Do You Ride Horses?

[Silverwulfess]

Least fav chore? Gelding beans

[Mr.Milo]

@Least favoirte chore: hmmm well i will have to say cleaning the buckets because they alwyas spill on me.

@Blue: awww the horse your riding is sooo cute!

@Showjumpindreams: Oh that really stinks, i hope you can getthe things you need before the competition without spening your saddle fund.

@Gam gam: thanks!^^

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Ok so today was really interesting day at the barn but kinda boring. Well when i got there i just began cleaning Gus, Strings and Mikey's stalls then i went inside the main barn and then found S and she was like wow i haven't seen you in awhile (i was not there last saturday because i was angry at whht happened the weekend before). So we went around taking some pictures of the horses for the website. But then a new voulenteer came and so me and S showed her how to clean stalls. But while i was emptying the wheel barrow i backed up and fell right into the water bucket. The only one who saw was the new voulenteer since she was right infont of me and S was talking to L so she didn't see me. The water was kinda cold and that woke me up. It kinda reminded me of the movies where someone gets bushed into the water bucket. But i have emabarrased myself so many times at the barn that i no longer care what people think. Also my mom said i can go to the barn on Monday since there is no school so im excited. I would of rode today but Scottie was ridden already and i ride for about an hour and work him a bit harder so i can be the only one to ride him for that day.

Also i think i have become really fond of this small mare named Empress, she is broke but very green. L has been working with ther for months now and i remember her training her in the summer. Empress is a chesnut TB who is around 14 hands and very beautiful. Her mother is at the farm too, her name is Bailey and she is soo cute. L is working with her as well. I want to ask L if i can wtach her while riding and aske her a few questions. L is so nice and i love the way she trains!

[wibeke]

Least Favorite Chore; Just about the only thing I do at the barn is groom and tack up horses, lol. And I try to clean tack when I can, but for some reason i really enjoy doing that so I don't count it as a chore.
I guess my least favorite is sweeping. I hate sweeping, and I stink at it so I usually just organize the tack room at the end of the day and make my friend do all the sweeping. xD

Milo: Haha, I'm sorry you fell into the water bucket! Thats okay, though, a few weeks ago I face-planted into a pile of hay. I don't care much about messing up in front of people, either, but I always seem to mess up in front of the guy I have a crush on, lol. My job is to tack up horses, so I usually end up running by him trying to balance two saddles, briddles over my shoulders with the reins trailing behind me, saddle pads, and attempting to balance girths on top of that. So attractive, right? xD
I'm glad you had a good day! It's too bad you didn't get to ride, but it's great that you might go in on Monday. Just out of curiousity, are there any other horses you can ride? I know you love Scottie, but it's a really good idea to ride as many different horses as possible since different horses teach you different skills, and you're not left without a horse when Scottie is being used.
Oh, and how old is Scottie? Just curious because I don't think you've ever said. He sounds like an awesome horse. =)

Aww, Empress sounds cute. She sounds a little like one of my old favorite horses, Jazz. She was like Empress, she looked like a TB but was really small for one.
And I'm sure she'd be fine with you watching. It's always fun watching people ride greenies, you can see their progress and it's neat seeing how they train. You can definitely learn a lot from watching them ,too. My trainer is also a horse trainer, so I usually stick around after my lessons to watch her ride. ^^

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Made a bunch of horse treats today! If this doesn't make me Sully's favorite rider, I don't know what will, lol. I hate this horse so much, he gives you these ridiculously cute looks and before you know it you're all out of treats. Last Sunday I brought a bannana for a snack, [that's literally all I have time to eat!] and he just kept staring at me until I shared with him. Little devil. >.>
My trainer keeps saying he's chubby because he's been out of work and he'll be really thin and pretty by summer, but I know his secret. No one can resist his big eyes and crooked ear. It's hopeless.

...I still love him, though. I can't stay mad at this little brat! xD
I also need to sneak Major a couple treats. I feel bad, it's been a while since I've ridden him but the poor old man definitely deserves a break and I need to move on to a different horse. Hopefully I'll still be able to hop on him every once in a while, though.

[classi]

I'll try to keep this as short as possible.

On Wednesday, I hacked him around. He had lots of energy and wouldn't frame up at the beginning, so I just went around with contact and no frame. Near the end he decided to be good and he framed really nicely.

On Friday I had a lesson. We worked on relaxing my knee, which reduces my leg sliding, and staying straight, bending, balancing, etc. Right now staying straight and not leaning are my biggest problems. Then, she had us put our feet in the leathers on top of the stirrups. It felt so weird! It was jockey length. She had us each go at a posting trot around the ring. If you didn't have good balance, you'd fall off, and it made your legs tired. You get bounced so high up and it's weird how it feels. We got our stirrups back and went over a tiny 2ft wall a few times. Every time was terrible for me, but I'm blaming it on the neck stretcher. Normally I take it off when jumping, but she didn't tell me to. It's hard to adjust his speed for distances and he doesn't jump as well with it on.

Today, was actually a quite good lesson. But I found another big flaw, a flaw that's going to be extremely hard to fix. My confidence. My low confidence has never really seeped into my riding before until recently. I always rode with confidence, but now I'm starting to loose confidence at the bigger fences. I'll elaborate later in my post.
Flatwork was great. I worked on the same things as yesterday, and my half seat has gotten so much better. When you allow your knee to absorb motion, your lower leg stays much more still and all this great stuff results from it. My instructor actually said that it's gotten better, which is a HUGE complement from her. Seriously. xD
Next was the jumping. I cantered over a 2ft wall with the neck stretcher on, and it was a complete mess. We took it off and the next time it was fantastic! I got a great distance and following him was easy. She raised it to 2ft3 and we mastered it again.
Then she assigned us a course. Since I still have so much trouble with flying changes, she told me to walk and then pick up the canter if he lands on the wrong lead. The first time I did the course, it was fantastic. I only has to walk once - all the other times I told him to land on the right lead and he did! The second time was pretty good, but not as good as the first time. Then, she sent us over a 2ft9 vertical. Definitely the highest I've ever jumped!
I felt so confident until about four strides before the jump. My instructor told me to push him, to get him going, to get my leg on him - but I didn't. I completely lost my confidence and slowed him down. I looked down at the jump, and he saved my butt once again. He propelled himself over it and didn't even hit the rail. Thank goodness I didn't hit him in the mouth. What would I do without that horse? I love him so much.
My instructor wasn't too happy with me, but she sent me over it again. I was a little unconfident but I mostly got over it and we jumped right over it! The distance was slightly deep, but it wasn't horrible. I stayed with him, too. It wasn't the best jump I've jumped, but pretty good for my first time jumping 2ft9, I guess.
And, yes, it was 2ft9. My instructor told me.
Anyways, after that she had me do a course. I lacked impulsion because I didn't get the lead change and I had to break to get it. It was a 2ft3 vertical, then around the corner to a 2ft3 line. It was okay, but as I said, I lacked impulsion and we got a 5 instead of a 4. She had me gallop the line the second time. A girl was riding and she was exactly in my path. I had to turn early to avoid her, which made me slightly crooked coming in on the line. We bowed out after it, and even though I corrected it, we got a 5 again. But it was pretty good aside from that.

Now, I'll list the major things I need to work on!
- Staying straight - going to jumps straight, landing and continuing straight, etc.
- Allowing my knee to absorb the motion (it's getting better)
- CONFIDENCE!

[Mr.Milo]

@Wibeke: Thanks for answering my post!^^ and hahaha that is too funny, i seriously laughed reading that!XD Thats a cool job, i love tacking up horses, and yes very attractive the amazing multiple balancing tack holding Wibeke!XD Ya there are other horses to ride. The thing with my riding is that there are people whoe schedule appointment with L and with me i just come and ask my trainer if i can ride and i pay him the day i get my lesson rather than ahead. So i have to wait till everyone is done with L till i can ride by then the only horses left are greenies still in training and i don't even know how to canter. I know its good to ride other horses but i wanted to learn to canter on Socttie since he is a good beginner horse to do that. I guess i could ride Astoira but his canter is not as great as Scotties and its takes alot of energy to just make him trot.

Oh really!, i kind like small TB's but she i very cute i must you some pictures. She and her mom pretty much look the same but i find her mom cuter because she has this short little tail and not as long of a face. I dont think she will mind either because i have asked her questions before and she was fine with answering them and gave very helpful advice.

@Silence: Im glad your hack went well and do you do hunter? Its good that yoour morking more on using your legs but im sorry about the jumps. I woul dprobably be just ask nevrous as well but is their anything that you think might boost up your confidence?

[OneRowdyNight]

@Least favorite chore: Dumping water buckets. Filling them up is fine, but some of our horses drink all day in the pasture and none at night, so I'm left with two full buckets per stall!

[~stories untold.]

Least favorite chore:de rocking the field.Doing it when the horses are out makes everything really difficult

[OneRowdyNight]

Least favorite chore:de rocking the field.Doing it when the horses are out makes everything really difficult

Hate that, too! AND the arenas! One time, I was picking rocks out of Rowdy's pasture and he came over to say hi. I did one of his tricks where he reaches around and hugs me, but he bit me on the back. ;-; It was bleeding.

[Chunky11]

@OneRowdyNight Rowdy seems cheeky! I love the photo of him sticking his tongue out a!!t you

[LissaJo]

I have a bit of a rant to share.

So for my birthday I got a gift card to a horse place and I have finally decided to use it. I thought that since I needed spurs and bell boots for a competition tomorrow I could use the gift card. Well I checked the website and it is an all English store so they have none o what I need but I am not willin to spend cash out of my saddle fund to get them from a different store!

Sorry I just had to get that out

What store?