Do You Ride Horses?

[Bluebird22]

Hano: oh my gosh, thank you so much! You are too sweet <3 my new trainer has really helped me. Being on the lunge line is great too. He is made for me, I'm so happy I found him :3

Kickin': you could try some sort of massage to loosen him up. Or work on some bending/flexing.

Smokey: that would be pretty bad if something felling your ranch or trailers! I don't remember the highes wind mph, but it was a few years back when thee was a hurricane and all the power went out for days (now remember I live pretty far from the coast, states away from the coast and the wind was still bad enough to knock the power out) it might have been hurricane katrina.

[classi]

I'm sorry guys, I just realized how much I sounded like I'm fishing for compliments. I promise that wasn't my intention. I've had a rough couple of days recently and everything just seems to be crashing down on me. I feel a little better today but yesterday was pretty bad. I apologize.

@ Milo; Oh my goodness, thank you!

@ Blue; Wow, thank you so much!

@ Monchele; Thank you so much, it's hard not to be rough when everything isn't going right, lol.

@ Hano; Goodness gracious, thank you so much! WOW. You dropped my jaw, Hano. You're right. I may have problems now but I'll get better eventually. Looking back at my videos and photos, my equitation really isn't all that bad. I'm also in a better mood (not a good mood, but not as depressed as before) so I feel better about it.

I have some sort of bad news. Well, Riley is very high maintenance with his feet/legs. He can't be ridden on certain grounds because they can majorly hurt his feet. Which means that I can't go to every show in the local circuit. He can go to the grounds of the A shows, of course, but for example, there's this barn with pretty bad footing. It's deep and has random holes and it's just not good. He can't go to that farm.
And, at one day shows, I have to graze him the entire time. Of course I'll probably have someone hold him while I get dressed and maybe someone can hold him while I look around, but he can't be tied to the trailer because he can, and has, hurt himself. Silly horse. xD

[...Dawn...]

Hey guys OMG I finally fell off of Fiona! She dumped me into the jump XD I'm so sore :p after I fell my sister got on her and jumped the jump fine -_- I aswell got back on and she jumped it
Eee! I found out Fiona's father is the son of secretariat!!!! So that means secretariat is her grandfather!

[opal.]

I'm just feeling frustrated with everything right now, and poor JJ has to put up with me. He's doing great, but I feel constantly bored and unmotivated to make the 45 minute trip down to the barn. I've pulled out a pole, done little trot jumps, obstacle courses, fun bareback days, but I still feel bored and unexcited to go riding. My mom is pissing me off, because she never has ANYTHING to say or critique me on when I ride english, yet as soon as I put my western saddle back on she's full of advice and is happy to watch me. She rode english for years, yet she just shuts up as soon as I do like it's disgraceful or something. Just because it isn't her thing doesn't mean it isn't mine, yet she seems to think that way. She never seems interested in what I'm talking about if it has ANYTHING to do with english-- even if I'm looking through Dover. She just wants to shop for western saddles, and western tack, and if I show her a nice pair of jods or breeches she just says "mhm" with the kind of voice that goes up at the end like "Oh, yeah, that's OK" and it just makes me so angry sometimes! Argg. I just miss english. Western has gotten so boring, but my horse isn't built for english, and Sizzle isn't ready yet-- he still has more training to go through before I can start seriously preparing him for Eq. classes.
Sorry for the rant guys, I just needed to get it out of my system.

[Hooligan.]

@Blue:
Yeah that would have been terrible!!! I don't know if that is the highest wind that we've had, but its the highest wind we have had this year. Good thing you guys were okay as well!!

@Branding coming up:
Okay, so I am usually on a ground team, usually either pulling legs or tagging. Anyway, this year I have to rope. My dad is always running the branding irons, and our friend who would be roping for us moved to Texas. So its left to me. You're probably wondering whyI haven't roped at a branding before-well I am a header. I just suck at heeling. And at brandings you mostly want to have heelers, it puts less stress on the cow. So now, I actually have to practice for heeling, which wouldn't be too bad, but I just don't really like heeling. Ugh. I like ground team a lot better. Whatever, get the job done I guess. I am just seriously hoping we can brand early this year so the calves are small. Last year we had to brand way late because there was so much snow, and some of the calves weighed upward of 170lbs. We had a 268lb calf last year, and it took 5 guys to bring him down and hold him. I really don't think I can drag that. Queso for sure can't drag that, I'm using my half draft anyway, but next year if I like roping for the branding I plan on using Queso. So, hopefully the snow melts so we can brand early, and hopefully it rains afterwards. It rained halfway through our branding last year.

[Mr.Milo]

@Blue: i dont think so because she definetly doesn't understnad how to be when your at a horse stables, like before doing anything wouldn't you ask? And no your fine!^^ Awww you guys look so cute together and Robert's colors are so unusual we have an Arabian Mix with that kinda color but its darker...at the same time he just turned four.

@Mochele: That sounds like so much fun!! Its great you get to ride tomrrow and the next day. Summer is the only time i can go two days in a row.

@Kickn': its good that you placed and im glad no one was hurt!

@Hime: well thats still awesome that you are part of the board!

@Silence: thats alright, and I know what you mean. Dash is kinda the same way like the onnly way he can go into the pasture is if someone leads him around. He has a bad ankle injury and its getting much better but they said that when they took him off the lead he went crazy and was close to hurting himself....lol i dont know why he does that.

@Dawn: We have a horse at the barn that is the great grandson of Secretariat. Also sorry about your fall im glad it wasn't too bad.

@Opal: I dont reallly have any good advice since my mom is no where near to a horse person and i dont think she has ever ridden a horse and i just ride english. I hope that soon you can do english riding.

@Smokey: branding sounds kinda scary if your not careful, but i hope you guys can do it early this year so its easier.

[Hooligan.]

@mr.milo
It really isn't scary, its actually really fun, I'm just nervous that I won't catch very fast. We already have 3-4 days of branding just calves because we have so many and that's if someone catches a lot. But like I said I'm not a Heeler, in a pretty decent header but hopefully I can get better at heeling. I don't want to leave any slicks because I don't want to have to have a later branding as well, but I don't know I bet there will be some slicks anyway. The only things that would be kind of scary is getting kicked and sometimes the momma cows. I had to leg a big calf last year an he kicked me right on the back of my calf. I didn't even know lol I got up and everyone was asking me if I was okay and I don't even understand why they were asking me that until I got home and saw the bruise lol. The moms are usually pretty decent and most of them my friend and I can cut out. We usually don keep the cows if they are aggressive.

[Dolphinlover~]

Ok just coming on super quickly as I haven't even changed out of my riding clothes and have stuff to do....but I had my show today! It went very very well....for the most part xD

Ok huge news....I was supposed to show in the MEDAL on Shadwell today. That's three feet gosh darn it, and a fricken medal. But, of course, Shadwell went lame. I rode him in the eq on the flat, since that was our warm up, and he felt off during it and my trainer and Shadwells owner (who came out to watch me :3) said he was lame. We still got 3rd in that class, and I personally think that my eq was great, but we didn't pin better because no judge is going to pin a rider on a lame horse that well. So under those circumstances, 3rd is not bad. So no medal or eq over fences for us ): I was so excited to be showing in the medal, but better be safe than sorry.

Luckily, my trainer had asked me to show Jazz, so I showed her in the eq over fences. That was basically our warm up since the warm up ring was frozen. We basically had no warm up, and the course was really good. My trainer was really happy with that and so I was I. We did so well that we were calle snack for the flat phase!! That was crazy since the class was pretty big and only 7 riders were called back for the flat phase. Keep in mind, I have only ridden Jazz a few times, and Jazz has been out of work for over a year and very out of shape. Sadly, we didn't pin the flat phase, but that's ok because we were called back anyways (:

Then we did the hunters, and got 5th in the hack out of a fairly large class. Our over fences trips were stunning. The first one was good, the second one was flawless. And guess what? We didn't pin. My trainer was appalled and said that the judge must have been sleeping not to pin us. I would have to agree, and the judging was pretty unfair throughout the whole show. But hey, I'm not one to whine and cry and complain because I didn't get more ribbons. I wasn't there to get ribbons, I was there to have fun andi had a blast and my trainer was so proud. Shadwells owner stayed to watch me show Jazz and said I rode beautifully and that she knows how hard it is to switch horses and show a horse you have only ridden a few times before. The day was awesome, except for Shadwell going lame, and I am really pleased because things did not start out well. I have photos and video, and I am really happy with my eq (: I think I fixed some of my main eq problems over fences. Yeah, so I am really pleased, and so what that I didn't get more ribbons? My trainer couldn't have been more proud and kept telling my mom how awesomely I rode Jazz, especially since I only have ridden her a select number of times. Another women from my barn said how great we could do if I continue riding her, since she knows I have not ridden her a little bit and that Jazz is just getting back into work (;

[stirrupirons]

@Rain: You're welcome :3 It's true!

@Milo: Yeah I love it <3 I get to ride three days actually xD with a one day break after tomorrow, then I have my lesson I'm going to see if I can come out Thursday and Saturday and hack Thinker.

--

I had a FANTASTIC hack today! There's a new girl at my barn, B, who rides Lady. She's still w/t and is a beginner but she's really nice! The only thing is she has no group manners at all... the rule is left-to-left and she would like block my path while I was working on my dressage test. I told her that when she's riding in a group she needs to stay on the rail and keep moving. If she had to stop, go to the middle or where nobody's coming. She said ok but she kept doing it. I don't think she understood ._. I worked on my dressage test with Thinker and then some transitions. I saved the last 20 minutes for cantering, so I asked him to canter... and he went into his funky trot. He kept going too, I was pretty much yanking on him and sitting as deep as I could. I should have done a one-rein stop, but I just ran him into the arena wall to stop him. I tried asking again on the short side and he did the same trot but this time I was able to stop him. My instructor said he was being naughty so she hopped on him and did quick canter transitions so he'd get the idea. I got back on and asked again and the transition was nice and quick and smooth she said my seat was fantastic! I was so happy lol. We cantered for a good 15 minutes while everyone was cooling their horses down (I got on late because I lunge Thinker before I ride). I felt like we were perfectly in sync and it just felt perfect. My canter seat has improved so much! And I had perfect control of him, I even bent him to the inside while we were cantering Gosh I'm just on a riding high right now. It was absolutely perfect. After that I walked him out and then A, B, and I tossed a crop around to each other on horseback. I just let Thinker stand there and dropped my reins and he fell asleep, lol, poor baby. When I got off I woke him up and gave him a treat for being a good boy besides the first attempt at canter xD I left the reins on his neck and I had him follow me out again I seriously think we have a really strong bond. I love this horse so much.
I'm going to ask my instructor soon if I can lease Thinker starting in spring when I get a job and can pay for it He's my soulmate in horse form, I swear. Leasing him would be a dream come true. I almost asked her today but I couldn't get my nerve up xD

[classi]

@ Dawn; Ouch! I hope you're okay. (:
Oh, wow, that's awesome! Is she fast?

@ Opal; I can't relate, but I'm really sorry your mom doesn't seem to be enthusiastic about english. Maybe if you show her that you really like English, she'll be more supportive? I don't know - I'm sorry I have nothing really productive to say. *Hug*

@ Milo; High five for high maintenance horses!

@ Dolphin; Wow, congratulations! That's too bad that Shadwell went lame, poor Shadwell. D: I hope he gets better soon! But that's absolutely awesome that you rode Jazz. Again, congratulations! It sounds like you performed super-dy-duperly! I can't wait for pictures and videos!