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!

Look Mom, I'm NOT a Giraffe!

The last video I posted of me riding was from May 24th I believe. The good news that that we have come a long way since then, though we are not even close to being "there" yet. Red no longer cleans my ears with his, especially thanks to the addition of the running martingale I added for these last 2 rides. We are also now using the proper size bit and a Vespucci bridle with a figure-8 (thanks, Mom!). Yesterday was the first day he wasn't resisting the figure-8. So, baby steps. We are getting there slowly but surely!



As you'll see in this video compared to the previous ones, we don't throw our shoulder in as bad or as frequently, we yield to the leg a lot more than before, and we are slowly learning how to carry our head. These things are far from mastered, but they are improvements! I'm very happy with his progress. After all, he's got his first beginner novice event to attend next spring hehehe ;)

Enjoying the days of summer

Here is an example of just one of the many storms to come by this summer. What a great picture, two things I love in this world: ponies and storms :)

I hopped on Red bareback the other day while he ate grass, just to see what he would do. A pic is below. As you may have guessed, he didn't care. He wanted to go for a walk on the trail but finally relaxed and accepted the fact it was eat time, not ride time.

I also took Red all the way around the trail by himself for the first time this past weekend. He did great. He froze once when we saw several horses in a large pasture, but he got going again with a little encouragement.



But yesterday, Red and I had an exciting experience on the trail. I went with the neighbor girl and thank goodness, we had 2 out of control horses on the trail with screaming kids on them come flying by.

We heard screaming behind us and we thought it was coming from a house. Well finally cresting the hill behind us come these 2 horses at a full gallop. There are kids on them (~13 yrs old) and they are screaming, legs wrapped around the horses as hard as they can, leaning forward... all the wrong signals for "STOP". I yell to my neighbor to turn our horses around and face them, heels down, and grab mane. These guys fly by and our horses rear and spin around but that was about it. They were really good considering. So one of these kids grabs the reins of the other horse and she ends up getting pulled off her horse... what a mess. She was hurt, found out today she bruised her ribs. We walked her home where the horses were waiting. Red did not like being around those horses. We had to keep moving because he was very very nervous around them. After we got past them, he calmed right down again.

I thought "oh no" as I'm on this green TB, off the track since January, as these guys come galloping at us. But Red did well. Had I been by myself I don't think things would have gone as well so thank goodness for that.

Hot Summer Nights

I went out to ride last night at 7:30 pm and it was still 84 degrees out. Good thing I don't mind the heat!

Red has been full of himself recently. I increased the amount of senior feed he was getting because his weight gain plateaued. I went out to feed yesterday morning and he was just rip roaring around the pasture. Kicking. Bucking. He was feeling good. So I knew I was going to ride that evening.

I lunged him before I rode to get some of that extra energy out of his system. As usual, he was a good boy. We just worked at the walk. I focused on my equitation, contact, getting him to carry his head right, a little bending, inside/outside leg work, etc. As a reward we went for a walk on the trail. I let him trot up the hill and it kicked his weak lil butt! He was huffing and puffing when we got to the top. Then we walked back home on a loose rein.

When I got back home, the neighbor was tacking up. I asked if she wouldn't mind if I came in with Red while she rode. Red hasn't stood in a ring yet with a horse trotting, cantering, and jumping around him. I wondered how much he could care. He fell asleep in the arena! :-D

I gave Red's mane a trim the other day. It was getting a little too long and wild. Now he looks like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb & Dumber. My poor boy. Neither of us can wait until it grows out!

Kelli's Visit!

My friend Kelli came out to visit Red and I on Sunday! It's the first time she's seen Red since I've had him. She rode him and got to see some of his quirks and she gave me a few pointers with regard to his training and his vices, which was great. Then she watched me ride and she gave me a hand with my equitation, and boy do I have a lot to work on. Head up, shoulders back, elbows at my side, let my elbows bend, watch my wrists, sit on my rear correctly, don't pinch with the knees, pretend someone is pulling me down by my knees, heels down, ask with my leg and not with my heel... crap I better get practicing!

Joe at TBFriends wanted us to get lots of pictures for him so a few are below. We had a good time and I hope we can do it again soon!

Me trying to get a pic of all 3 of us. Not easy.

Kelli riding Red

Red and I

Cheese!!!

Another Dressage Lesson

Well, it was time for another Dressage lesson! Since my last lesson we have worked a lot on leg yielding and it really helped us in this lesson. I needed a reminder on how to properly ask Red to carry himself in the frame he needs to be in. He was been giving me a lot of resistance but I also think I haven't been asking "properly". So it was time for a refresher.

We did a lot of work on my dressage equitation which felt great. Over the past several years, I have ridden several horses and had very few lessons so my equitation has become more of a survival technique rather than proper. We are slowly working on fixing that. Improving my equitation also allowed me to communicate with Red easier. Just a few short minutes into the lesson, Red was going better and I felt better. He's getting there, he gets pieces of what is suppose to happen but is still struggling with the big picture which is fine, he is still very green. What's great though is that he is trustworthy and he enjoys being out and he wants to please.

After the lesson, I walked him over a tiny cross-rail jump the neighbor had. He stepped right over it. I came back over and then asked him to do it at the trot. He snaked a little before the tiny jump but popped right over, and boy does he jump round. I asked him to do it again and he went straight and did it beautifully. He got lots of love and praise after doing it right and that was the end of our day!