If you ever get a chance....
Get your booty in the saddle that sits on the back of a well trained Morgan western pleasure horse. It's like riding a carousel horse!
If western isn't your thing, try one of these!
You'll have to wait a few seconds for the horse to really get going!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
An Evening at the Barn is like...
Heaven!
After work on Friday, I headed out to J's to do evening chores for her. She had taken a few horses to a small Open show and wasn't around. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my time alone at the barn. It's rare anymore that I get that. Much of my barn time now is spent listening to J, which is great, but sometimes it's nice to get lost in my own thoughts as I busy myself with remedial barn work.
After bringing in the mares and geldings, I tossed out studly butt Casper so he could blow some steam. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to continue clipping some winter worn horses as I'd been doing on each visit the past 2 weeks or if I wanted to lunge/ride someone. Lazily, I decided against both and pulled out my camera to play photographer.
I've been wanting to get more pictures of these horses, so I decided that I'd go stall to stall and snap a picture or two of each horse and then post them on my blog with a quick introduction. I stuffed my pockets with some left over candy canes wrapped in their crinkly horse attention grabbing paper and began making rounds. Unfortunately, it QUICKLY became apparent that perhaps these pictures should wait until I've clipped and groomed them all. I'm posting only one of the several pictures I took, just so you can see that this is no way to make an introduction.
Meet Fancy, the boss mare!
*sorry, Fancy. *
After my wayward attempts at pik cha' taking, I decided that maybe good ole' Casper would be a better model. I made my way outside, pocket FULL of 'canes and did what I could. He's unkempt too, but still handsome as he wandered around the back pasture, sniffing piles of poo to his heart's content!
After Casper, I went back into the barn to finish chores. Before I was able to though, I heard a muffled nicker coming from Gypsy's stall. She had heard the candy cane wrappers crinkling, and she knew I had a pocket full. I opened up her door, and Gypsy slowly emerged in search of her favorite treat.
"Are those 'canes you have?"
"Ya' care to share?"
"Pretty please?"
After Gypsy had her 'cane, she quietly backed into her stall and continued with her hay. She is so funny!
So, that's that. Nothing too exciting, but at least I got a few pictures worth showing...I guess. Once those winter coats are shed out and the haircuts have been had, I'll post some pictures of the horses looking their best!
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Aside from my Friday barn time, I spent my weekend at TWO showers. One bridal and one baby! 'Tis the season!!!
After work on Friday, I headed out to J's to do evening chores for her. She had taken a few horses to a small Open show and wasn't around. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed my time alone at the barn. It's rare anymore that I get that. Much of my barn time now is spent listening to J, which is great, but sometimes it's nice to get lost in my own thoughts as I busy myself with remedial barn work.
After bringing in the mares and geldings, I tossed out studly butt Casper so he could blow some steam. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to continue clipping some winter worn horses as I'd been doing on each visit the past 2 weeks or if I wanted to lunge/ride someone. Lazily, I decided against both and pulled out my camera to play photographer.
I've been wanting to get more pictures of these horses, so I decided that I'd go stall to stall and snap a picture or two of each horse and then post them on my blog with a quick introduction. I stuffed my pockets with some left over candy canes wrapped in their crinkly horse attention grabbing paper and began making rounds. Unfortunately, it QUICKLY became apparent that perhaps these pictures should wait until I've clipped and groomed them all. I'm posting only one of the several pictures I took, just so you can see that this is no way to make an introduction.
Meet Fancy, the boss mare!
*sorry, Fancy. *
After my wayward attempts at pik cha' taking, I decided that maybe good ole' Casper would be a better model. I made my way outside, pocket FULL of 'canes and did what I could. He's unkempt too, but still handsome as he wandered around the back pasture, sniffing piles of poo to his heart's content!
After Casper, I went back into the barn to finish chores. Before I was able to though, I heard a muffled nicker coming from Gypsy's stall. She had heard the candy cane wrappers crinkling, and she knew I had a pocket full. I opened up her door, and Gypsy slowly emerged in search of her favorite treat.
"Are those 'canes you have?"
"Ya' care to share?"
"Pretty please?"
After Gypsy had her 'cane, she quietly backed into her stall and continued with her hay. She is so funny!
So, that's that. Nothing too exciting, but at least I got a few pictures worth showing...I guess. Once those winter coats are shed out and the haircuts have been had, I'll post some pictures of the horses looking their best!
I hope everyone had a great weekend! Aside from my Friday barn time, I spent my weekend at TWO showers. One bridal and one baby! 'Tis the season!!!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Sid Continued and News Thrown in For Good Measure!
Yesterday's post was written at warp speed. Could you tell? I typed it out on my lunch hour with only about 5 minutes to spare. I really wanted to post though. After all, it had been a while!
I reread the post today and shook my head. My goodness but I'm a dramatic blogger. I made it seem like Sid was some kind of wild ride. In reality, he was just feeling fresh. Nothing a nice long longe session couldn't cure. As I've mentioned before, Sid was gelded about a year and a half ago, his de stallion process took a bit longer than one might have imagined, but he seems to be settling into gelding-hood quite nicely these days. During our ride, Casper (whose shenanigans that day warrant another story for another day), was racing up and down the fence line of his pasture, making an absolute thundering ruckus. Sid was a tiny bit distracted by the commotion, but any horse would have been under the same circumstances. His distraction was easily abated by a light tug of the rein and a quiet nudge from my outside leg.
Anyway, I truly felt wonderful to be back in the saddle. I was quite nervous at first because, well...I guess now is as good a time as any to come clean. I'm 16 weeks pregnant. I have full intentions of riding throughout my pregnancy, however I don't want to take any stupid chances by hopping on horses willy nilly and getting taken for a real ride, if you know what I mean.
So, as I was saying, it felt so good to be up in that saddle. As you can see from yesterday's pictures, I had a smile from ear to ear...it was a grand feeling. But then J decided to come on out, which is great aside from the fact that hhe just can't help herself to pick, pick, pick at me and the horse I'm riding. Let me tell you, I have no tolerance these days for her vocalizations.
Sid is a very soft mouthed horse. He needs absolutely no contact to set right up and he is really just a very easy to ride horse. He just goes and looks good doing it. Someone put a lot of time into training him, he even leg yields beautifully. Anyway, there I was and there J was.
"Remember Jenny," she blurted "Sid has a very light mouth. No contact, ya' hear, no contact! Loosen up, loosen up!"
I felt my blood beginning to boil. I had absolutely no contact with the horse. I was directing him with my pinkies and in fact, there was substantial drape in the rein. "Don't let him over set his head, bump him up! He's doing that because you have too much contact on the rein."
What he was doing was actually hesitating to go back to work. As J was walking out to assist, Sid and I were standing in the middle of the ring while I was chatting with some of the young ladies who were out riding Snippy the Quarter Horse. Sid was under the impression that he was through, so when J came out and I decided to put him on the rail again, he acted a bit balky. What he really needed was a good kick, but J assumed he was being held back too much. As I stated above, I had very little to no contact on his mouth...he's just a very curvy, archy horse and he tends to just "bridle up" on his own volition while under saddle. J's never ridden him, so I don't exactly expect her to know what I'm talking about, but still it annoyed the poop out of me on that particular day...I.just.wanted.to.ride. So, another reason why soon, I must have my OWN horse, right? I can't bitch about J's critique too much, Sid is not my horse, but still...just let me ride! I know what I'm doing enough to know what not to do!
Whew, that was a tangent!
The picture below is of Contro and I. This was back in 2002 :) Yes, I often rode and still ride in inappropriate attire. Now I always wear a helmet, but back then....I was a helmetless rebel, always!
I reread the post today and shook my head. My goodness but I'm a dramatic blogger. I made it seem like Sid was some kind of wild ride. In reality, he was just feeling fresh. Nothing a nice long longe session couldn't cure. As I've mentioned before, Sid was gelded about a year and a half ago, his de stallion process took a bit longer than one might have imagined, but he seems to be settling into gelding-hood quite nicely these days. During our ride, Casper (whose shenanigans that day warrant another story for another day), was racing up and down the fence line of his pasture, making an absolute thundering ruckus. Sid was a tiny bit distracted by the commotion, but any horse would have been under the same circumstances. His distraction was easily abated by a light tug of the rein and a quiet nudge from my outside leg.
Anyway, I truly felt wonderful to be back in the saddle. I was quite nervous at first because, well...I guess now is as good a time as any to come clean. I'm 16 weeks pregnant. I have full intentions of riding throughout my pregnancy, however I don't want to take any stupid chances by hopping on horses willy nilly and getting taken for a real ride, if you know what I mean.
So, as I was saying, it felt so good to be up in that saddle. As you can see from yesterday's pictures, I had a smile from ear to ear...it was a grand feeling. But then J decided to come on out, which is great aside from the fact that hhe just can't help herself to pick, pick, pick at me and the horse I'm riding. Let me tell you, I have no tolerance these days for her vocalizations.
Sid is a very soft mouthed horse. He needs absolutely no contact to set right up and he is really just a very easy to ride horse. He just goes and looks good doing it. Someone put a lot of time into training him, he even leg yields beautifully. Anyway, there I was and there J was.
"Remember Jenny," she blurted "Sid has a very light mouth. No contact, ya' hear, no contact! Loosen up, loosen up!"
I felt my blood beginning to boil. I had absolutely no contact with the horse. I was directing him with my pinkies and in fact, there was substantial drape in the rein. "Don't let him over set his head, bump him up! He's doing that because you have too much contact on the rein."
What he was doing was actually hesitating to go back to work. As J was walking out to assist, Sid and I were standing in the middle of the ring while I was chatting with some of the young ladies who were out riding Snippy the Quarter Horse. Sid was under the impression that he was through, so when J came out and I decided to put him on the rail again, he acted a bit balky. What he really needed was a good kick, but J assumed he was being held back too much. As I stated above, I had very little to no contact on his mouth...he's just a very curvy, archy horse and he tends to just "bridle up" on his own volition while under saddle. J's never ridden him, so I don't exactly expect her to know what I'm talking about, but still it annoyed the poop out of me on that particular day...I.just.wanted.to.ride. So, another reason why soon, I must have my OWN horse, right? I can't bitch about J's critique too much, Sid is not my horse, but still...just let me ride! I know what I'm doing enough to know what not to do!
Whew, that was a tangent!
The picture below is of Contro and I. This was back in 2002 :) Yes, I often rode and still ride in inappropriate attire. Now I always wear a helmet, but back then....I was a helmetless rebel, always!
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Riding Sid
Last Friday after work, I did something I haven't done since December.
I rode!
I pulled Sid out of his stall and began the arduous task of grooming. He hasn't really been touched since last summer, so the horse was a despicable mess. His bridle path was overgrown, his coat was layer upon layer of dust and his behavior resembled that of a saddle bronc over the well trained horse that he is. I clipped his bridle path back down, trimmed his whiskers, groomed, groomed and groomed some more and by the time I was headed out to the arena, he looked...well, a smidge better. The grooming had the dust that was embedded into his coat setting on the top...he looked tan, not bay...but, it was a start.
Fortunately, I made the decision to longe the horse before hopping on. Actually, J is the one who mentioned that perhaps he could use a turn or two at the end of a longe line, because when I gently tugged his cinch up a notch, he hollowed his back and goose rumped...hmmmm.
How do you like ma' boots?
As I was leading Sid into the outdoor arena, he jigged and jogged, it was plain to see that the horse was anxious to get moving. As I turned him out to the end of the lunge line, Sid plunged into his best bucking bronco routine. He humped his back, dug his hind feet in and buck, buck, bucked! I was able to put a firm stop to his nonsense and he settled right down, after a while, into the respectable horse I know him to be.
We had a nice ride, all in all. I didn't push him and we did no cantering as he's quite out of shape. I look forward to spending more time with him this summer...maybe J and I can get him sold...he really is a nice boy!
I rode!
I pulled Sid out of his stall and began the arduous task of grooming. He hasn't really been touched since last summer, so the horse was a despicable mess. His bridle path was overgrown, his coat was layer upon layer of dust and his behavior resembled that of a saddle bronc over the well trained horse that he is. I clipped his bridle path back down, trimmed his whiskers, groomed, groomed and groomed some more and by the time I was headed out to the arena, he looked...well, a smidge better. The grooming had the dust that was embedded into his coat setting on the top...he looked tan, not bay...but, it was a start.
Fortunately, I made the decision to longe the horse before hopping on. Actually, J is the one who mentioned that perhaps he could use a turn or two at the end of a longe line, because when I gently tugged his cinch up a notch, he hollowed his back and goose rumped...hmmmm.
How do you like ma' boots?
As I was leading Sid into the outdoor arena, he jigged and jogged, it was plain to see that the horse was anxious to get moving. As I turned him out to the end of the lunge line, Sid plunged into his best bucking bronco routine. He humped his back, dug his hind feet in and buck, buck, bucked! I was able to put a firm stop to his nonsense and he settled right down, after a while, into the respectable horse I know him to be.
We had a nice ride, all in all. I didn't push him and we did no cantering as he's quite out of shape. I look forward to spending more time with him this summer...maybe J and I can get him sold...he really is a nice boy!
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