Time has flown by these past couple days with having so much to do!
Saturday- The lesson went really well. Elizabeth seemed pleased that he was so willing to go forward (although at times a bit too forward). he was consistent with circles, although the end of the circles closest to the barn, he would swing his hind end and go through my aids. He was also very light in his head, and wasn't pulling me down to the ground, with was great! After taking a break from the first trot, and returning to trot, he seemed displeased to work, by throwing his head in the air and trotting around like a giraffe. (I switched the nose band for the next day to use with a standing martingale). We got him to canter both directions, the second time getting into the canter was harder, because he was tired. He held a nice frame at the canter the first time, and then second time, I had to help him keep his front end up because he was falling asleep. But overall he was a very good boy.
Sunday- I only had a short time to ride, because I needed to leave to go to my ponyclub HB prep. I just did mostly walking with him, with some trotting in circles and up and down the hills. we also walked over a little trunk of a tree that had fallen and was in our way, and he walked over it quietly, and was a nice boy about it. He was also very excited, and wanted to run, but he's too wobbly and wiggly, and not to mention out of shape for that right now! he was sweating after a 30 minute workout, because it was a bit warm out, and got a nice hose down after, which he didn't seem too pleased about. I should build an outdoor wash rack, because he stood nicely at Elizabeth's when I washed him.
Today- Today was his 'day off' I just took him out on a halter and walked a few laps with him aroudn the ring, and one lap each way of trot/running. At times during the trot, he would try to bite out at me, which I made it clear to him was unacceptable. After our few laps, I walked him over to the small bank (about 18") and tried to get him to step down after me. He felt uncomfortable, and stepped down around it, on the steep sides. I told him no, then turned him and walked up it, and he followed me. Pats and words of praise were given and we turned around to go down again. once more, he seemed unsure of what was being asked and he went off to the side. Turned him back and went up, and was good again. Then I stepped to the other side of him when walking down the bank, and he watched me go down and he quietly stepped down! Good boy! Pats and rubs for him, and I went back and did it another 3 times. All times he was very good. I then walked him over to the little ditch, and he stopped to eat grass before it, and I said no, and he popped right over it! I did this once more, and went back to the bank, and he was jigging on the way to it, and popped up it! He was a very good boy, going over his first cross country obstacles, and the most important ones anyone wants to see a horse doing, and he did them like an old pro! It started to rain, so we hurried back to the barn, and was put away.
Tomorrow we have a pony club lesson, of Cross country. Although Jesse and I won't be jumping, we'll be doing some ground poles in the field and maybe the baby drop and that fallen log again.
Hooray!
sorry, no pictures for today!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Welcome Home!
Very excited!
Jesse James is now at my house, (although it took an hour and forty five minutes to leave his old home, and we had to call in the reserves, aka Elizabeth) he and Fei get along great.
He was sweaty coming off of the trailer, because a 20 minute trailer ride is the scariest thing ever, like seriously. He got hosed down, and was checking out the big pile of wood, and Brutus the tractor. Overall, he was very well behaved about the new situation.
Fei obviously was in her stall screaming because she was excited also. Jesse got scraped down then let in the paddock for an hour or so while they ate some hay.
Pictures of Fei and Jesse meeting for the first time. (Fei is in the flymask, Jesse has the halter on)
Running around like fools
Fei being a crazy TB, that doesn't look like she's retired
Jesse almost being a pest
Lovebugs
Munchin' on some hay
They were being goofballs, and anytime Jesse would wander into his stall, Fei would panic and scream for him, and he'd stay in there, but poke out his head, like he was playing around with her.
I let them eat for a bout an hour, while I went inside and impatiently waited for my food. I wanted to ride so bad!
Finally, food was cooked, and then I rushed to the barn again.
I grabbed Jesse, who is very good about getting caught (at least with a halter on). We wandered into the aisle, and he got a nice brushing. His bridle path was trimmed, and his mane and tail were also combed out. He also got his mane braided quickly, because I hate riding and having the mane tangle in my hands.
Then I saddled him and put on the bridle, which I had to adjust, because its miss espresso's, and her head is not like an arab's. :P after that was all done, we went for a 20 minute or so ride!
He took a bit of getting used to, because my backyard is so crazy looking with a skeleton of a greenhouse, and some raspberry bushes (?) and crazy cross country (!) fences. He settled down a bit with a few laps of walk and a change of direction.
I soon asked him to trot, and he was great! He was a little bit looky, since my mom and brother and the doggie were coming up to the ring. After a lap or so, he got the idea, and reached into the contact, and was round through his back. He was holding himself very well for me having only ridden him 3 times prior to this ride, and once by another girl in early spring, and before that, he was a pasture pony for 6 months. We did some circles and serpentines, and a couple leg yields at the walk. He was very good, it took a bit of prodding for him to remember what a leg yield was, but he got the hang after a try. He also didn't suck back on the short sides (although, to be fair, my ring's short sides aren't so short). After about 20 minutes of walking and trotting, we took a lap in the grassy XC jump area while we cooled off. He was excited, and wanted to trot down the hill, but I brought him down to a walk again. The ride was very good, to say the least.
Picture time again!
walking around and looking at everything.
Hillary, where are your eyes!
BEST picture ever, it makes me so excited about this horse!
Trotting around
leg yield at the walk.
trot circles
My mom liked how I did his mane. It only took 5 minutes, and it looks dumb, because I took too much from the top, so it's not even straight. UGH.
Funny faces!
After the ride, we walked back to the barn, and he got brushed, and got some thrush buster, because his hooves were all yicky on the inside. He also got some EQyss MicroTek on his hind legs for a bit of rainrot.
Then he got his tail brushed because it was a but tangled still, and it got a trim! yay! now his tail is banged, but it's so sparse at the bottom, that it doesn't really look different... Gotta fix that...
A half hour or so later he got his grain, and then a bit later the ponies got shut in for the night.
Tomorrow at ten I have a lesson, so more pictures then! woo!
Jesse James is now at my house, (although it took an hour and forty five minutes to leave his old home, and we had to call in the reserves, aka Elizabeth) he and Fei get along great.
He was sweaty coming off of the trailer, because a 20 minute trailer ride is the scariest thing ever, like seriously. He got hosed down, and was checking out the big pile of wood, and Brutus the tractor. Overall, he was very well behaved about the new situation.
Fei obviously was in her stall screaming because she was excited also. Jesse got scraped down then let in the paddock for an hour or so while they ate some hay.
Pictures of Fei and Jesse meeting for the first time. (Fei is in the flymask, Jesse has the halter on)
Running around like fools
Fei being a crazy TB, that doesn't look like she's retired
Jesse almost being a pest
Lovebugs
Munchin' on some hay
They were being goofballs, and anytime Jesse would wander into his stall, Fei would panic and scream for him, and he'd stay in there, but poke out his head, like he was playing around with her.
I let them eat for a bout an hour, while I went inside and impatiently waited for my food. I wanted to ride so bad!
Finally, food was cooked, and then I rushed to the barn again.
I grabbed Jesse, who is very good about getting caught (at least with a halter on). We wandered into the aisle, and he got a nice brushing. His bridle path was trimmed, and his mane and tail were also combed out. He also got his mane braided quickly, because I hate riding and having the mane tangle in my hands.
Then I saddled him and put on the bridle, which I had to adjust, because its miss espresso's, and her head is not like an arab's. :P after that was all done, we went for a 20 minute or so ride!
He took a bit of getting used to, because my backyard is so crazy looking with a skeleton of a greenhouse, and some raspberry bushes (?) and crazy cross country (!) fences. He settled down a bit with a few laps of walk and a change of direction.
I soon asked him to trot, and he was great! He was a little bit looky, since my mom and brother and the doggie were coming up to the ring. After a lap or so, he got the idea, and reached into the contact, and was round through his back. He was holding himself very well for me having only ridden him 3 times prior to this ride, and once by another girl in early spring, and before that, he was a pasture pony for 6 months. We did some circles and serpentines, and a couple leg yields at the walk. He was very good, it took a bit of prodding for him to remember what a leg yield was, but he got the hang after a try. He also didn't suck back on the short sides (although, to be fair, my ring's short sides aren't so short). After about 20 minutes of walking and trotting, we took a lap in the grassy XC jump area while we cooled off. He was excited, and wanted to trot down the hill, but I brought him down to a walk again. The ride was very good, to say the least.
Picture time again!
walking around and looking at everything.
Hillary, where are your eyes!
BEST picture ever, it makes me so excited about this horse!
Trotting around
leg yield at the walk.
trot circles
My mom liked how I did his mane. It only took 5 minutes, and it looks dumb, because I took too much from the top, so it's not even straight. UGH.
Funny faces!
After the ride, we walked back to the barn, and he got brushed, and got some thrush buster, because his hooves were all yicky on the inside. He also got some EQyss MicroTek on his hind legs for a bit of rainrot.
Then he got his tail brushed because it was a but tangled still, and it got a trim! yay! now his tail is banged, but it's so sparse at the bottom, that it doesn't really look different... Gotta fix that...
A half hour or so later he got his grain, and then a bit later the ponies got shut in for the night.
Tomorrow at ten I have a lesson, so more pictures then! woo!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
A new adventure.
I got a call from my trainer, letting me know that she was willing to let Jesse be trailered off of the property for another try on him. I called her back at the beginning of this week, and we settled on a Thursday lesson.
We picked up my trainer on the way to Jesse's home at 5:15, so she could help us load him. (Good thing she was with us!) We wrapped his front legs, and went to the trailer. This horse was stubborn. He would go up the ramp, halfway in, and then back out. We kept trying different things to get him in, and then called in the grain, and eventually it worked. We left the property at 5:55, a whole 40 minutes trying to get the little booger onto the trailer. The ride to my trainer's is short, only about 5 minutes. As we pulled up, and stopped in her driveway, Jesse started acting up, almost doing a piaffe in the trailer. When we got him off, he was drenched. He was so nervous in that trailer that he was (seriously) dripping sweat onto my arms as I unwrapped his legs!
I sweat scraped him, then tacked him up, because there was almost no use in brushing the poor, frightened boy. He was pretty good tacking up, although was a bit excited, because I don't think he's been off of the property in over 9 months. I walked him down to the indoor, tightened the girth, and hopped on up. For the first 5 minutes, we walked around the indoor, and checked out the dressage letters, and the pink plastic flamingos, and the albino one too. He wasn't too thrilled about getting too close to the flamingos, but got over them within a time or two around the ring. (by the way, I was prepared with spurs on, and had a dressage whip waiting if I needed additional encouragement to go forward :D ) After a few laps, and once he settled in, I asked for the trot, and got a nice response out of him. He seemed a lot more springy and excited to go forward, which I found a bit relieving... I was liking Jesse a lot more! He would still suck back in the corners, going into the short side, and to solve that, I asked for a larger trot down the long side, so that if he sucked back in the corners, he'd still be moving through the short side.
When I asked for the more forward trot down the long sides, he would seek contact with my hand and accept the bit (although not on a frame, which was fine by me for now!) and would pick up his back. I wasn't sure if he was trying to buck, because I don't know him or his habits all that much, but it seemed like he was happy, and stretching through his back (Great!).
I had him do some circles, and through the second half I'd be kicking him to keep the momentum. We also did some serpentines, which were OK, only because he didn't quite want to move forward through them. After 5 or so minutes, we gave him a little breather, and my trainer decided that we would see how he reacted to ground poles. She placed two ground poles next to each other, and I asked Jesse for a trot, and kept my leg on him, as he trotted happily over them and he didn't even bat an eye! This was getting better by the minute!
(My trainer and I were unsure about Jesse's background in jumping, because she had talked to Jerry, who said he had never seen this horse jump before)
So after we went over the two poles, my trainer put a third pole on top of the two, and made a little pyramid of poles, and we trotted over that. He was great again! so, for the next time around, she put standards next to the poles, and made and eensy weensy cross rail. Jesse saw it, and seemed excited and happy. He pricked his ears, flicking them back and forth, listening to my aids, and went over it nicely! We even got some canter after the pole! She raised the cross rail two holes (now it was only eensy) and he jumped HUGE over the cross rail, and was such a good boy (did I mention I was in my dressage saddle?! Ouch!) I got a little canter out of him, and he came back nicely to the trot when asked. He was such a good boy the whole time, that I was just getting to like him more and more!
After I cooled him down I hopped off, and hand walked him, ready to pop him one in the nose if he tried to take a chunk out of my arm with his teeth. I think he;s starting to get the message around me, that nipping is not OK. I would turn my head and he would try to go for it, and I would turn my head back towards him, and he would throw his head in the opposite direction. Silly boy!
After he was done, he went to go get a bath! Brought him over to the washing area, and cross tied him. It took him a while to get onto the rubber mats, because they wer lumpy and black and had holes and rocks in them and were seriously, oh so scary. we eventually walked him around and through the back and it was all good. turned on the water, watered him down, and he was good! Stood like and angel, althoguh was a bit fidgety at first. Didn't even look at the hose as I went in front of him and it snaked by his toes. Woo! Scraped him off, and then went back to the trailer to wrap and load.
Wrapping took 5 minutes, loading took 40 again. I tried loading him this time, and he ran through me a couple times (Note to self, when teaching this horse to load, use a chain.) so we had my trainer get him on. When we got him on, she didn't have enough time to grab the bucket out from the trailer, so it was almost under him while he was doing his little piaffe-like moves. and he was freaking out and had no time to tie him, so my dad went into the other side of the trailer, grabbed the bucket amongst flying legs(very brave man), and ran to the car and yelled our goodbyes out of the window, because once he's in you move (almost like a bank robbery or something, you grab the cash, and run before the cop comes, except in this case you run before the trailer flips. ;] )
Back at his home, we talked to his owner while we hosed him off again ( as he was drenched from the ride back) and talked about him a bit. Apparently, the reason he tries to bite as you tighten the girth is because at a show with his old trainer, he had ringworm, or something hurting at his girth area, and never forgot it. I asked her whether she had known if Jesse had ever jumped before, saying that we had talked to Jerry, and he's never seen this horse jump. She told us that she had never seen this horse jump, and had no idea if he'd ever jumped or seen a fence in his life. Interesting.
But for final notes for the day: Jesse will be coming to my house for a month or so trial, soemtime next week! I'm so excited! When he comes, I will share a ton of pictures!
We picked up my trainer on the way to Jesse's home at 5:15, so she could help us load him. (Good thing she was with us!) We wrapped his front legs, and went to the trailer. This horse was stubborn. He would go up the ramp, halfway in, and then back out. We kept trying different things to get him in, and then called in the grain, and eventually it worked. We left the property at 5:55, a whole 40 minutes trying to get the little booger onto the trailer. The ride to my trainer's is short, only about 5 minutes. As we pulled up, and stopped in her driveway, Jesse started acting up, almost doing a piaffe in the trailer. When we got him off, he was drenched. He was so nervous in that trailer that he was (seriously) dripping sweat onto my arms as I unwrapped his legs!
I sweat scraped him, then tacked him up, because there was almost no use in brushing the poor, frightened boy. He was pretty good tacking up, although was a bit excited, because I don't think he's been off of the property in over 9 months. I walked him down to the indoor, tightened the girth, and hopped on up. For the first 5 minutes, we walked around the indoor, and checked out the dressage letters, and the pink plastic flamingos, and the albino one too. He wasn't too thrilled about getting too close to the flamingos, but got over them within a time or two around the ring. (by the way, I was prepared with spurs on, and had a dressage whip waiting if I needed additional encouragement to go forward :D ) After a few laps, and once he settled in, I asked for the trot, and got a nice response out of him. He seemed a lot more springy and excited to go forward, which I found a bit relieving... I was liking Jesse a lot more! He would still suck back in the corners, going into the short side, and to solve that, I asked for a larger trot down the long side, so that if he sucked back in the corners, he'd still be moving through the short side.
When I asked for the more forward trot down the long sides, he would seek contact with my hand and accept the bit (although not on a frame, which was fine by me for now!) and would pick up his back. I wasn't sure if he was trying to buck, because I don't know him or his habits all that much, but it seemed like he was happy, and stretching through his back (Great!).
I had him do some circles, and through the second half I'd be kicking him to keep the momentum. We also did some serpentines, which were OK, only because he didn't quite want to move forward through them. After 5 or so minutes, we gave him a little breather, and my trainer decided that we would see how he reacted to ground poles. She placed two ground poles next to each other, and I asked Jesse for a trot, and kept my leg on him, as he trotted happily over them and he didn't even bat an eye! This was getting better by the minute!
(My trainer and I were unsure about Jesse's background in jumping, because she had talked to Jerry, who said he had never seen this horse jump before)
So after we went over the two poles, my trainer put a third pole on top of the two, and made a little pyramid of poles, and we trotted over that. He was great again! so, for the next time around, she put standards next to the poles, and made and eensy weensy cross rail. Jesse saw it, and seemed excited and happy. He pricked his ears, flicking them back and forth, listening to my aids, and went over it nicely! We even got some canter after the pole! She raised the cross rail two holes (now it was only eensy) and he jumped HUGE over the cross rail, and was such a good boy (did I mention I was in my dressage saddle?! Ouch!) I got a little canter out of him, and he came back nicely to the trot when asked. He was such a good boy the whole time, that I was just getting to like him more and more!
After I cooled him down I hopped off, and hand walked him, ready to pop him one in the nose if he tried to take a chunk out of my arm with his teeth. I think he;s starting to get the message around me, that nipping is not OK. I would turn my head and he would try to go for it, and I would turn my head back towards him, and he would throw his head in the opposite direction. Silly boy!
After he was done, he went to go get a bath! Brought him over to the washing area, and cross tied him. It took him a while to get onto the rubber mats, because they wer lumpy and black and had holes and rocks in them and were seriously, oh so scary. we eventually walked him around and through the back and it was all good. turned on the water, watered him down, and he was good! Stood like and angel, althoguh was a bit fidgety at first. Didn't even look at the hose as I went in front of him and it snaked by his toes. Woo! Scraped him off, and then went back to the trailer to wrap and load.
Wrapping took 5 minutes, loading took 40 again. I tried loading him this time, and he ran through me a couple times (Note to self, when teaching this horse to load, use a chain.) so we had my trainer get him on. When we got him on, she didn't have enough time to grab the bucket out from the trailer, so it was almost under him while he was doing his little piaffe-like moves. and he was freaking out and had no time to tie him, so my dad went into the other side of the trailer, grabbed the bucket amongst flying legs(very brave man), and ran to the car and yelled our goodbyes out of the window, because once he's in you move (almost like a bank robbery or something, you grab the cash, and run before the cop comes, except in this case you run before the trailer flips. ;] )
Back at his home, we talked to his owner while we hosed him off again ( as he was drenched from the ride back) and talked about him a bit. Apparently, the reason he tries to bite as you tighten the girth is because at a show with his old trainer, he had ringworm, or something hurting at his girth area, and never forgot it. I asked her whether she had known if Jesse had ever jumped before, saying that we had talked to Jerry, and he's never seen this horse jump. She told us that she had never seen this horse jump, and had no idea if he'd ever jumped or seen a fence in his life. Interesting.
But for final notes for the day: Jesse will be coming to my house for a month or so trial, soemtime next week! I'm so excited! When he comes, I will share a ton of pictures!
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