Trail Rides

I've been able to work off Taunie's board over the summer. The barn manager at my stable was kind enough to let me train her horses in return for free outside board. I haven't had much time for Taunie because of this, so when I get her out we just end up going on a trail ride. Its sometimes a chore to hop off your final training horse just to climb aboard your own horse to train. So we've been taking trail rides off and on.

Taunie has become an ok trail mount. She's confident, calm, and she even lead the first time out. She HATES water, but I already know that. She hates it so much that when she peed while she was hooked onto the wall, she stretched out as far as her halter would allow her so she wouldn't step in it!

Just starting this week I'll be able to do more arena work with her, but last week marked the 1 week plan to trail ride every Thursday with a friend. That way Taunie will get out at least once a week, and I can have my pal-around time with a friend.

This was just after last week's trail ride...haha...winter scrubs make her look so ugly and big-headed!


Don't you love cellphone pics?

Anyways, today marked the first day that Taunie used a bit. I've been using a hackamore with her and she really loved it. I decided, much to Tonton's dismay, that since she's english now (by her choice!) she has to get used to a bit.

So today we did a lot of uh...circles. We had to. The outside arena was being used for turn-out because the inside horses just CAN'T ruin the front pasture when the ground is soft! So we had to use the inside arena...along with 5 other people. 2 of which were older riders, the remaining 3 were kids who were running around on their horses and screaming.

This is a tiny, tiny arena. Ugh.

But we managed. At the end I had to get a little firmer with her, but she came around. Mare-tude and all.

We have an issue with the canter. She insists that she shouldn't be made to canter with me on her back.

We'll work through that tick tomorrow.

The Summer In Pictures

I haven't posted in a long, long time. Lots of things have been going on and I've been steadily making no progress at all with it. Taunie has been making slow progress because I've had very little time to work with her, but since you've been out of the loop for half the year, I'll update you all in pictures.

Sometime early spring:
Tonic's first time under saddle

5/11/09
I had my baby. Aspen Rae!

6/9/09
Taunie's first time being ridden



Discovered a baby picture...aww!


Switch to western sometime mid-summer


Skip to fall foliage

Found out on a whim that she could jump this pretty easily



10/25/09
Switched her back to english

Let The Training Begin

I've waited since...November, I think. Yeah. Maybe November. And finally the training has begun!

We moved to PA and a month and a half later we finally hauled Taunie down. The haul was very uneventful and so was the arrival. I got a few crappy pictures which I won't display because...well, they are crap. My camera kept dieing because my batteries were lame. I've had that camera for about 3 years and its from Walmart so its about to get a boot stomping one day soon as it is.

So anyways, she arrived on Tuesday and we tossed her out into the field. She wandered over to the one single horse who has been dubbed "The Weakest Link" by the rest of the herd and made friends.

I let her settle for a day and today I went up there to work her. Trent won't let me bring her in from the field or take her back out into it. He doesn't want me to be jumped on or something I guess, so thats all his job. We're finding out just how much she HATES mud. Did a Hail Mary leap across some mud at Trent who just about had her ass for it. She's either going to make me a really crappy trail horse or we're gonna rock over liverpools.

We get into the arena and we start our first tieing lesson. She's 4 and doesn't know how to tie. I think it went decently well. No explosions. Not a lot of confusion. By the end she seemed to realise what was going on with it and to me, thats a step up. So we groomed all that shedding hair off of her...or as much as I could handle, and I took her for a walk. We worked on heeding. Something she vaguely remembered from a day or two over winter. Heeding is basically leading the horse without any contact on the leadline. The horse will move based on your body pressures. Turn, stop, go, back. You don't need to put any pressure on the line to achieve any of this. The result is a much lighter, much more responsive horse when being led (which will transfer over to lunging) and an easier horse to lead and control when a situation gets out of hand.

We did about 15 minutes of heeding before I started pushing her out onto the lunge line. I was a little hesitant to start lunging her because I know of some "explosive lungers" who think the only thing the person wants them to do is bolt around them in circles when lunging. I'm about 100 times weaker than I was last summer so I don't think I could handle one of those right now. Not very gracefully anyways. Luckily someone had lunged her correctly before I bought her because she didn't bolt off in circles. I asked her to trot by raising the lunge whip slightly and picking up my own feet a few times and she trot. Halting was a little harder since theres a lot more static between horse hand handler with 10 feet between them instead of when the handler is right beside the horse, but she did a few good halt transitions when I asked.

We turned directions and she did even better on her "stupid" side. Some horses do better on that side and some horses don't. I don't think she's a horse to be able to think of 2 or 3 things at once though, so when we turned she was glued on to me. She didn't do anything by herself unless I asked for it, where as in the other direction, her mind would wander. She was much more at ease going her "good" way, which was left. But going right is a bit more of a challenge for her.

Happy that I achieved at least a little bit today, I decided to end the session. Its a brand new place. She's only ever been inside the arena once before when she arrived so I didn't expect her to be entirely focussed. She gave me what I wanted though and for that I can't complain.

Trent picked out her feet because "I shouldn't be bending over like that" (pssst, I'm 9 months pregnant now) and she did relatively well with it. She challenged him once but it was no big deal. I brushed more of that disgusting winter coat off of her as well before I handed her off to Trent to take back into the field. She nearly plowed him over on their way there because of a muddy spot and really didn't seem to care that he was trying to punch her in the gut to get her off of him. Hahaha...but anyways, yeah. Heeding will fix that. She'll be more aware of personal space by this time next week and won't barge in so often to be carried over water.

But until then, it looks like Trent will be carrying her over parts she doesn't like unless I give him a whip and tell him to "have at it" if she gets in his space. I might just do that, to be honest. I just need to get one! Sometimes you just have to raise the excitement level once and the problem is forever gone.

I'm going back up there tomorrow. I had it planned that I'd go up there every other day, but Trent says he'll be out that way on "business" (yeah, whatever!) and said he could drop me off if I wanted.

Sure. Why not?

Oh, The Mud

Does anyone remember the My Little Pony movie where baby Lickity Split (or something) ran away and a witch made a batch of Smooze that would take over the pony's valley if not stopped?


Smooze is this awesome gray/brown stuff with popping eyes that stretches out across the land and covers everything in its destructive path.


In the real world, we call that "Mud Season"

Mud season is the root of all that is evil. I wish it would crawl back to the pit in which it came and never return. Unlike the lucky souls who reside in make-believe pony valley, mud can't be overcome by force of Flutter Pony wing power like Smooze. You just have to outwait mud, because mud isn't going to go away until rainy spring turns into a summer drought.

Taunie is in mud up to her knees. I'm in Pennsylvania waiting for her coggins to come back, and I haven't seen my horse in a month (have you noticed there have been no updates?). Trent took her to the vets on Monday for a health certificate and her coggins. I made sure that he promised to clean her up before he took her. This isn't just for the vet's benefit, but I'm so picky about my horse's appearance that its somehow become a compulsive habit. I think its from being a foxhunting/polo groom. So 3 hours away, I had to trust that Trent groomed her up. I made him take a picture of her for proof and low and behold, there she was...all black, no Smooze present.

I'm impatiently waiting for that stupid coggins to come back so we can finally ship her out of that dry-lot and into a boarding facility. $100 pasture board with an inside and outside arena. Miles of trails behind the barn. I first took lessons there and so I know the BO very well. I'm so excited to have her moved out to somewhere I can finally work her. Ontop of that, I'll be thrilled above anything just to get her out of that dry lot. Its too small and I'm perpetually afraid that she'll get her foot caught in the barbed wire.

Yay for an upgrade!

At least I know the coggins will come back in the next 10 days.

The mud, however, is here to stay for some time. Making anything you want to do in nice weather almost impossible unless you're ok with losing a boot in 2ft deep Smooze.

Just To Update

Taunie's reaction to seeing a beagle baby:

Morgan's first trip to the barn:

I really have nothing new to say (ooh, exciting) so I'm just blogging to blog now.

The bf (Trent) and I might be moving soon. Far, far away from his mother's house. And while I'm very much in favor of this, my pony is living at her house. I won't be able to see her as often as I do now and thats a bummer. I'll actually have to board her somewhere and pay someone for it! Oh the agony!

On the brightside of paying someone $300 a month to feed my horse, I'll actually have a place to work and train her. I'm actually looking forward to that. I mean, I know I can't do much right now. But just getting her out, putting down a firm foundation for heeding and getting her used to the saddle would be an excellent step forward.

I'll explain the process of "heeding" some other time. You know. When I actually feel like explaining myself. I'm a crappy trainer in the aspect that I don't like to explain what I'm doing. Just trust me and in 3-4 sessions, you'll get the idea when you see the progress. But in my defence, there -is- always progress. I just hate explaining how I get there.

So we'll save that for another time. I'll probably just end up copying and pasting the theory from someone else who knows the procedure because I'm just that damn lazy. I'm totally ok with that.

I took Trent's beagle puppy, Morgan, out to the barn yesterday. She was on my heels the whole time, complaining to be picked up. That poor dog. Trent got her to use for hunting rabbits, but she's barely touched the ground since we've had her. Some hunting dog this lap pup will be!

Anyways, so I decided to crush her reality and take her to the barn. You know. Make her walk through snow and whatnot. Taunie is actually rather good with dogs even though I doubt she's had any experience with them. The other week I had out lost and found puppy, Holly, out at the barn with me while I was doing some drills with Taunie. Taunie was fairly interested in her. Craned neck, blowing through her nostrals, ears up. But she didn't spook. The puppy came running over to dodge inbetween my feet and Taunie's feet while we were working, and Taunie, although a little confused, just tried to step over her best she could.

So now Taunie sees Morgan. A much smaller, less fuzzier version of Holly. She cranes her neck over the side of the fence and raises her ears to her. Interest. Not fear. I think thats what I love about my little mare. She's very interested in things. So much that she learns how to deal with new experiences on her own purely out of curiosity for it. She hasn't spooked once. Of course I haven't done a lot with her. But from what I've thrown at her, she's shown that she's more curious than she is afraid of the world. I love that.

So uh...yeah. Thats that. I'm done typing. I'm gonna try to put up some photos, but I can't promise you of where they'll end up. So just deal with where they're put.

Shack Of Shame

Fucking hell. This new computer won't let me place pictures where I want them. So you'll have to deal with them bunched together for now. I finally got a picture of that small shack/barn thing that I keep talking about...oh! And my beautiful water trough!

Still no water heater, though I'm continuously promised that there will be one. I really don't care. Its not my water I'm wasting.

The pasture is actually larger than that, but I decided not to center on the other side of it since theres really nothing there. I'm so gosh darn proud of myself for helping to build that little wall on the run-in. The boys did all the work, really. But my opinion actually mattered in it's raising, so I'm happy. I'm kind of torn over the structure though. I'm not sure whether I truly like it or not. Its big enough for two horses to squeeze by eachother, but if one of them has a fit (and I've held my breath once or twice) they're either knocking into the support beam inside or bouncing off the wall. They don't have the entire width of the inside of that thing to move around in. Its split in two for feed storage.

It keeps out water for the most part, unless it lets it in. And when water gets in there, watch out. It doesn't drain. It's like muddy soup up to their knees after that. Really kind of gross. Luckily the only one who really has to stand in it is Dusty, who really doesn't give a damn. Thats where his feed bucket is, and he'll stand in fire as long as theres grain being shoveled into his mouth.

Taunie hates mud. I realized this a few weeks ago when everything was gooshy and gross. She'd leap over the indent in the pasture where the water drains through. Big old leap. And then she'll try and leap over the entrance mud to get into the shed. Again, I hold my breath and pray "Watch your head!" but she hasn't smashed anything yet. I can't help but think "Damn, she's gonna be a bitch on the trail" but watching her leap over those large patches of yucky mud, I also ponder what sort of jumper she'll make me one day. Liverpools here we come!

Unfortunately I haven't been in there much since my black eye. Call it caution. I dunno. I see the the mud they sink 3 inches into, or the frozen mud they scramble over, and I just can't help but pass off my next inside visit for a much better day where the ground isn't so challenging. My niece came over the other day and I led her into the shed during feeding time to pet Taunie while she ate. We have a good picture of that. I'll probably never get it because my older sister is lame. But if I do end up snatching it, I'll post it up. Taunie was an angel. She reached out of her grain bucket and craned her neck down at my niece in curiosity. My niece loves the horses. I can't wait to teach her some things.

Speaking of grain buckets...Taunie has become lead mare over night. One day she was waiting last to be fed, and the next day she downright mowed Shiloh over to be fed second. Nasty expressions were exhchanged but Shiloh backed down. Taunie has taken Shiloh's grain bucket, and Shiloh now needs to be fed from a pan on the ground. Haha. Taunie grew a pair.

Graffiti to Tonic

Oh, what good news!

I've been flushing Graffiti's eye out for a few days now. Sunday I spent at least 5 minutes staring at that eye. Just staring at it. I couldn't figure out whether it was getting better or if it was just my imagination.

Monday? It was clear as day. Bright eyed, open to the world. No more irritations. No more squinting.

Score! I was going to call the vet on Monday to see about getting some eye cream, but it looks like whatever was in there had flushed itself out and she's fine and dandy now. I'm awesome like that.

We got our water trough in. I'm delighted about that. For years Trents mom had used an old bathtub for a trough. I didn't really care when it was just the two other horses in there. But once I brought my filly in, I couldn't help but eye it with hatred. I didn't like that old bathtub. It was gross. Dirty. Sharp edges. Dangerous. I hated it. But Sunday was the day we got a real watering trough. One of those big black plastic ones. Its so shiney and beautiful!

Ontop of that she's looking into buying a water heater! A water heater! The same thing she denied me when I asked a few weeks ago. I'm so excited. I know she's not doing it for me. She'd doing it to upgrade her own little farm-thing. But it still feels like Christmas anyways. A real water trough and a heater! Woot! My dreams are coming true.

Lets skip to something different. Trent doesn't like what I named my filly. Even though I named her Graffiti, he just can't bring himself to call her anything but "Emmy", the name she came with. I hate this name. I had trouble with a big gray mare named Emmy. The horse was wonderful, but there was some controversy between me and another rider regarding that horse and it just left a sour taste in my mouth. So I can't call her Emmy. I just can't. However, Trent can't get into the habit of calling that horse Graffiti either. So after some long, hard thought, I decided to rename her. It took me SUCH a long time to come up with that Graffiti name. I think I'll still keep it as a show name. Maybe add onto it. But for now? I had to rename her. So my little black filly goes by "Taunie" now, which is short for Tonic. Trent likes this name. It's simple to remember. Easy to say. And he's been using it.

Showing isn't but a ways off right now so I have plenty of time to fit the words "tinoc" and "graffiti" in the same phrase for a show title. I'm not in any hurry.

I know I promised pictures, but I can't deliver. My camera has no batteries left and I haven't been able to get any.

In the meantime, you can stare at my new puppy for a while

Far From Frightful

The weather outside is amazing. Warm, sunny, no clouds. Hardly any wind. I hope it stays like this forever. The temperature is simple amazing.

And the mud has dried up. Way to set off the New Year!

In my last blog I mentioned that Graffiti's eye didn't want to open during feed. I didn't notice any heat, swelling or draining that day so I let it be after investigating it a little further. For the most part she'd have that eye open and was looking around. But she'd also keep it closed which was a bit of an alarm for me. I'm getting into the habit of panicking at the small stuff, especially things that involve my horse. So when this turned up, I kept it on my mind to keep watch over it, but I wouldn't let myself get worked up either.

Last night I went to feed and I noticed some yellow goop gathering near her tear ducts and there was a trail running from her eye. So she had started draining. Perfect. I grabbed her and brushed away the goopy eye buggers and pried her eye open. There was nothing inside of it. Again, she was using it fine. It was slightly more squinted than the other eye, but she wasn't in so much discomfort that she wasn't using it at all. When I got home I asked Trent about it and he said that he had noticed it earlier but she wouldn't let him catch her for him to check it out. He thinks she poked it on a stick in the pasture, and although I think that has some good reasoning behind it, I also have to add that I think something blew into it from the harsh windstorm we had just the other night.

He tells me not to panic, of course. And I go into planning what I'm going to do about this. Trent is so relaxed about this kind of stuff that it helps me relax about the things I really shouldn't fret over but do anyways due to my annoying pregnancy hormones. I swear. They cause more anxiety than a cat thrown into a dog fighting pit. He tells me to just let it be, it'll heal itself. Of course I just can't let it be. I have to fuss.

So this morning I drive down to the drugstore and grab an eyedropper after feed. Feed went well. Nothing out of the ordinary is ever happening there anymore. Everyone has settled down into their ow routine. So after I come back I grab a bucket of hot water, a wash rag and the eyedropper and catch Graffiti. She doesn't want to come out of the shed. I do the backyard horseman thing and trudge over the dirt thats still a bit wet and sinkable and turn around before pulling on the lead. Finally, after a 5 minute tug-of-war, she leaps over the dirt and comes to me. I hold a hot compress to her eye for a bit and then flush it out with that warm water using the eyedropper. She doesn't seem to appriciate this, but she doesn't do any heavy protesting anyways. Afterwards she looked a little worse off, but thats because her eye was all wet and sorry looking. She still uses it regularly. Still watches things. Still keeps her eye open for the majority of the time. Its not hot or swollen. Just draining and looks a bit irritated. I think she'll be ok. I just want to make sure.

I also did some heeding exercises with her. By about 10 minutes she was stopping right when I stopped without me having to touch her. There was no pressure on the the leadrope. She just stopped off of my body language. I also just had to lean forward and reinforce every once in a while with my stick to get her walking again. We were making such great progress that I felt like trying to trot her, but by that point the puppy we found at Christmas was being chased out of the pasture by Shiloh and Shiloh was causing all sorts of havok. So I thought that was the end of our training session for the day.I didn't do any "space" exercises...and by all means, I thought I'd have to. She's a space invader (hahaha) but she doesn't know she's doing it. By the time our little heeding session was done, she was respecting my space a lot better and didn't bother to come into it.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her eye and I'm hoping tomorrow's weather is the same as today so we could do some more stuff. She seemed to really enjoy the attention. And who wouldn't? I'm awesome!

I'll also try to get some more pictures by tomorrow. My camera's batteries ran dry and I just have to find replacements before I snap anymore shots.