Setting up at Devon

A bunch of us helped set up at Devon on a picture-perfect day!! There were some hiccups along the way with the pain in the ass GC who gave us no direction for our piece then was inflexible when we didn't complete it as he expected. but we had fun anyway!

After Devon, I went home to cut the grass, then to the barn for.a short ride. I tried Daniel in the new snaffle bit and he was a bit of a butthead. He kept trying to take the bit and going where he wanted. Leeandra's voice from days long gone came into my head, and Kara had similar advice and I wouldn't let him win.

The best part was after the ride. I had him to carrot stretches and was rubbing his ears. He was LOVING that. He just lowered his big head down to me, and was in horsie-heaven while I scratched his withers and inside his ears. We ended the ride on an high note with some TLC!

Just so the hunters know I'm not a deer!

Got him a blaze orange quartersheet and a orange helmet cover for me and one for Kara.
All ready for the hunters but not for myself. I pitched over too far and went right over Daniel!!! Kara said I was very graceful, but I hurt like hell! Daniel jumped back and stepped through the 4 step, breaking it. Ugh! But, after we had fun, working in the outdoor, where Cayuga bucked Jean off (bad boy!). Then we did the baby trail and cleared out some low hanging branches. Kara held Daniel while I cut them from his back!! We needed to know how high to cut!!

Water-crossing trailride Batman!

Jean and Cayuga were kind enough to be a trailguide for Daniel and me today. (Yesterday it rained so we just rode in the arena.) We enlisted their help specifically to get Daniel over his new-found fear of crossing water. He had such a hissy-fit last week that Kara and I thought a confident trail-leader (Cayuga) would make this a non-issue.

Kara had to cancel, so Jean and I hacked out (after her husband and neighbors came out to meet Daniel) and she had lots of great trips for me. First of all, Jean is a yoga instructor and reminded me that my breathing communicates messages to Daniel that I may not realize. (Dolt! Forgot that from dog training lessons with Karen Privitello, 18 years ago...).

We walked around the perimeter of the gelding's field and got to the blasted stream where Daniel had his hissy-fit last week. Cayuga walked right across it, and again, Daniel had a hissy-fit. So, I looked and saw a place where the stream wasn't as steep, and again he refused. I thought back to Leeandra telling me to point him and kick when he got silly about something like that on the trail. At the same time, Jean told me to just envision us crossing it and not to anticipate him refusing...and he stepped across!!! YAY DANIEL!!! I hugged him, patted him, and gave him a flax cookie!!! I gave Cayuga one too!!

We walked along the trails on that side of the creek and then crossed back and continued on to the wide creek. This one is about knee high on Daniel and about 15 feet across. Jean told me to give him his head so he could pick his way, which I did. I kept his nose on Cayuga's tail and we went straight across! Yay Daniel!

Then we crossed the road and got to a really nice, wide open, freshly mowed field. Jean asked if we wanted to trot and I didn't have to ask Daniel twice! He even threw in a few strides of canter to keep up with Cayuga, a TB. At the end of the field, there was another creek, and this one had me nervous! It was almost to Cayuga's belly, and the banks were STEEP! Could my old draft horse handle this?? He went right in after Cayuga, and we let the stop in the middle and get a drink. Good boys!! It was a real trust exercise because I had to give him his head, while leaning back due to the banks. But my buddy took good care of me as always!

We went up the steep bank and onto a nice, shady trail. We rode for about 15 minutes until we hit part of the trail with several No Trespassing signs, so we headed back. Again, I Daniel followed Cayuga right into the creek and went up the very steep bank in two big jumps (thank god I was in two point!)

We trotted back through the big field. My legs were getting like jello at this point, but Daniel was all full of himself and wanted to GO!

We saw nothing in the road, so we crossed and heading for the last creek. Just as we were about to go down the bank, this idiot on a Harley slowed to watch us and revved his bike. ASSHOLE!!! Daniel spooked, just his typical jump forward and swung his haunches to the right, so I rode it out just fine, but still! It could have been disastrous if we weren't riding such calm horses!

We let them get another drink in the creek, and headed back to the onsite trail. We let them do some trotting along the back fence, and slowed them to a walk on the uphill. This whole thing earned Daniel a new nickname, compliments of Jean, "the Cowardly Lion." How fitting :-)

My legs were jello by the time I got off!!! I figured Daniel's must have been too, so I took him out and hosed him off with cool water, used the sweat scraper to get the excess water off of him, then picked his hooves to make sure he didn't pick up any stones and turned him back out with the boys.

Then the work... Sweeping up, cleaning tack, checking supplements and putting my tack away and headed home to cut the grass!!!

Holiday Weekend!!!

I got to ride THREE DAYS IN A ROW!!!! Yay! I've NEVER done that before!

On Friday, I didn't ride. Instead, I took Bauer and Rumor to the barn to play with Margaux's three black labs. They all got along wonderfully, and we got a LONG, STEEP walk in. I was most proud of my little Rumor... she was about 100 feet in front of me, and I called her back. She came FLYING back to me (OK, so she knew I had a big bag of treats). I gave her a treat and let her go back out with the other dogs. We walked them through the geldings' field, then went out the bottom back gate, and walked them back up the path around the pasture.

On Saturday, Margaux (and Granit, the Oldenburg mare) and I rode together. We just did work in the outdoor arena, which was fine because they were week-wacking and brush cutting, and all that noise was making Daniel act stupid. After I got him settled and had mounted up, I was working on leg yields and shoulders-in with Daniel. We did a little trot work while we were at it.

On Sunday, Kara (and Tessa, her mostly TB mare) and I hacked out on the perimeter of the property. There was a little, TINY creek in the back... barely a foot and a half wide and two or three inches deep. Hell, Daniel could have STEPPED ACROSS IT, and he wouldn't. Then Tessa wouldn't, and it became a horsie-psycho-fest. There was a one foot drop leading to it that had no water in it, so I pushed him to cross that because I didn't want to quit something with him winning. Kara and I decided to ask Carol or Jean (Cayuga's owner and half leasor) to hack out with us and be the lead horse. Daniel's crossed water plenty of times, just behind a lead horse! After we got back, I trimmed his hooves before heading home to hit the shower.

Today, we did that loop again, but they were both much better behaved. The boys in the field were snorting and fencing running and acting like silly colts. The cool weather is really agreeing with all the horses. Um, we skipped that water crossing all together though!!

Speaking of pasture, the picture above is the pasture Daniel lives on. How did I get so lucky to find this place??? The shed in the background holds 6 horses very comfortably, and the white roof way in the background is the indoor, which is left open when there are no lessons for the boys to use as a run-in. 120 acres and only 10 horses on it!!

Cool turkey at Kaz'

I went to get tires today at Kaz in Port Richmond, and he's got Peacocks, pheasant, chickens, this turkey and a pony out back!! And not like the falling down ghetto stables you see on the news. He's got lots of fresh hay, water, supplies for them and, of course, plenty of feed.

The stalls and coops are picked up and the animals all look healthy and happy. His pony, Smarty, is really a doll! I told him about that Riders Rasp I saw at Bit of Britain, if he wanted to ease into doing a little more work on hooves. He has the tools, he's just afraid to do more harm than good, like I was.

After I got my new tires, I took the dogs out to Tory Hill to me Margaux and her 3 Labs. They all hit it off and had a great time. Seeing where Smarty lived and where Daniel lives...every horse should live like Daniel lives! :-)

No riding tonight

But the dogs had one hell of a run with Margaux's 3 black Labs!!!