Ashley at The process of learning could use some special thoughts tonight. Her mare Ella (who came to be her horse in a heart wrenching way) just gave birth to a filly that is a bit too early. Shes on the way to the vets, hopefully there will be a good update soon.
In the weather worries its back to being -25 with windchill and after the 30 cm of snow we received on Saturday/Sunday I'm staying home for the night! Lucas and the other ponies got out for a run most of the day (the turnouts are sheltered from the wind by the barn and they all have blankets and free choice hay). And by now are in there warm stalls with warm buckets of water. Its days like this I'm happy that I don't have my horse at home trying to warm a barn all by himself! We managed the drive into the city today but there were several accidents and the highway to the city was briefly shut down due to a transport truck accident.
We started our own breeding season her on the weekend. Tanker got breed to the stud in the barn (the stud is by Radical Hour), and in two weeks we are expecting the first Appaloosa baby to be born at C and D's place. (by The Secret Pardon). 2 weeks after that will be the second colt by C and D's stud (the Radical hour stud), the first was Chilly. I'm really looking foreword to the Appaloosa baby, an almost grand-pony for me. I was working at the breeders farm when we bred this mares dam, and was present when the mare was bred to The Secret Pardon.
I also cant wait for my friends mare to foal, I and the "Aunts" (the owners of this mares dam, and her breeders) have a party planed for the 'grand-pony' and have already bought presents for her/him! This mare was one of the first that I started that went on to have excellent AQHA career and her breeders have been my very good friends since the moment that I've met them. (They are Lucas' adoptive aunts as well!) So fingers crossed that ever thing goes well.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
What if....
I never got sick...
Most days I just deal with it. It sucks, it really does but I try not to dwell on it. I hate taking pills, having my blood taken, and having IV's every 4 weeks.
But most of all I hate the fact that it took away my dreams.
Lucas and I had a mixed ride last night, I thought we would just go out do a little long trotting then work on some backing obstacles. All was going good until Lucas tripped while trotting. It was bad, here we were trotting along and then there was no horse in front of me. Thankfully we were falling toward the inside of the ring and Lucas struggled but he managed to keep me on and get to his feet without either one of us getting really hurt. It was the same type of accident that hurt D so badly last spring, and it scared the shit out of me and Lucas. It took us both a couple of minutes to get our heart rate down and figure out that neither one of us was seriously hurt. I got twisted and banged around really well so my backs a bit sore, and pulled something in my right leg trying to hold on (he fell to the left). Lucas' front legs were covered in dirt and he managed to rip his bell boot, but both C and D had a look at him this AM and although they put more liniment on him they think he'll be fine by the weekend.
I knew that we needed to move on so after we caught our breath, I trotted him around another 2 times but we were both just doing it to do it. We were cautious but I'm glad that I didn't just get off him after the trip.
And then the best part. I had set up 3 poles in the center of the ring set up so you could trot up the center line (the long way) and trot over them. Then about 4 feet to the side of that I placed a pole. Kind of like below:
__ |
__ |
__ |
So we played around with the poles for a bit practiced walking around them and then over them.
And then we just "clicked"
I could ask him for each and every step as we walked over and though the poles, I could ask for each foot separately and tell him where to place it, and he listened and tried so hard. I could think about walking between poles one and two, then doing a very tight turn then walking between two and three which is a very tight turn but he bent and flexed and waited for me. Its funny but didn't cry when I almost fell of, but I did cry when I realized how hard he was trying and how well we were finally communicating together.
And this is where we come back to the point of this post.... What if I wasn't sick? How many of these moments have I missed out on because I was so sick, and tired I just couldn't put the time in to get to this point.
What could I have been doing/training if I hadn't had to give up my dream of riding for a living?
I know this is the path I was meant to follow, and that Lucas and I came together for a reason, but I always wonder, what if?
Most days I just deal with it. It sucks, it really does but I try not to dwell on it. I hate taking pills, having my blood taken, and having IV's every 4 weeks.
But most of all I hate the fact that it took away my dreams.
Lucas and I had a mixed ride last night, I thought we would just go out do a little long trotting then work on some backing obstacles. All was going good until Lucas tripped while trotting. It was bad, here we were trotting along and then there was no horse in front of me. Thankfully we were falling toward the inside of the ring and Lucas struggled but he managed to keep me on and get to his feet without either one of us getting really hurt. It was the same type of accident that hurt D so badly last spring, and it scared the shit out of me and Lucas. It took us both a couple of minutes to get our heart rate down and figure out that neither one of us was seriously hurt. I got twisted and banged around really well so my backs a bit sore, and pulled something in my right leg trying to hold on (he fell to the left). Lucas' front legs were covered in dirt and he managed to rip his bell boot, but both C and D had a look at him this AM and although they put more liniment on him they think he'll be fine by the weekend.
I knew that we needed to move on so after we caught our breath, I trotted him around another 2 times but we were both just doing it to do it. We were cautious but I'm glad that I didn't just get off him after the trip.
And then the best part. I had set up 3 poles in the center of the ring set up so you could trot up the center line (the long way) and trot over them. Then about 4 feet to the side of that I placed a pole. Kind of like below:
__ |
__ |
__ |
So we played around with the poles for a bit practiced walking around them and then over them.
And then we just "clicked"
I could ask him for each and every step as we walked over and though the poles, I could ask for each foot separately and tell him where to place it, and he listened and tried so hard. I could think about walking between poles one and two, then doing a very tight turn then walking between two and three which is a very tight turn but he bent and flexed and waited for me. Its funny but didn't cry when I almost fell of, but I did cry when I realized how hard he was trying and how well we were finally communicating together.
And this is where we come back to the point of this post.... What if I wasn't sick? How many of these moments have I missed out on because I was so sick, and tired I just couldn't put the time in to get to this point.
What could I have been doing/training if I hadn't had to give up my dream of riding for a living?
I know this is the path I was meant to follow, and that Lucas and I came together for a reason, but I always wonder, what if?
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Wind turbines
A picture of my drive home today, some of the new wind turbines that are going up just outside of my home town. These are the biggest in North America to this point and are going to have to withstand some of the worst winds anywhere. And they are HUGE. One of the blades is 2 transport truck lengths.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Great ride last night
Had a great ride last night, after lunging him I got on and did some 10 meter circles around the ring getting us both bending. We moved right into the rising trot after that, doing about 3 loops in each direction before changing across the diagonal.
We did do some cantering, the first time in a while, which was rough, but I was so happy with his trotting and bending I let it slide a bit. He was a bit weak in his stifles when he came home and was swapping leads behind on the lunge line. I've been working on strengthening him and doing some stretches before we work and its paying off, but I think hes still a bit weak and its showing under saddle. I guess that's what you get when you don't have your horse working from behind all the time...
I had a square set up in the middle of the ring and it was set up so he could take 2 trot strides in between each set of poles. So we had fun trotting though them, walking though them, doing figure eights, and trotting/walking into them turning and going out again. The trail obstacle work is keeping our brains busy longer than just doing the flat work that we normally do.
We did do some cantering, the first time in a while, which was rough, but I was so happy with his trotting and bending I let it slide a bit. He was a bit weak in his stifles when he came home and was swapping leads behind on the lunge line. I've been working on strengthening him and doing some stretches before we work and its paying off, but I think hes still a bit weak and its showing under saddle. I guess that's what you get when you don't have your horse working from behind all the time...
I had a square set up in the middle of the ring and it was set up so he could take 2 trot strides in between each set of poles. So we had fun trotting though them, walking though them, doing figure eights, and trotting/walking into them turning and going out again. The trail obstacle work is keeping our brains busy longer than just doing the flat work that we normally do.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
New phone means some test pictures.
Lucas and Max having a nice moment right before they started playing halter tag.
Max looking cute:
And Lucas looking cute too!
So my Motorola Milestone died a very painful death that even tech support couldn't fix. It was so bad my computer refused to acknowledge that it even existed (I have a program to fix/update my phone on my computer). So thankfully my birthday is tomorrow and my wonderful parents bought me a new iphone for my birthday! Im still getting to know the buttons and tools but it seams really easy to use and the photo quality is great.
I was kinda planing on riding today but it was -15 and it was just too cold to get my ass in the saddle. Lucas' old mom is coming out tomorrow so he's getting a hair cut in the morning and she's going to ride (or so the plan is).
My show halter has lost a couple of its red stones and I was given some jewelery quality clear ones today so we are going to try and replace them with the clear ones tonight. If it works in the area where the missing stone is I'll just replace them all, I personally didn't really like the red stones!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Quiet rides, upcoming visits!
Had a very quiet ride with Lucas tonight, after about 2 trips around he started anticipating the cue to trot (and he was getting worried about it and getting 'stuck'). Anyways so we just started working on walk/halt/turns side passing and horsemanship maneuvers.
So we walked for 1/2 hour, its kept him from anticipating anything and kept both of us happy. Its not accomplishing much but if its keeping us both happy and looking foreword to the next ride that's worth it. I don't need to be a drill Sargent every time I ride.
We finally got some snow yesterday so all of the ponies had a good run and roll today for the first time in a long time. The ground her has been frozen and other than walking around the horses weren't getting much exercise outside.
Lucas' old Mom is coming to visit on the weekend. Shes a really nice girl and shes looking foreword to getting to ride him again. So Lucas is getting a hair cut tomorrow so he looks good!
I have lots of ideas for posts floating around in my head, I'll try and type them out soon I promise!
So we walked for 1/2 hour, its kept him from anticipating anything and kept both of us happy. Its not accomplishing much but if its keeping us both happy and looking foreword to the next ride that's worth it. I don't need to be a drill Sargent every time I ride.
We finally got some snow yesterday so all of the ponies had a good run and roll today for the first time in a long time. The ground her has been frozen and other than walking around the horses weren't getting much exercise outside.
Lucas' old Mom is coming to visit on the weekend. Shes a really nice girl and shes looking foreword to getting to ride him again. So Lucas is getting a hair cut tomorrow so he looks good!
I have lots of ideas for posts floating around in my head, I'll try and type them out soon I promise!
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