Everything has a Purpose

I write this after having a great weekend with my ponies! I realize that just because I am getting Lily ready to show it doesn't mean that Pickles needs to be on the same path to success. I don't think that Pickles is going to be going to any shows and although it is good for her to have basics it doesn't mean that I need to hold her to the standrds I hold Lily. Pickles LOVES groundwork and trailriding more so than the dressage and jumping. And while she will do the other two she just doesn't seem good at it. She will jump anything I put in front of her but I just don't see us ever going to do the jumpers as I had previously imagined.

With funds not being ample at the moment I need to focus on Lily and maybe use Pickles as my decompressor. Take her for walks around the farm and trail rides with the pups. Hop on bareback and toodle around and not worry if we are where we are supposed to be in my plan. I will of course still let Lily have off days where we dont work on staying in a frame and moving off leg.

It is funny how these things just come to you and you see the world in a different light. Jess and I went on a trailride with the dogs after I had an amazing ride on Lily. I just hopped on Pickles and off we went. Through mud and creeks and trees and she just seemed so happy without a care in the world. Ears forward and walking with anticipation of what might be around the next bend (while occasionally nipping Scoops in the rear). Horses definately have to love their jobs and while she doesn't hate the other stuff, she definately loves toodling with me on sunny days :)

So for the spring and summer at least Pickles has been repurposed to my trail pony and whatever other fun things pop up....

Seeing is Believing

After realizing that there is enough time in the day to ride BOTH girls I have taken on the task of actually doing it :) I had great rides on Thursday and Friday the girls got off as it was date night with the boy. So Saturday we went to the barn because it was beautiful weather! After a quick walk with the dogs, Keith and I venture out to grab the girls. I get Lily and he gets his favorite Pickles <3 Groomed away as their hair is coming out in clumps from the weather changing and then tacked up Lily to go ride.

Now it has been quite some time since I have actually had a trainer. Honestly probably Hollins is the last time I took an actual lesson to work on me and my position and all the technical things that go along with riding. I have taken her to D John's a handful of times in the past two years for problems I have been running into but never the work of an actual lesson. They had been more of a this is how you fix this problem and here are some exercises to take home for your tool belt. So I don't really get to hear or see any progress that I have made or even if we are heading in the right direction.

So I was fortunate enough to ride when Michelle was riding and she videos her rides!!!! So I actually got to see what Lily and I look like. I was so pleased with what I saw :) We had a major break through in getting her to step up and use herself the other week when I applied my outside aids more than I normally do. I have to defiantly hold her through everything or else I just end up pushing her out with no support. So after a nice warm up I worked on having her really hold herself and step up into a Nice big trot. I usually post but find that if I sit she has more loft and impulsion from my seat and leg. So I would really drive her for one side of the arena and then let it go. It was so awesome so be able to see what I need to improve on and what I am feeling actually looks good!

So I am really excited to see the results from the past 2 years. Lily has really turned out to be a nice horse and I hope to continue to make the progress we have made each day. I am thinking that I might go out and get my own video camera so that I can tape myself more often and monitor the progress that I am making. ALSO on another note....Seeing myself on camera I am not as much of a chunk as I thought I was!!!!

Back on track...

So I love how I can read others blogs for hours but never find time to post about my own. I have started posting them to FB and it is funny because the things that I vent about or realize on this translate to others who might be going through the same things. So besides it being an important avenue for me to let everything out I might find that there are others out there going through the same things....

After a weekend of doing everything none horse related including going to a drag race with the boy, and taking Monday off to help a friend who just lost her mother, Tuesday crept up and I realized I hadn't seen the ponies since THURSDAY! Well Pickles had a spell of not feeling to well on Sunday so I ran by for a brief moment but I hadn't done much more than shove a cookie in their faces and went about my merry way to clean my house...

So Tuesday night rolls around and I am expecting wild ponies from the Amazon so I plan to do groundwork in the indoor since the ring is still a bit wet and well it was dark and kinda windy and well I wanted to do both ponies and didnt want to tack up...excuses, excuses. So I get Miss Lily out and I can already tell she is on her A game. All attention on me! I go back to basics and get the carrot stick out and do the Parelli games because sometimes it is good to go through everything and not just new stuff. She did great and we went over them for about 20 minutes breaking loose and moving correctly. I get the wild hair to do side passes down the wall to make it easier for me and to really make her perform the movement. WOW! Apparently she was not as supple and relaxed as I thought. Her feet were stumbling and she couldn't get in a good rhythm or coordinate at all. She got super frustrated and a bit anxious. So I backed off pushing so much and changed direction and we started again. This time I let her figure out where her feet were and she lifted through her shoulder and back and started to soften. I did it about 2 more times each way and then hopped on bareback and toodled for another 10 minutes. It was great to find a problem and fix it in a matter of 15 minutes!

Had the same game plan for Pickles but well she is such a pro at all the groundwork she was doing it before I even got the chance to ask. Silly pony :) So I free lunged her for about 10 minutes and then hopped on and cantered around for a couple of times and then called it a night. I have been trying to lease her out because I just don't have time for both. And I have a sneaking suspicion that Miss Picks would really enjoy a little girl to tote around. She is a sassy pony but a good sassy.

Michelle and I discussed going to some CHSC shows and doing some jumping. I am so impatient that I suggested even though Lily is a hunter that we go first thing in the morning and do the jumpers (as hunters) because the classes I would show in are the last of the day. I am just not good at waiting around the show all day so I would rather just go get experience and go slow then do the whole tied to a trailer for the day non-sense. So there is a PHJA and CHSC in April and we will shoot for one or both of those depending on if I can stick to getting out to the barn :)

Did I lose focus?

So ever since moving the ponies to their new barn and getting my new boy I find myself not going out to the barn every single day. I have been enjoying other things in life that I was unable to because I was always in a self care situation or running around getting grain, hay or feeding, cleaning stalls etc. So lately I have been feeling kind of guilty for not going out the 7 days a week that I used to. Now I go out about 4 to 5 times a week and somedays I ride and somedays I don't.

I feel as though maybe I have lost my focus or maybe need to set goals to get back on track...or do I? I have not been this content with thing in a while. Sure there are bad things that happen daily with work or one of the ponies being naughty, but overall life is good. I want to show but really don't have to show. So when I ride I work on different things with the girls but we really don't have a "direction". I know I want to just do the hunters with Lily and maybe do the Ark series with Pickles but other than that I really don't have the desire to show big like I did two years ago. I am really not sure why now....

I constantly question why this change has happened and maybe it is a good thing. Before my life was horses 24/7 and now my life is well my life. I have wonderful friends that I get to hang out with and go bowling and out to eat and on trips with. I don't fret or worry about the horses needing something because Michelle takes care of everything. I have focused more on work and growing in my career, but still I feel a twinge of guilt for not being at the barn ALL the time. Maybe it will pass with time and I truly will jut get to enjoy my horses as I have been. I guess my devotion 24/7 doesn't mean I don't love the big girls, it is just I found more to love outside of the barn.

Maybe once it warms up I will revert back to my old ways of being a barn brat, but for now I will be content with what I have :)

Times Flies

So things have been going great with the ponies and it is funny how much life changes as you go through it. I used to spend countless hours at the barn on the weekends or running around doing errands for the ponies. Well since I have taken the step to full boarding my life has become full of other things that I enjoy just as much as the ponies.

I go out to the barn every night during the week unless there is something super pressing that I must attend to. Keith heads out there with my each night and has completely taken over Pickles and the two of them couldn't be happier. Having help withe girls has been amazing because I no longer feel as though someone is getting the short end of the stick. He has been learning everything from the ground up and it really makes a difference in how he interacts with the horses! They got Thursday through Sunday off and then this week I go out of town for 3 nights! I am hoping Keith will be able to get out to the barn and mess with the ponies some to make sure that they don't think I have abandoned them.

Although I am not riding every night they at least get lunged or ground work for 20 to 30 minutes. I think it is good for their brain to take breaks and do some new and interesting stuff rather than go round and round with me asking for them to bend and flex and do this and that. More so playing with me in the arena and learning desired tricks (such as lead changes). The girls are getting fit and I hope by March I can get to a show :)

I went to my first Ark eventing show. I must say I  think that I would be able to it with Pickles. The Intro dressage tests looked like a piece of cake and the 2' jumps were not that scarey. Keith, Daphne, Ramona and I all went to support Jessica Wilson and Athena. They did such a wonderful job and I am so proud of them. It is so hard to break a horse yourself and realize the milestones you make.

So there's this girl....

So today has been a crapshoot kinda day and I am majorly PMSing so it is not strange for random things to annoy me. I am not sure why really but the new Admin person that started this week  keeps wanting to eat lunch with me. I only take 15 minutes because if I take longer well it is hard for me to get back to the grind. First two days were fine but for some reason I just don't want to have lunch with her. Anyone who knows me realizes I am very bad at just saying what is on my mind. So I tried to avoid her today by eating at a different time. Well she found me....

Usually I can talk for hours to a wall but I have no interest in this girl at all. I don't wanna hear about her kids or her husband or where she came from or what she is doing. Hell I don't even want to talk about myself or my 4 legged kids. Not really sure what the heck is going on... So I am debating moving to the other break room to eat lunch or eat at my desk. I think some of it stems from missing Tracy. I just haven't been the same since she left and I would rather sit by myself then with anyone else. I am sure I will get over it but for now it is bothering me...

Busting at the seams...

Wow two posts in one day, after no posts for 2 months!

So this will be about the ponies. I have started Pickles on the Succeed program because she is a cribber and I want to make sure that it doesn’t adversely affect her health and I also want to eliminate any possibility of gastric upset or stress due to the cribbing. It is really expensive but I am already starting to see small signs of improvement so I can’t wait to see after 60 days because it has only been 2 weeks! I actually really rode Pickles for the first time on Sunday in probably the past year! She was fantastic. I got her tacked up and she looked at me like I was smoking crack. I don’t think she has had a saddle on since September. We worked on getting in a frame and some lateral work at the walk and trot and she was great.

Lily was another story. Boy was she full of piss and vinegar. Granted there was a lot going on and I have really ridden her in a couple of months but she acted a darn fool. There was a kid jumping on a trampoline that scared her, and then there were a couple two stroke motocross bikes going around and a horse loading on a trailer but this is stuff that goes on at the farm every day, so it shouldn’t be a huge deal. Well she thought it was and came up once. I got off and scolder her and sent her to the round pen. She cut flips and bucked and reared and acted like a rodeo bronc for about 5 minutes. Then she realized how out of shape she was stopped and looked at me like okay I’m done I will be good now. I hopped back on and she was amazing. Got nice and soft and round and did some great work!

Monday comes around and Keith and I head to the barn. He is getting more comfortable with the big girls so I handed him Pickles halter and said figure it out she is yours for the night. He watched me put Lily’s on and Pickles stood quiet as she could while he carefully out her nose into it and then cautiously slipped it over her ears. We groomed for about 20 minutes and then I got on Lily and he hand walked Pickles in the indoor. I got done with Lily and he cooled her off while I did some ground work with Miss Picks. Girls were both superstars especially Pickles. She is so patient and calm with Keith as he learns everything from picking feet to lunging. It also doesn’t hurt that he is always armed with plenty of cookies J

All in all, day by day, the future is looking bright. Not just for me but for my friends and family. Every day is a new start and a chance to learn from the days before. Mending fences and overcoming obstacles are to be seen as positives and I am going to try and live by that from this point forward!