Navajo and Duchas

Well, what can I say.... I tried! Today we were all siting at the kitchen table bored out of our minds. I had a bright idea, so said, "Hey Nick if I go lunge Navajo you can get on him", and then he said, "How about I go lunge him and YOU can get on him", so then I said, "Well how about I do both!" and he said sure, I was surprised, because my parents don't like me riding new horses without knowing what they are going to do first. So Navajo is awesome at lunging, He knows walk and trot, but I couldn't get him up to a canter. My parents wouldn't let me just ride him right away unless he did really good, so we started off with just leading him around, and im sure glad that's what we did. He LOVES LOVES LOVES to crow hop! They weren't very bad, but he sure did it a lot, he would do it every few steps, Im glad he didn't throw a huge fit, but I cant imagine what he would have done without Nick there to keep him from really throwing a fit, because he had some crow hops that about turned into a saddle bronc practice session!

On a sadder note, Duchas the horse we sold had had some bumps on her that we had noticed, we were keeping an eye on them and if they got worse or started hurting her any we were going to call the vet. After many many different opinions we think she has cancer. I don't know the full extent of the details, but as soon as I do I will let you know. If any of you have had this happen before, please let me know how it went, treatment, what type, and such. The largest and most noticeable bump that we now know is a tumor was on her flank, It bulged out like she had been kicked or had rubbed on something. I have no control over what happens now with her as she is not mine or my families horse anymore, but I will hope for the best and keep you updated.
   

Long Day! Jet!!!! Lessons!

Hey guys, so I will update on a lot of things in a short amount of time, so its 8 this morning, were getting up and getting our chores done before we leave. So an update on Jet, he got a cast put on 4 weeks ago, because he had an infection, and it wasn't healing. Thursday was the big day, he got it removed. We were all really nervous to know if it had healed at all. It hadn't partialy healed, it had FULLY healed! Now we are to walking for 10 mins 2 times a day, and after he stops limping we will start increasing the time of walking. He can now have supervised grazing too, he loves that part! Another thing is today is our lesson, all of our family is coming to it, and I love our lessons I get excited each week. Do you guys go to riding lessons? If so where do you go and what all have you learned? Be sure to comment below!

Lesson pictures!

Hey everybody, I told you about our lesson and here are some pictures!

Gone! Lessons, and English VS. Western

Well today, 2 of our horses left. Our 2 mares Wildfire (TC DUNNIT AGAIN) and Duchas (Bates Chic Ten "not on all-breed"). Were sold/traded for training and lessons for my horse Chuck and me, so far the the idea is Chuck will be moved and boarded at a barn, where their is an arena to work in, when he comes back he will not think he owns the place, and hopefully continue to improve and move forward in his training.


I am at my dads this weekend, so when I get back to my moms I will upload pictures of our lesson, in some of the pictures you can see me checking my diagonal. We got to ride with one of our instructors Anne while Libby watched and called out commands from the ground. It was a big surprise, my horse Mavirck really likes to get close to other horses, and the horse our Anne was riding is Musta who is Libby's horse in training, and Mavrick wanted to be close to him a LOT Musta didn't like it when Anne asked him to lengthen his trot. Musta kicked up and about kicked Mavrick in the face! Mavrick then decided he didn't want to be so close behind Musta anymore. We worked over ground poles, and Mavrick seemed to think they would eat him. Snickers was to busy trying to eat the thistles on the edge of the arena so he got some reinforcement a few times.  Overall it was a very good lesson, the weather was nice. Both me and roni had our problems, but at is what lessons are for is trying to fix them, when I upload the pictues I will point out the problems in our riding, this will help you realize your own problems when you ride along with helping others, I have a problem with my hands being high, I am still trying to get my diagonals right, along with other things. Roni has a problem with keeping her leg quiet, her feet try to slip through the irons, and her leg bounces around at the trot, and makes Snickers go faster. We have problems but thats what we try to do is fix them.

 So now for the big topic english VS western.

I like both, if I were to choose which one I wanted to ride in I would probably pick english first. I like english because you feel free, there isn't as much material between you and the horse, and it more closley resembles bareback riding, which I am a huge fan of. I also like western if you are looking for comfort for long easy rides, I think working is more uncomfortable in an western saddle because you feel so restricted, also I thought posting in a western saddle and an english saddle were the same. WRONG!!!! Way way different posting in an english saddle is much harder and takes more muscle. Also I learned I really wasn't as good of a rider as I thought I was, western saddles were made to make life and riding easier, even the way the stirrups hold you are different, the western stirrups keep your legs from moving and banging around, it is harder to keep your leg quiet in an english saddle. Like I said the western saddle was made for comfort, western saddles were created to help catch, heard, and manage cattle, they were made for long rides and were ment to keep the person comfortable at a nice easy pace. The english saddle was made for war, this is how dressage became and english sport, dressage was a training method used to train war horses. I think english and western are equals, I like english more, I do think it is harder, but western is relaxing, fun, and has its challenges too.

How we mix our fly spray

My blogger is still not letting me select my videos so I will post a link, right Here!
The video is a short video about how we mix our own fly-spray. You should follow the recomendations on the bottle and go from there. During the peak of fly season, we may mix ours a little more concentrated than normal to help really keep the flies off of the horses.

Our tack and how to put togeather an english saddle

                                              

 I can't get the other two to show up on my blog, so part 2 of the video is right Here

How to put together and english saddle is right Here

New Saddle, and How to Tack up with an English Saddle!

Hey Everybody!

     Sorry about these being late we were up really late last night and I was too tired to put these on the computer then I had to get up and go to work then come home and do more yard work so, I have had no free time till now. I will make a video and post it in a little while or tomorrow morning of horse tack, I will show all types of tack english, western, ground work, grooming stuff, lots of different things. So below are pictures of our day, and a video on how to put on an english saddle. Another video tonight will show how to put your new english saddle together, some may not know that english tack doesn't come like western pre-assembled tack. Hope you like it! 

 

Below are some pictures from today of my horses wearing my new english saddle. I also have some pictures of myself and my friend riding my gelding Chuck. She is new to horses so we just stuck with being lead around today.