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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Busy, busy, busy... and some pics

Wow, so life has been crazy since bringing m horses here.

First off, Romeo will not be entered in the horse show in October. As I suspected we have a long way to go. Roomie puts it like this: "You have a freakin awesome horse but he's very green and so are you. You need to start back at the beginning. You, as a rider, have a lot to learn and having such a talented, sensitive, yet very green horse can be a bad combo.

This could be very discouraging but she offered me some hope. Sure I'm not the greatest rider and I don't have the natural feel that some of you are blessed with but I have drive and determination. I am going to do this. I will train that horse and I will be a good rider.

So roomie has offered to let me ride and give me pointers on one of her horses that is schoolmaster. I'm riding Dutch to work on my riding also. Better to learn and mess up on her then on Romeo. I'm not ignoring Romeo, but focusing on ground work with him and just basic walk and some trot exercises while riding. I don't want to stop riding him but I need to be cautious because I don't want to teach him bad habits. The goal is to spend most of my riding time on the 2 horses that can improve my riding. When I get on mister I focus on him.

We will be going to the show but not entering any classes. I feel very certain that this is the wisest choice for both he and I.

Second, I love.... LOVE my new place. I still feel like I'm living in a dream. Yes, my horses are in my backyard.



And I now have a barn.....



Oh and an arena too....


And yes.... those are lights.... and yes..... they do work..... and yes I do ride.... almost every night



I do believe that I now live in horse heaven(-:

Last week riding was a little slow... a lot going on and still not completely unpacked. But I did ride last Tues. First time riding them here so nothing exciting happened just an easy, laid-back ride on both of them.

Roomie and I had a rough week so Th we decided that a trail ride was a must. So we headed down the road to military training place that has hundreds of acres open to the public (except when exercises are taking place). It's literally like 10 minutes down the road. We spent about 3 hours out on the trails and let me tell you.... all of us.... horses included are completely out of shape. Oh, and we also chose a rather hot day to be out riding. Needless to say... the next day we all woke up a bit sore. Although it was a great ride.

We rode again Saturday just to keep riding. Soreness must be worked through.... right??? Toke Sunday off and rode again last night and have plans for tonight and Th and Fri and Sat night.

Yep... we're staying busy. Since I now have 3 horses to ride I think that I can count on being sore for the next few weeks. But hey, I'll be in shape(-:

I am absolutely loving this. I can't wait to see how far we have improved in a few months.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Agh the Embarrassment!!!!!

The good news is that I FINALLY have my horses at my house:-):-):-)

The bad news is that they were horrible loaders. Like... for real... embarrassing loaders.

Now Dutch... because of some bad trailer experiences is always a hard loader. Usually takes a few tries... I have to let her know that yes... you have to go in... and no I am not leaving you here.

So first we put Dutch in... after a few minutes she went in. Then I went to get Romeo... who is my perfect loader... one of those throw the lead rope over his back and say load up and up he goes.

Lol..... not yesterday. It was like he was a different horse. I have no clue what went wrong... or what the problem was. My roomie kept giving me questioning looks. I mean, he acted as if he didn't even know how to act on a lead rope!!! I was sooo embarrassed!!!!! Here is my baby horse that I have spent the past year and a half training. My first young horse, my pride and joy. The one I brag on because while I may not be the best rider I have successfully taken a hard to handle youngster and done a fabulous job teaching ground manners and the basic riding skills. Needless to say, I was mortified!! I felt like such a failure. Ya'll he was sooooooo bad!!! My roomie was saying things like... I wouldn't even ride this horse.... oh he has a nasty side to him.... wow, he's difficult.

I wanted to cry.... He really isn't that bad. He really is a sweetheart. No, he's not nasty, I swear there isn't a mean bone in his body (at least that's what I thought), I promise he knows how to lead. I have worked hard instilling all his ground work. I have taken things extremely slow with him and spent hours upon hours working on making sure he has the basics ingrained into his brain.

We finally get him loaded and then he starts to paw.... er... slam his foot on the ground. At this point I really just felt like screaming at him, or really I just might have thought about killing the darn thing. I mean really... after all I have done for and all the time we have spent together, this is how you repay me? I actually thought that the two of us had a pretty tight bond (not like Dutch and I of course, but for only a year and a half I thought we were pretty tight). Sigh.... the frustration of owning horses.

So we get to house and roomie looks at me and ask if he is going to shoot backwards... at this point I just looked at her and said, I have no clue.... that there is not my Romeo, he's in impostor so I have absolutely no clue what he is going to do.

Well, we finally get them to their pasture and they take off cantering across the new ground. Roomie watches him and her eyes light up.... now she see's why I bought him. "O, he is a pretty mover, wow look at that trot."
I smile.... yes, there is something good about him. I remember now why I put up with his crazy antics. Roomie asks of our trainer has seen him, "No, your the first to see him." She tells me that N is going to love him.

Good, I needed to hear those reassuring words. After all I on the ride over I was questioning every dollar I have put into him. I chose him myself... with no real expert. I was in VA and knew no one. The vet was a dressage rider and the vet for Sweet Brier College, so she knew good horses and told me he was a a steal. I know from the hours spent with him that he has the brain and sensitivity of a Dressage horse, the athleticism for jumping and the boldness for eventing. He has the potential to be whatever I want to do. But when they act like they've never had any training you begin to question everything you've thought about them.

Tonight I am planning on a ride in the arena... not on the crazy psycho but on the trusted old friend. I think some leading time and lounging is in order for Mr. Romeo.... Oh and I've decided that I'm not going to be nice to him anymore. Apparently the sweet approach is not working.... so for now I'm going to be a bit more strict with him. I won't stand for a horse that has no ground manners.... they can be very dangerous.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

An update... Finally

Well I guess its about time for an update... although there isn't much to tell. September is finally here:-) I am officially moved into my new house. The only thing missing is my horses:-( They are still at the parents. Long story short... there is drama between roomie and her ex, he has her trailer. The horses were supposed to be here last Fri but since I took off on a random roadtrip so I told her we should wait till Mon.... then the trailer still wasn't back. Oh the drama.... and I'm not a drama person. I really just want my horses here. Good news is that a friend of hers has a trailer we can borrow so the plan is to get them Fri:-) I'm praying hard that it happens. I'm ready to get to work!!!

Since the weather has been so awful I really haven't been riding. Dutch has given a few lessons so she is getting some mild work... by the way she is just plain ornery. I see that she needs some momma time. Good thing I plan on working her this fall too. I am really excited to see what the future holds with her. I know she is old... 24... but she still loves to go fast and jump. Hopefully if we work hard and be real careful she can take me to my first event in the spring. It would make my heart happy if she was the first one I rode in an event.

On to Romeo.... lets just say he is getting fat and out of shape. Not much time to ride with the move and the horrid heat. I have spent some time working with him on the ground which I believe is always a good thing to do. He is getting really good at ground tying. One thing I have noticed is that he has started to nip at me! Not sure where that came from. I never feed treats until after a work session and since he slightly food aggressive I make sure that treats are an occasional thing. He doesn't do it when I groom him... only while leading him.... strange.... I'm thinking about going back to the round pen with him, I think maybe he has forgotten who the boss is.

After talking with my roomie and her talking to an assortment of trainers. I have decided to forgo the September show. My only goal was to expose him to the atmosphere but roomie had a better idea. She is good friends with a trainer who is really good at working with young horses so we are thinking that next fri she will take me there for a lesson. One of her horses is there right now for a month of training and she wants to go check on him and why not let me tag along for a lesson:-) Great roomie huh?!

My roomie is pretty great... she is sooo excited that I am moving in. She has great horses.... a great talent for training.... and an awesome rider. She just lacks motivation. I am totally motivated... but not such a great rider... and I have a really young horse. So it looks like we are the perfect combo. I get us in the arena... she gets us great scores at shows!

So the plan is.....

Fri- move my horses and she wants to work with me on one of her horses JB. Next week we start working with Romeo every day.... and I get to slowly start conditioning Dutch. And then next Fri we take a lesson.

Oct we go to our first show... plan on doing into A & B. Sounds good to me!!!