Phoenix is home!

And settled in very well.  I was a little nervous about loading him at Jen's....he can be a little difficult to load by himself and seeing as he would be leaving his only buddy Sun out there I was prepared for a battle.  But he surprised me by jumping right in the trailer.  He was a wound up unloading at the barn, but I walked him around the indoor for a minute and he settled right in.  I gave him a big pile of hay and he was nice and cozy for the night.

Today our farrier was out and both Phoenix and Buddy got trimmed.  I only put fronts on Buddy in the summer since he get a little foot sore when we jump out on the grass.  The next time they're due he'll get his.  For now, we are going to leave Phoenix barefoot and see how he does.  I figured that his feet will go thru a big change going from the wet, muddy pasture to a dry stall and I don't want shoes on during it.  Depending on how he does, we'll either leave him barefoot or put shoes on.

While Steve was doing Phoenix's left hind he tore a bit of the frog.  It spurted blood and we had to wash it with Betadine and we ended up putting a rolled cotton/vet wrap bandage on it.  Steve said it should be fine, but to wash it again tomorrow and probably rewrap it.

Buddy in the crossties with Phoenix's blood.  Do you know how hard it is to get blood off of mats?



Coming Home

Phoenix is coming back to the barn tomorrow!!  There's a 4H group that rides out of our barn.  One of the girls, Anna, is leasing a 20something year old TB whose owner is currently in Kentucky doing an internship. The owner has been trying to micromanage her horse while she's away, and has made it very difficult for anyone to help Anna.  The 4H leaders talked to me and asked if I would be willing to bring Phoenix back for Anna.  So as long as Anna's parents are ok with leasing Phoenix instead of Freeway, he'll come back to be a walk/trot 4H pony!  I'm so excited to have him back!  He is my heart horse, and while Buddy is a better match for me, Phoenix will always be my baby.

Love my old man!

Same old, same old

Not much new to report.  Nik's ridden Buddy twice in the past week, and moved back to the English saddle.  Last Sunday she and my barn owner's 9yr old granddaughter, Anna, had a lesson together.  Anna's been taking lessons for a little over a year, so she's a bit more advanced than Nik but the two of them did great together. Nik's been able to get Bud to trot by herself now, and is doing a much better job of steering.

There's a ABRA (Buckskin) show in town this weekend and last night a couple of us from the barn went to watch.  They have Buckskin and Open classes in reining, working cow, English pleasure, and western.  Last night was reining and working cow.  Every time I watch, I want to do reining!  Buddy knows how to do everything they ask.  Today I borrowed Connie's saddle again and we attempted to do the pattern at home.  Our spins need work, and he won't slide because A) he's lazy, and B)I'm not putting sliders on him.  I'm getting more comfortable riding one handed, but I had to two hand him to ask for the lead changes.  But on the plus side, he gave me both of them pretty nicely!

Isn't he cute?!

Moments of Greatness

And moments of "You little sh*t!" pretty much sums up my lesson yesterday.  We warmed up trotting a couple x's, working on having him straight and asking for a the correct lead over the fence.  Bud's not impressed by trot fences, so after jumping the first few he just started trotting over them.  I started using my crop at the base of the fence, but even then he put minimal effort into it.

Jen had me do a figure 8 over two diagonal fences, again working on having him move forward to the fence.  I had to nail Bud pretty good with my spur once as he tried to break to the trot in front of the gate.  Once I had him convinced he could go forward, we had a pretty nice rhythm and were finding our distance well.  We were still having some trouble with lead changes, and Jen told me to open my inside rein over the fence.  It worked wonders!  We did a little mini course with the two diagonal fences and an outside line (the one that gave us issues in our last lesson) and we nailed every lead!  I still had to really ride him forward to every fence, as he wasn't going to give me a break.

After a walk break we started doing a bending line.  It was a short approach on the right to a diagonal fence with a  left bend to a vertical on the outside.  Once again the dreaded right-to-left lead change was our nemesis.  Buddy was convinced that is was easier to counter canter than switch his lead over the first fence.  While we did the line a couple times in counter canter (and pretty nicely too), Jen really wanted me to get after him about the lead.  She had me do a tight left roll back after the first fence to get him thinking left over the jump.  It worked, but by then he was definitely tired.  We tried again, and no left lead. I had him perfectly set up for the left lead, and stubborn jack*ss that he is still wouldn't give it to me.  Eventually Jen had me trot the first fence and ask hard for the left lead then do the roll back on the landing.  We got it twice in a row, then  went on to do the line.  We did it, and quit on that note. 

Its funny how at the time I was so mad at him, and calling him bad names, but now looking back it was a great lesson.  We didn't have any major issues till he got tired at the end and we were asking him to do something that's hard for him.  I have to give Bud credit for that.  We had some great fences, and I felt like we have defiantly made improvements from where we were last fall.  I guess we just need to work on more bending lines!

There's a little hunter schooling show in three weeks that I think we'll go to.  We'll do the 2'3" hunter/eq classes and maybe a flat class or two.  It's on St. Patrick's Day, so I'm trying to think of something green to wear. 

Busy couple of days

Since my mom's been here, I haven't out at the barn as much. I did get a nice ride in on Wednesday. I put the spurs on and we had some great flat work. We warmed up with shoulder in and some lengthening at the trot. He had a couple moments of crankiness at the spurs, but I tried hard to really stretch down thru my heel, and he got over it.

We did a lot of transitions and had some of our best yet. I was trying to keep him nice and soft in the bridle, but still forward in front of my leg. The spurs really helped with that. He was a lot more balanced in the downward transitions, and not plowing on his front end.

Nik rode him on Friday and did her first set of trot poles! Jen lead her thru a couple times, then she did them on her own twice. She was very excited. She also told us that she wants to show him this summer. Look for her in a trot-a-pole class soon!

Today the chiropractor was out to do a couple horses do I had her check Bud. She said he felt great and didn't need an adjustment. Yay for my checkbook and Buddy!! Then mom and I went up to Portland to do some shopping. We stopped at the nice tack store up there for a new mane pulling comb as mine has disappeared. I found $230 Ariat show breeches on sale for $100! Mega score!! Didn't get the mane comb though....

To Lease or Not To Lease

That is the question.  My barn owner asked me yesterday if I would be interested in part leasing Buddy out to the daughter of a woman that takes lessons/part leases a horse of theirs.  The daughter (who I think is an adult, or at least a teenager) wants to ride western and I know the mom really likes Buddy (but then who wouldn't?).

My gut instinct is to say no; that I want to focus on our jumping and get ready for show season.  But, I could use the money. I currently have my retired TB, Phoenix, on my trainer Jen's pasture but will probably be bringing him back to the barn this summer. For more info on Phoenix, see the new page tab I made for him up above.  I won't be able to afford board for both boys and showing.

If I was to lease him out, it would only be for a couple days a week.  Buddy likes his days off, and I want to ride at least 4 days a week.  I want to meet the girl, and see how she does with him before I agree to anything.  And I think she would be taking lessons from Connie, which would be good since he can take advantage of beginners.

Happy Valentine's.  Go kiss your pony!!

Gymnastics

After three days off, Buddy was pretty lazy when I rode Saturday.  We just hacked around, didn't really work on much except getting him forward and off my leg.  He did start anticipating the upwards canter transitions, so we did some serpentines and figure 8s at the walk. Once he was quiet and walking forward into the contact we did some canter transitions.  They were really nice.  I need to remember to not let him rush into the transitions and make him wait.

Today I set up a little gymnastic; a bounce to one stride.  I started with an cross rail to a couple ground poles.  We did it a few times to warm up, then I dropped my stirrups and we did it a few more times.  I definitely need to keep doing that! 

I put up a vertical, so it was the x bounce to the vertical.  This was little tough for Bud.  He tend to get lazy after a few trot fences, so the first time he just trotted the x and kinda fell over the vertical.  I tried to stay neutral and let him figure it out.  The next time, I gave him a tap with my crop at the base of the x.  Worked much better!

Once I had the second vertical up, and Buddy was going forward, I tried to stay up with chest and stretch down thru my heels.  That's the thing I love about gymnastics; I just have to get Bud to the first fence and then just focus on me.  At the end, for fun I tied my reins in my knot and did it once with no hands.  SO MUCH FUN!!

Buddy says Hi!