Show Time!

Horse show tomorrow! I am only just now, at 11 PM, starting to get tired! I don't know if I'll be able to sleep! WEEEE!

Wish us luck...

Ho Hum.

No baby sitter this week, so not much riding... Ashley's back to normal, don't know what was wrong with her. MiL is getting a medicine hat Paint, did I mention that yet? He's fat, but pretty good looking. I might be the first to ride him out here; we're not sure of his past training but he's apparently a really sweet guy.

So I have a problem; the Mustang Makeover blog is gone for me! The only way I can get to it is from the EMM website, and I can't post anything anymore :( I need an invite or something I think. So if you know anything, please help.

We're going camping this weekend, so I need to go pack.

Hammer Time

I've decided to officially change Hammar's name to Hammer, because it's pronounced the same and I don't want the announcer at the show later this month to mispronounce it or get confused.

Hammer has been getting very, very hyper (to say the least) over jumps, so I decided to take him out on a long ride today and just let him run as far and as fast as he wanted. We went about 4 miles, trotting most of the way, jumped a downed tree, then galloped around a hill and 1/4 of the way back. Hammer trotted most of the way home again until I brought him down to a walk to cool down. But then of course we saw the tree that I like to jump, so several tried later we got over it, then Hammer galloped around like a crazy horse for 10 more minutes (we practiced flying lead changes and "barrel racing" around trees). Finally we get home, so I took the saddle off Hammer, brushed the sweaty grime off and jumped back on bareback. I tried to practice my English bareback equitation, but I've determined it is completely impossible to post bareback, at least when your horse is acting like a complete maniac.

Long story short, Hammer is a beast who cannot be tired out.

Ashley, my mare, is feeling off, I think. We had been working her harder and it's starting to really show; she hasn't looked this muscled ever! But, her coat is dull, her head hangs even lower than usual (she's half Quarter Horse and it shows in her level top line) and her eyes have lost their gleam that is usually present during any weather (and it's monsoon season). Something's wrong with her. My MiL thinks she's either pregnant, in heat, or cystic. I've put her in the round pen so I can feed her separately and monitor her and all that. I might take her out tomorrow and see if maybe she's just more bored than usual or something. I doubt it though - it's something inside her, a virus or something. Or cramps; maybe it's just the wrong time of month and it's hitting her harder than usual... We shall see.

I have an eye exam tomorrow so Nine might have to wait until Friday, or next week.

Two Days, Two Spills.

On Thursday I had Fiance up on Ashley to hold Nine while I get on. It went well up until I asked Nine to move his hindquarters over so we could move out, then Nine started bucking. My fiance says I stayed on really well until he started spinning. But I made it about 5 seconds! Not bad, if I do say so myself. I wasn't hurt badly; My wrist hurt and I now have two bruises on my legs, but I'm fine. I got back on and had Fiance pony Nine around for about 7 minutes; that's all I could do because I started feeling the nerves. An airplane flew over head, which didn't bother Nine at all, but it made me feel like I would throw up, gah. So I got off, stumbled to the fence and sat down until I stopped shaking... Then I went and sat on Hammar and cried (I have no idea why that hit me that hard and so long after I had been thrown) while Fiance worked with Nine, sacking him out and all that.

Then, yesterday (Friday) my friend came over to get some more pictures taken for her Senior Pictures. We had daylight left over, so I saddled Hammar up in his English tack and took him over some jumps. Casie was crouching next to the bigger jump to get a shot while Hammar was air born, but evidently Hammar wasn't expecting it, he swerved to the side, and I fell off. Again, I was okay - I had dirt in my breeches, my hand is scraped up and my pinky finger was hurting... Luckily I was wearing my helmet, because my head did hit the ground fairly hard. But I didn't even have a headache later. I was also wearing the helmet on Nine but I didn't hit my head that time. Anyways, I got back on Hammar, walked him back and forth around the jump so he could see Casie and knew she was there, then he tried again. He did the jump, but the pictures we took came out pretty blurry...

The idea was to get some pictures of us jumping so I can have my position evaluated - I'm taking a Hunt Seat Equitation class at the horse show next month. So I guess I'll post them here and anyone who sees them can give some input. We have some decent ones of Takeoff, Airborn, and Landing. Sorry some are blurry! We'll try to figure out how to do it right by the time the show rolls around.

Takeoff on the smaller jump (I know my hands need to come forward; I have this problem on small jumps apparently):


REALLY blurry Airborn over smaller jump - again my hands should be more forward, but hey:


Takeoff on larger jump:


Landing from larger jump (yes, Hammar over did it, he gets very enthusiastic; and yes, that's my daughter on the mounting block in the background):


So there it is. Let me know what you think!

Another Ride!

My younger and less broken friend came over today to help me with Nine! Nine was doing his act of half buck, half jump as we try to get on - it's becoming more frequent which means we need to stop letting him know that he will get away with it! Anywho, he was doing that yesterday when I tried briefly to mount him, and it freaked me out more, and then we ran out of time. So today we tried again; me, MiL and Casie, the younger less broken type. Casie lived through Nine's antics twice before he would let her get all the way up on him. She followed my routine and got all her weight on him once or twice before swinging the other leg over. Unfortunately she has a blister on her heel and her boot broke it open again (ouch)! So I traded with her and took over from there - Nine was perfect! MiL was - as usual - on Ashley acting as a rock for Nine as well as for me (and Casie this time too). But MiL had to leave for work so I only had 20 minutes to work with him - I got on and we ponied around the round pen for a few minutes, then I got off. Nine spooked when I came off, so I got back on and dismounted again; that time he was good. We could have ridden some more, but I wanted help from MiL putting the saddles away and such.

Tomorrow Casie is going to have her Senior pictures taken with Nine, 'cause he's the most gorgeous thing in existence and all that. I had mine with Hammar so it's turning into a tradition - high school pictures and wild horses, hehe! Afterward we might have time to work with Nine and riding again, then I need to haul a goat to her new home. I sold little Thelma for $60, so now I have some gas money to haul Hammar and Ashley to the County Fair horse show, yay! Ashley's just coming along for the ride and so Casie and MiL have a horse to muck about with; Hammar and I will compete in English Bareback (equitation class on the flat), Hunter Hack over fences 2'6" (only to jumps, but I think we will be the only ones in the ring at a time), Hunt Seat Equitation over Fences 2'6" (this is more than 2 jumps; like 6 or 8 I think), and Working Hunter over Fences 2'6" (at least 8 jumps). I should be fun!

Well goodnight everyone; I'm off to Dream Land for the night.

Hammar and Ashley

Sorry for the lack of updates; I have done almost nothing with Nine except leading him from one pen to another and putting fly spray on him... But Hammar and Ashley have been being worked.

There is a loop of road that goes around Saddle Crater; I thought it was about 3 miles, but it takes Hammar 2 hours to trot it; I KNOW he's going more that 1.5 miles per hour... So I figure the loop must be more than 3 miles. Anyways, Ashley can do it alternating walk to trot back to walk every 20 seconds; Hammar can do it at a trot almost the whole way - I let him walk for 20 seconds every time he wanted to slow down but he only needed 3 breaks like this the whole way.

Yesterday Ashley got a fairly hard lesson in right leads. Some days she changes leads just fine, some days... well, not so fine. She very rarely does flying lead changes, but yesterday she was being especially tough. So I let her run for 1/2 mile or so, then we cantered some circles. It took many many tries before she got on her right lead. She only did it then, I think, because she had gotten SO frustrated with me... She bolted when I asked her to move in to a lope. BUT - she was on the right lead when she did it! So I kept her going in a circle to the right, and had her canter as long as she would. Then it was only about 500 tries again before she got the right lead again, hehe.

Today my mother in law and I rode out across the road. We had a very nice run through a cinder pit until Ashley broke the brush she was tied to while MiL took a pee. My MiL estimates we went at least 10 miles, and Ashley has really shown a huge improvement in her stamina. She still has energy left over, even though she has been worked fairly hard (for her) twice this week. Hammar was being rather callus in that he kept scraping my knee on Ash's flank, and ignoring my leg cues. But he showed his worth on the cinder pit, running like the wind! He has barely broken a sweat this entire week, even through the unknown length trot, and even through the cinder run he had to catch his breath (he is rarely worked hard enough to be breathing hard - he just doesn't run out of wind!) he still was only sweaty under the saddle. Ashley has - both days - has sweat on all parts of her body, but she is feeling great and looking awesome! Her hindquarters are really filling out, finally. She's half quarter horse but you'd never know it looking at pictures of her minuscule hindquarters!

Starting Tuesday Elayne goes back to the sitter's and I can start back up again.

Scaredy Cat!

Today the plan was to ride Nine with my mom as well as my mother in law along. Well, the winds and rain (if you can call that sprinkling "rain") have been coming in earlier in the day so it was already breezy when we got out there. Then the Grandmas started very subtly trying to best each other in every aspect imaginable... The tension got to Nine and I. Nine hasn't been ridden in at least a week, and he was, well, spirited today, which didn't help at all. I was getting extremely nervous and I just had a terrible feeling about riding him. Last time I actually got on a horse acting like that when I felt like that, I got bucked off Hammar. So I worked with Nine until he would stand for my weight in the stirrup then called it done.




Me (safe on Hammar) and my mom rode to the wash, maybe 2 1/2 miles away, and we got some pictures:



Then back home we posed for more photos: