road but so what?!  We were moving forward!  We went up around the barn and up past the garden and across the field.  My thought was that if I just did the little trails up behind dads I’d be happy.  We trotted up across the field and all over the trails out behind dads.  She is like a bull dozer!!  She plows thru trees and brush and anything else that gets in her way.

I noticed that the more her feet moved, the less snorty she got.  So we trotted quite a bit.  We came out by the pasture and I decided to “cowgirl up” and head across the field.  Zan didn’t want to but I insisted and when we got to the scary kayak spot she started to freeze up and get all “twitchy” so I pushed her forward and told her she was fine.  We got all the way across the field and went down towards the water – she was fine but the grass was slippery and she slid a little so we came back up the bank and crossed the road.  She didn’t want to cross over and started being foolish so I did the same thing I’d done in the field and on the trail – I pushed her faster!!  We started jogging and she forgot all about the scary ditch and on we went.  There was a Heron in the water, and I was silently praying that it wouldn’t take flight but it did (of course) and she stopped for a minute and watched him fly off.  We went down to the pump house – the water is really low and the rocks looked slippery so I was nervous about letting her in the water so we headed back to the road and I figured I’d see how she was at the boat launch.

When we got to the boat launch she charged right into the water YES!! Finally!! A horse that likes water!!  Wahooo!!!  We didn’t play too much because I had my cell phone in my pocket and I didn’t need for it to go swimming!!  We had a great time on the entire loop and even talked to a very nice lady who said she’s been dying to meet me as she used to have horses and loves to see me/us riding out near her!  When we got across to the lodge road, I decided to go ahead up the trail that has a stream crossing with a bad bridge so you have to go thru the water which means that I haven’t ridden this loop in a long while because no one would cross the water!! *sigh*

Anyway – she went right across the water, up the bank and plowed on thru back to the main trail!  I really didn’t even have to steer, she just goes on like a bloodhound on a trail!  We were almost to the other end of this part of the trail and came across a downed tree.  Silly mare was going to plow on thru it.  I tried to find a go around but there was no way to get around on the right, and the left was looking pretty bad too but I decided to use her “bulldozerness” to my advantage and go to the left.  We squeezed thru some trees and under some branches and we were thru!  We came out on the road and started towards home. At the same house where Buddy did his ditch diving last time we came across this little guy:

Still had his spots and was oh so very cute!!  He bounded up into the trees and just watched us go on our way.  Course, there were some “scary” chickens across the street that we had to look at but they trotted off and left us in peace.  We did have to scoot up a bank to get out of the way of some moron who was driving WAY too fast on this stretch of road and coming at us around a blind corner.  I don’t think he ever saw us, but I could hear him coming and could tell he was going fast – luckily we were at a spot that we could get out of the way.

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!!