Mane's & First Ride (In a while)

After spending all day at the auto dealership waiting for my mom doges to get its oil changed we went school shopping for my brother. Never ever do that much walking after you have fallen off of a horse…. It to be completely unoriginal, sucked. I was finely able to get back to the house and to my truck and trailer around 5pm today. Since our horse trailer is plum full of stuff I decided just to take the tack I needed and go to the barn. No sense bringing it all over there at this point. So I grabbed Wyn’s tack and busted over there.

Once at the barn I put all of his things in the get ready room and remembered to grab a hair brush. I have just realized I have a certifiable Barbie horse! He has so much hair, I spent a good 4 whole minuets brushing his hair. I have to brush the top and the under side of the mane and have to do his forelock in sections. Just because I know people will ask I do not do anything to his mane. I do not braid it bag it or do anything special, it just grows. I had no idea it was going to get this long. I’m glad it did though it adds to his sexiness, and appeals to the stallion persona. His son Chance will also have a lot of hair! You know brushing long hair isn’t that hard its when the brush can’t get all the way through it because it is so thick that make for double work. It’s not like I can’t brush it either as it has a natural wave/curly to it so it mats up really quick and then he really looks like a wild beast.

After he was brushed and his mane flowing I tossed the saddle up on him and took him to the round pen. I wanted to do a little of what we did yesterday. After I took his halter off he was slow to meander off to the rail. He was also mister I worked really hard and am lazy today and didn’t want to canter. With saying that although he only trotted and cantered when I insisted with the whip he did all of his turns great. He only missed one and then was perfect.

I like to work him out a little before I get one him just because I want to be safe and that way he sorta gets his blood flowing. Not to mention his brain on me. After that we did a little join up at the walk and trot, he had a hard time trotting today for some reason. I’m not sure it it was just because I rushed into it or what but he just didn’t want to do much of it. It didn’t help that I was completely soar and stiff. That fact was very un-motivating.

The whole reason I put his saddle on to round pen him was to work on bowing. I had my handy dandy cotton rope with me and put it on his right front foot. Tossing the rope over the horn I lifted his foot up and for the first time held it up. He didn’t like it and had to wiggle a little. After he stood still I dropped it down and pulled it up again this time he didn’t care. I repeated that a few times so he go used to the idea of the leg being held up. Once he was board with that pulled his faced around and pulled his body back. This part was about teaching him to lean back and give to the pressure. Which he did pulling he shifted his weight and I let him go. We did that a few times and I called it good. It will take a while before he learns to give and go down on his knee. Repetition. Below isn’t Wynter, it is of Marquisse and I last Wynter.

Once back in the barn I pulled his bridle on and brought him out into the pen. In there was the trainer with a student for a lesson. She was riding her little mare around working on lead changes. As Wynter nearly slept walked to the mounting block the trainer laughed. He said “no wonder he doesn’t care about the mares he can’t see them with all that hair.” Again that brings me back to the Barbie horse or rather this time make me think Old English Sheep Dog. Like my photo bellow? That was taken before his mane got long now its even worse. Next time remind me to do a running braid in his mane and to tuck the forelock under the brow band. He looks a little more put together that way. No to mention the fat that I can see his shoulder and don’t have to risk getting tangled in his mane!

Once on his I started by bending we go to a place where no jumps are and walk in circles bending. He loosing the rib cage and get his going forward. We make sure the poll and bas of neck are soft on both side. I could already tell by the second circle that he was going to be super on my hands and lazy. I was having to us my crop to keep him going. As we circled I started blabbing to the trainer about my grandfathers surgery and about a client of his. As we talked I continued to bend and only stood for a second as the three of use humans stood and chatted. He was a good guy keeping his instincts intact standing next to the mare.

When our conversation fizzled out as conversations do while you are riding we went back to work. I started with a few trot circles and then went to our normal routine. Because I plan on finishing him a western horse we do nto ride on the rail unless its something easy. Line cooling off or a jog. All the hard stuff is done in the middle. So with that we went around the pen at a posting trot making figures eights and s curves around jumps and avoiding the lesson taking place in the middle of the arena the best we could. Out of arena etiquette I give wide berth to trainers and students. Wynter was awesome, I figured he may be a little rusty but I found that the things that he was not so good at were ok today. He was soft a little lazy but he never braced or did anything out of turn. He was very agreeable and made me think that he was genuinely happy to go back to work. Except for the lazy part he was an all out ‘yes ma’am’ man.

After post trotting around for a it I put him on the rail and let him jog. He collapsed into it and trucked down the rail like a pro, made me think curb. Ha ha. He was so there today. I only had to fix his face a few time sand his rhythm was great considering this was the first time out in a while. The only thing I had to fix at the job was his inside ear. He would drop it in tilting his poll. Fixing it is an easy thing but it’s something I do to often while riding him.

Once we jogged both ways I did a little more posting and then walked him around the pen once. I once learned having a horse with bad work ethic is no fun at all thus I do a lot of fake out cooling offs mid work out with all my horses. Wynter is no exception and he loves to work and learn new things so I didn’t walk him long.

On to the lope. I decided to do left lead first as I couldn’t remember his better side, which I found out was his right. He really didn’t want to pick up that left lead with out first take off being wrong. I changed the way I asked refining it and making that open door the right one. He thought if he went really slow to begin with he could change leads after I had been sycked out. He is the most handy stallion with lead, he is the only horse I know that will do flying changes with out thinking. I already knew this trick so I made him go forward through the transition and then lopped him around.

Yet again the fact that I was soar played in. He was so lazy I had to kick him every stride to keep going! I love my crop, I may have to talk to Jennifer about spurs. Today really made me want to haul him out there for a lesson. Although I don’t want her to see how fat he is gotten! He is very round right now. Maybe in a few weeks or when I run into something I need major help with. Right now I have a lot I can do with him.

So going left at the canter was a lot of work but he is getting s much better at keeping his head down while transiting. He isn’t ‘bridled’ but its not in the air and waving around like how Marquisse is sometimes. Right now its hard for him to stay bridled and go forward. I naturally want him to go forward so the bridling can wait until he gets that step down. Once at the canter he can stay bridled, it just he like to fall in and out in his shoulder while go around. This is another think I want to talk to Jennifer about. He only does it at the lope so there had got to be some kind of exercise to fix this with out using my crop or kicking the crap out of his side. Just so you know I am also using my hands, it not like I’m just randomly kicking him. I know how to put him back together properly, it just goes back to the ear thing I do it a lot.

Now that makes me think there connected…. Is it the poll? Shoulder or hip? I’m thinking it’s a shoulder issues with him but I could be wrong. I have been wrong before.

Changing directions he was much better a lot quicker to step up into the lope and carry himself. The transition are half the length and he gets them every time while going to the left its every other time that he picks it up or goes at all. How can stallions be so lazy? I had always thought stud were power houses and required a lot of control and experience, I figured he may be a little more challenging or rather ’stallionish’ than he is. In all reality he is a perfect mixture of my two other favorite riding horses, Marquisse and Arlo. He is dead middle which make for a perfect ride.

Oh my gosh I can’t wait 'till he is finished!!! He is going to be so much fun! Well, he is already it fun but still. After loping we jogged around a bit and cooled him off. As we cooled off the lesson was finished and the student left the arena. Now Wynter thought he was alone and decided to yell. We circled and got him bending and refocused and that was the end to that he was back.

Before I jumped off him I wanted to introduce him to side passing. He knows how to move off the leg but I have never slammed him in front of a wall and told him to go sideways. At first he though I was asking for a back and when that wasn’t right he thought maybe a pivot. It then hit me, I wasn’t sure if we had every really gotten into ‘this is your butt’. I continued with the side passes but knew that I as going to have to introduce him to his hindquarter tomorrow. He was able to go side ways in sections but not in a whole. So we are going to have to show him his hindquarter tomorrow so we can build up to side passes.

After we went back and for the as best we could I dismounted on the rail. I try and make it his happy place, as far from the gate as possible. Avoid the bad habits before they ca start, I.E. preventative training. In the wash rack I figured he has finely forgave me for the hell I put him through in Oregon. The entire time we were in Oregon he receive a bath everyday. With all his white I had to keep it clean and he was rinsed or bath daily. He hated it! He would pin his ears and just give me this look like this was so fricken ridicules. Today though he stood still and kept one ear on me. He Didn’t flinch away from the water and was a gentleman when I sprayed his face off. He got a few comments for the people in the barn for being such a good boy.

For the first ride in a long time he was a rock star. He gave me a few things to work on tomorrow. Like his butt and I want to do more post trotting with him maybe do some s turns with jogging. Of course going over his lope and seeing if I can get more forward out of him would be good to.

Just because we were taling about mane at the top I added this. The black and white one being him in June of 09 and the other being him the first few months after we got him home at his first horse show. Has his mane ever grown! Not to mention his training or body growth. I'll have to post old conformation photos, he is such a grown up now.