Riding lesson with jumping!

 Our riding lesson on Saturday went good, the horses at the barn got their vacinations, the lesson horses got theirs last because they had lessons all morning, so after we were done with them we got to watch them get their shots :) lol Erica couldn't ride Clover (her horse whos sire is a world famous Jumper and a breyer model) because Steve (instructors wife who does tons around the farm) accidentally gave them to her before our lesson time, so Clover wasn't feeling very good at all, we didn't know that, but we got to the arena and were just getting ready to warm up and she pooped liquidy green, so Erica took her back untacked her and just watched our lesson. We did lots of work and it all worked out really well I even got to jump for the first time (at the barn that is lol) Musta (our instructors horse) was ridden by Libby (our instructor lol) for most of he lesson, but he LOVES to jump, he kept trying to go at them at a full gallop when they were only a half a foot off the ground, but then Anne hopped on and got him to go through them nicely, Anne has also attended one of Clintons tours and she uses a lot of his methods to train too! See no wonder the horses there are so well trained lol anyways it was a fun weekend, and it all went well, I was excited to jump, and now that I have started jumping in lessons I can be one of the Jumpers at the next show! It seems like just a few weeks ago we were getting ready for the show, but were getting to that time again! Can't Wait!!!

More horse videos....

Hey guys, so it was a busy week/weekend for me these past few days, so last time I updated was Tuesday and that really wasn't much of an update, so.... Friday was a good night, I came home and me and my family all went out to Tj's baseball game, and they beat them 14-2 in the 6th inning, which for the 5 and 6 graders there is a 10 run rule, so if your more than 10 ahead at the end of an inning, then the game is ended. So it was good, then Saturday was another good fun day, we got up and went to our riding lesson, we came home and then we got to work on horse tack, so you guys know about my "new" saddle, my western one that I got for Christmas? Anyways it hadn't been sealed properly, so we decided we would strip it, re-dye it and seal it back up properly, and we spent some of our afternoon re-dying it, it was really scarry at first because I thought it wouldn't turn out very good, but it turned out AMAZING!!!! I can't believe how well it went, all we have to do now is seal it back up and its good to go!

Before Pictue

Before picture

After Picture

Also Friday I did Chucks hooves with polish, and I made one of my hoof polish bottles sparkly polish, so now he has sparkles! LOL

After Picture

After Picture

Anyways after that I went out with Nick and we worked with the horses, I am training/teaching Nick how to train/work with our horses, he (and he will willingly admit to this) is not the best rider or horseman, and he did/does a lot of stuff wrong, so he is asking and taking suggestions from Roni and it has already paid off big, and he doesn't even have much time to really work with them! So I let Nick work with Jet and take a look at how he was doing with his leg, and he is on a joint suplament to help him work out the kinks with finally getting back into shape, he is doing very good so far, and hasn't shown any signs of pain, he is just really stiff in that joint, so thats a good sign, he just needs time to get it back up to strength again after a whole year of nothing. Jet had been taught to lunge before his accident happend, and I got him out a few times this winter and gave him a little "tune up" so he was relativly good when it came to most of it, Nick was trying to skip lunging for respect stage 1, I tried to explain to him how it worked and he was kinda confused on it, so he had me come in there and show him, so I tied Chuck up and went into the round pen to show him. He got the hang of it, but I kinda just took over lol, its hard to just do one thing with a horse and stop, nick had done well with Jet so I finished off with some backing, flexing and desensitizing and let him loose... I got back to Chuck and started a bit of work with him, then I decided to ride, roni got Jack out and started doing ground work with him, I had worked with Chuck for a bit and he was getting damp, so I decided to take a short break, Nick yelled at roni and said you going to ride that thing or walk it like a dog? and she said walk it like a dog, so Nick decided we would go on a trip, we went for a little over 2 mile ride down the road, and it was nice, our farrier lives just down the road and has two horses, and Chuck got all excited about it when he saw them lol, and I swear Chuck couldn't walk a straight line down a gravel road to save his life! When we got back we worked them nice and good, Chuck was soaked, and Jack not so much, but Jack isn't a go fast all the time kind of horse like Chuck is, Chuck has plenty of energy that can be put to use and as long as he likes to keeps going, thats how long we go. It was a very good workout for him, and this teaches them, just because you got home doesn't mean your done, and helps with kicking the barn sour habbits, also it makes them enjoy riding out away from home, because its more relaxing than having to move at something faster than a walk...

Riding out on the road, the house on the left with the red roof is our farriers house, his name is Todd

Video from Saturday
PS the dates one the videos are wrong they are accidently one day ahead!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcBSiKguOKU
Sorry about that but blogger is being funny and won't let me show it to ya guys!

Sunday was another fun day, we rode again later that afternoon and all went very well, lots of no hands trotting cantering and stopping, and its all in the makings, I see people who are like all fancy because they have an arena to help them, ya they are nice, but not nesicarry and in ways can actually down your horsemanship, in an arena if your horse bolts it has to stop and turn eventually, if your out in the wide open you have to have the conficence that your horse will most likely not spook and if it does you can handle it, like with the bolting, it force your horse to turn so riding off leg cues without comming off the wall isn't really saying much, you really have to have your wits about you outside the arena, I am not saying they are bad, and in some ways can be benificial, I really want to go to brushy once I work with Jet a bit more and get on his back, because the arena there would help a ton with his training through one of the exercises in the Fundamentals kit, (I wish i had it :/ ) but they can also make you a worse rider, because you become dependant on it to help you
Videos from Sunday
Okay they will just be at the top, I need to figure out how to work this new laptop lol!!!
also the top one is the horses giving eachother scratches before school, (actually lucky and jet lol)

some pictures from clinton anderson and some from me....

Marty did the ground work and tricks and liberty demonstration, hes so cute when he bows! :)

I just like this picture and look, Diaz has a LOVELY head set without clinton yanking on the reins or anything!

Look again amazing collection with hardly any pressure and he is riding in a snaffle bit! Why can't more people be like this and even go bitless too!

closer up version of the above pic so you guys can see hes only holding it with two fingers, and there is still slack in the rope, how can I tell? Look at the slobber straps by the bit, they arn't straight up, they arn't even pulling on the bit!

Some of clintons quotes that I edited from my pictures from the trip

 

 These are clintons pictures, all credit goes to his facebook page!

 

This was the girl that got unseated and fallen on by Cody, she just popped back up! Amazing, one of my new inspireations!

Saturday and Sunday at the Walkabout tour

Hey guys, so I will write a really descriptive post later, but Saturday at the tour went really well, outside of the tour not so well, so to start off, we hadn't booked our hotel because we didn't know for sure what day we would leave, so we spent 4 hours driving around looking for a place to stay, we constantly got told there were no rooms left, we booked a room online two times, only to get there and they said that the computer overbooked us, then we went around some more, and one of the people at the hotels we stopped at helped us book a room over the phone, we got there and they overbooked us too!!! Finally we got a guarenteed hotel, we had to pay for a king suite, we got there, they gave us a 2 queen bed room with people already in it!! Nick went downstairs and we got the very last room in the hotel, the cheapest place you could ever think of, the toilet leaked and they provided glasses for you to drink out of and one of them was dirty..... but by far the worst part was that we had a room on the second floor that looked over into a ballroom the only thing that seperated us were hard curtain doors that didn't even shut all the way.... you want to guess what was going on till 1 in the morning???? A PROM DANCE!!!!! My mom and I contemplated taking a bucket of ice water and throwing it over the edge one to all their heads and crashing their prom, but we decided we would be nice for once.. So the next morning after 3 hours of sleep we were all actually feeling pretty good considering, Im really lacking sleep, but thats okay, I have something to look forward to this week, and I actually met and shook hands and talked to Clinton Anderson AHHH!!!!!! Here are some pics........

meeting clinton and he signed my hat and program!

roni and clinton

standing outside with the sign

we saw a ferris wheel driving down the road more on that later

clintons trailer has 3 box stalls and contains over 1 million dollars worth of stuff

clintons mini Phoenix

all my notes pages 1-6

Walkabout Tour!!!

DOWN UNDER HORSEMANSHIP WALKABOUT TOUR!!!!!
I SO EXCITED GUYS!!!!! AHH!!! WE LEAVE IN 4 DAYS WE LEAVE FRIDAY NIGHT!!!! IM SO EXCITED I CAN'T EVEN TELL YOU GUYS HOW HARD IT HAS BEEN TO KEEP FROM POSTING ABOUT IT EVERYDAY!!!! 
IM GOING TO MEET CLINTON ANDERSON!!!!!! AHH!!!
I know I am totally fangirling about this but his methods have helped me work with Chuck and the other horses and I can't wait to meet him and thank him for all he has helped me with!!!
Here is the link to the trailer/preview for the walkabout tour and you guys can see why I am all excited!! Two whole days of clinton anderson and I about go crazy craving the one hour each week to watch him!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vym9koR85IY
Anyways I can't wait!!! Sorry to tell you guys, but I can't take any videos its not allowed, but I will take TONS of pictures, maybe even take a selfie with clinton if im lucky!!!!

 

Lots of Riding!

Hey guys, so this weekend was a fun weekend, Friday night we went to my grandmas and rode, I worked on leads and cantering with Chuck and he finally did...... (drum roll please) a......................
Flying Lead Change!!!

I was o excited! I about cried like a little girl, after that, I told roni she should work with Jack on his cantering, she was nervous and was scared he would do something silly, so I hopped on and showed her she would be okay, he did pretty good, we were able to canter on a loose rein and other than a reminder  which way we were turning every once in a while he did good, until roni took Chuck back.... Jack is very buddy sour, and after that he didn't really feel like listning, after Chuck left, he wouldn't stop going at all, he wanted to try to run back to Chuck, so I spent a half hour cantering him, a few bucking sessions and some bolts later, he finally decided he didn't want to go super fast anymore. He was nice and soaked, we got him cooled out and dried and it was almost 10 before we got up to the house.

Sunday we went back and rode again, I even jumped a bit, Chuck decided he wanted to do like Jack did and run, so I let him run it out and pushed him a little more, he decided he didn't want to run amymore, after that I spent another half our with the saddle on working lots on leg ques, and then we took a few pictures and I ditched the saddle and rode around some more, turns out that leg ques work GREAT for riding backwards too! I could completly lay down on him and ride him all while being backwards at the same time. It was really fun! Here are some pics and videos from this weekend and one from our trail ride a few weeks ago..... 

No hands jump!!

NO hands jump!!!

Trust is key....

Back by the stream

Chucks tail is touching the ground!!!

sorry for the finger in the way, but he lost his winter coat and is so pretty!

I got bored so I braided his tail.....

time to ditch the saddle

Side saddle.....

 

up and down jumping videos....

 

Down horses running around.....

Riding sidesaddle and below are more jumps!!!

 a

The Horse World.....my accident...... and an bunch of other stuff....

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

I know I am one of the Crazy ones.... I go am a rebel, I don't go along with the flow of huge painful bits, tie downs, using shots and injections to hide pain, shoes, blankets, yanking on the horses face, working my horses every time I see them.  From only a month or so after this blog was started, we were constantly bashed.... Publicly called out by people who thought lesser of us who wanted better lives for our horses.... wanted them to be able to just be horses..... but now we show them with the bonds we all have with our horses.... we take the best of all the trainers and combine it into TRUE horsemanship, the one where the bond is based off of respect and love..... where we have NO LIMITS we have fun times, no matter what happens, the situation always has a bright side.... and now I tell you my short story from this summer......

About the third week of June last summer, I had a very bad scary accident.... I was riding Chuck bareback, we had been having a good ride, we were just standing, I was talking to Roni and flexing Chuck... Chuck bolted, to this day I still don't know exactly what spooked or scared him, or what set him off, but he bolted..... he ran straight inbetween two trees, I screamed and the trees were the last thing I saw and that was the last thing I remembered..... acording to Roni, I laid on the ground for a bit, and then she knew something was wrong.... I didn't get up.... she screamed for Nick and they both ran to me while Chuck continued to run out to the pasture.... I got up and Duce one of our dogs started licking my face and I just sat there.... Nick and Roni talked to me, and then I actually came too... I can remember them pulling me up... asking if I was okay, I didn't remember taking my helmet off or anything.... I just hugged Nick shaking and crying..... it all felt completly like a dream..... Nick being an EMT checked me out, and didn't think I need any medical attention, but my sholders were all scraped up, my pants had a nice huge hole in them my leg was cut and bruised, and my helmet was completly totaled.... I think back to that day, and it really made me realize at any second we could be killed or die.... God just wanted me to stay here longer, I could have just blacked out and never woke up... but I didn't so that must mean im here to do something.......

There comes a point in every rider's life when she wonders if it's all worth it. Then one look at the horse, and she realizes - it is 

I believe in hard work, if YOU truly own the horse, you take care of it, if its hurt YOU call the vet, change wraps and clean wounds, if your horse acts up because you cant train it YOU fix it, if its your horse YOU are its whole world, don't just sit there and let others take care of your horses.... 
There are people who own and ride horses, then there are horseman..... theres a HUGE difference...... The riders and owners, only see their horses when they have to, or when its easy for them, like when they want to ride, and sometimes thats the only time people see their horses.... Then their are the people like me, who see their horses on almost a daily basis, they care for feed, groom, and do everything else inbetween, we don't pay others to do the dirty work, we do it ourselves, and we treat horses like horses.....

Here are some quotes that describe my method of training and working with horses....

"Preserve his natural gaits.  Preserve his personality.  Preserve his instinct to go forward.  Do this and you must be successful because you are respecting nature's wisdom."

- Franz Mairinger

"If the horse does not enjoy his work, his rider will have no joy."

- H.H. Isenbart

"A horse will never tire of a rider who possesses both tact and sensitivity because he will never be pushed beyond his possibilities."

- Nuno Oliveira

  

"You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper."

- Dagobert D. Runes 

"One reason why birds and horses are happy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses."

- Dale Carnegie

You can scream, yell, stamp your foot, throw things, throw a temper tantrum, even cry, to get your horse to do what you want, but all you really have to do is ask.  

So here are some things that sum up me and this blog and what everyone thinks of us....

I will not brag about my love for God because I fail him daily, but I will brag about his love for me because his love never fails!

God will only give you a load he knows your strong enough to handle. So if your load is greater than the rest, then your stronger than the rest.

Everyone has a story, do not be ashamed of yours... it just may help someone else get through theirs... Share your story, share your love!

No matter what life throws at me I will have faith, God has given me so many things, good and "bad" but the bad things are actually good, they make us stronger, God knows I can handle all the bad mean things people say about me, I don't give up, I will stay strong and give glory to God. I will not be ashamed if people leave my life, its the way God wanted it, he took people out of my life for a reason, he knows that my life will be much better without certain things, God will always do what is best, he makes us stronger every day, I have had some troubling times in my life, but God helps me through them all, he takes the bad things and people out of my life because God knows best. I hope you all have the same faith in God, with my accident I realized God could take me at any moment, and any time I get on a horse I might not get off or get back up, but I know no matter what Jesus died for me and in the end I will go to heaven, not because of anything I have done, but for what he did.

 

 

This weekend and Monday!!

 I spent the rest of the night making actual bundles of wood (Thanks Alex for help holding the string!) and hung out with my grandma, and said high to the horsies and went out and pet them, Im SO HAPPY cause they have finally shed out, and its not just a grooming thing (because chuck still rolls and gets horriably messy) but I will say Chuck is just the right color when he has his summer coat to the point where he is so shiny that you can see a glare off of his coat! I also started working with Jet on his ground work, he did very good, except for yielding the HQ (hind quarters) he shoved me over more than a few times, and continued on with his kicking problems, we are still working on it, but he's getting better, and by the end of us working I could tap the air and yield the HQ's, and I only even got a few scraped nuckles from being pushed over lol

Sunday I woke up to my mom texting me saying Nick was going to come and ride with me today, we came down, I rode Chuck again and Nick rode Jack. We got all tacked up and we rode across the bridge and down through the park, they were nervous about the bridge at first but when we came back after walking through the park and getting a few funny stares (we used to take buttons and candy over there all the time, but they died almost 10 years ago) and some dogs barking and talking to the dog owners (also horse owners apparently). Then we rode down by the crp, then went back to the creek (it was dried up this winter) and rode back there, no ridge riding because it has rained recently and the ground isn't frozen anymore. After that we rode back and I worked with Chuck I am working with Chuck on not being barn sour, so to fix this, you work them hard at the barn, and let them relax out on the trail, next time we go out, I am working on both that and being buddy sour (hes more barn than buddy, but he still likes to be closer to other horses) 

Yesterday (monday) after school my dad came and picked all of us kids up and took us down to the farm, my little step sister sat on Chuck as I led him down from the pasture, we brought Jack up too, Roni groomed Jack and I groomed Chuck, I did a few minutes of ground work to see how he was feeling, he was a little excited, but nothing I couldn't handle :) I worked with Chuck and got him using the thinking side of his brain, he was behaving nice and good, so I had Roni help me get Kallie (little step sister) up on Chuck, I grabbed her arm for her to balance, and Roni gave her a leg up. I rode around with Kallie for a bit, and even did some troting with her,  Chuck was still a little hyper so I didn't let her ride by herself, after a bit I let her off, and really started  Chucks workout, we did lots of troting, working on left handed circles, left is Chucks bad side, so he doesn't turn that way very good. but thats why we are working on it, he needs to strenghten that side. Then we went to cantering, we worked on collecting the canter, and lengthning it or extending it, if you watch the video thats what we did first, we are still doing that, and for canntering only 2 times seince the beggining of

 the year he did extreamly well. Then after he was doing good with that, we went back to trotting for a few minutes, except I went stirupless, and then back to canter and of course stirrupless. He was doing very good then, so I decided to just up our skill, and we cantered around stirupless, he did AMAZING, but he was getting tired and kept picking up the left lead, he was to the point where we needed to stop, I said one more good canter and we would be done. He did a good canter, but then stopped and turned sideways, I came off the side but grabbedc mane, and landed on my feet, I was pretty proud lol after that I hopped back on and as I talked to my dad, my mom came down to the farm with pizza for us to eat lol so I walked him out and then we loaded up and went home, it was so fun,  and there is one point in the video where I get really excited, because a lot of the time when we cantered I asked for a walk to canter transition and there was one time that he did it flawlessly!!! Anyways heres the video for you all!

Horse videos

Working with Chuck on Leg cues in a curb bit

I LOVE just chilling with the horses, not riding them or anything, it makes for a fun time (except for the bugs)

Letting Jet go after a session of working with him

Hight Bridge Horse Farm tour part 1 is up and part two is below this one, I didn't get to the arena cause we were in a hurry...

Erica (a friend from High Bridge) working with Eve (a 3 year old who someone else owns, she just came back to the barn, she was here when she was younger)

 

6 good stretches for your horse

  

Cantering Chuck around, he almost ran over grandma!!!