11/17/13

It's boots & chaps, it's cowboy hats.



"It's the broncs and the blood, it's the steers and the mud and they call the thing rodeo."

Yesterday was just awesome. Yesterday, I was feeling really sick to my stomach, which I was really worried about because my brother had just come down with a stomach bug or food poisoning right after he left my house, so I was like, oh shoot. I still felt bad and that morning was pretty awful, just the smell of food completely made me want to puke. But, I took some nausea meds and cowboy'ed up. I had plans to ride and I'd puke off the side of my saddle if I had to. Thankfully I didn't need to. Lol. I'm still recovering from the cold but I'm much better. I'm hoping that what I had/have was the bug so I know it won't get worse or my brother just had food poisoning. I'd rather have the latter so no one else gets it. Since I had meds and possibly immunity from it, that could be why I never, ya know. Puked my guts out.
Anyways, we got there around 1 and went to fetch the ponies. Red decided trotting down the hill after me would be fun so I didn't need to drag him out of the pasture. Took him to the barn and chilled out while the barn was being filled with horses and then I took him in to tie and tack up. He was acting super tired, lol. Got him tacked up and took some "glam shots" of Spirit the Arabian, lol.
Ole blue eyes.
Not glam at all, lol. Tacking up Spirit.
 Red was acting really stubborn and didn't want to leave the barn. I was kind of worried that something was going on. No stiffness or issues. I hopped on and got him going and it was apparent that he was just being lazy because with a little nudge and the cue, he took off trotting up the hills and had no problems whatsoever.
"I would never scare or trick you, silly human!"
 "A" brought her little granddaughter out, we'll call her "K", so we got the buddy saddle all attached to Patches and we were off. At that time, it was only me, "A", "K" and mom. We got about halfway down the driveway to the fruit and berry patch and "AM" showed up so we went back and let her tack up Annabelle for a ride so she could come. Mom was worried that Spirit would act up since he's super barn sour and will buck/rear and bunny hop because of it, but he turned around perfectly, stayed at a walk and when it was time to go back to the trails, he was excellent. Woah, do shoes make that much of a difference? Lol!!

Red also stood like a gentleman and never moved or fussed, so props to him-but he always does that so I guess it's not a big deal? Haha.
Off we go!! (With my stupid hair lol) (PS: I'm in the plaid, "AM" is next to me and Red and those ears are Patches, photo taken by "A".
 So we went back to the fruit and berry patch after that and took a really calm walk through it. Until Annabelle and Red decided to race. We trotted for a few minutes and settled down. Took a different path but found a HUGE swarm of bees and decided to turnnnn around. We circled the patch and decided to head back to the subdivision.
Ugh instagram kills quality.
 I also found a road called "Hartland" which of course reminded me of the show "Heartland". I had to take a photo. ;)

This makes us both look really weird......he was standing on a hill and mom randomly said, "Smile!" as I was in mid back.


Since we didn't want them walking on concrete for long, we only stayed in for a few minutes. A few cars passed by which was great tests for the parade-PS: the conflict of dates was fixed and I'm GOING!!-and none of the horses freaked. A guy looked at us like, "uhhhh...where did y'all come from?" when we passed by. Red chose that moment to canter off into the sunset and so, being a dramatic person, I through my arms out in the air and said, "I FEEL LIKE I'M IN THE BLACK STALLION!"
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_W27Dku0WTTg/TVB9VjEcErI/AAAAAAAADBI/mp4gNFDre9I/s400/black_stallioni02.jpg
Okay so maybe we weren't on the beach.
Just to make the guy squirm. ;)

Once we were done in there, we went back to the fruit and berry patch and rode around for another 35 or so minutes. Went through the corn maze again because "K" wanted to, even though there wasn't much corn left at all and we could all see through it.
 
 
 "AM" let Annabelle lead without any "steering" and she ended up being the smartest pony in the group and led us out the correct way, with Red trying to get right next to her or lay his head on her butt-which I didn't let happen, obviously. ;) Red absoloutly refuses to let her get too far away, and the moment she does anything, he's gotta do it, too. Which s a habit we're working on. I'm his rider, not Annabelle! Even if his little mare friend trots, that doesn't mean I want him to. He has to learn that sometimes, you don't have to follow the crowd. ;) Which he ended up doing really well, to be honest. We got to show off our little "kissy" powers as "K" called them. Red responds the most to noises. For instance, if we're stopped and I make the kiss noise, he knows to go at a walk without me kicking or nudging him. If I cluck my tongue, that's a sign for a trot. I almost never have to give him any kind of leg pressure unless I want to go faster, and even then, it's a little nudge and he knows. I would say perks of having a trained horse but a lot of that has improved drastically since I had him and he didn't do the trot cue, so I guess perks of having a really smart and willing horse that was half-trained. Lol!
Pretty much how the whole ride was spent. Red and Annabelle, side by side. Totally different horses. One's fat with a big butt and one has more of an athletic build. She had EPM awhile back and she's finally gaining weight back. :) We're all happy for Ms. Annabelle!!

Spirit is too fabulous to keep his eyes open for photos.
 This was probably the best ride Spirit's ever had, no joke. He did so, so good today. He literally almost never acted up other than one moment when mom had to dismount to help "A" fix the buddy seat and he wanted to move when she was mounting, but that was fixed in seconds and he did really good. It's either a mixture of the spurs and shoes or he's just become a better horse randomly, but the last two rides have been so much better. Mom is dreading the next farrier visit because that's when he acted up so bad the last time. Worst thing ever.

After that we started heading back to the barn. I have more photos from the trails and etc but this post is getting long. ;)

Once everyone was at the barn and ready to untack, me and "AM" decided to take Red and Annabelle out to our trails for a little workout since they weren't that tired and they hadn't really done anything more than a walk. Plus it was super nice out and breezy so they weren't overheated or cold. We trotted through almost all of the trails other than a few of the muddy or rocky places, then when we got up to the back pasture, Red kind of came alive like always and wanted to lope so we cantered up the hill with Annabelle. Once he saw Annabelle leaving him behind, he started going faster so I just let him loose, grabbed mane and we galloped away. ;) It seems like I always have these awesome things happen-like cantering for the first time!!-when mom is away and she never believes me but luckily I had a witness today. :D We went for another lap after we took them around the creek to cool off and Red managed to beat Annebelle when they were galloping. Quarter Horse-who was a dressage/western pleasure/lesson/cattle horse and LAZY- vs. Thoroughbred-who was a race horse before she was turned into a jumper and dressage horse-and my guy actually won and I was impressed. After that we decided to take them back home. We'd been up there for another 25 or so minutes. We figured they were about done with the whole running thing but when we were going up "the deadly hill" as I call it after my near death going up it while doubling, ;), and Annabelle trotted up it, Red decided he couldn't be outdone and galloped up it, too. Once again, beating a galloping Annabelle. Booyah.

Patches was giving lessons to some little kids in the front yard now, so the kids saw us galloping up the hill and were thoroughly impressed. They were the same little girls that got to ride Red a couple weeks back. Well, they sat on him. Apparently their grandmother thought that Red was incapable of moving fast since he wouldn't even walk with the kids but I explained Red's fondness of kids. ;) No moving too fast, just in case. Don't wanna hurt the kiddos!

We got back up there, untacked some tired ponies and got Red settled in the barn. He got to run around the barn instead of being stalled since we're currently one stall short. Gave him treats and a massage, plus the kids ran in there and gave him some lovin' with me. I love how he acts with the kids. He lowers his head down to them, let's them do whatever they want and just stands there and soaks it up.

Galloping was fun but geeze am I sore.

7 comments:

  1. It looks to me like you need to drop your stirrups a notch or maybe two. You are sitting with your legs in front of you (chair seat) and you should be able to get your legs back a little bit (which will help your eq) if you lengthen your stirrups. You might try it and see how it feels.

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    1. I've tried to drop them before and my EQ looked awful, plus I felt awkward and super uncomfortable the whole time. For some reason, I can't handle super long stirrups. Maybe I need to ride English full time, haha!!!

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  2. Replies
    1. It was one of the best rides we've had, no doubt!

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  3. So jealous of your trail ride! looks like you have some cool places to go to! There's really nothing around where I keep Wiz :\ And I ALWAYS have to beat wiz to get out of the pasture now, it's sad. He use to come right up to me! :'{ It's a good feeling though when they come trotting up to you!

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    1. I used to have to bring a crop everywhere because he was so stinkin' stubborn. :P Some days, he's stubborn and is like, "Oh, no, not moving." but most days he's pretty content with walking along with me or running with me.

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  4. Hmm… I read blogs on a similar topic, but i never visited your blog. I added it to favorites and i’ll be your constant reader. Stetson Hats

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