A painful reminder~

Well,

So sorry to admit that I have had WAY too much fun outdoors on the trails...and my mare Wa has turned up not lame, but with a very nasty and large cut.

It has come to me as a painful reminder; that I really do need to get back to our work in the arena. Never thought I would say that -having being stuck in it for close to a year.

Yet, the recent heal bulb laceration my mare sustained while trail riding "off trail"...ouch! It has cooled our outdoor riding down. And=I have to say, Schriner's spray, has done the trick!

Sooo now>> the recent "buck fest" my mare has been giving me out doors has me -in the know- that she needs to settle down and THINK "inside the box", more again.

I just reviewed our "first clinic" DVD today from May with Colleen Reid....

I don't remember how hard it was right now, but I DO see how wonderful the results were. . . and it is making my minds resolve up..after this weekends Camping trip with the horses...AM GETTING BACK INDOORS with my trainer.

After all...we do have another clinic in late August to prepare for....and all the outdoors too... as it does carry over out there!

Just watch her eyes-oh man- she is wiped out...good brain work WA!

"Endurance Riding"

Whew' today's trail ride was more like .."an Endurance Ride" they said, about half way through!! It was not a fast pace, like I imagined one would be, yet we did have our share of on and off..boot issues for a few hours.
That was a drag....good practice remounting and keeping the horses still. Pantz is NOT good with this standing stuff. Once I let them go on ahead and she went ballistic on me =not standing for me to get the blame boot off her foot. I do need to work with her on these kinds of issues...it really made me mad and I had to just keep trying to reach for her hind foot..as she kept turning with me around and around and around......She knows not of the flexy-bend w/o moving...I have asked Julie to help me with my mare...but now I need help with this one too!


The trails were very brushy from winter...
had to get off an move trees alot!

What a day and ride and then...I went out with my mare when we returned, to every one's great surprise....It was nice just me and her...though she has this new thing...she is bucking when I do a collected canter.
I think it is that she does not like to be held back when outside...anywho,
gotta curtail this one..though when she does it- it makes me wanna laugh..
it is very rolling and large!
What is said in the clip below is funny....but you may not hear it.

"Why do you keep taking picture's of me I don't match"
You are funny CARA!!

My dear Deirdre!

Okay...yea... Deirdre and I got to go again for trails!Pantz was spry,and ready to lead off....always a good thing.We just went near the stable into Port Blakley Lands... it was so quiet and wonderful. Usually there are some guns sounding off or motorised vehicles that are illegally riding the trails there.

I called Port Blakley today and they already called me back from he BeaverCreek Office Post. YEA! I want to head up a "HORSEY Campaign" to minimise the illegal riding and drinking and guns+ fires on Their Forest Lands- that we use for free. WHAT A PRIVILEGE it is, I think.

My dear Deirdre here and her trusty steed Pantz.....although we were mostly on some gravel roads today,we did have a little "Gallop" through "The Tree Grove"...my favorite place near our stable. And Deirdre is soo cute...she asked, "Was that a Gallop?!"

I adore you my freind!

Go=Go trails

FINALLY!!! I got to ride with the owner of the stable I board in~

We went to the new- place- to- us- "Howard's Canyon", I am calling it.Her Thoroughbred mare, Zowie, really likes to GO=GO! I am glad that we decided to take Pantz, my sister's mare..she is not so much in the competition mode as my Thoroughbred, Washashe. Man, I am thinking the two of our mares together-A- don't know if I will venture to try it, as much as I want to. I have spent most of last year and this one...recalibrating Wa to be calm and cool headed on the trails. I am sorry to say, I had way- too- much- fun with my Friend James, running around on the trails when he was training his new gelding, Quincy, to trail ride.Wa got the taste of speed and sometimes now she can get all uppity and stupid for wanting to do what she was born to...RUN baby!

I do think I will stick to the broad horizons of the beach for all out runs..and mostly alone, as she won't get the thought of competition!

What a blast in the Beautiful~

What a blast in the beautiful countryside of Greater Beavercreek/Milino area we are having! Here, Julie and Maddie discover, What I call, "Howard's Canyon"...Off Howard's Mill Rd.

It was large and with many options for either trails or mostly dirt based roads.

I was so pleasantly surprised that it was soo quiet there..just the sounds of a Hoo-hoo-hooter owl (not the actual name) and hawks and little critters that would scurry off so fast, there was not even time to shy for the mares!

Maddie took her time loading this day...both times to and fro...she is just getting to know thatnothing ill will happen in the -Big White trailer Box- I am making sure to drive slowly and carefully for her as much as for my mare... who took me 45 minutes once to load as she was frightened and un-trusting. It has been a repetitive good experience that has built her trust in me. Sometimes I will load her up take her to a favorite place to hand~walk her ~ Just eat grass! Another great trail ride in the Beautiful!

Dashboard horses

We have these model horses,they were given to us by Jeanette at Two's A Team stable, and they represent our rides.
Mine is the thoroughbred-Washashe- on the left...Kelli got one for herself, the Appy -Pantz-in the middle...and Nora was given one by Jeanette that had a large white face...yet Velvet, the Thoroughbred she rides is a black bay, with only one white hoof. So she blacked out the face with a marker pen, and we stuck them all up there on the dashboard first trip to the beach in May-08-

We are currently looking for a Buckskin-Maddie-! Because Julie loves to go out as much as we do!

Snack freindly!!!

Okay...well, I finally got the courage up to ride on the trails with my "Bit- less Bridle" yesterday--My-thinks she is a racehorse-Thoroughbred mare did well the lone ride we had earlier this week, She also responded well in the arena, the few times Used it.

After all, I do believe my clinician trainer, from last month's clinic, when she said,"your horse is not stopping because you are pulling on the bit, she is stopping because you have trained her with your entire body as a cue."

YEP! it took my entire body as a cue just once yesterday..
when we cantered some and she was behind...was not that bad.
I actually had it on her and then took it off and put it back on her at the trailer getting ready.




I knew that we were stopping to have a "Picnic Dinner"...thanks to Nora's cooking and packing it all...Nora was riding my sister's mare Pantz, and she had on a bridle that doubles as a halter ,with the bit coming off when wanted...so Wa needed her mouth to be free as well for munching, I thought!

It was great and I feel pretty good about the trust relationship to my mare. And>>>>
we found a new trail system to ride in! I called it "Howard's Canyon"YEEEHA!!!

Nora has no idea I got her on film....Ya gotta watch out for me, I love to document the fun!

Our First Clinic

This was my first clinic and boy, was I anxiety stricken. . . I was told to, " have everything spotless and to make sure I had leg wraps on" ..um...I use "Sports medicine boots" for trails and training. I do own a set of the "Polo Wraps" -because my former trainer had given me some as a gift last year-though I have never learned how to wrap the Bright-fluffy-white-clean- things onto my mare's legs. It seemed a bit much for a lesson and never for the soggy,muddy trails I ride!


I was first to ride on the first day-ooou- because I was the last to sign up-and I got in on a cancellation. Nobody was around yet and I was about to faint= for not knowing how to put the blame wraps on...someone finally came around to help me..and man...it seemed that my set of wraps were definitely for "Warm bloods" for the length of them! The gal helping me actually had to cut about a foot off all four of them to fit them to my petite mare's legs.
So now, I was praying the mare would not stop dead in the arena again, and LOOK straight-up- at the overhead speakers. like she did the day before. . . to see what- the- heck was hurting her ears up in the rafters. She couldn't imagine how a duplicate person could be sitting there!
It had been such a volatile ride in the arena, just the day before.

To my great surprise and JOY-my friend,  came in -just then- to help me....She leases a mare at this barn. She fetched her up and brought her inside to stand in the grooming bay with me and Wa. The grooming bay has been a source of fear for my mare as we have only been at this stable for less than a month..first time we were in the one by the stall wall...a design FLAW... showed up for us ,  a horse put it's head over and freaked my mare out, as her back was to the horse behind her.
And , I admit, my love of the trails has kept me outside more than in. So  Wa's claustrophobia really showed up in the partially enclosed grooming bays...and frankly, she was not altogether sure about that arena either, with it's loud voices from the rafters!
So, my friend  went into the arena with me for the first 10 minutes or so as we warmed up.
What a lifesaver you were/Are, my friend!!!
All went soo well..in fact, it went better than that. The gal from California, Colleen Reid, apparently took a liking to my little green Thoroughbred mare-that rather looked like a small-fat Warm blood, for her weight at present.
 Another stable management  flaw- having two horse's together for feeding time, with no one managing the feed intake!!. One will always eat faster(mine) than the  other, and try to get more! Mine did...and unfortunately my sister's did not. Pantz lost weight and Wa gained.
The clinitian, she cooed over her and told me that she'd take us through 4th level Dressage.(I don't know what that is yet...but I know= it is a good thing)
I just knew in those first 15 minutes ==that I was going to have a Fun first clinic !

Ah~ it's over now....time to relax and view the DVDs

Taste of freedom

This was heaven...

a girlfriend of mine, whom had taken me into her own private barn from a very unfortunate boarding experience where my mare was not "getting her groceries"..as my equine therapist Miriah said..

this girlfriend really wanted to make me more self reliant...so she taught me how to drive her trailer and I was in business!!!

Here is the mare Washashe at the stable -Two's A Team- where my trainer landed from the same unfortunate boarding facility I had left.

We were able to keep training because of my dear friend that allowed me to use her truck and trailer!

I really made headway in the trust department with my mare because I could drive so slowly

and talk to her as I stopped for lights and such...she always nickered at me when I did this and I knew she understood that I was taking care of things for her.

We Eventually moved to T.A.T. to be with our trainer and other freinds that had followed

her there.

Dearest Inspiration

This is my dearest Gemma ....she was the one that offered me a ride at the beach nearly 4 years ago on an "extra horse"... I had taken 25 years off horses, sadly too.
This is she and I on our faithful steeds Washashe-(Left) and Romeo.
It was our first trip together with me riding the mare my sister gave to me...a third generation filly from my mothers mare "Verda's Star".
I sure love you, my Gem!

Another day on the trail

Today was the perfect day...once down the trail with

the mares snorting and looking on the world ahead of them in excitement.

It made the annoying start to the Am disappear behind us quickly in the dust of hoof beats and the sounds of the forest waking into one of the best spring days we've had!

Breakfast on the trail was lovely too...consisting of apples,

carrots,and Dutch Brothers triple shot Breve' Latte~Yee ha!

That's what I call Stress management~Trail style!