Awesome English Lesson Today!

For those of you who didn't get it from the title of this post, I had an awesome English lesson today! LOL! As I mentioned in my Satin update post, Satin & I have been expanding our horizons and taking some English lessons. She is becoming quite the little jumper pony!

Satin was absolutely perfect on the flat. She had a nice medium trot and a slow English pleasure canter. We started off with a few warm up cross rails, which she did nicely. Then my fabulous trainer R instructed me to make my own three jump course. I decided to do the straw jump to the outside line, a course we had done in our previous lesson. We did it a few times, getting better and better with each try.

Then R added a fourth jump, a cross rail made out of planks with some flower boxes. We did the same three starting jumps then I had to ride down to the end of the ring turn around a jump there and canter down the plank cross rail. She jumped it with no problems and much enthusiasm. The second time around I forgot about going to that jump and had turned to early, but I made it work and did a jumper turn and went right to it. The next two times I went for the same jumper turn, just for the fun of it LOL

After a few times of this course (which we did in both directions) R decided to make it a little more interesting and add a 5th jump. It was our warm up cross rail which was set to make a bending line from the plank cross rail. So, the first four jumps remained the same and we added the original cross rail at the end. She did it great but was quite the little speed demon going down the bending line as I expected because it was going toward the entrance of the ring and her paddock buddy who lessons with us.

My last few times around R wanted me to go back to the longer turn / straighter approach going into the cross rail bending line instead of my little jumper turn. Since I remarked I had only continued doing it because I liked doing the quick little jumper turn, she decided to give me an extra challenge and had my little jumper turn at the end going off the cross rail line, hard left to the straw. The first time of two I couldn't get there. It was a quick turn and between Satin's speed down the line and my eyes not staying up as much as they should it made it even harder. Finally on my third try, I gave it my all, adjusted my focus, and we made it work! It was a little rough getting in but we got there and got over!

These various courses gave me some time to work on my position too, especially in the first few lines where Satin was going nice and quiet. I have still have to practice, but I'm getting a lot better and more stable. I just have to keep R's voice in my head saying chest up, chin up!

Updates: Taz

Last, but certainly not least, we have Taz. As mentioned in my previous post, Taz is a Quarter Horse that belongs to my trainer's husband. When I first met R about 3 years ago, one of the first things she said about Satin was that she reminded her of her husband's horse if his blaze was flipped upside down. This is true if you look at their faces but Taz is built like a bull, very wide, unlike my petite mare. They have some similarities riding, as well. They both have bouncy trots, but great jogs. They both have comfortable, rocking horse canters and are both former reiners, with great transitions, and love to GO. Taz can get a pretty good spin going still. R let me try one time when we were riding together with him and Try. I hope to try again soon.

Anyway, when it came time for Try to be going home I was sad because it meant not going to Muddy Creek twice a week anymore. I loved all the extra time there. I learned so much from R during that time and it was just nice and peaceful. During my last ride on Try at R's place I mentioned how I was going to miss coming to ride there all the time. She said she had been thinking the same thing and then later while we were riding told me I was welcome to continue coming and ride Taz instead. Of course, I jumped on this opportunity.

I really like riding Taz. As I mentioned he is quite similar to Satin in a lot of ways, such as his way of going; smart, willing attitude, and like Satin when doing pattern work he always tries to be a step ahead. Unlike Satin though, he is quite sensitive. He was given to R's husband by one of his clients (he is a farrier) because they couldn't deal with him. The sensitivity R believes is from bad training. As I mentioned, he is quite wide so requires a special saddle. He was probably not being ridden in a properly fitted saddle so he used to buck a lot, both under saddle and in the aisle after being tacked. When he has the tack on he is afraid of everything. The slightest little thing makes him flinch, especially when first tacked. R broke him of a lot of this from what I heard, but he is still sensitive.

R says he is best when in a program so me riding him helps keep him going. He and I have gotten along just fine though. I figured out how to ride him quite quickly with R's help and have not had any problems with him. I have only seen him buck once with R, but when he bucks, he sure does buck! I am having a lot of fun with him though and look forward to learning more on him.

Updates: Try

We can't forget about Try. As I've mentioned in previous posts Try belongs to a friend of mine and was living at my trainer's farm, in full training with her. My friend approached me over the winter about riding him when he returned home, as she has a back problem that keeps her from doing much riding. I, of course, agreed and began riding him weekly at R's farm to prepare for the time when I would ride him on my own.

Well that time came in the beginning of July when he returned home. The last few weeks he was at R's I went from a weekly lesson to twice weekly supervised rides. Supervised meaning R and I rode together, her on her husband's QH, Taz and me on Try. We would both do our own thing in the beginning to warm up then we would work on something together like pattern work or pairs exercises. This made me feel fully confident in my ability when he returned home. It was weird and a bit lonely riding on my own, but Try and I have settled in to our new routine quite nicely.

We have hit a few bumps in the road, such as some extra nippyness and not being totally cooperative on cross ties in the wash stall at first and later during tack up, which is not his favorite thing to begin with. But, with R's advice we nipped those problems in the bud rather quickly and luckily he has been consistently great while riding.

R came out one day last week to watch our session and give us some guidance. She had one or two tips, but was very happy with my work with him. She got on and rode him a little too, so it was nice.

This photo was taken by Try's owner C during one of our sessions at R's farm.

Updates: JB

Next we have JB, aka boyfriend. As you all may remember, JB is my friend H's Standardbred who is quite the jack of all trades, basically the most versatile horse ever. This year we expanded his repertoire to include western pleasure, which he is a total rockstar at.

Unfortunately he is the horse I ride least as he is the furthest away, but we are still actively showing in model and western and he is kicking butt, if I may say so myself. He is better and better every time I ride him.

Two horse shows ago we were champion in open model against 12 other horses, most of which being Quarter Horses and Paints. He won both the gelding and open class. He has been consistently pinning well in open halter competitions all summer.

H, JB, and I after his Grand Champion win in Open Model.

He has been doing very well in his western classes too. As I mentioned he is better and better with every ride. He goes slower and puts his head lower every time. In our last horse show we were grand Champion against Appaloosas and Quarter Horses. He was 1st in pleasure horsemanship, and a very tough command class in which we backed basically a full lap around the arena. He received 2nd in trail which is his worst class since he is scared of everything LOL.

Some pictures from this summer:

Updates: Satin

First and foremost is of course my wonderful mare, Satin. She is still as feisty and young at heart as ever. We are a little more than half way through our show season now and she has been perfect. At our last show, which was last weekend she ran 3 absolutely perfect patterns. Her barrel turns couldn't have been tighter or smoother, her poles run was just about flawless, and her rollback in keyhole was right out of her reining horse days. The only thing that could have made it better was if she gave it a little more speed. She ran, but not as fast as she could, but I was still very happy with her. Other than our usual show series we have also done a gymkhana at a local fair and team penning.

We have also begun expanding our repertoire to (drum roll, please) ...... English. Yes, you heard me right! As you all know I have ridden english a few times on my horse and friends' horses. I even took an English lesson back in the fall, but between lack of tack and a fall over a jump, Satin and I took a bit of a hiatus from our english riding. I decided to give it a second try though and approached my trainer with the idea of an english pleasure lesson. Well that one english pleasure lesson has become a series of English lessons. My trainer has this very subtle way of getting me to do these things LOL. At the end of my lesson she will say something like "Next week when we jump, we will try this." etc. I think she is also secretly turning my pony into a hunter as she has not been slow enough for english pleasure these days LOL.

So far, so good though! Our last two lessons, Satin has been perfect and I have been trying my best to keep up with her :). My eq over fences needs work, but we are both still green to this whole English / jumping thing and with R's help we will be pros in no time. In our last lesson we jumped a mini course including a roll top and a hay bale jump. I'm quite proud of my little barrel pony.

In other Satin news, we moved to a new barn in mid-July. For reasons that are just way too much to get into we moved to the barn right next door. All of our friends moved with us though, and everyone at the new barn is very nice. We love it so far.

At the time of the move, because things were not crazy enough, Satin got a swollen leg. She has had this one or twice before but it did not respond to my usual treatment of hosing, walking, and wrapping. It started on a lesson day so I took to her R for evaluation. We walked and trotted her for a bit, cold hosed the leg, and R did a standing wrap. She also had not been finishing all of her grain for 2 or 3 days before this. She never spiked a fever but her temp fluctuated from low normal to high normal to mid range, etc. After 2 days with no change in swelling R suggested a vet visit. R is not one to sound the alarm unnecessarily so I did as suggested.

The vet tested her for lymes and suggested a hosing, furazone leg sweat, walking, and bute regimen. She also started her on doxy, an antibiotic for tick related diseases. Within two days, the leg swelling was down and once she was settled in her eating returned to normal, as well. The lymes test came back negative but she remained on the doxy for 10 days anyway. Whatever it was it seemed we caught it quickly and she is now back to her normal healthy self.

Some recent photos:

I'm Alive, I Swear!

I'm still alive, I swear! This summer has been extremely busy for me and unfortunately my blog was one of the casualties of that. I have been on overload between riding four different horses in four different locations, horse showing, pre-grad school stuff, photography, and something resembling a social life.

BUT, as you can see, I am coming back with a vengeance. I redesigned the entire blog from top to bottom, starting with a new name. College Cowgirl was no longer appropriate as I am now a proud college grad, so the blog was in need of a new name. I figured Live to Ride (which is already my blogger user name) was an appropriate title to sum things up. Yes, I am going back to school as I pursue my Masters, but I am also beginning my journey in the "real world". Riding will always be a part of that. Even though my career may not always be horse related, horses and riding will be always what I live for.

Along with the new title, I figured the blog could use a new look. So, I gave it a total makeover, including new photos on my sidebar.

I will also be adding some new posts to update you on my summer. I figured the easiest way is to break it up into separate posts for each of the 4 horses I am consistently working with, but I will sum this one up with general updates on me.

As previously mentioned I was accepted to grad school starting in the fall (YAY!). I will be attending the same University I attended for undergrad, which will remain nameless (sorry guys :) ). I will be pursuing a Masters in Communication, which I figured would nicely compliment my Bachelor's in Journalism and aid me in a career in the field of Public Relations or something along those lines. I still want to write and photograph of course and will continue to do so on a freelance basis and / or combine it with my newly learned Communications skills.

Speaking of writing and photography, I have been a bit of a slacker in the writing department. I have only written one freelance piece all summer, though I do have a second assignment waiting for me if I could ever find a break in my crazy schedule. On the photography front I have been quite active. I received a new camera for my graduation gift so I am not shooting with a Canon EOS 60D and I LOVE it! I redid my website with some new pictures. Check it out!

Some photos taken on my new camera:

Other Updates

Last week H and I took JB aka BF to a new horse show over an hour away. It was basically all QHs and Paints. We were fourth in hand, but he got 1st in the hunter in hand. He and H placed well in several large classes. He and I went in 2 pleasure classes and though we didn't place I was very proud of him. He went the slowest he has ever gone in a horseshow. We didn't expect to place though as all the competition were really intense pleasure horses.

H even showed him western in the amateur classes for the first time and they did pretty well. I gave her some western lessons during the week. Our friend J and her new mare Coco joined us and got great ribbons for their first show together, even some blues! Our other friend JL came along as well, so did our friend M and her daughter and their horses. We had a lot of fun.

In other news, I graduated last week and have been seeing my friends as they finished school. I have also been doing a lot of photography lately, shooting around the barn and went to watch and shoot R at two shows, etc.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been super busy in the last two weeks between graduation, family events, and horse stuff. I will give you the reader's digest version of updates.

We will start of course with Satin. As usual she has been wonderful. She is in great shape and weight and looks like a million bucks. We had a lesson last week in which we worked on stretchy trot and canter. We asked both mares to stretch their necks and backs out, getting their necks long and low. We did this because R and I discussed dressage earlier in the week and Satin's dislike of stretching her neck out. R decided we would work on it in the lesson as it would be good for both Satin and L's mare Lexie. Well Lexie took to it right away and got it quickly. Satin was another story.

As I figured would happen she was not at all interested in this idea. It was one of her weaknesses when we did western pleasure. We tried three different methods going over half hour before we finally saw some progress. R said you have to be both patient and stubborn. Well let me tell you my mare can be extremely stubborn when she wants to be. She takes after her mother (aka me) LOL. But, finally we found something that worked by basically putting steady pressure and an inside bend so to release tension she had to drop her head. Once she got the idea she did very well. She even did it at the lope nicely too.

So because of my busy week I did not ride her for two days after the lesson, but when I rode her again on the following Saturday she got the long and low stretchy trot right away. Thankfully my mare is extremely smart because after that lesson I was sore, so going through that process again would have been difficult. Then when Lisa and I went on a trail yesterday she was stretching out on her own at the canter. Now we have to work on getting it in the hackamore.

Now for the Try update. I have moved up my rides on Try to twice a week now that it is almost time for him to go home. We lesson one day and have a supervised ride with R the other. She usually rides his fieldmate Taz with us and let's me do my own thing, but gives me some guidance and suggestions.

In our lesson two weeks ago we rode bareback. Try had thrown a shoe so we were only riding him lightly in the indoor. It was fun. He had the nice flat bareback and comfortable gaits perfect for a bareback horse. He did well in our other rides with R following that as well. We are making progress and getting very used to each other.

Last Weeks Lessons

Last Tuesday I had another lesson on Try outside. It went well for the most part. We did more work on getting him to put his down and round up his back which he did nicely. We also did more work on transitions which are coming along nicely as well.

It was pretty hot out that day, probably around 80 degrees. Well Try decided he was hot and tired near the end of our lesson and ended it early by laying down (yes, I did say laying down). We were jogging along the rail working on our slow jog with a low head set and he broke to the walk but kept his head head very low. I tried to bump him back up into the jog, but next thing I knew were on the ground. He did not give any of the typical signs of laying down, like pawing, etc. We were jogging then we were walking and then we were on the ground. Luckily he did so slowly and easily not just plopping and even more luckily he did not roll. I jumped off of him as soon as he did it and got him up. R thinks part of the reason he didn't roll right off was because it was a bit up hill on one side where he laid down. She thinks he just got tired and overheated. His owner was there and she said he had done that before as a baby. We untacked him and hosed him off and he was fine.

Satin was wonderful in her lesson and kept all 4 feet on the ground. We were in the indoor unfortunately because it rained all day. We did some intense pattern work. She set up 3 poles in one corner of the arena and we trotted and cantered them, which was fine. She set up 3 more poles opposite them in almost a circle, so going through them in a circle was a bit of a challenge. For my pattern I started in the middle cantering to the left went on the rail over the poles doing the full circle which would switch me to right lead. I went half way around on the right lead then had to turn and do a flying lead change over a pole set up on one end. So, this put me on left lead and I had to go over the circle of poles the opposite way, which was a bit awkward because you had to switch leads as you got over the first set so you would be on right lead for the following set. Then I cantered out of that to the middle, halted and backed up. The pattern was a bit tricky in spots, but she did it very well and all in the hackamore.

May Show

I have been swamped with the end of the semester aka end of college so am a little behind on my updates. Last time we left off it was shortly before the May horse show, so that is where I will pick up.

This was the first time Satin was showing in the hackamore and she LOVES it. She was awesome. We had a fabulous barrel run, all her turns were perfect. They made the pattern much smaller by having a much shorter run home so we got a 17! We had a great poles run except she cut the last turn a little tight as she tends to do and we took out the last pole, so we got a 26 plus 5. Keyhole was interesting. I took her into the warm up ring to practice roll backs and wanted to start with the staircase excercise Renee taught us as usual, but she was so hyped up she started hopping and doing intense roll backs instantly. We got in the ring and she was good to go, took off like a nut. She was so excited that when she got through the keyhole she got a little lost and didnt know where she wanted to go. I planned to roll back left, but instead she dove left then right so I had to pull her around right to get her back in action which cost us a little time. It happens though so what can you do. I was still very happy with her overall performance and like her in the hackamore.

My handsome JB aka BF was a rockstar! He was 2nd on model geldings again and 4th in open model again too. More importantly, we were grand champion in beginner western!!!! The division was much smaller this time, but JB was also much better since the lesson, though he did not got as slow at the show as he did in the lesson, but we are getting there. We won the horsemanship class and command and were 2nd in horsemanship and trail, though trail still needs a lot of work. I was quite proud of him. We are going to another western show this weekend where he will be doing halter, showmanship for the first time and pleasure. His owner H will even be making her western debut on him so it should be fun.