Our New Addiction

This year on our great new showing adventures we have decided to give reined cow horse a try.

Well, the boyfriend decided he wanted to do the reined cow horse shows, mostly so he could do something and not compete against me. I decided that if we were going to be spending gas money to haul all the way there and for hotels and stuff anyways, I would rather just bring my horse along, pay a bit of extra money and have myself some fun with it too!

And boy howdy is it FUN!!! The boyfriend is going down the fence, having done his first fence run ever in his life exactly two weeks before the first show. I figured since he had wanted to get away from competing with me I would just stick to the boxing classes this year, see how that went.

I guess I should give a little background on what cow horse actually is. There are three parts to it:

1. Herd work - basically cutting, taking a single cow out of the herd and keeping it out of the herd.

2. Dry work - basically a reining pattern, though cow horse patterns are condensed a bit.

3. Cow work - which also has 3 parts, boxing - keeping the cow on the end of the arena to show you can control it, going down the fence - pushing the cow down the long side of the arena and turning it at least once each direction, and then circling the cow - turning the cow at least 360 degrees each direction.

In my boxing class I only do the boxing part, not the fence run or circling. The cow work can get pretty crazy. I've done lots of boxing at shows and practice, so I've got that down. The rest of the work is often done at a full on gallop, balls to the wall, down the fence, inches from the cow who is (in theory) on the fence, with a quick dive around the front of the cow into the fence to get it stopped and turned. Then you have to launch back out to the side of the cow, keep it on the wall and run past it again for another turn.

Can you imagine what an adrenaline rush that is? Sha! Just a bit of adrenaline!

And then you get to circle! It's very exciting to watch and quite the rush to ride. I have done it a few times at clinics (read about that here and here) and it is just a blast! I'm itching to go down the fence, can you tell?

Anyways, the whole weekend was pretty darn fun. The shows are amazingly laid back, every one is super duper friendly and helpful and it's just darn good times. We had our second show of the season this past weekend and my last run, late Sunday night, was just a kick in the pants. I have no clue why, Midori was being a bit of a spooky dink, but I was laughing so hard at my silly horse that by the time I did my last stop on the dry work I paused and went...huh...I sure hope that was the pattern! I hadn't even really thought about it. lol

The boyfriend was nice enough to video it, even though he got distracted a couple of times and forgot to move the camera. I just have to post it because I had so much fun on it. We nailed our flying lead changes. And we even got some pretty nice stops in! For us. Remember, Midori was pretty much a drill pony up until about 8 months ago. I think our run is pretty impressive for lessons and one month of training! We've come a long, long ways! Still have a loooooong ways to go, but we're making progress so I can't complain!

Please note the scary, horse eating monster behind the gate that she is spooking at. You can see it when we walk in, the yellow thing poking up over the tarp. It was pouring rain and the cow guys were in full rain gear and hiding by the gate trying to stay out of the weather when they could. Apparently they were scaring a lot of the horses. Midori decided she wanted nothing to do with that whole end of the arena and I had to push pretty hard to get her down there the whole pattern and we bounced around a bit, but I guess that was probably part of why I had so much fun. I do love a good challenge with her!

Also, please note the nice shot of her fabulous ass after we finish our dry work and walk over to get our cow. Midori has a great ass, I've always loved it!

Our dry work score was a 68 and our cow work was a 70, total 138. Not fabulous scores in the grand scheme of things, but I was thrilled with them.

In Other News...

Well, now that I've gotten those posts out of the way, on to 2010! This year is going to kick some serious booty, I just know it! 2009...well, it just kinda sucked, to be quite honest. Maybe it's just because it went out on such a sour note, I'm not really sure. It wasn't the greatest year, so I'm glad to be done with it and getting a fresh start in a new year. Decade even!

We started off the year riding our ponies. Doesn't get any better then that, does it? I was careful and used my "best judgement", but I rode. I got off regularly to check and make sure her guts weren't falling out (the exercise wasn't bothering her incision), since she had just gotten her stitches out and all, but it did just fine. We loped and she was enjoying herself, so I decided she would probably be just fine for the show over the weekend.

My goal for the first show of the year had been to finally, finally get our flying lead changes in our pattern. I was a little skeptical though. We hadn't had any lessons since the last show because of her lameness and surgery. The day before the show was the first real ride I had been able to have on her since the previous show more then a month ago. Yikes. While warming up I asked for lead changes and she did them with just a swish of the tail. I couldn't believe it. The pattern had changed for this show, the first time in years at the series, so I was ready to have some problems with Midori thinking she knew the pattern. And I did. She just knew that after 2 large fast and one small slow circle to the right, we were supposed to change leads and do those circles to the left. Unfortunately in pattern number 4 you stop and do 4 spins to the right after the circles. She was not about to stop. We had already changed leads (simple, as we had always done before) and were heading into the next circle, battling it out before she finally stopped. Damn. There went our score. Oh well. I finished the pattern nailing both of our flying lead changes. WOHOO!!! She was all sorts of confused when we walked out of there. That was certainly not the pattern she was trying to do! I was thrilled just for the fact that we got our flying lead changes. As you may remember, they've been a pretty major battle for us the whole time we've been together. We had a little "school the naughty pony" time, but for the most part I was pretty darn satisfied with the class, even though we didn't get a score.

The boyfriend won his beginner reining class, had a fabulous run, and then two handed his bratty pony in our rookie reining class, getting him a no score as well. It was still a good day. I was just so happy to be back on my horse!

Our lessons are going well. What few I've had. I did take a couple lessons on Sugar while Midori was out of commission. That was fun and a great learning experience. She is in a bridle so I had to ride one handed, which is always a challenge for me. It was good though, helped me relax a bit. We have been talking about getting a new horse for me because we're totally diggin' the reining thing and would like to get into it a little more. Midori isn't much of a reiner, so if I want to really get into reining, I'll need a different horse. Midori will still be my dink around with everything else horse, I still plan to do some cutting and rail shows, I'd like to do sorting again, stuff like that. Don't have a whole lot of cash floating around to put into a horse right now though, so that may have to wait a while.

We've got some ambitious plans for 2010. I'm hoping this will really be the year that we get our barn situated. And our arena. I won't hold my breath though. Of course there are the requisite pay off debt, save-save-save, get on the blasted tread mill and get in better shape, get organized, etc. resolutions that are always around. And plenty of house and yard projects that we'd like to tackle as well.

So here's to 2010! I hope you kick 2009's ass!

Bucket List - Equine Version

Hey there! Long time no see! Man, I couldn't tell you what the heck I've been doing lately, but I know that I've been darn busy with it. Time is just flying! Seriously, wasn't it just Halloween?!? And now we're staring down the barrel at Christmas and New Year's already. Wow!

I've got some updates and good stuff to share that I'll get to one of these days, but I was reading this post of Fugly's that links to this article and it got me thinking. The article is particularly interesting. I've done quite a few things on that list, but not nearly as many as I would have thought.

I have galloped a horse on the beach and I think everyone should have this experience! It was amazing! Even though I was on the slowest horse there and ate a lot of sand.

I have won a blue ribbon or two. Even a buckle. Or two. Sorry, I'm still way excited about that.

I've tried cutting and while I know what a cowy horse is like(really freaking cool!), I have yet to actually ride a seriously cowy horse.

I used to jump all the time, anything and everything I could point my horse towards, bareback and bridleless even, but that was before I knew what the heck I was doing.

I have been bucked off and gotten right back on. Many, many, many times.

I have attempted a sliding stop on a fairly well trained reining horse, but I couldn't make myself relax enough to stay out of her way and let her do it so I'll have to try that one again. Hopefully many, many, many times.

I have nursed horses back to health, though calling it a "crisis" may be a bit dramatic.

I have had to make the right decision for the horse, no matter how much it sucked.

I have ridden gaited horses, tackled some pretty darn cool trails horseback, been camping with my horse and all are highly recommended.

I have woken up to whinnies and done my share of daily mucking, feeding, watering, etc.

But by far my favorite accomplishment on that list is the last one: share a bond with your horse that is deeper then words. There is just nothing that compares.

The more I get involved with horses as an adult, the more I realize just how sheltered I've been from the "real horsey world". It's big. Huge! I thought I had experienced a decent chunk of it, but I'm discovering more and more that I'm pretty darn innocent. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know what a couple of things on that list were. I do know that there is a TON more of the horsey world that I want to experience, so I am making my own Horsey Bucket List. Here goes...

Patches' Horsey Bucket List

1. Ride a finished reiner and be relaxed enough to enjoy it!
2. Ride my own finished reiner at a NRHA show and not totally embarrass myself!
3. Ride a finished cutter, and hopefully not end up in the dirt!
4. Go to Texas to watch the NCHA Futurity
5. Go to Oklahoma to watch the NRHA Futurity
6. Go to Las Vegas and watch NFR
7. Find out more about other associations and go watch their big shows
8. Ride english more, take some lessons
9. Give jumping a "real" try
10. Learn more about dressage
11. Go swimming with my horse again and not get swept off this time
12. Watch, and possibly try, polo
13. Take my dream vacation and stay on a real working cattle ranch that doesn't dumb it down for city slickers. Well, not too much anyways.
14. Learn how to rope, take a stab at either team roping or breakaway roping. Maybe try goat tying too!


I'm sure there are many more, but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head right now and since I've been mulling this over for a week now and not come up with anything else and it's been almost a month since my last post, I'm just going to get this posted. Looks like a pretty good start anyways!

Hopefully I'll get a chance to get some other updates up one of these days and maybe make it around to everyone else's blogs as well. 'Tis the season I suppose.

If I don't talk to ya before then...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ;-)

SAFE Benefit Horse Show

Well, I did it. I went to the SAFE Benefit Horse Show yesterday and I survived! It was a whirl wind day, but I have to say that it was such a wonderful show! Everyone was super nice, the whole thing was very laid back and it was just a great day! Very fun!

I decided to do a bit of everything at the show and ended up in ten classes. I started off the morning with Showmanship. I have done Showmanship before, back in my 4-H days, so I had an idea of what I was getting myself into. Unfortunately patterns have gotten a little tricky since my day and I only read the written description, didn't study the diagram, which did not describe the pattern entirely. Or I just managed to skip about half of it. lol I did the pattern totally wrong, but still walked out of the rather large class with a 5th place. Bummer I did the pattern wrong! Halter was next, which I've never done before. It was pretty simple though and we did well.

Wanna see something funny?

Check this out....

That's me and my little cutting/reining/drill horse riding english! I was laughing at myself pretty much the whole time. I felt like I was going to go flying right over her head! I rode english for the first time in 3-4 years the day before the show just to make sure the saddle and everything fit and I could really do it! I'm pretty sure it's the first time Midori has ever been ridden english. We only did two equitation classes because I don't really have a pleasure horse. The funniest part of the whole thing was the second equitation class that I went in I won. I couldn't believe it when they called my number for 1st place. I was cracking up!

After english we took a little break, changed saddles and headed over to the trail course. It was a pretty easy course, except for the little buggers tied to the fence to the right of me in this pic.

Yep, there were GOATS! Not just any goats, but Horse Eating Monster Goats! Midori was eye ballin' them as soon as we hit the log you see in the picture. She wouldn't hardly stand still to do the gate that I'm working on in that pic. Luckily she does trust me and will usually do what I ask so we made it past the goaties just fine and the rest of the course was a snap.

Some where in the course of the afternoon my camera got a smudge on the lens so most of the rest of the pictures have a big smudge across them, but there were still some cute ones!

This is us in a western class, probably one of my equitation classes. I did both pleasure and equitation classes in western. I went to the show with jrosey and we would give each other a super cheesy smile when we came around the arena and saw the camera pointed at us.

Here is my super cheesy pose with my first place ribbon in Western Equitation.

I also did bareback and survived! Oh my goodness that was a long class though! My legs were burning before we had even reversed! Guess I don't ride bareback enough!

I loved this picture, even with the smudge. The goaties' trailer was parked right by us and they were hanging out in the shade for a bit until it was time to go home so I took Midori over to visit with them for a bit.

WARNING: This is where I get a tad bit self-indulgent...I had fun at the show...

I've never walked away from a show with a wad of ribbons like that! It was fun! :-) In my 4-H days I wasn't bad, but I never won a class. I did get a 2nd place. Once. I would get in the ribbons here and there and was usually just good enough to make it to state or championship classes, but then I was bottom of the pack there, so this was new and very exciting for me!


The best part.....

I won the western high point! Well, technically I tied for the western high point, but they broke the tie with our overall scores, which means it was a darn good thing I did english! I couldn't believe I won though!!! I was so excited! On top of the super cool big fat ribbon I got a cool little western package that included a pretty purple saddle blanket and a pretty nice headstall. Wohoo! That was a VERY fun way to end the day!

It was a great day and I'd highly recommend the SAFE Benefit Horse show to anyone wanting to dip their toes in the show world, looking for an excuse to get their horse out, former 4-Her's wanting a rail class fix (like me) or anyone that shows regularly! It's just a really fun show! And the Bribe Your Horse class at the end of the day was just hilarious to watch!

Progress!!!

Whoa! Check me out! I quit reading and y'all get 3 posts in 3 days! hehe

Anywho, on to my very exciting story of progress...

So I've had Midori for going on 4 years now I believe. When I got her she was really, really green. She had been a trail pony and could go down a trail quiet as can be but didn't have much steering, no back, no brakes, not much of anything other then go forward, follow the leader. So I've been working hard to install things like power steering, brakes, bending, giving, etc. etc. The one thing that I've been wanting to do on her and have made my personal goal and mission in life for the past 3 years is flying lead changes. I believe I've mentioned the elusive flying lead changes here before. We have not been able to get them. I watch her in the pasture and she doesn't generally do them naturally either. So this year I've been trying really hard to work on the basics behind the flying lead change so I can maybe, just maybe, get this goal accomplished.

For a little background I'll tell you how I've been taught to do flying lead changes. I know there are all sorts of different ways to do it, but this is the way I've been shown and the way I try to do it. You basically make a big figure 8 in the arena, going straight across the diagonal, around the short end, down the diagonal, around the short end. Say you start out on the right lead. You come around the short end and head straight down the diagonal lifting the right shoulder and kicking the hip in to the right. To ask for the lead change you then push their hip the other direction and lift up their other shoulder. With that, they should change leads, back to front, and continue on their straight line down the diagonal, around the short end, up the diagonal, repeat.

Those are the basic mechanics of the flying lead change I'm going for. I've never actually taken a "real" (aka paid for) lesson on flying lead changes, but it is what I've picked up from the short little free Tuesday night clinics I've had the opportunity to attend and wherever else I can glean information from. Funny story: as much as I'm a total book whore, for some reason I am not great at transferring techniques from book to horseback. I don't know why, but it's never helped me much to read about how to do things with my horse.

Anyways, I've been working really hard on getting her hips to move and her shoulders up the last few months. We've always had a hard time with her hips so I've been paying extra special attention to that. Every time I ride I make her move her hips in and out, in and out. I've been doing lots of forehand pivots and backing in circles too. All trying to get her moving better off my legs.

Apparently it's paid off! I still have a very looong ways to go, but in the past week I've gotten a few flies out of her. The first time I was at a friends house riding and decided, eh, what the heck, I'll give it a try. First time, NAILED it! Unfortunately I was not able to replicate it that night, but it certainly gave me some food for thought! Then tonight our drill practice was cancelled, but I had already hauled to the arena so I decided to get a good ride in anyways. After watching the boyfriend show off for a while on Sugar (she does effortless flies) I decided to take another stab at the flying lead change thing. The first one she changed the front right away and then the back a few strides later. Try number two, she nailed. Try number three, got the front, back a few strides later. Four, nailed. You noticing a pattern here? She can change from right to left pretty easy, left to right - not so easy. She is also much better moving her hip right to left, not so much left to right, so I'm not terribly surprised.

So WAY exciting that I'm getting some flying lead changes in! I'm absolutely ecstatic that I'm getting there! Unfortunately, I do still have quite a ways to go. What I didn't mention is that by the time we get the fly in we are doing mach 5 around the arena and as soon as she changes she dives into it. After the first one she takes off as soon as I put my leg back and pick up the reins. Then when I ask for the change, she changes, then drops the shoulder I'm trying to lift and totally throws herself into a turn, even though we are in the middle of the arena. The taking off part isn't a huge deal like it used to be. I know she is still under control and all I have to do is pull her into a small circle at the end of the arena and she slows right back down. Or if I wanted to I could sit down and ask her to stop and she would, on a dime. It's been a while since I've been comfortable going mach 5 on her though so it's kinda fun. Plus, I'm getting flies out of her so I'm beyond excited!

I know I've still got a loooong ways to go, but I know I'm getting closer! And any progress on this very frustrating and slow to come goal is very exciting for me! At least now I know we can. I just have to work on getting her to slow down and move her hips without racing and stay on a straight line. I think now that I'm at least getting the fly in it should be easy enough for me to break it down piece by piece and get it going better.

That's all for now. I just had to record this momentous day for posterity. :)

My weekend - Part 2

Continued from previous post...



As luck would have it I was second up in the rotation for the day, thanks to being one of the "experienced" folk at the clinic. I got good and warmed up while the first person went and then we were up. The morning boxing didn't go as well as I had hoped, but it was a really good learning experience.

The cows were big, sour and grumpy. They had already been used for the two day advanced clinic and they weren't happy about going another day. The first cow I got was chargy and really pushy. He was not intimidated by us much at all! We usually do alright at boxing, but this cow was just not cooperating. Midori isn't totally comfortable with the cows quite yet and doesn't know what to think when they charge her. She usually ends up skittering out of the way, usually with a good loud snort thrown in for good measure. This cow didn't want to move and when he finally would it wasn't along the wall, it was at us. No matter how much pressure we put on him, he would still fly right past us. At one point I had beat him to the fence and had Midori's shoulder planted on the rail facing the cow. He looked at us and then quite literally shoved us out of the way, squeezing by us on the rail. Midori mostly held her ground on that one, didn't skitter away for once, but that darn cow just pushed right thru us. I'm sure there was something we could have done, but I'm still not entirely sure what it was. It was good experience for us though and Midori felt a little more comfortable with the cows once she learned they weren't going to eat her if they touched her. We tried a few more attempts at boxing that cow and I got some good tips on getting them to move and stop and play the way you want them to. It wasn't the most efficient run, but I feel like I learned a lot.

We got a new cow and had a little more luck boxing it and then quit. While I was doing that I was realizing that Midori is a lot more cowy then I was giving her credit for. When we were practicing on the buffalo last summer I was baby sitting her, managing almost every step she took, trying to make her correct and do what I wanted her to. Once I tried to let her do it on her own a little bit, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much she knows! She had picked up a lot more then I was giving her credit for. Very exciting!

We took a short break to move the panels around so we could have a long wall to take the cows down and drag the arena so it was nice and soft "just in case" and so no one slipped. I got my first run down the wall in before our lunch break and I was up in the clouds when it was done. It wasn't perfect, probably wasn't even decent by Lynn's standards, but I thought it was awesome! Lynn did say that my position driving down the wall was perfect. Wohoo! I wish I had that on tape...Lynn Anderson said my position was perfect! lol I'm sure she mentally added, "for a totally novice beginner," to that, but hey, I'll take what I can get! And I do have to stop and thank the cow gods because the cow I got on that run was really great for us. It was fast enough that I felt like I was flying, but not too fast so we were totally out of control. I got a couple great turns in, really felt like I was doing it the way it was supposed to be done; dirt flying, horse digging in, launching out of the turn to run down for another turn. It was fabulous!

The basic routine of the afternoon runs was to box for just a bit to prove that you could, then drive it down the wall until you could keep it under control driving then practice a few turns each direction, assuming we could get any in, and then try some circling.

We got thru the runs down the wall and then went to circling. The cow was stuck to the wall like glue. I forgot to mention that in my determination and frustration to get a good turn and/or circle the darn cow last year, I ended up pushing it too far back and getting tangled up in the back legs. I was told in no uncertain terms that this is a bad, bad place to be in and had felt it first hand as we got jumbled up and tripped. I was a little traumatized from that and determined to not be stupid and get tangled up in the back legs again. Because of that, I was a little timid in trying to push the cow off the wall to circle. Now looking back, I think it may have been easier to run by and turn the cow then go straight into circling, but that wasn't the exercise so we just had to do what we could to get the cow to come off the wall. Finally, the cow came off the wall, but made an immediate beeline back to the gate. I didn't have time to get around him before he got to the gate, but I ran like hell trying! I learned a couple things, how I was pushing him to turn that hard and to change my position a little bit so I would have a better chance to get around him.

Again, it was a great learning experience, but I never did get the full circles in either direction. It was still really fun and I think I regained a lot of confidence in my riding abilities. I was determined to not be scared, not hold Midori back and do whatever I needed to do to get where I needed to be. That did result in my overriding the cow a couple times, running right past his head when he stopped and ducked around, but ya know, I was up there in the first place, so I was happy. It also resulted in me hauling butt around on Midori and never losing my seat or being afraid I was out of control. I learned to trust Midori to take care of me and not run into walls or fall over. She was all over those cows and had a blast chasing them. I could feel her really getting down in the dirt and I even felt a couple nice lead changes while we were chasing them around. Huh, there's hope for us yet! I also really had to let her know that no, we're done, no more chasing them right now, when it was time. She wanted to keep going. Guess I need to work on installing that "quit" button when we start the cutting this year.

The boyfriend came down to watch our second run of the afternoon, even snapped some pictures of it. It didn't go quite as well as the first one, but it was still fun and I was grinning ear to ear when I was finished. I had a hard time keeping up with the cow when I was driving him so he didn't stay on the wall so I could turn him. Again, good learning experience. It was nice to compare how it was done right (my first run) to what happens when it's not done correctly. I did get a couple decent turns in and had slightly more luck circling on that run, but still didn't get the two full circles in. It is darn hard work! Both Midori and I were about to keel right over we were breathing so hard by the time we finished! Certainly got us warmed up on a very chilly, snowy day!

I would really, really love to get some more experience in this. I really want to learn, because it is frustrating when I can't accomplish something. I think I get the theories and how I'm supposed to do it all, but putting it into practice is hard work! I would really, really like to get better at it.

My weekend - Part 1 - A little background

As I mentioned yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a working cowhorse clinic this past weekend. This is the third time I've been to this particular clinic, but the first time I feel like I really did well at it. The clinician was Lynn Anderson, who is the current National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) president, as well as a phenomenal rider.

I do have to point out that I am only 99% sure it was actually called a working cowhorse clinic. Honestly, I can hardly keep all the different cowhorse disciplines straight. I do know that it was a clinic on the cow work portion of the reined cowhorse competition. It is my understanding that there is the rein work, cow work and herd work portions of reined cow horse competitions. The rein work is basically a reining pattern. Then when you complete the pattern, they give you a cow and you go straight into your cow work that includes boxing the cow, taking them down the wall, getting atleast one turn each direction and then circling the cow a full 360 degrees each direction. Then the herd work is more or less cutting. We worked on boxing, taking them down the wall and circling.

Holy cow, what a blast that is! I thought cutting was fun, but this is just an adrenaline rush on four legs! Wow. W-O-W.

If you go to the NRCHA website there is a video on the homepage of what it is supposed to look like. Keep in mind the pros make it look easy to do. In reality it is probably one of the most difficult things to do with cows. You are going full out, balls to the wall galloping to catch those cows and control them and then stopping and turning on a dime, into the wall. It is difficult and dangerous and the most fun I think I've ever had on my horse.

I was pretty excited to get another chance at this clinic this year. I've been the past two years, but have been more then a little disappointed by my performances. The first year I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew nothing about reined cow horses and had never seen them in action. I was absolutely clueless. Which probably turned out to be a good thing. If I had known what I was getting myself into I probably would have had a panic attack and sold my spot. You see, two weeks or so before the clinic Midori decided to be a terd and took off bucking on me. I stuck it out, got her pulled around and disciplined, but as soon as I let up for a second on the rein because I thought we were done, she took off bucking again. At that point I had no stirrups and had only stayed on up until then thru sheer will. The second round of bucks put me up on her neck, connecting hard with the saddle horn on my tail bone on the way. This was two years ago and I still feel it. You can imagine what I felt like two weeks in, headed to a day long clinic. On top of being injured, not able to ride properly and certainly not able to sit deep for hard stops and turns, I was absolutely scared to death of Midori. The clinic was only the second time I'd been back on her since the incident. I spent the whole entire day near or in tears, practically hyperventilating any time Midori did more then a slow controlled jog. Like I said, if I knew what I was doing going into the clinic I would have sold my spot. But I'm glad I didn't.

We didn't do horrible, but since I couldn't sit down much we didn't get any hard turns or stops in and I had to hold Midori back quite a bit because I just wasn't ready to let her go all out. I survived the day and Midori behaved herself. In fact, she enjoyed it. She was having a blast chasing those cows around! I had fun, but was really disappointed in myself for being such a weenie.

Then I started doing some research on what we were trying to do and knew I wanted to take another stab at it.

Which brings us to year two. My favorite saddle to ride in is my 14" Circle Y park and trail. It's a simple saddle, no bling, nothing special, not even great leather, but I love Circle Y's and it is comfy and I have a solid seat in it. I had decided that I wanted to spend a little more and get a really nice saddle to use since I was really getting back into horses. After a little shopping and a test run, I decided on a Reinsman. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it and then found out that they now have the same designer that used to do the nice Circle Y's with the softee leather that I loved. Go figure. Anyways, long story short, I decided I wanted to use my barely broke in Reinsman for the clinic instead of my usual Circle Y. Stupid, stupid, stupid! It's a super comfy saddle and I have a nice solid seat in it, but the stirrups were a little long for my shrimpy short legs and I had no more holes to go up. Besides that, they weren't turned yet, despite my best efforts with a broom handle. The morning boxing practice went alright, but when we got to the afternoon runs down the wall and I kept losing the stirrup that would have been on the outside of my turn, it was not so pretty. I didn't trust my seat to stay put thru a diving turn into the wall without a stirrup to lean on so I was holding Midori back on the turns again and holding on to the saddle for dear life. I think I was actually grabbing the horn, which I never do. I still had fun and learned a lot, but I was once again disappointed with my performance because I had held back. Again.

Flash forward to this year...I'm going into this thing uninjured. I'm using my broke in, still favorite Circle Y. Midori is more cowy now after cutting last summer and more broke then ever and we have a better understanding and base for what we are about to do. Midori is solid and spicy and I'm not scared of her. I was sooo looking forward to this so I could really feel like I got something out of it instead of failing because I was holding back and focusing more on how scared I was then on the task at hand. And this year I was going to get 3 runs, 1 morning boxing and 2 runs down the wall. I absolutely couldnt' wait to get out there and ride like hell!

To be continued....

Miss Fancy Pants

Last weekend I got the chance to see my old horse Fancy. I sold her a little over a year ago and really miss her. She was my baby. She was the first horse I started and I owned her for 5 years. She was a huge pain in my butt a lot of the time, but I still loved her to death.

She was 3 years old when I bought her and halter broke. Barely. That was pretty much it. She wasn't even registered. So I got her paperwork together and registered her as a half arab and a pinto. We did a lot of ground work, getting her to respect me and my space and learn some stuff before I ever got on her. Her mother had collicked and died when she was 5 weeks old so she was an orphan and had some issues with my personal space. As in it didn't exist.

When I took her to the vet a little later in life, they called her Cheeky. I wasn't ever exactly sure what that meant, but I was pretty sure it wasn't a good nick name. The tech also pointed out that she had two cowlicks on her forehead. Apparently that is not a good thing. Horses with two swirls on their forehead are usually nutty, according to what I can only assume is an old wive's tale. I guess it doesn't apply so much if the two swirls are vertical, but if they are horizontal (which Fancy's were just about perfectly horizontal) then look out! I have to admit that I put some weight in that old tale and made a point to check out the horse's forehead swirls when I was horse shopping. I know, I'm silly.

I have talked about Fancy a little bit in this post. I bought her with the intention of doing breed and circuit shows with her. Since she was able to be double registered I figured she was a great prospect for me. Her sire was a stunning buckskin pinto who was extremely versatile and she was definately his daughter. I purchased her from my old boss and I still remember the day she was born and seeing the pictures of her floating around the office. I also remember the day her mom died, I had to fill in for the boss's daughter who was supposed to work that day but was busy with her collicking mare.

I have so many great memories with Fancy. She was such a sweetheart, but a really big challenge also. She taught me so much. Not the least of which was patience and controlling my emotions when I was working with her. She was really good at pushing my buttons. Looking back and knowing how frustrating she could be and seeing how far I got her is very rewarding. She was a pro at the Arab Teleport (you blink, they spook and you're suddenly on the other side of the arena/trail/pasture, etc.)

I ended up doing pretty much everything but performance shows with her. I never did get her to even so much as a schooling show. We had hours and hours of trail time, camping trips, runs down the beach, jumping the waves in the ocean (she was scared of them), team penning, "roping" (as in I sorta learned to throw a rope off her and she would sorta tollerate it, but it was hardly actual roping), she was my first drill horse....we had a blast together! And she trusted me enough to do most of it without too much fuss. I won't pretend that we were good at much of it, but we got by and we had fun, which was all that really mattered.

She really loved drill. She was a very social horse, loved being around other horses, never kicked or bit and was just a dream for drill. Unfortunately, a couple months in she came up lame. I think she had been working on it for a while, but I had been ignoring it. After a lot of money went into lameness exams and chiropractor appointments we decided the only thing to do, short of hauling her to the other side of the state for more really expensive tests, was to lay her off for 6 months to a year and see what happened. The chiropractor was telling me her shoulders were really out, but she couldn't hold an adjustment without being worked. The vet was telling me that it was her suspensory tendons/ligaments and she needed time off to heal. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Since I had already put thousands of dollars into both the vet and the chiropractor and I really couldn't afford any more, I decided she'd get the time off. My wallet and mostly maxed out credit card decided that one for me.

To make a long story short, she came back sound as can be after 9 or 10 months, both her legs and her shoulders were fine. I had decided to buy another horse so she went up for sale as soon as I was sure she was sound. I was also willing to lease her to a good show home. I ended up leasing her to a fabulous family for their daughter's last year in 4-H. They were great together! Fancy took her to state and they ended up in a few championship classes. Fancy was a total natural at the rail/performance classes. I knew it was where she belonged, which is most of why I decided to sell her in the first place. She loved drill, but was naturally slow with a jog and lope to die for. Not the get-up-and-go, hard stopping and turning horse that I needed for drill. I got her back not long after the state fair was over and put her back up for sale.

That was when we found her current family. It's really funny how horses pick their owners. I had watched her with quite a few people each time she was up for sale. I could tell when she wasn't happy or didn't like someone. She definately picked the girl that leased her. They were a great match. The second time around we didn't get quite as many visits, but one of them was a lady who had come out previously and was really excited to see her come back on the market. She had really liked Fancy the first time around, but had decided to go with a pony for her daughter instead. It ended up being a really bad experience that she had just gotten done with and was looking for a horse again. She came out and rode Fancy and they really hit it off. She was looking for a horse of her own, but that she could share with her young daughter. She wanted something that would be gentle for her daughter to learn on and that she could grow up with and begin showing when she was old enough. I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about selling Fancy to a home with a young kid, but as soon as I saw Fancy with the kid I knew she would be just fine.

Fancy became a totally different horse with the kid around. She was gentle and patient and would lean down for her to brush her face. It was adorable. I still sent her off with fair warning, but Fancy was 9 or so by then and was finally growing up and turning into one of those pretty darn solid and kid safe Arabs. My shoer always used to tell me when I'd be venting my frustrations about Fancy that Arabs don't get their heads on straight until they are 8 or 9. Sure enough, Fancy grew up and turned into a totally different horse.

Seeing her last weekend was a little bitter sweet. I was thrilled to see that she was doing well and that she was moving to a gorgeous, well maintained barn with her own stall and lots of grassy turnout. I know they will all love it there. I realized that I do still really miss her and part of me regrets selling her. She was a great horse and I just imagine all the fun I could be having with her today if I had kept her.

Oh well, everything happens for a reason. I'm really glad I have Midori and I'm not sure I would if I hadn't decided to sell Fancy.

Progress

I can't even express how excited I am about this project. I have dreamed for I don't even know how long of having my very own real arena at my house. Now I can see that dream becoming a reality! I'm ecstatic!

The boyfriend totally rocks on the tractor! He's been a busy bee around the property playing with his new toy and getting things cleaned up and looking good. I was blown away the other night when I came home to the arena-to-be all graded out, looking level and beautiful. Of course I had to grab the camera and take pictures.

*grins*

What a weekend!

Wow. I'm exhausted. I think it's going to take me the entire week to recover from my weekend! Once again, I'm feeling every one of my 27 years and realizing that I just can't party like I used to. It's sad. We didn't even party like we used to, not at all, but I'm still totally beat. I guess we also used to be able to sleep in til noon after staying out late, but I suppose that's another fun part of getting old...you just can't sleep in any more! Not that we had much of a choice this weekend since it was a winter series weekend.

Our weekend included a bon fire party (well, really a small, totally reasonable recreational fire, since "bon fires" are not legal), the reining show, cleaning paddocks and putting down new hogs fuel for the ponies, clipping horses, washing dirty horse tails, working the butt head (Mister) on the ground, a bachelor party (the boyfriend), a movie night with mom and meeting two of the most adorable corgi puppies on the planet (me, while waiting out the bach party as the boyfriends DD), numbering cows for sorting (the boyfriend, while I tried in vain to sleep in), sorting and drill practice. I also managed to squeeze in some laundry and kitchen cleaning, but no picture loading or blogging for me! Whew, just typing all that makes me want to take a nap. It was a busy weekend.

It was also a totally gorgeous and sunny 60 degrees during the day this weekend and I tried to soak up every bit of it that I could.

Anyways, on to my usual winter series updates. Unfortunately it was a pretty unspectacular weekend. Well, except for the boyfriends absolutely beautiful reining pattern! I wish I could have video'd it for him, as well as his first one of the series. It's amazing to see how much he's improved! I somehow, miraculously, managed to stay on my pattern, though I'm pretty sure it was only because Midori knows it and was on auto-pilot. I had no control. It was all I could do to get her to slow down enough to change leads. She was a naughty, naughty pony. The boyfriend ended up getting 3rd out of 8 riders and I got 4th. There was a rather large gap in the scores between us, but that was the way the placings fell. So now there is one show left and the points for the buckle are pretty darn close. The next show is going to be a nail biter and I'm probably going to fold under pressure. Pressure at horse shows doesn't usually work in my favor. Should be interesting.

Sorting didn't go so hot either. The boyfriend and I got a no time on our run. I did get 6 cows on a couple of my runs, but so far that is where I'm topping out. Midori seemed to be having fun though so that was good. It wasn't a bad day, but the late night Saturday was taking it's toll on us. Neither of us placed with any of our runs so we didn't win any money and it was an expensive day. Still mostly fun, but expensive.

After sorting I had to stick around for drill practice too. The sorting ended up going late so drill practice got started really late and went even later. It was a pretty fun practice though and Midori and I found our second wind. She was tired enough from the weekend that she behaved herself, which was fabulous, but still had plenty of go left to haul ass on the outside of a crack.

I was totally beat by the time I got home. I think Midori has earned a day or two off, I'm sure she's pretty sore too! My butt just wasn't ready for an almost straight 7 hours in the saddle yesterday. And while the majority of it was spent sitting around waiting for our turn sorting, plenty of it was spent riding hard. I started the day off sore from Saturday too since I had ridden hard for quite a while after our no control pattern.

All in all it was a good weekend. The weather was fabulous and I won't ever complain about a weekend spent with my pony. I'm just exhausted and looking forward to some quality time with the couch and my bed this week.

Ride #3

I guess I'm making this blog my riding journal also. It's been helpful just with the few times I've written about my rides to go back and read those posts again. It reminds me of different things that I've dealt with and how other rides have gone. It's amazing how fast you can forget about something after it's fixed. Plus it's always nice to look back and see how far you've come.

So on that note, I got ride number three on Mister the other night. I decided to ride at home in the round pen for a change of scenery, because the weather was good and because I didn't want riding to take up the entire evening, like it does when we haul out to the indoor arena to ride.

I knew he was going to be feeling good so I saddled him up and lunged him for a while before I got on. While I was doing that the boyfriend decided that him and his buddy that is staying with us this week were going to get on the girls and ride around a bit also. Of course every time they rode by and then left again Mister would throw a fit. All of our horses are pretty herd bound, which is incredibly annoying sometimes. So I lunged and lunged and lunged Mister, mostly because I was a little afraid to get on him in case he decided to throw a fit while I was mounted.

I did get on him eventually and the guys stayed mostly within eye sight of us so he didn't go completely nuts. They were having fun riding around the outside of the round pen while I worked inside. Considering everything that was going on I was very pleased with my ride. I was able to keep Mister's attention and I could tell that we're making some major progress in the head tossing and giving to the bit thing. That made me really happy! He is still tossing his head and trying to yank me out of the saddle, but he would really give in between the tossing and yanking. Very exciting! I love it when I can feel progress like that!

We did lots of walk-trot, reverses, circles, working on steering, some stopping and backing. He was doing pretty good. I debated just stopping there but forced myself to suck it up and just lope him. It wasn't as much of a battle to get him into the lope as it was the last ride, which is also exciting. He did have some trouble keeping the gait and kept breaking, but it wasn't too bad. At one point I was really riding, trying to push him with my seat and keep some leg on him to keep him in gait and I guess he decided he wasn't a fan of that because he bucked. It wasn't a horrible buck and I just disciplined and got back to loping. After that I decided I would get one more full lap in a nice controlled lope, no bucking, no breaking and that would be it for the day. It took a few tries, but eventually we got it, he stopped nicely when I asked and I got off and loosened his cinch. Yay for another good ride on the butt head and making progress! I was pleased.

It was also interesting watching an inexperienced rider on Midori. My little pony is just so cute! I was so wishing I had my camera with me. She is a great babysitter, but still plenty spicy for me. I just love her. I could see just how responsive she really is, even though newbie rider had no idea that he was even asking for things. I also got to witness her little skitter-jump-buck thing she does from the ground. I always wondered what it actually looked like, I've only ever ridden it. She did it when Sugar went back to the barn, out of sight, and whinnied just as the newbie rider asked Midori to trot a bit. Love the damn herd bound horses. It was like a slow motion wreck that I totally saw coming, but was helpless to stop. Newbie rider did really good though. He stuck the skitter-jump-buck thing and pulled the emergency brake I had told him about earlier and all was well. He survived and even continued riding for a little bit after that, though I did suggest riding inside the round pen since I was done.

All in all it was a fun, productive and encouraging night with the ponies.

Number Two!

I feel the need to gloat a little bit. I'm sure it'll come back to bite me in the arse eventually, but right now I'm really excited because I got ride number two on Mister last night!

Obviously it isn't his second ride ever and it's not even my second ride on him ever, but since I want to more or less re-start him and see what happens, I'm counting it as ride number two.

It was a really great ride. Nothing particularly special, but I feel like it was a bit of a break thru for us. I'm feeling more confident on him and I think he is respecting me a bit more. I felt like he was really trying to learn last night. He was giving to the bit more, though he's still a massive head tosser with the tiniest bit of pressure, and he was starting to bend around my leg a little bit. It seemed like he was almost understanding me trying to pick up his shoulder too, though that could just be my imagination.

He was feeling pretty good yesterday (translation: he was being a total nut) so I lunged for quite a while before I got on and he still did a couple little cow kicks, but instead of having heart failure and totally freezing up when he did that I just disciplined him and got on with the ride. I even loped him after the cow kicks. Wohoo!

I'm still debating whether Mister is really, super smart or really dumb and very lucky. I really can't tell and I'm not sure which one to hope for either. He sure is a pain in the rear, but he's growing on me. I think I kinda like him.

I did it!

I just have to take a moment to pat myself on the back. Drum roll please....I loped Mister last night! Wohoo!



I know. It's a small feat. One that I accomplish regulary on a number of other horses. But Mister is special. You see, he's been known to buck. The first time he bucked the boyfriend off, was the first time he asked him to lope. He bucked regularly on the trainer at the lope. He's tried bucking once with me a year and a half ago, also at the lope. He's had 9 months off and this was really only my second ride on him. And when I say buck, I don't mean the little crow hops or a nice little buck. I mean, bit in teeth, head between his legs, full on bronc bucking. This guy is an athletic SOB and he can buck. Luckily the one time he tried with me, I felt it coming and was able to get him pulled around before he could get more then half a jump into it. Last night, he was an angel. Other then trying to spiral in to visit his buddies standing in the center and he did swish his tail once or twice while I was asking for the lope, but that was it. He was great! It was a huge deal for me. Way bigger then it should have been. I was ecstatic! And shaking like a leaf when I was finished. Not from excitement.



Now I'm just hoping he keeps doing as well as he did last night! Fingers crossed. And toes. And anything else I can cross!

A.D.D.

Do you ever just feel like you've got to have an attention deficit disorder? I've felt that way lately for a few different reasons. The first being Twilight. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I cannot keep focused for too long before something Twilight pops into my head. It got a little better for a while after I'd finished reading the series and taken a week or so "off" from them. But then I started re-reading them and I'm almost right back where I started.

The other main thing that I cannot seem to focus on is my horse. This one is really bothering me. I guess it's not so much my horse, but my discipline with my horse. When I first started riding I mostly just rode around the pasture, set up jumps or obstacle courses, rode "around the block" with friends, etc. Just pleasure riding, some trails, even swimming a couple times, just time on my horse. During the summer it was all day every day on my horse, running around with my best friend and her horse, being crazy kids and somehow surviving. Then I showed 4-H for 5 years. I only showed performance, but rode every seat at some point: stockseat, huntseat, bareback, even saddleseat at one show. We did both pleasure and equitation classes, though we always did better in equitation since I didn't know how to train my own horse and couldn't bring myself to ride in an arena with any sort of regularity. Racing down gravel roads and across fields with friends just didn't get you in the ribbons in a pleasure class.

After I was done with 4-H and had sold my "show horse" (hahahaha) I took some time off. My mom still had her old mare that I rode occasionally, but nothing more then a lap around the block. Eventually, we had to put her down and I went a whole 2-3 years without any horses at all. Then somehow I ended up buying a 3 year old pinto Arab. She was halter broke, that was about it. Now, looking back, I wonder what the hell I was thinking, though I don't regret it one bit. I had planned to show performance again, Arab and Pinto shows. I had never started a horse before though. I had no idea what I was doing, but knew where I wanted to get her. I did what I could with her until she bucked me off and put me flat on my back for 3 days thinking I had broken my hip. After that I wanted to work with someone, a trainer. I found one that I liked at a barn that wasn't too far away and off we went. We learned a lot there. The trainer had fun working with Fancy, my Arab, and I had fun playing musical horses and learning how to ride all of them. When I felt comfortable with her again, I brought her back home and went to work.

Some time around there I made friends with another really horsey person. She had a truck and trailer and was willing to haul my sorry butt all over the place. We trail rode a lot. My little arena princess green Arab got lots of trail miles. We went to the ocean, we went camping in the woods, we did prize rides. I swung a rope a little bit and I got to go penning a few times, which was a blast. Slowly but surely, the thought of showing in pleasure classes lost it's appeal. Why in the world would I want to do that? Spend all that money, deal with all the politics, etc. etc. just to lose and feel inferior because I couldn't afford the lessons, the big name trainer, the saddles with all the silver, the chaps that were perfectly matched to my stylish new shirt or the $400 romel reins.

Along the way I managed to get a good job and my own truck and trailer. Then my very horsey friend sold a horse to a local lady who rode on a drill team that was just starting up and she convinced us to come give it a try. She is also now my future mother-in-law, but that's a story for another time. We tried out the drill team and we were hooked. This will be my 5th year drilling. In the past few years, drill has been my main discipline with the horses. It's also gotten me my competitive fix.

During all of this I ended up meeting my boyfriend, finding Midori and selling Fancy. The boyfriend also rides, but until the last year or so, we really only did trail riding and some time in the arena together.

So, back to my A.D.D. I feel like I'm at a pivotal moment with my riding and I'm not really sure which direction I want to go. Part of me really likes that my horse is fairly well broke so I can do just about anything on her. I like that we're versatile. I like that we can go from a reining pattern to cutting a cow to the drill team to a trail ride and not embarrass ourselves. Too much anyways. I like that I can trust her to listen to me and, as long as I understand what is needed, we'll do alright. The other part of me would like to pick something to be really competitive in. As much as I try to be humble, I like winning. Seriously, who doesn't?! I would love to "specialize" in something, really focus and get good and go some where with it. I would love to actually make money with my horse! I kick myself when I think back to my 4-H days and think about how good I could have been if I'd just been able to focus and do a little arena work. I placed pretty darn good considering the time I put into my horse. I could have kicked some major booty if I'd actually been a little dedicated. I feel like I want to make up for that now and pick something that I can go far in, get into the big competitions and do well.

Part of my issue with "specializing" is that I don't know what I want to do. I love drill and it has treated me well the last few years, but there are so many variables that I have no control over it's hard for me to feel like I'm really getting my competitive fix out of it. I know I'm putting my time and energy into it, I'm riding my horse and making sure we are ready, but it is frustrating when other people don't. And there is always someone who doesn't. I'm just not really sure that drill is my calling right now, but I love it and don't really want to give it up yet either. The main problem is, it's time consuming and not something I can do half-assed since there are other people counting on me. While that can be good, it is also hard when I want to do something else "on the side". It's a lot to work around.

I have been doing a small reining series as a beginner and I would love to go further with reining. It is an amazing sport. I literally drool over the "real" reining horses. They are the most amazing athletes. The sliding stops, the spins, the loose rein and perfect collection, the fluid almost invisible lead changes. Wow. Just wow. So I've been asking around about trainers. There is apparently no one in this area. Well, that's not true. There is one person that is very close, but too busy for someone like me. And another guy a little further away who, after watching for a while, I would not let touch my horse or tell me what to do for a second. While I am almost desperate, I do still have some standards. The complete lack of trainers in the area is very discouraging. I need help if I'm going to do reining. I have some major holes that I need to go back and correct and I cannot do it on my own.

Over the summer I started on cutting. I had the oppurtunity to practice on buffalo once a week also. This was fun! I had a blast at the shows and have every intention of doing the whole series in '09. It is thrilling. Again, I literally drool over the pro horses. I think riding one of those horses might be better then sex. I feel like I have a few more oppurtunites in this area. I know of a couple decent trainers that aren't very far away and it's the kind of thing I feel like I could get something accomplished practicing on my own.

Then the boyfriend went to a sorting clinic and I went to watch for a few hours at the last sorting competition. That looks like tons o' fun too. I think we could do well at sorting as we are right now, I just need to understand it better. Atleast it would be fun to do, even if we're screwing up.

I also have an english saddle that calls my name every once in a while. I would love to learn to jump and do dressage also. I wouldn't mind throwing a rope a few more times. Or penning again. There is just so much that I want to do! I would love to just go do everything. But is it fair to my horse? Is variety the spice of life for horses to? Or would they prefer to have one discipline to learn and perform? Is it confusing for them (which, in turn, would be frustrating to me) to go from one thing to another? Or do they get bored as easily as I do? The other part of that is drill. Am I willing to quit drill to persue other events? Or if I don't quit, am I willing to sacrifice those other events because of my commitment to drill?

That is why I feel like I'm A.D.D. sometimes. I can't decide on what I want to stick with or if I want to do it all. Not that I'm complaining at all because I always feel very blessed just to have a horse and be able to do anything with her, let alone have the "problem" of trying to decide what to do.

It was a good night!

I had one of those really fabulous rides last night. The kind that leaves you smiling, completely relaxed and itching to do it all over again. Midori and I were just totally in sync and it was soooo great! I definately needed that after our last battle royale. It seemed like everything I've been trying to do with her sunk in in the last week and she "got it". I didn't work her real hard, but she was really good for what I did ask her to do. My goal last night was to listen to her, not get frustrated, but be productive also. I wanted to have a good ride with her no matter what. We definately accomplished that!

I wasn't really sure what our ride would be like going into it. The weather was horrible, it had been raining off and on all day and the wind was really picking up. Midori had also been hanging out in her paddock for a few days so I figured she'd probably be a little frisky. While I was getting her muddy legs sprayed off she stood perfectly still for me and was really good getting tacked up to. Most of the time, when she's that calm/good, it means she's either going to A: explode the second my foot goes in the stirrup (she has bucked me off as I was getting on before) , B: be so lazy that I'll have to push and push for anything or C: she is sore/hurting some where and it's going to be a miserable ride. I was very pleasantly surprised that none of those applied. She was an angel the whole night. I made sure to walk, trot and bend both directions starting out to make sure she felt fine. She had no problem with it and was so light and responsive with everything. I moved on to work on stopping, backing and rollbacks. The first time I sat down she planted her butt and immediately backed. YES!!! She got it! She was really using her butt and understood what I had been asking! Her roll backs were fabulous! She was really rocking back and springing out of them. I couldn't believe it!

My only complaint of the evening was that the arena was busy, which usually irritates me, but I didn't care much last night. I was too thrilled with my horse! A group of people from my drill team decided to ride together last night, so there was 5 horses in the arena, besides myself and the boyfriend. I did get a little annoyed a few times because a couple of those people seemed completely oblivious to everyone else in the arena and they have an odd style of riding which is pretty unpredictable as far as trying to work around them. I had to dodge them quite a few times as they wandered right in the path of my circle on my 3rd or 4th lap or decided to back straight in my way for no apparent reason, but that's life I guess.

All in all it was a great night. It has been a pretty good week to. I'm finally finishing up the Twilight series. I've been lingering on the last book, not wanting it to be over so soon. I will probably finish it up this weekend. I think I also found the theme/decorations for my kitchen that will make it complete for me. I'm really excited about that! Hopefully I'll get that done this weekend also, just in time for Thanksgiving. I officially gave up the bathroom goal too which, though sad, was a big relief to have that pressure taken off. I've got a big to do list for the weekend, but I think I should be able to relax and enjoy myself a bit to.

Happy Friday!

In a hurry...

I know I've heard/read it before, somewhere, that any time you're in a hurry, hoping to just get a quick, productive ride in, that is when the epic battles occur. Last night was one of those nights and one of *those* rides. Grrr!
Everything was wrong right from the beginning. I was distracted. I had other things on my mind. Like the crack that is the Twilight Saga and the second book waiting for me in my truck. I had meetings to avoid and try not to feel guilty about. I also had people to avoid so they didn't add to that guilt.

I went straight to the arena after work to meet the boyfriend, who had hauled the horses there for us to ride. He hadn't brought my riding boots, which have my spurs on them. He thought I had grabbed them before I left for work. Doh! Luckily I had my pull on cowboy boots on so I could still ride, but I really don't like riding in pull on cowboy boots. They rub and have chunky soles that throw my balance off in my stirrups that are the perfect length for my packer boots with not chunky soles. I know, I know...whine, whine, whine. But it a really does make a difference! Plus, I try to keep my cowboy boots clean and not smelly so I can wear them to work. I hate sitting at my desk and smelling dirty boots and I try to be considerate of my co-workers, who are very city.

So I get on, not expecting much out of the ride. We have been working on responsiveness to my seat, which would be fine, but responsiveness period is a little hard when you don't have spurs to help you demand. Plus, as I mentioned before, I was just plain distracted. I wanted to get a good ride in quickly and get home so I could settle in and finally get my fix. It had been almost 3 DAYS since I finished Twilight.

I took it easy to begin with, just did a lot of long trotting on a loose rein, working on moving off my legs and rating to my body. That all went fine. We even got some stopping and backing work in, on a loose rein, and did alright. It was when I finally picked up the reins and asked for some give that we started having issues. She was just hanging on the bit, not being responsive at all. So we tried to work on some bending and suppling stuff. She was not getting any lighter. She seemed stiff and unresponsive. Since I was in a hurry I was only concerned with fixing it, "winning" and going home. So the fight began.

The more I tried to get her to give, the more she resisted. And the more she got jacked up. Fast forward a bit to our loping and she doesn't even respond when I ask her to stop. She doesn't respond when I tell her to stop. I demand it, she runs thru it. I keep demanding, eventually pulling her in a very tight circle, which she eventually accepts and comes down to a walk and eventually stops. Hmmm. We go back to stopping at the walk and trot. She does ok. She is atleast stopping, eventually. I try loping again. This time she just flat out runs. So I decide, ok Missy...you want to run, we'll run! And we ran. And ran. And ran and ran and ran and ran. In hindsight, I realize that was not a brilliant decision on my part. My knees and hips were already groaning at me from the new and decidedly uncomfortable position they were in with the chunky boots. They tend to be very sensitive and definately let me know if they are not happy. When I picked the battle of the run with Midori, they certainly made their feelings on the matter known. I spent part of the run standing half-point, or two-point, whatever it is, part of the run holding on to the horn flopping around like a fish trying to take any and all pressure off of my legs and the rest of it, kicking Midori because if she wanted to run, then dammit we were going to run! A couple times when she felt like she was slowing and might be responsive I thought about stopping and would kind of half sit. She completely ignored me, preferring to keep running, so we kept running. And running and running. Finally, after way too many laps, I knew she was tired and would be responsive so I sat down and she stopped on a dime. She was panting and dripping sweat and shaking. My legs were screaming profanities at me like I hadn't felt in a looooong time. We cooled off for a while, walking slowly around the arena on a loose rein with Midori's head very low and my feet out of the stirrups.

When I finally felt like my legs could handle a little more I got my feet back in the stirrups and picked up the reins. Midori hung on them. I could not get her off of them for nothing. Thus the third battle of the evening. I just wanted a little give. That was all I was asking for. The second she would have done that, I would have dropped the reins and gotten off for the night! It was already past the time that I had wanted to be loaded up and gone. I wasn't going to win this one. Finally, I got the slightest response out of her and I was done. That was all I had. I knew I was getting really frustrated and it was coming out in my riding. That's just not fair and doesn't accomplish anything. I was sitting there, going over our disastrous ride in my head and noticed that Midori's head was still bent around to the right and she was yawning. Had been for quite a while. I watched her for a minute and she kept yawning and moving her head oddly. I wondered if she might be collicking or something because she may have been looking around at her belly, but it didn't seem like that was what it was. There was definately something bothering her though.

Then it all came crashing down on me. She wasn't being a jerk the whole time, she was trying to tell me that she hurt. I felt like the biggest jackass ever. Looking back over our ride, the signs where there the whole time. She never felt off at all, still wasn't, but she sure was sore. Something was hurting her. She had problems rolling back, she was tripping over herself, not springing out of it like she usually does. She was hanging on the bit the whole night. She was having a hard time bending. And the running thing, like she used to when I first got her, resisting the bit. I should have seen that she was just trying to tell me she was hurting, not misbehaving. She doesn't misbehave like that. And all the battles I picked with her, they just made the problem worse. I totally suck sometimes. I had just been too preoccupied to notice.

She did get new shoes the night before, I wonder if that had anything to do with it or if the issue existed before that. I wouldn't ever blame the shoer, he's great, but sometimes it's the little things that tweak your alignment and wreak havoc on your body. Like chunky soled boots instead of...not chunky soled boots when you're riding. She had seemed ouchy and slightly unwilling to pick up her front right foot. I guess I need to scrounge up some dough to have the chiropractor out for her. She's never needed any major adjustments, but I have never felt like the appointment was wasted either. Anything that makes her more comfortable and can set my mind at ease that she is physically able to perform the way I'm asking her to is worth it.

Moral of this story: if I can't ride patiently and concentrate on my horse and what I'm doing, then I really shouldn't be there!

Success!

Well, improvement anyways. I got a score on Saturday, wohoo! And all my hard work while riding last week really paid off! I think improving is a good measure of success. Winning is always nice to, but for me right now, at the (very low) level that I'm at, improving is the name of the game. We definately improved! Besides me actually remembering the pattern, and thus earning a real score and placing, we really improved over our last ride! I was very, very pleased!

I decided my goals for this show were to improve our stop and back. Our circles, rating and lead changes were satisfactory for now, but our stop and back at the last show were just bad. Last week we did the flag clinic that got Midori rocking back over her hocks and using her butt a bit more when she stopped. I needed to translate that to rail work and doing that from just my seat, without the encouragement of the flag. My big goal now is to get her stopping and backing from just my seat and a little bit of leg. She used to have the stop, but for some reason, I'm more of a legs for gas and reins for steering and brakes rider whenI'm drilling. It drives me nuts. I work so hard on using my seat and legs and then when I'm focused on drill over the summer, it all goes to hell. I'm still not sure why I can't cross that bridge, to riding with my body and subtle cues, while I'm drilling. Also, Midori's reverse has always been a bit sticky, sometimes flat out refusing to back, always with her head in the air and always using my hands as the cue and legs for encouragement. No more! I'm changing my ways! When I sit on my pockets, my horse will plant her butt, stop and back until I sit up. I think that's the way it works anyways. I may need to double check Mug's blog and the multiple reining books that I have at home.

Friday when I rode that was pretty much all that I focused on, responding to my seat. I did go thru and do the whole rest of my usual riding routine, but my main focus for the entire ride was stopping from my seat and beginning to back up with some encouragement from my legs. We did a lot of stops, lots of backing, lots of roll backs. It was actually a really fun and productive ride. Midori is very smart and by the end of the ride she was backing, almost enthusiastically, from my seat and some leg. Her head was still in the air, but I think that will come when she really realizes I'm not going to be on her face the whole time I'm asking her to back.

Saturday when we got to the show, I could tell the difference when we warmed up. She was listening to every move I made, almost reading my mind at some points. She was so responsive and would just plant her butt as soon as I sat down. YES! Our run was good. Not fabulous, but way better then last time. I did get a little nervous again, which got Midori amped up so I had a bit of trouble getting her to rate for the first slow circle, but our lead changes were decent, we actually hit center on the circles, and our run down, stop and back were soooo much better! Unfortunately, I was so intent on getting the stop and back done right that I ended up running down the wall, instead of staying off of it. That cost me. Oh well, I really didn't care! We improved so much over our last run, that was all that mattered to me! Ok, almost all that mattered to me. I should admit that I was a teeny tiny bit disappointed that we didn't place higher, but it was still a good run! We ended up getting 4th out of 8. There was a lot more competition there this time.

It was a good show and a good weekend.

Goals for the next show:
1. Continue to work on stopping and backing
2. Find some way to relax before I go in!
3. Get to work on moving her hips! Her hips seem to be her stickiest body part for me to move right now. Probably why I can't ever get her to do a flying lead change. Or atleast that'll be my excuse for now.

Finally, some therapy!

As I've mentioned before, riding horses is amazing therapy. For me. Most of the time. Every once in a while, you just have a darn frustrating ride, I guess you can't win 'em all! Most of the time though, it is very therapeutic. Last night was one of those incredibly therapeutic nights. I have been more than a little crabby and stressed this week. Our last drill practice was cancelled because there was a long show at the arena, so it had been a week and a half since I last rode my horse. I think it was going on three weeks since I rode my horse on my own, not at drill practice. How sad is that?!?

The weather here has been absolutely miserable lately. Gray, windy, cold and rainy. Very, very rainy. Besides the weather absolutely sucking any motivation to ride my horse out of me, and the depressingly short days, I've been really busy with other things. Trying to take advantage of the last bit of nice weather to get some yard work done and I have been working on getting my kitchen painted. The kitchen is taking way more time then I thought it would. I spent most of last week picking colors and prepping it for the painting, then I spent most of the weekend painting it. Monday I touched it up and pulled all the tape off. I still want to give the counters and floor a good scrubbing before I move everything back into it. Because of that, the whole rest of my house looks like the kitchen barfed all over it. Or has just plain been neglected because I've been so consumed by the kitchen. I have also decided that I'm really not such a big fan of painting. It kinda, sorta, really sucks. I love the end result, but there are so many things that I would rather be doing then actually painting.

I know, I know...excuses. They are like...ummm...noses, everybody has one. We have another show in the winter reining series coming up this weekend though so getting on my horse this week is just not optional! Last night there was a flag clinic at the arena. I love flag clinics! They are fun, a good workout and a fabulous tool in reminding my horse to use her damn butt again! After our stop at the last show, this clinic couldn't have come at a better time! The boyfriend definately needed the saddle time to. He's been so busy hunting that poor Sugar has just been hanging out getting fat for a month now! She has always been very athletic looking and a little harder to keep weight on then the other two, but she has actually put some weight on and looked like I think a horse sitting in the pasture should going into winter. Of course, as soon as she started working last night, she sucked that gut right in and looked her ideal working weight again. Not sure how she managed that.

Both of the girls were a little snorty and spicy when we first got there, but it didn't take them long to warm up out of it. By the time the clinic got going, they were both working really well. Midori and I totally hit our groove, which is always fun! I could tell I hadn't ridden in a while though. I felt like I kept dropping my shoulder or leaning to the inside and I kept catching myself looking down more then up. Since I felt like I was doing that, I couldn't hardly blame Midori when she dropped her shoulder or stumbled thru something. I really had to think hard about keeping myself straight and balanced. It's amazing what just a week and a half off from riding will do to your body! I felt like Gumby up there for the first couple laps, trying to figure out where my legs and arms and body were. Probably didn't help that Midori was a bit of a wiggle worm during that to, but again, I blame myself. It's a lot more productive then blaming the horse! That's usually when you get one of those darn frustrating rides!

Anyways, when it came time to work the flag, which Midori had been watching intently during the other riders turns, she decided to ignore the stupid thing and run right past it. We had a quick little conversation that went something along the lines of "Um, HELLO! That flag thing over there? Ya, you're supposed to stop and turn with it! Remember?!? It hasn't been that long since you did this on buffalo!" Luckily, she's a good listener and it only took two little conversations for her to catch on. But then she started anticipating the turn, instead of waiting for the flag ("cow") to turn her. It was fun and good experience to work her thru those issues though. We worked on shaping and getting her to really use her butt to stop, which is never all that hard with her. She just needs a little reminder sometimes and it's always easier when more then just my butt and maybe the rail are involved. Overall I was very pleased with how she worked and how quickly we were able to correct our little issues. The trainer said he really liked the basics we have, that we did really good. I didn't listen in to see if he told everyone that, but I like to think we were a little impressive for how little we really do with cutting. The first time I ever worked the flag with Midori, the trainer that did that clinic said she was amazed that that was our first time ever and that Midori has the kind of natural talent she looks for when she's picking young cutting horses. Again, I like to think she wasn't just blowing smoke, but I try not to let it go to my head.

So after a good almost two hours on my horse I had all but forgotten all of my worries and crabiness and stress. None of it even crossed my mind the rest of the night. Not even when I got home and had to wander thru the maze of kitchen crap in the living room or shove the mountain of laundry waiting to be folded aside so I could snag a spot on the couch to sit down for a minute. I was totally, completely relaxed and I'm sure if it hadn't been past my bedtime already I would have been chipper. I sure woke up in a pretty good mood this morning. I love it that riding horses does that for me.

Finally!

Well, I finally got some time (translation: I grew some kajones) tonight and got my butt on Mister. He was a whole lot less concerned about the whole thing then I was.

I decided that since it's been almost 8 months since he was last ridden that I would treat him as I would any other greenie and take everything slow and easy and just, basically, start over with him. I know he's had plenty of saddle time in the past, but I also know that he's been a bucker and had some issues. I really believe he's a good horse, but I think he gets frustrated easily. He's never tried to be horrible with me so I am hoping that continues. Really, really hoping.

I got him out, planning to just do some ground work with the saddle on him and see where his head was at. He is so fat and out of shape that he was puffing after just a couple laps trotting around the round pen, the bum. I got him on a long lead and did some more intensive ground work, so he was getting more exercise then I was trying to keep him going. He was so good. He's so soft and responsive and level headed when he understands what you're asking. I think he is a horse that you just have to be patient with and take baby steps and just not push him too fast. The boyfriend came out and worked with him a bit so I could observe and Mister was trying to comply, but he started fighting him after a bit. The BF was asking a lot of him rather quickly and was really getting after him for not doing it, which is usually fine, that's the way I work with Midori, but it just really didn't seem to work too well with Mister. Atleast not right now, when he is still very green and trying to figure things out. They went a couple rounds fighting each other and I told him to just get a good turn out of him and quit. I wanted him back. He fought me a little bit, but I spoke softly to him and encouraged him forward and he quickly figured out what I wanted and we got back in our groove. It was fascinating to watch that though. I'm pretty sure he really doesn't click with the boyfriend.

Anywho, we did some ground work and I smacked the saddle all over and flapped the stirrups and made sure he wasn't going to pull anything. He hardly even flinched. So I stepped up in the stirrup. Did the whole, greenie put some weight in the stirrup, see if he's going to explode thing. Again, hardly even flinched. So I got on. The BF walked us around for a bit and I patted and rubbed him all over. He could not have cared less. So it was a successful "first ride". I am happy with him. He even wanted to move off my legs when I tested that out. Wohoo! Hopefully things continue to go that well with him. Fingers crossed!

Hopefully the weather holds so I can continue to get some time on him. I know he'll be a solid horse very quickly, he just needs time. I'm excited to see how he comes along with me.