Time for some hoof work

October 31

Well I loaded my car up with my hoof stand, rasp and my leather gloves. Drove up to the pond.. horsey hangout... rolled down the windows on my car, turned the radio on, caught Satin and got to work rasping and shaping her feet a bit before our ride next weekend. She has a tendency to flare on her right front foot if I don't keep after it and sadly it has been a bit since the last shaping so she was flaring some. Luckily Levi seems to have better shape to her feet that mama does ;)

After that I jumped on bareback and rode around about to see how she felt and she was turning much better :D so then we rode out in the pasture aways and galloped a little bit, she even had a little play buck in her but she is definitely no bareback bronc, just having fun. ;)

Went back to the gate where the car was and just sat on her soaking in the calming mood of the horses a bit. Levi thought she needed to be in my lap and Angel was looking for some attention to. Silly girls.

I even jumped on Levi and rode her bb with the halter for a little bit but she isn't as good at it as her mom yet. ;)

Levi is putting some lbs back on :D

Hi Mom can I sit in your lap? Do you like my new burr hair clip?

How about now??

Ok this is Angels nose, that is Levi's hind leg in front of my leg

and I am sitting on Satin, that is how close she thought she needed to be!!

Boarder mare.

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Riding with dad after work and enjoying Stephens Forest

October 27th
Well dad texted me asking me to stop at his house before I went home after work (we're neighbors LOL) so I said sure I wanted to ride that night anyway. So I stopped down, we visited for a bit, then I asked if he wanted to go for a quick ride with me. He said sure.. he hasn't been on the horses much at all since he had a triple bypass several years ago.
He said are we just gonna grab the bridles and go up to the pond where the horses are? I said no and yes.. we are grabbing the rope halters and going to the pond to ride bareback .. I'm such a smartass LOL.
We go up and catch Satin for me and Jake for him and just rode thru the pasture checking fences and such.. the other horses were feeling good and running around like lunatics around us but Jake and Satin are good ponies and behaved well.
After an hour or so dad was ready to dismount claiming he didn't want to be to sore at work tomorrow lol, Jake is a fat old boy so I can see that.
Sadly no pictures because I left my phone charging in the car but next time for sure!!

October 29
Josie and I loaded Jake and Satin up and headed to Stephens Forest for what turned out to be a beautiful day for riding. The forest looked so pretty with all the leaves falling, pine needles making beds under the pines and we saw several deer.
We even hit the challenging trails, if you can call them that LOL, all in all it was great.

Josie was cold.. Jake was sweaty.. that boy has gotten a wicked winter coat already!

One of my favorite veiws in the world.. everyone should enjoy it at least once!

They redid the big pond and are finally letting it fill back up.

Another angle of the big pond.

Adorable Josie under the big pines.

Under the big pines.. my fave spot the whole ride!

Another shot of the big pines.

Josie and Jake

Another shot of my beautiful steed.

Sorry all these vidoes are sideways.. I will know to turn my phone sideways next time LOL!!

It will make people wonder what you are looking at ;)

and as always if you have trouble viewing the pictures and videos you can

go directly to my blog at http://dragonlver.blogspot.com/

Finally got a ride in last night!!

Well I haven't been out on the horses for bit with all my dr stuff going on so I was bound and determined that I was going to enjoy the nice weather last night!! I got me a bridle (baling string LOL) found my old girl Satin, did a quick check of all the horses, I jumped on Satin and away we went!

I felt wonderful riding around the pasture bareback with nothing but a string her. The horses were all feeling good with the great fall air and the wind a blowin'. I chose to ride the 80 acres because I didn't feel the need to be out on the road when they are harvesting the neighboring fields. Too much dust, big tractors and a horse on the road are just to risky for me :)

I got some shots of the other horses in the pasture playing and grazing. I first rode the one pasture then me and my 4 followers followed Satin and I into the other pasture thru their secret crossing between pastures LOL. Had a couple of good hand gallops and lots of walking and enjoying everything.

One of the reasons I love Satin so much is because I can jump on her with that baling twine and while all the horses are running around us like banshees she doesn't get stupid.. even stands there while I am trying to get pictures of everyone running by!! On day I hope to trust Levi riding this way like I do Satin ;)

Boarded horses

Hiding

Levi and Angel

Jake and Levi

Happy riding!

Hmm does it look like she is pouting? LOL

As we all know Levi has been "chillin" since she cut above her eye. LOL.

She has been a pain wanting attention, so I figured last night she was healed enough to get back to work. She was waiting at the gate so got her caught up and bridled and this time saddle with the barrel saddle she will probably be wearing next year anyway.

We did some lunging with some changes of directions. Good. Then I climbed aboard and we did some flexing and turns. I could feel she was "feeling fresh" so we did some serpentines, backing, and more flexing until I felt her relax a bit.

We then moved out on a loose rein and did some ORS's, walk over  poles and then walked and trotted the pole pattern a few times. I kept it somewhat short as I had other stuff to do so we then rode over to the gate and started our practice of opening the gate from horseback.. she did pretty darn good!

She did want to trot up the hill and most any other hill I might let her but this one goes straight to the barn so I try to avoid doing that but I did let Satin canter up the other day but only because it was raining and we were in a hurry ;)

One night when I have more time to ride her I will have to get the video going on the digital again and shoot some footage of her. :)

It was Monday but riding horses made it better LOL.

Yes I got to get out there and ride last night!  Satin and I rode around bareback with just the halter on... our favorite way to ride, easy peasy.  I sure like everything about this mare except that trot of hers LOL she can sure jar your teeth out and all was good except Satin had a brain fart and forgot how to sidepass to the right .

But since we were just in our "skivvies" we didn't do much drill work it was a relax and have a fun break time.

I think tonight I will get Levi back to riding as  her eye has just a little scab left where she cut it and she is being very ornery and wanting some major attention. We will see if this is the attention she is looking for LOL. 
Trying to brush Satin's tail out before our ride and Levi was RIGHT there which made if VERY hard to brush out a tail.  I do love that she seeks out this attention all the time, I think it makes them very easy to work with. Pocket Ponies... gotta love 'em.

Wow what a last several days!

Well I got to ride last Wednesday and it was pretty nice out. Doctored Levi first then grabbed the sidepull and jumped on Satin bb and she was full of P & V, dancing around, which is very unlike her but I do have her and Levi shut up in the lot and they are getting grain so that might have something to do with it LOL.

We went down and trotted some circles (this girl has a rough trot LOL) then proceeded to trot the pole pattern several times, which she is getting the pattern down pretty good. Wish I had an arena with good footing to push her a bit more, oh well.

Then we did some sidepassing, backing and turns on the hindquarters. I would really like to get her to bring her head down and break at the poll a bit more...I am thinking of incorporating a martingale or draw reins to see how that works, just enough to help her figure out better what I am asking.

All in all after she got rid of the excess energy she was doing pretty well. :D

I wanted to ride last Thursday night as well but went to use the truck to take water to all the animals before riding and brakes went to the floor.. uh oh, not good.. looked and looked. Took awhile but we found it and sure enough there was a hole in my driver side rear break line.. ugh.

Then it rained just enough I couldn't ride Friday or Saturday. Got truck brakes fixed on Sunday (Thank you Dad). Also finally got a small break in the rain on Sunday so I grabbed the sidepull and jumped on Satin for a quick ride. We flexed some then rode thru the pole pattern a few times then got ready to practice our sidepasses and turns on the hindquarters when it started to rain on us.. so we cantered back up the hill and I dismounted and made a run back indoors LOL.

Today I went to a GI specialist and got my tests scheduled for the 29th for a Endoscope and a CAT so hopefully we figure this problem out that I have.
Now I am heading out for a ride tonight and see how much riding I can get in between now and the tests :)

Later.

Desperate to ride!

You know you are a redneck and desperate to ride when you grab the closest thing.. in this case a piece of twine .. to jump on your horse to go for a ride thru the pasture when you have no halter or bridle handy!! Hehehe. My only regret is that my twine could have been slightly longer. :)

Well the hay is mowed down and raked and will be turned tonight and baled on Wednesday. Then we will be set for our winter hay. Yeah!

Loving this fall weather this week!! Levi's cut is healing nicely although there is still some puffiness in the area..think I Will try some hemorrhoid cream on it, it usually helps take the swelling down. I think I will be back on her by the end of the week.

Satin's turn

Well I went out Sunday September 4 to work with Levi only to find her with gash above her eye and enough swelling her eye was barely open. Ugh 4 yrs and now she starts with the boo boos.  So doctored her up and caught Satin instead.  Now Satin thinks with her riding is jump on and go for a jaunt, which she is pretty good for and good at.
A little back story on Satin before I start.  I bred for and raised Satin, she was born on my mom and dad's farm so I have had her from the very beginning. I showed her in futurities as a weanling, so she had lots of ground handling in that time. Wonderful horse to work with from the ground. I have never had to tie or twitch her to clip or bathe. She is just a good girl. Well I had 2 little kids in school by the time her 2 yr old rolled around so she got VERY sporadic work done with her so her 2 yr old year she had maybe 15 rides total and only walking at that!!
Then she hardly got ridden at all between year 3 and 4, then I bred her to our then paint stallion at 4 yrs old. Then Levi was foaled out and they just ran with the rest of the broodmares until we quit breeding. Then we got Jake for Josie about 3 yrs ago I think and I had someone to ride with!!! YES!
So I jumped on Satin with a halter and lead, she was a little cold backed.. still is to this day... not a sun fishing, getting with it cold back just a bit goosey and humpy when you first get on. I credit her heavy Two Eyed Jack breeding as the cause LOL.  I have tried to goed her into buck but she is all talk and no do when it comes to the actual bucking process :D.
We rode down the road, at Stephens Forest and in parades and for a very green horse she was doing great. She is very thin skinned so she doesn't like a lot of pressure applied before she gets irritated but she would never buck .. she shows in other ways which you will see in her videos LOL. She is an evader. The problem is I never worked with her like the work I am putting into Levi's training. I didn't do all the flagging and sacking, the bending or flexing, or yielding of the fore and hindquarters. You know actually WORKING. Well with Levi out for a short while I decided it was time for her to learn all this, much to her disappointment.
Anyway back to Sundays ride. I tacked Satin up with the barrel saddle and plain O ring snaffle. Donned my spurs and we went to work. We worked on side passing, backing, half passing and turning on the hindquarters (she needs LOTS of work in all these areas).  She did attempt lots of evading this Sunday.

I then went out with her on Wednesday night after work and since she was not yielding well with the snaffle I took a step back and put in her back into the sidepull. She tried evading and rooting against that but her overly sensitive nose quickly quit fighting that rope nose and she was got much softer.  You will notice that I do use the reins to "slap" her shoulder on some of the turns. She was not hit hard just enough to revert her attention back to where it was supposed to be.. the other horses were running around and hollering and she would forget what she was supposed to be doing :)

I realize for a 9 yr old mare she should already know these things but most of the people I let ride her don't know them so I never really thought about teaching them to her LOL. She is a good babysitter for those with less experience than I, and for that she is worth her weight in gold..(and that's quite a bit!).

So enjoy, critique, do as you will. :-)

Awesome time at Elk Rock!

Wow what a great weekend with friends and family we had! I admit we had a very slow to go start. I had planned on heading out from the house by 9 am at the latest and I had planned on taking 4 horses.
Well Marty wanted to go to town that morning and get some last minute things so that put us somewhat behind my planned schedule.
Well by the time we all got packed up, got Nathan out of bed (he had to work until 2 am Friday night/ Saturday morning so we let him sleep as long as possible), went down to load horses and just having Levi, Jake and Satin in the trailer was a lot of horses so I opted to leave the 4th horse home. It was Levi's first real trailer ride and she did well ... bumped her poor face a few times but came thru pretty unscathed overall :)
We go to Indianola and gas up the trucks and the boat and are ready to roll! We got to Elk Rock around 12:30 or so all had a enjoyable lunch. Then we got horses ready to go. Nathan called his Uncle to see when they were coming and they had some stuff to do and wouldn't be there until probably dinner time so we hit the trails. Courtney and Ty stayed at camp that first round and just played on Lu at the arena and around the campgrounds. Marty stayed at camp  the first round as well and got the cards to pay for our sites.

Our first group consisted of Chase on Sis, Brandon on Belle, Danny on Star, Nathan on Satin, Josie on Jake and myself on Levi.  Star and Danny were having a bit of a "discussion on weather Star really even wanted ridden.. I went over and gave him a hand .. once he was on she did much better... very fresh but soon settled in on the trails.

Me, Levi and Nate

Me and Levi

Danny on Star

Brandon on Belle

Chase and Sis

Josie what a ham!

Satin and Nate

The group up ahead

Levi did superb for her first ever trail ride, so good I was able to take lots of pics! ... the campgrounds made her a bit uneasy but she was a pretty good girl. All those kids playing and riding bikes, trikes and skateboards were a great learning tool for her as were the dogs that were out there. She stood at the hitching post like an old pro as well.  Even when Chase and Ty would go running past playing around :-)

Dinner time.

Josie on Jake and Marty on Satin

Marty on Satin

The second time we went out Nate stayed behind and Marty rode Satin.. I haven't gotten him on a horse in years but I think he likes my old girl! Maybe now I can get him to go more often. I think it was this ride we got to see several deer fairly close, of course when one spooked so did Brandon's horse. As Danny put it, it looked like he tried to bulldog the tree but the tree won. After we made sure he was OK we laughed our butts off, I did ask him if he would redo it so I could get some pictures or video!! LOL

After that ride we took the horses back to the campground and gave them a short break then Nate, Josie and I took Satin, Jake and Levi over to the little obsticle course and at first Levi didn't want to do it but after she watched Jake do it once she did good.. the back thru was a different thing for her but she figured it out. :-)

Looking good!

Jake pole walking lol

Nate being a goof

Levi on the bridge

Levi poles

Levi crossing metal plate

Backing thru the L

Finishing the back thru L

We had a good cookout of chicken, pork steak, dutch oven potatoes & onions, and Danny's superb dutch oven blackberry cobbler!! All that we had missing was the homemade ice cream.
Later that evening my BIL, SIL and niece showed up and we all sat around the campfire and enjoyed some good stories and beer. 
The next day Danny, Courtney and Brandon cooked up a good breakfast of bacon, eggs and biscuits. Fuel for our morning ride :-)  This time Marty and his brother Jasan went out on the boat and Suzie and Payton rode with us. I put Suzie on my good old girl Satin and we put Payton on with Josie. Payton was so excited because she was steering old Jake and Josie was just a passenger.

Suzie on Satin Payton and Josie on Jake..Levi's ears

Suzie on Satin

Go Payton! Look at her ride.....Levi and I behind

Nice big group

8-21-11 Ride

Snazzy title eh?

First I want to say my Saturday was crappy.. I didn't get my list done (I had my day planned out), I got burrs in my hair trying to get them out of my lot before I mowed :/ , and my phone stopped working and was in Des Moines with mom most of the evening driving her around since the break line on her car was leaking, but enough of that!

So I finally got to ride on Sunday. I go catch Levi, bring her up to brush and saddle her... she didn't want to stand for saddling...this is a first for her! So I send her out on the line to work for a bit and try again and my sweet Levi was back so I figure she was thrown off working in the middle of the day instead of evening LOL.

I had taken all my stuff down to my freshly mowed work area.. foam tarp, landscape poles, flags, chicken feed sack full of cans, etc earlier. I head down with the horse, laptop and digital camera.. well except I forgot the bridle.. duh!! So had to go get that.

Get down and set up laptop on a barrel and start web cam.. got some good video, except I was misjudging where the “edge” of the camera line was and got out of frame a lot. I took all that out when I shortened the videos for easier loading and for those with slower Internet. Then I switched over to using mom's digital camera and it did the best out of the two, I just wish I had a way to zoom, a helper sure would be nice.

Also at one point I accidentally hit her with the sacking out whip, which I think is also on video and made her jump some. I promise it was an accident ;)

 We did more trotting in circles, crossing the foam tarp etc.

We got some cantering in more this time.. we still aren't cantering circles but are getting better at the straight lines with the occasional big arc thrown in ..

This clip at the after the first canter she was acting weird stomping her right front but she must have just had a big horse fly on her that left when we stopped and she wanted to argue over backing rooting her nose a bit. She was also getting tired and bratty so we worked thru that and found a good point to quit so it wasn't her idea to stop the lesson.

Her ORS are getting much better too.

All in all we had a good lesson with some decent footage.. Levi will be going on her first trail ride this Saturday at Elk Rock in Knoxville. I think she will do really good. :)

Some video of our ride on Monday 8-15-11

Well I did ride Monday after work but didn't get blog done because we had company on Tuesday for dinner, got some cute pics of my little cousin Isabel on my mare Satin. Then on Wednesday I had to get Marty some clothes packed and feed him because he had to get up at 3 am because they were sending him to Missouri for work.

Here are Isabel and Satin

Anyway I got Levi up to work with her.., well Marty is building me a new mobile chicken coop and she shied from it so we did some work near it until she ignored it then I spotted it... the feed sack filled with empty pop cans in it and sacked her out with it really good ;-). 
We get over to horse trailer to saddle up and my dad comes out and is visiting with me while I get her saddled and booted up. Well she is standing there untied since the trailer isn't hooked to the truck right now and the cows across the road decide to barrel up their "alley" from one pasture to the next and Levi was like WTH??? She was so on the muscle, head way up watching these cows she looked about 25 hh ROFL.
Got her saddled and did some brief ground work then did some riding. I got a few videos.. don't laugh too hard at me please, big over sized T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes ;-)

She has a great trot when she holds it ;) and one day she will back real nice the next we have to discuss it. The important part is patience.

Definitely still some work to do but she is getting better.

Sacking out

Sorry I haven't figured out how to add music just yet so you will just have to listen to the bugs chirp LOL!!

I also apologize for the darkness its not easy to set a flat samsung mezmerize up to get video when you are trying to it by yourself :P~~. I did have an aha moment.. the next time I am going to try the web cam on my laptop to record and see how that works :D  otherwise I am going to borrow Nathan's or mom's digital cameras ;)

Enjoy!!

On the road.. not again but for the first time!

Well I asked Josie to go riding with me tonight so Levi could get out of the pen work some and down the road to see how she would do. Josie wanted to go only if we went down the road so we got Jake and Levi up. She just rode Jake with the rope halter bareback, while Levi got the full tack up lol. 

I longed her a bit to relax her a bit before we headed out. I told Josie I wanted Levi to lead not follow. Levi was a bit hesitant at first then off we went down the road. Unfortunately it looks like I will be getting her some boots for road riding as well. So we stayed on the shoulder to avoid most of the rocks, and when we had gone about a ¼ of a mile Josie was ready to turn and head for home. I said no lets at least go down the level B road by our house so we did.

Yes I'm wearing shorts with cowboy boots LOL

Levi did very well we trotted out ahead of Jake and Josie once we got to the level B road, then we did a ORS. We then trotted out ahead again, this time Jake and Josie followed. I liked how willing Levi was to lead! Then another ORS and at the other end of the road she was looking at the cat tails in the ditch not liking them so we went in the ditch with them and the first time she tried to jump away but I made her go back and she did well. Josie brought Jake down as well and he grabbed one and tried to eat it!! Goofy horse thinks everything is food.. so I tell Josie bring him here I want to get that away from him so he doesn't choke on it. I had to reach in his mouth and feel around to grab the darn thing. Sheesh Jake!

We then turned and headed back home, again I wanted Levi to lead. We got part way back and then went down in the ditch that dad keeps mowed and road the rest of the way home. She manuvered the steep ditch well with a rider.Well I wasn't done riding so Levi and I went to do our pen work and Josie put Jake away.  We sacked out from the saddle this time, it was new for her but she did good!

We did our usual walking the barrel and pole patterns. We also did lots of trotting, I think Levi is starting to like trotting =) Well she was getting a bit tired and sweaty but I decided I wanted to try loping tonight. Well the grass down there is still a bit slick because it was so long when we mowed it the other night so we started at one end and trotted most of the way then got up a lope for about 3 strides before we ran out of room... so we went back and started again well this time she decided she might try to buck!! Well she bucks just like her sire did … a poor excuse for a buck LOL! I have to say here that I am more nervous when a little shorty horse bucks than those bigger horses. So it was very easy to ride out her buck a couple of strides before we engaged the ORS. Then we WORKED! Have to get those kinds of idea right out of her head.

So we circled and trotted and circled and at one point since she was getting hot and tired she thought she might try to bite my boot!! Umm I don't thinks so!

I put her back on the longe line and we did about 7 or 8 reversals at the canter, then I climbed back on and we just walked around on a loose rein cooling back down.. her attitude was MUCH better =)

It is amazing how a little hard work makes them stop and think ;) 

Poor tired girl.

She did spook here and there and look at things funny  on the road but all in all she did really well for her first road ride.