New Kicks.

Went out to ride today around 3 ish. When we pulled up, Spirit was out playing with the others and seemed fine, but upon closer inspection we came to the conclusion that our farrier was right and he may need shoes, at least short term. I'm a big barefoot advocate, not one of those, "SHOE ALL THE HORSES!" types, but I do think some horses really need shoes and Spirit may be one of them..dreading the fee for it but looking forward to less lameness. We shall see when and if he really gets his new kicks. We're still hoping that he will be okay without them but right now mom's sure that he'll get them. She doesn't like shoes either but she likes healthy horses, obviously.

Anyways, we went and all of the horses were in front, yay, A and R pulled up right behind us which was awesome. Got Red on the lead and Tucker went after him and had a little fiasco. My first time in the middle of a horsey fight. :P Red freaked, which isn't normal. He typically just lays back but he wasn't expecting it. He ran in a few circles and pulled away from me. I ran after Tucker and shooed him away, then calmly walked to Red, held my hands out and called for him. Finally, he settled down and walked straight to me and refused to leave my side. No wounds, just a scare!! Red didn't go after Tucker but ran off which I think made it worse. :( I took him to the fence to tie him and he got lots of lovin'.

We ordered some stuff from Chicks before we left for Florida and got it from a wonderful neighbors house where they were getting our mail. :) Little things..two pairs of spurs, a clip for my breast collar so it snaps instead of fastens, some stirrup straps since I was borrowing A's after mine disappeared, and a new curb strap for Spirit. Got my breast collar and stirrups fixed!! Woohoo!! I no longer have super long stirrups and it was ah-ma-zing.

I somehow managed to tack this while lugging my saddle, pad, and breast collar to tack him up.He says, "please, no pictures. I am far too gorgeous for your silly blog."

While I was getting beefcake all tacked up, mom decided to walk Spirit to the barn and try to bridle him to see how he did. He really wasn't acting in pain so mom decided to hop on him bareback if he checked out. No limping, so she tried it. But more on that later...

Worked on Red's standing still while mounting. A and I went ahead on the trails while mom got Spirit-boy settled. She apparently mounted easily but stayed behind us for awhile since we got a head start.

I started using a pair of blunt spurs, like these:

 Because Red's been having some little issues with stubborness. Not to jab at him or anything, but when he acts up, just to give him a little poke. These are really mild. As far as I know, he's never been spurred, but I think he probably has. Can't say for sure. He didn't act up at all with them. I only had to use them, maybe, 3 times tops. Once at a hill we go down and twice in the front pasture that we rode in after the trail ride.

He did great with them, never acted up once and didn't seem fazed. He responded to them well so I'm excited.

A and I trotted around the back pasture a lot, the stirrups. Le sigh, they made such a difference. :) I also open reined today. I need to keep my reins lower and it helped a TON. Plus Red did SO much better with it and it allows me to sit deeper easier. They could still be lower but it improved drastically today.

Once we were done there and had ridden for about 30+ minutes we decided to head back since we hadn't seen mom for awhile..needed to check on Spirit. When we got back she was in the run in with Spirit. He had acted up a ton, she thinks it was mostly from not being worked for a few weeks because he didn't seem tender. :(

I took Red out to the front pasture since we had only ridden for a short period of time and rode around for another 30 minutes. Pretty easy work, only trotted a couple times and worked into a really fast trot.  His trot is about the speed of a typical Quarter Horse canter so we were booking it up the pasture. :)) He is always stubborn in that area because he wants in the run in but didn't fight me as much today as normal. The babies were loose in that pasture so that didn't help, but they stayed in the run in and never bothered us, as per usual.

Excuses are bad, but the only reason my reins are so high in this and I'm not open reining is because we were slowing to a stop and he was being a brat about it. :))

Later, A joined me. She had ridden Patches but switched out with Bay and rode her bareback.

Me: "I AM KING OF THE HILL!" Red: "Shut up mom, you are so, so, so embarrassing!!"

See my heels, they are DOWN. Woot.

And now, photo dump.

He looks so cute.

Muh hur.

Whata butt.

Going to the tree...

Around the tree..

I had one fail moment that I SO wish was caught on video. Red and I, we were running full force. All of a sudden he's like, "NO I MUST RUN INTO ALL THE THINGS" and ran me into a really annoying tree with very annoying, pesky limbs. Kinda like this tree:

And I literally had tiny sharp leaf thingies IN my shirt and IN my pants. Red wasn't fazed although R laughed at me. A lot. :( It was hilarious though.....although said sharp leaves really hurt when I trotted. LOL.

We played around for a few minutes then mom got on Red because she hasn't ridden him in months. Apparently she thought Red was still lazy and I was just having to push him a ton to get him going but as soon as she got on, Red proved her wrong. :)) He took off galloping with her. She claimed her canter felt like he was bucking. :( But she still admitting, AND I QUOTE: "He has a rough gait and probably always will but he's the best horse ever." IN YO FACE SPIRIT.

Took Redman back to the barn after about an hour+ ride and untacked, loved on him. Talked. Gave him a massage with the magnetic curry thingy that he adores and hung out.

"I refuse to put my ears up woman."

So yeah, fun day. :) He got to run around the barn because the stalls were all taken up but he loved it. He ran to each stall like "bahahaha I'm out and you areeeen't!!!"

Jericho is lame right now, not sure why, but we were checking on him and Red peeked his head through the stall next to me and kept trying to eat my shirt sleeve until I came out and gave him his treats. Attention hog.

Horseflies.

Went for a ride today!! Went out at 12:30 and everyone was already tacking up, A had her grandson with her with was fun! :) He's about two or three. Mom felt up to it so she got Spirit to the barn and tacked him up, J had to help her carry the saddle since she can't lift over 4 pounds until 6 weeks post surgery. I brought Red down with the help of Bay-Bay and tied him out front with Patches and Hercules. Lady, C's horse, was lame, we think she tripped and hurt herself, so he rode Hercules. He gave Hercules to R awhile back so it's nice for him to have the ability to ride him! Hercules is actually Lady's colt. The horse flies were HORRIBLE today..the bugs weren't that bad but the horse flies were everywhere. Red stood really well and did fantastic while I tacked him up. He was sleeping the majority of the time so I doubted that he'd be energetic today! :)) A helped me figure out the breast collar because I still can't tie it right. Gonna invest in some of the clips for it, lol!! Got him all tacked up and fly sprayed a fly to death. At the last minute I decided to try my splints again so I got those on. They actually didn't slip as bad today so I'll see....medicine boots are so far in my dreams but I can't afford them ATM, so the splints will have to do. They worked well today. He came back with no nicks or anything on his legs and was much less bugged by the flies on his legs.

I hopped on before anyone else just so I could do some work on his mounting. He tends to want to move when I mount but he's improving little by little. He did SO good with it today!!! Got off because of ANOTHER dang fly but I got back on without him fussing. The fly left a pretty good mark on him so I was surprised when he just calmed right down when I got back on.. We just kinda sat there until everyone else mounted. He didn't walk when I got on him, which is what I wanted, since the others were still working I needed him to be quiet and not be a distraction, which he did perfectly, yay! After that, we were off...I took the lead and cantered Red up farther. He's a follower, NOT a leader, so I wanted to test him a little just to see how he did. Hercules was having some issues..It's only his third or fourth time out of the round pen, so considering that, he did really well. He ended up staying down there for awhile, lol. C worked on him a lot though and went on a couple of the trails by himself and we met up a few times. Red wanted to stop a few times so a couple smacks on his butt took place, lol!

Hercules and Red. NOTE: I don't allow my horses to get up too close during rides, but Hurk literally came running and I was taking a between the ears shot, this kinda just happened. :)) Red was moved up front about a second later.

We went through all of the trails and rode for about an hour. It was really hot out in the pastures so we stuck to the trails where it was shady. Once we got to the rockier area Red just stopped and I had to pick up a little twig and use it as a crop, a tiny tap got him going again. The rocks don't feel good, even when your horse has amazing feet, so I took it really slow. Once he got to the big open, ten acres, he was ready to run. I tapped him on the butt and he worked into a canter, then, finally WE GALLOPED! Yes!! :D I am so excited. Almost a year later..we finally gallop. Yipee!! We stopped shortly though. ;) Spirit wanted to run with us and mom had to take him way out to the end of the pasture, so once she was gone I talked to A and G-her grandson-and took a break in the shade, after that we walked around the creek line and I galloped a few more times around the pasture, cantered around the fenceline. G kept getting hit by Patches tail, he was doubling with A and kept saying, "PATCHES, NOOO! Stop hitting me!" and "Mimi, she's HITTING me!!"

Just a note: He had on a helmet but we took it off during breaks and A held onto him the whole time. :) The helmet was a bit large on him, lol!!

After that, mom came back 'round.

 Another stupid fly stung him and made him bunny hop, I dismounted to kill it because it kept trying to sting me plus I thought the test would be good. He REFUSED to let me back on but after about three minutes I was back on and he did great again,
 
We headed back after another lap. We went the long way around, where you pass about three hills that the horses tend to want to run up. Patches and Spirit were pretty insistent on wanted to go up them, but Red just followed and didn't mind. It was getting breezy and I kind of think he enjoyed the breezy, slow walk.

Once we walked back, we saw C on Hurk up near the house, so we turned back around. Red acted like he wanted to go back in the barn but once he noticed he was being left behind, he trotted up the hill and said hello. :) We all walked to the barn and got J to take some pictures.. A has some better ones of all of us on her phone so I'll have more pictures later, when she posts them on FB.


Once we were done taking pictures I took Red in the barn and tied him at his stall, near the fan so he could cool off. Got the sweat scraper and got all that nasty junk off. :)) He got some lovin' from G too :) He LOVES kids. No wonder he was a lesson horse ;) Gave him some treats and let him hang out while I put my stuff away.

Ignore his twisted splint, G was looking at them and asked why he had "cowboy horse boots on" and one of the straps got undone.

Pretty sure everytime I see him, I love him more. Despite his random stubborness, he did so good. Every time we go on a ride mom ends up saying something like, "ya know, he is just a good horse." or something along those lines. :) :) He really is a good horse, through and through. He's sound, he has a wonderful personality. He RUNS now, and wants to. Before he literally only walked or he would just be horrible. I'm so happy that he's actually enjoying his job now.

Him doing this every time I come to the barn or leave and whinny at me, plus just being gorgeous, helps a lot too. ;)

Hoping to get another bareback ride in soon, too. Probably this week sometime unless we get in another long trail ride. I'm getting back in the motions now so I should be back to riding at least twice a week now, just praying that mom begins feeling better. She was in horrible pain yesterday and has been light headed today. :P :P Until then, I'm the main babysitter so I can't just leave her. I take what i can get at the moment, it's nice to have her back in the saddle!

ALSO: Red's skin is doing great again and his tail is hairy!! Wooho!!! I'm kinda excited for winter because I don't have to worry and he'll have a nice tail.

OH! we will be having the thoroughbred and owner probably moving to the barn soon!! She's owned him since he was 9, he's 22 now. She jumps and does Dressage. :) Vet will be out Wednesday around 4. Gotta get Coggins pulled and some vaccines done..