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.

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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.

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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!

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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 ;)

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Aaannnd... we are in the saddle!

So, today was awesome!

Cash has been doing phenomenally as of late. Despite some yucky/windy weather and having to skip a few days of work, his lunging skills have been coming along in leaps and bounds. We are doing walk/trot/canter without side reins, the canter is still very tense, but it's starting to settle down--the walk and trot are awesome, he's quiet, relaxed, and doing solid circles. Walk/trot lunge work with side reins is going very very well. He's starting to take a steady hold on the bit and accepting contact, YAY! Now I just need me a pair of elastic side reins as I think he's past the vienna reins.

Today I introduced two things, a ground pole and RIDING!! :D

The ground pole was kinda funny, I put it down and had him on a short line on the lunge. He walked over it the first time without blinking. I'm thinking "OK, this could be easier than I thought..." The second time was kinda my bad as I didn't aim him correctly and he kinda squirted out the far end and went around it. The third he stopped cold in front of it and wouldn't budge!! It took a bit of convincing to get him over it, not sure why he stopped, but he did. After a few more times around he was totally cool with it and walked/trotted over it both ways. Next step is to add more poles!

And then of course the BEST PART was that I got on him and walked him around. He was sooo good! He stood still while I mounted, waited till I told him to walk off, and was in general very "Ho-Hum" about the entire ordeal. Steering starting out very iffy but once I showed him what I wanted he picked up on it rather quickly!! As well as halting. We even walked over the pole a couple of times.

I couldn't be happier! He was awesome. He was even giving me a nice steady feel on the reins and really walking forward and swinging through his back. It felt awesome! WIN!

I absolutely cannot wait to get him out and kick some butt at shows. I mean, c'mon, how will judges be able to resist this face?

Happy and content after a great "first" ride :)

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A look at those February goals so far

So, here is what I had for goals for this month with a current update on our progress for each goal:

- Takes treats out of the hand: Check!! This obviously didn't take long to master

- Being haltered and caught willingly out in a large turnout: Check! He now sees me and comes marching right up, doesn't even blink when a rope goes around his neck and holds his head still for a halter. He is also getting led to and fro from his stall to the turnout in nothing but a neck rope. Awesome!

- Paying attention while being led: For the most part, check, he walks with his head level, when he does get pushy normally asking him to back up, turn a circle, or do something to refocus his attention works well.

- Manners (no biting, pushing, kicking, etc.): Really haven't had to work on this much, he's really good actually and respects my space rather nicely.

- Stand tied quietly without pawing or wiggling: We weren't getting anywhere much tying him by the tack room, away from the other horses, he'd stand but he'd be not focused on me and often jumping around. So I've started tying him up on the other end of the barn, closer to the turnout and he's much better, still gets fidgety sometimes but its getting better. I think he gets bored easily, cuz when he's not paying attention to something else or watching the other horses he's trying to munch on the tie post... grrrr.

- Lunge walk/trot, starting on using side reins: so far lunging on a line in a larger open area such as the arena is hit or miss. He was AWESOME one day and I was even able to ask for a little canter, which he did willingly and without taking off, just very tense. But, thanks to lots of snow I haven't had much of an opportunity to do consistent lunging. But often he's tense and doesn't want to relax, and keeps cutting in. So the last couple times I've done round pen work, which he is really catching on to, he's picking up on and listening to my body language while free lunging, which is awesome. He's showing relaxation and submission, and doing what those natural horsemanship gurus have made millions off of by calling it "joining up". I recently picked up the book called "Beyond the Track" and it had a whole chapter on free lunging in the round pen to start establishing rhythm, balance, and relaxation in the gaits. It refreshed my memory of years ago when we started all the young horses with free lunging, teaching them voice commands off body language, it was then a walk in the park adding the lunge line and moving to the arena. So, that's what I've decided I'm going to do with Cash. I may get lucky and have things melt/dry up this week, so I want to get him going in side reins in the round pen, get him accepting the contact and then moving to the arena.

- Explore roads/trails via hand walking: This had kinda been weather dependent, while he is to the point where I almost feel comfortable, I really don't want to do it with icy/wet/muddy roads, so if it clears up we'll give it a go in the next week or so.

- Free jumping over a small single jump: Again, veeeery weather dependent, the arena hasn't been dry, much less visible under the snow for two weeks now. It's suppose to get warm(ish) this week and next, so maybe I'll be able to free jump him before the end of the month!! We shall see :)

 

So, really, not bad!! For only being half-way through the month. I'm pleased. Now.... if this mud will just go away!

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I own a mud lark

Sooo... I walked out to the barn today to find this:

ACK!

Yeah... brand new blanket, less than a week and he's got it filthy!!! None of the other horses blankets look like that... c'mon! Ah well. What's really the bugger is that, notice his nice n white socks, not a speck of mud. That's tallent!

Besides from that, while the arena is still covered in snow, there is a large dry patch out in the turnout, so I did a little mini lunging with him, mostly walk, working on focus and circle size, baby steps! He's learning how to stand quietly, I've moved to tying him up closer to the turnout, once he's learned to be chill there we'll try out the new skills further away by the tackroom. In the meantime, he can chill by his buddies.

Cash + Sassy = <3

 

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