Sunday Blues

Josie and I had an interesting night tonight. Thankfully we had Kari to help keep things positive and progressive! We finally made some good changes towards the end of the session.

I brought most of my tack home tonight so that I could get it labeled and marked so it doesn't get confused with everybody else's identical equipment! I love my new Parellie mega bag! It fits all of my ropes, plus my bareback pad and two carrot sticks! It would also fit my bridles, but I think I'll still take my black bridle bag. I started packing my clothes today too....mostly just summer weight stuff that I am SURE I won't be needing in the next few weeks...

There are only two more weekends before we go, and I am on call or back up for both of them, so I am starting to feel the crunch of planning and packing! My trailer went in for some work this week, so it should be ready to go. That's about it for tonight. I am looking forward to it warming up this week!

Happy Birthday

Here are some pictures from our birthday celebration on Saturday.

Vaccination day

We vaccinated the horses today. Or at least part one of the vaccines. We'll do the rest later in the week so their immune systems don't have to process the whole load in one day. I also took some radiographs of Josie's feet since she is getting her feet trimmed tomorrow. I wanted to see where her angles are compared to the last time that we took films two trims ago. I am now sitting on the couch watching old footage from our taping adventures this past summer. I am so thankful that I had my friend Kari to coach me and cheer me on through many interesting sessions! Especially the cantering ones : ) Oh, and btw, I also faxed off all of my paperwork to the Savvy Center in Florida. They now own me for two weeks in Feb : )

A great day in Wisconsin

We enjoyed a rather pleasant day in Wisconsin today. The temperatures were in the 20s, which is pretty balmy compared to what we experienced last week! I rode Josie today, which is the first time in about one week. I had Dave come out to the barn so that we could take our "holiday" photo. Little did he know.....I planned on getting a picture with him ON a horse! It worked out well, and we even managed to get the dog in a few pictures.
The interesting thing was that when I got on Josie outside, she went from a reasonably confident horse to a very insecure one. HOW interesting! My leadership must not be as strong when I am on her back (which I think I knew already...) In novel situations (outside in the snow in this case), she loses her confidence in me and reverts back to being right brain. MY challenge is figuring out how to work things out while still on her back. I need to learn to take back the leadership role without getting off her back. That will be something to ponder this week. All in all though, it was a ton of fun to ride around in the snow!
After taking photos outside, we then moved into the arena and played in there. We played on the 45 foot line, which was fun. I have been making a program out of figure eights, and weaves, and touch it the past week. She is really recognizing the patterns, which is fun because I can start adding challenges to what I ask (longer distances, faster speeds, etc.). I saddled her up, and Kari and I rode for a short while in the indoor arena. Kari and Vegas went over some small jumps, which was very exciting! Vegas is such a good little jumper! Josie and I tried to follow suit, but the jumps were not very big, so she insisted on just trotting over them....we got a little 'hop' on one circuit, so I was happy with that. We'll try a bigger jump next time!

So the plan for this week is:
1. Vaccinate the horses tomorrow
2. Farrier on Tuesday
3. Continue to work on figure eights, weave, touch it--work on speed, distance, quality!
4. Question box pattern while riding
5. Work on getting our "go" to equal our "whoa" Our "whoa" rocks right now! Now I just need snappier departs at all gaits! We will do it!

That's probably enough for now. I'm sure I'll think of more later!

Family pictures

Here's a sneaky peak at some photos we took today. I'll blog more later!

Celebrations

I didn't make it out to the barn tonight. Kari had pony duty tonight (thanks Kari!). I will take over tomorrow--brrrrrrr. It is NOT going to be fun to work outside tomorrow. I had a great night tonight--we had a Pampered Chef celebration. Our team reached a major goal over a three month period, so our director took us out for dinner to celebrate. I am lucky to have such a great group of people to work with!

Brrrrr

It is freezing tonight! We just got back from the barn, and it was about 8 below zero. Not fun! We just let the horses run and roll a little in the arena, then fed them their hay cubes. It was too cold to do much else. I enjoyed my afternoon off, and was able to take the dog snowshoeing this afternoon--part of MY workout plan! It is a ton of fun, and Bristol doesn't seem to mind the snow or the cold.

Meeting of the minds

We had an organizational meeting yesterday. It was the first time that all four of us were able to sit down and hash out the details for our trip. We got many things accomplished! The biggest of which was finding a place to stay in Florida. It is a big relief to finally have that detail taken care of! We also sorted out our route down to Florida, including the "horse motels" that we will be staying at along the way.

Aerial View

I found this aerial view of the Ocala Ranch today. (Clicking on the image will enlarge the image) This is where we will be for two weeks! It is hard to believe that it is coming up in one month.

One rein riding

Tonight I got to try out my brand new riding helmet! I like it because it is less bulky than my other one, and seems to fit my head a little better. Kari and I had a mini fashion show in the bathroom with our helmets : ) Then we snagged Ted for a quick picture. He is the one who takes such good care of our horses.

We set up an obstacle course in the arena tonight. Josie and I played on line for a while, working on speed, distance, and quality with our games. I was able to get some nice sideways over obstacles from the end of the 22 foot line. And we did some nice zone 5 driving--for the first time I was at the end of the 22 foot line. I stopped and back up, and she did too! She always thinks she is so clever when she backs up when we are driving from zone 5!

It was cold tonight, so I hopped on bareback. I decided to ride with one rein tonight, since it has been AGES since I have done that. It was fun to do it again. We started out passenger riding for a bit, then we tried to do some figure eights. I had to do a million corrections (and rein tossing) at first, but after a few repetitions she figured out the pattern and we were able to do more harmonious figure eights. Her backing with one rein off the wall still needs some work. It will be a challenge to keep things provocative over the next five weeks. I am going to study the patterns a little bit this weekend so that I can be more creative as we continue to play over the next few weeks.

I apologize for the quality of the arena pictures. It is hard to get good pictures with the lights in the arena!

Partners in Crime

And here are our partners in crime!

Pictures from Thursday night

Here are the pictures from Thursday night. This was the end of our session when we did a little bareback and bridleless riding. Fun!

It's getting colder.....

The temperatures are starting to drop. It is supposed to be frigid by next week. We'll have to make hay while the sun shines, I guess! Kari and I rode tonight. We played a bit on line (circling over poles, etc). Then we rode for about 40 minutes. We trotted for about 12 minutes straight this time. We are slowly bringing up our (and their, but mostly our!) endurance. It is hard to stay loose in this cold weather. My legs got particularly cold tonight. We ended the night by doing a short bridleless and bareback session. Too fun! Josie was happy to be naked. Kari took some pics--she should be emailing them to me soon (hint, hint!). I am now tucked into the couch with a rum and coke, watching ER. Toodle-doo!

My ponies had the day off today. I was busy caring for other people's horses tonight. The roads are starting to get slick, so I hope that I am done for the night. We are having an planning session on Saturday to iron out the details of our travel and lodging down in Florida. I am excited to have everyone finally meet. I think I am the only one that knows everyone else! Let's hope for good weather for the rest of the week----

Another great day in Wisconsin!

Well, Josie and I had another great session tonight. It was a relatively short session, since there were lessons going on in the arena tonight. I started out by letting Josie and Vegas run loose in the arena. They have gotten in the habit of doing that this winter, so they knew the drill. All of a sudden, they got a right brain bug in their butts, and they started snorting and hauling ASS around the arena. And Josie has a BIG one ; ) The funny part was that they both wanted to be the leader, so at one end of the arena, Vegas would cut across the arena before reaching the end so that he ended up in front of Josie. Josie would return the favor by cutting the corner at the opposite end of the arena. It was pretty funny to watch their thought process as they serially outsmarted the other one. After everyone settled down, we played on line for a while and then I saddled up and rode. Josie is becoming very sensitive and responsive to my body. Her halts were amazing tonight--all I had to breathe out and she would come to a stop. Pretty cool!

Once I got home, I ordered a few essential horse items that I'll need for the trip down to Florida. I shouldn't be spending any more money right now, but I want to make sure that we have everything that we'll need down there! I am getting SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!

Here we go!

Well, the reality is setting in that our trip is right around the corner. We are headed to Ocala Florida for two weeks of intensive training at the Parelli Savvy Center! I am so excited to be going! It is going to be an adventure for sure. I'll post more later. I know that this is a lame post. But I am new to blogging.....