Weekend Fun

On Saturday we had our showing debut at a Fun show hosted by the facility I board at, and it was a lot of fun!

The ribbons pictured make it look better than it actually was. But it was a good leaning experience for both of us.

I know I should be an artist HAHA

The first class we did was Western Horsemanship, which consisted of a pattern and then riding on the rail. The pattern was fairly simple, and is clearly depicted to the left.

Walk to A
Jog to B
Stop at B and turn 360 degrees
Left lead lope circle back to B
Lead change, Right lead lope to C
Back 9 steps
90 degree turn and extended trot to rail.

It actually went pretty good for us, considering we have never actually attempted a pattern before. The interesting part of the class was when we had to walk/trot/lope on the rail. Even though it was already reaching high 80's the horses we all feeling a little spunky. lets just say there wasn't a single "pleasure" style lope in the group.

The start of a nice collection

The next class was Western Pleasure and consisted of only riding on the rail at a Walk/Jog/Extended Trot/Lope. Overall this class did go better for us although our initial lope departure was faster than necessary he did settle in and we actually had a nice collected lope.

Much to my surprise and delight we placed first in both classes.  

After the lunch break we did do both Poles and Barrels, We placed in Poles but took a no time in the barrels due to crossing the timer when we spooked at the second barrel.

All in all it was a fun Saturday and a good first show. We even received compliments from the Judge after our two morning classes. She said she could tell Notch was green, but he looked very good for where we were at with training.

There is another show coming up on Sept 12th that we will ride in as well and I'm looking forward to it.
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Whats the Point??

So I stumbled upon the below video yesterday, and was very impressed with most of their performance. 

If I tried to do that trail course on Notch right now, we would probably look like a bull in a china shop. There would be ground poles kicked all over the place and cones rolling around, not to mention a refusal at the bridge, because we just don't like bridges that are not actually functional. Just a couple weeks ago Notch acted like me asking his to trot over ground poles was equivalent to me asking him to go over a 3 foot jump. But anyways I digress.

The one part I just don't understand with these Western classes is the broken lope. I know what there goal is, they want a nice slow lope that looks peaceful to ride. What they have ended up with is a "gait" that makes it appear that the back legs are broken and dragging behind the horse. Why can't they have a nice collected lope that actually looks comfortable for the horse too? It is this standard in the Western Pleasure based classes that will keep me from ever showing in those areas. 

So that is the end of my morning rant. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Stepping out of our comfort zone!

I am a very competitive person...and with that comes the fear of doing something poorly in front of other people. This has led me to shy away from the competing side of riding due to the fear of looking like a fool. Well this morning I decided to try and move past this "stage fright".

Notch and I will be taking part in a 4 week Team Sorting league. We will be working with a random partner to attempt to move 10 cows from one pen to another in numerical order in under 60 seconds. I have not done any cow work with Notch, but he did spend some time around cattle at his previous home.

So next Wednesday is our first night out, so stay tuned for an update!

Something tells me we're not going to look like this lol

A Revelation...

So I have figured out what is probably our biggest problem! Notch has a best friend and when he is around his brain turns off and the only thing he wants to do is be with him.

This became clear a couple weeks ago. Notch and I were in the arena by ourselves and everything was going great! (even with the big scary tractors moving around just a few feet away.) He was forward and listening to me, we even had some really nice circles going (which is an accomplishment for us both).

Then his FG (favorite gelding) joined us and suddenly I was riding a crazy giraffe! The only thought that was going through his mind was "must get to friend right now!"

Since that day we have once again ridden completely by ourselves and he was listening very well, and he was also a angel when there were other horse around the arena (although they were not in the arena with us). SO it appears that our main issues arise when his FG is with us. Now that I have figured out the problem I need to figure out how to address it, because riding the crazy giraffe is not my favorite. And this proves he knows what I want him to do, hes just ignoring me when the herd instinct takes over.

Any insights would be very much appreciated!

Still one of my favorite views

 

An Update

So I am now a couple years out of school and I still have no idea what I want to do when I "grow up". I wish someone would just fund my hobbies or I could win the lottery, but since I never buy a ticket, that seems unlikely. So for now I will continue this whole work and job thing to fund my riding addiction.

Looking Spiffy

As for Notch, there have been some changes there recently. At the beginning of June Notch moved to a boarding facility near by, and although I miss seeing him out in the pasture at home, I truly believe this change is better for us. The problem with having him at home was the limited riding areas available to us. My neighbor has a small arena that they were kind enough to let us use, but the footing was less than ideal, and did I mention it was small? So now that he's moved we have access to two lovely outdoor areas, a round-pen, and and decent sized indoor arena as well. Additional perk is that there land runs along side a state forest with equestrian trails, so we can trail ride without having to trailer. So now we have no reason not to ride! And after last year we need that!

Working in the indoor arena

Also meet the newest member of the family. Nika joined the family in April of 2014, and she will be a 1.5 years in August.

Rider Fitness

This is not my favorite topic. I know that the better shape I am in the better rider I will be. That being said I often lack the commitment and dedication to exercise regularly. This year that is more apparent than ever!

Last year I got this crazy idea that my roommate and I should run a half-marathon, which was 13.1 miles of rain and cold wind (running in wet tennis shoes for almost three hours is not fun! I ended up saying good bye to several toenails). So the point of this is, when I started riding again last spring I was in pretty good shape. Plus I had my maintenance job with the park service to help keep me in shape.

Now this year is a different story! I have not spent my winter running and cross-training with bike riding and yoga. So when I was in the saddle for the first time in months, or rather after I got out of the saddle I was in pain. My thighs protested in every movement. I also do not have my physical labor job this summer to help me gain some physical fitness.

So I decided that I needed to come up with a plan to improve my fitness level. I have decided to break my bike out and log some serious mileage that way (I would run but that is harder on my knees and my half-marathon experience reaffirmed my hatred of running). I also plan to do some Pilates and yoga to help strengthen muscles as well as work on flexibility.

To help me with these goals I purchased a Pilates book provide me with some exercises. I decided on "Pilates For Equestrians" I really like it so far it has a lot of good information on the benefits of Pilates in strengthening core muscle groups used or riding. It also has very clear photos of what the different positions look like (although I do wish there was a DVD so I could see the movements).       

But since Notch's fitness is also very important (and I didn't want him to miss out on the fun :) he got a book too!! "Equine Fitness: A conditioning Program of Exercises and Routines for Your Horse" It has a nice selection of exercises to do with your horse, I already new most of the ones that were in the book but it is nice having them all in one place.













Well now I suppose I should get off the computer and do something productive!

SmartPak

I just want to give a shout out to SmartPak, they are an amazing company an a fabulous representation of how customer service should operate! (This is by no means a paid endorsement, although that would be awesome if it was!!)

I have just finished designing a SmartPak for Notch, after much research and many questions I decided on a hoof supplement and a multi-vitamin.

Do you give supplements to your horse? If so how and why did you decide on what to give?

A little History

I decided that my "About Me" section is a little lacking at the moment so I am going to add some more background here.

So I started riding when I was a sophomore in high school, latter than I would have liked but at least I got to start. I started riding my friends 20 year old Arab cross mare. She was overall a safe ride but was by no means a push button pony. Like most mares I have met she was very opinionated. She was pretty arena sour and was all go, go, go on the trail (I think she missed her calling as an endurance horse).

I rode her for the next 6 years, during this time we competed in one (VERY informal) show. We somehow managed a 2nd place in western pleasure (don't worry we didn't have one of those nasty pleasure lopes) we then had a 4th in western horsemanship and a 6th in the egg and spoon.

Proof that we actually got 2nd and I'm sporting my beautiful show attire lol

And then last summer I met Notch a 4yr old (lazy) quarter horse gelding. It was quite a change going from the mare to Notch, their personalities could not be further apart. The mare was very forward, especially on the trail but even in the arena it was work to slow her down. Mr. Lazypants (aka Notch) is very much the opposite he prefers to mosey around the arena and down the trail. I am trying to figure out what his "dream" occupation would be, other that professional eater of grass, and right now I am leaning towards competitive trail.

Another photo of Notch just because I feel like it :-)

First trail ride of the year

So last weekend I took advantage of the better weather and decided to go on a tail ride with the property owners of the place I board at. It got off to a great start...NOT.

Now keep in mind that Notch has had the winter pretty much free of work. After getting him tacked up I went in the arena to lunge him. Now the other two horses we were with headed out on a quick ride while I got Notch ready. Notch did not like this. The week before Notch had been great on the lunge line, this time he attempted to pull my arm off, and showed off his bronc moves! After a lengthy battle discussion lunging, his horse friends returned. I then mounted and Notch quickly returned to his lazy meandering self.

After a few laps around the arena we left the barn to go out on the trails. This resulted in another discussion over the direction we should travel. After several circles we were finally able to leave the driveway. Once on the trail Notch appeared happy enough, that was until we reached the end of the first loop. This is where Notch decided that we should be done with our ride and head home. We had another argument discussion over which direction to go. Notch finally gave up his efforts and trotted to catch up with the rest of the group.

After that challenge everything was going good, until a grouse tried to eat us. The horse eating grouse flew up out of the grass and Notch completed the fastest spin/rollback I think he is capable of. This resulted in me making an unplanned dismount. I some how managed to land on my feet thankfully! The look on Notch's face when he finally stopped trying to run me over with his rear end was priceless! He looked at me like "Mom why are you on the ground something is trying to eat us!!" I don't hold that one against him because those things scare the bejezus out of me as well!

Edit: I did forget one part. Not long after the spook Notch almost fell. He has developed a bad habit of trotting down hills. This particular hill was semi-slippery due to recent rain. When he hit the turn at the bottom is back end went out from under him, he thankfully caught himself. This would not have been the first time we went down. Last summer we went on a week long camping trip to Wildcat Mtn in southern WI. It is very hilly (hence the Mtn in the name) and can be slippery when wet. Well it was wet and slippery because it had been raining the week before we arrived and some of the trails had not dried out entirely. About half way up a slippery slop Mr. Notch decides to stop to wait for his friends. I told him this was a bad idea and if he continued to stand there he would fall. He didn't listen and went down on his knees. I got off before I could possibly be stuck under him. Well it was just as slippery for me as it was for him so I fell too. In his attempt to stand up he kicked me, thankfully he did not actually put any weight on it or I would have been stuck in the middle of no where with a broken leg. I walked him up the rest of the hill (off the trail where it was not as muddy) and he thankfully was also fine. I ended up with a nice bruise to document our adventures.  

Just thought I would throw in a picture of Notch hanging out at camp. I think this was either the day of the fall or the day after.

So by the end it was a good ride, but I hope the next one goes better. I am sad I am not home this weekend to ride him again; but I only have two more weeks until graduation and then I should have more time to ride!

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

That is how about Mr. Notch right now after having pretty much the entire academic year off. Sure I went out and visited him during the winter and lunged him periodically, but it was not enough. We were having some problems towards the end of the summer resulting in me being thrown twice in one night (did wonders for my confidence NOT!). This bucking at the lope I latter determined was due to an ill fitting saddle (Saddle fit is a whole other story).
Anyways...
During the summer we had spent a lot of time on simple things like turning and stopping. He was really good at turning his head one way and going to other direction. We had made quite a bit o progress and he was working off my aids much better. Then he had way to much time off and it is like we have gone back to square one! It makes me wish I could have boarded him closer to where I go to school instead of 2 hours away. And winter in WI was not helpful even though we had a fairly mild winter compared to other years it always seemed to be at its coldest when I was home. My toes and fingers threatened to fall off and Notch acted like a crazy beast when I lunged him, see example below. Alright I'm rambling I will stop now.

Notch with A LOT of pent up energy

Introductions

The title of this blog about sums up my life right now. I will be graduating from college in about two weeks with a degree in Political Science. What am I planning to do with my degree you ask? Well that is a good question, anyone know how to combine horses and political science?
At the beginning of last summer I had a sort of lease arrangement worked out with a family friend, at the end of the summer I had to decide if I wanted to buy the gelding, if I didn't they were going to sell him. So I bit the bullet and decided to buy him, I couldn't imagine never seeing him again.

Meet Notch my 4 year old quarter horse. Even though it may not have been the best financial decision to purchase a horse right before my senior year of college I do not regret it, even if it means being more broke than normal. The worst part is that I could not afford to board him where I go to school so I did not get to see him as much as I would have liked during the winter.

Well that is all I have for now. Check back for updates on the pony and the post graduation job search.