I Need Another Hole in my Head

You know the saying "I need a (fill in the blank....in this case it would be horse) like I need another hole in my head"? Well I need another hole in my head.  For the next month I'm going to be working with a friend's mare.  BB had shoulder surgery a year ago, and then again two weeks ago, and hasn't been able to work with her 6yr old QH mare much.  They were able to do some trail rides over the fall and winter but BB was pretty upset that she still can't ride.  I'm not exactly sure how it came about that I'd ride the mare, I seem to remember a BBQ and lots of wine, but it did so here we go!

Meet Dally

Dally's a well started rope and mounted shooting horse, but BB says she gets strong and needs to learn to give to the bit.  She moved in last night and I've just lunged her so far.  She seems nervous and worried, but not naughty.  Her one big quirk is that she's majorly ear shy, but we'll work on that. Since she hasn't worked much in the past year she's pretty out of shape and needs to go on a diet.

It's hare to get pics of her, she keeps following me around

I figure the plan is to start slow with some walk-trot till she gets more in shape and we get used to each other. I get the sense that she's a tryer and wants to please so hopefully once she knows me she'll relax and soften.  She's a very cute mover, lofty floaty trot that looks super smooth. Even though she's a western pony I'm pretty sure I'll have to put my jump saddle on her and see what she's like as a hunter pony. And I think she's very close to being an actual pony; she's maybe 15 hands.

She has the prettiest mane.  Blond, gray, and liver chestnut all mixed in.

Baby Steps

McKenna and I had our best ride so far tonight.  I put a running martingale on and lunged her in it first so she could figure it out.  She's obviously been in one before, she didn't seem to care at all about it.  After about 10mins on the lunge I stopped and hopped on.

She's gotten so much better about standing still at the mounting block.  No more moving or wiggling around.  We walked around for a bit, working on bending and softening.  She'll drop her head and start to stretch down at the walk but it's not consistent yet.  She felt quiet and relaxed enough that I could work on my two point.  We did two, two minute sets at the walk.

The martingale helped tremendously in the trot.  No more head flipping or lightening of her front end.  The upwards transitions were pretty decent and we were able to maintain an almost normal pace and rhythm.  She does try to stop/slow down passing the gate, but we trotted twice around each direction without stopping, the longest we've gone yet!  She felt much more consistent in my hand and not nearly as reactive to my leg. 

We did a few laps at the trot then another few at the walk and repeated.  She got a little upset when my barn owners started feeding dinner so once she quieted down and walked nicely we quit.  I am so happy with how much better she was today.  I know the martingale helped, and that it's not a permanent fix, but hopefully we'll be making a lot more progress now.

Reason #647 I Love My Barn Owner

My barn owner has a habit of collecting horses, especially hard luck horses.  Connie also has a great eye for horses so most of the horses they have are pretty nice.  Last week there was an ad placed on a Facebook group both her and I are part of.  It was for a 5yr old, 15.2 hand OTTB mare asking $1500.  She's green, but going w-t-c and lightly started over jumps.  Connie tagged me in the post, saying she'd be a good project for me.  I texted her backing saying only if I got free board.

Awkward angle, but she looks cute

Apparently Connie contacted the trainer the horse is with and they are willing to give her away.  The owner bought a big fancy warmblood and wants to find the mare a good home.  You can see where this is going, right?  Connie and I texted back and forth about it today and the mare is coming up on Monday.  The word is that the mare's mine as a project (Connie thinks her husband might freak if he found out she got another horse sight unseen), but Connie's not charging me board.  I'll pay for her feet, which currently have shoes but the trainer says she could go barefoot. Officially Connie will own her but I'll be training her and making the decisions.  Hopefully she can be used in the lesson program.  If not, she'll go up for sale.

Her name is McKenna, but I want to change it.  I don't know her registered name yet so maybe I can get something out of that.  I guess when she comes on Monday we'll see what she's like and go from there.

Pre-show prep

We had our pre show lesson yesterday and Buddy was very good.  We really didn't work on too much hunter type fences, instead we did a lot of turns, rollbacks and bending lines.  We nailed almost everything, with just a few tiny fixes and were able to have a nice rhythm and flow.

Today Buddy got the day off, and I pulled him mane and clipped him up.  I still have to clip his back legs, my clippers died before I could get them done.  Tomorrow will be bath day and tack cleaning.  I got most of my stuff together already so it should be pretty easy to load up Sunday morning.

Yesterday I also rode Leo, one of the other horses in the barn I occasionally school.  One of the college girls might start riding him and maybe jump him, but he hasn't been worked in a few months and she's more of a beginner so I wanted to see how he was before she rode him. We had been told he had jumped in 4H years ago, but who knows what that means. I put the western saddle on him just to be safe and hacked him while Jen was giving a little kid lesson.  He was ok at the trot, but was horrible at the canter.  Head up, running like a freight train, and wouldn't pick up his right lead.

Once he calmed down a bit I took him over some poles Jen had out and he did good, went right over them.  Jen then told me to take him over a crossrail to see what he did, and he shocked me by being great! Jumped it like he's done it a million times.  I was then told to do a full course with him and he was amazing.  Cantered nice and quietly after the jumps, took everything in stride and was so calm.  He was a bit wiggly and crooked but that's easily fixed. Rick managed to take a video, but hasn't sent it to me yet. I was so proud of him!

He was pretty proud of himself too