Like a Painted Wild Mustang...

"...flyin' out across the open range... Finally gets to live her life that way, no fear, no fences, nobody, NO REINS!"
~Rascal Flatts

That song is one I've claimed as Prin and my "signature" song, we love it for demos, and it seemed appropriate for tonight's excitement. Prin and I learned something new :)



Yep! It's there, it's consistent, we're rearing now! Like a painted wild mustang, indeed! Pretty neato, huh?

Filming Filming, Filming, and KNEELING!

Short blog tonight, but I felt like I should probably update since I've been mystery woman all fall, and am in danger of keeping it up.

Yesterday and today (and part of tomorrow for that matter), I've spent the majority of my time filming one of my student's L1 assessment. It's gone almost flawlessly, save for a few humorous bobbles in the Squeeze game, and follow the rail, and a great "finger freezing" episode toward the end of the saddling.

I'm now in the process of rough-cutting the video together (fancy stuff comes tomorrow, after we finish the pushing passenger lesson) and I'm thoroughly enjoying something that I KNOW what should look like, as opposed to my "highlight" videos, which I really never have a plan for.

Anyway, the final part of this would have to do with Prin :) I've been playing with all sorts of fun stuff this summer/fall/ and now into winter, and one of them is the bow/lie down task. Farrah has always emphasized the importance of breaking everything down into tiny little bits and getting each component perfect, so that they all come together flawlessly into the task. I understand this, of course, but it is only human of me to go "C'mon, can't you just LIE DOWN?!" Which is EXACTLY why it's been an epic failure so far.

I noticed today, as I was playing with Prin's bow (she's getting REALLY good at that) that if she is left to her own devices with her legs, she'll actually put a knee down on her own without my asking. I played around with different degrees of weight and balance on her, and realized that she's actually far more confident if I just pick her foot up for her, then let it go. Two times trying this, and Prin swept low into a MAGNIFICENT bow, and then she turned, looked at me, and put her other knee down, and knelt, much like I've seen Farrah do with Caesar on multiple occasions. I gave her about a cookie, rubbed her a BUNCH, and then ASKED her to get up...I'm pretty sure she'dve gone all the way down for me, had I asked, but I wanted her to feel safe and confident around me so that she'd be confident in my asking her to do it again some time. So...YAY! Progress!

I'm learning every day just how important being particular about the little pieces is. I'm SO glad I spent time getting her shoulders loose, getting her to stretch her topline, getting her to Spanish walk and park out. It's starting to come together, and I'm REALLY excited for the progress.

And on that note, I'm off for bed. It's COLD tonight! I'm not ready for winter yet!!

Liberty in the Rain

Weeeeee!

It's literally been raining non-stop since Tuesday, and the clay soil in our pasture has turned to muck. In some places, my mud boots were wet well past my ankles, and it is truly hard to walk.

Anyway, today Jess and I (By the way, Jess is staying with me until Saturday) decided we HAD to get some filming done, since Jess wants to do a huge video of my horses and me. The ground is just too soppy for riding (in the pasture, anyway) and any ropes used were going to get soaked, so Jess and I decided liberty was the way to go. I got Prin, went to the round pen, and filme, and all in all, it went well. I think the highlights were definitely firstly, backing Prin across the pen with a phase 1 (She went back REALLY enthusiastically, too, which was NEAT) and having her put zone 5 on the panel behind her. She did it so easily, it was like she had been waiting for me to suggest it. Secondly, Prin came as close as she's EVER come to lying down for me, she actually knelt at liberty twice, and we got the best one on camera. She'll be lying down soon enough, and what'll be really neat is that she'll do it at liberty, I bet.

We also went for a little ride out with Jess and Amigo, too. That was fun, and tomorrow, we tackle Jess's dislike of the trot-muahaha.

Anyway, that's a short update of my life, I'll have more when there's more to tell. I'll be going to bed now. I'm sleepy!

Also, Anyone have a set of orange polos, and an orange saddle blanket that they'd be willing to part with? Deer season is coming, and I'm SO not missing my daily ride out because of idiots with guns that shoot at anything that moves around here. So. Anyone?

A Lovely Fall Day

I started this post on the 1st, and promptly forgot about it...I'll write one for today after I finish this one :)
~Fran, 11/4/08

*Sigh* Such a lovely fall day. I got lots of horsey time, and it was just a NICE day...So anyway here's a quick recap :)

Morning--Went to Sherri's to help pull shoes. Poor Chy clipped a heel yesterday and yanked one shoe off in the process, so we decided to take the other off instead of having the farrier out on an emergency call on the weekend. That turned into an hour long drama, so to speak, because farriers have tools that us girls don't, and so Sherri and i took turns yanking and prying until we got the clip shoe off. We both successfully sliced our hands open though...gotta love those little surface slits that sting (a bit like having an inch-long paper cut on your palm)

Afternoon--FARMAGE! I had 3 lovely sessions with my horses, I started out with Knightly, who surprised me pleasantly with perhaps the most lovely session I've ever had with him. We started playing with patterns, which this clever little guy picked up on IMMEDIATELY. We even took a dive into some L3 stuff and did canter figure 8's. He just GETS it! Next, we went for a little jaunt around the chopped corn fields. He was just PERFECT in there, he settled into the most perfect easy lope I've EVER had out of him. His downhill body makes riding his gaits a bit difficult bareback, usually, but today, that was far from the case. He did simple changes even, and just had a grip and was using his hind quarters. I was SO PROUD of him.

Next, Lady and I ripped around for about an hour. That little horse is such a fun little partner to play with. We have about the same fitness level and attention span, so we really have fun inventing games together. We played a bit with the lie-down and sit task, which she's getting really good at...I'm enjoying this confident little thing so much. Pix to come soon :)

Last, did a little riding on Crest. He was buzzed and hyper, but we had a good time overall. Played a lot with snappy downward transitions, and he did really well, but I did realize I was using my reins too much. Must play with that a bit more.

Anyway, I finished the day out with a nice lesson with a new student, and we had a good time. It was a very nice day :)

Lady Bug!!!

My Bug is home! :D

She couldn't have been any cooler about everything, she unloaded, sniffed about, then settled into her munching.

Introductions were interesting, she met Crest, Prin, Amigo, and Silver. All but Prin went well. Prin seriously seemed like she would love to kill the little thing if she had the chance. Photo:




Crest and Silver were both totally smitten, they both carried the air of "Oh my GOD...she's so FREAKING CUTE!" and Amigo was mildly amused, I think. Picture of meeting Crest:



Other than that, um...she's hell on four hooves, VERY LBE, snotty, and is the most adorable thing to play with. Unfortunately (PLEASE try to understand why-lol!) it's *almost* impossible to dish out discipline to something that cute, so I have a bad feeling that she's going to get away with murder.

I taught her to lie down this evening, and believe it or not, there was no force involved, I used her offering once to my advantage, and now it's a consistant thing, I sit down, she lies down, and then she gets a cookie...muahaha! I have a picture on my friend's phone that will come as soon as it decides it can send to me. SO CUTE.

Off to FL tomorrow. Excited, but will miss my fuzzies mucho! Toodles!

F

I'm Leaving You With This...

PRINNY TRICKS!

Katie and I will be gone the next 6 days at a clinic with Farrah. I'll be taking Prinny, and we'll have a blasty :D

Enjoy the video, and see ya'll on the 7th :)

Mindless ramblings of the Tired Brain

I thought that when I graduated high school, I might have escaped the multiple nights of "not-enough-sleepness" in a row, but I guess not--blergh. I've gotten less than 9 hours of sleep 5 nights in a row now, so short blog then BED TIME!

I'm seriously starting to get drained by my insane schedule. I'm never home anymore (which is good, probably) but I'm starting to see an alarming decline in the amount of quality time MY horses are getting as a result, EEK! I'm teaching AT LEAST 8 (if not more) lessons a week, and am doing a lot of traveling to learn, too. While it's all a great time, and I LOVE what I'm doing, I'm worn out!

Farrah and I have the same tendency to get so excited about teaching that we forget that we have lives, too. Anyway, I'm not complaining, but if I seem a little out of it, that's why. I really need a long night's sleep.

Had a really amusing experience with Prin tonight. She's now inserted the spanish walk as her default "give me cookie now" trick, and it's getting rather hilarious. Any time I approach her now, she Spanish walks, and gives me this "SEE?!" expression, and of course it's so hilarious that I give her a cookie and crack up laughing. I have to be totally honest, I'm not sure which she enjoys more, the laughter or the cookie. Anyway, tonight, I decided to try to teach her to lift her leg up and hold it, kind of like "Shake" for a dog. Since she obviously gets the concept, I figured it'd be easy for her to at least try. And it was, but she'd hold it up and then paw the air. My horse is just so weird.

And on that note, I'm going to do laundry, then immerse myself in "The Fountainhead" until I fall asleep. Yet another busy day tomorrow.

Savvy out.