Need Serious Help

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before. But unfortunately, Vinny is a dirty stopper. He is my first ever experience dealing with this. Any and all advice, help, words of encouragement are welcome. 

Here's what happens:

Vinny and I are trotting or cantering actively towards a small jump. Vinny starts to slow down and I can feel him already refusing. I can then use spur or crop to urge him over the fence. If he flat out WILL NOT go over, I circle tightly around and make him walk over it. 

Not a huge deal right? 

Try this scenario out: 

Vinny and I are trotting or cantering towards a small jump. We get right to the spot where he should take off. He lifts off like he is going over, then suddenly plants himself and I either land on his neck or go sailing over his shoulder. 

In my last lesson, he refused in this way four times. I landed on his neck all four times and ended up having to dismount off of his neck once. In the end, I cried and refused to take him over another jump. 

My trainer thinks that I do not close my leg enough and am not aggressive enough. I think I am. 

After a while of this happening all the time, my mind can no longer handle it. I just don't know what to do. I want to jump so badly. But I'm scared now. I tried to share my feelings with trainer but I'm not sure he understands. He didn't offer much of a solution other than, 'next time I'll throw one of the kids on him first to get him going over everything and then you can get on.' 

Yes Vin does this with the kids too but they don't seem to mind like I do. 

That takes even more of a toll on my mind. It may seem childish of me or whatever but that makes me feel like crud. I want to fix it myself. I want to be capable. And if anyone's going to help me, I want a trainer who can actually get on him and feel what I'm feeling. Not a kid just because that kid is fearless. Does this make sense? 

Anywho. I'm at my wits end with this horse. I can't afford any other arrangement. And I don't want to give up either. What do I do?!?! 

Someone help. Please. 

:( 

enjoying bran mash quite thoroughly. 

Yes Ma'am

Wednesday I went up to the barn right after work to ride. We worked on exactly the things I said I would for once.

The quick walk-trot transitions worked wonders for Vinny. He was extremely responsive to my commands and was a lot less lazy than normal. I felt like by the time we did just a few of these, he was really saying ‘yes ma’am’ to my cues.

I took full advantage of this and made him leg yield on the long sides of the ring and really overly bent him around my leg on a big sitting trot circle. We also threw in a few laps of long-low trot in between these exercises.

At S’s suggestion, I begrudgingly dropped my stirrups for a few laps of sitting trot and canter. No—I was bad and didn’t do any posting trot. My legs hurt!

Next we worked on not breaking at the canter. We will be working on those transitions at the canter next time we have a day together. I would like to do walk-canter-walk-trot-canter-trot-canter-walk etc --- you get the idea. I gotta get this pony listening to me! If we break at the canter at our show in a couple weeks I’m going to be very upset. MUST WIN!

 

Finally I watched M jump Little D around while Vinny and I cooled down. They make quite the team and are very enjoyable to watch.

Tonight I am going up there to drop off the dreaded board check and chit chat a little bit. No ride. But tomorrow.... I think we're having round two of my lesson.

Can’t wait for finals! Just TWO weeks away!!!

Offish

Yep. I am going to CHSA Finals! YAYYYYY!

 

Vinny and I will be leaving bright and earlyAug 23^rd to go compete. I am so overly excited. It should be quite the event. Big tents and vendors, beautifully braided beasts, and me in the winners circle! Hahaha, I hope that is the case at least.

 

Have I really not posted about any of our rides since last Friday? Holy heck.

 

Saturday Vinny got his feeties done. He really has been quite the brat during his pedicures. Here are some blurry pics

 

After that I watched D (the other trainer at the barn) teach some lessons. Once S got back with E who had just competed in a show, the three of us went to get lunch, and then headed right back to the show so that S could coach one of the gals in her Children’s Hunter/Marshall and Sterling classes. I spent a few hours at that show and then headed on home.

 

Sunday I got to ride Vinny later on in the afternoon. He was just okay. Very lazy. I jumped him over a tiny gate jump, and through a one-stride cross rail line. It really seems like he is starting to require more and more leg.

 

Yesterday was my lesson. We warmed up on our own and then S had us practice keeping our canter straight as sometimes Vinny tries to over-bend on the long sides of the arena. In between talking to S, D, and M by the in gate, we began jumping a small vertical. Vinny really makes me laugh too much. We would be trotting up to it, nice and active, with intent, and he would take a second look at it and jump it huge! I mean, come on now, this thing is not even two feet high, and literally just a brown cavaletti, and you jump it like it’s going to eat you, Vinny! Lol seriously I love this horse.

The main things we worked on with this little fence were: getting the correct distance at the canter into the fence, and continuing with straightness after the fence on the correct lead. Apparently we were drifting a little after the fence, so this took several tries to get straight. It is really hard when I *think* I’m straight, but then I hear from the gallery that I am drifting over as if I’m leg yielding him. Boo.

After some more talking and laughing, S had us go through a grid set up in the middle of the ring. The grid consisted of three bounce cross rails to a one stride cross rail.

 

S warned me before hand that I would need a lot of leg. This warning did not click.

 

Vinny refused to go down the grid several times. Finally we halfheartedly made it down once. I felt as if I was being tossed all over the place. We eventually did make down decently, I suppose. It’s hard to remain off his back and steady while still urging him along with a lot of leg. Any tips?

 

S is having us do another lesson on Saturday with more grid work. The last time I did a grid was several years ago, and on Homey. With Homey I literally could just sit there in a light half seat and let him go through it. Vinny is sooo much different than him. So lazy. But I think we’ll get it eventually. Grid work sure is a lot of fun though!

 

Tonight we will be working on lateral movement, no stirrup work, and quick changes of transition. M and I were discussing this yesterday. She said she had been working on a pattern like such: trot six steps, walk one, trot six, walk one, etc to get her horse really listening to leg cues. Sounds good to me!

About to cause probs 

This is what he thinks of the farrier 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopeful

 

I had my second lesson last night instead of Wednesday due to some scheduling complications between K and I. Vinny was pretty good. Pretty dang good. The only thing I was not happy with was his lack of sensitivity to my lateral aids. He was not really having it last night. Grr. Other than that we had a few good crossrail lines. I still feel like I am jumping way ahead. I guess I still expect a bigger effort over each fence? I don’t know.

 

All I can think of is more work without stirrups. Ughhhh L

 

As promised, S and I discussed the possibility of going to CHSA Finals in a few weeks. Basically, the way it works, is that you earn points each year in whatever division(s) you choose, the points add up and by the time finals come around, if you’ve earned the required amount of points, you are automatically qualified. Now, there are 17 horses that made it. Of that 17, a few are horses that I saw on the list only used the division as a warm up for jumping, so they won’t be entering finals. There must be at least 10 horses entered in the division for the big prizes to apply, and a minimum of five for the class to run at all.

 

With that said, S will be checking the roster to see if I should even enter. And then from there, if he says yes, then if I will even do well against the horses already going. They do call-backs at this show. So the judge runs the class and the top 10 are called back for another round and then the prizes are issued.

 

I was right when I said that S will most likely want to enter Vinny in the Color Breeds if I do the Pleasures. YES! Split the costs between the two of us?! I think yeah. Duh.

 

That should bring my total to about $100. Pretty doable I would think.

 

Hopefully S texts me and says YES we can go!

 

:D

 

Tonight I am off to go to Six Flags with a group of friends. I love me some roller coasters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHSA Finals? Maybe?

Okay okay, I know I just posted about how broke-ski I am, but can I just compete in one more show this year? I mean really. It’s finals. State finals. I’m thinking maybe I can scrounge up the money to compete in our division; I just found out that English Pleasure made it into the show. Vinny and I are third in the state so we definitely have all of our qualifications.

 

The show is Aug 23-25^th and this morning I received the invitation/prize list via email. As you know, I said a few weeks ago that I would not be competing any more this year at all. ehhhhhh as a truly competitive person, as soon as I saw that our division had made it and that I was still at the top of the state for qualifications, my brain started crunching numbers.

 

Maybeeee I can squeeze this one into the budget.

 

Tonight I have another lesson, yeehaw! So I will be talking to S about my options for the show. What I’m hoping is that S will want to have Vinny go in the Color Breed Pleasure classes (he is first in the state) with A, therefore S and I would be splitting any costs besides the actual class fees. That means fuel, braiding, office fees, parking fees etc would be split between the two of us.

 

I am probably the most impatient person on the planet. I can’t wait for 1700 to hit so that I can high-tail it up to the barn and talk to S to get a plan in motion. Either way I have that Friday, the 23^rd off so I will at least be able to watch everyone else.

 

Woohoo super excited for my fellow barn mates to compete even if I don’t!

 

Now I shall spend the rest of the afternoon daydreaming about fancy ribbons, embroidered coolers and garment bags, and my boy all fancy and braided up.

 

 

 

Moolah. Cheese. Dough. Bucks

Or, per Tyga, huneds. Yes, money. We all need cash flow. Nothing brings ya down quite like money; Or lack there of I should say. Living expenses are expensive, cars are money blowers, and horses…well horses…are the ever-cashsucking hobby.

 

I guess I really should have gone to college. Errr, completed college haha. But even then it doesn’t seem to help anyone at all. It just creates more loan to pay off, unless your parents are loaded and paid cash up front for your schooling. I feel that I make pretty decent money for my lack of education. I really do. But the time has come, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, I am looking for a third job.

 

I already have an office job, the barn job – which really only pulls a few bucks – and now it’s time to search for a weekend morning job. I’m not completely upset about this. I feel that it will help me get through my work week here at the office a little quicker. Here’s to hoping I can find something I enjoy! I am considering everything from serving at a restaurant to working at the local U-pick.

 

Any ideas? Please feel free to comment below. 

Back to Normalcy/An Unravelling

After the most stressful, hurtul, eye-opening day at work that I’ve ever had, ever, I scooted my butt pretty much straight up to the barn (of course talked to bestie for a moment first). At this point I would say I was feeling numb to the whole situation and just wanted to be with my horse.

 

S was still teaching one of the girls, so I got to take my time getting Vinny ready for our lesson. I brushed and curried him to perfection and sprayed him with a little show sheen just for the heck of it. He really is so handsome.

 

KR was in the ring with Roxy during this time working on their jumping. I was quite impressed with her. She went from never seeing a jump to jumping small lines in a very short amount of time. What a good girl.

 

Vinny and I took our time warming up. We did a lot of trotting and changes of direction. He still acts up sometimes in the walk to trot transition but definitely not as bad as before.

 

I did think that S was going to go pretty hard on me since I hadn’t had a lesson in 3 weeks, but he didn’t! We just did our warm up and in that S seemed to be concentrating on my upper body position most of the time.

 

One of the barn moms showed up to chat so the three of us took a good 20 minute break to talk and catch up. I had a lot to talk about with S since learning some exciting news that is in the process of coming together…. I’ll get to that hopefully in the next couple of weeks. ;) :P :O

 

Finally, we got to jump a small crossrail line. Vinny was so very good. The only thing we really need to concentrate on is keeping him balanced through the turn after the last fence. He tends to throw his inside shoulder in quite a bit to the point where I have to really squeeze and almost leg yield him over. Any tips for this?

 

I would say the only bad part of the night was that I lost an ear pom!!! Boo. L

 

It appears that I will be having another lesson on Wednesday to make up for last week. I am hoping it goes just as well as last night.

 

Back to the job. I’m not quite sure how I feel about working here any more. Basically I’ve learned the hard way that no one is trustworthy, and I really cannot be the kind, loving person that I try to be if I want to survive here. After three years here, it seems that I am the only one who hasn’t been putting up a façade on the job. What a shame. I guess that is life? Or does such a job of honesty and kindness exsist?

 

I am trying my best to pray a lot, concentrate on people that I love and love me, and the things that make me truly happy (Vinny) during this time of heart-searching. Any love, kind thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.  

 

Not Down with the Sickness

The sickness is gone! Yipee! After a grueling week of stomach issues, all is finally well with both me and Vinny. YES!

I did get a ride in on Friday and frankly I think it helped me get better. I like to think that I was able to sweat out some of the nastiness. I rode for about a half hour, just worked mainly on our normal things, and then popped him over a cross rail a couple times. He’s such a good boy .

Saturday I woke up feeling great. I showed up in the AM for my shift at the barn, but apparently I got the shift wrong and was supposed to be there for the PM feed. Ah, oh well, no biggie. Went home for a couple hours, then met a couple girls back out there to go on a trail ride.

Now if you’ve read my previous posts about Vinny and trails, you know he’s super out there. Of course as soon as I talk up my boy to the gals, he’s a brat. I’m pretty sure it was only because we were with two others. Other than that I’m not sure why he would act up like he did. Any ideas?

He took off with me at least five times and was tossing his head pretty much the whole time. My fingers were on fire at the end of the ride. It was not fun, and quite the disappointment.

When we got back home I cantered him around the outdoor a few laps trying to get the sassiness out. But, as suspected, as soon as we were home he was back to normal. Ughh.

I went back home for a little and then back out at 1630 to do the feed with one of the barn moms, AW.

I must say I just love this ‘job’. All it is is feeding, watering, sweeping, mixing grain for the next AM etc, but I get such satisfaction out of it and am never bored. Now if only they paid like my office job!

Sunday was breakfast with some friends, got Mitzy washed, made chili and chilled out with the bestie for a little.

Tonight hopefully is lesson night, I believe I’m going on three weeks without instruction.. ahh!!! Must fix sloppiness now!

 

Of course now I have mucho blog posts to catch up on, since I was out of commish all last week. Can't wait to read them all!

Quickly

Vinny is finally well. Que big sigh of relief. I was able to ride yesterday for a short while. We didn’t concentrate on anything new. The ride was really just an exercise ride. We walked, trotted, cantered each way in a total of 20-25 minutes. Both of us need to get back into a solid work schedule asap. The start of that shall be tonight. S is finally feeling better so I will have a lesson, finally.

In other news, I have been NQR since Monday. Something is off and I’m not sure what but it’s making me kind of sick. Big boo. I am back at work today – just trying to get through it so I can go up to the barn and home to relax.  

30 Day Horse Challenge - Day 11

Find a Horse Online that You Would Like to Buy

I don’t really have time to do this, so I will just describe what I would like. I would like a young OTTB already started and doing well over fences with some dressage knowledge. He must have great form over fences and want to jump. I would like this gelding to be good on trails, have nice feet and legs as well as a wonderful mind. I would love for him to have a fun personality and be an easy keeper. So pretty much everyone’s dream horse – haha. I’m not picky on color – but would prefer no gray.

Probably something like this, but a different color :P

NOW. If I didn’t have to work, I would probably just go up to Boston or over to PA and pick my own TB straight of the track and restart him myself. But, alas, I must work the regular eight to fiver and have steady income to even afford my lease. Ah, life is.

Hive Trouble

Got a text from A this morning saying Vinny's tummy is much better BUT...his hives are worse. Check out this pic:

I didn't bother to rotate this one. This is his barrel on his right side. The left is the same. :( Seriously this must stop soon.

Today we are trying giving him a little soaked hay to see how he does with it; Then if he reacts okay to that we'll give him some Dex tomorrow.

Last night I went back up and walked him for a good hour. It wasn't too boring because A, he is always trying to play with me, and B, there were others riding in there while I was walking.

Tonight shall be the same routine, hand walking, hosing, grooming etc. Maybe some treats and lots of hugs and kisses. I feel soooo bad for him. His luck will hopefully turn soon.

30 Day Horse Challenge - Day 10

How Your Friends and Family Feel about Your Riding

My family is, and always has been, extremely supportive. They may not understand riding or horses technically but they for sure understand their beauty and power - and that it’s something that makes me so very happy and sane. And with that, they encourage me to keep riding and to keep Vinny in my life. My friends are also supportive, but they don’t really understand why it’s horses that I choose or why I feel I must spend every second riding or around them. I was telling a friend yesterday about going up to WRF to walk Vinny around and they replied, “you had to leave work for THAT?”.  I’m sure you get the idea and have had similar experiences. Overall everyone in my life supports me fully.

Trickster

Assuming my horse had not pooped all day yesterday, since he had colic and all, and I hadn’t received a text updating me on the sitch like I’d asked for, I drove up to the barn after work to walk my boy around. We walked for a good 30 minutes before finally getting to the goal. I immediately text messaged the BM, bestie, and A who was filling in as S with this exciting news. I was then told by BM “lol, he has been all day!”

 

Ummm. Was anyone going to tell me that my horse’s intestines and tummy were, in fact, working? I guess I was just supposed to assume that when BM said “Oh don’t worry, he’s fine” that he was fine, without proof? I am supposed to take someone’s word for this? What the heck?! If you couldn’t tell, I am still upset about this this morning. Annnddd. Low and behold. He was colicky again this morning! Guess BM did not heal my boy with her hands alone. Wow.

Anywho. Vinny is currently being walked around some more, and A gave BM specific feeding instructions. I feel so bad for him. I will be up there right after work, most definitely.

Siiiighhhh.

Is X-Lax an Option?

I have been riding, don’t worry.

Saturday I went up in the late morning after handling some Mitzy business. Vinny was pretty good, a little up maybe, but good. As always, I prefer more ‘up’ than not. 

I tacked him up complete with ear puffs and a dousing of fly spray and decided to stick to the indoor ring due to high bug populations up top in the outdoor ring. My only goal really was to keep him moving since he’d been off for so long. It was mainly because of K and myself I guess, we both work a lot and then on top of that K is planning her wedding and I had car troubles.

We didn’t really work on anything special, just maintaining a good pace at the trot around and around the ring. There was a lesson going on at the same time and every time we’d pass this horse, Kiki, he would pin his ears and ‘try’ to run at her. That really just made me laugh. Next I got a good active canter out of him and tried to keep him bent around my leg on a big circle.

Finally I popped him over a small  cross rail with a couple of cavaletti in front of it. Vinny decided it would be a good idea to sort of bound over each cavaletti and then jump the cross rail right at the base of it. That was fun. ha.

Can I just say, going one and a half weeks without consistent work in the saddle is never a good idea. It is amazing how quickly I lose stamina. I guess I’m just like Vinny. I need consistent work as much as he does.

Sunday was my first day of work at WRF. Let me just say, it much more fun to get up at 0700 when you know you’re going to work around horses.

Apparently the BM forgot it was my first day and didn’t tell the other gals working that I was coming. We kind of sorted out the mix up. One of the girls was not happy I was there. I offered to go home but was told to stay. The gal training me was very nice and we agreed to trail ride this upcoming Saturday. I basically followed her around all morning. I learned the feeding and turn out schedule. I emptied water buckets, cleaned the paddocks out, swept aisles (wow, shoulder work out anyone?), cleaned the tack room etc. I really enjoyed it. The experience was definitely muscle building and I am still feeling it today.

Monday was originally supposed to be lesson day, as always, but S was not feeling well so we cancelled. I went up to the barn anyway and hacked my boy for maybe 25 minutes or so. The temp outside was just too hot to do anything more than that. I set up some cavaletti three strides apart and worked on adjusting his stride. The three was obviously pretty easy, the four wasn’t bad, and the five was non-existent. We need to work on that one. When we were pretty much all finished I rode him up to the gate that goes outside, unlatched it from the saddle and we walked outside to the orchard. We immediately picked up a trot and trotted up the grassy hill and back down the other side, around a tree and headed straight for a log jump. Vinny really loves this and he makes me laugh every time. He popped over it and pretty much took off back up the hill again. Silly boy.

Today I got a call from the barn around 0900 saying Vinny was colicking and could I come up and walk him? I have never dealt with this with my own horse before. My tummy sank and the stress began. After speaking to my GM about my emergency (didn’t even try to explain as he is not a horse-person), I left and raced up to the barn. When I got there he was back in his stall looking okay. I got him out anyway and walked him around and hosed him off a few times. We stopped periodically so that I could listen to his tummy. His right side was pretty normal, but the left was almost silent. Ughhhh. My poor baby! Eventually I had the BM take his temp and it came back normal at 99.7. I realized he was acting pretty normal as well. Nipping at me, trying to play with me, pushing my back when we were walking, etc. I ended up leaving about an hour later and now am back at work. Worrying. Of course. Still no bowel movement as far as I know.

Horses are so stressful, haha.

Miss Mitzy

Here she is. :) 

30 Day Horse Challenge - Day Nine

Day nine

 

Any Injuries that Occurred from Riding

Hmm. I have never ‘broken’ anything in a riding accident before (praise God and knock on wood). But I have been hurt kind-of badly. One that was not so bad that I always think about is one time when I was having a lunge line lesson with Karen and she accidentally ran me into a standard (sorry Karen, haha). Subsequently I was thrown forward and landed nose-first on Pepsi’s neck. That one hurt.

Another one that sticks out is when I was riding Sunny (this little palo pony) around bareback in Karen’s arena. We were cantering along, and I’m not sure what happened but when we got to the corner she must have took off or something because the next thing I knew I was laying on the ground and had blacked out for a second. I guess I had been thrown off and spider-man’d it into the metal fence railing. Disclaimer – this is not portable fencing, this is hard metal fencing, a lot heavier than the portable panels. Thankfully Karen’s husband was on site (she never let me ride alone or without a helmet) so he came rushing over once he saw me on the ground. I was fine, just shaken up.

Lastly, I’d have to say my first fall off of Vinny. This was a few months ago – I think I mentioned it in an earlier post. It was quite an embarrassing fall. Basically I was trotting around (no stirrups) and he spooked and I just kind of slid off onto the ground. I thought I was fine, got back on and finished the lesson, but when I woke up the next AM something was clearly wrong with my back. I hurt it quite badly. Not broken, but it hurt a lot. I ended up only being able to lay on one side for almost a week and was out of work that whole time too.

Boo hoo Kaysee! I know everyone else must have way worse stories.

Snort.

I took a risk last night and decided to attempt driving Gege (the poor dying tracker) up to the barn. Like I said in my previous post, I’ve only been going up there maybe twice a week because I was so afraid she was going to die on the way. I could not wait for 1700 to hit so I could see and my pony.

When I went to grab Vinny out of his stall, instead of keeping his head down in his hay like normal, he actually came up to me and let me pet and kiss his face for a moment before going back to munching. I like to think he misses me too.

Upon putting him on the cross ties in the aisle, I noticed … yep … HIVES! I was so upset. I thought they were gone! My poor pony. I really don’t like how big and painful they look, even though I know they don’t really bother him.

I would have ridden him anyway but of course they were all over his barrel and girth area so that was a no-go. He also hadn’t been ridden in a few days so I decided to free lunge him in the indoor for a little bit.  My horsey is soooo cute! K and I now know that he is capable of a really fancy beautiful trot. Now the goal is to get him to go like that under saddle. I really wish I had my phone out there with me so I could record some of his fanciness. He also got to run around and buck and play. At the end of all this he was standing in the middle of the ring huffing and snorting with his head held high. He is just so precious and beautiful. I love him.

Anywho. I walked him around the barn for a little bit until it started to rain on us. Then hosed him off, washed tail and picked feet. One of the cross ties came undone during all of this and he didn’t even do anything stupid. What a good boy!

I put him back in stall with fan on, watched some of the other girls ride, and then prayed before I attempted the drive home. Obviously, I made it. But barely as this morning the clunking was so loud that I just knew she was going to die on the way in to work. I had bestie pick up and I’m here now, working. Not haha.

Tomorrow I get to go sign my money away on a new car! Woooo. Will post pics.

Finally!

I have been given the deal I want on the car I want! YES!!! That means I am going to fill out the paperwork and hand over the check tomorrow. Then I wait for it to be cleared. Then I pick it up! Yeah it will take a few days and the drive to the dealership is a little long but I don't care, I really need a new car. This process has been so stressful for me as I have never dealt with car salespeople before. Finally I got a little smarter and  decided to just start emailing the dealerships with the price I wanted to be at out the door and just wait for them to reply. And what do you know? Two did! So I am very happy with that.

Tonight I will make the treacherous (because of car) drive up to the barn. I haven't been going up nearly as often as I was because of this. I can't wait to be back up there almost every day!

Andddd. I start working at the barn on Sunday. Will report back with how that goes ASAP.

Recap

This is going to be semi-boring because I don’t have any pictures. But anywho.

Wednesday night I did end up going to the barn and saw my precious pony. How did I get there? You might ask. Well I drove my car that is falling apart. It is so bad that she stalls every time I come to a stop sign or light. Yeah it’s embarrassing because I look like a newbie driver but oh well. I have to get places!

Vinny was wayyyy “up” and feeling fresh. I spaced two cavaletti out about three strides apart and planned to work on adjusting stride and seeing distances but oh no. Vin had to keep trying to charge the other horse in the ring and blow through the line every time. Once I figured out that this wasn’t going to get any better, I made him trot nicely around the ring a couple of times without making any faces at the other horse and called it a night. I hosed him off and put him back in his stall with fan on.

Thursday morning I had a lesson. Let me tell you, S really kicked my butt! We worked on a forward sitting trot with no stirrups. Geez it is hard to keep my abs engaged, shoulders back, head up etc while bouncing around. After my legs were sufficently on fire, he decided to have us do it again but practice leg yields down the quarter line. This was fun but painful!

 

Next we worked on really sitting deep at the canter and eventually threw in a little vertical. Vinny was being so good and keeping the same pace as we circled back around to this little jump over and over. We ended with a really nice distance to the fence at the canter. Love my horsey!

One of the high school girls was there to ride her horse and she convinced me to go on a trail ride with her so I saddled up Roxy and we headed out. I got to actually see where the trails go and we were out there for a good 1.5 hours. It was super super super hot like 98 degrees and humid and BUGGY but it was still fun. Roxy would not cross any bridges so I kept having to get down and lead her across, but other than that she was pretty good. She is a lot more spooky than Vinny but even so her ‘spooking’ is mild. All she does is stop and try to turn around. She doesn’t buck or rear or side step or anything. What a good girl!

Now I am very happy that I have somewhere new to ride with Vinny. I love taking him out on trails ‘cause I can tell he loves it.

Saturday I took the day to car shop. I thought this would be a way more fun that it was. Car salespeople are not nice. I looked at a few and even called some other places and made an offer over the phone so I wouldn’t have to drive to their dealerships for no reason. No one accepted. L

I was so upset with the way I was treated when I got home that I stayed in and slept and sulked around all day. Very productive I know.

Saturday night I went out with some friends. Sunday nothing. Tonight I have a lesson J wooo.

30 Day Horse Challenge - Day Eight

A little about the barn/stable you ride at

The barn I ride at is about 20 minutes north of me, right near the MA border. It is in a beautiful area with hills and lots of fields. There is one main barn with…I’m going to say about 40 stalls?  Two wash racks with hot water, grain room, big hay loft and offices up top, two tack rooms, one of which is heated with lockers and a viewing area. Attached is a good sized indoor ring. I’m not sure how big it is but we can fit an eight jump course in there just fine. The stalls each have a window and a fan and are bedded very nicely in my opinion.

There is a large outdoor ring, a few large grass paddocks, smaller dirt paddocks, shavings shed and easy trail access. My barn mates are all very nice and pleasant to be around.

I am really behind on reading everyone’s posts. I shall get on that asap. J

Have a safe and fun Fourth of July!

 

 

Car Probs

It's true. I have not seen my pony in a few days now. :(

My car is pretty much done, and I'm working on getting a new one. Hopefully this weekend I will be posting pics of a new(ish) vehicle. Fingers crossed!

Till then I have asked bestie to drop me off at the barn after work and pick me up later on. I'm sure this will work out fine.

Catch Up

Friday night I did go up to the barn to ride little Roxy. I couldn’t quite get a good enough picture to capture her full cute-ness but here is one semi decent:

 

 

She is seriously my favorite horse at the barn besides Vinny. She is a little QH and just darling. I told her owners, if I ever have kids I want a horse just like her. She is sweet, slow but does have a little go when asked and she packs the little walk/trotters around safely while never acting up. I call her, Roxy-Kerploxy. Don’t know why. That is just the name I have dubbed her.

I also got to watch K ride Vinny. I just love to watch him go because I never get to!

Friday night I went out with a few girlfriends and had a really good time. But, Saturday I definitely paid for it – haha.

 

 

In other news, my car is seemly on its last legs (wheels?). I am not sure how serious the problem, but as with all car issues I’m sure it will cost me $$$. Due to said car issue, I did not get to ride on Saturday. UGHH huge boo. I hate that stranded feeling I get.  Anywho. If I can fix car today at lunch I will be up to ride but no lesson because S is not feeling so hot.

I really miss my pony. Hate going even one day without him, never mind an entire weekend. I hope to have pics of my precious boy for everyone tomorrow and hopefully news of a good ride.

As far as 30 Day Horse Challenge – I know I’m slow with it. Would anyone mind if I cheated and did a few days in one? Hehehe.

And finally. I cannot wait to go home this summer!!! I miss my family so very badly. So far, it’s looking like the first week of Sept. But then bestie reminded me that that is the week of Labor Day. So now I’m not sure what my GM is going to say about my request. We’ll see!

 

30 Day Horse Challenge - Day Seven

Your Favorite Ribbon Won at a Show and Why

15 year old kaysee would definitely say the ribbons/belt buckle that homey and I won at our little summer series we competed in and won. That was a lot of fun!

As far as current Kaysee. I’d say the last show Vinny and I competed at. It was our first ‘away’ show and we won the division! J