My barn buzz is wearing off...

I really wish I could get to the barn more often during the week.  With my three year old daughter at home with me and my husband working full time, a mid-week visit to the barn is a rare thing for me.  By the time Wednesday (or Monday mid-day) rolls around I am free falling from my barn high.  I start to get that anxious, pacing, caged tiger feeling.  My clothes are too tight and the house to small.  And heaven help the next person who says "Mom." *sigh*  Just a few more years until kindergarten.  Don't get me wrong, I love my daughter and I like that I get to stay home with her and watch her grow up but somedays it's just too much of a good thing.  So since I can't get to the barn this evening I will share the events of last weekend at the barn to hopefully tide me over until this weekend.

On Saturday I enlisted the help of my old college roommate, Sheila.  I have been wanting to get Rosie trotting on the leadline for awhile.  I had grand visions of entering some halter classes this summer, not because she is a halter horse but just for the experience.  However, I have no way to get to any shows sooooo, that little fantasy is on the back burner for now.  I still wanted her to trot on the lead with me though.  Rosie is a pretty easy going horse and really doesn't see the need to expend energy needlessly so my efforts in getting her to trot along beside had proved futile.  I had heard that one way to get them going was to have one person do the leading and then another person come up behind them with a whip of some sort to provide a little encouragement.  This was the route that we decided to go.  Rosie totally understands lunging so we had that on our side for this little training session.  At first she was like "you want me to do what?" but then with a little wave of the lunge whip and a lot of clucking she finally figured it out.  Not before Sheila and I were totally out of breath though.  We had to trade being the leader and the whip person back and forth a few times.  It had to be the altitude, right?  Anyways, Rosie picked up trotting on the lead pretty quickly, which our out of shape bodies were quite thankful for.  

Next we moved onto putting a saddle pad and surcingle on.  I had done this once before with Rosie but it was like back in June and with our move this summer I just hadn't gotten around to doing it again.  The only thing she really seemed to care about was the tightening process and all she did was turn and look at what I was doing.  I didn't cinch her up real tight, just enough to keep everything from sliding all over.  After I got it on, I sent her out into the round pen and free lunged her for a bit.  She did just one small yee-haw kick and that was it.  I didn't lunge her for too long as it was in the 50's and she still has a pretty good winter coat.  Here she is looking like a big girl with her saddle pad and surcingle on. 

She really doesn't move around with her head down like this, I think she was looking for some food. As you can see, she has missed a few meals!

Well, that was a nice little trip to the barn in my brain, come on Saturday!

Things I've Learned About Horses

I didn't come up with these myself, in fact I stole them off a horsey forum that I frequent but I do agree with most of them.

1. People who don't take care of their own horses will be the first ones to tell you how to care for yours.

2. You should never buy a cheap girth!

3. A handsome horse who's badly behaved will become a lot less attractive in about 15 minutes.

4. People who think they have nothing more to learn about riding hit the ground the hardest.

5. Children and ponies are natural allies and often have identical dispositions.

6. The richest horse people most often look the poorest.

7. The closeness of a horse is one of the sweetest smells in the world.

8. A solitary ride through the woods is more beneficial then six months with the best psychiatrist.

9. The worse a person rides the more likely they are to blame it on the horse.

10. The best thing about going to the barn first thing in the morning is that horses don't care how you look.

11. If a dealer insists a horse is worth twice what he's asking, he's usually worth half that much.

12. The best way to appreciate how another person rides is to get on their horse, but it can also be a quick way to get hurt.

13. I can recognize another horse person no matter what town, city, state, county or country I visit.

14. You can never have too many hoof picks.

15. It is not wise to argue with something that outweighs you by 1,000 pounds

16. I'd rather have a horse with a perfect mind than a horse with a perfect head.

17. If you think you have left the water on in the barn, you have; if you think you have closed the pasture gate, you haven't.

18. When someone asks you if you like their horse, always say 'yes'.

19. The happiest people I know own horses, dogs, cats or at least one deranged goat.

20. If you're looking for the perfect horse, you will never own one.

21. Owning a horse can either make a marriage or break it.

22. I'd rather lose my lipstick than lose my curb chain.

23. You shouldn't talk about your first place ribbon to someone that came in second.

24. If someone says that horse has a little buck, it has a BIG buck.

25. If we need rain, schedule a show.

26. I've never warmed up to someone who didn't want to walk down to the stables to meet my horses.

27. A clean stable and a sparkling horse are among life's great pleasures.

28. Free horses can be FAR too expensive.

29. No matter how badly behaved you are, your horse always gives you a second chance.

30. A more expensive horse doesn't make a better one.

31. I will never ever have an empty stable and I have accepted that fact.

32. Losing a horse can break your heart, but it will have been worth it. If you can't imagine life without a horse... DON'T!

Good day

I managed to make it out to the barn today to see my horse.  It was a gorgeous Colorado late fall day, sunshine and perfect temps, not hot and not cold.  The past two days had been a glimpse of the upcoming winter with high winds and a dusting of snow.  This weekend and the upcoming week are supposed to beautiful though.  This is a picture that I coerced my husband into taking on our way to the feed store.  The mountains are so much prettier in real life, I can never seem to capture how beautiful they are on my camera.  Oh well, I guess I will just have to keep trying!  One can never have too many pictures!

Back to the horse.  I haven't been able to do much with my little Rosie since she arrived here in late September.  She was only here a week when we took off for Maine for ten days, then there was of course the requisite vacation hangover.  Mostly though, it stems from not having any child care during the week.  Then the weekend comes and my husband and I both have things that we want to do so sometimes it works out that I can get out to see her and sometimes it doesn't.  Today it worked out.  This morning I was able to get to the feed store to get her a halter and then after lunch I headed over to the barn.  

When I arrived at the barn she was in her stall thankfully.  She has kind of been a pill to catch out in the large pasture with all her friends.  One of her "friends" in particular has been giving me a headache by ducking under the wire for the pasture fence after I take Rosie out and then coming down the alley behind me.  I think that he thinks I am taking Rosie to the barn to feed her and he isn't about to be left out.  The fence is electrified but I don't think there is enough juice running through it to bother good ole Thunder.  I have told the barn manager about it so hopefully the situation will be fixed soon.  

Today we just did mostly a review of what Rosie already knew to make sure she still remembered it.  After brushing her and picking her feet out we worked on turns on the forehand to the right and the left then turns on the hind end also to the right and left.  She tried to get a little pushy while working on the forehand.  We hadn't been working on that as long in Texas and she had some trouble at the beginning trying to figure out what I was asking her for.  After reminding her that she COULD NOT put her head on top mine and push me out of the way she figured out to cross her front legs one over the other and then I would leave her alone.  I really don't ask for much, just do it right a couple of times and I will leave you alone!  We also worked on giving to pressure on her poll and bending her neck around to both sides to create a soft neck.  We had worked on giving to pressure on her poll before but I realized I had only been doing it from her left side so surprise, surprise when I tried it from her right side today she did do it but not as well as her left side.  That will give us something to work on in the future.  She did really well with the soft neck exercise which we had never done before.  I had wanted to lunge her but all the arenas were in use and I didn't feel like hanging around to see when they would clear out.  On a side note, the indoor arena that is being built where I board is coming along nicely!  Nearly everything on the outside is finished so I guess they will be moving inside to put in the sand, sprinklers, and lights pretty soon.  The estimated completion date is December 1st and it looks like they will probably make it.    

All in all Rosie did really well for all the commotion that was going on.  If nothing else boarding her will give her exposure to lots of different things.  Today for instance, where I had her tied, there were kids getting horses ready for lessons, a cherry picker was working on the indoor arena which was about 150 to 200 feet away and the barn manager had a new green horse in the round pen that he was trying to work about thirty feet away.  The mare had decided that sniffing and squealing with the horses pastured on the other side of the round pen seemed like a productive thing to do.  She's getting an education just by being tied outside!  Lucky for Rosie when we got back the hay fairy had shown up and left her dinner in her stall!

This picture, which is also my profile picture was taken a few weeks ago when I actually did get to lunge her. We had finished up at this point and Rosie was about to get a cookie.  By the way, I hate the pants I am wearing in this picture.  I bought them after my daughter was born because my pre-pregnancy jeans didn't fit and I wasn't about to wear maternity jeans three months after I had given birth.  So I bought these at Old Navy and while they are jeans they have a lot of that stretch material in them and they have stretched in weird ways.  I am just hoping to destroy them so I can get rid of them.  Why don't you just throw them away you say?  Well, did you notice the last part of the title of this blog?  The part that says Yankee?  Well, the word Yankee is code for can't throw anything away, ever, if it can still be used.  That would be a waste and we yankees just don't waste things!