Rainy day update

Not much going on here, it's raining (again!) so I went out to the barn in the am and helped with chores, and got Oscar clean enough to put his sheet on. I really did not appreciate how clean Lucas was!  I am so amazed at how dirty Oscar gets every day!  I really think that he just likes being dirty. 

It's back to being quiet in the barn. I'm the only boarder left that rides on any type of regular basis.  Other than C and D's horses we have a retired halter horse and her weanling, my friends horse who she cant ride at the time due to her healing very slowly from a car accident this summer, and another two horses who's owners only get to the barn once or twice a month. 

While I will enjoy not having to share the indoor for the next 2 months, come December or January I miss having other people to ride with again. Picture spam of Oscar:

September night ride.

Most likely one of our last 'after work' rides outside. Hunting season starts soon, and the time change means less safe sunlight hours to ride outside. 

I love Oscar, the kids were packing for the 4H show, the horses in the paddock were running around and we just went and jogged around.  Hes so easy going. 

Were back to riding in a snaffle, we need more work on our bending more than anything else.  I only got to ride for about 15 min before my ankle started bothering me but its a start.  I figure its best to stay at a walk and trot and keep us both happy and keep me sound for the time being. 

It looks like we will not be going to the show in October.  I haven't had enough time cantering, and there are no walk trot classes so its not realistic to think that we could keep up in the classes and I'd rather not ruin someone else s ride.

It's here!

The saddle got here this am. Had a quick ride on Oscar tonight to try it out. Fits both of us great, a little stiff in the fenders, and they need to get slid back a bit for me, but nothing that can't be fixed after another ride or two.

My view

Getting tacked up for the first time

black edging around the silver

Fenders stuck forward a bit

Back skirts

Front of saddle.

A great wedding dance

Wedding number 2 in our family, and a great dance by my cousin and my uncle.  For the intresting part go to 1:30!

More Oscar pictures

Ankle is still touchy but way better than it was a week ago.  I got to ride again today, and we worked on just working together.  Its coming but we need lots of miles at this point.  Hes very stiff though his body (like me) so we worked on stretching a bit, and long trotting and then did some figure eights at a jog.  I didn't stretch beforehand but should have, I could feel how tight my back and hips were so Im sure Oscar could too!  We only rode for 15 min or so because we were alone and I didn't want to do too much unless someone was there.

Some photos of Oscar, I take photos for his owner every week or so.  I'm going to try and post them here after I send them to her.

waiting for apple #2

Carrying a good amount of weight, although I would like more bum.  Hes a bit of a hard keeper, so this is a struggle that his owners have been dealing with for years.  His coat looks great though.

hanging out in the barn after our ride

Back in the saddle (although still not mine)

Saddle is in route, somewhere between here and Kentucky, however I think its most likely stuck in customs somewhere.

I went out and rode tonight anyways there ended up being 3 of us trying to ride (me and the two girls getting ready for the provincial 4-h show).  It was the first time I've ridden Oscar inside, and with more than one horse at a time (and in a much smaller pen than outside!)  I will enjoy having some alone time in the arena in 2 weeks but come January I'll miss riding with the kids again. 

So despite having a cramped arena we had a decent ride, we are still trying to figure each other out, and the added stress of more people in the ring and being inside for the first time played with my head a little bit.  Once I get out of my head and just RIDE things go better and we 'click'.  Thankfully Oscar is an excellent feedback horse, that he waits for me to get it right before he does something. 

Ankle is doing better but my sneakers were not helping.  Ended up wearing my boots to work today and that was better than wearing my sneakers all week due to the extra support.

Still grounded

Well my ankle got injected this am.  Decided that I had nothing to prove to anyone, and requested to be given the day off from work.  I'm glad I did because it hurts now, and I've been alternating ice and no ice for the past 4 hours.  So no barn for me for a couple of days, I'm crossing every toe that buy Thursday my saddle will be here and I can take it out to the barn even if I cant ride. 

I got my first assignment back and I got a 65% on it!  Not a supper amazing mark but for a first assignment in a course where I will never get to meet my prof I was happy with it.  I got a 10/10 on my writing but lost most of my marks for not analyzing the situation enough, and explaining both sides of the story. 

Home from the aqha show

Ended up going to the local aqha show with my best friend on very short notice. We had a good time but I'm still not happy with the way the wp horses move or the politics involved even in our small area. There were less than 50 horses, the biggest classes had 8 where as when I showed in 2010 most classes had 10 +. Money is the biggest issue. For my friend to show one class ( with halter being free) was over 250. That didn't include gas, or food for the weekend. Because the show was so small and it went from 4 days to two, which is why we went.

Edited to add:
The horses in the WP did not even look fun to ride for the most part.  And extremely unnatural.  I was happy as usual with the HUS classes but the WP still looks like its out in left field.  But what do you do?  My friend was upset that her nice moving (natural) mare would be passing horses left and right but I made her go in her class anyways.  Her mare has a gorgeous stride (and is slow legged) but covers a fair amount of ground with each step. Until the mechanical horse gets tossed by the judges she'll stick out, however she'll still have a sound horse in 10 years unlike most of the horses that beat her on the weekend that for the most part have had multiple joint injections before the age of 5. 

Speaking of that I'm off to get my own fetlock injected tomorrow, wish me luck!

We loped!

More than 10 steps!

Both directions!

The 2 point/rising trot exercise is really working and I was feeling so much more secure tonight that I figured I should just bite the bullet and go.  I did my stretching before my ride.  Kept my elbows out in front of me (which for some reason keeps my upper body from locking and lets me follow the horses motion more).

I'm so happy that I got over the 'issue' and Oscar was a super star.  Hes so much fun to ride and work on my own riding with.  Hes happy to get out of the pasture and do something.

Anyways I took pain killers (as a precaution) and now Im going to bed.  Hopefully I can make more sense out of this post tomorrow!

Plan is now that I am ordering a saddle in from Kentucky, hopefully we will have details worked out by the end of the week.

Saddle?

So this is a saddle I am looking at, RS training saddle 17" anyone have any feedback?

Showmanship diva.

I really like the pattern classes. For the most part you don't need a fantastic mover, and if you work hard you can improve. Something that isn't always possible in the rail classes.  In those classes your talent can only take you so far, and the money takes over (to buy a better moving horse!).

 And this is where me and Oscar agree.  Although at one point an extremely talented horse, trainers kept pushing and pushing him to be better and flatter. He was pushed hard to be perfect for the pleasure classes, and now really doesn't like showing in them.  Over the past couple of years with C+D's help his owner has been able to keep him happy while still being able to show him.  Shes added pattern classes to his show day, and has even shown him in reining classes to show him that it is ok to go fast and that he would not be punished.

So our focus for the next couple of months is going to be on showmanship and horsemanship (the only 2 classes that I think we are going to enter in the show next month.)  Thanks to the incoming hurricane today was showmanship day in the indoor!

Its really funny but when I trotted off I forgot how slow western horses go!  I went the Lucas speed I was used to, but Oscar wanted to go his speed.  We worked it out and have settled on an easy jog for me which is a good striding jog for him.  Hes a little sloppy on his stops, and our set ups are still a little funky occasionally (still really trying to get each other figured out).  But I'm really excited to figure out a new horse.

Limits and when to push them

So I went back out and rode again today.  Things are going good.  Oscar and myself have a good working relationship, I ask for something, he hesitates just long enough to make sure I'm ready and then he does it, until he can feel me get wobbly.  At which point he stops waits for me to get sorted out then he resumes his task.  He doesn't get mad or upset, C and I think that hes laughing politely in his head at me.  While Lucas seemed to think my bad moments were holding "us" back, Oscar seems to think that its a game to stay underneath me while I figure out my balance issues. 

He also ran to the gate today when I called for him.

However after our first ride I haven't loped on him since. My balance and core body strength is getting much better and I knew that it would have to before I would be comfortable loping.  Its just taking that step again to actually doing it.... Oscars jog is lovely but the downfall of an extremely broke pleasure horse is a horse with not so great hocks.  They are fused, and do not hurt him but they make his lope "bouncy" and hard to sit to. 

So I am going to ride a couple of times over the weekend and this coming week and I decided that if I can t do it on my own by Thursday/Friday then D is going to give me a bit of a lesson and help me get loping.  D thinks I'm doing just fine on my own and that I know the limits of my body and I should listen to them (most of the time) but I think that I am ready for this step I just need a little push.

On to a brighter topic

I had my Iv on Monday night and it took most of Tuesday to recover from it, and the return to work on Monday.  Good news is that as of this afternoon when I left work I only had 22 unread emails instead of the 171 that I had on Monday!!

I went out to the barn tonight for a 1/2 hour.  Its been poring rain here so I wanted to make sure Oscar hadn't floated away and to pay my part of his board.  I went out to his field and he came trotting over to the fence when I called for him.  Its so nice to have a horse who recognizes you as one of his 'people'.  He got 3 apples for his efforts and the mares (2 of them) had to split the 4th.  Hopefully going out to try and figure out his lope again tomorrow!

Thanks for the comments on the last post, I try to keep this a light chat about my life with horses but sometimes the deeper topics just need to be written down.

On Death and Life

My dads first cousin received a Kidney transplant this weekend.  As a family touched by kidney disease organ donation is a major cause that we support.  My grandmother died in 2001 due to complications from Kidney disease about 10 years after receiving her donated kidney.  It gave her another 10 years of life thanks to someones decision to donate.

My Dad has several family members currently undergoing dialysis including my Aunt.  This usually means trips to a dialysis center 2-3 times a week for 4-5 hours of treatment.  Although dealing with my RA is difficult, I can not imagine having to deal with Kidney failure.  

The reason I'm bringing this up is that in Canada organ donators and organ receivers are not allowed to contact each other.  Other than an anonymous letter, the organ donators family never knows how much that gift means to the family that received the organ.

My family has benefited so much, thanks to the donations of people we will never know.

This time, thanks to social media we know who's kidney we have received.

She was a 16 year old girl who was killed in a car accident.  Her family made the decision to donate her organs and saved several lives, and improved the lives of several others.  My Dad's cousin is aware of who this is and they hope to send a message to the family of the donator once he is a bit more stable.

If anyone has any questions about how to donate, or anything else you can email me at
 justaplainsam@hotmail.com.

CBC The Current radio did an amazing documentary about donation and the contact between the recipient and the donors family.  This may not be available to my USA readers Breathing With Sandra

Oscar pictures

Riding

So I managed to get another ride in today. It was more of a get on and mosey along kind of day.  D mentioned that he was happy I kept riding yesterday, I asked why and he replied "well Oscar was really hot for him yesterday" and then we all almost fell over laughing.  He is such a different horse than Lucas that even on his 'hot' days hes still extremely easy going.

We didn't do too much today, just lunged him for 2 minutes, and then we rode around some cones, and over the poles and bridge that are still set up for trail.  We are still figuring each other out, my balance still isn't great, I'm still 'wiggly' when I get a response that I wasn't expecting from Oscar.  I did shorten my struipps  a hole to see if that helps some (and my new boots do not have a crepe soles) and it does a bit.  I'm still very much in the 'trying to stay on' phase more than the 'fix the horse' stage.  I am so glad to have Oscar to ride though this phase, he is very forgiving of my mistakes, and is happy to go to work every time he sees me.

I'm off for my IV tomorrow and I go back to work tomorrow as well!  Not looking foreword to opening up my work email in the morning!

Summer comes to an end, and I have a horse to ride.

This year I'm happy to see the end of summer. It was hot, full of upheaval and I only got to show once.  Normally this would really disappoint me but, I wasn't ready to show anything and I think it was good for me to realize that and accept it.

Now that September is here, we are onto new challenges! Oscar is officially mine to ride!  I'm covering half his board while his owner is away, and that gives me access to ride him as much as I want over the winter.  I went out and rode him this morning and had a good if quiet ride.  (Although I much prefer quiet over exciting!)  We are still getting to know each other and figure out each other out.  He hasn't gotten much turnout over the past couple of weeks but after a 10 min lunge session he was perfect and quiet and ready to go.

We mostly jogged around, did some rising trot and played with Oscars 'buttons'.  Its still kind of strange riding a horse that isn't Lucas.  I keep expecting Lucas reactions, and becoming a bit surprised when I don't get that response from Oscar.  He is also about 15.3 so is quite a bit shorter, is way more of a western horse that Lucas ever thought of being, and has some reining training.  So our turns on the haunches are a lot faster than I am used to!

I had to take this picture at the cottage today, I left my boots outside to dry off (my feet sweat!) and I was struck by the differences in my family's summer pastimes.  They like the boat and the beach and I am much happier with the horses.