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Post by Cassie on Aug 6, 2007 16:14:39 GMT -5
Funnest ride ever!!!!!!! My mom, who has never ridden in her life, rode Shadow today! It was hands down the funniest thing I have ever seen. She got on (with the aid of a stool) and said it felt bizzare. The she stared to walk making me lead her. I let her hold the one that was already aroudn Shadows neck and led with the other. Then we trotted a few steps with me leading but she doesn't trot alongside me on my command and my mom wasn't keeping up the command so she did a lot of just fast walking. After that she rode her at a walk without me leading and attempted (emphasis on "attempted") to steer Shadow.
After that I hopped on and had to do a little bit of correcting. My mom kept letting her stop on her own so I had to do a little work to get her to realize she can't do that with me. I had to work her steering as well at a walk trot and lope because my mom kept letting her drift to the middle of the circle. I did my normal framing her up both way, I ended up going around and doing a sliding stop and it was very nice considering I hadn't fenced at all.
After I was done my mom hopped on again and I sat and watched as she rode. She said she felt a lot more comfortable at a walk this time around. The steering still left a lot to be desired but it was a bit better. The she tried trotting on her own. Each time she did though, she'd let shadow turn and come to the center. I kept telling her to keep her out in the circle, and I think she was trying but wasn't very sucessful at it.
I hopped on again and did a little more work and just corrected everything and got off.
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Post by [J u m p r g r l ♥] on Aug 7, 2007 16:17:06 GMT -5
lol! That would have been very funny to see!!!!
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Post by Cassie on Aug 7, 2007 20:24:34 GMT -5
Its the funniest thing I've ever seen. She was really frustrating because she couldn't squeez hard enough with her legs and she refused to touch the spurs to Shadows sides. She kept letting her stop. I dont know if Shadow just senced she wasn't a proper rider and thats why she decided to test her or what but if shes difficult like that for everyone, I would have a very tough time selling her if I ever had to.
My moms aunts daughter is a year or two older than me and is comming down in a week or something and might come ride my horse. They seem to think she does reining but my mom thinks she does barrel racing. Shes probably right, most people don't know what reining is, everyone thinks I jump. Its so frustrating when I have to explaine reining to them because I can tell they have no clue what I'm talking about.
Anyways, I rode today and she went well. I did some backing up and framing her up. She slid into the ground when I stopped in the center of the arena (from a circle) way better than normal and she did it great every single time. I was very pleased and a bit surprised to be honest.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 8, 2007 11:51:45 GMT -5
Today I was planning on spending a very long time currying but the boarders were riding when I got there. Being the huge show-off that I am, I brushed her and tacked her up as quickly as I could and hoped on. To my disapointment, 1 of them had left the arena and the other left as soon as I started trotting. So I didn't brush her as I had planned and I didn't get to show off. I guess that taught me that my horses health is more important than showing off.
So as for the ride, I loped for a while then did some big fast small slow circles and holy man were her speed transitions ever amazing!!! It was like gallop to WP slow lope in an instant, she didn't even need a few strides to get slowed. She also has gotten imensly better at her frame. I almost never have to correct it. It took 4 months but it was well worth it. I worked a little bit of backing up. The last thing I did was lope a circle then come down to the other end on the wall, go around and turn about 15 feet off the other wall. I ran down and did a sliding stop and backed up. It was such a nice stop. She seems to stop better in the open when we dont fence.
Afterwards I did the typical stuff, hose her down, scrub her face and legs. I also washed her tail then brushed and re-braided her mane and tail.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 9, 2007 18:10:31 GMT -5
Didn't ride today because I was called into work at 12 and I didn't get up until 11. It was way to hot after I got back from work.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 10, 2007 11:49:58 GMT -5
Today went well. I did a lot of slower loping keeping her pushing with her hind end. I also did some running large fast to small slow work, it went pretty well. I did a LOT of slow though. After that I went out the door and walked in like I would at a show. I stopped in the middle and sat for a while, then pushed her hip over and braught her nose to the inside. This is how we set her up to take a certian lead. Then I had her walk forward in thes position until she got close to the wall then loped of into the circle. I did a couple circles then braught her to a trot and went back outside and did it again. I did it about 5 times. My trainer has me doing this because at the past few shows I've been walking in then going from a walk to a lope without stopping. Its aloud but its made her get really like raring to go as soon as we're approching the middle of the arena at shows which is bad when you need to stop to spin there at the beggining. The last thing I did was circle around a few times then come down and do a sliding stop. It was very nice. Then backed her up of coarse.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 12, 2007 22:35:10 GMT -5
Yesterday I rode and did the normal stuff.
Today I rode and after a while Brian came and helped me. We did circles, then spinning in a corner which is a change. He kept telling me that I need to get it in my head that she alwasy needs to spin fast. Then he would yell faster before I would even have the chance to get her going.I do have it in my head, just give me a freaking chance. Then we did rollback drills, not a new one but a variation of our old one.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 13, 2007 12:38:04 GMT -5
Today went well. I basically just loped her. I did a few big circles to small slow and they were very nice. I also did a drill Birna wants me to do where I stop adn sit in the middle, then walk a circle and stop somewhere in it, set her up, and lope off. He doesn't want me to lope off fromt he middle.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 14, 2007 18:17:37 GMT -5
Today went alright. Its just such a pain in the butt to have to ride nearly everyday. I'd really love a couple of months off but no chance of that. We did cricles and thats all. Very very boring and repetitive. I feel like theres no porpose and some days I feel like I'm just making it worse.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 16, 2007 22:28:08 GMT -5
Didn't ride yuesterday, I was kinda lazy. I should have since a) I've got shows comming up in 3 weeks, and I'll be gone for 3 days starting Sunday so its not like she needed the time off. I rode today though. It went well. We did everything we're aloud to do. Circles, good as usual, worked some lead departures. Shes pretty annoying because as soon as I move her hip over she wants to stick her head to the outside isntead of bringing it in and wont move forward at all when asked.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 17, 2007 9:30:10 GMT -5
I was SO tired when I got up this morning. i went to bed at 2:30 and was up at 7. I clean the stalls then rode. I pretty much just put her threw the paces. The ride was not long at all. I really did not want to be riding but I can really avoid it when I've got 3 days off coming up.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 19, 2007 0:08:24 GMT -5
So to prove just how lazy I am, I'll inform you that I didn't ride today. So Shadow gets 4 days off which is not very good but I can't stand loping circles for an hour straight. Its the boringest thing ever! I'd rather do math homework. Training is alright but we onmly train 2 weeks before each show and the time inbetween is h***
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Post by Cassie on Aug 22, 2007 15:26:31 GMT -5
VERY frustrating session today. So I got on, loped around for about 10-15 min, then Brian told me to fence. So we ran into about a million problems fencing.We worked a LOT on her standing since she wouldn't and she would not lope off on the right lead. That was even more frustrating because she never has problems with her leads. So basically we worked on having her stand and when she would walk off sometimes he'd have me pull her back, sometimes spin and sometimes walk in a tight circle to the left. Oh, and on one direction she kept taking off so I had to do a lot of pulling her in the ground. So we worked that for a good hour and a half. We took 2 breaks from working that to just circle her around about 15 times before working it again. It was so frustrating, I almost cried. I got some tears in my eyes and I actually managed to force myself to focus and not cry.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 23, 2007 18:12:20 GMT -5
ARRGGGGGG!!!!!! So I go out and Brian is out so I hold Shadow while he works on her foot (putting the shoe back on after having it fall off yesterday). It took half an hour to do the 1 hoof. It was a total mess! It wasn't that the shoe came off, its that the hoof broke on both sides...Big big peices (like an inch long at least). So he worked on it for a while then put the shoe back on and was only able to put 4 nails in it because there was no where for the other nails to go. I'm so mad! I'm paying $130 each time she gets shoed, you would think the farrier would know what he's doing! Brian says that was the problem, a poor farrier job. And theres no one else to go to. This guy already comes from out of town.
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Post by Cassie on Aug 24, 2007 12:25:42 GMT -5
Jim had given me some bell boots (2 different kinds) for Shadow and today was the first day that we needed them. The 1 pair were to hard to get on with her shoe problem (which is why we're using bell boots) and the other turned out to be to small. Brian went and got me a pair of his and they fit well thankfully. Shadow took a little while to get use to moving with the boots but after a while she was alright. I let her walk and trot longer than usual so she could really get use to them. She was being a giant pain in the butt when we were loping circles. She normally goes faster than I want but today I had to work a lot at keeping her at a decent speed. After a while I was getting REALLY frustrated and started to walk after going both ways. Then Brian had me fence her. I was very very happy to find her taking the right lead again and not taking off. She also stayed still when we faced the one direction we were having problems with yesterday. Our rollback drills were pretty good today. We also did a little bit of spinning which was good. Brian made me do some circles inbetween everything so that sucked. Overall, a great ride except for the circles.
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