Bad weather!

So we got home, Roni and I were sitting on the couch when the scanner went off, we had been under a tornado watch, but things hadn't seemed bad, and then we got a tornado warning, not just a it may be forming, but a "funnel cloud spotted 9 miles south of Webster City and we live about 10 miles south of there, so Nick being a firefighter/emt/stormchaser went out with the rest of the fire crew, someone went to the station to set off the sirens for our town we all grabbed animals and went to the basement, my dad and both alex and tj were out and about but were too far away to see it, but  my dads friend and Nick both watched the funnel cloud go up and down 3 times but it never toutched, but it was a little over a mile from my dads house and then it went back up, Nick called me and told us to get to the basement NOW because my mom usually stands at the top of the stairs because he said it was right over us, within minutes we could hear the wind shift and completly change direction, and it started howling and pouring.... it slowed down and Nick told us we could go upstairs because it had moved past our house, but it ended up comming down a little over a mile from our house.... i think I was more scared for others than I was for myself, I am glad nobody was hurt today, we went out and drove around, where the funnel cloud went up and down the field of corn was almost completly flattened, we are pretty sure it came down, there is a marking in the grass where it points to the funnel cloud touching or being very close to touching the ground with swirling patterns all over the ditch.... anyways here are some pictures.......

Long update!

 Hey guys, so this will be a long update for you guys because I am not on as often anymore because my summers are busy, but right now its raining thundering and lightning outside so its the perfect time to do a post! So I will go by pictures and videos that way im not making you guys read it all and then look at pictures and have to figure out which goes to which!

So below are some pics from when I had to take care of my friends animals for a few days, I only had to really take care of their chickens, they had 100 but then one died, and then while we took care of them none died, they had said they had been suprised because out of that many that is an unusually low death rate.... so 99 chickens, and I made sure their mini and their cow and dog were all doing okay too, they live near us and Alesha (the friend lol has the same name just spelled differently) has helped me out before so it felt good to help her out :)  Here are some pics from her place :)

Okay so the other day we all went out and about again, and we (as almost always) stopped at Western edge, we also went to fleet farm and tandees and all of this is after I had to go to court to get the ticket dismissed for the tint on windows, all we had to do was go in and show the judge pictures and it would be dismissed, so we did and I felt like a really bad person, but as we were walking out, I heard some interesting things, and then I didn't feel so bad about what happened to me, plus it wasn't something I had control over, not my truck, thats nicks job lol..... Anyways so we went different places, we went to fleet farm and got some fly stuff, I got bit guards for Jet, and we got another tetanus shot, because we had two of them but not the other one, like I said we don't go around vacinating willy nilly, the only thing we give is tetanus because (unfortinatly) our horses are accident prone, and that is about the only thing I am even remotely concerned about in our area Im not sure why people give their hoses a whole load of shots but to each their own.....  anyways I gave all the horses their shots and the only one who really didn't like it was Jet, he has been poked with needles so many times and he has figured out the pattern of how they are done, so the first try he jumpped away and I couldn't give it to him because it would have only been subcutanious (under the skin) which tetanus is not, tetanus needs to be given via an intermuscular injection, so the next try he didn't have such a bad reaction and I was able to get it in quite easily! So here is a video on how to give your horse a shot! And Please don't go try this at home unless you have experience doing it, if you don't have any, next time you ask your vet to come out for shots, ask them to teach you how, if your vet is a good one then they will....

After fleet farm, we went to tandes to look at leather to make slobber straps, we didn't get any cause it was a little to expensive for us to buy the leather.... After that we went to western edge partly because nick had gotten a wallet for fathers day, but it was one almost exactly like he already had, so my mom told him to return it and get one he liked, the same lady was working and she said my mom spent over and hr looking through them and looked at all they had, I spent my time looking around and looking at all the stuff I was to poor to buy lol, but eventually I decided on a nice lime green hay bag, so it wasn't a waisted trip (I almost always get something even if its only $5) while I was looking I saw this bit with huge shanks, so I laid it next to my flip flop just as a size comparison..... 

Earlier this week I got a txt from Chez asking how summer was going, and within 10 minutes we had decided that she would come over the next day, so we went and picked her up after my mom got off work, and we came back, we went inside, she changed her shoes and we went out to see the horses, Roni and I did ground work with Chuck and Jack and I let Chez work with Chuck too! She was doing really good, and we had had a lot of rain recently, and we have a little spot in our pasture that turns into a little pond after it rains, so I lunged Chuck through that and he did good lol what he really loved about it was the grass that stuck out of the water that tasted so yummy lol  , and then we spent well over an hour out there just playing with them, Chez and Lucky got along really well lol then we went inside and played just dance and guitar hero and ate candy and played headbands and had fun, then we all hung out and went to bed, CHez and I were he first ones up, so we went downstairs and made lunch and we spent some time watching downunder horsemanship, and we probably spent 2-3 hours watching it, then we went out and cleaned the barn, I find it funny because every time Chez comes over we are cleaning up poop of some form.... last time it was one of our small pastures lol and she never complanes, she said "well if im going to ride them and be around them, might as well help take care of them" so thanks a ton for the help! We finished that up pretty quick, and we rubbed on the horses a bit and went back inside, we had planned on riding later so we would leave the horses alone for now, and 4:30 started to roll around and Nick told us to be ready at 5, so we went out and got them and brought them up and we were grooming and the clouds started to roll in, we thought it would be a nice quick shower so we stood under the big tree with the horses, and boy were we wrong, it started pouring lol we were all nice and wet by the time we took the horses back out and got everything back inside lol, so we spent the rest of the night the same way as we had before and called to ask if she could stay again so she could finally ride because all the other times it hadn't worked out, so the next day went by slowly but that was okay nick got home and we went out and tacked them up and I got on chuck first to make sure he would behave and he did really well and then chez got to ride him we started out in the open and chuck still had a little go in him, so we took him to the round pen and Chez gained confidence there and for it being her first time riding she did pretty darn good especially for a horse as sensitive as chuck lol almost like sticking a 8 year old in a simi and telling them to drive across the country, but Chez handled it very well and within a few minutes asked to go back out to the yard, so we did, and she did amazing for the very first time, I was so happy when she even had the main points of the DUH method memorized! Amazing had she had more experience working with horses she could have really taught a horse a few things, but for the first ride it was chuck teaching her things, we dicussed what happens when people constandly have a hold on their horses mouths and chuck proved my point very well, he is used to having a gentle rider on his back so when I tightened up the reins  while asking him to go to show what I have seen many others do, he started tossing his head and getting extreamly fussy, I can ride him with contact on the reins just fine, but you have to be able to have a good steady hand before you try that, if you have to hold onto something in order to go at that gait you shouldn't be riding at that gait without being on a lunge line or in an arena where you can just drop your reins and focus on your body not the reins, Chez even tried trotting she didn't pick up posting but thats okay can't expect that right away now can we ;)  we also started our 214 things to do with your horse in 2014 video challenges, which you are more than welcome to try, I havn't got the all uploaded but some of them are and more will be comming, so we had fun with those, and Nick went out and caught lucky and was trying to work with him, and then luck did his famous bolt while on the ground, give you rope burn/drag you/ run away things and nick lost him, Chez and I had been riding around double when it happend so she hopped off, I got Jacks lead rope and went out and tried to help nick, he had caught him by then, but now was going to take Lucky to the round pen, so I walked in their on chuck and Jet liking to be by everybody came in too, so I went and slipped the lead around Jets neck and ponied him out of the round pen and got him a little ways away and let him go, but then I realized he should probably stay out of the pasture with the round pen in it, so after trying to make him move with nothing but my voice from on top of Chuck, Chez gave me a stick lol and I kept poking him in the butt to make him move lol by the time we got jet away I could tell nick was having trouble with lucky, so I dismounted and told Chez she could go and take Chuck back over and ride him in the yard with Alex who was riding Jack.... I went and started to help nick with lucky, Nick hasn't really had much physical experience with the method, he knows it in theoretically  but hasn't done much with that, so I went in and tried, but he had no go in the round pen, Nick was afraid to work him outside the round pen in fear that he would run again, but I wasn't he needed to move his feet and he wans't doing it in there he only got away once Lucky is so disrespectfull that I had to go and even pull some of clintons methods that he used to tame a mustang and a brumby in Austraila, Nick hadn't seen that before and was wondering where I got it from and I told him lol its now in my bag of tricks for horse that think they can drag you all over, and he did once that night, but I held on lol after I got drug was when I pulled out my little bag of ticks lol im sure lucky felt like that was a slap in the face when he realized that I wasn't playing anymore and was down to buisness, andways by the time we were done I was covered in sweat and lucky had started to, so that in itself was an acomplishment by then Roni and Chez had untacked and were putting Jack and Chuck out, and I cooled lucky and groomed him and fly sprayed him and then let him go after that Chez went home.... here are pictures and videos from that day.....

Chez's first time mounting lol

Her first time riding.....

214 things to do with your horse in 2014 #131

214 things to do with your horse in 2014 #115

214 things to do with your horse in 2014 #31

Anyways yesterday I went to my grandmas to see my aunt who is confined to a wheel chair because she has MS so she doesn't travel much anymore, and I spent a few hours there and I went around to look at the flooding around my grandmas with my dad and he "tried to dunk me in the flood water" lol I have a phobia of drowning in flood water so not my cup of tea lol regular water and swimming im A okay but not a flooded river..... here are some pics of the area...

bells mill water is up in the park...

this is my neibors yard, she actually writes books! Its getting close to her house.....

above is driving back along the river a bit, the second one below is back by the CRP the river is about 12-13 feet deep at minimum right now, stay safe from flood water eveyone!!

Working with a new horse

hey guys so today was an interesting/cool day, but overall it was fun! So I woke up this morning and we headed over to my new "client's" house so I could help him work with his horse, he has a 4 year old gelding named Copper who has only ever had 30 days of training as a 2 1/2- 3 year old, and has had virtually nothing done with him from that time to now, so he has developed a few bad habits to say the least I havn't seen them all but from what I got with working with him, he is VERY pushy, he loves to try to shove you over, he about got me on my butt by shoving me over a few times, but he decided that wasn't a good idea when shoving me over got his face bopped away from me....... he tried to kick out a few times but nothing I couldn't handle I did lunging for respect stage 1 with him and got him from trying to run you over to working nicely turning when asked and it all went pretty well, when I incorporated the owner it was a little harder, he is considerably smaller than me (but our legs are the same length lol) and build wise, and this horse has pushed him and his family around for at least 3 years now, so it was a little harder for him and he had some mishaps with that but it eventually got a little better, and his mom bugged us about riding him, so we went over and tacked him up, and he (saddly) rides without a helmet..... first he hopped up and the horse did okay, we had done a little flexing on the ground, and that helped him in the saddle, I explained to him one rein stops and practiced them, he did that for a bit and said I would have hopped on, but I didn't have my helmet with me, he said that he had one in the trailer, but only used it because it was required for when they had ridden at shows, so i went into their trailer and found it, and turns out he has the same helmet as I do, a size smaller but it still fit, PS its a troxel inaped (idk how to spell it very well) and they are good helmets :) and I hopped up on Copper, he was very fussy going to the left so we did lots of left side one rein stops and turning, and I mind you we did this all at the walk, first time on a new horse that had only had an hr or so of good ground work in its 4 year life I wasn't about to put myself at risk.... but we went from him having to pull quite hard on the rein to a considerably lower pressure turning to the left, and to the right was okay to start out with, and by the end all I really had to do was jiggle the rein and I was slowly starting to add in leg ques, and he was doing very good, he started getting a little fussy, so I did some flexing and he FINALLY had a good flex to the left and we stopped on that, I put my leg over and laid on my belly on the saddle and rubbed him down a bit, after that his owner cooled him out and put him away, after that we talked about what I had worked on him with, and we made plans for the rest of the summer (kinda) we worked out what days would be best for all of us, and we are even planing on taking him with us to Brushy (kid and horse) we would have the owner/kid work with Chuck so he could get better at handling a horse with the method so he could learn what he needs to do, and I work with Copper and help him learn what he is sopose to do and even the playing field, because green + green = black and blue.... right now his dad had to go on a short deployment for a few weeks he only had a few days to pack and he normally helps the kid work with him, but from what I heard does the wrong thing by trying to work with him, then the dad gets frustrated when the horse does the wrong thing and puts him away, they have even gone as far as to using a chain. So I hope the kid will follow through with this and see it just takes time and if the only person who works with the horse is me, the horse will never get any better for them.... it was interesting because on the side of the road on the way there, there was (saddly) a dead faun on the side of the road, but I had leaned over to look out the window to see it better and as we drove a bald eagle had started to dive for it, but stopped when we came by in the truck, I was so amazed by it (im a nature freak) but it was so cool!!!

Riding lesson and an update!

Okay so Friday night of last week was fun, Friday we all went camping with my step mom and my dad (all and i mean ALL of my family gets along, all 4 of my parents are friends, us kids don't always get along, but thats the same for any family. So we got to the camp ground, we rode around played some volleyball, and made smores and hot dogs, and then went to bed, around 11 at night my dad woke us up and said we were going home, the camper had faulting wires so at any moment it could potentially start on fire, so we packed everything back up and my dad dropped Roni and I off at home, we got up for our lesson the next morning and it was a fun lesson, I rode Mav again, I havn't ridden him for the past two lessons, so over a month, and Mavrick is one of the horses that is a little harder to work with, he has trouble comming off the rail, and having a consistant speed, we rode with a diffrent group than normal, and no im not complaining, I love riding diffrent or challenging horses because it makes me a better rider, Mavrick needs a firm rider with a firm but gentle hand, he gets fussy if he cant have guidance from both sides of the bit, but then all week he is ridden by less experienced riders he gets very hesitant to canter, because as soon as they canter him they tighten the reins up to the point where it is very uncomfortable, so he needs a gentle contact for that, after our lesson was over, we hung out a bit, then we were leaving and a girl (i dont even know her name was trying to load up Harmony into a trailer which was pretty small, and she had already had trouble loading her into a big trailer, and that horse wouldn't go in at all, they tried everything we tried to help, after a bit we just gave her her space and she spent a little over an hour trying to get her in after that, roni and I talked with Erica and watched her Erica is a good friend from our barn who owns Clover whos sire is an amazing show jumper she is also in ffa and we all got to talking about it and horses, and she is going to horse judging tomorrow as am I she is also going to COLT (Chapter Officer Leadership Team-building) and so am I so I asked her what she was, and she said Reporter How ironic! I went back in and helped the last lesson of the day untack groom and turn out, then we left, Nick had addressed the girls father and told him that the horse didn't have a trailering issue, it had a respect issue and told him how to use Clintons trailering method to train and work with Harmony on that....
After that we came home and I laid down cause I was tired from he night before and we had talked about going to brushy, and then nick came down later and said get all the horse stuff packed up, i yellped and rolled off the couch lol roni and I had almost everything back by the time he had gone to my dads and gotten a trailer and skidloader (to get posts for our new round pen) and came back we left, that Night we got there and we realized all the stuff we had forgoten.. lighter.... flyspray..... I forgot my clothes..... anything to help start the fire like paper or kindling..... and ya, there was a family a few sites down, there was a little boy maybe only 4 years old, walking and he stopped on the road with his mom and started pointing at the horses, Roni and I had been walking that way to get water, so I stopped and dropped my bucket and went over to them and said "you want to come see my horsies?" he nodded his head and his mom said thanks so they came over and petted Chuck who is the only one I trust yet around kids that young, and his mom picked him up so he could pet him on his head and neck, we did that and his mom and I talked she asked about all 3 of the horses and how old they were and how they were trained and all that other stuff, and they said thank you and continued on their walk....
Roni and I tacked up Jack and Chuck and went over to the arena, we worked with the horses for awhile, I saw through the trees a black thing stream by, and at first I thought it had been a bird, but then I heard Nick scream alisha! and I cantered chuck to the gate, somehow (I still dont know how I got chuck to do it cause I tried it later and couldn't do it again) got Chuck to go up to and let me open the gate and trotted back into the camp ground, Jet had gotten loose because Nick put him in the trailer to go to the bathroom, but the front escape door was open, so Jet went around the divider and jumped 3 feet down to the ground through a little escape door, he ran to the people who had come to see the horses earlier camp sight, Nick met them over there and they laughed it off with us, so nick took him back over and we went back to the arena, after we were done we went back to the campsite, nick had a fire going we untacked and went and gave the horse a bath at the horse washing station, then we went back and made hotdogs over the fire with random sticks nick found and cut with his hunting knife and burnt, and we had marshmallows cheetos and cookies, then Roni took Jack and I took Jet over to the arena and did ground work till it was dark, after that we came back and ate marshmallows and went to bed, the sucky part was we forgot to bring anything else to lay on, and the bottom of the tent was very cold, so by the end of the night we were huddled together cause it was only 52 degrees and all we had were little blankets, I woke up constantly throughout the night and the last time I woke up was at 3:30, I laid there untill 4, then I got up and went out and restarted the fire and made my breakfast, (hot dogs and marshmallows) then I woke roni up at 5 and she made her food and then we got the horses out of the trailer and gave them their breakfast, Nick woke up at 5:30 and we all got woke up and warm, we all got tacked up, Nick rode Chuck Roni rode Jack with my english saddle and I rode Jet, we went to the arena and all went well, Jet kicked up because he didn't want to canter, but in the end we got      5-6 strides of a good canter even though it was on the wrong lead, nick was so funny because he hasn't ridden chuck at all for a long time, so he was having so much fun on chuck because he could use leg cues on him, then Nick took Jet and I gave Chuck a good workout with lots of cantering, then Nick took Jet and Chuck back to the site and I stayed with roni and helped her with Jack, she had been having troubles at the mounting block, so she tried and backed him probably at least 10 times, I told her she needed to be firm and short, she had improved but not enough to keep him still, I went over to him and It only took me backing him up 3 times before he stood quietly for me, I got up and down from the mounting block several times, told Roni to do it with him and he stood quietly that time, roni rode him around a bit, and then I hopped on and he did good I asked for a canter and he did one good circle, then tried to bolt, I pulled him to a one rein stop cause the saddle was slipping, I had stopped him to the right, as soon as I let him go, he bolted to the left and the saddle went sideways and my head went straight into the ground (my neck is still sore :(  ) and after that I caught him and lunged him, he decided to be silly and rip the rope out of my hand, so we got the lunge line, then he decided to be silly again, and with the lunge line ran straight in the opposite direction at a full gallop and ripped the bridle right off his face, we caught him again and put the lunge line right around his neck and he did good for a bit but then again decided to be disrespectful and run again, that ended with me being dragged for a bit on my back and side and I hopped up and we had a come to Jesus meeting, Nick yelled at us to come back cause we were getting ready to leave, I backed him all the way back to the campsite and then we stood there and he was going to pay attention to and respect me, everytime he wasn't giving my 2 eyes we backed, every time he tried to eat he backed, roni lets him get away with it, but its not something I will put up with when a horse tries to pull the rope out of your hand to eat, when you have their respect you can get away with it, but roni hasn't gotten his respect yet, even if he doesn't respect her, he WILL respect me as goes with all horses I work with, I don't care if they love me, heck they can even hate me, but the MUST respect me, then I went over to put his halter back on and he kept throwing his head up and tring to avoid it, so when he did that I backed him up again, after about 3 times he decided it was easier to stand to be haltered than running backwards.....
we made it home just in time to see pearl leave, they had a 2 horse slant trailer and she was too fat to fit in it! they had to move the divider over and tie it up because she was to fat for it to latch into place so they tied it over, and later that day I had a 4-H meeting and I presented with seymore (our umbrella cockatoo) and I was waiting to be the last one to go, I waited to see if anyone else would volenteer when nobody did I assumed I was the only one left, went through my presentation let everyone pet seymore and put him back in his cage my mom had been with him in the truck throughout the whole first part of the meeting, and presentations are last, so I felt so bad because once seymore got back in his cage he decided he needed to keep talking, and everyone was staring and giggling at seymore while this other kid was presenting and I felt so bad!
Here are a few pictures of pearl and her new owner....

When Alexis tried Pearl at my grandmas

another at my grandmas

Pearls first afternoon at her new home

A picture of Alexis and her first ride on Pearl in her new home they did tons and Pearl did great!

Pics and Videos from brushy update tomorrow!

Hey guys, so Jet did really good, other than not wanting to canter, but if you go to 39 minutes you can see at the end we finally got it! Our second ride, we have breaks, gas works well up to a trot, canter needs lots of work, and steering needs some help too, but its his second ride for petes sake! Our riding lesson went well on saturday too, so amazing fun horsie weekend, here are some pictures and videos I will write more about it tomorrow!

Above roni working with Jack, he didn't really spook at anything but just skittered sideways a few minutes in and roni handled it amazingly! Below, is Ronis first time cantering (when she asked for a canter anyways) she only did two strides but thats a start!

Above the first 10 minutes of Jets ride, below is the last 40 minutes of his ride, he did pretty good considering other than he kicked up a few times, they wern't to bad, and I spent most of them giggling like a little kid lol

a silly little kick lol i couldn't keep myself from giggling like a little girl lol

you can see where he decided to see how high he could kick!

another little kick up

i was suffering from a braiding withdraw so I had to experiment on roni!

all the horses up at the hitching rail, we had a primitive site, so no water, no electric, nothing :) it was fun

I accidentally burnt myself with a lighter, the blister popped and its shapped like a horse shoe :)

Jets first ride!!

Hey guys, so heres whats up about yesterday....
Jet had his first ride!!!!! He did amazing! No buck or anything, I moved around on him and he acted like he has had a person on his back for years, he did awesome, he doesn't have much get up and go, but thats okay, thats easier to fix than slow down all the time lol we have got go and turn okay, we still have to work on stops, a little more, but thats okay, he knows how to do one rein stops so I can always do that if need be!
The only real problem I had is that he doesn't realize my leg sticks out farther than his body does, and our round pen is made of chain link, so ya chain link and a 800 pound animal pressing you into it and draging your leg along it doesn't work so well lol, my pants were ruined and had blood in them cause my leg got a little stupid cut that wouldn't stop bleeding, and it wasn't even that big! So other than that it was an AMAZING night, I was so happy with him, other than him being a little stiff to turn I was very happy with how he did, he acted like he has been doing it for years, I was even swinging my lead ropes around above his head while I was on him, he has so much trust its amazing! Here are some pictures of my pants and leg, and the whole 36 minutes working with him!

My right knee

small bruise on right leg lol

my new riding pants lol

little holes and small blood stain on my right let

Summers starting!

Hey guys sorry for not updating a lot I have been very busy, so to start off I can't even seperate the workouts the horses have had, so just in general the horses are doing very good, Pearl will be leaving on Saturday, I DID find her new owners on facebook, so I can keep up with her, I like to be able to do that, and from all the stuff they post, they are with their horses a lot too.... so, this weekend was a good weekend, I stayed at my grandmas house for most of it, we bundled wood and made some money, we also went shopping cause I needed some supplies for my 4-h presentation, which will be on Seymore, who is a character lol, he is very funny sometimes, and can be a handfull, but he is a cutie, I will also be showing him and Pepper at the fair this year, so ya, I got some horse movies including COWGIRLS AND ANGELS 2!!!! I remember the exact day I watched the first one, because we were driving home from dropping nick off for his deployment last year, I can't wait to watch the second one! So anyways and the oh darn part, is my phone isn't working at all anymore, so I can't upload some of the videos I took from the other day, oh well I will get them up eventually for you guys, just not right away, we also went and bought some stuff at bombgars last week, I got 2 lead ropes and I bought the horses a new mineral block, and ya, roni got a lead rope too, so finally I can have mine back, lol I now have 4 of my own lead ropes so nobody takes them lol I have my green and black, I have a black, I have a red one, and I have a red white and blue one, all of them are cotton except for the last one, but oh well lol  also here is some GOOD NEWS on Friday my parents Nick and my mom, officially got married! they were married in their taxes before, but now they offocially got married, it was by a judge, so nothing fancy, we won't have a wedding for awhile, well just because we can't really afford it, but when we do, we already have it planned out to be in the barn.....so anyways roni and I will now be getting Military IDs which is nice because we can get discounts at lots of places, especially western edge! So happy for my mom and nick its now official, our tree was even tp'd and our windows on our vehicles were written on (it was my grandma lol)  overall its been an amazing week, so here are some videos for you guys!

above messing with apples, below cleaning Jets cut lol it was funny cause I had some swat and blood on my hand and I jumped at roni and she screamed like a little girl lol

t