Appreciating the Little Things

Yesterday I got to ride, and I remembered to take some pictures! Excuse the quality, I do have a nice camera but I couldn't find the battery's so I had to use my phone.

Poor miss Tilly hurt her paw pad (up by the dewclaw, but not the dewclaw pad, I NEVER can remember the name of it!) playing fetch on Sunday, so she has to keep it vet-wrapped while we're at the barn.

My very stylish barn wear. Right before I took this picture the cutest thing happened! I had just walked into the barn, and Reily didn't notice as he was playing with his bud Bo. Normally Reily comes straight up as soon as he see's me, so I called him. He looked around, found me and cantered straight up to his stall door! That's the first time he's done that in his run, though he used to do it in the pasture all the time.

Here's the dirty beast himself. I actually lunged him before I rode because he's been packing on the pounds as you can tell by that little belly on the mister, hehe.

I rode in a snaffle bit for the first time in TOO long! I get lazy, but it is really fundamental that he is rideable in a snaffle. This is the 'Before' when I first hoped on him. You can kinda tell, but his neck was an upside down V, very stiff, not yielding or flexible, and up it went when I applied pressure. Since Reily wasn't having any of this 'long and low' stuff and he was feeling the need for speed (in his own little pokey way), I decided we could work on imaginary poles and key hole for a while and push him into the bit while allowing him to be more uppity so to say.

This is a terrible photo by me, but after his poll became more level with his withers, and he was all over more flexible and happy. I was able to jog on a long rein, and when I needed to, pick up the reins and push him into the bit when he got lazy or nosed out. I was also able to get a SLOW canter with a lowered head, which is his weak spot. Made me very happy.

After he was being such a champ in the snaffle, I decided to go au-natural (without a bridle or halter or anything!) I normally do this at a walk in my cool-downs, but normally I also have spurs which I didn't today. (Spurs to me are NOT to make a horse go faster, but they help refine my communication on moving body parts with a horse. With spurs I'm able to make him stop, back if I have a rope around his neck, side-pass, pivot, etc. with little hesitation or miscomunication.) He was dashing at the walk, turning when I wanted   doing circles the right size. SO I decided to do another thing I don't normally do, and added the jog. At first he just wanted to TROT. But I stopped him every time he tried (I had to make sure he had a 100% stop from my seat and voice before I'd go without headgear) and asked again until he got it right.

Within five minutes he was jogging nicely and moving where I told him! Do I stop there like a sane person? NO!!! I add the canter! It wasn't terrible, he did circles when I asked, stopped when I asked, etc. but I think I'll perfect the trot before going to the canter again. But the feeling of hand galloping a horse without anything on (the horse NOT me!!!) and just TRUSTING..... it's incredible. Nothing in the world could replace that feel. It's addictive too.

Tilly was a very tired puppy. which makes me a very happy puppy owner!

I've also been making little gifts to give to everybody at the barn for Christmas! I think I've mentioned this before, but it's something I've been wanting to do for years and finally have the chance! Like the handmade tag?

On a side note, today made realize why it's important to appreciate the little things. Once in a blue moon, we'll have a terrible ride. Absolutely terrible, where neither of us are happy. Most of them start the way my ride did today, with a horse who was having an off day and wasn't behaving near 'perfect' or responding the way I want. The difference is on those terrible days, I don't try to make the best out of the small things he does right. I get frustrated because the whole big picture isn't how I wanted it to be. On days like Monday, I started slow and appreciated he wanted to go fast and accommodated. 

 I went from there and started appreciating the little things he was doing right. I wasn't wearing spurs, but dang he's responding well to my leg! When I hold and push him into the bit, he really has a nice headset! We may not have the best flying lead changes today, but we're nailing the simple! His gates may be faster than I like, but he's getting that stop down! Etc. Etc. Etc.

By the end, since I wasn't getting frustrated and in turn frustrating Reily, I had more to be positive about and ended on a really nice note.

Yay for good rides on horses to turn your week around! I'll probably be MIA until after Christmas now, so have a Merry Christmas!

County Fair Remembered

I kept forgetting I promised pictures. County fair seems so far away, I can't believe how fast time goes sometimes.

In case I didn't mention it earlier, this last county fair was my LAST county fair. Forever and ever and ever and ever, unless I want to do breed shows but those are expensive!

Reily did AMAZING. I couldn't have asked for a better fair. We entered everything and anything, and got majority Purples (the best), a few blues (good) and 1 red (meh.. it was in Western Riding, where you have to do literally 10 flying lead changes, I opted and did simple which got me a DQed to a red, even though we had a nice pattern). AND..... NO whites (the worst)!! Even with us being in the hardest age division (seniors, and the ones who have enough money to buy some nice horses, the type of horses I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot poll so I wouldn't get them dirty/smudge their fur) we got Grand Champion English Equitation.

Ok, but onto pictures.

I know this is from an old show, but I did a LOT of this! And managed to not get kicked in the head this time :) hehe.

The gang and I dressed up as Rainbow Brite to decorate the stall fronts. It was fun :) I wish we had more dress up days! (oh yeah... that's halloween)

(awkward hand because I was holding treats) It was the one year anniversary of me buying Tilly! I was so happy she got to be at the fair with me and Reily!

Reily and I also got to help do flags before the Dressage show!! He actually thought it was scary at first, but he got over it super quickly. That's another reason I love my horse, he has a brain ♥ We even got to trot and canter towards the end!

Grand Champions!!

And to end this post, here's me and my babys!

(On another note, I am remembering to post more! yay!)

Some days I love my horse

Ok, ok, I might love him every day.

But ESPECIALLY when he's a good boy like he was yesterday! First, he had a lesson with a little boy (probably 4' or under) and he was a trooper! The boy lead Reily around, and Reily dropped his head so it would be level with the boy. He was able to move Reily around with out any hesitation. When the boy got on to  ride, his feet reached probably about half way on Reily's belly.

Ridding around, the boy would flap his legs and cluck and Reily would respond by trotting, and he took very good care of his little rider. Reily is one of those horses who knows the level of the rider on them, and will test accordingly. With this little boy, he didn't test him as much as he does older people who ride him. When I get on, Reilys gotten used to me thwarting his plans, and gives in a little but when I first started riding him I remember all the stuff he put me through.

After riding with the little boy for an hour, I was able to get on Reily for the first time in a week. He wanted to go a little faster, so I pushed him into the bridle at a working (kinda... more semi-working) trot around the arena. He was feeling great, so I decided to do some lead changes with him again. Circle to the left, WOAH, settle, Circle to the right, WOAH, settle, ect. It was nice to see he was beginning to stop off of my seat from the canter, and I barely had to use the reins.

Next I started doing lead changes from the trot. I'm still thinking of a word to use for the trot lead transition, but since on the lungeline my downward transition is TROT long and low I've just been using that.

Then got to the exciting part! I know I've been doing flying lead changes for a year now, but I still think they are just so much fun. They have helped Reilys canter, balance and even topline. We did I couple lead changes at the canter and I was ECSTATIC with how amazing he was being! His bad habit with the flying lead changes is that he will 'anticipate' them and do a flying lead change in our circle where I normally ask for them (but I haven't asked for it), and have to do another one when I tell him "No, we're still circling". But we didn't have that problem at all yesterday! He would circle and wait for ME to tell him when to change. We did a few flying lead changes down the middle as well, and he did smashing.

The feeling of how he lifts, and becomes more up and down then rushed and strung out is incredible. It will never become old!

Enough of my rambling for today though, I better head off to the barn! Today and tomorrow, Reily is mine :) I'll be sure to bring the camera out!

Is it winter?

So.... I've complained about the snow... so now it's time to complain about the lack of snow. Basically one week until Christmas and the ground is bare with GREEN grass!! What is this? I want snow for this week only and then it can all go away and we can return to summer.

-sigh-

I finished finals yesterday! Which means more time with the pony, starting today. I ordered a bunch of my horsey-related gifts for Christmas this last week, I got Reily a treat ball for his stall, a new 'show' underpad and some hoof moisturizer. Along with some gifts for my horsey friends! I plan on making little goody bags for all of the horses in my barn. I've wanted to do this ever since I got Reily, but I'm ALWAYS moving barns around Christmas! Not this year, thank goodness.

Hay prices are sky-rocketing, which makes me sad. I remember paying a little under $3 a bale a year ago. Now my hay guy says the rest of the hay he has is for $6+ a bale.

Can the snow go away now?

Seriously. I am done with winter already. I miss warm
 :[ going out and not freezing to death shoveling frozen poo out from a mound of snow, or picking it out of some ice.

It may be pretty... but the prettyness is deceiving. Everytime it snows, while it may be beautiful and fluffy at first, you know in a few weeks/months it shall turn into brown mush/mud. The wetness is what I really can't stand. If you're outside and get snow in your shoe, the snow melts and you're left with a freezing foot. No fun.
OR an example from the other day... I went trailriding and at the beginning of the trail we had to duck under a tree full of snow. OF COURSE my horse has to be the only one to hold onto a branch to slingshot it back at me. I was showered in snow, and the rest of the trailride I was cold and wet.

The other part is after it melts, and freezes again, and then snows ON TOP of the ice... makes driving my little Jetta scary.

That's my rant for the day. I'll probably want to rant about the weather again after helping unload 100 hay bales tomorrow.

Since this is Reilys blog though- I'll share his opinion of the snow. It is fun to stand outside when it's snowing and get soaking wet. It's also yummy to eat. He doesn't like sliding around on trail rides when we go down the road.

FINALS WEEK STARTS MONDAY! Oorah!

P.S. 4th day in a row for updating! This is a new record!

Progress

Today is a reflective post... I was just thinking how far Reily and I have come since I bought Reily almost four years ago. I can barely remember what it was like with the unbalanced, refusing to canter to the left, buck me off when I was getting on, little turd. And boy I am NEVER going back! He is SO much more collected and muscled now! I have a picture of the first day I saw him, I loved him but... he was a little chunky. By little I mean probably the horse version of morbidly obese (I'm only slightly kidding). After a year of getting the pounds down, We started building muscle, and then finally this year we got a topline! I'm still working on it, but he is a MUCH more balanced and muscled horse.


Unfortunately, he is a VERY easy keeper, and with the little grain I have him on he is getting the chunkys yet again. But hey, don't we want a little 'protective padding' going into the winter months anyway? I suppose I should be thankful he's an easy keeper, and not the other way around, but BOY he can get fat on air!


I am thankful for how much I have grown with what he's shown me. Things I used to know textbook style, I now know what it feels like, how to properly achieve a good ride. How to be an effective rider and get the horse to move his best, and when necessary getting out of the horses way and letting him show his stuff! Flying lead changes had a HUGE impact on me, and Reily. I now understand every little piece of HOW a horse performs a lead change, and the best way (from experience with Reily) to TEACH them to do a flying. I used to get so frustrated when Reily would do perfect SIMPLE lead changes, with one trot step, when I was asking for a flying. Just this last week, Reily and I did a set of flying lead changes going straight down the middle of the arena. The feeling of him collecting and rounding, and becoming so light is an AMAZING feeling. By no stretch of the imagination does he have it perfected though- every now and again he'll give an excited buck as he changes.


But BOY the things this last year have brought... I can't wait for next year!


P.S. I sure posted a lot sooner than I thought I would :] not having work and little homework makes a person bored during the day.

twinkie cakes and winter.

SNOW

I have some mixed emotions about this fluffy substance. On one hand, trail riding in the snow is AMAZING (less ouch if you fall off). On the other... it's cold, wet, and makes my dog go crazy. 

Like CRAZY crazy. The other day we went on a trail ride through a field, and she took off in what I call her stupid run. She just runs as fast as she can in giant circles around everyone, BUT she gets so into the running she forgets important stuff like... steering. She ran SMACK into a tree and went bottom up. Before her pride could have been really hurt, she got back up and started running like it was a part of the plan. I really wish I got it on camera, it had everyone cracking up.

It also makes my horse go a little crazy, but since he's normally lazy it's kind of fun! On said trail ride mentioned above, Reily was (not so literally) chomping on the bit to run. It brought me back to his wild days,  and the 'fun' we would have running in cornfields or playing marco-polo, and tag.

But whether I like it or not, snow has come and will be here until it all melts and makes a muddy mess in the spring. I want to move someplace warm.

Reily got a new winter blanket! 

Reily's sexy winter wear. (AKA I just found out how to caption)

Miss Tilly too!

Tilly only got one because it was on sale. It will wait until it is below freezing before I'd really use it. Reily's blanket from last year (while a MUCH cuter turquoise) was NOT waterproof, and therefore left him wet and cold after it snowed. This one has been MUCH better, as it's already snowed once and he was warm and dry! On a slightly, but not really, related note. . .

I'm a freaking genius!

Is that NOT the most delicious, yummy looking ANYTHING you've EVER seen?!?! It tasted super yummy too. SUPER yummy. The recipe is secret. Don't ask. 

Until next time that I remember I have a blog and come and ramble for ten minutes. . .

11.11.11 Make a wish!

I'm wishing that my car doesn't break down again for the rest of the year! OR that I somehow obtain enough money to buy a truck like I've been wanting. I'll take either :]
----edit----
I KNOW it isn't really 11.11.11 anymore, but I wrote this on 11.11.11, the video took a WHOLE DAY to load. sooo. I'm not changing it :]

BUT for an update....  Fair went AMAZING. I will dedicate a day to that in the future. MORE importantly, Reily and I decided to try for level 4 after county (THE hardest level there is!!!) Reily and I passed our level four!!!! :D I about cried from happiness! But.. words are no good right? Have to see it to believe it? Here we goooo....

But first. I have to wait for the video to upload so I will ramble on a little about how life has been going since the last update. Started college again, never fun. Español debe morir. I started a new job at a dog kennel, very stressful but very rewarding :]SO you might be wondering how I still how enough time to go ride Reily? Welll, I don't. SO I've started leasing him out, to this great gal who's going to take him through 4-H this year since I'm too old. They do great together, and I see them going far (she wants to go all the way to level 4, and Reily can take her there!) BUT it's a half lease so I still get to see my boy a couple days a week :] today is one of those days!

Now drumroll..... the video! Take note, Reily was having a lazy day, so if my position looks terrible for a couple moments, or I look like I'm exasperating my cues a little, it's because I was riding a brick wall.

PSYCH. The videos STILL (yes even after a whole day) loading onto youtube. I will add it after it's done I just wanted to get this post over with.

EDIT Number 2!

Good Day

Yeah I'm getting a little obsessive about posting :P ah well...

Had a GREAT day with the pups and pony today! It was a lovely day in the 80's and felt like heaven to me! I remembered a camera, so get ready for picture overload :)

This is the best way to start the day, at the barn by yourself with a good dog and horse both anticipating a good ride.

Tilly waited patiently tied, while I went to work with Reily.

First we started with showmanship, as you can tell Reily was thrilled!

And then it was time for the bridle! It was all Reily could do to contain his excitement :)


(A video of me riding Reily!)

All done?

Tilly was ready to be done.

And finally I released the fuzzy white monster to go roll.

Cheers!

Showmanship

Today was a lazy day. Set up some fake courses and showmanshiped it! Not much else to report :) Have been making decorations for county fair, I'll get pictures when they're all set up!

Tuesday!

Today was good, not much to report but I felt lazy not updating the blog :) My nieces and nephew came out to the barn to ride! It was insanely hot so I didn't even attempt photos, as we were all covered in sweat. Can't wait for fall!

In other news, I've been considering colleges and what to do in that part of my life. Somebody got me to consider military but that just doesn't seem right for me. My hope is to join LCCC, but we'll have to see how that tryout goes!

Light bulb moment!

I love those rides where everything seems to go right. I had one of those today! First, I worked on showmanship. It was o-k. Not gonna go win some world showmanship class, but not too sloppy. Plus considering it felt like it was 500* outside, I was pretty happy with it. Then I get up to ride. I go straight to the curb bit today, my very mild curb, to do some fake show action. Walk-jogged around like pros! And then came the lope. Reily had the best breakthrough since I've owned him! I worked him up into the bit, asking him to use his butt and then asked for him to slow it. The more he slowed, the more I gave. I could literally see the light bulb glowing on his head. We had a beautiful lope (well he did, I was working so hard to keep him from four beating I looked ridiculous I'm sure) with a gorgeous long rein!! I've never been happier :D I love my pony!!

Countdown to County!!

Now that state's done, it's time to countdown to county! Unfortunately no pictures from state :[ but that may change in the near future!

SOO To successfully prepare for state (aka the greatest week of the year) I am OFFICIALLY dedicated to riding productively every day until county! Yup every day. I will try to take pictures, or videos, or notes. Today is day number one, and was successful. Started with showmanship, then rode in a snaffle bit, after warm up added the draw reins and finally transitioned into the curb for a nice smooth slow and low ride! Great day! Then I worked on the challenges from the HGS forum so I have some videos! yaaay!

Weeee!

I feel like a bad horseowner. It's been so freaking hot out, I haven't ridden in about a week :O okay maybe just 4 days. Reily hasn't minded it at all though! Hope he's living it up, because starting tomorrow we have less than 2 weeks till state so intense riding starts again!

To keep the blog intrestingish, I will tell you all about my last ride and how very productive it was. It was a hot day, not as bad as the past couple but probably around the low 90's, and I thought both of us were feeling sluggish and lazy. We tacked up like normal, mounted like normal, did warmups like normal *note only on one side of the arena*. Then I got inspired and decided we would trot around the arena nice and collected, with me holding and pushing him into the bit (snaffle bit day :D), getting that enormous butt of his to actually do some work for a change. So we're trotting at a fastish pace around the arena, feeling good, looking awesome. I'm thinking, "What a great freaking day" with a giant grin on my face, when BAM! We're in the middle of the arena, Reily looking as close to an arabian as a mammoth paint can. His eyes are bulging, his nostrils flare till they look like a small kitten could fit in each of them, snorting, and trotting in place, all while staring down a window along the side of the arena. That's when I see it, the scary horse-eating monster lurking in the window, and it looks just like Reily and me!
If you know my horse, you know he's not spooky in the slightest. So this really threw me for a loop. Not that I don't mind it, everyone needs something unexpected to happen every once and a while. But this is more than unexpected, it's unlike him! So I go off a mental list of everything that has changed, and the only one I could think of was he was back on joint supplement, and someone was feeling it!
But after collecting our thoughts, we continued on down the rail. For the rest of this 25 minute ride, every single time we passed a window, the above happened all over again. Every. Time. Ah well, we all have bad days!

Countdown to state: 13 days

Spazzy!

Firstly- horse news. Districts is over and I qualified in everything for state! So I will have 4 classes to do a mid-July :D YAAAAAAAAAY!

Other than that- not much has been happening. So today I will have a Tilly (my Australian Shepherd) post!

It all started on the last day of county fair... with a cute fluffy little puppy.

This little innocent puppy quickly grew into a big, hyper, all over spazzy, adventurist, young naive dog.

There have been many adventures in this young dogs life, one of the earliest (since I got her in fall) was snow. She discovered how fun it could be.

And how once it starts to melt, how un-fun it could be. (This is also the time of her unfortunate deformity. One of her ears decided to perk up, and has stayed that way to this day)

She learned how to travel in style

As well as a good deal of tricks

How comfy cats can be

How much fun it can be to chase a orange piece of plastic through a disgusting lake filled with fish.... oh wait...

And finally... she learned she is spoiled beyond repair. All this in one year

We have started agility training as well, so hopefully sometime in the future I'll be posting about DOG shows :O SCARY CHANGE!!

Thankful!

I know it's the wrong time of the year for it, but I just wanted to reflect on how thankful I am for everything horsey and non-horsey in my life, as sometimes I forget how lucky (or fortunate) I am.

*For my wonderful horse, Reily, of course!

*For my wonderful family that has for the most part supported my addiction to horses throughout my life, and paying for lessons before I had a job.

*For the wonderful facility I keep my horse at.

*ALL of my amazing friends! Horsey and non-horsey :)

*My job

*My car!

*EVERYTHING else I haven't mentioned, I am very blessed! :D

And because every post has had a picture- here's a pony and a puppy ^_^

Updates!

Soo updates since last post, which was the horse expo. There are maaany many things, I'll try to keep it to the basics :]

1-

HORSE SHOW!!!! (which means lots of prep)

First horse show of the year didn't go quite as planned unfortunately. Before any of my shows, I touched a sore spot on Reilys back leg while cleaning his legs (they have to be perfectly white!) and he had a knee-jerk reaction. I ended with a large bump on my head, no recollection of what happened, and wasn't allowed to show the rest of the day. I talked them into letting me go walk-trot, but we were against older horse trainers and didn't place. Some highlights were being able to trailer all the way to the show and back (had never trailered that far before) and getting all fancied up :] I got one "fancy" picture but my head got so big my hat didn't fit on right.

I also got one of Sarah and her horse Lacy! Who both did very well :]

2- I passed my level 3 in 4-H! The hardest part was learning the flying lead change. But we got it! And now that is behind us forever and we feel more accomplished. Annnnd we will be doing trail at state! Yeah!

3- I've been teaching Reily games. Yeah I should focus on more important stuff like districts but it's a good stress reliever for both of us.

I guess that's it.. not too much I guess. Possible show next week :]

The Nebraska Horse Expo!

The Nebraska horse expo is over :[ fortunately it was just as awesome as I thought it would be!! Reily and his rider did amazing in their classes, even placing 4th out of 20+ riders in trail. Got to go shopping, and spent way too much! Anyways, to the pictures, which I apologize in advance for. My camera is broken so all I have is my phone, which I couldn't use a lot cause it kept dying.

Showmanship was first, Reily got called back from the first group (an amazing amount of horses, I wanna say 50 but that might be exaggerating), but not the second. They still looked pretty snazzy :]

Then there was trail, ridden and driven!

Love those drafts!

They even painted their hooves purple! So cute!

Reily backed the L like a pro :]

OWNED the bridge!


There's their pleasure, thought I would randomly stick that video in there

Waiting for their fourth place :]

This horse's head was HUGE.












And now the loot!

I'm honestly surprised I didn't buy more than this, but slightly proud.

Finally got some rolly spurs! AND they're pretty! AND on ubber sale :D

This shall go on my lil red car. I think it's perfect, a western paint :]

FINALLY got an English bit! Now for the English bridle...

And the grand finish, my amazing new belt!! It's soo sparkly I feel like I have a disco ball wrapped around me :] but that is for sure a good thing.

So that was my weekend, pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Time to go back to real life..... until the next show :D