Today was just plain tiresome.
I woke up at 5:30 to get Bailey ready for her first trip off of my farm. She loaded up great, and got off the trailer really well. I handwalked her for about 20 minutes or so, and then tacked her up.
There were your expected snorts and jumps, but nothing out of control. All things considered, she was a star!
We started out walking around the hunter ring, because it was dead quiet. The first few times someone took a jump near her, she jumped out of her skin (in a contained way), but she settled right back down. Once a kid almost jumped on top of us, I switched to the jumper/pony ring. For some reason, she loves ponies. Maybe they're her safety blanket since she gets turned out with Scooter? Strange thought...but she settled down almost immediately and let me start working her. She was even better at the show than she was at home. She was stretched out on the bit, and really paying attention. Even her bends were near perfect! Go figure, right?
So needless to say, I was THRILLED. She even stood still for a half hour or so calmly munching grass while she dried off. Getting back on the trailer was a bit of an event. She didn't want to leave all the grass and her new friends, but with the help of a friend, we managed to get her on in about 5 or 10 minutes.
After she was settled, I jumped Bella and Patrick around to school them up for tomorrow. Bella's feet look absolutely dreadful. They're infinitely too long in the toe, and one front foot has a different angle than the other. I'm going to give this farrier one more shot, but there's simply no way she should be that long after 4 weeks. I'm almost nervous to show her tomorrow, but she seems perfectly comfortable...just really long. Urgh. I really don't want to have to find yet another farrier!
So tomorrow is Patrick and Bella's day to shine. There are a whole bunch of people coming out to watch them, so I hope they keep their cool!
Oh, and Patrick officially has a sale flyer posted at the concession stand:)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I am a busy beaver
It's been a while since my last post, and SO much has happened!
On Tuesday, Amanda came out to ride for me. I was almost positive she'd be perfect for what I need, but now I'm know I made a great decision. First, she jumped Patrick around. She seemed to really enjoy him, and he was so good for her. She was quite brave, and willingly jumped anything and everything; she even went down the triple, and he's still a bit inexperience at that. When I asked her what she wanted to finish up on, she asked to jump the coop! I pulled the poles off the top and set it up for her. She rides in the hunters and equition, so her position is very forward, and Patrick took advantage of her the first time around. When she came back to it again, she was much straighter and more aggressive, and he jumped right over it without hesitation. It was amazing to watch my little boy all grown up!
After Patrick, I wanted to jump Bella around a little bit, just to start prepping for this weekend. I hopped her over everything, and she was jumping super. Her rhythm was dead on, and my eye was really there for me. Since she was going so quietly, I put Amanda up on her. Bella is something of a superstar at my old barn, and all the girls love her. I hope she gets to make a few of the other girls jealous! She jumped her over just about everything (minus the big coop), and I made the liverpool it's full 4 feet wide and set it at about 3'3". I'm not sure how much experience Amanda has over 3'0", but she jumped it beautifully!
She thanked me afterwards (and quite honestly meant it, which is rare in kids these days!) and went off to ride her own horse while I finished up on Bailey.
Yesterday, Bella had the day off because she was just so good on Tuesday and it'll be a busy weekend for her. I did a light flat on Patrick, just to get him stretching out, and I flatted Bailey again. She's really starting to get strong, which means she's quite good at picking fights when she wants to. I don't like taking so much contact with her mouth, but it's to the point where I almost have to, or she goes balls-to-the-wall extended, so to speak. Thankfully, usually when I take up contact and really push her into it, she calms down, backs off, and rounds up (at least for a few strides, before she decides to test me again).
Last night, I realized just how good Patrick was. Amanda texted me and asked if I needed any more help riding this week. I had planned on working them all myself, since I have to take them to the show this weekend, but Patrick is only doing the 2'0" division and I know the jumps won't be the issue, if anything. So I told her she was more than welcome to come flat him this afternoon, and she was at my house promptly at 11am. We rode Patrick and Bella together, and I gave her a mini-lesson to help get her seat positioned more correctly to ride my horses. She's a very pretty rider, but she has a very American seat and sometimes lets her shoulders get in front of her seat. This makes all of my horses back off and go veryyy sluggish, because they aren't being engaged. By the end of the ride though, she had caught on and Patrick was very stretchy. I was extremely pleased:)
To round out the afternoon, I did another lunch session with Bailey on the trailer. She's more than willing to hop right in there now (one fantastic thing she inherited from her mama). Then I got myself covered in berry pink and grape purple spray paint as I painted two more poles. They are gray/pink/purple and actually go quite nicely with my flower boxes. I also painted two more standards white, but they need another coat because I used cheapy $0.97 white paint. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I started cleaning my tack room for the first time in about 4 years. My goal is to paint and wallpaper it this summer. I know, I'm probably dreaming...especially if I get this job. Speaking of which, I've already created a list of horsey things I need to buy once money starts coming in...cross your fingers for me!
Picture update coming soon. I need to show you all my jumps, and I know there will be photos from this weekend's show!
On Tuesday, Amanda came out to ride for me. I was almost positive she'd be perfect for what I need, but now I'm know I made a great decision. First, she jumped Patrick around. She seemed to really enjoy him, and he was so good for her. She was quite brave, and willingly jumped anything and everything; she even went down the triple, and he's still a bit inexperience at that. When I asked her what she wanted to finish up on, she asked to jump the coop! I pulled the poles off the top and set it up for her. She rides in the hunters and equition, so her position is very forward, and Patrick took advantage of her the first time around. When she came back to it again, she was much straighter and more aggressive, and he jumped right over it without hesitation. It was amazing to watch my little boy all grown up!
After Patrick, I wanted to jump Bella around a little bit, just to start prepping for this weekend. I hopped her over everything, and she was jumping super. Her rhythm was dead on, and my eye was really there for me. Since she was going so quietly, I put Amanda up on her. Bella is something of a superstar at my old barn, and all the girls love her. I hope she gets to make a few of the other girls jealous! She jumped her over just about everything (minus the big coop), and I made the liverpool it's full 4 feet wide and set it at about 3'3". I'm not sure how much experience Amanda has over 3'0", but she jumped it beautifully!
She thanked me afterwards (and quite honestly meant it, which is rare in kids these days!) and went off to ride her own horse while I finished up on Bailey.
Yesterday, Bella had the day off because she was just so good on Tuesday and it'll be a busy weekend for her. I did a light flat on Patrick, just to get him stretching out, and I flatted Bailey again. She's really starting to get strong, which means she's quite good at picking fights when she wants to. I don't like taking so much contact with her mouth, but it's to the point where I almost have to, or she goes balls-to-the-wall extended, so to speak. Thankfully, usually when I take up contact and really push her into it, she calms down, backs off, and rounds up (at least for a few strides, before she decides to test me again).
Last night, I realized just how good Patrick was. Amanda texted me and asked if I needed any more help riding this week. I had planned on working them all myself, since I have to take them to the show this weekend, but Patrick is only doing the 2'0" division and I know the jumps won't be the issue, if anything. So I told her she was more than welcome to come flat him this afternoon, and she was at my house promptly at 11am. We rode Patrick and Bella together, and I gave her a mini-lesson to help get her seat positioned more correctly to ride my horses. She's a very pretty rider, but she has a very American seat and sometimes lets her shoulders get in front of her seat. This makes all of my horses back off and go veryyy sluggish, because they aren't being engaged. By the end of the ride though, she had caught on and Patrick was very stretchy. I was extremely pleased:)
To round out the afternoon, I did another lunch session with Bailey on the trailer. She's more than willing to hop right in there now (one fantastic thing she inherited from her mama). Then I got myself covered in berry pink and grape purple spray paint as I painted two more poles. They are gray/pink/purple and actually go quite nicely with my flower boxes. I also painted two more standards white, but they need another coat because I used cheapy $0.97 white paint. And then, ladies and gentlemen, I started cleaning my tack room for the first time in about 4 years. My goal is to paint and wallpaper it this summer. I know, I'm probably dreaming...especially if I get this job. Speaking of which, I've already created a list of horsey things I need to buy once money starts coming in...cross your fingers for me!
Picture update coming soon. I need to show you all my jumps, and I know there will be photos from this weekend's show!
Monday, July 19, 2010
What a loooong day...
I don't think today could have dragged on any longer! It was, however, productive.
First off, I went to Homely Depot with my mom and bought some more paint. They didn't have any 'Oops!' paint, but she offered to buy me some spray paint. I bought enough to do two red/white/blue poles, and two pink/purple/gray poles. I'm still up in the air about my remaining four standards. I have two navy and two yellow. I think the last sets need to be kind of generic...I also added two neon orange/black poles to the mix. I really wanted to paint something neon orange...
Anywho, I got around to painting the two red/white/blue poles before I hopped up and rode. Both Bella and Patrick got fairly extensive flats today, and I hope to jump them around some little stuff tomorrow. Mid-Patrick, the woman from this job ad returned my phone call. I was a little worried, because it did turn out to be this small event barn that I was thinking of. However, the woman was extremely nice on the phone, and had a really great sense of humor (I can always get along with someone like that). She had already lined up several interviews, and asked if she could really inconvenience me and have me come out that very afternoon.
For any normal person, that would be an insane hassle. Thankfully, for me, I make my own hours, and told her I'd be right out! Turns out, it's a ten minute drive from my house and sits right on the Liberty Reservoir. It's a really small farm, 10 stalls and no more than 15 horses at any time. She has about 20 students, all low-level event riders, and everyone that I met seemed like your typical young rider, friendly, nice, and horse crazed. She was a woman who knew what she wanted, which I truly love in the horse industry. I hate working for people who aren't sure how they want things done, and change on a whim. She had a set list and an order for doing things, and it was all your basic barn stuff. Turns out, a girl I used to ride with already works there and she's happy with her position. Also, another woman I used to ride with worked there for several years. Margot, the barn owner, knows most of my past employers/trainers, and was familiar with my background as a jumper rider. She informed me that it's all very laid back, she wants someone happy with their job, and is very flexible with scheduling. That last part was what really hooked me.
So I think I'm probably going to be offered the job. She said she had a lot of other people to interview, but that it was more about going through with the semantics, because she really thought I'd be great for the position. Yay! I gave her a few references, minus my trainer, who has yet again disappeared, but told her that I'd give her his info as soon as I get his business number. Urgh. He's so frustrating.
After all of that went down, I came home to feed my horses. Of course, to make my day longer, Quinn decided to bolt his feed down, despite only getting a little over a handful of pellets and having three salt block chunks to break it up, and he got a wonderful case of choke. Thankfully, I've dealt with this several times before in a few of our older horses. That did not make it any more fun. I did everything my vet usually tells me to do: banamine, massage the neck. If that doesn't work, jump him over tiny fences to try to dislodge the mass. No luck. Next, if it still doesn't work, squeeze the throat fairly hard to try and work it out. Squeeze the windpipe to induce coughing. Nothing. Finally, I did what I hate doing, but usually works: I stuck the hose in his mouth a few times. It loosened it up enough that after standing for a few minutes, he began to walk around, and eventually to graze. Needless to say, after an hour of this, I was hot, drenched, and tired. Thank you Newton, it had to go wrong, didn't it? I think it's time to ask my vet for some ace.
Now, on a good note, Amanda is coming to ride Patrick tomorrow! I'm so excited. I hope she likes him! And the girl I used to ride with that I saw at my interview is having some issues with her young horse. I offered to let her bring him over to my place and I'd help her with him. I hope she decides to do it! I think that could be a pretty cool experience, and hopefully rewarding for her!
I'm going to go get some grub and sleeeep!
Keep cool!
First off, I went to Homely Depot with my mom and bought some more paint. They didn't have any 'Oops!' paint, but she offered to buy me some spray paint. I bought enough to do two red/white/blue poles, and two pink/purple/gray poles. I'm still up in the air about my remaining four standards. I have two navy and two yellow. I think the last sets need to be kind of generic...I also added two neon orange/black poles to the mix. I really wanted to paint something neon orange...
Anywho, I got around to painting the two red/white/blue poles before I hopped up and rode. Both Bella and Patrick got fairly extensive flats today, and I hope to jump them around some little stuff tomorrow. Mid-Patrick, the woman from this job ad returned my phone call. I was a little worried, because it did turn out to be this small event barn that I was thinking of. However, the woman was extremely nice on the phone, and had a really great sense of humor (I can always get along with someone like that). She had already lined up several interviews, and asked if she could really inconvenience me and have me come out that very afternoon.
For any normal person, that would be an insane hassle. Thankfully, for me, I make my own hours, and told her I'd be right out! Turns out, it's a ten minute drive from my house and sits right on the Liberty Reservoir. It's a really small farm, 10 stalls and no more than 15 horses at any time. She has about 20 students, all low-level event riders, and everyone that I met seemed like your typical young rider, friendly, nice, and horse crazed. She was a woman who knew what she wanted, which I truly love in the horse industry. I hate working for people who aren't sure how they want things done, and change on a whim. She had a set list and an order for doing things, and it was all your basic barn stuff. Turns out, a girl I used to ride with already works there and she's happy with her position. Also, another woman I used to ride with worked there for several years. Margot, the barn owner, knows most of my past employers/trainers, and was familiar with my background as a jumper rider. She informed me that it's all very laid back, she wants someone happy with their job, and is very flexible with scheduling. That last part was what really hooked me.
So I think I'm probably going to be offered the job. She said she had a lot of other people to interview, but that it was more about going through with the semantics, because she really thought I'd be great for the position. Yay! I gave her a few references, minus my trainer, who has yet again disappeared, but told her that I'd give her his info as soon as I get his business number. Urgh. He's so frustrating.
After all of that went down, I came home to feed my horses. Of course, to make my day longer, Quinn decided to bolt his feed down, despite only getting a little over a handful of pellets and having three salt block chunks to break it up, and he got a wonderful case of choke. Thankfully, I've dealt with this several times before in a few of our older horses. That did not make it any more fun. I did everything my vet usually tells me to do: banamine, massage the neck. If that doesn't work, jump him over tiny fences to try to dislodge the mass. No luck. Next, if it still doesn't work, squeeze the throat fairly hard to try and work it out. Squeeze the windpipe to induce coughing. Nothing. Finally, I did what I hate doing, but usually works: I stuck the hose in his mouth a few times. It loosened it up enough that after standing for a few minutes, he began to walk around, and eventually to graze. Needless to say, after an hour of this, I was hot, drenched, and tired. Thank you Newton, it had to go wrong, didn't it? I think it's time to ask my vet for some ace.
Now, on a good note, Amanda is coming to ride Patrick tomorrow! I'm so excited. I hope she likes him! And the girl I used to ride with that I saw at my interview is having some issues with her young horse. I offered to let her bring him over to my place and I'd help her with him. I hope she decides to do it! I think that could be a pretty cool experience, and hopefully rewarding for her!
I'm going to go get some grub and sleeeep!
Keep cool!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Back to work!
Ah, vacation, I miss you! But more often than not, I was ready to come back and ride!
So today was my first day putting my nose back to the grindstone. Let me tell you, one week off and I was DEAD by noon!
Despite the heat, humidity, and stagnant air, I had a fairly good, productive day. I fixed my jumps up (most had been knocked over) and set a few new things. I relocated my single vertical so I can jump it off the other lead, and set up some more canter poles at 2.60, which is .20 meters shorter than Patrick is used to. I figured I should start challenging him again. Onward!
Everyone got a good, solid flat today, and I thought I was going to die. Side cramps combined with heat exhaustion is not a fun mix! Even my legs were all loosey goosey, not cool guys! Thankfully, my horses picked up the slack. Patrick was super about the shortened canter poles, and figured them out pretty quickly, provided I could keep my leg on long enough to find him a distance.
Bella was her usual self, calm, quiet, and fairly laid-back. She's so difficult to ride when you're out of shape because she's just so round. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, you can count on it!
Bailey did a lot of walk work today. She's finally beginning to learn that leg pressure doesn't always mean 'go forward', and by the time she was tired and less 'jumpy', she was starting to show the hint of a bend around my leg. I even trotted her over some ground poles and a little 1ft jump! She clacked her feet against them more often than not, but she didn't mind going over them, even when they're painted neon orange and black. I hope that's a good sign!
Anyways, this is all in preparation for this coming weekend. There's another show at my old farm, and I plan to bring all three of my training horses there. Bailey will go to school on Saturday morning, and Bella and Patrick will show on Sunday in the jumpers. I'm going to take Patrick in the 2'0" stuff (and maybe a 2'6" if he's stupendous!) and Bella will move back into the 3'6" stuff, provided all goes well this week. I finally got ah hold of my trainer while I was in North Carolina. He's going to try to come up this week to help me school my two jumping horses, and he's going to ride Bailey. I have a fear that she'll become a one person horse, because she's so leery about strangers. So I decided I needed someone as good as, or better, than me to hop up on her. Hopefully he keeps his word and comes out. I could use the tune up.
Also, tomorrow afternoon I'm going to call this farm looking for a barn manager. I'm not sure if I'm interested; there's little information provided in the ad. However, I figured it can't hurt to inquire about their facility, and maybe I'll get lucky and it will sound promising! I hope it's a low key H/J facility that does some local 'A' rated stuff, that way I can get my horses out to the shows without taking time off from work. If it's too time consuming or not a competitive barn, I think I'll have to pass on it. It would have to be really good to get me away from my own training program.
And lastly, Patrick is officially listed on Dreamhorse.com as 'for sale':( I'll be so sad to see him go, but I know he needs someone who can really appreciate what they have in him. He's listed at $8,000, which is a bit more than I expect to get for him right now, but if I've learned anything about selling horses online, it's ask for a lot more than you expect to get. Plus, I did a search on horses in the area, and judging by what I saw, it's really not that far out there. Go figure. Hopefully a girl can get lucky!
Oh! And Bailey started trailer training today! She walked right in and ate her lunch:) Yay!
So today was my first day putting my nose back to the grindstone. Let me tell you, one week off and I was DEAD by noon!
Despite the heat, humidity, and stagnant air, I had a fairly good, productive day. I fixed my jumps up (most had been knocked over) and set a few new things. I relocated my single vertical so I can jump it off the other lead, and set up some more canter poles at 2.60, which is .20 meters shorter than Patrick is used to. I figured I should start challenging him again. Onward!
Everyone got a good, solid flat today, and I thought I was going to die. Side cramps combined with heat exhaustion is not a fun mix! Even my legs were all loosey goosey, not cool guys! Thankfully, my horses picked up the slack. Patrick was super about the shortened canter poles, and figured them out pretty quickly, provided I could keep my leg on long enough to find him a distance.
Bella was her usual self, calm, quiet, and fairly laid-back. She's so difficult to ride when you're out of shape because she's just so round. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, you can count on it!
Bailey did a lot of walk work today. She's finally beginning to learn that leg pressure doesn't always mean 'go forward', and by the time she was tired and less 'jumpy', she was starting to show the hint of a bend around my leg. I even trotted her over some ground poles and a little 1ft jump! She clacked her feet against them more often than not, but she didn't mind going over them, even when they're painted neon orange and black. I hope that's a good sign!
Anyways, this is all in preparation for this coming weekend. There's another show at my old farm, and I plan to bring all three of my training horses there. Bailey will go to school on Saturday morning, and Bella and Patrick will show on Sunday in the jumpers. I'm going to take Patrick in the 2'0" stuff (and maybe a 2'6" if he's stupendous!) and Bella will move back into the 3'6" stuff, provided all goes well this week. I finally got ah hold of my trainer while I was in North Carolina. He's going to try to come up this week to help me school my two jumping horses, and he's going to ride Bailey. I have a fear that she'll become a one person horse, because she's so leery about strangers. So I decided I needed someone as good as, or better, than me to hop up on her. Hopefully he keeps his word and comes out. I could use the tune up.
Also, tomorrow afternoon I'm going to call this farm looking for a barn manager. I'm not sure if I'm interested; there's little information provided in the ad. However, I figured it can't hurt to inquire about their facility, and maybe I'll get lucky and it will sound promising! I hope it's a low key H/J facility that does some local 'A' rated stuff, that way I can get my horses out to the shows without taking time off from work. If it's too time consuming or not a competitive barn, I think I'll have to pass on it. It would have to be really good to get me away from my own training program.
And lastly, Patrick is officially listed on Dreamhorse.com as 'for sale':( I'll be so sad to see him go, but I know he needs someone who can really appreciate what they have in him. He's listed at $8,000, which is a bit more than I expect to get for him right now, but if I've learned anything about selling horses online, it's ask for a lot more than you expect to get. Plus, I did a search on horses in the area, and judging by what I saw, it's really not that far out there. Go figure. Hopefully a girl can get lucky!
Oh! And Bailey started trailer training today! She walked right in and ate her lunch:) Yay!
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