End of Exams Ride :)

Exams are FINALLLLLLLYYY over with!!! I feel like my brain is sufficiently fried and thoroughly raped. Poor Yankee didnt get much attention over the past 2 weeks due to my sickness and exam studying...but thankfully I have about a week and a half till I got home to Ohio for a holidays for a week, then after I come back I plan on working him everyday if I get the chance.

Today I warmed him up again inside free lunging with sidereins and thought I would post some pictures to show how very good this is working out for him. I used his jumping tack today since after the warm up we went for a good canter out in the field and walk around the property.

Yes this is him doing his usual freak out for a moment....


Then he settles right down into this AMAZING trot. Look how he is really pushing from behind, his front feet are off the ground before his back feet which show great use of the hindquarters. I love how you can see the muscling on his boot-tay :) He is accepting the bit and listening to me, and his poll is the highest point. He looks great :)


Pretty good active canter too, still reaching forward nicely and active behind as well as really relaxed in the neck....


This picture is fantastic and you can see the awesome spring he has in his step, I mean this is exceptional for yankee. He is very active and working over his back pretty good, maybe a little hollow but still nice. You can even see his stomach muscle. Relaxed in his poll and neck...just an overall good picture of a relaxed pony!


this looks really nice too for Yanks. His canter is naturally uphill but working free in the arena without a rider seems to help him gain more balance and use that muscley butt of his. I can say the same for this picture as the rest of them...so proud!

So as you can see, this really seems to be benificial to him and I will most definetly continue to use this before every ride....now only if showsgrounds had an area where I could do this before every test....ugh.

After warm up we did a few laps around the field at a good lung blowing canter in the snow! we both had fun and he was listening like a good boy. His new bridle and bit are working like I hoped!

Speaking of the new bridle here is a pretty good picture of it. This is a $200 jumping bridle i got off ebay for $40! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and so does Yankee. He has a weird shaped head where his ear base is wider than the rest of his head so I looked for a while for one that would fit and this bridle is beautiful and functional! YEAH ebay!

Re-Clipping

Today I dragged this filthy thing out of his pasture to re-clip him. This was after currying and brushing for 15 min! GEEZ. I clipped him in October and his hair regrew pretty fast so I decided to re-do it today.


His tail is bagged up, no worries-it's still there!

After only 30 min I had re-clipped AND clipped up higher since he will be in heavier work now than he was earlier this winter. I LOVE the way this clip turned out :)



After his clipping, I had some time left before I needed to get back to studying so I thought a nice hack would be good for both of us. Yanks is still a little stiff so I wanted to get him outside


Yankee in his nice new 'shiny' half pad. State Line Tack $17! Fits awesomely.


The finishing touch of his weatherbeeta half sheet. Can't live without this!

Weeeellll, he was AWFUL in the beginning...the feeding lady showed up right as we went out to the field so of course all he could think about was dinner (it was only 3pm!). Great.

It was also 2 degrees out.

He pulled a Gogo (sorry andrea :P) and reared and spun like a retard. NOTHING I was doing settled him. So I took a big breath, calmed down, and just asked for little half halts while doing a biiiiig zig zag pattern to keep him from directly facing the barn. It actually worked and he settled right down, good boy!

I thought it would be bad training to dismount at the barn, rewarding his bad behavior, so I took him in the arena for a hot second. A compete opposite of earlier, he trotted out very nicely and cantered like a dream. I was satisfied.

Double blanketed tonight since its supposed to be a high of 2 degrees...high of 17 tomorrow during the day too....

Snow Day

Not really actually, I'm not in High school anymore and I had exams to study for all day. Here's a look from last nights WICKED snow storm. Blew in 2 days early out of nowhere...Can't say i'm surprised...weather in Missouri changes so often it retarded. Like 2 nights ago it was 60 deg. and thunderstorming, last night, 12 deg and blizzarding.



We were taking our dog, Zoey out to go pee and were surprised to see this happening outside! We had gotten a pizza and a movie an lo-and-behold an hr and a half later there were 2 in. of snow on the ground and 50mph winds blowing it all around! WTF



Zoey says "I dont care though, Ilovesnow mom and dad!"

I thought nothing of it really as we went to bed last night but....alomg with being sick and hearing the winds gusting all night I didnt get much sleep so when the alarm went off at 7am to get up and go feed the new Spring Farm horses, well, one can say we were surprised!



Thats our driveway, up a hill....covered in ice and snow...we had a MAJOR problem. I had 12 hungry horses waiting 10 miles away and we were uber stuck! Brandon also had to be at work at noon. We sat there and scratched our heads along with the taxi driver (he came down our drive and got stuck in the parking lot). there was nothing we could do so I had to call Raquel and wake her up to tell her to text Kyle to feed the horses. Kyle lives on the farm but he is off on weekends. I felt really bad since I had 'covered' Raquels feed shift for her. Gosh.

Oh and that ice on the window? Yeah thats on the INSIDE. Our windows suck. You can literally feel the cold wind come in from underneath. Talk about a waste of $$$$$ on heating bills.

Sick and Lame

Well last Saturday I tried to take Yankee out before the weather got too cold to jump, and before finals started, but he was ever so slightly lame. I had an inkling about how it happened too. The farm moved him to a new paddock and stall, closer to the rest of the boarded horses so he had better company and I am POSITIVE he ran around like a maniac on the cold ground. He always has a ball in a new pasture and closer to new horses, I can bet thats what he did.

I was a little disappointed since I really wanted to jump over the XC course but I knew it was better not to risk it, of course. I had tacked him up and free lunged him as usual, but immediatly I could see something was off on his right hind. Yanks was overcompensating with his back left but I had to be sure he was indeed lame so I asked him to trot the other direction. Then I remembered that the side reins could be effecting his gaits especially in the cold so I took them off and asked him to trot off again. Still was lame. Sadface.

He was a good sport though trotting out for me. I hoped letting him rest it off would let him get the kinks out and sometime later that week I could ride again...buuuut alas, I got really sick. OF COURSE right smack in the middle of exam week. So no riding, and no being outside for a whole week. I've really missed my boy but I know he's in good hands with tha stable workers. I have to feed saturday so I'm hoping I get better. I would have updated the blog earlier but I've really been out of it.

Anyways here are some pics I took a while back for the christmas cards I want to send out. :)

Up and Downs

So I wasn't able to ride Yankee Monday, but Tuesday I free lunged him first, as usual, and then did a quick half hour school. Not only was he good, he felt brilliant! He was working super well through the contact, inside leg to outside rein and pushing with his hindquarters and over his back. I was really pleased with with his performance and every time I had to make a small correction or half halt, he gave me exactly what I wanted, submission and contact.

Wednesday it was FREEZING but that didnt stop me from going to ride at lunch. I decided to give Yanks a break from indoor work and took him for a hack down the road. He looked ADORABLE in his little half sheet and I could tell he appreciated the windblock. I probably looked retarded with my head scarf and two jackets. However it was bright and sunny and the road we hack on was perfect. the road isn't paved but has small rocks instead which is really nice for conditioning in winter since Yankee rarely slips even with snow. There are plenty of hills too which I htink are AMAZING for conditioning. Usually I ask him to trot and canter up hills and trot briskly on the straightaways. Again, he was fantastic...I couldnt have been happier with how attentive he was and how well he was working with his body and respoding to my aids.

I gave him thursday off since I worked an 8 hr shift right after school, but today the farrier came at 9 so I went to the barn early to squeeze a little school in before he got there. Today was another story...he...was....AWFUL. I wanted to cry. I feel like this continues to happen over and over again with us and his training and it is the most frustrating thing. he was SOOOO resistant to contact, notlistening to my leg, lagging behind, counterbent, head tossing, etc. GOD. The only thing I could think of that was different was that I didnt free lunge him today...so I think I will continue to do so everytime.

Anyways, Brandon is coming out with me tomorrow at noon to take pictures. I plan to school Yanks over jumps one last time before it gets too cold to jump. wish me luck...

Light Work

Since Yanks had 6 days off for Thanksgiving, I decided to lunge him only today. I brought home the circingle from my mom's (where the rest of my vast tack collection resides) [as well as a few turnout blankets (to accomodate my poor horsey from the wicked missouri wind)], so I used that with some side reins in the indoor. I've found he works better off the lunge line and since he is voice trained we never have any issues in speed.

I turned him loose in the arena and WTC both directions on loose rein before I really started what I wanted to with him today. He has a tendency to become hollow in the back during work and I thought today would be the perfect time to do LOTS and LOTS of transitions which I learned from Cheryl at New Springs Farm that that helps weak or young (or both) horses use their back more while still staying balanced in their body.

I started him off his easy way, to the left with some basic W/T transitions. Immediately he came down in the bridle and rounded his back so I did the same with T/C. He was listening really well after a few times of this and I thought I would try W/C and T/C/W to W/C/W or W/T/C/T and so on and so forth. Basically making the transitions rapid. Not only did he carry his back better, but his legs were really swinging forward with energy and he was quite relaxed.

I probably should have started off with his harder side but when I do that he never relaxes enough to get nay good schooling in. However, after 10 min of work to the left my fat boy was tired and felt like not putting so much effort the other direction. Quite lazy but he still listened.

Next time I will start off on the other side for sure.

Free Jumping

So I just thought I'd say I'm, writing this from my brand new MAC!

I used to be a big mac hater but when my AUnt decided she was selling hers at a huge discount price (brand new one too) and I needed one since my comp committed suicide unexpectedly and is now MIA in the postal service system (unfixable), I thought it'd be best to snatch up this sweet peice of computer ass as fast as I could.

Anyways, before I left for Thanksgiving break (to Ohio) for a few days I spent one last day with Yankee free jumping him in the outdoor. He was insane since he had been on stall rest for 3 days (mild thrush) but I was glad he got to get out and stretch those leggies.

Aside from being an explosive maniac he was quite good at the jumping part. After he settled he really got into the groove of jumping like a real event horse, using his back and not stuttering up to the jump. I Think I will try to do free jumping every saturday or sunday this winter to help him gain confidence without me being on his back. This seems to help for when I do jump under saddle. Anyways, here are a few pics from last saturday.

I'm pretty retarded at adding these things in here so I will leave it at those few. Soon I will learn how to do this right! maybe another post later with more pics alone.

Peace love and blessins