The Weather has Cleared

I felt like I could jump and sing on Saturday. I arrived home Friday, 9-24, ready for ride. Romeo and I had taken a little walk in the drizzle Tuesday (9-21), but he slid in some mud, and smashed my knee into the walk through gate. Totally, 100% not his fault.. The poor guy carried my hobbling self to the trailer, and then politely walked back to his stall, wrinkles over his eyes apologizing. Poor critter.

Anyway, I digress. I got home Friday, ready for ride! Much to my dismay, it POURED again at my house. One of those small-reaching "cells of storm so ugly it's pink on the radar center" bursts hit my house - the road was flooded, my side yard flooded, the pasture low spots flodded. Heck, there was a river across the driveway. My very sad depressed self stayed inside, and pouted. I was none too happy about the crappy weather. I took it out on my house, and cleaned like a ninja.

Finally, Saturday, it was done raining. However, somewhere in the day, my body decided I was dehydrated. A severe headache took over my plans. I drank and drank and drank (water, that is), and it eased up, some. Went outside to feed the boys, and the headache came back with just a little sweat. Back indoors I went.

The highlight of my Saturday horse-world? Harley arrived! I haven't yet got good Harley pictures, but I'll get ya a few. Harley is four (?Ithink?), out of Skys Blue Boy. He's a little fellow, about 15H tall. Harley was delivered, and I released him into his new pasture, adjacent to Ransom. I figure my senior showhorse can mutter good vibes to him over the days. Harley is here a while, for me to ride, educating him, and me. I'll be including his name in the titles, and adding a new keyword for easy search.

Sunday, it was finally nice enough to get things done.
I grabbed Ransom, his twisted wire bit, and a lunge line. I figured at most, I'd lunge & ride bareback. At least, I'd lunge. Well, the rain brought lots of green grass. High green grass, in fact. The arena was tall with grass, lush yummy grass. It nearly broke my heart to mow it, taking away some of Ransom's munchy goodness. Anyways, I lunged him a while, and found on the side reins in his twisted bit, he was very upright.. Hmm.. how else to say it... He had his neck arched more than previous sessions, and still flexed nice at the poll. And very forward.

Ransom lunged about 20 minutes, then stood patiently while I cleared the poles, standards, and cones from the arena to mow.

08/01/10 Romeo Prepares

Romeo and I took a late evening ride, in preparation to "get the goofies off" before his Vacation Bible School debut Sunday night.

And goofies he was. As hot as it was, I expected a quiet horse. Instead, I got a running fool. All the little man wanted to do was gallop gallop. And so we did. I certainly wasn't pretty, but did my best to keep him upright & straight.

After about 15 minutes, he decided all that running really wasn't worth the effort. We settled into all our normal workout, walk, posting trot, sitting jog, canter, turns on fore/haunches, sidepassing, backing up. I ended each walk with a few steps of backup, hoping to reinforce something I saw and am testing from HorseMaster TV. Julie began the teaching of a solid western stop with backups and tight circles. Anytime you halt from walk, or trot, back up a few steps, and stand still a minute. Anytime a canter/lope halt is on the forehand, immediately trot a circle on the opposite lead. I haven't gotten to the lope/halt work yet, but I've been reinforcing the walk & trot to halt.

Romeo and I played goofy for about 45 minutes. When his canter is soft, it's amazing fun to ride. I can feel each hooffall, and swing my hips not only front/back but left/right to move with him. It's super relaxing.

Makes me wonder what the hell am I thinking trying to sell him ...

6/28/10 Goofing Off

I gathered up Ransom, in a bareback pad, and his twisted wire bit.. Half chaps, helmet for me.

No warmup, no side reins, just hopped aboard and got down to it. Most of the work was collected, yes. I barely cantered, just a circle or two each way. 98% of the focus was on his walk. Forward, pushing, stretching under. Some trot, but since I can't sit a really nice forward trot on him yet, I didn't want to reinforce short strides.

Being silly, I also did some turns on forehand, turns on haunches, and some side passing. My goodness can Ransom side pass! Funniest thing! No clue how he learned that, no clue why that was ever useful in his life, but he's good at it! Also rode some leg yields at the walk, up centerline, and yield towards the rail. I tried shoulder in, but only got a step or two - makes me thinks I'm not asking right for it.

We goofed off for about 45 minutes. He got crabby towards the end refusing to halt pretty, so I kept him at a collected walk. Loosen the reins every time he'd relax, then ask for halt again. If he tossed his noggin, back to short reins, release a little bit by little bit, down to a halt. I got a handful of these pretty, and called it "good".

I'm all for focus and intensity.. but I'm also all for flat-out goofing off, too!