If this doesnt change your mind about helmets:

Courtney King Dye

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awJDYBhBPzk&feature=youtu.be


"Everyone is a role model for someone"

More pictures!

So one of the kids was nice enough to take a couple of pictures of me and Lucas from the show last weekend. I wore my hunt seat clothes because we only had a 5 min tack change between the showmanship class and the HUS stake. (and although I have my hunt cap on I did change into my helmet for the riding stuff). It's been poring buckets of rain all day today along with thunder and lightning so Im sticking at home and getting to bed early for a good nights sleep.

Picture...

This is a picture that the show committee took at the last App/Open show. I must say that Lucas looks fantastic, me a little silly! I have the "I just won a ribbon!" look on my face!




Things are ok at the barn, Lucas is having most of the week off from riding although I might get on him on Thursday night. I lunged him tonight in the side reins trying to get him to work a little more from behind on the line, mostly it seems that we're using the lunge to get energy out but I need to get back to using it for more fitness and collection again.

Im still not sure how I feel about the whole showing thing... I do think that we need a bit of a shake up but im not sure what form that will take. There is a dressage show about 40 min away next weekend so Im heading out to that to watch.

Things are still crazy on the family front. My mom and dad are fine but we have some serious issues with my Aunt and Uncle taking advantage of my Grandmother.... Just more stress I guess.

2nd to last show

Well we had a very good day, three ribbons in 4 classes. He got 5th in Halter Geldings, 2nd in the HUS stake, and 2nd in showmanship. We didn't place in our sr HUS class due to him spooking at a noise, but we recovered well (which is almost more important!)

Im not sure what we are going to do about his kicking in the trailer. It wasn't too bad when we first got him (only when the trailer was sitting still and we were loading or unloading horses) now hes doing it all of the time no matter how long the ride is. He seems to do it no matter what type of trailer, size or how long the trip is any more. Thankfully this was the last show we had to trailer to. the last one is at our property.

So me and C had a little talk yesterday and she agreed with me that once the last show is over in September, Lucas will have his hind shoes pulled and he goes back out with "the herd". Right now the herd is out to pasture while the turnout paddocks are re-graded and re-fenced. Lucas has no respect for electric wire so hes stuck in privet until then anyways.

Im not sure what direction I want to take Lucas into. As much as I love the breed show format, Im board, and I don't really enjoy going in circles any more. Lucas doesnt like the pressure of the pressure of the pattern classes. Would dressage be better?

Thanks everyone

For your words of encouragement on my last post (seems like Im doing this alot lately, I promise I will have a good post soon!)

Lucas and I are both doing good, thankfully missing out on the heat wave that seems to be hitting the rest of the country! We've had alot of rain and humid days mixed with thunder and lighting storms which has made for interesting horse keeping.

I went and had a ride with Lucas and the kids last night, working on getting that elusive left lead that seems to come and go. Apparently I need to bump slightly on my right rein, throw my left leg off and kiss. My friend watched me go on the weekend and agreed that my legs were correct in the way that I was asking before (when we kept getting the wrong lead) but it was obvious that I couldn't keep the pressure even between my legs and Lucas was getting the cue to canter off from my outside leg.

Were off to a show down the road on Saturday, showing in halter, showmanship, HUS stake, HUS, hunt seat equation and if were still having canter lead problems we will go into road hack (they ask for an extended trot and canter). Should be a fun show with a good judge. Cross your fingers for correct leads!

Clinic breakdown

So the clinic on Sunday was so-so. The judge from the day before did the clinic. He liked Lucas' walk and trot, but thought I was having him go way to fast in the ring.

He didn't think much of Lucas though, he recommended that I look at purchasing a young prospect as he thinks all Lucas is good for is the HUS and showmanship. (Even though he still gave him a reserve in halter)

And I agree, Lucas does get extremely worked up over the pattern classes, so much so that we never practice a pattern at home or at a show with cones. I only have one good pattern, after that I might as well just not even bother. So when we practiced several patterns on Sunday Lucas just couldn't handle it. Hes so worried about messing up that if I as him to do anything he panics and just shakes, and loses complete focus.

The judge was good in giving his opinion on how things look from the middle of the ring but didn't have much of an opinion on how to improve things... Once Lucas had done his 'freek out' over the patterns the judge wanted to know what exactly had led up to this point. He is very 'anti-trainer' (not that that is a bad thing, and he is a breeder, not a trainer) and was not surprised with Lucas' back groud. He was also sure that Lucas' tail had been done at one point.

He referred to Lucas as the "Monster english horse",,,

It kinda pisses me off, is that how the industry should be? Horse doesn't fit your exact specifications, sell, and buy new? If people didn't work with the horses that had minor issues, what would happen to them? And I don't mean horses that try to kill you, but not alot of owners would be willing to deal with Lucas' issues. Such a disposable society....

Anyways Lucas isn't going anywhere!!! Even when I cant ride we will still be able to do showmanship and halter :)

Another halter point,

Yup Lucas went reserve in Open Halter Geldings! That was just about the highlight of the day! We got second in the showmanship against a bunch of tough Novice Amateur's. We blew both left leads in our under saddle classes, which was very disappointing. With only 4 or 5 horses in a huge ring I didn't have time to fix it before the judge saw us. We had a clinic today with the judge but Im exaused so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Sigh

Thanks for the words of encouragement last time everyone. It really meant alot to me. Things are going as planed for the weekend tomorrow night will be busy with packing but Im looking forward to the show and the clinic.

D gave me a lesson last night and we worked on keeping Lu straighter though the corners of the ring so that he doesn't collapse to the inside and loose the sweep of his stride.

In other news, we're having some family issues with my Aunt and Uncle (sister and brother to my Mom) taking advantage of my grandmother and her fragile memory. Over the past 3 weeks they have scammed over $25,000 out of my grandmother. Things are bad... to the point where we are going to have to press charges.

The worst thing is that most of it is ending up onto my Mom and Dad's shoulders to deal with as we are the closest to Nanny (physically anyways). Thankfully my Aunt will be home from Alberta tomorrow night and my Aunt from Ont will be in next week... hopefully they can help my Mom out with this crap. Im kinda glad that Im getting the weekend away from it....

Drama

So last week, the show committe that runs the Appaloosa/Paint/Open shows posted a rule change to there facebook site. I had ridden Lucas in a snaffle in the horsemanship class, and he is over the age of 5. The show however at that time had no rules. And I mean no rules. I did what I needed to do to get though the class, the judge knew that Lucas was an aged horse due to the halter classes in the morning. She still chose to place me.

So I didnt dispute the fact that they introduced the rule, what bothered me were the comments after the post. I wont go into them on here but they were extreamly hurtfull and attacked me personaly.

Thankfully a friend of mine saw them and requested the coments be pulled or else, and they were.

The worst part was that several of the people posting have broken rules at other shows that Ive been at. One of the directors rode a horse in a walk trot division last year (the horse was 6 she's applied several times for her AQHA judging card) riding in a shank bit alright, but with 2 hands... talk about throwing rocks in glass houses.

So emotions have run the full spectrum this week, everything from thinking about getting out of horses entirely to just switching to dressage.

My BF who knew what was going on in my head called me that night and offered me trailering to the Introductry AQHA horse show this comming weekend for less than it would cost me to take my own car there. C and D were unable to go and I didn't think I would be able to aford a ride to it. Its going to cost less than going to the next Appaloosa/Paint/Open show, and has a clinic with the judge on the second day (which is inculded in the price). Several friends have emailed me excited that Im going to get to go to this QH show, such a difference from people being pissed that Im going to a show....

I dont get it, If we were winning everything I could see some sore loosers, but were not, in fact we are very beatable somedays!

Anyways we're off on Thursday night, having a sleep over at my friends house that night, going to the show Friday, showing Saturday, clinic Sunday (im in showmanship and HUS) and then back to the friends untill Monday night. Im showing Lucas in Preformance Halter Geldings (AQHA), open showmanship, open sr hunter under saddle, and Open Hunter Under Saddle (AQHA) We had a huge rainstorm yesterday so it was too wet to ride outside today, and no one was home so I couldn't ride in the indooor but we did showmanship and got Lucas clipped.

Great ride!

Lucas was awsome tonight. Great trot and canter work, we worked on pushing his haunches around, to the inside, to the outside in hopes that it would help with our canter transitions to the left (which it did). He was much lighter tonight I guess we were both just out of practice.

One of the kids in the barn (our little slave who does anything) has been buging me for months that she wanted to ride Lucas. (although shes only 12 shes a very competent rider) So I let her get on tonight and have a trot around. I think she and Lucas both had fun. Its nice to see him go with someone else :)

D is doing much better and has even ridden a couple of times this week on the kids horses. Hes not on for long or doing to much while he is up there but he is much happer that he can ride again.

Lots of horse fly's

But we had a good ride last night. He was sound when we lunged him again, so on went the saddle and we did a good workout on the nice footing in the outdoor ring. He getting a bit heavy on my hands which is making him heavy in the in the front end, and tipping me forward (also not helping our transitions).

D had me working on keeping him light and in front of my leg, (and maybe over bridled just a bit) and we had some excellent moments at the canter where he was very light and soft with plenty of drive from behind. The more tired we both got, the worse it got, but we had some good moments at the trot as well where I was just picking my inside rein up and he was giving with slack still in the rein.

Today the kids at the barn were doing there achievement day for completion of their 4-H projects, so I watched them, and helped with barn chores. Lucas got another couple of hours in the turnout, as its been hard with all of the horse and moose fly's to turn anyone out for more than an hour. Your always watching the weather and waiting for a good wind or some rain to keep them away. We are now up to a high of 33 degrees (88 or so for you American people) so its gotten really hot in the last week.

Lucas is back to work

Well, back to some work. I took him out this morning and let him have a good run on the lunge line up in the outdoor ring. And then let him long trot some energy out. The farrier was confident that as long as we didn't work him on hard ground we should be OK, so he will only be worked in the outside ring and turned out in the sand pen for now.

My mom is off tomorrow to go back to school for her Masters degree in teaching, shes gone for most of the summer but will be back most weekends. Until then me and my dad are on our own for cooking! : Might be scary to see which of us gets sick of hot dogs and hamburgers quicker!

So hopefully I get a ride in either tomorrow night or Tuesday, the kids and C and D are off on the weekend to a local show so Ill be working the barn for the weekend. Wont be much work, I'll only have 7 horses in the barn, but it will mean no riding until they get back. Sometimes having parents that wont go to the barn is a p.i.t.a.

I just sewed on my first ever button!

I just sewed on my first ever button!!! I kept waiting for my mom to do it because I didnt think I could do it with my hands, but I did! Oh yeah and Lucas is doing good too, he got to go outside today for the first time since Wednesday. We did a little walk/trot on the lunge line just to get his legs moving, and he had a great roll outside, so back to some light work tomorrow and hopefully riding on Monday!

So far so good (and happy Canada day!)

Lucas's farrier came out this afternoon and fixed his feet. He was hoping that he would be able to clean up the foot and put a shoe back on, but decided it would be easier just to do his re-set a week early. He did have a bit of a nasty bruise where the clip had gotten stuck in but he was able to nail the shoe on without putting anything near the bruise. He didn't think that it would cause an abscess but to be on the lookout for one and to call him if it did become an issue.

Lu did trot off sound once he got his new shoes on. Well sound for him after having new shoes put on, I say its like him getting his 'sea' legs back. He weebles and wobbles while he gets used to the new feet for a day but then hes ok. Having a special needs horse can be interesting at times! Hes better in our barn, the old owners had to put him on bute for a couple of days to get him over it, and kept riding him. We've put him on a good hoof supplement and he gets a good day or two off afterwords and we avoid the drugs and unnecessary pain.

We did have a good laugh about Lucas and his behaviour. Our farrier was telling us about how when he first came to Canada, the trainer told him "don't get after this horse because he will make you regret it". Well Lucas jerked his foot away once too often and pushed the farrier at the same time, farrier got mad and got after him..... and in his words "I had to leave him and go back the next day to get the shoe back on him" Apparently Lucas wasn't going to let him anywhere near him again that day! You have to wonder what kind of nasty horse he was back in the day! Although even now he'll push the limits every once and a while, but nothing to the tune of what he pulled with the other owners and trainers.

Now I'm sitting at home watching re-runs of the Canada day celebration from Ottawa this morning. Have a great night everyone, and have a great 4th of July to our American friends.