Most horses can go barefoot!

This right here is a very good suportive article that horses can go barefoot, it doesn't matter what type of horse you have, even if they work all day, on hard surfaces, its just people who don't know the damages that shoes can do to the hoof walls, and when they finally take the shoes off their horse is sore for awhile (just like if we took off shoes and tried to go about everyday things), so they go and put shoes back on anyways when all they needed to do was let their horse adjust to a more natural lifestyle!
http://thesoulofahorse.com/blog/houston-police-horses-all-barefoot/

Thursday Night Riding Fun

Hey guys, so sorry for not posting, but things have been busy! So Thursday night was an awesome night, and It really made me proud :) (almost to the point of happy tears) So we decided we wanted to ride the horses up, so we went out in search of them, and I being my klutzy self fell into a fence and now my arm has a nice bruise and scratch. So then after slowly making our way across the field through many many water holes/mud holes, we finally got to the horses. I walked up to Chuck thinking okay, I guess I really didn't need to bring out the brush for you, but then got a look at his other side lol glad I brought a curry with me :)

 

After we brushed them off, I gave Roni a leg up and then made an attempt to get on Chuck, at first he wouldn't stand by the fence and it was my fault too, because the fence I tried to stand on was falling apart, so I don't blame him because I was nervous, so I tried backing him up a few times and that wasn't working, so I decided to do a little ground work, I had him go around me four times, and then tried again and he stood perfectly :) So we started riding up and if you were following Roni's or my blogs you would have known Jack had a buddy sour/bolting problem which left me and roni in the dirt/mud multiple times last winter, and some of those were even with a saddle. Well all the other horses freaked out at something or got excited and decided they needed to come up from behind and blow by us at a gallop, to say the least Jack got a little excited and tried to go for a gallop too.  At first Roni froze up for a second, suprised, then she tried to stop him normally, that wasn't working so I yelled one rein stop to her, and she did it, and got him back under control. He spun in circles for a little bit and she got him calmed down. We continued on our way and the horses decided they should run again, and again she got him under control. I would also like to mention that she was riding him in a halter AND bareback!  :) I will say RONI IM SO SO SO PROUD OF YOU!!! 

I can't wait to see where you will go with Jack :) he has improved so much.  After that we brought them up to the yard to ride, Roni just worked with Jack on ground work, I tacked Chuck up english, and let my little sister ride around for a little bit and then hopped on myself and rode for a bit, it was dark by the time we went back up to my grandmas but it was an amazing night! SO PROUD OF YOU RONI!!

Heres 2 videos from thursday night, the first is our search for the horses, the second is when we caught them, goomed, mounted and rode back :)

Today riding...

Hey everybody, so today was a AMAZING DAY! We woke up and Nick came downstairs, and we messed around with paracord for a little bit, and I FINALLY got my "bucking" strap made for my english saddle, you can buy them on Chicks (Here) and so spending $14 plus the $7 shipping, not exactly the thing I really wanted to do, so I got my clip and made it, and in the pic the ends arn't cut yet, so thats why they are there. also they are in my 2 favorite colors :)

After that Nick took us to the farm, because nobody was around there today, and we got Chuck and Jack out and rode around. I rode Chuck in the curb again, and I will be doing a video on all the bits we have here in the next few weeks, and telling you about them, when to use them, and how they work. Chucks is actually a copper coated curb bit, so he likes the taste of it more, I am saving up some money to buy his new bit for him too.  Also Im super excited, and even though I can't really use it much for another 9 months my helmet/hat finally shipped and it will be here tomorrow night! I will show you guys what it looks like when I get it :) But anyways... Chuck is getting his leg ques down really good now, he had to be reminded a bit at first, because we did no ground work at all today, and they havn't been ridden or worked in awhile, just groomed and feed lol so he had some pent up energy, which wasn't bad, he didn't get punished, we just worked through it, and by the end of our ride time, I hadn't toutched the reins in almost 15 mins, so Im supper happy with that. Then we groomed them and put them away, and locked everybody up in the yard by the barn, and went into town and bought 6 tubes of wormer because it was worming time again, so we went down and wormed them, and it all went very good except for Pearl, shes very head shy, she kept shaking her head, but we just started massageing her face and her mouth and then she took it all just fine, then we fed the horses and opened the gate  and had a snowball fight on the way back up, and then went home, the temp was AMAZING today, but everythings melting, so I got bored on the way home and stuck my hand out the window, and it turned out kinda funny....

Riding Today Almost to Bridleless!

Hey guys, Im so so so so so so so so HAPPY! Chuck did AMAZING tonight, in the whole hour and a half that we rode I only had to pick up the reins 7 times!!!! AHH! SO PROUD OF CHUCK! I love the fact, that if I wanted to, I could go out there, and hop on him with nothing at all, not even a neck rope and be able to ride him! I really can't wait to ride him again, but it started getting dark and snowy, but riding off all leg seat, and verbal cues, not many people my age, or even many people at all can do that, and I am proud to say I am one of them, no I don't have some fancy horse, no I don't have a horse that can run fast, or can jump high, or has the smoothest canter, but the bond we have is what very few horsepeople experience in their whole life time, my inspiration is Stacy Westfall, I hope to be able to ride Chuck like she rode her horse Roxy someday, and now were one step closer! I can't wait till I get to see Chuck again on Wednesday! Also I switched him over to a plain curb bit with a copper mouth piece, and now it doesn't matter what bit I use on him, if any at all, because
WE ARE LEARNING TO BE ONE, NO SADDLE, NO BIT, NO BRIDLE, JUST US....
It will take a little more time, but Chuck trusts me, and I trust him, we don't need any of that stuff, we rely on trust and respect. I hate it when people think they need bits to ride their horses, and then when their horse becomes "hard mouthed" they just switch to a harsher bit, so here are some pictures of what happens when people do stuff like that to "control their horse"

Even a simple snaffle can cause harm in the wrong hands, and then to add to it, I see people with leverage, and tomb thumb bits, popping their horses in the mouth, and, always have constant pressure on the reins, and I want to rip the reins out of their hands, if you can't ride on a loose rein, don't just pull back, because you obviously missed some important ground work buddy.

Anyways heres a video of tonight, and the last minute of the video I put my hands up to show you that no I am not using my hands, Im so happy today! Were just going to keep getting better and better!

Good ride, but I fell!

Hey guys, sorry for not posting this weekend, but its been kinda busy, so Roni and I went riding on Saturday. I started Chuck off with some trick training (he is catching on really quick!) and then some ground work and then we headed out and rode for a while, Chuck is FINNALY getting leg ques down, he needs a reminder every once in awhile, but about 80% of the time now, he will go off just leg ques, were one step closer to tackless riding! We rode for a little over an hour, and decided to give the horses a break, so we turned them back out, and went up to the house for a little while, then came back down and got them caught and groomed, and hopped right on. Chuck did really good, but I asked him to turn right, so using my seat and leg, I leaned to the right slightly, and put my leg on, and then my grandpa hit the side of a trailer with the skidloader and Chuck jumped (drum roll please.... ) you guessed it left! I landed on one leg, then my other leg came over and hit the ground and twisted my leg, I layed on the ground for a sec, my knee and thigh hurt really bad, but I stood up and walked over to the nearest trailer, and hopped back on, I rode for another 5 mins, and my leg was getting worse, so I figured I would call it quits, we put the horses back and fed them again, and then went back up to the house and I iced my knee and thigh, took some tylonal, and let it rest, and then when I went home later that  night I took my muscle relaxers, because as time went on, it got worse and worse, by last night (sunday night) It was feeling okay, and every step i took didn't feel like sombody was beating my leg with a hammer, so one tip, try not to land and twist your leg or you end up like me with a pulled muscle! Not fun at all, I may or may not go riding again today, Im feeling a little better, but it all depends on whos around later today, so thanks for reading Im so happy we have 14 subscribers on youtube, 604 followers on twitter, 178 followers on pintrest, and 4584 views total on youtube! Hope you guys like it all!

Old Pictures of my time with horses

My 3rd Birthday I got a saddle for my birthday :)

same as above, except we had to test it out

This is one of my friends older sister at my first birthday party my friend was only about 6 months older than me at the time though, she is riding Candy she was the first horse that tripped and fell on me on more than one occasion ;)

Another picture from my first birthday party, Like I said before, I have been riding before I could even walk by myself, This is Buttons, this is the horse that I first "fell" off of, he was a wind sucker, my grandpa didn't get the girth tight enough, we got a little ways up the driveway, and off my grandpa and I fell, right into the gravel, but we still went riding that day :)

Another Pic from my first birthday, this is how I spend my first few years on horses, riding with my grandparents, and as I got older, they started teaching me how to steer, and how to stop and go with them there, and then I was finaly able to ride by myself, somebody would come with me on the trails, and eventually they let me go out on the trails by myself. I got in a few sticky situations, but that all makes me smarter and wiser with each experience....

This is a picture for you guys, these are Button's and Candy's bridles, in the pictures they are both 31 years, Buttons died the winter I was 6, and Candy died the following winter almost exactly to the day a year after buttons did when I was 7, I had got Lilly for my 7th birthday. Lilly was very depressed, the ground was frozen, so we couldn't burry her body, and we couldn't keep lilly away from it, even when she was starving, she started dropping weight, so we eventually started to take food out to her. She then got lonely, and started running to a farm with other horses that was about 5-6 miles down the river, and our trailer was in really bad shape, because we just got the floor fixed recently, so my grandpa would ride her back down the river. That summer someone dropped a horse off, we have no idea, he just showed up in our pasture one day, and there he was. He got named Outlaw, although he wasn't mean at all, he was a sweaty, he reminded me of Buttons. My grandparents sold Lilly and Outlaw a few years ago, they were sopose to come to my house in 2 weeks, but my grandpa sold them right out from under me, I still get tears in my eyes to this day, because the man who had bought him, had them sold, only one day after he bought them. I still to this day don't know what happend to them, but there are stories of people finding horses after many years, and I really hope that one of those amazing stories may be me someday....

This is what a farm kid is like...

Hey guys, so this is a must watch video it is really a tear maker, I love the way this kid thinks....

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