Snowed in

 I am too chicken to trailer in the snow, so today Whin just got treats, snuggles and had a photo shoot.

 The dressage diva in all her natural beauty. (after finding a yucky spot to roll in)

the cats were kind enough to venture into the snow to say hi and pose for some photos. but they were unsure about the clicking noise coming from my phone.

Victory

whin and I finally had a ride when I didn't want to send her off to the funny farm.

! She was very well behaved. We started off with serpintines  and transitions to get her up off the forehand and bending then we worked on canter walk and to the right she really started stepping under herself and going forward right away.  Then we worked on se half steps that she did promptly. Also I  am learning how wonderful halting upward in stead of back is it helps her to come off the forehand. 

And we finished just before the baby race horses to came.

Winter blues

I have the winter blues, my mare has gone crazy. But now the holidays are over fewer people should be riding and the arena will be open more so Whin and I can ride 6 days a week again. Which her brain apparently needs. 

 In between bucking fits we got some nice work done . I saw an exercise where the rider did shoulder in on a serpentine. I modified it to just circles since the arena was crazy busy. But Whin had been stiff to the right In last weeks lesson so I was hoping this would help. It sure did when I finished up she was doing shoulder in to haunches out beautifully. 

I did have to keep up with her on the shoulder in circle To the right because she wanted to slow down and not step under. I gave her a tap with the inside leg to keep her active. I will  do this exercise  again.

I also got to practice anticipating bucks, because once she got going it was all I could do to stay on let alone curb her bad behavior, but the last  two times she wanted to explode I shut it down pretty quickly. If I were a better rider I would catch her before the rocket launch and go on with our dressage work.

All King Edwards Horses Call Me Blessed Fool 

Riding in 2014

OK sorry for totally abandoning this blog for several months. However  I have some good news I now have a way to take pictures, so my blog posts can have pics of Whin!

Some things worth mentioning are that Whin got a haircut which saves me soooo much time. I ride at a heated public arena. She had a woolly mamoth coat and then would sweat buckets, so the hair had to go. I wanted a nice trace clip but Whin is very ticklish, so it ended up being somewhat of a modified Irish clip. And the weather got cold snowy and slick so with it went turnout and Whin's brain.

The thing that really gets Whin is other horses, I have mostly been in barns that were very small and usually Whin and I had the whole thing to ourselves... now I ride in a public arena.

Today the arena looked like this ^^  trailers and horses every where! And  to top it off some were breaking  race horses O: From the moment I pulled up I knew it wasn't going to be my day.

Whin Modeling her pink outfit.

I gave it my best shot we made it through the warm up walk before the fireworks started at least.  Whin is very tricky about it too, She will go around perfectly round very nicely and wham  all 4 feet in the air. And of course every one is looking at me like holy cow get a grip, girl.

I am pretty sure this is how we looked today.
At least this is how it felt.
what happened to my dressage horse???

 Maybe one day I will be one of those riders that can magically feel before the buck/rear/leap happens and stop it, but not today.  So I did my best, and to my defense I did stop a few rocket launches, and was feeling pretty good about it. When I was quickly humbled. I put Whin into I nice shoulder in when suddenly It was as if I was riding a Pegasus. Lift off was so forceful I made a very unflattering Hurrgghh and then we sailed through the air (I flew slightly higher than Whin) I think I flailed around a bit trying to find something to hold on to. we landed together fortunately, and went back to shoulder in.

I did this a bit more and called it quits. I don't think I was going to win today so I stopped on a good note.

Hacking out after riding

Whin and I went for a nice hack (all by are lonesomes) to end the bad ride, I think we both needed it. But I think I am getting old because even when I stay on these bucks it makes my back terribly soar.

All King Edwards Horses Call Me Blessed Fool

p.s. will some one please tell Whin that she is not a Lipizzaner and "airs above the ground" are not required.

In Memory of Clifford

A little over a month ago my sweet dog died, Clifford.

I didn't blog about it sooner because if was just too hard.  

 Clifford was just about the perfect dog, accept he wouldn't come... but other than that pretty much perfect.

I wish I was a better writer so that I could tell about Clifford better, but that is not my strong point so I will post pictures.

Clifford's favorite activity was eating (he is a lab), his second favorite activity, sleeping. 

Preferably on people beds.

Clifford was very snuggly and loved every one!

He was also my best model for drawing (because of his natural good looks and second favorite activity)

Did I mention Clifford was always hungry, Always

Thanks for remembering Clifford with me.

All King Edwards Horses Can Make Best Friends

Whin vs the Pig

My neighbors have a mini petting zoo, with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks a goose and a pot bellied pig. Whin does not eat the pasture down enough to keep it from getting really long and a bit out of hand. So the petting  zoo comes over to help her out.

I decided to ride her at home yesterday, the weather has been nice and not too wet, and we have a little hill in the back so I do our hill work on it.  Well yesterday the pig was visiting and it decided that it did not like Whin and I tromping by and disturbing its meal. So when we were stopped the pig slowly (I don't know that Pot bellied pigs can move quickly) started to advance grunting in displeasure.  Whin was slightly alarmed and started to back up away from the angry possibly "dangerous" pig. 

Things could have gotten hairy but fortunately once I gave Whin the pep talk that she is the biggest and doesn't need to be afraid of pigs I had her face the pig and the Pig backed off, still grunting its displeasure.

So that was my ride yesterday, a pig/horse face off.

All King Edwards Horses Call Me Blessed Fool

Vacations and Videos

I haven't posted in a while because I though Whin should have a little break after the last show of the season. so she had a semi vacation I still made her work a couple times a week but she has mostly just eating and sleeping. It has done her good though she came back much more relaxed about the Canter Walk transitions.

Also I just got the video of out last ride, That was informational.  I just have to brag that my horse is gorgeous! And that I sit the trot darn good! OK brag over. I am still clenching with my leg, which is funny because I thought I was over that, and my right hand... I don't know what is up with it, it moves all over.  And Whin is far more strung out than I thought she was, which is good to know because in my head we look like this (OK really I knew it wasn't quiet like that)

Laura Bechtolscheimer and Mistral Horjis by Kit Houghton

And I just did know how we could get better, now I know we don't look like that and it gives me hope that I can reach my score goals next year.  

Ohh, videos, the awful truth, but now I know what to work for! I need to check on copyright laws but if I can I will post the video here on the good ol' blog.

All King Edwards Horses Can Make Best Friends