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
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. :)
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 ;)
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.
Got off work last night determined to get some riding in on Levi. Humidity was a lot lower, nice breeze and sun was shining bright! Had Josie run me up to the pond in the car and the were just North of pond a little ways. I met a snapping turtle on my walk out there and I would have taken a picture of him but he was watching me a little too closely so I left him be, nasty things anyway! Levi met me half way, covered in dry mud. So we went through the gate going into my yard to be hosed off before walking up to the horse trailer to saddle up. Its a 1/4 mile so she was dried most of the way by the time we got there.
Angel was not very happy I took her buddy away but she'll get used to it ;-) Got tacked up and FINALLY got to try my new 14 ft lead Marty got me for my birthday! Which I love! Tied some streamers to the saddle, and longed for a bit to warm her up. Then put the streamers on her neck for the rest of our ride.
We also did a bit of sacking out. I climbed aboard and we did some ORS's, turns trying to work more off the legs than the reins (I can definitely tell I haven't been on her for a couple of weeks!). We walked the barrel and pole patterns, walked over the poles on the ground. Did more trotting and backing. I have to say here I am in love with her trot, its soft, long and easy!! Her backing is doing great as well soft and straight so far.
I love her momma Satin but Levi is going to be a much better, more athletic horse. I'm proud to say I bred for both these girls and I am proud them both.
Ok now on to Angel. Remember my last blog I told you about jumping on Angel with nothing but and old lead rope that was hanging on the fence. Here are the pictures of that fancy contraption LOL.
Well tonight I decided to try her again but this time I had the rope halter (and again my new lead hehe). I tossed the roped over her neck, over her back, around her legs and rump. She was flinched some and was somewhat jumpy but did well otherwise. I climbed on and laid down the length of her back and rubbed her all over, patted her, swung the lead rope around her abit a l.
View from above lol.
I flexed her left and right and she did good. Then I asked her to move forward and again we just stood there. Hmm well light bulb goes off. I now have this 14 ft lead so I loop it into a set of reins and they are long enough I also have a built in lead too. So as I am sitting there bumping with my legs I pull her head to one side and also lightly tap at her butt with the built in "rope". Yes she takes a step so I immediately release, then ask again and voila another step, then two then three.. by george I think she is getting it! So we now have forward movement but she "forgot" she still needs to follow her nose so we will be working on that more soon but I think she will be easy enough to work with :-)
I wish I had someone available to take pictures of the rides too but that is like pulling teeth but hopefully soon I will have more of them actually being ridden. Have a great day!
I loved it! It was nice to go outside and not sweat just standing there. The horses were actually out and about in the pasture grazing rather than looking utterly miserable! Nate, my son, gave me a ride up to the pond where the horses were at so I could catch them. Got them brought up and noticed Satin's fly mask rubbed her jaw raw abit underneath so off it came on went some SWAT ointment. I check her daily but I am guessing with the cooler weather maybe she was rubbing in on something abit to cause it. I left it off her when we got done riding.
I got the horses ready to go (brushed most of the dried mud off of old Jake), Nate came out and we went for a nice ride down the road by our place. It sure was nice but Satin is so tender footed I am going to have to get her some boots to wear I think, it didn't help that this last time they put down some really big coarse rock on the road.
There was a bit of perspiration on us and the horse when we got back but nothing to bad :) We got back to the pasture and were greeted by Levi and Angel at the gate, lol, so I thought what the heck, I will she what Angel will do. I put Satin's bridle on her which was too big and would not go small enough for her dainty little head lol. There was a lead rope hanging on the fence so I just made a make shift halter with that which incidentally only left me with about a foot and half long "single rein" ROFL. So I bellied up on her.. not hard with her at all since she is a shorty compared to my horses LOL, and she didn't move a muscle. So I moved around up there, rubbed and patted her all over. Flexed her head around both ways and she did good! So I squeezed with my legs, she just stood there. So I nudge with my legs.. still nothing, so I kick and she turns around and looks at me like "what?".
So I try a different approach and lean back and pull back on the make shift halter and she backs .. YES we have movement (calm down it was only a step) ;) So I ask for another and yep she took another step back.
So I again ask for forward movement.....and nothing but a look like "what are you doing?" I then try something different just to get the feet moving and I start swaying back and forth on her back while squeezing with my legs and we got a few steps! I felt it was a good place to stop since I didn't even have any real equipment on her in case of a blow up lol. I never said I was bright.. only somewhat reckless hehehe ;)
