V is home!!!

Ok, so I promised Alex I'd keep up with this :) Versace made the trip great, he was a lot more relaxed than I had expected when he got off the trailer (much much better than when he got to your place Alex, of course!). I walked him around a little and then sent him around a few times until he was chewing & paying attention. Then took him into the barn, took all his gear off (haha Alex), & hosed him off (the real bath will come tomorrow!!!).

He didn't pay the other horses any attention, but Fred the turkey was a bit of a different story. I'm gonna have to figure out a way I can work V near him to make him get over it...right now Fred stays in a stall. Versace did walk forward when asked though, toward the noisy alien. I gave him his dinner & some bute (just in case, from the long trailer ride), he relaxed in his stall for awhile, then went out with my 33yo mare Jasmine & goat Tumnis like he'd never left. I can't wait to ride him tomorrow! :) Thanks again SO MUCH Alex for everything!!! I love the new V!!!

V goes home :(

Today was V's last day. He loaded up this afternoon to make the 3.5hr trip home with his happy mom.

She promises to keep up with the blog so we will get to keep reading about him!

Little Snot!

This morning we had a light ride. We had just started into our heavy trot work when the vet showed up early. So we ran down to the barn and I threw him in his stall to eat and chill. The plan was to ride him this evening when it stopped being SO hot.

The weather had other plans of course and it rained most of the afternoon. When I went out this evening to turn him out he was FULL of himself. It was still raining and he decided he was going to SPOOK at EVERYTHING. The leadrope on a stall, the hitching post, the water hose, etc. It was funny because he didn't actually do anything other than jump and then splay his legs out. We did work at EVERYTHING though and he eventually got it and walked with his head down out to his blue girlfriend!

Field Trip!

The plan was to haul V to my friend Jim's house for the day. The rain the day before put his riding arena under water though. Since I promised to haul somewhere we headed over to Latta Plantation. Its a huge state run park with a large horse facility. They have over 5 arenas. They rent out trail horses and teach a few lessons. Fortunatley most of their arenas were dry with a few puddles. Perfect for water training!!!

When we got there he was more aggittated than normal but wasn't as upset as he was when he got the farm the first time. He looked around a lot but stood still and was respectful of my space.

When I had him all ready to go I lead him down to the arena with his bridle on his saddle. This is when he was the most upset. He spooked HARD but in place the first time he saw the other horses. Then walked around like a 17HH giant!

He was very respectful of my space though. What he didnt' do was look at me. So when we went into the arena I worked him back and forth on the scariest part for him until he did.

Once he took a breath and would look at me when I would ask him to change directions then I took the rope and bent him in both directions.

This was the result:

It was time to ride! I bridled him, got on, and started moving him shoulders like I would at home.

At home I'm VERY VERY nit picky about him looking around. He lives there, there is absolutely nothing that he needs to look at outside of my direction. At a new place there are obviously going to be things he hasn't seen before. I still don't allow him to look OUT of my direction but I'm a tiny more lenient about him looking up in the direction that we are traveling.

Looking out like this gets corrected with shoulders or a change of direction.

There was one part of the woods that he didn't like and wasn't as responsive with the shoulders so I changed tactics and leg yielded him TOWARDS the scary woods. He lifted his shoulders and settled down. He shouldn't be allowed to get his shoulders out from my aides.

Once we could make a lap and change direction without any fussing on his part we got to work. He was MUCH more settled at the trot. It is a nice way to get out some of his nervous energy but not let him go wild.

He was nervous at first but only showed his uneasiness in his tail.

Once he settled into his trot he was great! We even went trotting through a big puddle!
Want to see what a leg yeild looks like from behind??

Since he was doing so well I decided to push it a little and ask for the canter. He settled down into a really nice canter and we even went through a puddle!

Then we called it a day for the riding. We went for a walk around all the barns and other arenas. He was VERY polite but showed his stress in his tail. He settled down and was quiet. We headed back to the trailer and loaded up.

Since he was so good and it was a long day for him I gave him Sat off. Sunday he will get a light workout before heading back to real work on Monday.

It rained!

The bad news: We didn't get to haul to Jim's today or ride.

The good news: We REALLY REALLY needed the rain.

The field trip is re-schedule for tomorrow.

Look who can CANTER!!!!

Since he was left in his stall last night I figured he would be a little more UP today than normal. There was no way I wasn't going to take advantage of ticking him off.

He was pulled out of his stall and tacked up like normal. We went out to the arena. He wanted to walk off when I got on him but stood when asked. Then he wanted to TROT. He took his correction well and didn't pop a shoulder, twist up, or act like he wanted to take off. He was just ready to get to work. Once he started walking when I asked we went ahead and got to work trotting.

It was probably some of the prettiest trot work I've gotten from him.

Once when he started being consistent and warmed up then I sat down, layed my outside leg on him and twisted my hips. He fell right into the canter! No running, no excitement, nothing. I only had him canter about half the arena each way before stopping. He was floppy but was pretty slow for his size. I didn't get any good pictures of the left lead. Sorry.

I was tickled with him!!

Summer Camps and Slip N' Slides

I got V out after summer camp was over yesterday. He was very good until we went past the slip n' slide. He decided to give it a funny look so of COURSE we had to investigate.

After passing it a few times he calmly and quietly walked over it. He was very good. He acted a little funny in the barn. I put him in his stall to eat while I worked the other horses. He wasn't too eager about eating so I took his grain away and left him in his stall with hay over night. The weather has been funky and I wanted to make sure he wasn't feeling bad.

I got a call that a friend's horse was acting funny too. Maybe it was just in the air.