What a Good Boy!

Wink was hanging out watching the action in the yard with my Mom and daughter playing with some trail obstacles. So when they headed out for another round through the field, I snagged up a halter and got the boy out.

I led him over the 4x4, over the planks, over the logs.... then tied on the lead and led him over the steps to climb on. I'm really enjoying this colt. His whoa is getting a lot better and that danged boy walked right over the planks for me without any hesitation.

We still have some "give" issues but not very much. He's bending for me, he's whoaing pretty good, and he even backed a few steps for me with just a nylon halter and some thigh pressure!

Spike squealed at him once and Wink skittered behind me to save him lmao. But that's ok. Spike got over it, and they will soon realize that they will be long-mile trail partners.

I HAD A FREAKING BLAST TONIGHT! Look at the one picture where Spike and Annie are watching Wink go over the planks lmao. I think it's hilarious.

I look like a giant cow riding this tall narrow colt, but he has a lot of growing to do and I plan to shrink (gotta stay away from the donuts smothered in strawberries and cream).

Man, I had fun tonight. Fun, fun fun!!!!!!!!

I Like Your Pony!

Makena got a pony! Our friends borrowed our trailer last night and made a road trip to surprise their daughter with the CUTEST pony! She's 7 years old (hmmm the pony and Makena are the same age). She has a bit of white hairs on her her withers which tells me she's been ridden more than just a few times.

But she was a little sassy tonight! I'll give her some slack that she arrived late last night and thrown in a shed with horses all around whinnying to her. She's in heat, and she's wondering about everything around her. She's a light on the front-end which I don't like... but we'll change up the bit and see if we can get that stopped with less pressure there.

Ness did a good job riding it out of her before Makena got on. Ness stuck with Makena the entire time she was on this pony to make sure she would stay safe. Makena was THRILLED! In fact, when we pulled up tonight, she came running with a huge grin on her face yelling for Ness to get out of the truck and come see! I am not thrilled about the light front-end, but she came out of it while Ness was riding her.

I'm kinda wondering if they taught her the rearing trick... it seems might automatic rather than aggressive really... but we'll see how it goes. Ness even loped the little turd lol. She's a cute cute pony! and look at the smile on Makena's face.

Yay Makena!

A Cow Riding a Horse

Ok... so I know I've been on a feeding frenzy lately, but tonight's pictures made me realize that I REALLY need to drop some pounds before my daughter's wedding in September! MOOOO!

However! I had a great night with my Mr. Wink. I brushed him shiny, even with some Show Sheen. I got his tail totally brushed out while we pretended we were ground-tied. Then my friend's trailer was close to being hooked to her truck, so a few cranks set it back down and we practiced loading. He has been loaded twice before in his life. The last time was about a year ago when Dad brought him here. Here's a picture of Wink's butt with resting leg wondering if there's a treat up front!

It took a while to back him out because that was a huge giant step, ya know. But he twisted his head around to look at me behind him and finally took the plunge. Then we petted and loved and we loaded again! He did a terrific job!

Sooooo I led him around some more and took him over to the steps Dad dragged out here to help him in mounting. They are really some cool steps and don't tip over easily like some mounting stools. Although you can't haul this one with you. That would be just a tad awkward lugging them around. But they work great in the yard!

We flexed around, did some figure-eights.

I really hadn't planned on getting on him. It just happened that way. I kept looking at the hard rock driveway and plotting for my dismount.

The closest we came to that was when he decided the hose was much more terrifying when I was on him than when I lead him over it. He whipped around, took a few big jumps and completely forgot what the one-rein stop and "whoa" meant. We struggled for quite a while and he headed toward my friend, Clarissa, as if she were going to save him.

Clarissa stood her ground, gave him the evil eye and stuck her arm up at him. Finally I got his attention a bit again and got him turned around the way I wanted him to go.

Just prior to that when we were making such nice figure-eights I thought "I betcha I could take him out on a trail ride tomorrow!" Ok, so we probably could, but I need to put a much better whoa on him or who knows where we'll end up. Hubby and friends think that if we take three of the older steady horses, Wink will follow along without trouble. They may be right. I'm game to try it. (checks to make sure her health insurance is paid up).

All in all.... it was a spontaneous night with Wink. I hadn't planned to ride at all. I just wanted to play. But gosh.. he was RIGHT there by Dad's mounting-steps and I couldn't help myself. And, really, other than the spinning-bolting-try-to-run-back-to-the-pen episode, he was really good!

This was the first time I have ridden him outside of the round pen.

Hubby says "Next time I want to see you run across that field and straight through the pond."

Uh... yeah. You first. lol

First Rides

(disclaimer: My regular camera is NOT working properly so the photos here are off my cellphone and taken by Jay-O and not the best quality....)

When I was 16... I rode colts for Dad. When I was 16... I rode colts because I wanted to ride those dang colts! When I was 16 I was a lot dumber and a lot braver.

Nowwwwwwww.... I'm not claiming I'm any smarter now, but 30 years later... but I find myself with a really nice bunch of colts. And guess what? I'm riding them! I will admit that I've armed myself with a bit more knowledge and take things a bit slower than I did when I was 16. And it's working.

I have a really nice herd we call the A-Team. They consist of some very nice show mares, some excellent old speed/rope geldings, and they are all just really good all around go-to horses as well.

Then I have the B-Team. Over the last couple of years, I've picked up some really nice young horses. There are three 3yo geldings. Two are mine, one is my Dad's. Then I have three 2yo babies... of which two are Arab geldings and one is an adorable Palomino filly by a horse a friend owns. The 2yo Pal and the 3yo Sorrel are full siblings from a friend's stud who I admire implicitly. These are two of the last offspring he had before my friend decided to geld him. I'm am honored to own these colts.

Tonight I got home from work and went to the house just to decompress after a long week at work. I was sitting at the computer vegging out when some friends pulled in. My own 12yo daughter was at my folks's house spending time with Grandma. But her best bud came over with her Dad and came in to the house to see what I was doing.

The "guys" were supposed to go to the saddle club to work on the new arena, and this young lady sure wasn't looking forward to hanging out over there. So I asked her "Do you want to play with colts with me?" "Sure!" she said. So we went outside, gathered up tack we wanted and headed to the round pen.

I let the horse choose me. My Poco Bueno gelding, Rojo chose me first. And I'm glad, because it's his turn anyway.

He has been saddled and he has done ground work. One thing he HATES is when I bounce around him. So we had a little session on bouncing when he couldn't run away from me. It took less than a minute before he stood still, sighed, and looked at me. Yay!

He saddled up fine and we longed a bit with the saddle and an O-Ring. No problems there.

Sooooooooooo.... I was in the round pen... just Rojo and me. We saddled up.. I bounced around. I got on. That stocky little red horse was wonderful. We walked and we trotted. No buck... a tiny bit of confusion on what I was asking from the bit, so we'll work on softness there. But he tried his little heart out to do what I asked.

Hubby and Father were down in the yard yakking until they finally realized what I was doing so they came up to watch. Rojo and I demonstrated all we'd accomplished this night. I am SO proud of that Rojo horse. He's smart. Ride #1 was a success.

Dad was happy for us, so I asked if he wanted me to work with his Blue horse a bit. I had already been fiddling with this 3yo from the ground but hadn't been on him yet. So I led Rojo over to where the other colts were chowing down on hay and caught up Mr. Blue.

We showed Dad how nicely he transitioned in his walking, trotting and whoaing on the longe line. We did get some lope, but I didn't push it.

I have been so impressed with this young gelding that I went ahead and tied him to retrieve my saddle. He saddled with no incident. He took the O-Ring fine, although we had to punch some holes in the headstall to fit better, but he took it all in stride.

We flexed, we turned, we walked, we trotted. At one point when we started to trot, he got confused and nearly ran over Dad. I yelled "Watch out!" and we skittered by at a very fast trot. Blue headed straight into a panel and put the brakes on. Thank goodness for the barrel-saddle that fits my butt and legs really nice. That thing helps me balance and hang on. I did tip forward and sideways a bit, but that little colt stopped for me and I regained my center. Then we moved forward again in a nice walk and then some more trotting.

Not a buck, not much of a fuss. And when I dismounted, mounted, dismounted, mounted again... he stood right there with ears flicking listening to me. Ride #1 was a success.

Soooooooooooo for a night where I was starting out just vegging and being lazy, it turned into an INCREDIBLE night of really sweet progression with two of the 3yos that got their first rides tonight.

It just doesn't get much better than this. :-)

I thought poking them with a spoon was bad!

By the way, it is not DEAD

I would really hate to be the one to try and rescue him. I am pretty sure this qualifies as one of the things that really pisses a badger off!

2009 Nebraska Horse Expo

Well, another year of Expo is done and it was a lot of fun. Vanessa got to ride in the Mane Challenge competition, the Youth Rodeo and participated in two clinics. One clinic was with Richard Shrake and the other with Julie Goodnight.

Day 1 we got there and I groaned at the work ahead of me getting a Paint horse cleaned up for show. We bathed, we clipped, we banded, we froze our butts off! We must have done a pretty good job though because Mom overhead a guy telling his buddy "See those two horses back there? they are stalled all time because look at how clean they are." WOO HOO! Yep, we must have done a fine job.

Day 2 Vanessa and Annie competed in Western Showmanship and then rode English in the Pleasure class. In classes of 20 entrants, they placed 5th in Showmanship and 4th in English. Vanessa was the youngest rider of the entire group. I was very pleased with how they did.

After the Pleasure class, we had to rush rush rush to get Vanessa back in to Western clothes and get the two speed horses over to the other arena for the rodeo. I already had them saddled, but we didn't have much time in between. In the rushing, Vanessa's nerves shot up. She suddenly didn't want to do Break-Away roping. After some fussing and arguing that it was her idea, not mine... she calmed down and went in. She didn't catch her calf, but she looked pretty good trying! Spike looooooooves that stuff and you can see the determination on his face. I love how his forelock is sticking straight up in fine Don King fashion.

She did catch her goat, but she had a bit of a snag on her dismount that cost her time so she didn't place. But her goat stayed tied! and that was one thing she knew she had to accomplish.

Barrels and Poles went ok with Buck. Buck has pretty much had the winter off to get fat.. and he has certainly accomplished that! They ran clean patterns though and it was a good first time out.

Day 3 was Trail class. It wasn't a horribly difficult pattern, but it wasn't a piece of cake either. There was a lot of precision required. Although they performed their pivots perfectly outside the arena, Ness and Annie had some troubles with it once in the class. They touched a timber in the sidepassing, but everything else was nice and clean. I was surprised she didn't place and went to try to find the judge afterwards to see if I could look at the score sheets in order to see what he saw that I missed. I would have placed her around 5th or 6th probably. Oh well! The judge's word is final!

This was the day they got to fill in a vacant spot in the Richard Shrake clinic. At first I was bored and wondering what he would have them do. It ended very exciting though because after he put the three girls through a few exercises, his assistant took their bridles and had them lunging using their seat and not their hands. I LOVE this exercise because it really does help the girls realize how much they depend on their hands.

He had them posting at a trot while trying to find the beat of the stride with their hands. Then he had Vanessa pretend to swing a loop at a lope. Then he asked her to swing with both hands. Then he asked her to do them opposite directions lol. She was trying and it was funny and then he laughed and said "Ok, that doesn't do a dang thing for you, but I wanted to see if you could do it."

As Vanessa continued to lope on the lunge line he said "Ok, now put your hands on the horn and swing your leg off in a dismount." I saw her head whip around and ask him "WHAT???" but she took another round and attempted it. She miscalculated the stride and the lift of her leg over her pleasure saddle and landed on her butt in front of Annie. Annie stopped promptly as the crowd said "oooooooooo". I yelled "SHE CAN DO IT!" and she got back up there. She started in again and did twice perfectly. The crowd applauded and I was very proud. Mr. Shrake told her "Good job."

Later that night I very successfully embarrassed Vanessa on the dance floor. Oops lol. Heck, I was having fun!

Day 4 we got up bright and early again for Vanessa and Annie to join in Julie Goodnight clinic. I think I got more out of this than Vanessa did. I liked listening to Julie explain why we ride in the positions we do and how to change what we're doing wrong.

When that was finished, we ran back over to the main arena because our friend Dan was going to ride Spike in the Stake race. It was AWESOME! 23yo Spike FLEW and rocked the house. They got the fastest time earning 1st place points for the Quarter Horse team. I was so proud of them. I was jumping up and down screaming as they were running to the finish line. That old boy still has some wheels.

The Awards for the Mane Challenge resulted in the Paint team that Vanessa was on to get 3rd place. The Quarter Horse team got 4th. The Paint team had 32 points, the 2nd place team had 33, and the winnig team had 34. It was very close.

I'm thrilled for the 1st place team because a young man who was obviously not as comfortable as the rest being in this competition helped them to win it. I think he was trying hard not to beam with silly joy lol.

It was a long, exhausting, and wonderful weekend full of horses, friends, and laughs. I'm looking forward to 2010.

The Dogs

It snowed last night. On average we got probably 3" of snow. Some areas drifted in to maybe a foot. Not so bad really. The big dogs were blasting through it playing and scooping up bitefuls as they ran.

Shaddick, the Doberman, looooooooves to run. And for a short-haired dog, he loves the snow too. He was having a blast. Lou, the Mastiff/GSD, doesn't mind the snow at all. Shaddick tried to get him to play.

Chandler is my tiny Yorkie. He weighs about 4.5 pounds soaking wet. Ordinarily I don't let him out while I'm doing chores because his focus is being near me and he's not very smart about staying out of the way of hooves.

He had snuck out when I left the house. The snow kept him on the deck for quite a while. At least I knew where he was at all times because he was barking at me.

I was filling a water tank when I realized the barking had stopped. Hmmmm. I turned toward the house and found Chandler trying to get to me. LOLOLOL... I felt bad for him, but he was so determined he ran straight through a drift and got stuck! I couldn't help but laugh at him.

Finally he couldn't get any further so I scooped him up and set him on the ground next to me. He looked so pathetic and cold that I took pity and unzipped my coat. I stuffed him in between my outer coat and my bibbies. He rode there for the next hour as I finished chores.

By the time we finished, he had stopped shivering and had slid down far enough that I could barely see him.