I love this weather!

First off, let me say a big "hello!" to my new friend Aurora and her family up in Alaska!

The weather here in Colorado has been great these past few days. Today I hopped on Red bareback, without a saddle, and let him eat some fresh grass on a riding trail while the dogs ran around and got some exercise. It was so nice! It was over 60 degrees out.

Below are some pictures from this week, just the daily sights.


Red eating dinner. When almost all of his grain is gone, he bites the side of the dish and shakes it to move the remaining grain to the middle of the dish. It's too funny to see.


This is our shadow. What a pretty day!


No saddle, just hanging out, Red is eating grass.



Red loves to come in the garage and beg for treats!

This Sunday I think we are going to our first lesson and getting a chance to school our first cross country course. I'm so excited!!

A jump jump here, and a jump jump there...

The weather imrpoved a lot quicker than I expected, so I was able to squeeze in one more ride before I leave for Alaska. Red and I worked on our walk-trot transitions in the ring, took a nice relaxing walk around the trail, and even jumped! A few jumping video clips can be seen below. The 2nd jump was 2'6" and 2'9". He was a good boy!

Our Next Goal: Transitions

I've been riding a lot more consistently now, and the weather has been great (with the exception of today and the 6" of snow on the ground that is still falling). I think our first event is going to be at the Colorado Horse Park on May 1, so I looked over the beginner novice dressage test A and give it a try with Red for the first time yesterday.

We trot down the center line with no problem, turned right and Red asked me where we were going. We followed the arena to the left and made our circle. When we broke from the arena rail, Red again asked what we were doing but we kept going. We picked up the canter and made our second circle, and when it came time to transition to the trot again so soon, Red was completely convinced we were suppose to keep cantering around the arena. It took me half the arena length to bring him back to a trot again, but we got it even though his head was straight up in the air. We transitioned to the walk and had a nice relaxed walk across the diagonal. We picked up the trot, made our circle, and got the right lead on the first try (though it wasn't so pretty) and got back to the trot easier than the previous time. We came back down the center line alright and did an ok halt.

The bottom line is it made me realize the next thing we need to work on are transitions: canter to trot, trot to walk, trot to canter, etc. So, there is our goal. I also jumped Red over a new jump and I didn't let him see it before we approached it. It was just a part of our fence that only has the bottom 2 rails, nothing too scary. He jumped it just fine, in fact I think he liked it!

As I said before, it's currently snowing. I leave town on Tuesday for a while so Red is going to have about 2 weeks off. When I return, it's going to be the final push before our first event. So the rest of our training will be transitions, transitions, transitions!

Spring is here!!!

Yikes, I can't believe how long it's been since our last update! They will be coming more frequently now that spring has FINALLY arrived. Was that a long, cold winter or what? Yuck!

Well Red had most of the winter off, he just got to eat and play in the snow. We went on occasional trail rides, about weekly or bi-weekly, so he still got to get out a little. He lost some muscle tone so we are working on getting that back now. We are working 3-4 times a week continuing on balance, bending, yielding, etc. You can see his improved form in these video stills below:




Yesterday, Red got his right lead on the first try. Yeah! Was it a fluke? Probably. But I was so excited. It really was a good enthusiasm and confidence boost for me, I was so happy with him. Red also loves to jump, though that this point we're just jumping straw bales and rails.



I'm hoping out first event will be on May 1st. There is an eventing derby (dressage and jumping in 1 day) at the Colorado Horse Park with an Elementary Division. It's cheap and I think it would be a great experience for Red. I'm changing my colors from royal blue to red for Red, how cute does he look below???



There will be more updates more frequently now that we are back to work. Until then...

Red's New Barn

In the beginning of December, the new barn was complete! It's super cute, it matches the colors of our home, is 24' x 36', and has a cupola with a horse wind vane on top. We also got it with skylights and a dutch door for where the stall will be. Then, Red will be able to come and go as he pleases!



We have to bring the ground up and put in a more suitable flooring, with rubber stall mats in the stall to keep things nice. But for all intensive purposes, the outside is done, and thank goodness. This winter has been quite cold and windy, and Red has spent many days and nights in there keeping dry, warm, and wind free.

More pics to come when the inside is complete!

Our First Trip!

Red got to take his first trip! We have construction on a barn starting this week, so I had to move Red on Saturday because he would be in the way. So we took him over to my friend's house in Firestone for the week. He was a sweaty mess by the time we got there, he was worked up! But he walked right into the trailer and walked right off with no problems. He pranced around in his stall and was full of energy. This morning he calmed down a lot and was back to his normal self. I hope to ride out there later in the week!

Yikes! It's been a while!

Yikes, I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted an update! I guess that's what happens when you spend so much time traveling for work, going to New Mexico, Tennessee, Alaska, Wyoming... sheesh! The sun also sets now at 5pm so it's already dark when I get home from work. That means unless I have a weekday off, riding is reserved for the weekend only!

Red has been doing great. The vet said his weight is perfect. Infact, he said he may be getting a little chubby when he was out to last check on Red! We battled a little auto-immune allergic reaction on his nose that looked like a fungus. After 15 days of steroids, he's all cleared up! You can see a pic of how it looked below.



Red was awesome the last time I rode. I don't know if it was a fluke or not, but he was really relaxing and taking much better hold of the bit. He had his head in the best position he's had yet. I also set up some straw bales that are about 18" high and 12" wide and jumped Red over them. And guess what? He loved it! I thought for sure he'd stop the first time just because he hasn't jumped them, but no! What a good boy.

Below are some more recent pics. Red does tricks now, like sit, lay down, roll over (hahahaha). Hopefully we can get some riding or jumping pics or video again soon!

More Jumping...

Here are some more highlights of Red free jumping! I'll post another riding video soon...

Looking better...

It's time for an updated picture of how Red is looking, so here are a few photos. As you can see he is developing his top line, the ribs continue to slowly disappear, and we're rounding out those hindquarters. Woo-hoo!



He went about a week without being worked, and boy was he feeling good. He threw the best temper tantrum I've seen him throw so far on the lunge line. He kicked out, he took off and went around at 300 mph, (still has yet to buck much), pulled the line right out of my hands... that kind of stuff. Needless to say, he was lunged at the trot for about 45 minutes non-stop after that. What a sweet pony I had after that.

We continue to work on bending and leg yielding. After his spa treatment, he had several days off and apparently in that short time span forgot what my leg meant. The next time, I rode with a dressage whip. Guess who got their memory back after that? Well enough in fact that we cantered a bit! It took a lot of work to keep him upright and bending around turns, but he did it! We did big circles to the left and smaller circles to the right.

Red has a few more days off this week because I'm out of town for work, but we'll pick up where we left off next weekend. Until then, enjoy his pretty pictures!

Red's Spa Treatment

So Red got to see the chiropractor/accupuncture doctor! What an interesting process to watch him go over the horse. I had never seen that before. He was poking Red all over and he'd flinch bad every once in a while. So the doctor would do something to "fix" that problem area, go back and touch that area, and he was fine.

His diagnosis was as follows: he has a TMJ reaction on the left, needs teeth floated soon. His left rib 1st posterior was out of whack, so he put that back where it belonged by pulling Red's right front leg all over the place (about wrapped it up over his head) but it worked. He adjusted the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lumbar dorsal right enough to where I heard them crack back into place. Red felt much better right after that. Then he said he has sacral apex motion to the right, but pelvis decreased motion to the left, and he adjusted that area. He did aquapuncture (like acupuncture, but they inject B12) on the "pelvic trigger point bilaterally, GB 27 point on left," I'm guessing fancy words for injected the left pelvis and hip since that was what I saw him do.

Red is going to be off for a few days to recover from his treatment, but then we'll get back to light riding. Below is a pic I took of him with his fancy new ears. He really loves not having flies and gnats in his ears on the trail!