The Summer of Thrown Shoes

It's been a rather dismal summer for Cash and I in terms of getting to ride.  We hit a few high points when I was able to actually ride him for more than 2 weeks at a time and got a few jumping rides in which were amazing.  However, the majority of the summer went something alone these lines: Farrier comes and shoes horse Horse keeps shoes for a few weeks, a month maybe Horse throws shoe Call Farrier, Farrier comes a week later, by this time Horse is lame New shoe on, wait a week (or more) for Horse to be not-lame Horse is sound, ride horse for a week or two Horse throws shoe Rinse, repeat.... I've honestly lost track of how many...

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THIS Happened

After literally years of not jumping anything more than wee 18" cross rails... I went for it today with Cash.  I set up a little one stride in and out and after cantering over 2 x-rails I set the back one up to a vertical, and I set it right at 2'7" from the very start.  And, as I expected, Cash still made it feel like nothing.  This is the highest he's ever jumped under saddle and he rocked it.  This horse is going to be a BEAST y'all!! Cheers, Em...

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Making strides... some big, some little

It's pretty safe to say that Cash's hind end problem is cleared up.  He's no longer pissy under saddle, he's content about getting a saddle put on, and he's moving much much better.  Now it's back to boot camp.  Sorry horse.  Ha! A brief run down of what we've been up to: We've "upgraded" the bitting department.   After getting to chat with a thoroughbred trainer who has retrained many TBs into other careers, I took a hint from her and added some curb leverage.  Cash now rides in a Pelham any time we are outside of the arena or doing poles/mini jumps.  And lemme ya, it's NICE to have brakes!!! Trot poles....

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5 Minute Catchup: A step in the right direction

Um wow, well over a month since I've last posted to this.  For that matter, I've not been reading any of the blogs I normally follow either.  Hello life!!  I've been INSANELY busy.  But a good kind of busy.  Finals are done and now I'm madly packing for a week and half vacation, so this will be a short n sweet update. That said, I'll just jump to the heart of it:  Cash got his hocks injected yesterday.  After much poking and prodding and two vets looking at him, we narrowed it down to a FOR SURE thing being that we was extremely sore in both hocks, especially his left.  So I told the vet to just go for...

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Cash does NOT have ulcers... what's next?

Well, certainly not the result I was expecting from the vet check this morning! My vet and I got to the farm bright and early to grab Cash.  He was less than thrilled at getting on the trailer instead of eating breakfast, but we got him on within 10 minutes without a ton of drama.  Once there he was actually pretty chill, he unloaded, looked around and walked right into the building and into the stocks without fuss. THREE shots of sedative later (yeah, I know)... we had a scope down him and the vet, Dr. Jergens, spent several minutes thoroughly looking around.  The result?  NO ulcers.  At all.  Just lots and lots...

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Cash has an appointment

This past week Cash has been a bit "off". Not in a lameness sense, but in a not-himself-at-all sense. When I rode him a week ago, every time I put my leg on he would slam on the brakes, throw his head up with his ears pinned and give a little kick with his hind leg. Not like him at all. I still managed to get him to trot through use of the seat and voice because I was not about to let him get away with not obeying... You let this horse get away with anything and it's a training nightmare to try and fix. Additionally he's been off his feed a bit lately. He's lost some weight but I think it's just his "beer belly". He's leaner for sure, but he has put on a little muscle which is good. So, he is currently scheduled to have his stomach scoped this coming Thursday to be checked for ulcers. I...

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A Perfect Evening

Sometimes, the best times at the barn are when you simply walk out into the paddock in the setting sun and do nothing more than stuff cookies in your pony's face and then give each other some love. Cheers, Emi...

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Forward, my friends, forward!

The last two days of riding Cash have felt an awful lot like riding a firecracker.... HELLO FORWARD. On Thursday after watching him leap and buck on the lunge line I popped on and though "whoa, there is a lot of energy in here today,"  Sure enough, it wasn't long until while just walking quietly along I suddenly found myself riding a bunny rabbit.  Hullo. The next day was the same. I tied the stirrups down for lunging as I was thinking that maybe them banging on his sides the previous day had been causing the bucking.  Nope, even more leaping and bucking on the lunge and WOW WHAT A TROT.  I'll blame the beautifully mild...

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Blog hop: What's in a name

Sometimes these blog hops pop up and often I just plain don't have the time to put something together, but this one looked fun and with Spring Break officially upon me I can actually do something about it! This Blog Hop is brought to you courtesy of Viva Carlos The Story behind my blog.... I've been intriqued by blogging for some time.  I consider my "official" start to blogging back when I used to be an active member of the Horse Grooming Supplies forum.  When the forum underwent some upgrades and added on a blogging feature I jumped at it and had fun, writing about horsey adventures and shows and riding and lessons.  I...

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21 Days to Break a Habit...

There is this little theory out there that it takes 21 days to break a habit.  How legit that is, well I don't know, but knowing firsthand how hard habits are to break, I could be influenced to believe it.  As I get my muse on, contemplating this blog post, I began to wonder, does that apply to horses?  Especially race horses? This weekend was a good one, absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather made for a happy Emily. Though, first, I had to deal with this: Thrilling After managing to get about 80% of it off him I went on a group trail ride with all of the riders at my barn.  All the horses but the ponies went. Poor lonely lil ponies!...

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Stubborn!

Man oh man do I own a stubborn horse.  So I actually got to ride him 3 DAYS out of this past week!!! [basks in glow from heaven]  I've been making the focus of our rides being going forward and lateral work. I've been riding him this week out in the dry lot with the other horses (yes, I'm crazy) because the arena has been soup... and surprisingly he's been a rockstar.  It helps too that the other horses leave us alone... Anyway, it's super nice having SO MUCH ROOM to ride in... this may become a regular thing even when the arena is dried up, hmmmm. Well, I've been working a lot on half-passes from the halt.  Leg-yeilding...

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Throwback Thursday

Inbetween studying, work, chasing a baby, and actually getting to RIDE MY HORSE because it's warm outside, I bring you perhaps my most epic Throwback Thursday picture.  This was Wild Yonder (aka "Buddy") whom I leased for a couple years. This was from a lesson in which he decided that he didn't like the mini black and white coop.  Now I'll let the picture do the rest of the talking.......

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Do It Yourself: Mecate Reins

So with wanting to start re-introducing the bit and my goal of getting Cash out on some trail rides I got the notion in my head that I'd like to have a set of Mecate reins.  Another horse at my barn has them and I love the idea and functionality of them.  But, I don't like nylon... at all.  Not a fan of the horse hair ones either, too scratchy.  I love cotton.  Problem is they don't sell Mecate reins in cotton.  I'm sure there must be a reason, but nonetheless I wanted cotton.  So I decided to get thrifty.  I Googled "Cotton rope by the foot" and the first hit was a lovely website called KnotandRope.com....

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A much more normal Cash

Where he is nice and mellow with an extra helping of lazy on the side. Really, for how little I've been working him, he has been super good.  I try very hard not to think about how quickly he'd be progressing if I could ride him more.... daylight is coming folks, daylight is coming! (and warmth) Can't wait! I've really been starting to stress lateral work with him, getting him side-passing, leg-yielding, turning on his haunches. In short, getting him OFF my leg.  He's picking it up finally, but it's sure been a long time coming. I'm also starting to integrate the bit back into his life.  For now he will be carrying a snaffle under the halter and hackamore.  No contact, just for him to carry.  Once he's quiet with it and doesn't champ at it, I'll attach some reins...

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Fire Breathing Dragon

Cool windy evening + fresh horse who hasn't been legitimately worked in two weeks = Yep. And for what it's worth I did end up riding the beast. Cheers! Em...

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What an amazingly beautiful winter day!

Wow, it got up to a balmy 55 degrees today so I took full advantage of the warm sunshine and spent the ENTIRE afternoon at the barn.  Since when has that happened?? I played with all the ponies, let the munchkin wander around, taught a lesson, and just had a great time.  And now my abs hurt from doing lots of sitting trot.  Good day.  Now I'll just let the pictures do the talking. This is Rosemary, not me, driving Sassy Yep, good day indeed. Cheers! Em...

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