Impossible!

I didn't get to the barn today and ifigure Wynter is quite happy about that! I spent all day at the college for my dirst day. Lots of fun my Psyc class is HARD but Spanish is fun. I'm extreamily tired so I will leave you with this fun game. Have fun and good luck!

The Impossible Quiz

Trail Ride in the Dark

I spent all day at the college trying to get registered! It took about 2 and a half hours and I was ten times more confused when I left. Jeeze, and they told me I start class tomorrow. I’m still in a spin and I have classes tomorrow! I’m taking Spanish and psychology fun stuff right? They were the only things open and I’m 3 days late for the semester.

After that was done Liz and I took the boys out again since it is pretty late and I have to get up tomorrow I’m going to keep this short. I tossed Wynter in the trailer without lunging him. I figured he was pretty tired from yesterday. There were other horses at the water crossing and we pulled off to the side. Liz scooted Alro so he was between Wynter and the other horses. It would have worked if the people would have went by. Instead they went down the stream and we went down the hill to the water. They was ohhing and ahhing our fabios! Liz convince me to pulling out Wynter forelock. I usually tuck it under his brow piece but half way down our first trail I pulled it out. Liz thinks it looks better. He was so flustered by the other horses the water was a snap, he didn’t bat an eye and he didn’t whinny at the other horses either. He had to be sexy and prance out of the water and up the hill though. Just because if there was a mare they had to see how good he looked.

Our only problem of the way was when we were walking though a trail and he got caught on a stick. He Didn’t lift his leg high enough or something because he went with him and the end of it rattled in the woods he went up and over. I went out of the saddle up in the air and back in my saddle. All the while laughing. It was pretty funny. I could sit the guy while he did a back flip I’m sure of it. He is so utterly smooth doing anything. Liz didn’t catch it she just laughed at the sound we made behind her.

After we went through the mud trail which we aced liz took u to the left instead of right to go over the long bridge. Wynter didn’t care at all but he did give the log that was a strange tan color a funny look. It was mainly because Arlo was terrified of it. That is the only bad art about Arlo he is so utterly a chicken.

We went a while and then I led. We took the front and went on a very tight trail up and around the road. Wynter did good he was tense but still forward. Then we hit the car bridge, and Wynter went over it first with out any hesitation. I chose to take the left after and go on the really windy one. it’s a really neat trail as it is very narrow and has a lot of turn but on top of that it goes up and down over tree roots. It’s probably my favorite to canter on.

A few steps into it and I knew we were going to have a problem. We turn around a tree and we have to step down from some roots right into a pit of mud and water. Wynter froze. His breathing quickened and he got tense instantly. At first I figured he was going to jump but then he stepped hid front feet down and then tried to back up. I didn’t let him and made him go forward, he was committed when he stepped down in the first place. So now he was standing like a circus horse with his feet really close together to he wouldn’t get in the mud. I stopped and let him gather himself. He was really huffing and very tense. I didn’t want to traumatize him so I let him come back to reality. A lot of the problem is the rider pushing the horse to fast. How would you like it if you were pressured without being about to think about the consequences or safety of something that you thought was dangerous or scary. You tend to just react and then you never ever want to do it again because it was a bad experience. I think the fact that I let him stop and think help. He was able to relax and take in a deep breath. After that I asked again and he sorta fanned around the mud. I didn’t force him to go directly into it. Choose your battles, he didn’t leap into the air or bolt or do anything stupid he was just be very cautious. Away we went.

We had a few I’m not so sure moments but were able to work though them. That trail is a very hard trail and there were a lot of steps that could be a little scary to a guy. Liz lead and she took us on a trail with no trail. To better give you a picture, it was a trail but then the area was logged so there is stuff scattered everywhere, twigs sticks, branches and piles of stuff. This was extremely hard for Wynter. He had no idea how to maneuver in a place like this. He tried to follow Arlo but that didn’t work and when he tried to do it on his own he chose horribly wrong and got him n trouble with me. That part was when we had to go down hill and he decided it would be better to go off the embankment. I said no way were going the other way. He Didn’t get it and he had to back up the hill and turn. As we went along he started to learn that e couldn’t ghost Arlo every time and that stepping on cetin things was bad and that he had to avoid other things. There was one part where it is quite literally covered in sticks its like they laid then down side by side across the trail. The horse had to walk on then and It took Wynter a second to figure out hoe to walk on them. He was also whipped in the face by a stick that Arlo snapped back. He then thought giving Arlo a few more inches was a good idea.

We went along for awhile and ended up side by side. By the time we were out of there he had a good sense of how to navigate. That’s when I spot a path made by an excavator straight up a hill. And I mean straight up like you have to put your hands by the horses ears, up. I thought it would be interesting to see how he handled it so I turned him up it. At first he was like ok and then two steps up he was like your joking right and stopped. A few taps and he was on his way again. I had to help him navigate as he isn’t the best of picking what route to take yet and he was going very slow. Usually when you go up hill especially one straight up horse bound up it. Not Wynter he had to micro manage it. One step quite literally at a time. Half way up I rein not a stick and had to move it out of the way or it would have hit me. Well, stupid me forgot I had his left rein in my hand when I did it. He was very casual about it. As I pushed the stick out of my way still holding his rein he stopped and bent his head around. I then realized that I was attached to him and let his head go. Sorry buddy keep going and he away he went. I think he stopped 3 times going up just because he wasn’t sure where to go. Once at the top Liz was like that was really hard for Arlo. He is used to the momentum and he had none following Wynter. I was so proud of him, he did it all by himself with out a lead horse.

Liz passed us and we went up and around and then went down the sand hill and back up the sand hill. Wynter thought that was silly. Its good for his back legs! Then Liz suggests we trot. So we both Jog. Wynter wasn’t happy about having to work while trail riding. Liz and I were surprised with there strides. They were matched stride for stride there rhythm was great! It was neat and we were both thinking driving.

We did that for a while and made a really neat turn and the Liz lead the way on the new water trail. Which is basically a 3rd trail toward the water tank. It ends at the other side of the tank that Wynter wouldn’t go near yesterday. Since Liz nor I had been on it since it was brand new it was neat to ride on. It was a lot longer than both of us realized and when we got to the end Alro stopped. He wasn’t sure about this angle on the water tank. It took Liz a second to make him go and then Wynter seen it. He shuffled but actually put him nose in the water today. Break through!!! We stood there and then the boys nose at each other. Arlo licked Wynter and then that to rinse his nose out splashing his nose in there water and the Wynter nosed the water and whipped his lip sin Arlos mane. We were obviously quite entrained by the boys. And do I ever mean boys, mares just wouldn’t do that.

By then it was almost 8 and getting dark quickly. So we headed back and that was the first time Wynter seen deer. There were actually on Arlos side and I turned Wynters head to her could see them. By the time it registered he was in front of Arlo. It was a herd of then 5 does and Wynter thought it was neat but could have cared less. His ears went up but there was no change in his body unlike Arlo who was about to blt it they attacked. We walked off and it got dark on us. We took a few trails and then just walked the road all the way back to the truck. It was good to ride him out there when it was dark although Liz and I wre freaked out. The wind tonight was plain creepy and then there was the fact that we swore we saw a UFO. Satellites move side to side across the sky this thing was moving up and down and didn’t blink. It freaked up out to the max.

Walking on the road back Wynter was a little more alive. Most likely because I was a little freak out with the UFO thing and secondly everything changes at night time. He had to stopped when he hit the car bridge, the bushes on the sides were very scary but Arlo walked over it. I assume it was because he knew that the trailer was on the other side somewhere. We walked down the road even further and Wynter had to look at every pot hole, we wasn’t afraid he just had to drop his nose all the way to the ground when he stepped in them.

When we go ton the main road it was darn near black out and Wynter decided he had to Whinny for some reason. I have no idea why as there was no hint of other horses except for Arlo. It was very odd it came out of nor where. Not sort after we were un tacking at the trailer. I was very very pleased with him today. He learned a lot and took the challenges in stride. I was riding him along when I looked down at his and all his hair. Who else can ride there 4 year old stallion on the trails like this?

Breeding and Another Trail Ride

Since I have slacked off on keeping you updated were going to start with the present and regress this may be long this may be short. I currently have a cold yet again. Will the weather ever make up its mind! I swear.

I started today way to early for my taste buds! I had my PTC test today which was pretty easy. I scored very well on my reading. Too many romance novels I suppose! My writing was a little lower than I thought but then again I am still working on it. My math was a plain joke, I scored very low. The test was completely done on the computer and only took me an hour and 12 minuets. I then dropped off my the only paper I filled out which was a basic info sheet at the consolers office. I already have an appointment to see her for tomorrow at 2:00. I’m largely awaiting my schedule so I can work around it. I would like to take a few classes at my current school and I have a girl who wants to take lessons. So I’m kinda on the fence until I know what my schedule is.

After that mom and I went to lunch and as we left we both spotted the nail place. She the offers to pay for my nails. The last time I had fake nails was like when I was 12. Sounds silly I know but I had them for a long time. I have a really cool mom! Ha ha, anyway so I tell the guy I work with horses and he give me like the industrial version of nails! They are so nice. There super thick, square and he used a very hard coating over the top to keep them hard. They have got to be the best set I have ever had. I got the French but instead of the plain white I got a glitter white. I almost got the glitter blue but figured white goes with anything. The one thing that I forgot was how fricken bad they ache when your first get them! Oh my gosh, you have no idea how they ache, typing is proving to be challenge. Every time I use my thumb nail instead of the thumb to hit space it sent a little wave up my nail. Ugg.

So once I get back home Liz wants to go for a ride. I spent a while relaxing and deciding if I wanted to ride Wynter out there or not. I did. Hooking the trailer up I lunged him in the round pen to get the freshness off. He was very very fresh yesterday but that was mainly because he hadn’t ridden him for three days…. So I have been slacking I’m sorry. We was really good in the round pen a lot more chilled out today than yesterday, which I will go over later.

We throw him in the trailer and head out. When we unload him he is like, ‘um not this again.’ He knew what was gong on the second I unladed him. Today it was just Liz and I so we took the to boys Wynter and Arlo. I tied Wyn right next to Arlo and he never once nickered or showed that he cared, he was mainly concerned about why he was here.

Has anyone run into this problem. If Wynter shakes or rubs his head his can get his halter off his ears. Not the best skill for a stallion to posses. Now he has a triple stitched leather halter that adjusts in every possible way. It fits him correctly. Around his head ect. If I tighten it anymore he will chocked by it! So I don’t know what to do about that I can’t leave him tied anywhere that isn’t closed off because he can get loose. So as I was putting my spurs on Liz and I were yelling at him for rubbing his head. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?

When we first head out he was really ready for the ride! Arlo was a little concerned with this guy walking so close and so eager behind him. He kept look back at him like hey I’m a dude back off. It was funny we laughed for a while. With no mares Wyn was able to relax a little. We went around the other direction is instead of the one with all the logs and sticks. This way is a lot shorter and open, we usually run on it because its really good footing. Since Wynter was so fresh we walked the whole thing. When we hit the woods Wynter was a little edgy and wasn’t sure about this whole idea. He was pretty tip toie. We went down to the water and today he was not into it. He balked for a second and I got him to go forward. I always release when he goes forward. So we took baby steps and once he was in the water he was a little quick to go through it.

The end of the next trail was a puddle with mud. Today I decided he could get over the idea that he could go around them. There is also like 6 mud pits on the next trail and it rained so I knew it would be great training ground. He did not like the idea. With most horses if you make them they usually catapult over things. I figured out by the time we were done with out ride that he isn’t the catapulting type. After he weaved back and forth between my spurs he danced through the mud. He is such a prissy show pony. I don’t think he likes mud in his frogs! He doesn’t like the way it feels the next section we worked on gong through every bit of mud that we came across and we did. I had to use both reins and my spurs but he walked through them all.

With the mud nearly conquered I strated to learn about his hill work. He is weak and has to carry my fat butt up the darn thing so that’s hard for one. On top of that he doesn’t have that much practice balancing me while going up and down hills. At first he was slow going up and down and eventually he found his rhythm going up and was getting faster going down. After we went up our first hill we walked for a bit and Liz convinced we to trot him. This was me being bold. I asked and he went. At first we were slow and then we went to his power trot and I had to post. He had a fun time in the lead although he was a little nervous. It was trotting up the hil that got him, it really took it out of him. Ohh but it is so good for his hindquarters!

Then Liz decided we could walk my cursed trail. I tend to fall off on this trail every time. So I was completely ready for a deer or something stupid to scared him and un mount me but nothing happened. We walked into the main field where Liz and I watched a chip monk. I never really knew what they sounded like, I always though ti was a bird. We were laughing really hard at this chip monk. Every time he chirped he would hop. It was like the action took so much out of him that his whole body had to get in on it. At the end it make a serious of noised and instead of jumping it actually spun in a quick circle we busted up laughing at that!

Wynter tends to get scared of things on his right side. I’m not sure why he is mister brave when its on his left but going right he has to arch away from. On the right leaving the clearing was a piece of wood that people used as a mounting block. It really freaked him out for some reason so I made him face his fears and stand by it. He wasn’t to keen on the idea but he was ok with it. So we continue walking and pass an old shed which me barely bats and eyes at and I let Liz pass me up. Arlo starts going left and Wynter decided to go right with our without Arlo. Arlo is moseying along when he realizes that he is alone. Wynter is just content as can be going right. I now know that we would be ok to trail ride along with. He just doesn’t care about other horses. He has great spacing he keeps about a half a horse length when behind another horse. Arlo decided to cut through the thick brush to get to Wynter because he is a chicken! We were laughing and started to trot again for a bit.

I still think Wynter calls Arlo bait. He like really doesn’t care if he is food for the bear. I think he figures what ever pops out of the woods will eat Arlo first and he can watch. By the time its done it will be (he assumes) full and not eat him.

At the water tank we had a situation. He wanted nothing to do with it. It is a very scary with a water trough on a block of cement! We got close to it but he had to kick out as my spurs. I laughed at him he is so graceful isn’t not even a buck. He is so completely smooth. He got about a foot from the trough and I figured that was good enough. Arlo and him also made peace. I let them get nose to nose with out Wynter going stallion under me. He was very civil and he was really surprised Arlo was more than bait.

Off on the next trail we went a ways and I got enough courage to pull my feet out of the stirrups. Today was just full of bold thing! My feet not being in the stirrups was a big thing for me, please note I was wearing my helmet! Brain saver, will not ride him out on the trails until he gets more miles on his shows so to speak. He wasn’t so sure about this idea either. He eyeballed them as we walked, so I started swinging them around and he would tilt his head to look at them.

Overall he was doing super good he was walking next to Arlo with out a thought and going along great. He wasn’t slow and concerned this time around he was pretty bold Taking big steps keeping up and sometime over taking Arlo who has the biggest stride I have ever seen. He has a foot over step in all his gates.

We passed Arlo and started down a trail in the front which he really hasn’t done before. He was very very alert and went slower than usual. Then we hit a fallen tree, it was about knee high and it was at a slant across the trail. On the side we were on the bark was chipped off where horses had nicked it. So it was very light tan with the rest of the tree almost black. He didn’t want to go over it. He took a while to get enough courage to go near it and then he would sniff it. I let him take it a step at a time. He was surely taking his sweet time too! It took him two minuets! He went forward and back Arlo all the while rolling his eyes. Then Wynter bucked with both back legs and takes two big steps toward the log and steps over. Trust me I was ready to sail over the thing. I just wanted to go over it with out having to have Arlo go first and we did in a very civilized manner. I was very very proud. Arlo thought it was ridicules that I was petting him for bucking and going over a log. He was not enthused. I let Liz lead and took up the last position where Wyner was most comfortable.

Going down a hill I wasn’t paying attention. I had my crop under arm and both rein in my right hand using my legs to steer. As we went down he got a good horse length from Arlo as he is slow going down hill. He stops looking where he is going and veers off to the right. When he notices the drop off I went to pull him to the side instead he hopped down. This was the first time he ever jumped or did anything like that, so I was very unprepared! I ended up coming up and slamming into the western saddle. Very very uncomfortable! He was pretty graceful though.

Over all we had an awesome ride. He did a lot of new things and I love him to death. We are going to be taking out my BFF for the first time in like a year and I would like to take Wynter. I’m not sure he will be up for it though we had a pretty long and ride day.

Yesterday well, I guess it is a build up from the past three days. I have a friend who lives close and owns three Haflinger‘s. One being a mare. We were talking and she mentioned she was thinking about breeding her mare. I said jokingly that I knew of this really amazing silver stallion. Well, needles to say I needed up riding Marquisse over to her house ot look at her mare. We talked for about 2 or 3 hours. We talked a lot about breeding and the Haflinger breed in general.

Yesterday I told her that I would be at the barn and she could stop by to check him out. She really hasn’t seen him move. I had in the cross ties when she arrived and she looked him over real good. I was glad I went and looked at her mare and was able to see how they would cross. I must say that it will be a nice foal. She loved his legs and bone. We turned him out in the pen as the trainer was gone and let he busted around for awhile.

He was definitely showing three days of nothing. He busted around the pen and my friends loved his canter. She was oohing and ahhing over his canter. He zoomed around for a while and I had a hard time getting him to trot. Thus I through his saddle one and jumped n him. He was still very forward and ‘strong’. We had an ok ride but he was just quick and fast about everything. The good part was that she was pretty set on breeding her mare to Wynter. I’m very excited! Now we are just waiting to make sure she is breeding sound and then were waiting for spring!

So yeah I’m beat and my fingers hurt! I have a meeting tomorrow and I have to trail ride sometime during the day. So yup there it is in a nut shell. When I can get to it I will tell you about our lesson. It was very very funny we rode out a few kicks and bucks.

Progress

Yay I got my official student number from the college today! I’m excited although I know its going to be a LOT of work. I’m going to take my PT next Tuesday. I have to be there 13 minuets before 9 am. Ugg and they want me to test well? I’ll be half asleep then! Anyway I’m getting closer to attending college.

I was able to get on Wynter late today. Around 5ish actually. We spent a while bending and walking in circles. Today we started to add a spur stop. Which is where you add your spurs to gain collection. Sounds funny but it is a really really neat ‘button’ on your western horses. It starts at a stop where you bend right and left each time you bend right you add right spur not enough to making them go forward to as an aid. Then you release the spur and let the head go when they give. Then you do it left. We probably did it around 17 times each side and then you add both spurs again not as a forward action but more as a ‘button’. He got it and dropped his head down. Step one complete!

We had a hard to distinguishing forward and spur stop for a second. Then we got it and were able to move forward. We worked at the opposite end of the arena today since there was a jump right next to the wall at the end. At the trot I focused on pegging that inside shoulder if it tried anything funny. I also work on keeping him hip on the out side of the circle. This made him think canter so we went around at a canter for a bit. He was mucho better today. He leaned on me a little but was quicker to give and pick himself up today.

Going the other way we did a little trot work but it was pretty good going left so we went down the long wall to try and track straight. This was super good or I was missing something. I’m pretty sure I can tell where everything is but was a little skeptical that he was tracking up that well. So we reversed and he needed a little help he would swing his butt in just a little bit. Every time I added a little thing of spur he would throw it all the way out. He doesn’t know what moderation is. We did a lot of long walls today working on forward straightness.

Around this time we started working on stopping and walking of straight. He love to pitch his shoulder to the right when he step off at the walk. My right spur was in action when we did this, a few times he thought if he laid into it it would go away. When that didn’t work he moved from it and viola no spur. We whoaed and go’ed about 4 times in a row until he was walking off with out going crooked. This is something I’m going to have to work on every day until he just goes centered and then we won’t have to worry about it…much.

I then went to more canter work and his left side was really good he was soft and centered and I only did two transitions with him. Going right I was being picky about it. I made him work that side a little more just because it isn’t as good as the other side. We did about Four transitions to canter and he never missed a lead. He almost missed one of his left leads though but I shut him down before he had the option. We worked as far off the rail I could making it hard for him. He was really good by the rail but when he went to the center of the pen he would drop out with his outside shoulder and aim for the rail. We went around and around with my trying different rein and leg combinations until he finely went around the center collected and soft with out falling in or out. This was an instant whoa. He is almost a reining horse he stopped so fast.

I was really surprised he was sweaty, he was barely warm today. I called it a day with the good canter and just leaped off of him. He wasn’t sweaty enough for me to rinse him to so I just put him in hos room after I was done. Overall it was a much improved ride from yesterday. Which everyone would call progress! That’s exciting. It will be interesting to see what Jen says tomorrow.

In other news my stuff still isn’t here! Ugg I wanted new rowels before I went back to Jennifer’s. I may just use my English ones he he.

Long Day!

My day was just bad all day. At first I had an appointment at nine and when I get there they tell me its not till next week. That was Liz’s fault! She tells me she made an appointment and forgot to tell me what Tuesday it was for. They were able to squeeze me in at noon. It just went down hill and when I got to the barn I was hoping like crazy Wynter would be good.

I lunged him around just because he was walking on his tip toes round the pen. We only did it a few times each way and called it good. Again we sat by the mounting block for a while and then went to bending. With the bending I figured he was going to be a butt about him right shoulder. He would bend either to the right or left real good and then fall in or out. We kept at bending for a long time just because he was insistent about it.

I finely moved on to the trot and could feel that shoulder. Going right he was really pitching his butt out and dropping the shoulder. So I would push the hip in and pick the shoulder up. Again and again. We backed a few times, just because I couldn’t figure it out. Without anything else We did canter work and his right lead was just bad. He was going mock ten with his hip swung out and shoulder dove it. When I added leg he would pitch forward and swing his butt in. I was fine with the faster pace but today I just couldn’t sit his canter. I was bouncing all over and it bothered me… a lot. Once he got his butt in position we went about picking that shoulder up. He would toss everything he had on the rein and try and refuse to give. After a good sections of checking he was able to give to. He would then toss his outside shoulder out.

He was just a big puzzle that didn’t want to fit together today! At the time I wasn’t sure if he was making my day worse or miserable. So we did a lot of right canter work. We would do short spurts of good and stop for a breather. I was focusing on getting it through his head it he was correct he got to whoa. Then when we whoa’ed we had to work on how to walk of centered. He would either try and back up or dive out to the right like a drunk. So we work on going forward when he was asked to go forward.

We did even more canter work and when he gave up at the hardest part of our circle we whoa’ed. He did a reiner stop and stood there for a while. Then we went to stop go until he walked off centered. I had the option of doing a little more trot work with him but I was tired and I didn’t want to open up another can of worm. I also figured I may as well stop him on a good note.

After we cooled out I asked for the whoa and he halter off of voice alone. I was surprised he stopped just because it was a whisper or a whoa. I was just about to say it louder with purpose like I should have done in the first place when he stopped. I was happy and when I started to swing off I hung off of him for a second. And patted his right rib cage with my hands. His ears flicked but he could have cared less. I love him so much. We sprayed him off and I put him in his room for the night.
Ohh and his likit only lasted the night! So he either loves that peppermint flavor or he loves his likit. I’m going to wait untill Saturday or Sunday to put the apple one in. On top of that I noticed the ones I bought at the co op are not ‘Likit’ brand the are ‘Jolly’ it will be interesting to see the difference. I still haven’t gotten my stuff from sstack yet. Should be here any day now they are always really good about shipping.

I also found a lady who will do blanket repairs without requiring then to wash them there selves. Every blanket person I found required that they wash them. I just can’t afford to send my blanket to some one and pay to get them fixed and washed when I can wash them myself. So I have to gather some of my blanket to get them repaired before winter. Most of my stable blanket and sheets are needing some serious fixing!

Sorry this is so very short. I’m sure you can tell that I am exhausted. I will try and be a little more up beat tomorrow. Today was just long and not all that for filling. I will say even if Wynter didn’t give me the best of rides he got my mind off of things and I was able to smile afterward.

New Likit & Timer

Today was Moms Birthday so I never got the time to do anything with horses besides feeding. We went to the co op because they have cute clothes that mom likes and I picked up two Likits for Wynter. I got him Apple and peppermint flavored ones he has had a peppermint one before and I think he has had an apple but I’m not sure.

I made a timer which took me a while to figure out! Take away about 17 hours, its start at midnight and he didn't get it till that evening other than that it is about on time. I gave him the peppermint one so lets see how long that lasts.

The First Trail Ride

Liz and I went on a ride with Marz and Arlo and hafl way through I thought it was a good day to take Wynter out. He has been on about 4 ride in our tree farm so I decided he should go out and do a real ride. So we went back to the barn and Liz grabbed Toccata who she was going to ride bareback and mom jumped on Arlo. I lunged Wynter around in the round pen to get out the jitters. We went around for a while and then did a little join up. He was really good about that and wasn’t that warm at all. I loaded him in the trailer and he had to nicker at Arlo who we put next t him. He did it a few times and then relaxed. When I unloaded him form the trailer at the parking lot he was seriously confused. Where was the arena? He has never been somewhere just for trees.

He whinnied once and was quiet the rest of the time. He also stood still at the trailer so I was pretty optimistic. Even though I did wear my helmet. Mom and Liz jinks when I got out of the truck saying something of the effect the he was a baby. So the helmet was on! He had a really hard time standing still while I got on him but he didn’t dance he was just tense really tense. I have also never gotten on him using the side of the horse trailer before so that was new to him. I took the whip today just for an extension of my hand. I ended up using it here and there.

When we first headed out he had to nicker and walk in a arch away from everyone. He was really nervous being that close to any other horse. He thought he was going to get in trouble. So the first little section he was really slow and he was walking in a funky arch but I did get him to stop nickering. We took up the rear as it is a natural position for a stallion to take. We had Arlo in front of him and Liz was in the lead on Tots.

The first real trail we went on was a pretty hard one, I choice it so I could make him think on is feet and not the fact they we were with a mare. It worked really well. We were laughing at him the whole time. He was a prissy show boy. He tiptoed and avoided everything he could, he is also determined to not walk through mud! He was not going there and I wasn’t either. I decided to pick my battles and the mud thing was not for today or the next few ride as a matter of fact. Just going along quietly and at a steady pace was golden in my book. So I let him scurry off to the side around the mud and in one case fly over it.

This guy could be jumper. I don’t like jumping and with Marquisse she launches herself over it and you are thrown from your seat and you hit hard. The fact that I don’t know what I’m doing doesn’t help. Well with Wynter I don’t leave my seat he is very very smooth. The particular trail we took first has a log or root every 6 feet it’s a real maze and he was hopping anything mid cannon bone. He had to do it with piazza, because he is a stallion after all. He was super good tense but I was real impressed with him, I did have to use my spurs to keep him from rubbing me off on a tree. He completely forgot that my legs were there. He also didn’t understand the ‘trail’ he really never picked that up after we were done. He would try to go around a log by following it all the way down instead of going over. It made me laugh a few times. He would also try a go straight if it was an s curve, he thought those were ridicules.

Almost at the end of the trail it went straight up. Now Wynter hasn’t really had to carry a human up an embankment before and I could feel him trying to figure out how to balance me. He was very quick about it. As we went up he picked up a very brisk walk almost trot to power himself up. Mom looked back and gave me this look and said ‘he looks really good’. He was like warrior horse going up the hill. All he needed was armor and maybe a knight on his back instead of me.

The next big thing for him to concur was the water. I have ridden around and on some real greenies and I’ll tell you that the stream is a real issue. This particular water crossing is about knee deep at the deepest and about 6 feet across. It Didn’t help that there was mud at the beginning. The best part is the other two horses don’t even hesitate they just go so he was the one to stop and look at the water. He sniffed it and I added a little leg not enough to push him or make him panic just enough to encourage the idea. He go the hit but wasn’t sure about going in he had to try and get around the mud. So we went one way and I said we are not going up over the edge so he went the over way and I added a little more leg and he stepped right in. He crossed without a hitch. He even went through the mud on the other side without hopping it like I thought he would.

The trail that follow the water crossing are a compilation of figure eights. If you don’t go right you can go left and you end up on the same trail. So to mess with his mind we took the trail that the others didn’t take he could see them the whole time he just wasn’t sure on the idea. During this whole time he had been walking really slow and tensed. He would prance to catch up. His prance is super smooth to sit to so at first I didn’t notice and then I started to try and making him move out instead of prance around.

Our next big challenge was a small bridge that is about 2 and a half horse length long and not wide enough for a Haflinger to turn around on. The side come up about rider elbow height. Again the other two don’t even flinch and Wynter decided do just go over it he had no hesitation. The only time he was a little unsure about was when he was all the way on it he tilted his head but didn’t scramble to get off or quicken his pace. That was awesome. The next section is the muddiest part of the whole tree farm its like a mud pit for a few yards. He had to walk through some of it but went he could he would dance around.

We went up and around to the left and up the sand hill which he had a really hard time not trotting up. The other two were pretty far ahead so he wanted to be closer but we made it. Sadly at the top there is a big silver covert sitting above ground. Again I have seen greenies freak out over this thing. His ears went forward and he side stepped very very little, I suppose say he gave it a wipe birth is a better way to put it. The next trail was a really tight one at had the green shrubs constantly rubbing his legs he hated this trail. Absolutely hated it. He got very very tense. He whinnied at Liz a few time because she kept getting to far away. I think that was the stallion in him. He could have cared less for Arlo. Or as I put it at one point ‘the bait’ he would have love to use Arlo as bait so he could get his mare away from danger. He was totally looking out for her.

I have been riding the pretty broke trail horse for a while now and haven’t ridden a real green horn in a long time. I forgot big ass scary stumps could be scary. He would tilt his head and walk around them, like try it I’ll kill you if you make a move.

That is the strangest thing while riding a stallion. As my first stallion he is so very very different than riding anything else. Instead of running from something he will go toward it or try and attack it. Like at the end of the next trail there is a big metal loader Its like a semi truck loading ramp that is half buried into the ground. Wynter went right up to it with out my aid and was like is it alive because if it is I’ll kick its ass. When he figured it wasn’t he just mosey on. There was also the cup incident. There was a plastic mocha cup in the middle of the trail Toccata kicked it making it spin and Arlo the chicken of the group had to give it the evil eye and tip toe around it. Wynter could have cared less he just glanced at it and kept going. I was really for him to kick it and jump in the air ten feet he didn’t.

When we hit the clearing he had to get a little excited because there were other horses coming through and we also got close to his mare. He had to whinny and prance but you know I was riding him with one hand. I had faith that he wasn’t going to charge or do anything but what he was doing.

This part of the ride was the most entertaining for all of us. Again it was a real stallion thing. We were riding the main road of a huge open area that had small section s Christmas trees planted in square patches. We walked side by side next to Toccata and he nickered twice and dropped that after the hand of god smacked him up side the head. And I was starting to question brining it. He spotted two horses coming in on the far side of the area reminding me of and Arab. His head came up and he tuck his butt under him and felt like he was walking on his tip toes in front. This was the craziest he got for the whole ride. He sped walked forward and whinnied at them. It was a stallion thing protecting his herd. Once they went away he was on high alert. If you have even seen up you will get the picture of this perfectly. You know when Dog is introducing himself and explaining his collar and he see a squirrel well, Wynter did that twice but he kept walking, he didn’t stop his feet. He would be walking along and then almost get whip lash looking over at something. He was totally going to tell everyone that he seen what ever it was if he had to. Like I said he was going to protect his herd.

Its really weird to know that if the crap hit the fan he was attack it not run. So help me if a bear would have came out of the woods and attacked up Wynter would have been on it. He would have showed that bear who Willard Whyte really is! The rest of the ride he really toned down he started to relax and just trail ride. We took on trail that was tight and again he got tense and tried to go around the point less turn but he was super super good.

On the way back to the trailer Liz kept saying he was dropping. So I kept telling him that was a no no well once we got to the horse trailer and I jump off him he peed. Poor boy and I was telling him he was bad. Now I know when he drops like that he just needs to pee.

Over all I was very very pleased with his first real trail ride. He was super!!! The best ride I have ever seen by a greenie! He was great and I love him to death. He is now going to go on more. He is also gong to be soar. Oh man he was like jello Stifles when we loaded into the trailer.

Tomorrow we will see if he is to soar to ride we may just lunge him around or do a very very easy ride. I’m not sure yet and my fingers are crossed that my stuff arrived soon!! I need my rowels.

Catch Up and not Heinz

Friday was a long day. I started by giving Kitt his meds and working Forba. She is looking a lot better, although she is really bracing on the inside rein. I’m not riding her yet just lunging her with a cersingle and bridle. I’m trying to get her in the zone before I jump on her. She really needs to build some muscle up before I make her going under saddle so were lunging for a bit. When I was rinsing her off my teacher came in with her daughter. We started talking while I did Forba. Who in all actuality was really quite good for not having been in the big barn in months. She got rinsed and was a little pushing going back to the pasture. I didn’t correct her to much as my teacher was right there. Not sure what kind of first impression she would have had if I started correcting Forbs in front of her.

I pulled Toccata out of her stall so the girl could brush her a bit while we talked. Toccata stand like a rock so I had no worries. Again a good reason not to sell her right? Right? Ha ha.

Anyway after that I chilled for a while until Liz came around. Sammy didn’t show because she said she didn’t feel good. SO I jumped on Wynter just a little bit before Liz got to the barn. We tacked up quickly and stood next to the mounting block for a long time. Again the trainer was cracking jokes, telling me I had a crazy one. He was a little tense today and I walked around getting his muscles stretched and his blood flowing. The trainer did a combination down the center line which we were very close to the third jump and the horse caught it sending the pole tumbling down. Wyn’s ears twitched but he kept walking. I sent him to work at the trot completely forgetting to bend. I have no idea why I forgot but I did. I remember where he got unusually heavy doing figure eights. So we halted and bent a while. After that he was a lot softer.
We did a little trot work and since he is getting better and better we haven’t been going for so long. He was really good and when Liz came in with Marz he had a hard time concentrating. He thought he had to nicker at her when he got close.

Our canter work is getting better, we went to the other end of the pen away from ‘distraction’. We went left first and he was basically the same although when he gave his gave and centered himself for a longer amount of time. Going right we had to do a few transition just because he didn’t want to go on the correct lead. Went went around for a long time because he would get centered. He was trying to brace and fall out while swing his butt out. SO we went around and around. Once he gave it was a super soft give and he was very very correct. So we stopped there. His head set was low at moments but over all he wasn’t all to low, about 50 50.

We stood and watched Liz ride Marz around. Who I had to make fun of she usually ride Arlo dressage but was soar from something and wanted to ride western. After I watched them for a second I cooled Wynter out who again thought it was necessary. When I asked for whoa he blew threw it again but his ears twitched back so I asked one more time and he stopped. I had to mad rush stripping him and rinsing him off and he was ok with it, though he was wondering why I was rushing. I needed to be quick as Liz was only half way done with her lesson and I tied Wynter in his room. I figured he needed some time to ‘himself’.

Our lesson was good except Marz was very very tense and wanted to canter the whole time. So we worked on that and Liz needs to work on her lower legs. She parks them out like she is riding a reining horse. We need to work on her seat and legs.

So anyway I didn’t pay to much attention to the Rid eon Wynter because I had to give Liz her lesson. I was like on Auto pilot when I rode him. I paid enough attention to get the work done but didn’t file it deep enough in my brain to write about it sorry if it was short or hit and miss.
On another note Justin helped me with horses that night. We traded off I said I would help him with home work if he helped me with horses. So on our way back home he asked why I didn’t use my high beams in my truck. Instead of telling him I showed him when we go to our drive way. I tapped the high beam button on the floor and within 20 seconds the power to the light cut out and it was pitch black. He was like Ohhh that’s why. It was funny. I laughed pretty hard. I slowed down to turtle speed and flicked the lights a few times until they came on.




Yesterday was spa day at the barn which means that we went and clipped everyone and re wrapped tails. Since everyone’s tail have been down for a few months it was no easy task. Liz and I spent all day in the wash rack and grooming room! The only one we didn’t get to was Wynter because his are still in although they are falling apart. I will redo them in the next week. He got the day off.

Oh oh and exciting news! My friend finely came over and put the subs in the back of my truck!!! It sounds fantastic but not as fantastic as it will sound when I get an amp back there. Right now I don’t have one but it will be soon. I love it anyway, it sounds great Liz is in love with my truck now ha ha ha!

Police

I’m happy to announce that I was able to order everything on my list today. I love sstack.com! The rubber bands are back ordered though but that’s ok. Hopefully I can get my rowels before I go to lessons on Thursday. I also reordered a sheet for Wynter. I can’t find his sheet anywhere, it’s not in either barns or the horse trailer thus I just bought him a new one. I would just toss some one else’s blanket on him but he is a 76 where the rest are 70 and 72. In other news the girls will be back staring tomorrow for lessons. Liz and Sammy come out three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for lessons. That means Arlo and Marquisse will be getting there work for the day. I also got a phone call from my 6th grade teacher (which is weird) wanting to bring her kids out for lessons. So there coming out tomorrow to check out the horses. My winter just got a lot busier. See I told you it got crazy during the winter! I told you!

I’m really getting sick and tired of the way Wynter has been sleeping. I can not wait for his blanket to get here. He was a disaster today. He had crusty poop and pee on his back. Just how can a chestnut coat get a stain line? Seriously. After I brushed his hair out, I like him to look good and it wouldn’t completely brush out we tacked up. Today is the first day that I have ever just jumped on him and I was a little concerned but he has been a champ all week and I got gutsy. The trainer was giving a lesson which I love to. I will give you a tip as a rider trainer horse enthusiasts. If you get a chance to watch a lesson of ANY type need be western, dressage, jumping, gaming, what ever watch. You learn so much. It’s one of the greatest way to learn and I love doing it. I get on Wynter with the mounting block being right in front on the trainer who was sitting in the chair. The trainer points out I don’t have rowels, I know that, thanks I ordered new ones today.

It may have been my imagination but Wynter felt tense standing at the block, I think it was my brain saying ‘you didn’t lunge him you dolt.’ But whatever he didn’t move and when I asked for forward he backed up. We had to turn so we didn’t run the trainer over and then he found his forward. We bent for a while staying out of the way of the girl working on her flying changes. We then went to trot work when she started to jump down the center line. I had to keep my eyes up to watch where she was and where she was going. Arena etiquette #5 stay out of the way of lessons. So Wynter and I had to maneuver around and away from her making sure we weren’t in the way. I think it was good for him as it wasn’t a pattern it was completely random as I would making him go when I could. Over all he was really good. He tried slamming the right shoulder into the rail, I actually did a shoulder turn to get him off on the idea s he did it a few times in a row. After I got that over with he was ok. Going left is getting better daily it’s the darn right side that is getting to me, but it is getting better. I think I’m missing something, I’m sure Jen will point it out plain as day but I’m gonna try and figure it out before then.

After out trot work the lesson was over and I spent a good 10 minutes circling the pen talking with the girl about training horses and breeds. I was slightly concerned that Wynter would think he was done but he went back to his trot work with out a second thought. I was happy about how he handled walking next to the other horse. It was a gelding and Wynter never even consider flirting. I had figured walking les than a few feet from each other he would at least give him a look. Nope nothing he just didn’t care.

We were starting our canter work when the trainer came back in on a training horse. Our circle work was better today and I have a hard time describing why it was better than yesterday. He was still heavy and still fell in and out. I suppose the fact that he only took off on the wrong lead twice was a big deal. That was it then his leads were better and he seemed more centered cantering right today. Wynter also went back to being super low in his neck on the circles and I had to bang him up a few times and then let him go around out of the bridle so to keep his head up. The trips around the pen felt like crap today. They were wiggly and speedy and a little odd. We finished our ride by doing a circle to the right. He was really really good and I called it a day.

Right as we come out of our down transition the trainer asked me why there was a state patrol down on the road. Our arena is open on the side facing the small street that comes off the main road. There is a gravel driveway to the barn and four other homes. There was a stater sitting on the street at the entrance of the gravel road. As I cooled Wynter off we started hearing a lot more sirens and noise. We were both curious but went back to riding. When I told Wyn to whoa he ignored me so we backed and I said it again and he stopped. I will bet his gets it tomorrow.

When I dismounted and when to scoop up his pile in the pen my cell sounded off. I missed it and called my grandmother back when I was un tacking Wynter. Who shook his head after I had all his straps off sending the bridle quite literally flying from his head. With my cell in one hand I had a heck of a time putting his halter one. Luckily he never budged his feet he had a beautiful window to bolt off and see girls but he was quite content on starring at the ground. He wasn’t as sweaty as yesterday but still lazy is lazy.

My grandma then goes on about how there is a billion cop cars all over and ask me if I know what’s going on. I have been at the barn all day and have no idea. She asked me to call my mom who needs to take a tank of air back to the doctor. My grandpa ran out of air in his tank and had to borrow one from the doctor. So I text my mom. She proceeds to tell me that there is a guy running around our house (which is the next street over from the barn) with an axe. They told her to stay indoors because he was armed and dangerous and was in the area. On top of that they gave my little brother a ride home from the bus because they thought it wasn’t safe. The best part she locked her keys in the truck! Ha ha.

A while later my grandma calls and said our neighbor though it was a guy with a gun running around and that they caught him. By then there was a plane 2 helicopter and like a billion cop cars in the area. My farrier calls because he is supposed to come out and I tell him to be careful cops are everywhere. The whole thing doesn’t end until our farrier leaves. He came and did Wynters feet (which I will go over in a second) and then had to go to another appointment and come back to do the other eight.

Wynter acted like I hadn’t taken him from his stall in weeks. He was so rude. He gets insanely board while he is getting his feet done and I have to play with him to keep his brain entertained. The best part what the our farrier’s helper was pulling his front shoes off when the barn pig comes up. Now mind you she is HUGE like bigger than a great dane. They were nervous that Wynter would try and kick her but he could have cared less. So the pig was sniffing Wynter raised hoof as the helper pulled him front shoe, she then meandered out of the barn. Wynter only has a half set, which means that he only has in front shoes and is barefoot behind. I haven’t had to put shoes back there yet. He wears down a lot of toes making his feet pretty blocky so we put shoes on him when we was getting started. Since then I haven’t changed it. The more he shows the more I will consider tossing two more show son him.

As our farrier trimmed his back left he was a little rude about it. Not kicking but swinging his foot not wanting him to told it. Our farrier is really neat and tolerated him well. I told him next time to smack him for it, he has no business being rude. I can’t correct him for it with the guy holding his foot up or he would get squished. The right side he tried it again and again the guy tolerated it and then let him drop and smacked him. I was all happy about that, saying ‘there, way to go, he needed that!’ When he went for his foot again he was an angel. He is a really simple stallion, one smack and he is like… fine.

When the helper came to finish his front feet he was just annoying to me. Wynter kept leaning into the halter, he was just board, I mean dead board. It was so very dull to have his feet done, it was like me in wall mart. I can’t be in wal mart for more than 20 mins and I go crazy. I don’t know what it is but it just messing with me, I zone out get a headache and become a little off walking around the store. He was the same way. Wal Martized.

After they left I lunged Forba and Mc. Forba is looking better her eyes and attitude is already shaping back up and her back was tighter today, the muscle looked a lot better. Mc was lazy and not to happy about going back to work.

I skipped off up to the house to make our farrier his favorite cookies. Chocolate chips with walnuts. You have to take care of your farrier! I was just able to pull a second batch out when he arrived. All the horses were good today. I was anticipating Chance to be a bugger about it. This was only his second time and he is very very skeptical of humans. He isn’t sure why we exists. It a colt thing on out farm. All the boys are cautious of humans until there about a year and then they come around. Our fillies are bossy little things, and are in there term invincible. Today Chance never pulled away and stood really still. I was very very impressed.

With that my day were wrapped up. I found out that this guy running around was caught. He was caught on our road. I guess he hijacked a car with either and Axe or gun and drove all over until hitting a cop and ending up on our road. Fun stuff! The adventures we have around this place, if its not horses it’s the dogs if its not the dogs it the family if its not the family it things like this!

I haven’t decided if I want to ride Wynter tomorrow of not. The other two will be. I may just lunge him although I may just ride him, I haven’t decided yet.

Below is a link to the News about what happend today.
1 in custody in Skagit Co. carjacking, chase Local News Seattle News, Local News, Breaking News, Weather KING5.com

Horse Sales & Right Lead

Now that school has started I lost all my barn help! I’m back to caring for all 9 horses all by my lonesome. There is a good point to this now I can really see what’s been going on. I will be honest I slack off horribly this summer. Forba needs some work, she is fat and out of shape. She has a few months before she is bred again so I am going to try and get her in the best shape I can. I really feel bad for he I have not given her the attention that he craves. She does better when she is worked on a regular basis. Then there is Mc who I thought was sold. I called the lady today and she can’t (money situation). That sucks. I turned down 3 people two of which have found there new horse partner already. Since I stopped working her when I thought she was sold she is fat and lazy. I lunged both mares today and did Kitt. He looks better and he seems to be feeling a lot better.

Today as I lunged Forbs around the pen I started to think about our program. She is the only mare I can breed to Wynter. I would like to get another one. With that being said I have a full barn and no money. I have our foals listed even our Chance man who I would love to keep. On top of that I keep falling in love with Kitt daily. The sellers market is a bad one and buyers is a great one. I can not tell you how many mares I have seen that I want. Some mares who would normally go for 8k or 15k being sold for 3k or 4k. Ugg! Wynter needs more mares! Unless I am able to sell one foal I will not be breeding anyone this year. If I can sell two I will try and breed our silver mare if I can sell three and Mc I will buy a new mare. Now the crunch line on this is it all needs to happen before Feb. I want to breed our mares late February. They will start going under lights if I have sold any one or not. I have also contemplated listed our Toccata mare for sale. This would break my heart. She is truly a phenomenal mare, totally bombproof anyone can ride she has done everything under the sun and has had one great filly. The only things that make me want to consider selling her is that she is only a 71 and I cannot breed her to Wynter. Life sucks sometimes. If I had the money I could just say keep her, but I don’t. I already have one useless horse, our Arlo. Hell will freeze over before I part with that guy.

I have three horses that I would quite literally sell my soul for Marquisse Wynter and Arlo. The rest I could sell, that doesn’t mean I want to though. So I have tossed this idea around a few times and I have never decided or acted on selling her. In all reality I know that she should move on just from a business stand point. Then again she is such a great horse, I keep telling myself that what ever mare I would purchase to replace her would be ride able and a little fancier she could also be crossed with Wynter. The choices. The decisions. The dilemmas.

I took the camera to the barn today to take photos and wouldn’t you know it I forgot it there! I wasn’t able to take that many shots anyway. I need to con my mom or Liz to take photos while I ride or something. I hate having a photo less entry, it looks dull. By the by today Wyn had a rats nest in his mane. How can a horse get one in just one night? I thought that they took days to get bad! Nope not for Wynter. He has long thick curly mane and he thinks it should be sexier with knots. I do have photos of it when I can get my camera I will add them.

He keeps laying in his pee spot on his left side. Its driving me crazy. His is a very very tidy stallion. He has a certain spot where he pees and he poops along the walls, his stall is always super easy to clean. I need to get a blanket fixed or buy a new stable blanket for him. I don’t have one for him he has a sheet (somewhere) and a winter blanket. He doesn’t have his own stable blanket and its getting about time to wear one. Not just because of his new sleeping habits but the weather is getting a little colder. Every single sheet I have is ripped all but the one on Arlo, he takes care of his blankeis. All the blanket that fit Wynter are heavy ones for winter, as I said I have no clue where his sheet skipped off to. Bottom line I need something that will fit him and transition from a sheet to mid weight blanket. Thus he needs a light weight stable blanket. Ohh goody something I can order when I get rowels! Ha ha ha. I’m an honorary customer of Scheinders. They send me coupons all the time!

Getting him ready he was relaxed and content. A horse got loose while he was in the get ready room and he could have cared less. He was just really quite today. He is always quiet but today was different some how. I lunged him around at the trot I didn’t even ask for the canter. He is almost to the point where I can guess when he needs to get lunged or not. As well as I’m almost to the point to try riding him fresh. Fresh… I don’t know if he even knows that word ha ha ha. Again we stood next to the mounting block this time he tried to take one step but whoa stopped him.

We bent around, he is getting really soft bending almost trying to anticipate the bends. He is still blocky not moving forward when bending. He is getting better though. Out off all the horses I have ridden he breaks at the base of the neck really well. He has no brace there, not yet anyway ;P

It was a short ride today we went to trot work and did posting trot around the pen doing figure eights. He felt like a freight train. He was like forward! We walked a bit and then did out long walls. He is getting straighter! He isn’t taking as much as he was to keep straight. Although a few times he all out fell to the rail basically saying screw you and your rein. He got in trouble for those moments.

It was the canter work that was hard. Since we spent a lot of time learning the pieces of his body he got confused on how to canter. He would bend in and the out taking off on the wrong lead. He was basically doing what I told him to do, if you think about it. He just needs to learn when my left is in the center it mean go, if it is behind that means his behind. He understand the girth one that is shoulder. He just gets the other two mixed up. So we had to work of this means canter not move ribcage. He got a few good spurs as he wouldn’t give to pressure. At one point he tossed his whole rib cage into my leg. He did this a few times repeatedly on his right side. I introduced him to ‘we get to back and move the hip that didn’t move when I asked you’. He wasn’t so sure about that idea. The first two times he would try and move his shoulder then he got it ohh the hip the hip. His left was really good a little fast but then again my new motto is FORWARD.

Wynter and I had a good session at the right canter. He was forward and tried to revert back to diving in this time he was trying to blast through it. We were cruising around our circle! He would try and brace on my right rein but I would let him and he would fall out with the left shoulder. Ohh I didn’t mention that I didn’t have my crop. I forgot to grab it today and just said screw it. This was the only time I wished I had it. He needed a good tap on the outside shoulder. With that said we were able to work through it and he gave me a few good stride, being centered and responsive to the inside rein.

I could have asked him to do a few more transitions at the canter and even a little more trot work but he was sweaty and in all he was really soft and responsive. After we walked around a little and went over the blue mat. The trainer as a neat blue mat that they use in gymnastics for a mock water jump and it make a fun noise when horses step on it. Wynter has been over it a few time sand today he just meandered over it.

Today when I said whoa he halted quickly. I instantly hopped off. Over all he was good except for the right canter and his leads today. Tomorrow the farrier is coming out and I will have to ride him in the morning if I want to ride him at all. He will then get tomorrow off as I never ride them the day after they get there feet done.

I need to think of something I can post for Friday.

Day Two Spurs

My cell phone rang bright and early this morning around 10. It was the vet calling me back after I called yesterday about Kitt. They said he will be out around 1:30ish. Sounds great. When he arrived he instantly took his temp and then checked him out. He was very relieved at what he saw. It is only a superficial infection, meaning it isn’t infected up in the surgery sight. He then told me what I wanted to do in the first place, rinse it out and give him the antibiotics. He had to give me more of those and we were set. Poor Kitt first he looses them and then he gets infected.

Yesterday I realized that Wynter’s teeth haven’t been done since he was in training. Jen had her vet do them before he got started with the bit. Which is a smart thing to do. You need to go in there and make sure there is a place for the bit to comfortably sit. If not you get head tossing and bad habits arise early making the initial training un-fun and unproductive. There is no since spending the time and money of training if it won’t do any good in the future. Get your youngsters teeth done before you send them to the trainer! I always do my horses once a year unless they are not being used then I skip a year but most of the time it’s a yearly expense. I asked out vet to check out Wynters teeth to see what he thought about them. I wasn’t sure if he really needed much done if not anything. Our vet was happy to check him out.

He told me that he looks ok. He is loosing some of his baby teeth one of which he flicked out because it was just hanging there. There is one baby tooth on the bottom jaw that is causing the adult tooth to come in crooked so he plans on pulling that when we do the rest of him. The big news for me was his wolf teeth. He doesn’t have the bottom ones and he can’t feel any coming in on the left. The right side has one that has not broken through the gum line. He said that it may never come in but can cause him irritation.

His right side is the one I have issues with and those wolf teeth are right where the snaffle lays. Fun stuff. He tells me that I need to think about a time when I can get him done. Since he will have to slice open the gum to pull the tooth out he will not be able to have a bit in his mouth for a week! Ack! I am not liking that thought but I guess we can master that bow and work in the round pen for a while. I’m thinking of having him come out in the next month. That way I can finish up with my lessons and will have time to lay him off for a week.

In other news I am looking for schooling shows for us to attend. He needs the practice. We will be hitting the EMR winter schooling series for sure, we practically live there during the winter! It is the first Sunday of every month and starts next month, I’m excited. I really want to find a few new barns to go to so I can show him new places. He needs that exposure.

After our vet left I pulled my tack from the horse trailer and brought it into the barn. I lunged him about 3 times both directions, he was quiet and humble today. I didn’t think he would need a big lunging sessions before hand. Jumping on him we stood next to the mounting block for about 3 straight minuets before we moved. He stood and looked around wondering what the cows were doing at the neighbors.

Yesterday sunk into his head very very well! I was impressed. After we bent and I showed him that I had those poky things on my heels again we went for a trot. He sprang into it and was like ‘I’m engaging mom I’m engaging!’ Ha ha ha. He was very forward although still dropping out with the shoulder and in with the hind end. His hind end was a million years better today. It wasn’t a mile into the circle it was just a tad in.

We worked on the right side first since it is the harder side. Thinking forward we did a lot of canter ‘fakies’ taking a step or two then going back to trot. Those are weird to sit to. I was getting jolted slamming down or getting slammed by the saddle. At one point I just pushed him forward and made him canter. I continued with the shoulder in haunches straight idea instead of riding the ‘lope’. We did a lot of posting trot circles both ways and then walked. Next we did some sit trot down the long walls. It was a working dressage trot. He felt phenomenal if not a little crooked. I could feel every step, it made me want to toss my English saddle on him. His right side was a lot better doing this exercise today than it was yesterday. He was tracking up behind a lot better. So now it was keeping him off the rail that was hard!

I’m glad I have to ride Arlo with spurs. He taught me how to use them correctly. With Wynter I ‘m glad I know what I’m doing with them to an extent. I am trying hard to use my legs first and then spur if he doesn’t listen. I’m terrified of getting him dull to the spur, that is a horrible thing to fix and I don’t want to go there with this horse. On the left he is super light off my leg on the right he gives his rib cage but snakes his shoulder and neck around going toward it. Which is odd, it feels snaky even. This got the crop some action. A tap on the poll and he goes away from the pressure. Today I was seriously questioning my crop. With spurs I really not need it. Tomorrow I will ride with it but if I don’t use it then I’m going to stop riding with it. Spurs are looking like they are enough for him at this point.

After our long wall we walked out again and then went to lope work, or should I call it canter work now? Anyway, I expected him to be higher in the poll today than yesterday and sure enough he was. Not enough for me to correct him down I still had to bump him up. We did circles for a while and then did the whole pen. Our circle were good I was trying really hard to get his hip to stay under him and his shoulder off the rail.

When we did the whole arena he was really good on the left but doing right he tried to dive in on the corner and latch to the wall going out of them. Spur spur spur rein rein rein, block the shoulder push the hip. Don’t forget to check his head up! Ugg it wasn’t as pretty as I wanted it to be but he is learning something. He was very forward so that was good, just by the way he was moving and where his head was showed me he was using himself a lot better than before. So I was ok with having a little imperfection in the canter work. He gave me a few good stride’s being and a good turn around the end I called it done.

The end was funny. He is usually really really good at whoa. You say it he stops. Well, today he blew through me twice. I backed up telling him whoa while I did it, the third time he stopped by voice. I leaped off him and called it a day. Being sweaty I rinsed him off and put him away for the night.

Tomorrow I will try and get photos or something.

Lesson on Forward

Last night Jen sent me an E-mail back rather quickly that said she could do a lesson before 12. Well, that is going to have to work because I can’t do it any other day this week. Although I am not a morning person I told her I would call her tomorrow.

This morning I pop out of bed around 8:40ish which is early for me! After I got dressed and came to, so to speak. I’m always zombieish in the morning I called Jennifer. She was perky, she is a morning person or at least more so than I am. The first thing that’s come out of her mouth was ‘You’re up!’ she knows I don’t do mornings well. A few laughs later and I tell her we will be loading horse’s in 30 mins.

Mom said she would be ready in 30 so I told Jen 30. Well after I fed and watered everyone, had breakfast, made sure I had money I went to hook the trailer up I had to wait for mom. She took an extra 30 mins before we were loading Wynter. Who was intrigued by a trailer ride. He never fails to jump in sometime gracefully and others… we’ll just say he falls in. He does this very acrobatic jump canter hop in mid air thing getting in the horse trailer. Some times it looks good while other times he just about falls over.

My friend Liz through Arlo in the trailer to go down and have a lesson. We weren’t sure how well that would go sees how Arlo hasn’t been ridden English all summer. He has be packing a western saddle and correctional through the trails. We drove the half an hour down to the ‘farm’ and get there about 12ish I was not happy, I hate being late. When I say I’m gonna be there I want to be there (early even) my mom on the other hand has time management issues. I think I broke a record throwing Wynter’s saddle on today!

I had my crop in my back pocket his saddle on and his bridle in my hands when I went into the main barn. Jennifer joked around with me saying it was about time. I was thoroughly surprised she wasn’t upset about me being late. We have been over the time thing a few times but she was in a good mood today. As I went about grabbing the lunge line and whip we were chatting with another client of hers. This lady I haven’t seen in like a year and a half. It was neat talking with her. She was ogling over Wynter, I commented that he was fat. Both disagreed with me. Jennifer liked him and that shocked me he looks like a slob right now! At least he was clipped.

Since he hasn’t been out in a while he was a little tense going through the barns but once in the pen he was like oh yeah I know this place, what ever. He reverted to lazy boy rather quickly! On the lunge he was not to eager to move out and he was lazy at the lope but I made him do it. When I brought him in to bridle him there was more ‘pretty’ talk. I think I seen his head swell! Once I got his bridle on Arlo and Liz came around the corner, making him stammer back and look oooh a Haflinger. Silly guy, he really knows his breed. He had to whinny at him which got him in trouble. As I started to take a step forward into the arena he did a full body shake. This sent his bridle twisting off his face. Some one said in a shocked voice ‘ohh he lost his bridle!’ I turned expecting to be holding on to the reins of a bridle laying on the ground. Nope it was just twisted in every direction. The bit hanging from his mouth and the crown piece splayed over his eyes, the throat latch was the only thing keeping it on. The cavason was still in place. I rolled me eyes, he did this from time to time, it was really neat when he did it on the lunge line!

I stuffed it back on his face and went to the mounting block. Once on I started to bend him and he was really sticky. I then sent him off in a jog which I usually don’t do right off and the first thing Jen asked me, I mean I have barely been on him for like 2 mins ‘Where are your spurs?’ Ummm… good question. The thing is I never wanted to have to ride him in them but we are at a point in his training that he needs the motivation. Liz then goes into a spiel about how she told me so. She had been telling me to use them for a while now. Bla bla bla, I’m bull headed and stubborn I know this. Sighing Liz points out there are some in the trailer. Jumping off I hand Jen my reins and run to the trailer. The only spurs there are the ones with missing rowels. Going back into the barn I told Jen I only had my Getto spurs since Liz has my good ones on. After laughing she said that they would work and I need to get new rowels for them. Add that to my list of crap to get.

I have never ridden him with spurs and the fact that he was trying to be sully only added to the drama. I knew once I touched him he was going to be pissed. We went back to circles. The thing that has been his undoing is straightness. Which is my fault I have been ridding him too slow causing him to go sideways. Like a fricken QH go figure right? So our big thing of the day was pushing his HIP out and his shoulder in. We started the day with little circles as I introduced him to my new spurs.

The first time he didn’t listen I dug a spur in to get him to move his rib cage and hip. At first he swung it into me and then he got spurred. That caused him to kick out, I knew it was going to happen. I laughed and dug in a little deeper until he gave. Ha ha ha we now have forward!!!! An exciting thing really. He went around in a circle and Jen yelled at me telling me to push his hip out and block his shoulder. All the while keeping him FORWARD! Say it with me FORWARD. She didn’t care if he cantered (which he did) she just wanted those back legs engaged. Once he was going forward and giving we went the other way. His left is a lot better than his right his right was the harder side to get centered and forward!

My word for the next 5 months is FORWARD! After we did a few post trotting we jogged and I could already feel the difference in him. There is a bounce step not a rounded plod. I learned this a long time ago and why I suddenly forgot is unknown to me. A jog is an up and down movement, if you see a rider going down the rail on her horse and she/he is going side to side they are NOT jogging they are walking. The horse is not doing a two beat movement let alone engaging the hind quarters. So I had a ‘get it together’ moment today. He did feel a lot better forward then he did when I had him to slow.

We let him have a breather and then went to the lope. Just working on the jog helped the lope work. Focusing on his hip and not his shoulder helped. She also told me not to ride him on the rail at all. He was like a magnet again to day, although today I had spurs. Tada! I don’t think I could have followed up our horrid ride any better than hauling him out to Jennifer. The lope work was light years better, although the entire ride we were in a match of wills. He insisted on being lazy and I insisted on being engaged.

I need a dressage arena with no rail. Ohh pasture…. Yeah everyone would love that. I have a 204 X 80 covered arena and I’m out working my stallion in the pasture. My family would be pissed!

After loping a bit both ways she sent us around the pen a few feet off the rail daring us to go straight. I felt like I was riding a haunches in the whole time going right. He was that out of whack. Jennifer said it looked like I was riding a ping ball, he was bouncing off my legs like crazy! He was trying to go to the rail so hard and not use his hind end. I was constantly tapping his hip in place which made him want to drop off onto the rail. That made me constantly pick his shoulder up. There was very very little time that I wasn’t fixing him. Going the other way he was a lot more put together, he gave me breathing room for a few seconds.

Ever since I started riding him again I’m trying to train my feel. I have always looked down (at the head or ground) so with him I try and look at the roof or at least the wall. It is a bad habit that I have devolved and if I want to be a more efficient rider I need to look up and feel what is going on under me. This creates a lot of problems for me the feel is different and I’m learning while training. Looking at the head doesn’t do much if anything it make things worse. With him its horrible it just makes him drop down even more.

We gave him yet another walk break this one lasting awhile, I even started to get board. Then she told us to lope again and use the whole pen. I don’t do that that much so it was a little odd. When he lopes I know that he canters low. His neck is quite low and he sucks him self under it’s just the way he was built, he has always wanted to carried himself low. Which is a great thing for western but there is something called too low. Well, today he went to another level and I felt like I had a headless Haflinger. Do you know how weird that feels at the canter while trying to stay off the rail and he is ping ponging between your legs the whole time? Talk about unstable.

I was laughing. I tend to laugh when things are hard, it helps my nerves or something. The sad thing is that in only do it around Jennifer, I think I need to try and do that alone just because it makes the training a lot less stressful or intense. Those emotions do not help the horse they feel that and then you get a bad ride. Its just like riding mad or irritated nothing good comes out of it. So I will be the crazy girl laughing like mad riding her horses… I’m ok with that.

Jen then tells me to bang him up, kinda like how you would check in a curb bit. Hands straight up no pulling a quick tug to raise his head. I felt like a retard but I was able to pick his head up. She explained that he was dumping everything he had on his front end and not using himself behind. Got it! I have to try and get his ears level. He really never goes THAT low but decided to today. I love it when they do something like that during a lesson, it’s when there perfect that is annoying. That’s kinda the whole idea of a lesson, to fix things…. My mare will do that with me, be perfect during a lesson. She is such a perfectionist. *rolls eyes*

After we loped we called it good, we weren’t sure if I had much horse let to do anything else with, he was pretty tired. For a few kicks and a little stubbornness he was in all actuality happy to work. He wasn’t shaking his head or pinning his ears or even twitching his tail. Not that he does that any other time. He just loves to work even if it is hard and he doesn’t feel like doing it. He has a stunning work ethic. At the end of the lesson Jen said I had been doing great with him all he needed was a little tweaking. That made me feel good. I’m not as incompetent as I thought I was! Ha ha ha.

He is my first stallion, but not my first greenie. I have had a LOT of those and each teaches you something different. I swear the hardest horse I have ever trained is and always will be Forba. She had no work ethic and was an utter cow. Jennifer told me to sell her the first week she was so bad, now she is tolerable. She canters which was something she didn’t do when I bought her. She is also ok with working although you can almost hear her swearing while you ride her around the arena. She grumbles to herself the whole time. She needs a sticker that says not suitable for children ha ha. The funny thing about her is that I wouldn’t put anyone but an advance intermediate rider on her in the pen but would put a 5 year old on her on the trails. She is so unlike Wynter he is always saying what next what else can I do for you? Sometimes he tells me I don’t feel like it but you know I have never had a Haflinger (except for Forba that is) that said I don’t want to they usually just say I don’t feel like it.

When we went back to the trailer I was really proud of him. He stood tied right next to Arlo and didn’t nicker or flirt let alone squirm. He was a rock star I was so pleased with him, he was so gelding like. Wynter stood there the whole time all us girls chatted. We went over today and how good it was (progress wise) I paid my bill and made an appointment for next Thursday. When I loaded him he did a flop and fell into the trailer he then had to whinny and tell everyone that he did that on purpose. Silly stallion.

Remind me to never take my truck again!!!! I have two tanks in my truck each tank is about $40 to fill and I had just filled both of them the beginning of this week. Once back at the house one whole tank was gone! Ugg I mean that’s ridicules. I only have a half of one tank and just enough to get to town and back in the one we used today. That’s just outrageous. I called my Dad because he takes care of the trucks problems since it is in his name technically speaking. He also knows trucks better than I do. He said it was the tires and he was in the process of finding new ones for it. That’s great but where am I going to get the money to fill the darn thing up again? We are so so taking the Dodge to lessons next Thursday. I refuse to take my truck new tires or not, its just way to much money in gas. New tires will be cool though!

So I’m done ranting about my truck, tomorrow Wyn and I will work on forward!

Worst Ride & A Cold

So, I woke up the middle of last night because I couldn’t breath. Damn weather gave me a cold. I popped a few pills and went back to bed. Then the dogs how to go outside man I got no sleep and I now have a cold it has gotten worse as the day progressed. Now I’m in full cold mode. Sniffle sniffle sniffle….

Today started with me conning my mom into going to the Sushi belt place. I told you it was my new favorite place! My mom doesn’t like sushi and was not to happy about going but I told her I would buy. Going there you could see the repulse in her face as we entered and all there was was Sushi. My goal was to get her to eat some. Her first question out of her mouth to the waitress was “Do you have anything else beside Sushi” I couldn’t help but laugh. The lady was nice and pointed mom toward the menu, they have soups, yakisoba and chicken katsu. She ordered Chicken Yakisoba because she wasn’t sure about the sushi strolling by. After watching the little plates stroll by she commented on getting dizzy sitting there.

I snatch my favorite roll of the belt which I was later told was a Ninja roll and insisted she eat one. She did and was pleasantly surprised. I then went about snatching everything and anything that caught my interested, I swear I would be perfectly content empting my entire wallet there. We tried a lot of things it was so much fun! We also asked a lot of questions, the chefs thought we were pretty funny. What’s that what’s that what‘s that? I made her try ‘real’ sushi with fish eggs ect and she didn’t like that. We even had to ask the chefs to make her a Ninja roll because she liked it so much. I insisted that she try a strawberry one and she later told me that that one ruined her. Its very un sushi if you know what I mean. It really doesn’t taste like Sushi at all. So she tried and like it, I’m so proud. Now I get to drag her there more often.

After we ate I went to the barn to work Wynter. The barn was a ghost town no one was there. He was super super quiet while I tacked him up. Since it was so quiet I went up and changed the radio while turning it up I took the photo below from upstairs. I didn’t do his mane today because I ran out of rubber bands. That needs to go on my list… Oh good idea I’m gonna add a shopping list for fun, should be on the right somewhere-------->

I decided that since we didn’t bow yesterday we had to work on it today. He was super good he went inches from the ground every time. Again he tried to pull back and we did a lot of circle but overall he was pretty good. He is getting it little by little.

We lunged him around and he was lazy but since I didn’t do anything with him yesterday he had to stay out on the lunge a little longer than usual. I snapped a shot of him after we were done warming up. Sorry I lost my charger for my camera so I’m stuck with cell phone photos. Your lucky I have photo shop or these would look even worse!

I snapped a photo of the fake ferns for you to see. Wynter has since given up that dream and ignores them when were at the mounting block.

So today started ok. I stuck him n the rail and let him walk around and then I took him in the middle to do out bending. He was super soft today like butter. I asked him for the trot and we did a lot of posting work using the whole arena we did figure eights and I did a few clover leafs with him to confuse him. Again I let him walk out a little after we jog a few feet. I manly did this to fake him out and mess with him I did.

When we went to canter our whole ride went to hell. Going left he was fine or rather correctable. He wasn’t prefect but when I corrected him he let me do it. Right was another story. He would not and I mean would not let me fix his shoulder. He just dropped it in making our circle tighter. I was the most successful the first time around. I never like cantering them into the ground so I usually do what one of my trainers called ‘short spurts of good’ then you ask them to start again. He was not to happy about having to go into the right lead when he knew he was going to have to work on the shoulder thing.

When I got him into the lope on the right lead he decided that he would not let me pull him up and back. He just ducked out and away from me. Ugg he pissed me off. Usually when I get pissed off I have to go to something else or its bad for the both of us. Trying to think of the base of the problem I went back to bending and backing because he suddenly started to get heavy again. This is when he got pissed off and I’m seriously surprised that he never not once kicked out or hopped he was relatively mellow for being so fricken defiant. As we bent he magnetized to the rail and slammed me into to it two times! I was not happy with him to say the least. After I got him off the rail and soft bending he decided he didn’t want to go. No a walk not a tort and never a lope.

Talk about iron sides! Ever heard of beating a dead horse, yeah. Ugg he must have been having a stallion day or something, he was just horrible. I was actually able to get him moving and into another round or two of lope to the right. When he did it and I was able to get a half assed centered canter for a split second I let him trot. I was in no mood to keep this argument as Jennifer says ‘Pick you battles’. We walked around a little more and that’s when Liz showed up and I ranted to her.

I chose to make him trot around again and Liz got to see first hand how lazy and dull he was being. Once I got him into a trot we post trotted around and for the first time I didn’t dismount on his precious rail. We didn’t get off near Liz either. He thought she would save him or something. So when I got off I was not happy with our ride but nothing was left ‘broken’. I got him to move and we worked the canter even if he didn’t want to. With that said I email Jennifer tonight. This week man this week and fricken Cowboy is gonna ride him. Wynter will love that! Ha ha ha… I’m not evil am I?

I have come to the point where I would rather spend money and get the problem sorted out by them then mess him up trying to fix it myself. When in doubt go to your trainer. I live by that law. The problems are never as big as they could be if you catch it in time. I play it safe.

I’m sure Jennifer won’t let Cowboy ride Wynter until she thinks I’m completely incompetent with fixing the problem myself. I have spent years with Jennifer and she is a great trainer. She makes me fix the problem so that way I know how to fix it in the future. Sometimes it does take one of them to jump on one of the horses bash it out and tada fixed, I then get to learn how they did it and how to continue with it. Many many wet saddle pads and hours! You have to think that Jennifer nor Cowboy have ridden or worked with Wynter since I took him home. I think a year is pretty darn good, he is about do for a refresher. Now that I think about it Jennifer has never ridden him. So yeah he is due. Oh do I ever love my trainers!!!!!

Oh to joy for Jennifer and Cowboy!!! So I will let you know if we go out there, it will be written about.

Likit's

Wynter had a day off today so instead of not posting anything I decided to go over his favorite treat... Likits!

I won a Likit holder like the one see below (Orange in color though) a few years ago at a horse show. I had never had one and for a while it just sat around for a while. For a while I had a Jolly ball in with him and it never moved. The only time it moved was when we cleaned his stall. I tossed that in with the babies and I decided to give him the Likit.

He love's his! I have it hanging in the corner of his stall off of the tie ring. One licit will only last him about 4 days. Although I haven't kept close track. Rigth nwo its empty. I will have to go to get him a few when I go buy wormer. Then we can track and see how long one will last him.

If you have not seen or heard of them look into them. They are made in Scotland and there website is here. Some horses do not like them and others will eat them with in seconds. I know of one mare that could eat 5 in a day. They have to regulate her she only gets a few a week. You can find them anywhere, I usually get mine at the Co Op.

They come in many different falvors. I have only tried Carrot, peppermint, and apple. I did not type that wrong I have tried them. They actually don't taste that bad. Since I do not give Wynter treats by hand he gets his likits.

I wouldn't mind getting him a Snak-A-Ball they look like fun. I think he would like one of those. So that's I'll let you know what kind and when I get him a refill, so that we we can keep tabs on how long they last. I can even see what flavor he likes the best!

Sushi, Trucks & Shoulder

I did Wynter in sections today. This morning I let him romp around the arena for a while. After he ran around a bit I asked him to connect with me and he did. He never not even once thought about leaving me and he trotted here and there, our turning is still off but he was really good. As long as I scratch him, he just loves that. While we were trotting around my best friend Kayt texted me as ask if I wanted to go to lunch. After texting back, he just stood there and looked around while I typed, I haltered him and put him in his room. You could tell by his face that he was a little confused.

We went to the Sushi belt place. First off I love sushi and am subjective on the kind that I eat. If you don’t like sushi this paragraph will mean little to you thus you could skip it if you would like ;) So we went to this Sushi belt place and it was so fickin good! You sit down around this horseshoe shaped island. On the island is a ‘belt’ that is moving little plates of food around. It never stops and is pretty entertaining to watch, I admit I was pretty amused just watching the food stroll by. Anyway, each plate is a different color, each color is a different price. I think the most expensive plate was $4. I had like 5 plates and one pop and was stuffed! I cannot tell you enough that the sushi was good! I mean you never get that good of sushi for that price! I spent a total of $10.86 on my lunch and was stuffed with great sushi. My favorite sushi place is like $14.99 a plate not including your drink and there you get one roll. This place you can try as many different flavors as you wanted. I can't remember what my favorite one is called but I had one today with a strawberry and whipped cream on top. It sounds weird but I think it may be my new favorite. I’m am so eating there again. Its my new favorite place.




Once back home I skipped off to the barn to ride and invited Liz out to keep me company. Since out horse trailer is full of stuff still she didn’t have any tack but hopped on Toccata bareback. I thought this was pretty good for Wynter having a mare in the pen with him again. He has a super breed recognition. He could care less if it is a quarter horse mare and they can be a total tease for him but he wouldn’t care. If it’s a Haflinger a gelding even he nickers. He knows that he can have those. I’m not sure what he would think if he saw just palomino! He would be so confused.




I lunged him around before Liz got there. Again I didn’t do him to hard just because I had work with him a little bit ago, so it was a blood flow thing again.
The ferns caused no problems today, at least for Wynter, Toccata tried them a few times. I backed him from the stool and bent him around for a while today. He was so so soft. Our fist half was super easy. He just jogged and cantered perfect. He got his leads and was great. Than again I wasn't being to picky.

That’s about the time I decided to get a little anal with him. I could have stopped him there and called it a day but no I had to mess with him! I figured I may as well work on the lope. Going right he really drops his shoulder in. He got a little irritated with me because there was this really cute mare watching him and he was being made out to look like a retard. The braid he had wasn't helping. I'm sure we was regretting standing so still while I did his mane, he even rested his foot while I did it. He he.

I knew it was because Toccata was in there. He started to do the drunken pony thing. When we would halt he would go every way but forward. As long as I had him set up correctly he would take off right but his left lead was off after I started to be picky about his shoulder. It was like if he couldn’t d it his way he was done.

I made him work through it and I worked really hard on his right shoulder. Now its strange riding a horse that dropped the inside shoulder. You would think it would be an outside rein thing right? No it isn’t. You have to check with the inside rein to pick them up and set them on there hindquarter using your left rein for steering. Pulling on the right rein I felt funny and I’m sure my eq was showing it. Then again it worked and he started to pick himself up and use his butt. We did that for a while going from the right and left leads working on shoulder control. He was none to please about it.

I did a little on his body parts and went over ‘this is your butt’ and he did very well. He is a little unsure about the butt and side pass but he has the shoulders down. Which sounds funny since he can't keep them centered at the canter. Cooling him off Liz decided it would be fun to torture him for a little bit. She walked Toccata right next to him. His face was priceless! He tilted his ear and you could just hear him repeating in his head ‘I don’t see her I don’t see her… Oh but she’s so darn cute!’ about then he would nicker. The action always caused retribution from me. He gets smacked for talking.

I compare a stallion nickering to man shouting across the bar at a women “Hey sexy I’m over here” or “Nice ass“. Its totally inappropriate and rude, the same goes for whinnying and screaming although that is a little different. It reminds me of a guy running around a bar screaming “I’m single and horney!!!” It’s all testosterone. I’m trying to get Wynter to be that gentleman in the corner sipping on a martini. Sexy and elusive. He has yet to figure if he does that he gets more girls.



Now you have to think that he is only a teenager so the showing off and shouting is age appropriate but still. He really does need to be a gentleman. Now with saying that he is a very very good four year old stallion that has covered a mare before. Most are a lot more obnoxious. He is very laid back and rarely talks. As we cooled off around the pen Toccata got closer and closer to him. At one point he got a little Closter phobic and wanted to bolt forward. I felt him gather and take a few fast steps and I cut him off, he stopped and realized he couldn’t run from the mare. Who knew? His thoughts were “if I can’t have he, get the hell away from her!” Ha ha silly stallion. Over all, he did good.

Oh crap I totally forgot to mention his kick out. It wasn’t a buck but a little kick out that he got in serious trouble for doing. I just can’t remember why he did it…. It may have been because I wanted him to go forward centered under me. No no no I remember. He kept wanting to throw himself into the wall when we were working on his lope. When I went to do a transition he would throw his shoulder out and stick to the wall. Cutting him off I closed that door and when he blew through me I think I kicked him. I wasn't about to let him have his way. I think he kicked out because he couldn't go on the wall and I was being mean about it. He got in trouble and didn’t do it again although he still tried to drift to teh rail. He loves the rail! I suppose that is my fault.

I have been training him to be a pleasure horse and do most of his work in the center he gets to jog and cool off on the rail and those are easy. So that’s my fault. Again I’m trying to get to Jennifer hopefully next week. I didn’t do anything with the bow as we were in a rush to get back to the house. I had to run to the vet clinic to get our Chihuahua’s epilepsy meds and our Labs arthritis medicine.

Can you believe how much that stuff cost! One bottle for our arthritic dog that will only last one month cost $77!!! Spoiled rotten thing. I swear my dogs and horses are going to put me in a homeless shelter.




On another note just because I can write about it, I hope to be getting new speakers in my truck. Wahoo!!! It already has a good system but my mom has a few subs and an amp laying around and I am latching onto them. I'm only 20 so I have an excuse ha ha. I already called my friend and he will be out this weekend to install them. I will then be able to rock out when I got to the barn. Ha ha, you gotta love rock music. Mom and I spent all evening yesterday putting a windshield sticker on my truck. Here’s a question for you. How long does it take for a Virgo and a Sagittarius to put on a windshield sticker? Ohh lets say about 3 hours!!!!!! I advise you never to do it yourself, have someone else do it. They are a bitch to put on. Then again I love it and have no regrets, it looks really good. I have to order a Haflinger one from the AHR for my truck, mom’s dodge has one but now I need one. Gotta do some breed promotion you know ;)

Ok ok enough about my truck. Wynter was good and we were able to work on things that need addressing. I have to start getting a little meaner to him as he gets better. My goal curb bit by the end of next show season at the latest. Wish us luck!