New Phone and... Football?

Soo.... a very non-horsey post today.

1) I GOT A NEW PHONE!!!!
Aaaahhhh so excited, I finally was able to ditch my 2 year old HTC smartphone... however, smart, it was not. It was about as slow as molasses, continuously froze up, and could barely manage more than one app at a time.

So, when I discovered that I was eligible for an upgrade early (!!!) I promptly toted myself down to the Verizon store and picked up a brand new, shiny LG Spectrum 4G LTE phone.

It's a lot bigger than my old phone, but then any new smartphone is huge compared to my old little piece of junk... but, IT'S SO PRETTY!!!!

The graphics are amazing, HD indeed! Everything is crystal clear, and with an 8mp camera, it is really gonna make my already underused Nikon collect more dust (I really need to get a DSLR... but that's another story).
Plus, it takes video in 1080p HD. Schweeeet!! Be prepared for extra pictures and video as the weather continues to improve. Yay!!

2) Peyton Manning is now a Denver Bronco!!
One of my all time favorite QBs ever is now officially here to stay in Denver. To the tune of 96 million dollars... yikes! I have mixed feelings, while I love Peyton and have cheered on the Colts for years, I am also a huge Tim Tebow fan and I will be really really sad and dissapointed if he leaves Denver.  I really hope he stays because, well lets face it, Peyton is no spring chicken, the guy is old for QBs.  He's not going to be playing forever, and the Broncos need to be thinking about cultivating their next QB for when Peyton retires... something they didn't do too well after Elway.
Sooo... I'm just gonna be sitting and watching and seeing how Denver deals its cards over the next few weeks.

Beyond that... on the horsey side of things, Cash is a little ouchy (surprisingly) after getting trimmed on Friday, so I'm (not so) patiently waiting for him to get past the tender feet.  He may be getting shoes on a littler sooner than I thought, we shall see. Back to working on ground work in the meantime.

Continue Reading »

Teaching lateral flexion at the poll in an OTTB

It's not as easy as it sounds.

Cash has this lovely little track habit of when there is contact on the bit to twist his head to the right and chew incessantly at the bit. Chew. Chew. Chew. And because his head is turned to the side, he is most definitely not flexing properly at the poll.

Under saddle it is just a process of being patient, very very patient. And gently correcting him every time he tries to twist his head to the side. At the halt I flex his head back and forth, teaching him to give from the reins, and then use this skill while walking. This is also starting to teach him the basis of bending through his body.

I'm also just starting to teach him to move off my leg by teaching turns on the forehand, and starting to teach a reinback. Both I've only done once, but hey, gotta start somewhere!! I think I'm going to move him from a regular caveson to a drop noseband to help avoid the chewing. He needs to accept the bit, not gnaw at it.

Otherwise, I'm really pleased with his progress. Today we had a bit of a discussion about going where I ask him to go. We have 4 blue barrels at my barn, and they get moved around daily, so they are always in a new spot, there is also a garden right next to the arena and they recently set up a small greenhouse cover for a row of plants. Well, Mr Cash decided he wanted nothing to do with any of that, and didn't want to get near those spots. I said otherwise. At first he just tried to pop his shoulder and shy away, when I just brought him around again, he'd balk and do this slow motion spin on the haunches. What's funny is all of this, it was never out of the blue, he would just slowly progress in his level of "spook". I just remained very insistent with my leg, seat, and reins that "yes, you are going to go over to that area"

Took me oh about 5-10 minutes to get that point across, but I think he got it :) I'm sure he got away with spooks like that at the track, but in my world, that's a no-can-do.

Overall, he's been awesome so far! Super smart, willing, and sane.

Continue Reading »

He jumps!!!

I will let pictures and video tell this story today, enjoy!

 

A few screen shots from the video:

I'm very VERY pleased!! He picked up on it quickly, and showed great form over the fences. He also seemed to really enjoy it once he figured out what to do and was going over the jump with little to no encouragement from me :) I couldn't be happier!

Continue Reading »

March Madness

No, I'm not a basketball fan... I avoid it at all costs if I can.

BUT

Between work craziness, term papers, lab reports, exams, shuttling kids around, laundry, housework, homework, and barn duties, with an extra helping of menopausal weather..... it sure feels like madness right now!!

We pretty much checked off all the February goals with flying colors. With the exception of the hand walking trails/roads and the free jumping. But because those are weather dependent, I wasn't too stressed about meeting those goals. Plus, in order to free jump I needed to prep the poles. See I bought a bunch of poles last fall for cheap, but they were old fence poles and had a bunch of iron nails in the end. Hubby finally lent a hand and pulled them all out for me so I've been working Cash over trot poles and cavaletti this week and he's being doin GREAT with that! Starting to really think about where to put his feet over the poles and to pay attention (he had some almost crash-n-burn moments at first).

So, that said, my goals for March are as follows:

1. Establish lunging work in side reins at the walk, trot, and canter (focusing on relaxation of the topline in the canter)
2. Working under saddle walk and trot, starting to work on contact, bending, steering and moving off the leg
3. Free jump!! At least once... maybe more :)
4. Explore those trails/roads

Can't think of anything more in particular, but I will add to the list if I think of it.

If the weather is nice and things go as planned, I should have some fun photos and videos for y'all tomorrow ;)

Continue Reading »