Something New

Since my knee has been bothering me on and off, I decided to try something new (to me) but very familiar to Jet. It is something I have always wanted to do with him. Want to take a guess at what we did?

Here are some hints: he was originally bred and trained for this. His first career required him to do this task and while doing it, he won three times. Some horses pace, some horses trot. If you haven't guessed it by now, you never will.

I finally got to drive him! I wasn't the only one who was excited to be hooking a jog cart up to him. His ears perked right up and he was happy the entire time I was driving him. I didn't drive for long but we got in some nice stretches of trot. He was calm the entire time and listened to every aid I used. He wasn't spooky and he didn't care that we were leaving his friends to go for a drive (when riding and leaving the "herd" he tends to be a bit of a brat). Ofcourse, I have pictures.

*I know we are on cement. There was no other safe place to trot. We were not on it for long and he was warmed up and cooled out properly.

Click to enlarge, click read more to see more pics!

Dear Horses, I Do NOT Like the Taste of Dirt

My knee FINALLY stopped bothering me when I was riding and guess what happens? I fall off...again.


Before this little streak that I now have going, my last fall was nearly two years ago. Now it seems like I fall off all of the time but strangely enough, I don't mind. It just gives me things to work on. The fact that I always get back up, without fear, and try again makes me proud and gives me inner strength. If at first you don't succeed, try try again.




As some of you know, I am part of my school's equestrian drill team. Today we had open tryouts and the current team decided to work the other horses after tryouts. It seemed like just another normal day.




I have been working with this particular mare to help break some habits and get her less tense under saddle. She is a little 8 year old 14/14.2hh chestnut pony mare who we shall call "S." She has bucked off several intermediate riders in the past few months and the school instructor is hesitant to put anyone on her at this point. I'm always up for a challenge and the instructor knows I can hold my own with most horses.


Lately, S has been AWESOME! I have her going consistently well walk, trot, jog. She has finally accepted pressure on the bit without tossing her hand. She has also begun to understand leg pressure. Before, she would just bulge through what ever leg pressure I applied and if she gets too annoyed, she bucks. She doesn't care if you kick with all of your strength; if she doesn't want to do something, she will do everything she can to get out of it. Oh, did I mention she kicks other horses if they get to close? This mare has learned every trick in the book to get her riders off. Her past owners were scared of her and she learned that if she got them off, she didn't have to work. Little does S know, I always get back on after I fall.


I have been working on her canter the past few rides. The canter is when she pulls 99% of her stunts. Usually, she just bucks or crow hops but today, it was her goal to get me on the ground. She did not want to work. It took three people to hold her still enough for me to even get on. She was rearing and jigging but I finally got my little bum in the saddle.




After she was warmed up (her warm up was amazing by the way, forward, engaging trot and she even offered to take the bit a few times!) I asked her to canter. I got her usual "I don't want to canter - buck buck kick kick" routine but I got her going a few times around the ring at a nice, balanced canter. She was swishing her tail and I knew she was thinking of something. But after she got into the canter, she was fine.


I walked her around a bit and switched directions. Apparently, I gave her enough time to let her think of a way she has an excuse to get me off. She pulled the same stunts when picking it up and even threw in a nice grunt and tail swish. I had her going maybe half way around the ring before I had to come off of the rail to pass another horse. S will deliberately go after another horse to kick them when the opportunity arises so I made sure to cut in a lot. However, S believe that if she bulged far enough out, she would be able to reach her destination. after politely asking her to straighten out and go back on the rail without success, I gave her a nice boot with my outside leg to remind her that I actually meant that she had to stop bulging towards other horses. Needless to say, S did not like my reminder.


After popping a few bucks, I squeezed her on. She was getting annoyed that I wasn't already off. So what does she do? Out of nowhere, she goes from giraffe mode to having her head in between her front legs, bucking, then crow hopping, then dead stopping. Without having anything in front of me to put my hand on to stop me, I went straight over her head. I do admit that I was leaning forward to try to gather my reins and that also helped me get to the ground. What did I land on? My screwed up knee. Awesome.


As I was plummeting to the earth, I saw her hooves coming at me in the corner of my eye. My heart dropped. I knew she was rearing and that she was right above me. I covered my face and shut my eyes. A few seconds later, I opened them and was relieved to see S walking to the side of me. Its school procedure to stay right were you fall and wait for the nurse to come and check you out before remounting but I'm a rebel and got up and got back on before anyone could come over to me and see if I was ok.


I quietly dropped some F-bombs to myself because I could feel the pain in my knee. Obviously, I sucked it up and told the instructor that I was fine and that there was no need for the nurse. She wasn't too happy with me but she was glad to see that I was physically and mentally able to get back on after falling off. Within a few minutes, I was cantering her around the arena again. She finally gave in and behaved so I got off and called it a day.




99% of the time, I take complete responsibility for any accident or fall. This time, I partially blame the horse's past owners for installing bad habits into this poor little mare. She thinks that if she gets you off, she gets out of work. Hopefully I won't fall off again but if I do, its a good lesson for this mare.


The most painful part of the whole ordeal was walking away. Literally. Each step felt like my knee was being hit by a sledge-hammer that was being swung by the world's strongest man. I got home, iced it, and took some Advil. Oh, guess what I have tomorrow in school? Gym. And guess what we are playing? Soccer and kickball. It looks like my poor knee will take longer to heal than I thought.

"Leap" of Faith

Today, for the first time since I fell almost two weeks ago, Jet and I jumped. I set up four jumps in my little arena of varying heights. Since I am not wealthy, I used common backyard items as jumps and standards.

For example, one jump had big sticks from the woods as poles and groundlines and two saw horses as standards. This jump was a 2'ish crossrail placed on a diagnol so we could practice switching leads over a jump (which is a new thing that we need to practice for upcoming shows.) Jet did awesome! He listened to me and my body as we were approaching and landing the jump so he would land on whatever lead I felt like putting him on.

The next jump had a toy bin as wings and a long 2'6" wide piece of plywood in the middle. I slanted the plywood up against the bins so the jump had both height and width. It ended up being about 2'3". Jet seems to like more solid jumps compared to show jumping style fences. I think since it is solid, it is easier for him to see it and find a distance up to them. He went over this without hesitation.

Out of the bunch, the next setup was probably the most "normal." I had two big blue barrels as standards and then regular wooden poles. I set it up as a verticle with one pole halfway up and halfway down to give it some sort of a filler, the top pole, and then the groundlines. This fence was probably 2'4/2'5"ish. He went over this from both the trot and canter. He did buldge right when we were going to the left but he still went over it.

The last, and biggest, fence was the largest fence we have jumped as a team. I had a traffic cone as one standard and the mounting block with a smaller cone as the other standard. I used regular wooden poles as the top rail and the half up half down filler and then big sticks as the ground lines. As I set it up, I thought the jump was only about 2'6/2'7"ish but went I went back and measured it, it was 2'10"! He went over without hesitation at the canter going to the right (his bad way ironically) but he kept running out when canterred it to the left. I finally got him over it to the left at a trot and cantered it once more to the right and then called it a day.

I know my stirrups are waaaay to long, I'm too far out of the saddle, and I have broken wrists, but look at how well Jet handled it! And check out my new saddle ;) (matching bridle and stirrup leathers are coming soon!)

New Saddle and a Lucky Fall

After spending what seems like endless months searching for a saddle that not only fit and pleases my finicky horse, but also fits my extremely long femur, the search has finally brought me to this saddle:

Say hello to my new Collegiate Convertible Diploma (with a long flap ;)). After sitting in many saddles, such as HDRs; Cicruits; Marcel Toulouses; even a few Pessoas and Bates, I fell in love with this saddle. The flap length works well for me when I do anything and everything from flat work to jumping, the seat isn't hard like a rock, the leather is a much nicer quality than some of the others I've sat in, it fits Jet like a custom saddle, and the seat has the perfect depth and twist to please my personnal preferences. I just LOVE this saddle.

The first time I rode in it, I had a bit of a  mishap. I was putting it through my test run (w/t/c, half seat, sitting trot, how it felt with no stirrups, jumping, etc) and Jet decided that it would be more fun to see what I look like going over a fence while he stayed on the other side and watched.

He had been acting a bit funny that day. It might have been the weather, or something caught his eye, I have no idea. I was definitely jacked up and ready to go. I knew that he felt ok in the saddle because when we tried the last saddle on him, he was jacked up but instead he wouldn't move. All he did was buck in place and pin his ears. He does this with any saddle he isn't 100% happy in. But he was moving around just fine with the Collegiate.

My Aunt (my instructor) set up a large crossrail so I could start to test jump in the new saddle. He pulled some of his usual "I haven't jumped in a while so I'm gonna test you before I go over it" stunts which include buldging out, running out, going fast, supermaning, or going nice and forward to the jump, then just trotting over it like it's a groundpole. This day, he added a new one to the list. For the first time, he actually straight out refused with a dirty stop. The few times before we went over before he stopped, he was flying through and supermaning. After I reminded him that he does have to listen to my aids, I finally got him going nice and slow and steady to the jump and then BAM, he stopped. I would have been fine if he didn't proceed to tuck his head between his front legs and fly backwards. I went over his head, knocked over the jump and landed on my knee. Jet just stood still with the "OH SHIT! I didn't mean to do that! I'm so sorry!" face on. From the ground, it looked like he was about to come jump the pile of poles where the jump used to be and were I was but thankfully, he didn't. I'm just glad I didn't land on my head again like I have the past three times I've fallen off. I'd consider that a lucky break!

When I stood up to go fetch my refusing horse, I could already tell my knee just wasn't right. When I got back in that saddle and started riding, I was in serious pain. But, I kept riding and working with Jet until we finally worked everything out and he was jumping it like a pro. As soon as I put him away, I checked on my knee. It was already burising and swollen.

I took some Advil and decided to suck it up. Bad idea. Two days after the fall, I was in a dodgeball tournament at school (it was a group of my friends from my major - Large Animals - so we called ourselves the Moo Croo). We won the costume contest for the tournament! We all dressed up like cows. In our first and only match, I managed to get pegged in the knee and fall and twist it. We were the only all-girl team so needless to say, we didn't win our match, even though it technically should have been a tie! I went home that night with an extremely sore knee.

Now, more than a week after the fall, my knee is just now starting to feel better. I can ride without it hurting but if I over work it or hit it on something, I'll be close to tears. It gets better and better each day so hopefully I'll be 100% soon.

Computer Crash and Burn

I apologize for the lack of posts. My computer decided to completely die leaving me unable to update. The computer will be sent out to be fixed soon! However, we got a new laptop just incase the other can not be saved.

Jet and I have done a LOT of trail riding! In one week, we spent nearly 10 hours on the trails. This is by far his favorite thing to do. Our normal loop takes us roughly two hours to complete, depending on how fast or slow we choose to go that day. No matter what, Jet plods along with his ears perked up.

There is one thing that has brought up some concern..when he is in the field, he kicks out when he canters. I'm sure I have posted about this in the past at one point or another. To all of the Standie owners or riders out there: did your guys also kick out (it's not really a buck, he kicks out with his right hind) when you were just starting them out with cantering? He doesn't do this at all in the ring, only in the field. I'm worried that something is bothering him...

On a good note, I am in full swing saddle-shopping mode! I made the journey to Pelham Saddlery in NH yesterday and took an HDR on trial. It fits me and Jet well, but something about it just feels weird to me. I am used to riding in an all purpose (Colliegate Senior Event) so close contact/jumping saddles feel a lot different. I have also been looking at Dover's Circuit saddles. I have ridden in the circuits before and really liked them. Which do you guys prefer? Why?

I have tons of pictures that I will put up once they have downloaded onto the new computer. When I post them, I will tell you guys about my show schedule!

Plans for 2012

I guess you could say I have been thinking about my future a lot lately. Next year, I will be a senior in high school so right now is the perfect time to start looking at colleges. There are so many to choose from! I don't even know what career path I want to follow so how can I pick a college? As of right now(and for the past two years), I am at the top of my class. If I stay here, I will have to give a speech at graduation next year. I'm completely fine with giving speeches and presentation in front of people, but I absolutely suck at writing them. What am I going to do?!

All of this thinking made me start to realize that I only have a short year and a half left before I go off to college...and I'm not sure if I will be able to take Jet with me. I am going to do everything I can to either stay close to home or to find a place near the college of my choice where I can board him for a reasonable fee. That being said, I only have one full show/riding season left before I leave. So here is what I plan on doing with it:

1. Go to the National Standardbred Show in New Jersery on September 9th. I want to compete in walk trot AND walk trot canter classes and well as jumping and maybe even western classes.
2. Show w/t/c with Jet at local shows instead of w/t. I have never competed a full show season w/t/c. I'm capable of doing it, but I also end up riding green horses or Standardbreds who are learning to trot instead of pace, never mind even thinking about cantering! This should be exciting, but I will admit..I'm a little nervous about how Jet will do cantering in a large ring with many other horses..
3. Show in the hunters and jumpers. I have done groundpole jumpers with him in the past and crossrail hunter courses (click on the link to see the posts about that) but this year I would like to be competitive in the 2'-2'6" range. This means that we will have to get our lead changes down aswell.
4. Go team penning!
5. Try cowboy mounted shooting
6. Go to Woodstock Fair 
7. Drive Jet
8. Show him western atleast once
9. Do the Breed Demo at Hobby Horse Farm
10. Go to Rehoboth Fair again!
11. Go on the Apple Knoll Hunter Pace and at least one other hunter pace.
12. Go to the beach!
13. Be in a parade
14. Jump a 3' fence for the first time with him ( I have jumped up to 3'3"-3'6"ish in the past on other horses)
15. Ride with friends as much as I can

If I think of anything else, I will add it on here. Basically, I want to do as much as I can while I can do it. This year we are trying everything we can get our hands and hooves on. Hopefully, we'll get to do everything and more on this list.

As an update, me and Jet have been trail riding a lot since the clinic. The first trail ride I took him out on, he bucked at the canter NON-STOP. I was actually worried that there was something wrong. I just walked him after that.

The next day, I got on him and just walked for 40 min on the trails then did some ring work for 20 min. He has never given me such nice canters before! He was even somewhat balanced and slow going to the right! (his much worse direction)

I rode him again yesterday for about 45 minutes and we gave me another beauuuutiful canter. I don't know if he realigned himself with all that bucking or maybe if he just needed to get out and moving in a big field, but something clicked and hopefully we will continue to build on this canter and make it show worthy by April!

Pics and Video From the Clinic

If you missed my last post about the first clinic Jet and I went to, read about it here before looking at the pictures.

That being said, enjoy looking at the progress Jet has made since last year!

More pics and videos below

Our First Clinic

Today Jet and I went to a Cross Training Clinic with my friend Alli and her new pony Annie. The focus of the clinic was to "use dressage to improve your jumping and use your jumping to improve your dressage" but I found that the instructor taught the two separately and never really connected them. With that aside, I had a great time and got to try some new things!

We started with introducing ourselves and telling the instructor about our riding abilities and our horses' histories. When I mentioned that Jet was a Standardbred, she started to talk about how her friend owns and trains Standardbreds out in Michigan. I was relieved that she wasn't prejudice against the breed like so many people are. She even said that they are great horses but people don't give them a shot. Lets face it...right now, Warmbloods are in, more refined horses (like TBs and STBs) are out.

We then warmed up on the flat. She set two cones on opposite sides of the long side of the ring. She had us count the number of trotting strides between the two cones at a working trot. After we found the average of strides between the cones, she had us add some strides and take some out. The point was to collect when we were adding strides and extend when we were taking them away. It felt more like she was having us adjust our tempo between cones because all me and Alli did was slow down and speed up. The other horse in our group is a Level 6 jumper and had all of these moves mastered so we definitely looked sloppy compared to her.

Next, we moved it up to a canter...well..ermm...tranter. I warned her that our canter definitely needed work (especially our right lead) and boy was I right. The first thing she said was, "Oh...that was...interesting.." She had me try to work on it in a circle which I was fine with, but her reasoning didn't make any sense to me. She said that he is falling and and balancing off the circle and corners and that I needed to lift him up when I could. She said to work on long straight a-ways. I said that he is a lot better in a field where he can't anticipate turns or use the walls or rail to balance off of. I asked her how to "lift him up" and she started her response with "when you are on a long side.." Well how am I supposed to work on that if you are keeping me on a circle?! I could tell Jet was getting frustrated. He was trying but the area she gave us to work with was too small so I brought him down to a trot.

He was MUCH better going to the left. I could actually canter multiple times around the ring without him breaking and he was somewhat balanced. His canter was much faster than the other two horses' so as soon as I got a good (well good for us...) rhythm going and when he was just starting to use his hind end...I'd have to bring him back down to a trot because we caught up to someone. We couldn't cut across the ring and there was only one or two spots we could circle (but they would be TINY circles) so I decided just to bring him back down to a trot and start up again when the opportunity arose.

The fun stuff came next! We did a lot of grid work, which is something I have never been able to do before because our ring is way too small. I was interested to see how Jet would handle it. I had a feeling that he would see the first groundpole and try to jump that AND the cross rail (a stride away from it) at the same time. He surprised me by not only going over every element separately, but by doing really well and enjoying it! I was worried that since we haven't jumped much recently, he would get sour quickly or maybe he would pin his ears, refuse or run out...but he went over EVERYTHING, no questions asked, and he did it with his ears up the entire time!

We started with a cross rail with a take off pole a stride before and a landing pole a stride after. Next, we added another crossrail, and finally, we took out the original take off groundpole and replaced it with a vertical that was about 2'3"-ish in height. This meant that there was now a bounce in the grid. We have also never done a bounce. Yet again, my Super Standardbred shocked me and did it very well. By the end, he was taking off evenly with his hind feet (something that has been a problem for him from day 1) which meant he was using his hind end evenly, resulting in a more correct, better feeling jump. I was a proud mommy (:

Overall, I felt we accomplished a lot more in the jumping phase than the dressage phase. I would not go back to this instructor for regular lessons, but I would definitely go back to the facility to rent the indoor or go for shows. But for right now, I'll stick with lessons from my Aunt in my little backyard ring and one day, we will prove to the world that Standardbreds can do ANYTHING, and they can do it well.

*Pictures and videos to be posted tomorrow*

New Friends

We recently added two new animals to our family. Two lambs were taken home yesterday and Jet immediately wanted to be their best friend. I'll do a full update later but for now, enjoy these pictures!

I don't think he looks too bad for a Standardbred!

The black one is Reggie, the white one is Jack

Read more to see all of them!

Fun with Friends

Happy pony ears

Tuesday was a day to have fun with friends. Once I got home from school, I loaded Jet onto the trailer and headed off to my friend Mary-Kate's house.

Mary-Kate also has a Standardbred (a mare named Katie) who I have talked about numerous times on this blog. Jet absolutely adores her! He always nickers when he sees her and puts up a fuss when she goes out of site (something I definitely need to work on).

Dad drove us there and went home to relax while we rode. Jet was fairly well behaved as I brushed him removed the caked in mud on his coat, picked his feet, then tacked him up. With a little more practice, I'd feel comfortable bringing him to a show all by myself.

Smile!

Mary-Kate hopped on Katie and I got on Jet. We walked around for a while, walked up the street and back, then rode in her field. I love being able to ride in a larger area than my 85x80 little ring because Jet has the ability to really stretch and lengthen his stride. In my ring at home, he'll get to exactly were he needs to be balance and movement wise but then a corner immediately pops up and we lose it. In a field, we have a lot more room to work with and he can't use the fences, that would be in a normal ring, to balance off of.


 We did walk, trot, canter, and attempted some ground poles. Apparently, Jet has forgotten how to go over ground poles. He refused, ran out, and jumped them but he didn't really go over them like he is supposed to. That another thing to work on.

After that, we went for a trail ride and rode by the cranberry bogs and the multiple ponds and lakes that are by them. I took my camera and proved that it IS possible to take semi-decent pictures while riding a horse!

We then went back to the field were Mary-Kate took pictures of me riding. By this time, the sun was pretty much down so the pictures came out blurry as you can see. I cooled Jet down, took off his tack, and hopped back on with just a halter and lead rope. Mary-Kate ponied us around for a bit and then we called it a night. The two love birds went their separate ways but they will definitely see each other soon!

Oh, and a few days ago we also popped over some small fences to mix things up. I'll put pics of those too!

Click to see more pics!

Pictures!

Here are some pics from the past month or so. Some are with my new camera, some are from my friend's point and shoot. Enjoy (:
 Captions ABOVE the picture, click read more to see the rest!

Jet loves to stick his head in the snow WHILE I AM TROTTING/CANTERING and licking the snow. Here is proof:

The lines slipped off of the horn but I quickly fixed it

Mary-Kate and Katie

Liebster Award!

Ruth/"Ruffles" at Just A Girl and Her Horse has given me the Liebster Award! Liebster means 'dearest' in German and the award is given to great blogs that aren't well known (having less than 200 followers/members). So now, I will pass the award onto 5 other blogs that I read all the time! Go check them out!


Riding Miss Daisy


Now THAT'S A Trot

I Am Boyfriend

Grey Brook Eventing

Standardbred Excellence


Thank you Ruffles!!

Trees do NOT taste good...

What's the best thing to do on a snowy day? Go horse sledding! I took Jet out and took my brother and sister for a ride during the snow storm on Saturday. We just did walk, trot, canter up and down the street a few times. Its hard work pulling a sled and carrying a rider! Here are some vids:

Jet's little tantrum, the only time he was bad throughout the day. He puts up with so much!

To set it up, I took a fuzzy surcingle and put it on top of a saddle pad on him and then attached it to a breastplate. Then I took long lines (nylon driving reins) and attached them to the surcingle

On Sunday, I went to Mary-Kate's house and we did the same thing with her horse Katie (also a Standardbred). This time, we rode with a western saddle. We put a lunge line under the saddle (inbetween the saddle and saddle pad) and then did a safety release knot on the horn. It worked really well...until I crashed into a tree. Friends would run friends into trees and immediately turn around and go help them but BEST friends keep riding, laugh hysterically, then eventually ask if you are ok. Gotta love best friends! And the best part? Its on video!

I'm not sure why I didn't just roll off. Things just happened to quickly. I did see it coming and put my hands and feet out infront of me but I hit my head on my knee hard enough to bruise my knee (but not my head...). After about 30 seconds of being confused, I was completely fine and went on to do it again, and then I got on Katie and took Mary-Kate in the sled.

We then ended the day by taking Jet to the back field and sledding with him. We used the same setup that we used with Katie earlier that day. Here is what it looks like from the sled! (Mary-Kate in the sled)

Then Mary-Kate got on Jet and I went in the sled. Patch (my dog), was very concerned because I was screaming (with joy). He kept biting my jacket and trying to pull me off. A few times he actually ended up jumping on the sled with me and licking my face. I knew he was trying to help but I didn't want him to pop the sled so I had to yell at him to stop. He sulked over the the edge of the field, sat there, and kept an eye on me after that. When we got home I gave him lots of treats!

Did I mention I absolutely love my horse?

*DO NOT TRY THIS WITH JUST ANY HORSE* Jet and Katie have both been driven before and we got them used to the sled and the sounds of it before doing this

The Comedian

Jet has now decided that he is a comedian and is obviously the most hilarious thing that has ever walked on this planet. He even laughs at himself because he believes he is so funny. When I decide to go for a nice relaxing trail ride, he likes to amuse himself by playing a game. He thinks of it as "I don't want to be ridden so let's play 'You can't catch me!' instead." I, however, am not as amused. While he perks up his ears and leaps and bucks around, I grow more and more annoyed because the past few days I have only been able to ride about an hour before the sunsets so he wastes minutes that could be put to good work on playing games. When he does this, I free lunge him until he is willing to join up.

After that, I brush him - that goes well. Then I go get the saddle pad and place it on him, turn around to get the saddle, turn back around to place it on Jet and the saddle pad that I placed on his back is now in his mouth being flung around in little circles. I try it again and he tries to remove the saddle pad again but I was quicker than he was and succeeded in putting it on! I do up the girth - no problem. I grab the bridle and warm the bit, the go to put it in his mouth. My 16hh horse magically turns into the world's tallest giraffe. However, being 5'8" has it's advantages and I still manage to put the bit in his mouth and bridle him.

When I ride him he is perfectly fine. We have been going on trail rides for the past few days while I have the time during my school vacation. He absolutely loves the trails and he has been going really well! The slightly overgrown grass helps him engage his hind end and the hills are great to work on too. Today he went REALLY well going to the right (his bad way) at the trot and going to the left at the canter. I got an awesome canter out of him and ended it on that good note.

We go back to the ring where I get off and untack. I don't have cross ties so Jet has learned to ground tie. Today, he decided it would be fun to play peg-Mother-with-the-lead-rope. He took it in his mouth and swong it around and manage to clonk me one in the noggin. Silly horse.

I have been working on his "Smile" trick but he prefers to use the trick to laugh at me. I'll have to get a video of it to show you guys, it's hilarious!

Here are some pictures I took at my friend's house with my new camera!

Waterfall

Mary-Kate's dog Boston, one of the models in this set!

Boston and Beverly playing

Mary-Kate and her Standardbred Katie having a good time!

CLICK READ MORE for more awesome pictures! Don't miss out!!

Merry Christmas!

Today was a great day. It started at the mere time of 5:30am when my little brother woke me up so we could open presents. I love watching little kids open presents on Christmas; it's like the energy and spirit of Christmas lives within the younger kids. Everything that my brother opened was "UNBELIEVABLE!" "Are you SERIOUS?!" "Where did you find this?!" It was heart warming to see how happy he was (:


I was lost for words when I opened up one of the presents and saw my wildest Christmas wishes coming true right in my hands. I opened a Nikon d3100 DSLR camera complete with 2 different lenses, a carrying case, this that and everything in between. I was shocked. I felt like I was a kid again! I was acting just like my little brother was, basically jumping up and down with joy. I immediately opened everything up, looked at it, read the manuals, and plugged the battery into the charger so I could start taking pictures. 


While it was charging, I went back to sleep. Hours later, I grabbed the camera and went outside to take some pictures. I was further amazed to see what seemed to be a Christmas Miracle. Despite all weather forecasts, it was snowing! There was no snow predicted and everyone was a bit bummed that it would not be a white Christmas but surely enough, it was! Unfortunately, the snow left just as quickly as it came. It only left a light covering that vanished back into the earth a few hours later. 


I am still getting used to everything so the pictures will only get better from here! Prepare for photo spam 
                                       
Click Read more to see more pictures!

Winter Goals

To keep myself motivated to ride in the bitter cold New England winters, I have decided to make a list of things I would like to do or achieve. So far, the list consists of:

1. Work him at least 3x a week even if its just walking around the street
2. Work on his new smiling trick and master it 
3. Have him bow while I ride him
4. Bareback and Bridle-less riding at least 3 times
5. Stand on him as he walks around
6. Modified skijourning at least twice

More to some as I think of them...any ideas on tricks I could teach him? It's important to keep his mind as well as him body moving in the winter!

Blast from the past

Here are some pictures of Jet when we had him as a three year old!

The day we brought him home:

Trail Rides:

Lessons:

At home:

Battling Thrush

Let's back track to the summer...There were some really rainy times, especially when the hurricane hit. Where we are, our turnouts are dirt and geniusly placed at the lowest point of the property. What does rain and dirt make? Mud. And lots of it. Jet stays down in the muddy area over night and goes up in the sand ring for turnout from about 9am to 5pm every day but he still managed to get a nasty case of thrush.

I have tried many thrush products to fight it including the never-failing Thrush Buster. Now I relate Thrush Buster to the Titanic. The unsinkable that sank and the never-failing that failed. We had the farrier look at him and she is very concerned. Right now, I have to be extremely careful with him, especially on little rocks, because he is a prime case of an abscess waiting to happen. His frog and heel are extremely squishy and on two of his hooves, the median of the balls of his heel has rotten open. Even though this is extremely bad, it allows me to use a much stronger method of tackling the thrush.

Right now, I am using a sugar-dine cotton ball mix and legitimately shoving it as far as I can into the rotting area (this is all under farrier orders and it is being closely monitored). The sugar-dine will help draw the bacteria and infection out of the frog and thus ending the thrush. The cotton balls are soaked in the mix and separated into small sections so that they will stay in the frog. For the first few days I also diapered the front two feet so nothing could get in and nothing could get out. Now, I am not diapering but I am putting the cotton balls in the frog, and removing the ones that are there from the previous packing, twice a day. All throughout this time, Jet has been locked in a stall ( we have run-ins) overnight so he has a much slimmer chance of getting moisture in his feet at all. He is in dry areas 24/7 and hopefully this will help kick the thrush.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do over the winter...snow is just moisture which is what the thrush bacteria thrive in. I can't keep him locked in a stall all day and night. That  isn't fair to him nor is it healthy for him. I think he is just going to be turned out in the snow in the day and locked in the stall at night. We will see when the time comes.

As far as riding goes... I have been keeping it pretty low right now because of his feet. I do not want him to abscess at all. So when I do ride him, I only ride in our ring where I know the rocks are picked from daily. I would love to go out on the trails a few more times before it snows but I don't want to hurt him. We will see how his feet are in two weeks and take it from there.

He got a little break from riding after the hunter pace but he is back in work now. I am riding at least four times a week and every now and then I will ground drive or lunge him just to do something different. Ideally, I will be able to keep him fit and working throughout the winter by using indoors nearby. If that doesn't happen, he will at least be walked multiple times a week just to get his body moving.

I have also started a written Riding Log so at the end of each month I will post it here for you guys to see!

Apple Knoll Hunter Pace- November 12, 2011

Last Saturday, Mary-Kate and I embarked on an adventure to Apple Knoll for their annual Hunter Pace. Usually it is on the weekend of Halloween but this year that weekend got snowed out. Luckily, the postponed the event and didn't cancel it. I have been waiting all year to do this and I would have been really disappointed if they cancelled it.

We ended up getting to Apple Knoll pretty late, around 1:00pm. The first riders rode out at 9am and they said the last riders could ride out at 2pm but we were the last ones there. We had the trails and jumps all to ourselves which was really nice!

The course was 8ish miles of beautiful fields, lakes, and trails. Surprisingly, there were very few really muddy spots. We were concerned that since it snowed (and rained two days straight before!) the course would be too muddy and wet to do anything. There was a wide variety of jumps of all sizes. Jet absolutely LOVES cross country courses and trails so this was the perfect combination for him.

We started out with some smaller logs (about 18") anf by the end of the pace, we jumped our biggest jump ever together, a 2'7" coop! Jet is a lot more confident over solid fences than he is over poles and oddly enough, I am too. I think it helps both of us find our spots and with it being in a field, we have a nice long approach to prepare for the fence. Jet was bold and brave to the fences but got too quick at times. We only had one refusal which was completely my fault. He broke from the canter a few strides about before a little tiny coop and I dropped him before the fence and it fell apart but he simply scooted off to the side. He has never dirty stopped on me before and I am really thankful for that. He usually trusts me enough to do whatever I ask of him which is a great feeling!

The only downside to the day was that the people running it were getting pissed off because we were the only ones out there and they wanted to go home. If they wanted to go home at a certain time, they should have said that the course was closed SOONER. One lady in particular gave me, my friends, and my family an extremely nasty and rude attitude. They had my Mom call me saying that if we didn't hurry up and get back, they were going to send a horse and rider out there to bring us back asap. Umm...excuse me? We paid for this hunter pace and we will go however slow or quickly we want to. Even though we did take a lot of walking breaks and hung around in the fields to jump a bit, we were only a few minutes slower than everyone else who did the pace. Not everyone at the facility was rude. There was one woman who welcomed us back when we got there and asked us about our ride, if we had a good time, and she even apologized for her fellow workers'/friends' poor attitude.

Even though we were pretty upset about that, we didn't let it ruin our day! Here are some videos from the day. The find one is a combination of them all put to music and with pictures so if you only want to watch one, watch that one. If there are some you want to see more of/watch the whole video, see the videos labelled below. Enjoy!

Apple Knoll- Party Rock Anthem

Small course: medium log, to small log, to coop (refusal), back to coop, to large log

Big side of the log! about 2'3"? Yes...he supermanned it..

Roll Top try 1

Roll Top try 2

Red coop

Raised log

Raised Log to little coop

Big coop

Our biggest jump ever- the big coop! He was so good (:

And here are two of Mary-Kate and her Standardbred!

Big log

HUGE roll top! about 2'7"?

Bristol County 4-H and Open Horse Show at Haskins 10/23/11

Last Sunday, we had our final show of the season at Haskins. This is the last time Jet and I would ever be eligible for the Green Horse classes we have been doing for the past two years. I really wanted to make it count.

I decided to do seven classes that day. We started with Halter, then went to the Green Horse classes (equitation, pleasure, discipline rail, and trail), and then I decided to throw in two crossrail classes just to see how he would be in them. I wasn't expecting him to be a superstar in crossrails or Halter because we usually do not do those classes.

We got there nice and early and I decided not to get on and warm up before Halter. This meant that he would have to go into the show ring without being able to look around first. In the past, this has been an issue because when we warm up in the ring, he usually spooks quite a bit at first. It was time for him to grow up and put his big boy pants on.

Halter went really well. We were waiting for half an hour outside of the indoor ring before our class started. By the time we went into the ring, Jet was getting aggrivated. However, he held it together during the class. He stood still and square and trotted right when I wanted him to. There were seven in the class and we ended up tying for sixth. I did not care about the ribbon, I was just proud of Jet. All of the other horses have been trained to do this class and have been doing it for some time. However, my Mom was not as happy as I was about it. She asked the judge why I placed so low and he said that it was because my bridle was a flash bridle (even though I did not have the flash on the noseband). If I didn't have that, he said I would have placed in the top of the class. Oh well, atleast I know I did well!

After that, I ran back to the trailer and tacked him up for the undersaddle classes. We only had two classes to warm up in a small warm up area. Our class was called and we entered the ring. There were three in my class this time (better than it being just me like the last show!). One of the girls has been going for year end points, like I was.

Our Green horse classes went really well! Jet wasn't spooky at all in the ring! We didn't break or do anything stupid. We stood still when we were supposed to, and didn't go around at 100 mph! The only this he was iffy on was trotting right on the rail. As the day went on, the track on the rail got really deep and mushy and I think he was having a hard time so I pulled him to the inside just a bit so he wasn;t on the track and he was MUCH happier. He was moving straight, getting great transitions, keeping an even tempo, level headset, he was just being great! We were spot on in trail too! In one of our classes, the girl that was going fr year end awards fell off of her horse RIGHT infront of us when the horse spooked. I immediately dismounted (a habit I guess) and just looked on. Jet was fine throughout the whole ordeal but was a bit looky where the horse spooked. After once past that area, he was fine. The girl was fine and hopped right back on like a champ! The rest of the day was fine with no injuries. We ended up with two firsts and two seconds!

Then we went on to crossrails. I snuck into the warm up and got a few rounds in and was laughing so much that it interfered with my riding. Jet was being good though! He was going over everything...WAY over everything. Our lines could have been straighter, we could have had a better, more consistant tempo, but he did it! I knew I wasn't going to place well compared to the lesson ponies so I took the oppurtunity to try some things out in the ring. i was trot one line, canter the next, trot in and canter out, ect. Just playing around with lines while we had the chance. Our ring at home isn't big enough for lines so both of us are only used to riding single fences so we both had some trouble doing lines. At Flatlands, the jumps were set as a jumper course so there weren't many lines but at Haskins, they were set up like a  Hunter course so it was all lines.

Overall I was super proud of him! We somehow ended up placing fifth out of eight in Equitation and fifth our of eight in Hunters....I have NO idea how that happened! Here are the videos: (notice how Jet decided to stop and poop in our first opening circle! lol)

(Will be edited in alter once they load so check back!!)

They ended the day with announcing day and year end champions. Jet and I won Day End Green Horse Champ and year end Green Horse Champ!! Yay Jet! I was so proud of him! Our hard work paid off and we improved from our reserve champion last year. We endded the show season being undefeated Green Horse Champion (except the show I did with Elsa). I'm a proud mom! (:

Here are some pics: