Big Changes Coming....

Sigh. I'm so not a happy camper as to how I had to make this decision. And at the same time, I'm super excited!!

After my fiasco with my Dad yesterday and talking with my Mom about it, I was trying to decide whether or not to move Dollar away from my Dad's place. It's not that I don't love my Dad, but with my parents split, and my Mom no longer living there, the tension is getting high and I don't deal well with that.

So I'm making the decision to move Dollar. I had posted on Face Book last night that I was looking for a cheap barn around my area within easy driving distance. A little while later, S, who owns Richland Ranch (where I got Dollar back from) asked me what price range I was looking at. My price range is pretty low, around $100/month because I only work part-time and help pay for everything else. S said that she's get back to me by Monday.

She got back to me Monday and made me a REALLY GOOD DEAL! Basically, I could have Dollar there on outdoor board for $100/month as long as I help out with chores 5 times a month. And I get access to everything! Outdoor arena, heated indoor arena, wash rack, tack locker, he gets to come in for bad weather, and I get to hitch a ride with them to shows! Seriously! Woot!

Of course, I had to pass this by Keith and after discussing it (and basically telling him that I no longer want to go down to my Dad's place), he let me make the final decision. So I opted to move him.Yeah!! So our plan is to move him on Thursday (I'm not working).

The only hard part is that I'm not telling my Dad. Otherwise, he'll try to convince me to keep him at home and try to control what I do with my horse. I'm done with that. I make the decision regarding Dollar and no one else (well, except for Keith, he has say too. He's in charge of the $$$).

Can't wait for Thursday!!

Riding the Boys and Frustrations

Finally, got out to ride again today! Seeing as it was pretty nice outside, I decided to ride Reno and Dollar today. And this is sad to say, but I don't remember the last time that I rode Reno, probably in Fall. Ouch. I made a quick stop by Timmie's to grab some tea and then headed to the barn. Oh, and as forewarning, if they screw-up your order over the speaker phone, check your coffee before you leave the serving window. I should've.

So once I got to my Dad's place, I headed to the back and grabbed the barrel reins to ride. And then took a sip of my “tea.” It wasn't tea, it was COFFEE!! I DON'T DRINK COFFEE!! Fxck! That irked me. And can't do anything about it right now. So then I went and grabbed Dollar and Reno from the holding pen. I opted to ride Reno first and get him done with and then spend time with Dollar. I grabbed the barrel reins, clipped them onto Reno's halter, brought him up to the fence and proceeded to try to hop on. Obviously he hasn't been ridden bareback for a while because he wouldn't stand still at the fence for me to hop on. With much patience, I finally got him close enough to the fence to jump on. Sigh.



The kids waiting for me


Sue


Reno looking none too happy

I couldn't do much work with him because our arena is just covered in snow and a lot of it is really deep because the horses aren't allowed in the arena that much. So we were only able to use about ½ the arena due to all the snow. He actually behaved quite well, for not being ridden in a while and being in halter and lead rope. Quite impressed. We kept to walking around because I know that with him, you don't really have control unless you have a bridle on him. One of the only problems we had was that he didn't want to stand still. Dollar was in the arena by the manger eating hay, so of course, Reno's attention was elsewhere. So I stopped him on the rail at the opposite end and made him stand there. He wasn't too happy about that and proceeded to start pawing away (maybe his way to China). So every time he started pawing, I'd kick his shoulder with my leg. He pretty soon got the idea that maybe we should just stand here and wait for Mom's signal before moving. Some days he's a smart horse. I continued just working him at a walk and called it a day after about 15 minutes. It was pretty cold outside and I still wanted to play with the Old Man.


Reno showing me that he can flex!


The view from Reno


The gate that Mars wrecked

So I hopped off of Reno, let him loose in the arena, put the barrel reins on Dollar and brought him up to the fence to hop on. Apparently, he was watching Reno before and figured that it would be a good idea to move away from the fence as soon as I had one leg over him. So I'm hanging on the fence with one leg, have one leg over him and trying to pull him closer to the fence so that I could get on. Nope. So I jumped (fell?) off of him, gave him a good smack because he knows better, got him closer to the fence and tried again.

This time he stayed near to the fence so that I could get on properly. Once I was on fully, we got to doing a bit of work. We did some walk/trot work and worked some more on our straight lines. I really can't wait for Spring to come, so that I can actually do some proper work again! After about 15 minutes on him, I decided to call it quits and bring him into the barn to play.


Dollar not looking too enthused

Once we got in the barn, I tied him up and grabbed his treats so that I could work on his “no” trick. He actually seems to be catching on more and more with it. It only took about 2 reminders about what he was supposed to do, before doing it when I asked for it. And he even did it quite a few times when I asked him for it without reminders! I think it was the treats that had him going. Lol.

After we were done working on our trick, I loved him up and tried to take some photos of him in his new halter. Again, not having it. Sigh. He loves my camera, but when I try to model something on him, he doesn't stand for it. Don't worry, I will keep trying.

So after the fail of no halter photos, I kicked him outside and put both him and Reno back into the holding pen with the rest of the kids. I grabbed my English saddle to take home for cleaning and also grabbed his blanket that he nicely ripped up so that I could try to fix it. I loaded everything into my car and headed for home.

And this is where shit hits the fan. I was about 1 mile from my Dad's place, when he called me and bitched me out for not coming in the house and saying hi. Excuse me?? The house was completely dark and I didn't see anyone walking around in the house. Yeah, I didn't check the house or garage, but SO WHAT?? I'm going to get bitched out and yelled at over the phone because I didn't come in the house 1 TIME?? WTF?? I was in complete tears because of what my Dad was doing, and completely furious. There was no reason for that. None at all. Because now I felt like complete shit.

So I went back to Timmie's, got my tea made right this time and called my Mom to complain about Dad. And she felt bad that he did that, but she has no control over him anymore because they split almost 2 months ago. Yup, fxcked up family. So then I went home and started contemplating having Dollar moved. I really want to because I'm getting tired of all this bullshit that keeps happening at my Dad's place and that I keep getting bitched out for nothing.

Sigh. I'm hoping to find a solution soon.

January 2011 Goals Assessed and February 2011 Goals

Ok, right now my brain can't think, but here's my January 2011 goals assesssed and my new ones for February.

January 2011 Goals:
1) Complete 3 items on the 101 list:
PASS! I actually did manage to do this! I ended up completing #41 (Take 1 really good phot of each horse and frame) (did this back in fall), #42 (Teach Dollar a minimum of one trick), and #70 (Clean bridles thoroughly). Woot!! Seeing as it is winter here, the list gives me a bit more time to do some stuff indoors. Lucky me!
2) Start a riding program to start getting Dollar back into shape
FAIL. To put it bluntly, it was just to DAMN COLD! Seriously, we got 1.5 ft of snow in one day and an entire week of -40*C. Not riding weather. At all. I'm hoping for better weather in the coming months.
3) Ride at least once a week
Kinda Pass. Like noted above, it was friggen cold outside this month. I did manage to get a couple rides in on him, but I really do need warmer weather (or an indoor arena) to ride him more. It's quite a bit of work for him to go tromping through the snow all the time.
4) Find something for his joints
PASS! I found some MSM stuff for him that I'm gonna start putting him on. I've found that it's helped before, so we're gonna go back to it. Luckily right now, he's not showing any signs of stiffness or soreness in his joints, but we're just gonna be on the safe side. I need him around for a long time.

February 2011 Goals
1) Look for a new place for Dollar to move to
2) Complete 3 items on my 101 list
3) Bring saddle home to clean
4) Start getting back into shape

Brief Ride

Well, I did manage to sneak down to my Dad's place to ride Dollar for a bit before I had to pick up Keith from work at 3:30.

Got to the barn around 2:30, quickly ran to the barn, grabbed the barrel reins and went to go get Dollar from the holding pen and paused to see if I could possibly get my trailer out for when I want to go riding with Kelly in a couple weeks. Umm...I think not.....


I don't think the trailer's coming out anytime soon...

Looks like Kelly's gonna have to come down to ride. I'm not getting that thing out anytime soon. Sigh. Once I was done being a bit blah about the stuck trailer, I said hello to Sue and grabbed Dollar for a quick jaunt. Got Dollar out of the holding pen, clipped the barrel reins to his halter, climbed up on the fence and jumped on. We worked a bit on our walking and trotting around (still sucks that I don't have an indoor arena to do actual work) and loved him up lots. He behaved like a true gentleman and of course I had to show off my mad riding skillz...


Look Ma! No hands!!

Hehes. Reasons why I love him. After riding him around a little bit more, I glazed at the time and realized that I had to go pick up Keith. So I stopped Dollar in the middle of the arena, hopped off and put him back into the holding pen. Hoping the weather keeps up with the warm temperatures so that I can keep on riding!

Winter Ride

Finally got my lazy arse out to go see Dollar today. It was such a beautiful day, I couldn't really pass it up ;-). I got to my Dad's place around 10:00 after running some errands and quickly ran to the back to grab Dollar.


Sue


Ponies!!


Dollar eyeing me

 I managed to get him out of there without the other horses getting out as well. I let him go around for a while before grabbing the whip to get him moving so that I could get some awesome photos!


Trudging through the snow


Lope-y!


The water donkey that he is


"Run away from Mom!!"


More lopey


Trotty!!


Looking at me asking if we're done

After he was done trotting around, I went up to him, attached the barrel reins to his halter, climbed up on the fence and hopped on. We did some walking around and then moved up into trotting because of all the snow that was outside. I even got a couple moments of a floaty trot! Yeah! He seemed full of energy today, so I kept him trotting around the ring and then got a brilliant idea.

I've been trying to get him working on his straight lines, but you can't really see them to well in the sand in summer. And so since it's winter out, I decided to try this again and then we could see how well we were doing. Wow, our first couples lines down centre looked like we were a drunk sailor. Lol. And I knew exactly where he was wanting to turn because he was eyeing his food. So when we went down centre again, I kept my outside leg (right) on him and then kicked him good in the shoulder when he tried to that. It seemed to work and then we started getting straight lines down centre! Yeah, progress!!

Oh, and of course, had to take some photos while riding. Lol.


Doll-face


On our walk workout

After I was done riding (about ½ hour), I hopped off and put Dollar into the barn to give him a good grooming and work on his “no” trick. He had quite a few icicles hanging off of him, so I went to work scrubbing all of those off and he was loving every minute of it.

Then I went to grab some grain and work on his “no” trick. He didn't seem to happy about it at first, but then he realized that if he co-operated, he got treats. Smart one. Lol.


The fat Moose



The begging face

Once we were done in the barn, I kicked him back outside and spent a couple minutes loving up Reno. Kelly's coming down in about 3 weeks to ride, so I'm guessing I should probably ride him soon. Unfortunately, I had to go pick up Keith when he was done work, so I'm gonna leave Reno for another day.

Gift Exchange with Kelly!!

Yeah!! Gift exchange with Kelly today! Pretty excited about this. Yes, I know it's after Christmas, but Kelly just got our gifts in (finally!) and so we had to do a gift exchange.

Kelly got here around 6:30 (after she was done work) and came down to my place. Of course the regular amount of giggling ensued with us and also made Keith roll his eyes at us. Lol. While we were talking and stuff, we decided to exchange our gifts.

I had gotten Kelly some blingy spur straps that I knew she wanted. And of course, she was giggling in delight. She gave me a beautiful horse hair bracelet, something that makes me feel very special. See, not only is it a horse hair bracelet with mine and Dollar's colors (purple and black), but it's also made from her (deceased) beloved Banjo's mane/tail. Awww....I'm special enough to get something made from Banjo...sniffles.

Trail Riding with Kelly and Michelle

Yeah!! Trail riding with Kelly and Michelle today!

Woke up around 5 am in order to drive Keith to work for 6 and then went back to bed until 8. Lol. Once I woke up, I did my devotions, did some stuff around the house and then got ready to leave around 10:30 for Kelly's barn to go trail riding today.

On my way out of town, I stopped by McDonald's for some breakfast and was trying to text Kelly, but my phone was being wonky and was sending it to different numbers, not Kelly's. Weird. Once I had gotten my breakfast, I hopped back into my car and headed on my way. Got to Kelly's with no problems, unlike last time I went there in winter. Once I had my car parked, I went inside the barn and said hello to Renegade, Skylla and Treble and upon not seeing Kelly around, I went and took a look in the riding arena. Yup, she was there and riding Weeper. She was almost done, so I just stood there and watched her.

Once she was done riding Weeper, we started talking about some shit that was starting on Face Book between her and another “friend.” I won't go into it, but all I can say it drama! Once Kelly had Weeper untacked and with a cooling sheet on, she brought out Skylla for me to get acquainted with and play with. I tried doing some tricks with her, but she was more interested in the treats than doing tricks. Then Michelle showed up and started talking while we were tacking up the horses. I had to quickly run back to my car and grab the rest of my winter gear so that I wouldn't freeze while we were riding, because who knows how long we'll be gone.

Skylla ready to go

Once I was all bundled up, I grabbed Kelly's 14” barrel racing saddle and started getting Skylla ready. Once we were all ready to go, we brought the horses outside and proceeded to mount up. Except that I found out that my winter riding boots were a tad too big for Kelly's stirrups. Oops. It took me a bit to get onto Skylla because my boot kept going into her side and she kept moving because of that. Sorry Skylla!! Kelly had to come over and hold Skylla for me so that I could get the tip of my boot into the stirrup and quickly hop on Skylla before the boot came out.

Once I was on Skylla, we headed on our way to Bird's Hill Park. I found out very quickly that Skylla likes to walk fast and ahead of everyone. Lol. We just kept the horses to a walk while we made our way to Bird's Hill. I had to keep laughing at Treble though. Seems that she was having a mind of her own while we were riding and tried to kick Michelle's horse Sonya. Well that little stunt earned her a trip to the other side of the road where she wouldn't try to kill anyone. Lol. And Kelly mentioned that Skylla must like me because she hasn't bucked me off yet. The other person to ride her last time (other than Kelly) got bucked off 4 times in one trail ride because Skylla can't stand stupid riders. Lol. We were chatting quite a bit and once we got to the highway, we waited for traffic to pass, which took a bit longer than usual because some deer were standing in the ditch.

Once we got across the highway, we went on some trails that were made this summer for riding and driving horses. And it was pretty. Sigh. I'll take the pretty winter trees anytime, but not the cold. Had quite a bit of fun going down the trails and then of course, something really hilarious had to happen. While Michelle was ducking underneath some tree branches, her toque got caught on one branch, came off and went on the ground. I was right behind her with Skylla and she kept kicking it on the ground and by this time it was on a little bit of a snow bank. I couldn't get off to grab the toque and Michelle couldn't either because of her knee and I wasn't sure about Treble, so I was going to walk Skylla up to it and stretch down to see if I could grab it. Well, Kelly hopped off of Treble and grabbed it for Michelle, all the meanwhile saying that she had the crazy 2-year-old who was just standing there wondering what we were laughing about. Once Michelle had her toque back, we continued on our way.

Winter prettiness

Michelle in front of us

And of course, Michelle had to get us partially lost. Lol. Happens almost every time. We did manageg to find the right trail and kept on going. The trail took us right to Bird's Hill Ranch, where we promptly dismounted and tied the horses up the tying pole. Michelle quickly ran in to see if we could tie the horses in the indoor arena so that they could stay out of the wind. We got told no, so we just tied them up to the pole outside. We went inside and ordered some food and hot beverages to warm ourselves up. We had some good conversations around the table there, talking about tattoos and stuff (I really want to get mine done now) and then got ready to go. One of Michelle's riding buddies from Miracle Ranch who now boards at Bird's Hill wanted to go for a short ride with us.

So we went back outside, got the horses untangled (Treble and Skylla manged to get their lead ropes tangled up) and mount back up. Again, I had trouble getting back up on Skylla because of my damn winter boots. Kelly had to hold her again so that she wouldn't move around so much while I was hoping on. I really hate winter boots. Once we were all mounted up, we headed to the indoor arena to meet Michelle's old riding buddy. Well, there was a small round bale in a pen by there, covered in snow a bit. Sonya and Treble didn't want to go past it, so i figured that I'd try to get Skylla. Nope, no way. So then Kelly tried with Treble again. Treble looked at it, walked forward 2 steps, reared up perfectly straight, came back down, and walked past it like nothing had ever happened. Wtf??? Kelly was laughing at Treble and then I asked Skylla to go past it. She did walk past it, but it her head turned and looking at it the entire time. Lol.

We went on the loop, which took us around the barn, but it was out in the bush kinda thing. Once we were done the loop, we said goodbye to Michelle's riding buddy and started our ride home. We had to go through some knee deep snow with the horses, and of course the horses wanted to jog because all of a suddenly, I felt Skylla going all floaty going through the snow and heard Kelly and Michelle laughing behind me as their horses did the same thing. Lol.

Winter trees

Once we got back onto the road, we made our way to the trail and kept to the trail going home. The wind had picked up a bit, so it was nicer in the bush without the wind. While we were walking, we saw some deer, and I had taken my camera out to take a photo of it. Skylla on the other hand, didn't want to be used as a tri-pod. She kept moving around and I was afraid that I was going to lose my camera. I finally got her to stop, but by that time, the deer had taken off. I silently swore at Skylla and put my camera away. Once we had put our camera's away, we continued on our walk home. And of course, the closer we got to home, the faster the horses wanted to walk. Which was fine by all of us, as long as they didn't run home.

Deer!!!

Skylla knew we were on our way home and just kept walking faster and faster while I was trying to talk with Kelly and Michelle. So of course, I had to hold her and tell her to slow down, otherwise I'd put her in the ditch to help her slow down. Kelly was laughing because she heard me say this to Skylla, and when Skylla kept walking faster, I put her in the ditch. All of a suddenly, we were walking slower! Hooray! Unfortunately, we made it back up to the road and then went back to our previous speed. * shake head *

Got back to the barn in one piece and then started putting everyone away. I gave Skylla some treats for being so good, talked with the girls some more, mostly about tattoos and then headed home. We had gone on a 4-hour trail ride!!

Puppies in the barn

And I know my hip is going to start feeling this tomorrow. Oh well, it was worth it. Next time, I'll bring Dollar out for some fun.