He Stays... and, riding video!

For now, anyway.  I still have ads listed apparently for Cash from back in Feb when I listed him for sale... I got a phone call off one of these ads yesterday and without even thinking or hesitating I answered "Oh, I'm sorry, that horse isn't for sale anymore."  So, dear Mr. Cash, you get to stay with me for now.

He's been really, really good in the roundpen.  I rode him in there and it's such a little area for him that it really forces him to stand up and be correct in his body--no getting away with diving on the inside shoulder here!!  The ground work is also really increasing his attentiveness to me.  He still, however, remains hard to catch and I'm completely stumped by it.

Anyway, here is some non-eventful riding footage--I was working on getting him to yeild to the aids.  The video is not very long as my roommate quickly got bored, she was hoping for a little more excitement as the last time she saw me ride she got to witness Cash being a whirling dervish charging around at warp speed... But, it's riding video nonetheless!!

Look! A rare photo of me actually on my horse!

School starts on Monday and my life is about to become very insane, hopefully I'll still be able to squeeze in time to ride!

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Roundpen Revamp and Sewing Project!

So after my last post and a few of the suggestions made in the comments I had come up with an entire post on trainer rides, but decided to trash it as it was entirely too self serving. (and, by the way, I love and appreciate all the comments, suggestions, ideas, and kind words left on my blog! Don't stop!!)  In short, my personal opinion on trainer rides is that doing just one or two really only provides a second opinion on the horse and isn't going to do much to correct any underlying training holes/issues. For a trainer to be effective there needs to be a long term commitment, either in the form of lessons or in training itself. Lessons I can afford--and I really should look into it, I need to find a trainer that I trust. Full on training I unfortunately cannot afford right now. 

Anyway, I do want to say that I am more than capable of handling this horse, I'm not afraid of getting down and dirty with the more "ugly" side of horse training.  I have dealt with some dirty, mean, rotten, and bullheaded horses in the past and while Cash is challenging, he's not mean.  It's not that I don't have the ability and knowledge to train Cash, the question is do I want to?

That said, I've decided to take Cash back to the roundpen for the foreseeable future.  I need a more manageable space to get him listening and respecting me as he is not listening in any shape or manner in the main arena.  So far I've only been doing ground work with him--doing my own variation on the "join up" routine.  And, I'm pleased to say it's been successful!  He's been super relaxed at the end of each session and much more in tune with my body language.  One day he was completely running through me, and was constantly trying to outrace me.  When I would shift my body to ask him to change directions he would kick on the afterburners and rocket past me, continuing in his current trajectory around the roundpen.  I had to get a bit aggressive and things got kinda dusty but we worked until he was listening... as a result the next day he was hypersensitive to my cues and I really had to pay attention to what I was doing!!  While the day before I was having to make extremely exaggerated movements to make him listen, here the slightest shift in my posture would make him brake to a halt and look to me, asking if he was to go the other way.  Good boy!  He really is a smart horse, and I think that's a big part of the "issue."  He's a little too smart...

I'm going to focus on short and sweet with Cash and see where that gets us. With that goal in mind, it should also hopefully give me a decent chance of working with him semi-regularly with school starting.

Ok, now onto non-horsey business....

SEWING PROJECT!!! Haha, I'm only just a little excited about this.  They are doing a 1950s day at work, and I'm going ALL out.  I picked up some gorgeous satin fabric from Joann's (after I got it I realized that the material it's made out of probably isn't entirely 100% period accurate, but oh well, I love the pattern!) and I've been busy sewing all weekend.  I'm making a simple but lovely V-necked sleeveless tea length dress.  I ordered a big, poofy petticoat to go under it and I'm so excited!!!!

Pattern!

Having fun!

It's my last week of freedom before school starts, so I figure I better enjoy it while I can.  I am going to do my hair up in curlers and style it in a late 40s/early 50s do, who knows, maybe I'll pay tribute to WWII and do some victory rolls.  Then, pin-up style makeup complete with cherry red lipstick will finish the look. I better win best dressed!! (my only drawback is lack of a bullet bra, I sat for awhile trying to figure if I could modify one of my bras to get pointy boobs, but decided it was probably not the best idea!)

Which, this reminds me, I never did get finished photos of my last sewing project, the 1860s mourning dress.  My sister is here this weekend and we are planning to do a photo shoot of the 50s dress, maybe I'll break out my corset and hoop crinoline and do a shoot with the 1860s dress as well.  I've probably said it before, but honest to God, I swear I was born in the wrong decade/century.  I love historical attire of any type!  I'll be sure to post finished photos of this baby!

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Feel unmotivated...

Maybe ya'll can talk some sense into me.

I'm feeling very unmotivated with Cash, and the thought of selling him has crossed my mind more than once as of late.

It's kinda flirted in the back of my mind for awhile, but what with him bucking me off, then kicking them, then being a royal turd on the lunge every. single. time. I work with him, and just now in my most recent ride on him last week he bolted and ran off with me.

Now, I'm a good rider, I have stickability and can tough it out with the nastiest of horses. I'm not scared of Cash, and nothing he's throwing at me is something I can't work through in time. But, with all that is going on in my life, what I've been through, I want a horse I can enjoy and trust to be the same animal day in and day out... is that too much to ask?

Plus there is the time factor. He needs to be ridden 5 days a week. That's definitely possible right now. But I start the fall semester in two weeks and my days are going to get very, very long. I'll prob still be able to get out there a decent # of times until the days get short, at which point I'll be leaving the house before sun-up and not getting back till after sun-down. And we don't have an indoor or lighted area. That sucks.

Partially it's just me being frustrated. I know he needs time to mature mentally. But it's hard to get past the fact that he tries to be a jerk because he can. When he bolted and ran off with me it was because of a stupid white cooler sitting on the other side of the fence.... YET just beyond that in the adjacent garden were 4 blonde headed boys running and yelling and popping in and out of 6 foot tall sunflower rows shooting nerf guns and waving foam swords, he didn't even blink. But the cooler... that white cooler. UGH

Anyway, what do y'all think? Am I totally off my rocker? Everytime I go horse hunting online I realize that he is far nicer than any other horse out there within my price range... yet then I go work with him and 9 times out of 10 come away feeling "blah". I'm not feeling the connection I had with Pie or with Buddy, my two previous OTTBs.

Well, I'll leave my ramblings at that. On a postscript note, I need a new color sceme/layout for this blog, this one has been around for awhile and I'm ready for a change.

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Listen to Me!

A bit behind on blogging, I'll admit, but oh well.  I spent a week in California on vacation--I got to hang out with my aunt, my cousin and her kids, my grandparents, and just enjoy a week of no work, no errands, no appointments, no running around, no alarm clock in the morning--it was fantastic!!

I am slowly but surely figuring out how to reprimand Cash.  First, is his spooking, I am starting to find that line between yes, he is actually spooking, and no, now he's just being a jerk.  Yesterday was a great example, I was lunging him and he initially was very looky at "that end" of the arena.  I let him stop and look, and then move on again.  But he kept looking each time we'd come around and would get this little pattern going: slow down, duck in, speed up, pull out.... and after about 10 times of this I was like "Ok, enough. Time for you to listen."

So when he slowed down I snapped his butt with the whip, when he ducked in I snapped his shoulder, when he sped up and pulled out I gave him a nice pull back in and by then we were back to his slow down spot and I repeated. He's a smart cookie, once I was onto his game it only took me doing this twice for him to go "Oh, sorry mom, I'll listen." Turd.

I experimented too with a side rein set up and I'm super pleased with the results.  When lunging (and when riding) he really braces in his neck and can pull and fall in super easily as a result.  I'm not a huge side rein fan as I feel that they are very unforgiving and hard on a horse's mouth--there just is no suppling action.  So what I did was attach a side rein to the outside to be that steady outside rein the horse works into.  On the inside I took the lunge line and ran it through the bit and back to the girth and attached it as the same height as the side rein.  This gave me that inside rein suppling factor and a GREAT way to also effectively disengage him when he tries to brace and pull on the lunge line.  I can say that I've been really happy with the results of how he carried himself the last couple of lunging sessions.

My training goals for Cash for the foreseeable future are two very simple things:

1. Rhythm and Relaxation
2. LISTEN

Note the emphasis on #2... this also applies to in hand.  I'm making it a point of taking him out for walks on the road, and he can sometimes loose focus and starts invading my space.  The week before I was in Cali he decided to suddenly take a feel good leap forward during which he then kicked out at me and caught me square in the knee.  I kid you not I thought I didn't have a knee anymore as it instantly went numb.  Thankfully I must have got just the end of the kick because I could still walk just fine and I promptly brought the fear of god down upon him--I was NOT happy!  He's been much, much more respectful now and listens instantly the moment I correct him.  There is a reason I hand walk this horse in a stud chain!

So, I've decided to implement a rule of that he is allowed ONE good look for each scary item, after which he HAS to listen to me.  Also, when he gets his one look, he is looking only, no slowing down, no speeding up, no stopping unless I say, and especially no spinning and trying to go the other way.  Sounds simple enough, right??

On another note, go take a look at this cutie!! If I had the money for another horse I would so snatch him up, just look at that uphill canter! http://denver.craigslist.org/grd/3935382886.html

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Hi-Yo Silver!

With my Mom being in town for the 4th we decided to take a night and go see The Lone Ranger

Talk about a FUN movie!! I was not quite expecting the humor and punch lines scattered throughout the movie, but I enjoyed every minute of it. 

Aside from a few historical and factual errors (such as the women's clothing being more reminicient of late 1850s than late 1860s and that they were trying to say that the Transcontinental Railroad went through Texas) it was just a good ol' fun western movie.  And, Armie Hammer is pretty easy on the eyes ;)

And, can I just say that I am loving these new "modern" westerns? Movies such as this one along with "3:10 to Yuma", the remake of "True Grit", and TV mini-series shows such as "Broken Trail," "Into The West," and "The Hatfields & McCoys". Yep, I love it.

I swear, I was born in the wrong century....

Regardless, go see The Lone Ranger if you haven't yet!

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RIP Google Reader

As many of us now know, Google Reader was officially terminated on July 1st.  This was much to my chagrin... I had the gReader app on my phone and would happily scroll through my feeds--which were all imported from Blogger.com.  Well, with Reader down the tubes my easy phone access to my blogs was suddenly cut short.

You would think getting Blogger RSS subscriptions imported into a RSS reader app would be no big deal...

I just spent the better part of an hour trying to figure out how!!  I failed to import my subscriptions out of gReader into another app before it shut down, so I had to figure out a round-a-bout to get things switched over.

I ultimately went with Feedly as my RSS reader of choice.  I then went into Google Takeout and exported my Reader subscriptions into a .xml document (which is ultimately downloaded as a .zip file, and you have to go into it and copy/paste the subscriptions.xml document into another folder), from there I could go into the cloud portion of Feedly and import it (which is referred to as a OPML Import--and no, I don't know what that means).  That, thank goodness, finally brought all my blogger feeds into Feedly.  But, now I don't know if it will automatically pull in new feeds, or if I'll just have to subscribe to them through both Blogger and Feedly?? Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there....

In the meantime, in honor of the 4th of July weekend and because it is the 150th Anniversary, I am watching my favorite movie of all time: Gettysburg

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Liebster Award! x4!!

Wow! In three days I've been nominated FOUR times for the Liebster Blog Award!! A big thank you to Katherine at Grey Brook Eventing for the first award and to AmberRose at The Way To Heaven Is On Horseback for the second nod, and Dragon at I Trot On for the third, then lastly from Syd at From Racehorse to Princess.  I'm flattered and incredibly honored that not one, but three people felt that my blog was worthy of an award! So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!

So, now this means I get to come up with some fun reading material for y'all. Let's start with what the award is about:

The Liebster Blog Award is a way to recognize blogs who have less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word that means beloved and valued. Here are the rules for accepting the award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and include a link back to their blog. 
2. List 11 random facts about yourself. 
3. Answer the 11 questions given to you. 
4. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate. 
5. Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or fewer followers to nominate and include links to their blogs. 
6. Go to each blogger's page and let them know you have nominated them.

 11 Random Facts about Myself:

1. I'm a closet Sci-Fi fan/geek, especially when it comes to Stargate SG-1 haha.  Lord of the Rings is my other huge fandom, and I can hold my own with the best of them when it comes to LotR and Hobbit trivia (my mom, sister and I used to quiz each other on the books long before the movies were even announced). I will also happily watch any Star Trek or Star Wars movie. I'm not too big on Harry Potter though.
2. The first horse that ever bucked me off was a 12.3hh pony named Cloud.
3. I will eat peanut butter on anything... anything! Especially Oreos. Yum!
4. I love foo-foo coffee (lattes, mochas, lots of creamer, sugar...) but can't stand the stuff straight.
5. Growing up as a kid my favorite movie was "Gettysburg" and I would re-watch it over and over, my mom finally banned me to watch it only over the 4th of July as she was concerned about her 7 year old girl watching so much violence!
6. After horses, my next love and passion is sewing.  I love to sew.  Like a lot.
7. For the first severals years or so of my riding career I kept a written list of all the names of the horses I'd ever ridden.  I think I quit keeping track when the list reached to about 30 horses. It'd be interesting to see how long it would've become if I had kept it up.
8. I like mowing the yard, I like the grunt work behind it and the satisfaction of having a beautifully even, manicured yard.  However, I hate gardening or anything of the such.  A green thumb, I have not.  But, I can make grass look good. 
9. From my Great-Grandfather on my Grandma's side of the family, I can trace a family lineage directly back to a Decon John Dunham who sailed over from England on one of the first few ships to follow the Mayflower. Further back in England in the 1400s there are direct blood ties to the Royal Family, I believe it's a relation to King Edward (but don't quote me on it, I haven't gone through it recently).  Oh, and Sir Francis Drake is a cousin in there as well.  Pretty cool, huh?
10. 
    

So, for the 11 questions given me... I contemplated just doing the questions from the first nominator, but then that would leave two people with unsanswered questions, so I thought, what the heck, I'm going for it.  So thus, be forewarned, 44 questions coming right up!

These questions are from Katherine:

1. If you could travel to any place in world, where would it be and why? Ireland.  Because I love all things Irish.  'Nuff said. 
2. If you could live in any historical period/location, where would it be and why? Civil War, or to be a little broader, anywhere inbetween 1860 and the end of the 1870s.  This would be why I doing Civil War and Indian War era reenacting ;)
3. If you had to change to an entirely new equestrian discipline, what would you go to? I'd say Combined Driving because I already love driving, I just haven't ever done a CDE.  But, if we are taking something I've never done, ever... then it would be Reining. 
4. If you could have a ride on any famous horse in the world competing right now, which would it be? Ah! So many to choose from!! I certainly wouldn't pass up a ride on any of William Fox-Pitt's horses :)  
5. Describe your dream barn. Somewhere up in the foothills, with lots of shady trees... and a big red barn built around the turn of the century.  I have a fetish with old barns. 
6. Favorite non-horsey activity? Sewing :)
7. Which is better: the book or the movie adaptation? Depends, but, for the most part the book because there are more details and you can let your imagination run wild.  
8. Can you cook? If so, what can you make? Yes, and when I have the time and have the motivation, I can cook up some really yummy things.  Just about anything I can make, I recently came across a casserole recipe that involves biscuit dough, ground beef, onions, bell peppers, sour cream and cheese.  Sounds good!
9. Favorite color? Blue!
10. Describe yourself in 10 years. Not working where I'm working now, ha!  Hopefully, maybe, prayerfully remarried (I want my baby to have a daddy...), with a career in the equine industry, and with a home of my own. 
11. How did you first start riding? When I was 13 on a visit to my aunt's ranch that summer the neighbors happened to be having a horse camp and my siblings and I got invited.  I was elated!  I got to ride a beautiful QH mare named Poco (original name, right?) every day for the entire week.  I came home from that trip beeeegggging my mother for lessons for nearly a month before she gave in and called a local barn. 

And these questions are from AmberRose!

1. Do you have a camera? Yes, I do
2. If so what make and model? Well, for the most part it's my phone, which is a Motorola RazrM that has a spiffy 8mpx camera.  My real camera is a Nikon something, it's a point and shoot, but with a big lense on it... it's now a bit obsolete and I don't particularly enjoy using it. 
3. When did you first start riding? When I was 13, see above question!
4. Have you always loved horses and had them in your life, or is it something that you started later in life? I have loved horses since I could crawl, I spent most of my childhood running around on hands and knees pretending to be a horse.  I also roped my brother and sister into the fun and made them pretend to be Lipizzaners...
5. What's your favourite colour for your horse? A bright, blood bay horse with solid black points, a blaze and four socks. 
6. When you were little what were your equestrian dreams? Ride in the Olympics, duh. 
7. Other than riding what do you spend your spare time doing? What is this "spare time" you speak of? When I'm not riding I'm either at work, at school, driving to said occupations, running kids around to places, doing homework, cleaning house, doing laundry, doing yardwork... and sleeping. Phew. 
8. What is your favourite job to do at the stables/yard/barn? Grooming, or tack cleaning
9. What is your least favourite job to do at the stables/yard/barn? Moving stall mats around and cleaning under them.... disgusting!
10. Which famous horse and rider team inspire you the most? Right now, probably Tianna Coudray and Ringwood Magistar.  She has produced this horse from the ground up and not but a few short years ago she was making waves in the Young Rider championships, she has since moved up in the world and earned her stripes at the Olympics last summer.  She has a bright future ahead of her and she is just an inspiration to me in that, yes, you can make it to the upper levels, Olympics even, on quite literally only one horse.
11. If you could meet any famous horse dead or alive, real life or from a story who would it be? Secretariat

And, next up, the questions from Dragon.

1. Get up early to ride, or stay up late? Stay up late, I love the quietness of the evening and it's a great way for me to de-stress my day.
2. What do you do for a living? I work customer service in an inbound call center.  I am an assistant supervisor and assist with agent development and assistance, handling of escalated calls, providing authorization for reshipments/corrections/etc.  I also help with training and onboarding of new "Helpdesk" agents (which is what I am)
3. What do you wish you did for a living? My career goal is to work with upper level performance horses in some form, idealy with orthopedics and soundness.  But, truthfully, if I end up in a customer service/call center like I am in now, I won't complaint.  I love my job I have right now, I trully do.  I just wish it paid 2-3x as much as it does.
4. If you could try any type of riding what would it be? As above, Reining :)
5. What is one thing about your horse you wish you could change? Get rid of his silly temper tantrums, good grief I would miss those.
6. If you could change your horse's name to anything (registered or barn) what would it be? I thought about this when I first got Cash and hemmed and hawwed over giving him a different Barn name, but I couldn't come up with anything.  Truthfully, I love his registered name, some JC names are attrocious (Darren Darren anybody? - that was Pie's name), but his is pretty cool I think.  Reminds me of Johnny Cash.  So, I guess if it would change, I'd call him Johnny, and I considered that, but Johnny is/was a variant on my late husband's name sooo... yeah.  Cash it is :)
7. Facebook, Tumblr, or Instagram? Instagram!!! Follow me y'all @amilehighonhorseback (cute baby pictures are a frequent occurance, hint hint)
8. Ebay, Craigslist, or Tack shop? Oh good God, I am such an eBay addict... I have to ban myself from there, I have spent entirely WAY too much money on there over the years, but I DO find some amazing deals... the hunt, it's addictive.
9. If you could take on the life of any character in any TV show or movie, who would it be? Ohhh... this is a good question.  I guess I can't really say that I would want to take over the life of any character, however, I would gladly plant myself IN a TV show or Movie, in which case, Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis would probably be the two I've fantasized about that happening the most, to the point of writing fan fiction in the past....... [blushes] ....Yes, I have geeky fangirl aspirations!!
10. If you had an unlimited budget, what type of car or truck would you buy? Ford F350 Super Duty. Done.
11. If you could move to any part of the world, where would it be? Here? I love where I live, I love the mountains, the rolling hills, the view east towards the plains.  I love looking towards the mountains and being able to feast my eyes on a magnificent 14,000+ tall peak.  I love being able to drive 15 minutes and be surrounded by cool pine forrests.  I love watching the sun set over the mountains every evening and basking the sky in golds, pinks, reds, and oranges.  I love the crisp cool feeling in the air after a thunderstorm rolls in off the mountains.  I love the beautiful snow in the winter, the crisp golden colors of Aspens in the fall... I love Colorado.  I don't want to move :)

Then, from Syd!!

1. How long have you been riding for? Oh, about 12 years now, or so.
2. Favorite Breed? Thoroughbreds, without a doubt.  I love their heart, their athleticism, and their incredible worth ethic.
3. Ever ridden Western? Informally yes, and here at there I did wanna-be western pleasure classes at the Welsh Pony breed shows haha.
4. Favorite Book? Probably the Lord of the Rings trillogy, including the Appendixes.
5. Slow Horse or Fast Horse? Fast, but not hot.  I don't care for a hot horse, but I cannot stand a lazy, slow horse.  I need speed.
6. Longest Horse You've Ever Own? I had Pie for a total of 9 years, though that was not consecutively.
7. Favorite Store to Shop in? Does eBay count? Hahaha.  Otherwise, the King Soopers by my house, it's new and besides an awesome open grocery layout, they have furniture and lots of home accessories and an awesome candle selection! Hey, she didn't specify a horsie store, haha, and I love my grocery store, so there :)
8. Favorite Horsey Memory? Probably the entire trip out to the 2007 National Pony Club Championships at the Kentucky Horse Park.  I competed Beginner Novice and I scored a 30 in dressage and was sitting 1st in my division, we went double clear XC (fun course!!!), but it poured on Stadium day and my poor horse, coming from bone dry Colorado, was totally beside himself with the wet and we pulled two rails and finished 6th. Bummer.  Otherwise, it was a blast! I participated in the clinics held afterwards and just had a great time.  It was a huge learning experience and I tell ya what, nothing like riding your horse next to Rolex jumps (well, I guess jumping them would be ever better, but, close enough!).
9. If you could buy any other horse what kind would it be? Thoroughbred, or a TB-WB cross.
10. Show for the rest of your life or trail ride? Show! I am so stupidly competitive it's not even funny
11. Favorite Quote? "Plans are always made in pencil but writing down your goals makes your dreams achievable." - Sinead Halpin

And, now my 11 questions for you!

1. What was the last movie you saw in Theaters? Was it in 3D?
2. If you could pick one saddle to buy, and had no budget, what would you get?
3. Oakbark, Havannah, or Black tack?
4. Have you ever galloped a horse full out? Was it intentional?
5. Favorite Sci-Fi character?
6. What is your favorite Pony breed and why?
7. Haven you ever driven a horse in a cart?
8. What would be your dream horsie vacation?
9. Do you own a pair of cowboy boots?
10. What is your favorite Equestrian discipline to watch? (not nessecarially ride)
11. And, lastly, what are your plans for the weekend, are you doing anything fun?

As for the 11 Blogs to nominate.....
I thought about this for a bit, sorted through the blogs I follow (which is, not that many, surprisingly), looked at blogs that have already been nominated by other folks, and decided that I won't nominate any specific blog.

So, I nominate anybody who HASN'T yet been nominated for the Liebster Award.  You who might be feeling a tad bit left out, or who maybe is new to the world of blogdom... this for YOU!!

Or, if you just want to answer even more questions, well, go for it!

Open Mic everybody :)

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