Lesson 6-22-11 Wednesday

Off night for sure.  I started lunging Meika without a lead rope which we had done before with good results.  Not tonight.  She was plugish and slow and didn't want to draw in.  She did it once and then was non compliant after that.  I put the lead rope on her twice after that.  She knows this, I know this but for some reason not tonight.

I did saddle and bridal her on my own tonight so this was a first!  The cinch was alittle loose but other than that I did it right.  Yeah me!

Fred lunged Serenity for a bit then mounted her.  He was tense for whatever reason.  At the same time Meika was giving me hell.  She knows the rails around the pen but tonight decided she didn't want to walk the rail.  I kept having to make her get closer to the rail which made me frustrated at me and her.  I don't think Fred or I were in the right mind set tonight.  More lunging, more training and more patience is in order....next time.

Sorry Amy.  We'll do better next time.  Promise.

6-15-11 Lesson

  I was a little nervous after my last ride with Meika on Sunday.  I'm fortunate to have a wonderful trainer who not only is training Meika but myself as well.  She keeps me grounded, focused and above all calm.

Amy and her gorgeous baby Appaloosa Fiona

  Before our lesson we walked around the round pen and picked up pieces of glass that seem to appear there overnight.  I'm walking and Meika's following.  I stop and bend down to pick up glass and I feel her breath on my back or butt.  It was pretty funny.  I even felt a nibble on my hat.  She can be cute.

  This afternoon I lunged Meika without a lunge line and using only a lunge whip.  Meika was wonderful.  I tried this last time the lunging went well, but the drawing in was 2 times out of 10 tries.  Tonight....4 complete draws.  I took one step back and took the draw stance, patted my thighs and made the clicking sound.  That worked each and every time.  I was so damn proud of her!

  Then we moved on to opening the gate and not letting her charge through it.  We did a lot of whoa, stopping and standing still.  Then moving up a foot and repeating that process.  Finally Amy opened up the fence to the field and Meika and I walked through it.  The main focus was getting her to turn and go past the open fence and continue on.  The first couple of times were rough but I didn't let her get away with it.  We did turn and finally walked passed it to where I wanted her to go.  Ok, got that down.  Hopefully, I can still do this without Amy.  

Sunday's ride on 6-12-11

  Fred and I decided to go riding around the smaller pasture with Meika and Serenity our boarders beautiful paint horse.  Serenity was busy giving Fred a hard time apparent she wasn't used to the bridal after our trainer fixed it the right way.  They had all the bits going the opposite way for some reason.  We decided that she probably needs a broken snaffle bit vs the leverage bit she is currently using.
  So Meika in the mean time is having her own set of issues.  I'm anxious for some reason.  I tried 3 different times to back off and just chill.  I now have mounted her 3 ocassions and dismounted when I didn't feel comfortable.  Meika is feeding on all of this.  Poor baby she has such a neurotic mommy.  Damn shame!
  I finally gave up but not wanting to end on a sour note, I led her to the round pen and mounted her again.  She just didn't want to listen to me.  I ended up letting Fred ride her which probably wasn't a good idea for reasons I won't go into.  She is my horse and she needs to know and listen to me is the bottom line.
  There are days when I just love her and see us riding off into the sunset at a ripe old age....then there are other days when I want to sell her on Craigslist and buy something I can ride.  Not sure what that is...lol

Water baby 5-11-11

Ok, not exactly but Amy did get in her the water and not just once.  A couple of time she was even playing with the water.  It was so cute.

Mother's day ride

  Today Amy came over to go for a ride with Meika and I.  We still have flood waters at the end of our road and she wanted to see if she could get Fiona in the water.  Fiona loved it and even went for a swim with Amy.  


  Meika was a different story.  Amy doesn't think she has ever been on a trail ride in her life.  Meika didn't seem comfortable with following or leading.  She also seemed to have barn sour going on even tho we don't have a barn per say.  She had a real problem with my neighbors driveways, one of which has horses.  Both driveways connect to their horses so either one was good for her.  I would try and turn her one way and kick her to go forward and turn her again and kick her and she would turn and back up.  I was becoming flustered and frustrated to say the least.  That didn't help matters.  I finally got her moving with the help of Amy.  We walked back up towards my place and turned in, Meika started trotting back home.  As she was turning in I started turning her back around.  I did this several times, the last time she hit the electric fence and got shocked.  Amy said she high stepped out of the wire and then did a sharp turn with her backside.  That's when I slid off still holding the reins.  I told her good cowgirl up.

This old cowgirl is nursing left butt cheek and right clavicle tonight.

All in due time....baby steps until then

4-29-2011 Lesson "Cowgirl Up"

Tonights lesson was both good and bad.  It seemed like all the animals were stirred up for whatever reason.  One horse and one cow both in season.  A 2 year old colt realizing his manhood...yikes!  Lets throw in a ground pen built on unlevel land where Jadie managed to squeeze out of during his training.  Everyone seemed to be having a day.  But, like Amy says "stop making excuses, they will do what you ask of them"

Meika did fairly well in the round pen.  It was a different story outside of the pen.   We traded places and I rode Meika outside of the round pen and Amy took Jadie into the round pen to start lunging him.  At first things were going fine.  She gave me a bit of trouble when I asked her to turn around and go.
She kept giving me trouble around the hitching post.  I would turn her and she would act like the  only way she wanted to turn was into the hitching post.  I really think she had had enough and was letting me know.  Still no excuse.

I was too busy being the bossy one, the one where you will go for me only frustrating both of us.

I started turning her one way and then the opposite way and then for good measure tried backing her up.  She had enough of me and layed down.  I first thought she was stumbling but no, she went down!  I quickly got off of her thinking she was going to roll but she didn't.

Amy came over and asked if she could borrow her.  She wanted to make sure we didn't end on that sour note. I gladly handed her the reins.  She and Meika went for a walk down the road where she behaved quite nicely after that.  She brought her back and we unsaddled her and let her go eat with the rest of them.

Meika sunning back in March

Flood waters putting a damper on things

Horse training for today has been cancelled.  We have had so much rain that we now how a lake in our backyard.

Our neighbors next door are going to have to move their horses if the flood level gets any higher.

Looks like we are having a dry spell from now until Sunday and then it starts all over again.

Our road is flooded out towards the north of us

This has been the wettest spring I've ever seen here.  We've had 10 inches of rain in the past 4 days, plus about 4  tornado warnings so far.  Very scary considering it's only April!

The flood in our backyard