She’s baaaa-aack!

If anyone’s wondering why I haven’t written in what seems like years, it’s because Rosey was out on trial.  But… the lovely little bay wonder is BACK, which has me quite excited.  She’s going to go live on the Funny Farm for a while, so I won’t be able to ride her as often as I had been doing, but that’s alright, we’re headed into fall and winter, and there are other horses who need some basic boot camp.

When I got to the barn yesterday she was quite unhappy at being alone.  After a few minutes of coddling from me, she decided that wasn’t quite good enough, and let out a scream that any Hollywood Damsel in Distress would envy.  While horses on the farm are used to hearing others scream, they all took notice of Rosey, and immediately four of the geldings from the neighboring field came galloping up the fence to vie for her attention. 

I spent a bit longer than I meant to watching her and laughing, as I was supposed to be meeting people out at the Funny Farm to visit the horses out there. 

So I got on my way, and once out at the other farm, had an excellent morning of cleaning and primping and pampering some ponies.  Once done with Big Daug, Whisper, and Klondike the Fat, I climbed on little Afton again, so we could get some pictures. 

He really couldn’t be better.  He didn’t stand at the mounting block quite as well as last time, but he only moved off when I was mounting- as long as I was just standing on the ground or the block itself, he was perfectly content to stand like a gentleman.  I know I make a big deal about this, but this is something most of these guys just don’t get at first.  At the track, jockeys are thrown up into the saddle while the horse is walking.  And for many of them, they don’t really like the mounting block because it makes you so much taller than them- the only time they’ve experienced that is when people are actually ON their backs, and they’re moving forward.  So to have a little three year old with track training stand so well (even if not perfect) is pretty impressive to me, and I gush just a little.

such a good booooie!

Then we practiced the basics- stop, turn, and go.  Today we even managed a canter, which he seemed unsure about at first, but as soon as he realized that I did indeed want a canter, he picked it up pretty quickly.  He seems automatic about his leads- I don’t ever really ask for them the first few times, especially on such a baby, but tracking right, he actually started to pick up the wrong lead, caught himself and reorganized, then went off on the right one.  Someday, someone more talented than I will have a very easy time teaching this guy lead changes.  The canter is super easy to ride, too- Rosey’s always feels a little quick to me the first few strides- this guy has a big enough step and is comfortable enough that it feels very balanced, even downhill and the first few strides. 

Yay Afton!

He does jaw at the bit a little- I was trying to stay as soft as possible and mostly rode on a loose rein.  Honest, I did

In addition to being really good in general, he also learned to trot ground poles under saddle.  All while the farm owner was moving loud and scary equipment around   It never ceases to amaze me how good most of these guys are, as long as you expect them to be. 

Now, hopefully I’ll be able to take Roseyness for a few spins this week, and actually update her blog with stuff actually about her.

I don’t know where to write!

So, I’ve been out of town for a little over a week, and things go all topsy turvy on me! 

While gone, Allie took Rosey and some other ponies to a hunter pace up in PA, where Rosey met with the lovely lady who had adopted Klondike.  So Rosey stayed there on a little trial basis, and was poof! not in her stall when I returned.  Unfortunately, it may not be quite the magical match that Klondike was, such is the way with these beasts. 

So, who to play with today?

Well, Klondike of course (see my confusion? This is the new blog, but I rode the other horse.  DO I put it here? In Klondike’s still-existing blog?  Or copy this and post to both? Decisions!). Klon has had his shoes pulled and is back out with a large group of buddies at the Fat Farm.  I used to call it the “funny farm” because it was filled with funny horses, but currently Truckee is a little depressed (he missed Bid), and, well… Klondike is positively FAT.  As in, I actually walked by him in the field while looking for him.  He doesn’t look obese or anything, but he was slouching, standing with his rear to me, and with his little ears I mistook him for one of the resident Quarter horses. 

I finally figured it out, spent a few minutes feeling like a complete dumb-head, and went to work cleaning him up.  He’s grown a long mane, so will need that pulled, and his feet need some work.  His front hooves have that same flatness about the sole that his hinds used to have, and as a result he’s a little sore on rocks and gravel.  But since he seemed fairly comfortable on grass, I decided to hop on for a few minutes.

Fortunately, his old girth still fits him.  He doesn’t seem rusty at all, quitting his giraffe impression after one circuit of the little ring.  He was a little wiggly, back to his old game of head going one way and body the other.  We worked on actually going INTO the corners, and also trotting for more than three steps before losing all energy and stopping (I’ve been sick, but I don’t remember him being that much work, heh!)

After some more quality time with me and a big bag of carrots gifted to us by a boarded who had too many (her horse seemed mystified.  Too many carrots?  You must be kidding!), I brought him back out and found another pony to annoy.  Who was the lucky lad?  Afton!  He’s adorable, and very much three.  For being three, though, he is very easy to work with and groom, stands well for flyspray and is a joy to be around.  He doesn’t understand horse cookies.  He took one, but wasn’t sure why, so he sat there with the cookie on his tongue and sucked on it, instead of eating it.

Afton, being beautiful

I saddled him up (and what a good boy for saddling!  Stood perfectly still and everything!) and headed to the ring, where we walked around a bit first and walked over poles, and took a look at the jumps and other obstacles.  He was far more concerned with the other horses he could see from the ring- horses he didn’t know.  Better yet, girls!  He was fascinated with the girls, and kept wanting to stop and look at them.

Once I was sure he was pretty chill with everything (duh, this the horse we actually had to flick with the lunge whip to get him to do more than eat when we were trying to see if he was sound) I headed to the mounting block.  Again, such a good boy! He stands for mounting better than any of the horses I’ve been up on so far, which really impressed me.  He walked away when I asked, and then I asked him to stop again.  He didn’t quite get the whoa the first time, but I got him stopped.  After that, every time I said “whoa” he stopped like a good boy.  Getting him trotting took some effort.  He needs a cheerleading section to get him going- kicking and that sort of thing won’t do it, you have to be more positive, like “cmon little guy! You can do it! Gooooooo AFTON!  Gimme an A! Gimme an F!”  He eventually tried trotting a few steps, then stopped.  We repeated that a few times before he finally trotted around the ring with something approaching a normal trot. 

Since he’s three, he has a short attention span, so we quit with that.  But what a good horse- he’ll be something really special, I think.

 

edited to add:  It makes me enormously happy to learn (via wordpress’s fun little “blog stats” feature) that googling “monkey on horse” brings you to this blog.  *sniff*

CANTER Mid-Atlantic Auction Time!

Just a brief announcement for anyone checking in on Miss Rosalicious:

It is TIME for the fall online auction to benefit CANTER.  It should at least pay for all the antibiotics she’s on.  In any case, it works sort of like ebay, but in a message board format.  If you list an item, you are responsible for setting the terms and shipping it. 

We will be accepting items through October 9.  If you have something, head on over to:

http://cantermafallauction.proboards104.com

Register, then add your item.  Also take some time to lookey-lou around, there’s some neat stuff popping up, with more to come over the next week.

I will be out of town for a little while with a family thing, so if you need help, hang tight, I will get to it eventually. 

As for Rosish, she unfortunately still had a little hitch in her getalong tonight, so her blind date with a prospective person has been postponed. 

Lastly, if you are in the Maryland area, BE SURE to head over to Laurel for the Maryland Million on Saturday.  It should be a beautiful day, with the best racing Maryland has to offer.  Some CANTER alums will be making a guest appearance on the track after the seventh race- go cheer them on!

Back in Action

Hellloooo!

Sorry about all the down time on Rosey’s blog.  A lot’s been going on in my world lately, so something was bound to get neglected.  In any case, we’re not that much advanced from where we left off.  Rosey came up a little lame over the last week, a frustrating and sort of mysterious thing, and then, when it was her day to go to Loch Moy for some more public exposure, her hock and lower leg turned out to be quite swollen.  While my immediate reaction was “nooo! broken horse! not fair with people coming to look at you this week!!!!” it turns out to not be the really big deal I was worried about.

That nasty scrape she took to her right hind? It turns out it was right over some lymph nodes, and while the injury itself wasn’t that severe, there was some infection.  The antibiotics we gave her at first were probably not strong enough to do the job, and so there you go.

A few days on the new regimen, and life is much better.  Swelling is all but gone, and we rode last night and she felt pretty good.  She still has someone coming to look tomorrow (wish her luck!)

As for our ride last night, it went very well.  I wanted to concentrate on me, so I spent the entire ride screaming to myself (in my head) to LOOK WHERE I AM GOING!!! I have a very nasty happen of looking at the horse’s head when I ride.  On the flat, it’s as if I can mentally push the horse’s head down by putting my OWN head down.  Over fences, it’s just a disastrous habit, as most people know.  So around we went, with me LOOKING UP! and not at her head.

The next thing to scream about was my hands.  My horrible, too low and attached-to- too-straight arms hands.  Elbows bent, elbows bent, wrists straight, elbows bent. 

And then there’s the real killer.  It’s called “straight.”  As in, hips and shoulders level, and legs equally placed on both sides.  My tendency is to collapse the left side while leading with the left shoulder while simultaneously sitting deeper in my right hip and leg, regardless of which direction I’m headed in.  This is a pretty difficult thing to fix- when I am actually sitting straight, it feels drastically not-straight.  Like, really badly not-straight.  Like I might fall off to the other side not-straight.  It’s sort of alarming.

Nonetheless, in a miraculous way, when I manage to get all those things put together, Rosey responds quite beautifully and goes really well (I wonder why, heh!).  I always say to myself that it’s not about “training” the horse, so much as it is just “riding right,” since riding right makes the right things much easier for the horse to do.  But actually DOING that is far more difficult than just saying it.