ok, not to toot my own horn, but i am pretty kick ass at showmanship. granted i HATED the thought of leading my horse around a pattern when I first started as a youth, but it grew on me. I wish i had video of my showmanship patterns with my paint mare Belle..she was BAD ASS. I always got dirty looks when I showed up early for showmanship. don't hate. lol.
anyway, i am always forgetting how smart mustangs are. I give a "normal horse" about a solid month and a half to have showmanship down pat and start winning blues..i don't like going out with a half broke horse..embarrassing! It was too windy to ride again today, so i decided to work on our "in hand" since it is a portion of the show. I put my show halter on her along with a stud chain(just in case) and a normal lead rope attatched to the bottom. We walked over poles, the tarp, trotted out and stopped. she started to tune in and follow my body more than my voice commands.
I now some people like to "kiss" to their horse to make them trot in showmanship..i think this is dumb..do you kiss to make them jog while riding? no, you cluck, kissing is for loping..so why confuse them. I also don't understand the "shhh shhh" some trainers use to back them up..ugh. just say "back" damn it! judges don't give a rats ass how much noise you make..as long as you are crisp, clean and on time you WILL get a ribbon.
Back to my showmanship lesson.. I normally don't ask for pivots when first introducing showmanship unless the horse already has trotting and stopping down. Since Ruger is so damn smart I felt that asking her for one was appropriate. I raised my hand stepped into her and clucked...wouldn't you know she crossed her front feet, planted her right rear and stepped over! I walked her on, stopped, backed, then asked her for a whole turn...she gave it to me. I quit with that.
I also set up some jumps in the round pen and line drove her over them..she will clear a 2' jump from a walk. shit balls! good to know tho..lol.
It was a good day even though i had an angry post earlier...i like to vent to all of you! :)
haha doncha love it!
-Jenn
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
rage against the system
I'm a little ticked off today, so don't mind my angry shouting antics.
My mom's mare, Gidget, is WAY more than my mom can handle, and to be frank she wants nothing to do with the wretched bitch. Mary seems to be the only one who is willing to work with her. Now my complaint is, mom emailed Randi at the MHF and asked nicely if Mary could send in an app and trade with her since she doesn't want to give up on the mare and doesn't want to return her.
-now- if i were in Randi's position i would say, you know what...this lady loves horses and doesn't want to give up on them, so she is finding a suitable trainer to take it off her hands and show it at the NEMM. Does that happen? NO! They would rather risk my mom getting hurt than switching trainers. I'm so pissed off.
Another thing that makes me angry about this EMM thing is the people that keep on winning the damn things. It seems like you have to show up in a damn strawberry picker hat, chinks, bad tack, and a handle bar mustache all while running around and cracking a bull whip to win.
-EXAMPLE-
I was following these two Tallahassee trainers from the Gatorland EMM, they are English trainers that know their shit..the assistant is an AWESOME rider and had a bad ass performance in the finals jumping and whatnot...guess who won?? a mustached, badly tacked, bull whip cracking, standing on the saddle idiot.
can we say stereotype?
I'm letting Ruger sit in her stall and rot till the NEMM. Then I'll show up in full rodeo garb and drag her around the in hand course, cop out and not show her in the riding class, and maybe I'll get a prize.
I'm so tired of show politics.
My mom's mare, Gidget, is WAY more than my mom can handle, and to be frank she wants nothing to do with the wretched bitch. Mary seems to be the only one who is willing to work with her. Now my complaint is, mom emailed Randi at the MHF and asked nicely if Mary could send in an app and trade with her since she doesn't want to give up on the mare and doesn't want to return her.
-now- if i were in Randi's position i would say, you know what...this lady loves horses and doesn't want to give up on them, so she is finding a suitable trainer to take it off her hands and show it at the NEMM. Does that happen? NO! They would rather risk my mom getting hurt than switching trainers. I'm so pissed off.
Another thing that makes me angry about this EMM thing is the people that keep on winning the damn things. It seems like you have to show up in a damn strawberry picker hat, chinks, bad tack, and a handle bar mustache all while running around and cracking a bull whip to win.
-EXAMPLE-
I was following these two Tallahassee trainers from the Gatorland EMM, they are English trainers that know their shit..the assistant is an AWESOME rider and had a bad ass performance in the finals jumping and whatnot...guess who won?? a mustached, badly tacked, bull whip cracking, standing on the saddle idiot.
can we say stereotype?
I'm letting Ruger sit in her stall and rot till the NEMM. Then I'll show up in full rodeo garb and drag her around the in hand course, cop out and not show her in the riding class, and maybe I'll get a prize.
I'm so tired of show politics.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
We all fall sometime
It was windy today, i was ballsy, i fell. it happens, she was a good girl besides the falling. mary was working so i was alone, my mom came for moral support.
Tomarrow will be better as long as it's not windy. :)
Tomarrow will be better as long as it's not windy. :)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
we lope!
Ruger and i loped today! yay! she is like a big ol' comfy couch!
Gidget has been loping for a week or so, but she is still a little speed demon...barrel horse? lol. They both are excelling REALLY well and I think we are sitting pretty high for 38 days or so. They are really smart, and as long as we dont hit any major glitches we should be golden.
I still need to work on my "showmanship" with ruger so we will have the in hand ok. I love seeing how they are progressing in different areas, they are so different and excell at things the other one most likely wont.
Ruger let me shave her front legs today, minor mishaps with the "ah! it makes noise AND tickles!" I was going to finish her back legs, just the white socks, but mary was playing with the tarp in the round pen and she was just too distracted and pissy...i don't want to get kicked..not that she will..but still.
mary and i were too tired and sore to go out on a trail ride today, so we worked on ground manners and trail obsticles.
More riding tomarrow... :)
-Jenn
Gidget has been loping for a week or so, but she is still a little speed demon...barrel horse? lol. They both are excelling REALLY well and I think we are sitting pretty high for 38 days or so. They are really smart, and as long as we dont hit any major glitches we should be golden.
I still need to work on my "showmanship" with ruger so we will have the in hand ok. I love seeing how they are progressing in different areas, they are so different and excell at things the other one most likely wont.
Ruger let me shave her front legs today, minor mishaps with the "ah! it makes noise AND tickles!" I was going to finish her back legs, just the white socks, but mary was playing with the tarp in the round pen and she was just too distracted and pissy...i don't want to get kicked..not that she will..but still.
mary and i were too tired and sore to go out on a trail ride today, so we worked on ground manners and trail obsticles.
More riding tomarrow... :)
-Jenn
Saturday, April 4, 2009
my butt hurts
ok, so yesterday was not my day, nor was it mary's day. It started out simply..we went to lowe's and bought a tarp, 8 poles, and 2 flags to desesitize our horses further. -anyway- roxanne, the old pro of 14 years used to carry flags and stand next to helicopters taking off...decides she wants to be scared of the flag that i'm carrying and instead of running from it, she runs at me and knocks me down..drags me and stomps -somehow- on my right butt cheek. lol...keep laughing...it gets better! :) We mounted up and rode to the public arena, no mishaps..Ruger decides she wants to be stubbon and pig headed..and i'm not feeling very ballsy because of my roxy adventure...so i get off and tell mary to get on and trot her for a second. -bad idea- she's a one person horse...mary gets on and trots, attempts to walk her over a pole and BOOM! it's "let's get mary off" fest. mary's in the dirt, laughing...i'm peeing my pants her ride was so funny..so she gets back on...this time the ejector seat was quicker...oh lord...i wish i had my camera! lol.
I walked her home and she was fine..silly mare. Gidget was exceptional and loped on both leads..she was pretty un dramatic so nothing fun to report there.
Today we rode to the arena again, Ruger had one mishap at a scary palm tree, nevermind the flapping for sale sign by our head, that damn palm tree was going to kill us! :) She was really..and i stress the REALLY good about trotting and moving off my leg and backing through the "L". Trot poles, hah! i laugh at you!
We are going to do a half day tomarrow, riding and baths. we were going to haul out, but we are both sore and don't want an incident. lol.
Till then!
-Jenn
I walked her home and she was fine..silly mare. Gidget was exceptional and loped on both leads..she was pretty un dramatic so nothing fun to report there.
Today we rode to the arena again, Ruger had one mishap at a scary palm tree, nevermind the flapping for sale sign by our head, that damn palm tree was going to kill us! :) She was really..and i stress the REALLY good about trotting and moving off my leg and backing through the "L". Trot poles, hah! i laugh at you!
We are going to do a half day tomarrow, riding and baths. we were going to haul out, but we are both sore and don't want an incident. lol.
Till then!
-Jenn
Thursday, April 2, 2009
ok the old blog was boring me!
i spruced 'er up! whadya think?! lol.
I got so dang bored looking at the old blog so i did a little EMM of my own! lol.. ok so it's a EBM(Extreme Blog Makeover) but it looks nicer and makes me happy when I look at it. :)
Ruger's nose was exceptional today when I went to give her her meds. 10 SMZ pills, 5 cc's of bute and 5 cc's of a anti-inflamitory at 10 am and 10pm. yay! haha. Oh, and the scab broke yesterday and the infection began it's draining process...god thats nasty.
Trail riding again today for the girls...I'm waiting at work for Mary so we can go!
I'll post more soon.
-jenn
I got so dang bored looking at the old blog so i did a little EMM of my own! lol.. ok so it's a EBM(Extreme Blog Makeover) but it looks nicer and makes me happy when I look at it. :)
Ruger's nose was exceptional today when I went to give her her meds. 10 SMZ pills, 5 cc's of bute and 5 cc's of a anti-inflamitory at 10 am and 10pm. yay! haha. Oh, and the scab broke yesterday and the infection began it's draining process...god thats nasty.
Trail riding again today for the girls...I'm waiting at work for Mary so we can go!
I'll post more soon.
-jenn
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
dr. williams is the best!
I called my trusty vet Dr. Williams out this morning to look at Ruger's nose and Gidget's foot. Gidget has an abcess, but he said it's so close to coming out on it's own that he couldn't do anything for her. Ruger has an infected cut over the top of her nose, and it got huge, so she's on antibiotics and he said it should be all better in 48 hours! Good news! :) Let's hope she doesn't have a giant nose and the swelling will go down so her nose is cute and little again.
Both of the girls are doing so good! We rode them to the public arena yesterday which is about a mile and a half of Norco's finest scary urban trails. The only thing we didn't like was a stark white pony coming at us(or course the kid flinging a rope around it didn't help at all) we passed in the street and all was well. Gidget launched and took off when a dog took her by surprise, she ran 30 feet then stopped when Mary pulled her up. Other than that, there weren't any mishaps!
Ruger gave me a little sliding stop yesterday when I set her up for one, and spins on a dime! I told my mom I should send her to Bob Avila for some reining training! lol.
Mary and I have decided to send in applications for the Fort Worth EMM! We have ever been to Texas so we thought we would give it a try with the 'stangs!! :) There are 100 trainers being picked for the September EMM, so lets hope we both get in!
More later,
-Jenn
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