Snow Ride!!!

This should explain what we were doing today for fun......

Yup, playing in the snow!! Oh, and where he was stopping and walking with caution? There's a tiny little creek for irrigation in the field and he saw it, hence why he was cautious.

Fun!!

Winter Photos

And now...time for some winter photo ops!!

Yup, he's a camera ham. Lol.

What?? I Have A Grooming Box You Say??

Yes, yes I do. Finally! I've been meaning to make my own grooming/supply box for a while for Dollar as if I leave my stuff at my parents place, it get's commandeered by my little sister and I never get anything back. So I got my own. All it is is a clever-latch box with a lid that actually closes and secures shut and has lots of room to store stuff. As you can tell by the photos, I've got all my brushes/combs (all labeled), some of his drugs, his fly-mask, his splint boots, stuff for showing, and my copy of 101 Dressage Exercises. Yup, that little box fits a lot in there.

#33 on 101 list: Orgainze all grooming supplies, label

Spunky Horse

Headed out to the barn today around 2 because I have to go dress and shoe shopping with my sister and 2 other girls in the bridal party around 6 and wanted to make sure that I had enough time to ride SuperPony. Got there and talked with Sam for a bit before she had to leave for her doctor's appointment.

After she left, I grabbed some granola bars for Dollar and headed out back. Quickly let the dogs loose and then went to grab SuperPony. Of course, he nickered when he saw me coming for him and was waiting at the gate for me to let him out. Got him out and then brought him and Sue up to the barn. Tied up Dollar and put Sue in the barn so that he wouldn't be in my way while me and D were practising our Dressage. Got to grooming Dollar (luckily, he wasn't as muddy as previous times) and loved it that his winterized tail is still in! Yeah!

After quickly tacking him up, I grabbed my 101 Dressage Excersises book and decided to start right at the beginning. I know because of Dollar's previous history with shows, that we probably could start further into the exercises, but because I'm new at this (and so is he), I figured that the beginning would be a good place to start.

We started by warming up at the walk, jog and trot. Of course, while we were on the rail warming up, Mars was sticking hsi hed over to see what we were doing. And I noticed that his halter was over 1 ear and starting to come off. So I stopped Dollar, fixed Mars' halter and went back to business. Except a couple feet from where we stopped was hay on the ground from the manger in the holding pen. Well, as we started our warm-up again, Dollar decided to stretch down, stop and grab a good mouthful of hay. I asked him to keep walking, but he decided to ignore me. I gave him a good kick, and still...ignorant. So I had my crop in my hand. Guess what happened?? Yup. A good, loud smack right on the ass. And he jumped forward and realized that I meant business. Yes, he is stubborn and ignorant some days. Especially when there's food nearby.

Once we got our lazy butt moving (and I do mean MOVING) we did some more warm-up and then proceeded to start with the exercises. The first one was just doing a simple oval at an (somewhat) extended trot down the long sides and a regular trot on the short sides. Of course this ws very simple and easy for me and Dollar, but I figured "why not?" and did the exercise, but also added something in. As we were doing the short sides, I focused on getting his body to bend around my leg while we were doing the short sides. And it worked! Yeah! We went both ways for about 15 minutes and then moved onto exercise #2.

This one was doing a needlepoint. Basically you start out tracking right at a sitting trot, ride a teardrop (half volte) at B, returning to the track at M. Then proceed to a 15-meter circle at C. Ride another teardrop at E, returning to the track at H. Proceed to another 15-meter circle at C and repeat from step 1.

And it was easy-peasy!! He worked very nicely with me in what I was asking him to do, that it just felt so easy and light. Thankfully because of all our time training for Trail class, he moves off of my leg very nicely, which helped a lot for this exercise.

After we were done our exercises, I untacked him and then played around for a bit before putting him away. Hopefully I can get out soon again.

Oh No You Don't!!!!

Finally!! A day off of work so that I can ride!! And it's gorgeous outside!! And it's such a busy day today. Today marks the start of rifle hunting season, so I promptly kicked Keith out the door around 7 this morning to go do some hunting with his Dad. After he left, I played on my computer and then decided around 9:30 that it was time to go ride and play with my boys. So I grabbed all my stuff and some apples for the kids and headed out to my parents place.

Got there and visited with Mom for a bit and then headed out to go see my boys. They've been in the holding pen lately because it seems as though they've eaten all the grass that was in the pastures (that explains Dollar's fat belly. Lol). Grabbed both Dollar and Reno out of there and got them into the coral where Sue was. Sue actually stays in the barn during the night because the other horses chase him away from all the food and he doesn't know how to defend himself. So during the day, he gets turned out in the holding pen.

Once I got my boys out, I grabbed all of them, including Sue and brought them up to the barn. I was thinking of riding Reno in the pen, but then thought of just taking him on the road for a nice hack just so that he doesn't get ring sour like always. So I tied up Reno outside and brought Dollar and Sue in the barn. Fed Dollar some grain with his drugs and then got to getting Reno ready to ride. Luckily he wasn't that dirty, so I gave him a quick brush down and got to tacking him up (in Western unfortunately :-( ).

Ready for our ride

Once he was all tacked up, I got him out of the ring and hopped on and started our journey. I decided that we'd do a 2-mile hack today seeing as I didn't have a lot of time and I still wanted to play with Dollar yet. Our ride started out good, and he was fresh! Wait a minute...he is all the time. Never mind.... Anyways, we started out with his marching walk just going down the road. Of course, everything had to catch his attention, so all his attention wasn't on me, but I was fine with that. As long as he was comfortable, so was I.

As we continued down the road, I asked him for a jog to see how he would respond. And he went into a nice bouncy jog. And before any remarks, yes, he's always bouncy. Has been since we got him. For a QH, he has a lot of knee action.

On our hack

When we round the corner for the completion of the 1st mile, I let him stretch his legs out a bit and let him do his extended trot. Dad really hates it when I let him do that, but he feels so good and lets quite a bit of energy out of his system. So extended trot it was. And he felt GOOD!!! After a little bit of that, I brought him back down to a walk and then continued alternating between the walk and jog for the rest of the hack.

Except we had a little bit of a temper tantrum. While we were walking, I had said whoa asking him to stop and back up. Well he was having none of that. He didn't want to stop or back up. And seeing as I had quite a soft bit on him, he knew that I didn't have the leverage on him. Nor did I have spurs on him. So he put up a little bit of a fight. Once he back up like I asked him to. I made him walk forward a couple steps and repeat the whole thing again, just to get it into that thick skull of his. And he put up a fight again. Gees Reno, it's not rocket science!! Once we did this a couple times, he finally got it, did what I asked him to do, and then we went on our way. Thanks Reno!

Once we got home, I untacked him, put him away and got to grooming Dollar, who again, was full of mud. I didn't really have to ride him, so I winterized his tail instead. I got the idea from my friend Kelly who does this every winter to try to help the tails grow some more. You can find it here on how to do it. Once I got his tail all winterized, I had to take a picture of course....

Love the expression on his face. "Mom, what's dis???"

Yup, he looks cute. And I'll be able to find him in the dark. Lol. After I was done with his tail, I gave him more treats for being so good, and then turned him and Sue out. Hopefully I'll be able to get down there this coming weekend. With hunting season, we could be doing cut-up, but hopefully.