Yay for posting on the same day that I went out!
The farrier came out this weekend. He was actually only an hour late, so that is an improvement!
I am so proud of Harry. He didn't even need to be tranquilized to do his trim! Only Nina, but she is getting better at taking the tranquilizer. We didn't have to tie her to the H post today, we just were able to give it to her in her stall without her killing anyone, so that is a definite improvement!
After Harry and Brie got their trims, I brushed them up and played with them. I had Harry longe for a while and then asked my mom if she would longe him while I sat on him bareback. We never did that before and he was so good!!! He didn't try anything goofy at all and was actually really well behaved in response to me being on him bareback. So I am very proud of him. =]
Brie was stiff today, as we didn't make it out yesterday. She was bored with longeing so I ran around the arena with her a couple of times and over the board. Then I got the idea to teach her a trick so she could use her little brain instead of going in a boring circle (she is a pro at that), so I got some carrots and started to teach her how to bow! She was actually getting the hang of it and went so far down by the end that she was touching her forehead to the dirt as she bowed. Pretty soon I won't need carrots! And then she'll be able to lay down and get back up for people to mount her! That is wishful thinking right now, but it is entirely a possibility. I love teaching her tricks. Just like how I taught her to give kisses.
I won't be out next week (fingers crossed) because hopefully I will be in LA! But if I get stuck home because of flights, I will take a little video of her bowing to show you all =]
Showing posts with label bareback. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bareback. Show all posts
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Day 211
My mom read somewhere earlier this week that celery was a good alternative to carrots for horses with insulin resistance. So we figured we'd try it out. Absolutely no one liked it! Brie thought it was disgusting, Nina wouldn't even look at it, and Harry ate one stalk and then spit out the rest that we tried to feed him. Oh well, guess we just have to cut back on the carrot intake!
Brie is looking kind of skinny, but her eye sockets were filling in last week, so that means her sugar was going up...I feel bad for her. Poor Brie. If she ate enough, she'd probably be happier, but we have to keep her underweight to control her sugar...The vet's supposed to come out this month for shots and teeth, so maybe we'll have her test Brie's blood and then give us some more advice about how to manage her.
We were waiting around for the farrier today. While we were waiting, I decided to longe Harry. I feel like I'm dreaming! He's absolutely wonderful longeing now! I got curious after we stopped and had my brother knock over a couple of poles and lay them on the ground for Harry to walk over them. He didn't want to at first, even though he has tons of times before, but after he saw Nina walking over them he just went for it. Then we decided to try the tarp again. Harry didn't learn by example from that! Nina just thought the tarp was the silliest thing and walked right over it, stomped on it, kicked it around, pushed it with her nose, and even picked it up in her mouth and flung it around! Harry, meanwhile, was fearing for his life (and Nina's). We eventually just settled on him being calm and observing Nina and decided it was a good time to have his break. We put him away and got out Brie, who also thought the whole ordeal was ridiculous. In the end, we laid the tarp over Brie and Nina (separately) and walked them around with it. Brie was used to it because I show costume with her and wear a dress, so she's used to something hanging over her butt, and Nina was really well behaved and unphased by it too! At least now I now that if I ever can't bring Brie to a show, I can do costume with Nina! I feel a new outfit coming on the horizon! I better fire up that sewing machine.
We didn't know whether we should ride them or not, but my brother and mom ended up tacking up Nina and Harry to ride. I only put a bareback pad and bit hanger on Brie because I figured with my luck the farrier would show up right as I started to ride. And just as I thought, I was right! I only got a couple of laps around the arena, as Brie wanted to fly, before the farrier showed up. He did Sadie first, but I dismounted anyways to help him out cleaning up and handling Sadie and the rest of the horses.
My mom switched Harry's bosal to a softer one in order to tuck his head in without using a martingale. We changed this because Pasos resist pressure rather than giving in to it, so after this change, his barbada was stronger than his bosal, which would theoretically lower his head. I got the chance to watch him in action today, rather than being on his back, and he looked pretty good! Only time will tell if this method worked.
Last night, I found this video of Harry's father on Youtube. I was so surprised about how similarly they gait, which I guess would make sense, but having never seen his father in action, it makes me realize that Harry's not actually doing anything wrong with his gait --- he only has those little spouts of nervous tapdancing. After watching this, it really made me proud that he's on the right track to follow in his father's footsteps!
Brie is looking kind of skinny, but her eye sockets were filling in last week, so that means her sugar was going up...I feel bad for her. Poor Brie. If she ate enough, she'd probably be happier, but we have to keep her underweight to control her sugar...The vet's supposed to come out this month for shots and teeth, so maybe we'll have her test Brie's blood and then give us some more advice about how to manage her.
We were waiting around for the farrier today. While we were waiting, I decided to longe Harry. I feel like I'm dreaming! He's absolutely wonderful longeing now! I got curious after we stopped and had my brother knock over a couple of poles and lay them on the ground for Harry to walk over them. He didn't want to at first, even though he has tons of times before, but after he saw Nina walking over them he just went for it. Then we decided to try the tarp again. Harry didn't learn by example from that! Nina just thought the tarp was the silliest thing and walked right over it, stomped on it, kicked it around, pushed it with her nose, and even picked it up in her mouth and flung it around! Harry, meanwhile, was fearing for his life (and Nina's). We eventually just settled on him being calm and observing Nina and decided it was a good time to have his break. We put him away and got out Brie, who also thought the whole ordeal was ridiculous. In the end, we laid the tarp over Brie and Nina (separately) and walked them around with it. Brie was used to it because I show costume with her and wear a dress, so she's used to something hanging over her butt, and Nina was really well behaved and unphased by it too! At least now I now that if I ever can't bring Brie to a show, I can do costume with Nina! I feel a new outfit coming on the horizon! I better fire up that sewing machine.
We didn't know whether we should ride them or not, but my brother and mom ended up tacking up Nina and Harry to ride. I only put a bareback pad and bit hanger on Brie because I figured with my luck the farrier would show up right as I started to ride. And just as I thought, I was right! I only got a couple of laps around the arena, as Brie wanted to fly, before the farrier showed up. He did Sadie first, but I dismounted anyways to help him out cleaning up and handling Sadie and the rest of the horses.
My mom switched Harry's bosal to a softer one in order to tuck his head in without using a martingale. We changed this because Pasos resist pressure rather than giving in to it, so after this change, his barbada was stronger than his bosal, which would theoretically lower his head. I got the chance to watch him in action today, rather than being on his back, and he looked pretty good! Only time will tell if this method worked.
Last night, I found this video of Harry's father on Youtube. I was so surprised about how similarly they gait, which I guess would make sense, but having never seen his father in action, it makes me realize that Harry's not actually doing anything wrong with his gait --- he only has those little spouts of nervous tapdancing. After watching this, it really made me proud that he's on the right track to follow in his father's footsteps!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Days 160 & 161
Saturday
I actually only rode Taco today. Jane was there and Paco joked that I should ride Taco again since he didn't see me last time I rode him, and Jane was all for it! I was kind of just looking forward to relaxing on one of my horses, but I rode Taco anyways. She was all excited because she bought a new bit for Taco, so Jane wanted to hear how I thought of the bit but she ended up having to leave.
I think the new bit works fabulously with Taco. It has kind of a high port, so it's further back in his mouth, and he is super responsive to it. On his old bit, I had to pull a little harder (which would make him angry) to get him to slow down, but on this one it was just a mild touch and he slowed to a walk. He has a fabulous walk too! Way more calm than the previous times I've ridden him. But as a wise old horse at the age of 16, I really need to be on my toes because I'm sure he knows every trick in the book, that old coot!
I only cooled Harry, who was super hot because Paco rode him very hard. He was still putting up a fight from last week about flexing, but who knows? He could've slept funny and been stiff...I like to give my horses the benefit of the doubt and everyone always makes fun of me for it, but really, if you slept weirdly, you wouldn't want to be throwing your neck around!
Sunday
So. Hot.
I went with the intention of just giving them all a nice bath and deworming them, but when we got there I somehow got roped into riding. After I had already rinsed Brie because she was icky and sweaty from just standing in her stall, my mom insisted that I at least just walk her because her leg was looking a little swollen so I just waited for her to dry, brushed her hair, and threw on a bit for a bareback ride.
Without a saddle, I could really feel her limping at the warm up and felt it go away when she was all warmed up. We really only walked and it was great! I thought for sure she'd try to take off because she wasn't wearing a saddle, but either she was super hot too or she was actually complying! Now THAT was the nice relaxing ride I was looking for yesterday -- although, it wasn't too fun having horse sweat and hair on my breeches!
Paco decided to ride Nina today too, since my brother was getting super aggravated with her because she kept going into a little canter. He rode her for a lonnng time, I felt bad because it was so hot out, she was almost black with sweat when he finished (and she's light brown!). He said that we should maybe change her bit, but I don't know, I think she's doing really well, especially since I never ride her and got second place. I don't put too much worth into people's words like that when I know that they're doing well. Like yesterday, Paco said something about them not performing as well as they did when they didn't have shoes on -- uh, yeah. The shoes aren't the ultralite ones, they're normal, they haven't had shoes on in over a year so they probably need a little bit more muscle to build up, and it's 100 degrees out pretty much every weekend since then! *shakes head*
Anyways, I don't know if I'll be out for the next two weekends...we may or may not be going on vacation. I'd rather stay here and ride!
I actually only rode Taco today. Jane was there and Paco joked that I should ride Taco again since he didn't see me last time I rode him, and Jane was all for it! I was kind of just looking forward to relaxing on one of my horses, but I rode Taco anyways. She was all excited because she bought a new bit for Taco, so Jane wanted to hear how I thought of the bit but she ended up having to leave.
I think the new bit works fabulously with Taco. It has kind of a high port, so it's further back in his mouth, and he is super responsive to it. On his old bit, I had to pull a little harder (which would make him angry) to get him to slow down, but on this one it was just a mild touch and he slowed to a walk. He has a fabulous walk too! Way more calm than the previous times I've ridden him. But as a wise old horse at the age of 16, I really need to be on my toes because I'm sure he knows every trick in the book, that old coot!
I only cooled Harry, who was super hot because Paco rode him very hard. He was still putting up a fight from last week about flexing, but who knows? He could've slept funny and been stiff...I like to give my horses the benefit of the doubt and everyone always makes fun of me for it, but really, if you slept weirdly, you wouldn't want to be throwing your neck around!
Sunday
So. Hot.
I went with the intention of just giving them all a nice bath and deworming them, but when we got there I somehow got roped into riding. After I had already rinsed Brie because she was icky and sweaty from just standing in her stall, my mom insisted that I at least just walk her because her leg was looking a little swollen so I just waited for her to dry, brushed her hair, and threw on a bit for a bareback ride.
Without a saddle, I could really feel her limping at the warm up and felt it go away when she was all warmed up. We really only walked and it was great! I thought for sure she'd try to take off because she wasn't wearing a saddle, but either she was super hot too or she was actually complying! Now THAT was the nice relaxing ride I was looking for yesterday -- although, it wasn't too fun having horse sweat and hair on my breeches!
Paco decided to ride Nina today too, since my brother was getting super aggravated with her because she kept going into a little canter. He rode her for a lonnng time, I felt bad because it was so hot out, she was almost black with sweat when he finished (and she's light brown!). He said that we should maybe change her bit, but I don't know, I think she's doing really well, especially since I never ride her and got second place. I don't put too much worth into people's words like that when I know that they're doing well. Like yesterday, Paco said something about them not performing as well as they did when they didn't have shoes on -- uh, yeah. The shoes aren't the ultralite ones, they're normal, they haven't had shoes on in over a year so they probably need a little bit more muscle to build up, and it's 100 degrees out pretty much every weekend since then! *shakes head*
Anyways, I don't know if I'll be out for the next two weekends...we may or may not be going on vacation. I'd rather stay here and ride!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Days 117 & 118
Saturday
I only went out with mom today. It was a slow kind of day and I got to work with Nina. Today, we faced the oh so scary scissors for a trim! She was already pretty shaken up because the vet came out this morning, so I'm sure the last thing she wanted to deal with was me snipping around, but she has these whiskers on the sides of her face behind her cheeks that look like gills and it drives me crazy! So after a couple minutes of head tossing, she gave in and relaxed and let me snip off the gills and under-jaw whiskers and now she looks quite polished =]
Lots of round-working today. She tends to throw her head when you ask to flex and back up, so we worked on that. She trotted for a while until she got into gait. A fairly good ride, I'm sure as I continue riding her I'll get better at figuring out what she likes and doesn't like.
Rode Brie bareback today with just a bit! She was slightly thrown off by this and I almost slid off when I wanted her to turn one way and she decided she was going the other because of a big scary crate in the corner (the same scary crate that's been there for a month now...), and we just walked around. Super relaxing! But short because it was her dinner time and she was getting antsy.
Sunday
Everyone went out today and I rode Brie first. Now that she knows that sometimes I'll let her canter, that's her favorite thing to do! I would've worked on it more today, but I didn't think I should because I haven't really worked her since before Christmas, so we just walked for a while as a good warmup and then corto'd and got in quite a bit of a largo here and there. We were both pretty happy.
Harry was pretty good too today! I have to work more on getting him to give me his head to the left side. He fights everyone about that. He's gotten a lot better since we've started, he doesn't get so angry about it that he rears, but it should still be easier than it is. It shouldn't be this big production to make a small flex. So we will continue working on his flexibility/willingness.
I can't wait until it starts warming up. Everyone wants to go outside for a run and I feel anxious at the idea of going outside even walking because of hidden ice!
I only went out with mom today. It was a slow kind of day and I got to work with Nina. Today, we faced the oh so scary scissors for a trim! She was already pretty shaken up because the vet came out this morning, so I'm sure the last thing she wanted to deal with was me snipping around, but she has these whiskers on the sides of her face behind her cheeks that look like gills and it drives me crazy! So after a couple minutes of head tossing, she gave in and relaxed and let me snip off the gills and under-jaw whiskers and now she looks quite polished =]
Lots of round-working today. She tends to throw her head when you ask to flex and back up, so we worked on that. She trotted for a while until she got into gait. A fairly good ride, I'm sure as I continue riding her I'll get better at figuring out what she likes and doesn't like.
Rode Brie bareback today with just a bit! She was slightly thrown off by this and I almost slid off when I wanted her to turn one way and she decided she was going the other because of a big scary crate in the corner (the same scary crate that's been there for a month now...), and we just walked around. Super relaxing! But short because it was her dinner time and she was getting antsy.
Sunday
Everyone went out today and I rode Brie first. Now that she knows that sometimes I'll let her canter, that's her favorite thing to do! I would've worked on it more today, but I didn't think I should because I haven't really worked her since before Christmas, so we just walked for a while as a good warmup and then corto'd and got in quite a bit of a largo here and there. We were both pretty happy.
Harry was pretty good too today! I have to work more on getting him to give me his head to the left side. He fights everyone about that. He's gotten a lot better since we've started, he doesn't get so angry about it that he rears, but it should still be easier than it is. It shouldn't be this big production to make a small flex. So we will continue working on his flexibility/willingness.
I can't wait until it starts warming up. Everyone wants to go outside for a run and I feel anxious at the idea of going outside even walking because of hidden ice!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Day 87
As expected, Harry was much better today. He was calm and collected and I got compliments from Ray. He worked perfectly well with the tack change. We had to punch extra holes in the bridle because his face is so tiny. Brie's saddle looked really nice on him. He was very relaxed and did wonderfully on the soundboard after the first pass. He tends to break gait in the middle, Paco suggested lightly tugging him to one side that way it keeps his attention. I hope we place high in the State Fair!
Nina was fantastic in the board today. Her head is finally coming down more where it's supposed to be.
Brie and I had an adventure today. I was too tired to fully tack her up so I just got the bit hanger and a rein and we went! Walking of course. Completely bareback, my thighs are killing me! I have to give major props to anyone who can jump horses bareback or even ride at a full gallop bareback like in the movies. They must have thighs of steel!! I'm kind of sad that we have to leave Brie home but I think maybe she'll like the vacation away from Nina (and especially Harry). One more practice before the show!!
Nina was fantastic in the board today. Her head is finally coming down more where it's supposed to be.
Brie and I had an adventure today. I was too tired to fully tack her up so I just got the bit hanger and a rein and we went! Walking of course. Completely bareback, my thighs are killing me! I have to give major props to anyone who can jump horses bareback or even ride at a full gallop bareback like in the movies. They must have thighs of steel!! I'm kind of sad that we have to leave Brie home but I think maybe she'll like the vacation away from Nina (and especially Harry). One more practice before the show!!
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