Do You Ride Horses?

[cobalt.]

@Junebug; I mainly ride hunt seat and western. I just started hunt seat about a month two months ago, but I've been doing a lot of work over fences since I'm in the IEA team. (I'm sooooooooo excited! :D )
For western I mainly ride equitation, pleasure and horsemanship classes I guess. But my true love is hunter/jumper<33 haha

[ξƞçɧαƞtєđ]

I've been lunging Sky and going on short rides through our field and hills. Living the good life right now. But I can't wait until we really start training for shows as right now, we're just getting used to the feel of each other and it's going great. I absolutely LOVE his canter and gallop.

[cobalt.]

Continuing with the thing I mentioned at the IEA team, could someone describe what the beginner hunter classes are like for the IEA, or any show?
That's the division my trainer signed me up for, I have no idea what its about xD.
I'm doing both flat work and over fences. c:

[stirrupirons]

@Hano: Thank you!!! <3 I'm really excited for it! I've always sorta wanted to try jumping but I used to only have one lesson a week and I didn't want to waste it, I guess, since I'm so focused on dressage. But now that I have three-four lessons a week I can have a bit more variety and still focus on dressage :) I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, but I've jumped before on trails, so I really shouldn't be. I'm mainly nervous about him hitting the poles because he's such a klutz (like me!!). Once I walked him over an 18" jump on the xc course and he knocked it down and spooked xD

@Lead changes: I don't 'rely' on flying changes since I'm only at first level, but I do work with simple changes through trot since that's in my level c:

[June Bug]

Wow, so yeah, a lot of huntseat. xD I'm surprised to see so many, my area doesn't really do huntseat except for those who do hunter-jumper or eventing, and even then, general classes are still done in dressage seat.

@Hime: Tývar is looking cuter and cuter every week <3 He's going to be a gorgeous boy when he's all grown up!


The two new horses, which are both Mares apparently (It seems the barn owner has a habit of not getting genders right. xD ) had to be moved out of the quarantine stalls and are now out in the little quarantine pasture 24/7. Partly because it's so sweltering hot right now and there are no fans out there like in the rest of the barn, and partly because poor Chester got stung by a bee and the spot is all infected now. :C We figured it wouldn't be a good idea to leave the new guys up there with him.
The vet will be here next week so hopefully, he'll clear both of them. We're already using Jazz (the big dapple gray) in lessons, but Tori (the little palomino pony) is still iffy. The owner will likely keep her as she's not dangerous and will probably be great with a little schooling, but she may be going to a different barn.
I'm really glad we're likely keeping Jazz, btw. She's a 'prettier' gray than Grande, so the few that insist on riding Grande for the novelty of him are already starting to shift over to Jazz, which means I get my boy back for Sundays <3

Speaking of Grande, tonight was his first try at Drill. We didn't do any canter work as it's just way too hot, but considering I haven't been riding regularly and he didn't have a clue what was going on, I was okay with that. xD
He' did great though, despite being totally confused. I think once he catches on and learns to follow my cues rather than just follow everyone else, he'll be an excellent drill horse. He had no problem whatsoever with pairing, even with Starbuck, who's a grouchy bully on good days. Moves like thread the needle and cinnamon bun, where horses are moving around close to and behind him obviously confused him, but he handled it well.
I'm really only worried about the part of our drill when he's suddenly the leader of our string. He didn't like that at all, haha. He went from a decent pace to tiptoeing, lol. He'll get it though, he just needs to work at it.
Twist will be my backup from now on, as I know, without a doubt, that he can and will do whatever I ask of him, but Grande will be my primary drill partner. The heat isn't nearly as hard on him and he's much younger and healthier than Twist, so he handles it much better than Twist does.

edit: Oh! And I almost forgot! We're having our (and my) very first off-site performance soon! :D We'll be performing at the county fair in August! I'm so excited, I've never had the confidence to compete or perform officially, but I love this team so much, I can't imagine opting out and letting them down. I don't feel all that nervous anyway, I'm mostly only concerned with which horse I'd be using. I know Twist is excellent with traveling for performances, so he's the obvious choice, but if I'm switching to Grande as my regular, I really should bring him instead. Problem is, he's only done two shows and they were both in-house. I have no idea how he would react to a new arena and large crowd. :/

[Hooligan.]

@Rebel:
Well, when you lead them, you want your shoulders to be even with their throatlatch as much as possible. And when you stop, you want to kind of stay in that general area, although you can step back towards their shoulders a bit, but you want your feet to point towards their closest hoof. Also, you want to always lead them from the left. So if you stop them and you are on their left side, you want your toes to point to their left front hoof. And keep your arms up, don't drop them, I used to drop my arms every ttime I stopped when I first started halter showing. But really, halter classes for a stock horse is where they judge the horses comformation, showmanship is where they judge you and how well the horse does what you ask, and how crisp you are and everything. So if you are just doing halter, you don't have to worry quite as much about being perfect on everything. You just want to show off your horse as best as you can.

@Hano:
Thanks! Its my favorite thing about his mane

@Focusing:
I kind of dabble in all western events. But for showing, my focus is reining and showmanship. And for rodeo, its barrels and roping. For ranchy/cow events its working cow horse. Although I would really like to get more into trail and western pleasure.

@Rodeo Queening:
So last night at the rodeo, it went pretty well, besides a few minor crazinesses. So first off, lets start with my buzz. I was the first thing that happened (My buzz), during the rodeo, so they were just playing music and getting everything ready beforehand, and so when tthey do get ready to go they just randomly call my name to buzz and it took me a while to get there haha, they didn't give us any warning or anything. Then during my buzz, Queso stumbled a bit, nothing bad, it was just a small stunble at the beginning from being too close to the fence, where they couldn't drag. well, after our buzz's, we carried flags. And Queso did great, although on the home stretch he kept going faster and wouldn't slow down, so I finally dropped both reins and re picked it up so I could position my hand to pull his head around into a circle, as we had to circle back into the center of the arena anyway. So that wasn't too bad. but then, during bareback, one of the broncs ran towards the gate that partitioned off the roping chutes, and attempted to jump it, but lets face it, a bronc is not a jumper, and he crashed through it. He was seriously lucky he didn't break his neck because as he crashed through it he fell and rolled over his head like a summer sault. So then they had to get a welding truck to come over and weld the gate off so it wouldn't be in the way of the ropers. Then ahh yes, the pack horse race!!! <3 I love it!!! That was our last rodeo though, we just have a kids rodeo where we dont need our horses. Although we have been invited to some other rodeos, I don't think i'll go because of haying.

@Horse Show/Fair:
So today was the open horse show, which was a superb day for me!!! I was originally entered only in reining and showmanship as i didn't have that much money to enter a lot after the NHSRA finals . But when we got there there was only me and my friend entered in almost everything. But then my other friend came and entered some later on. And another girl came. Anyway, in Showmanship, I got 2nd out of 3. The first place girl was my friend whose horse is a /very/ expensive show horse, and when you say "set up", she sets up.Although I am proud because we were only apart by a /tiny/ bit. And the third place girl, one of my other friends, she isn't very good at showmanship, alhough i think her horse could be. In Western Eq, i got 2nd out of me and D, my friend with the show horse. Then in Western Pleasure, i got 3rd out of three, me, my friend D, and my friend E, the other girl. Well, the judge told me that the /only/ reason why I didn't beat E is because her horse got the right lead, and you guys know how Queso is with his right lead. so during our pleasure class, Queso though it was rodeo queen stuff and wanted to rush it, and he wouldn't get his right lead, and he really fought me throughout the whole thing. In reining, I was the only one entered, so i got first, although i could have been disqualified, and I'm surprised i wasn't because i royally screwed the pattern up at the end but the judges said it was clean, so i geuss they didn't see that extra figure eight i put in there...But anyway I got some spur straps with that (as well as the ribbon). And in barrels, I decided not to take Queso fast because he had been stumbling a bit before hand so I wanted to make sure he wasn't going lame or something. and the barrel pattern was big today for some reason, it was crazy. Anyway, I got second place in that and E got third. The first place girl shouldn't have even been in my age group because of age restrictions but her mom lied for her to get in with us which majorly pisses me off. Especially considering I would have gotten first without her there. I could have won poles because E screwed the pattern up and the other girl (who shouldn't have been in our age group anyway), knocked down 3 of them. but I didn't enter poles because I don't like poles, if only I had known haha. I was very close to getting hi-point for my age group as well, but D won it, which isn't surprising because she did English (when I didn't), and also placed 1st in almost all her classes. She had 15 points, I had 7 points and E had like 4 points. Hi Point is a buckle too, so i really wanted to win it. I was at least hoping they would have Reserve Hi Point but I guess not. So yeah, tomorrow is a break day and then 4H horse show monday and tuesday.

[opal.]

@Mocha
I'm glad the clinic went so well! You sound like such a wonderful rider!

@Scarlet
Ooo! I hope your show goes well! Good luck!

@Worst Fall
It's been a /looong/ time since I've fallen off of a horse. I think it must be 8+ years now o.o I got JJ in 2008 and have /never/ fallen off of him <3 (My boy takes good care of me, + I've always had a strong seat according to my trainer and mom xD) I think the last time I truely fell off a horse was when I was 6-7 or so and I was riding Annie, a black mare who took off with me and I ended up hanging from the stirrup XD Never been injured riding horses though! Maybe I'm lucky, or maybe I'm not riding hard enough, right?
___________________________

Update: JJ and I have been siting in /such/ a riding sweet-spot right now! He's been a doll for me the past couple weeks and we've been riding only english :33 We've been doing a lot of disciplinary work as opposed to dressage (which is near impossible to do cleanly and correctly in a hunt saddle) so we've been working on moving forward into the bit and collecting when I ask for extension, walk-canter transitions (up and down), Moving in precise and straight lines (like extending down the diaganol and not wavering at all), then stretched my heels down, not forcing posting so much, standing in my stirrups, posting without stirrups and stirrupless work for me xD My mom has been busy with Caper lately so I've really had to coach myself and work things out on my own. I've been a little inconfident lately because of this, but my mom gave me a /huge/ complement about what a beautiful rider I am these days and how much all my equitation work has paid off so that made me really happy c: Sizzle is coming along too! He's nearly ready to switch to english and I'm considering taking him to his first show at the end of August :3

Missed?

[kathwren]

I ride saddleseat xD
I feel different ovo
But I prefer huntseat. <3

I had a good day at the barn today c:
I rode Princess again, we're pretty good together. For some reason, her trot is REALLY hard to post on for me.
Any tips on how to keep balance while posting? I'm fine with it everywhere else, but trot has always been a difficult gait for me, and Princess is a Saddlebred, so she's bouncy ;o;
After I rode she followed me around the ring while a little kid rode her.
I love that mare <3

On the topic of saddlebreds, i used to think they were just prancy dancy fancy show horses, but they're big sweeties and great jumpers. My first horse is totally going to be a saddlebred <33
And since the world championship horse show is in my city, that's an option too. I think I'd still like to show in jumpers, though. c:

[Rebel Love Song]

@smokeyiscool For Arab halter, the judges want a "spirited" horse -ears pricked, eyes wide, slightly uncontrollable lol- Is that the same for stock horses? Or do they like what i call laid back/lazy?

[BlingBling]

Got to see Breyerfest again this year <3
It always opens your eyes to new styles of riding and horsemanship. I felt sorry for the horses, though. It was 90-some degrees and I think it was Apollo from DD Horsemanship that had a demo including fire everywhere... Yeah, very smart but he's alright I guess. Some horses got really cranky or hyper as well. I still liked seeing the drill team and mounted games c: