Oh Merry sounds like Barbie has you trained!!
I can hear her now-“Hmmm… The more noise I make the bigger break I get from working!”
Awwwwe!!! How great that show sounds for Tigger! Merry and Beezer are the best team, from what I can tell! 
We canter, I ride like crap, she evades the bit…what a beautiful moment. 
.:Erin B #2:.
“When you get to the end of all the light you know and it’s time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught to fly.”
Oh goodness Merry I’m starting to get the feeling that dear Barbie really doesn’t have any hunter-ring aspirations! Perhaps its all the rugged cowboys in tight jeans that she likes!
Can’t help but laugh, don’t think I’ve ever seen a Hano in western tack!
(Rather ironic really, as my filly is an entirely western-bred QH. I got a really good deal on her because her breeders thought she was too tall, lanky, and too big a mover to make it in the reining ring. I have had more people ask me if she’s an OTTB than I can even count!)
I dunno, Wty, if Hammie will ever be a big horse in anyone’s eyes but his own, LOL!
He probably is lulling me into a false sense of security (and accomplishment) just so I can solidify my dreams… and he can squash it at the next show. The jumps just are not too interesting to him. He’s such a total tourist as he goes around the ring, then he kinda goes, “Oh, a jump now,” then he’s back to la-la-la-la-la, just lookin’ to get in trouble.
Duffster: Personally, I love the mouse-color. But I so don’t “do” body clipping anymore. Fortunately, we don’t need to unless we’re doing Indio… which I’m not this year.
Bumpkin, Elliot is a very handsome man. With that amount of athletic ability, he’s gonna think the long stirrup division is just 8 cavaletti!
DMK, I’ve had those trail rides, too. We seem to have no problems with the overloaded trash bins on the street, but spying a water meter coverplate on the ground? 
LaurieB: Just ask Beezer about her experience with leg yields. Tigger + leg yield = rubber band horse.
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
Pam, LOL! Ah, yeah, I hack in my backyard everyday in Vogels and TS breeches. Actually, I snagged that photo from a magazine shoot, ha-ha!
I’m so cheap; I never pay for professional photos at shows unless it’s some sort of big fandango. I shall have to rectify that.
As for being long from knee to hip, sigh. I once had a trainer tell me, “You have a great leg, but it’s this odd shape, so you have to develop your own style.” Gee, thanks.
“Charter Member of the Baby Greenie Support Group of North America”
Chef, I got the same hat, too! It is indeed quite comfy.
Hammie has been behaving himself lately. Can it be that he is maturing? Could he be growing up? Could he be luring me into thinking he’s gonna be a “STAR” this year, only to crush my hopes with his first class? Naaahhhh…
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
I know that horse LaurieB!!
I used to think that if I let Robbie run into enough trees, he would choose to go around them. I think not. He was nicknamed “Baby Huey” for good reason
Beezer you never bring down the thread. You always make us laugh…We’ll lighten up, we promise. Just worried bout our comrade in pre-greenies…
My little man was colicy last night. Went up for my lesson and brought the hubby up last night so he could see our progress. Not only did I have to reset his shoe because it needed it, but he started doing a wierd stance. He kept trying to park out. Would have made a Morgan jealous.LOL
I thought at first he just wanted to pee and was being a little bashful, (not like my horse has ever been bashful). So Banamine it is, and a short time later we had poop.
I would like to say, I love my coach. She has all the good drugs (horse drugs, that is) and shares the wealth. Nothing is more valuable then a coach who knows what they are doing. If she didn’t I would have had to wait for the vet.
But he is back to his cranky self again. The first time with a particular horse is always the worst.
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Lord Helpus lately? It’s been awhile… <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I was just thinking about this last night. Actually came on here to see if any of you had heard from her. I hope all is going well.
Beezer & Merry- How’d the horse go?
.:Erin B #2:.
You cannot stop us, you cannot bring us down,
Never give up, we go on and on.
The good news: Hammie was actually the very best he’s been yet. Got every single lead change. Just spooked at a pile of jumps on the ground outside the arena, so I got whiplash attempting to re-straighten him so I could still make the 5-stride line. And yes, he did pitch with every lead change, but hey, at least he wasn’t kicking out to my leg! So I pinned in the hunter rounds, even with the pitching fits. But then I won eq/over fences (my ace in the hole class). 
Other than that, it was the HORSE SHOW FROM HELL! 
I mean, it had to be about 105degrees. So poor Hammie was tied to the trailer in the baking sun. I decided to ask the owner of this TB racetrack facility, where the show was held, if I could just borrow a stall for about an hour so Hammie could pee. Unlike me, he does not pee in the trailer. I couldn’t figure out why this smarmy Latino fellow, who owns the place, was like coming on to me. Not only did he offer me the use of the stall, but he alluded to some form of payment since my husband was not around. Then, while I was pondering why I was being hit on, Beezer points out that I am wearing a baseball cap that is emblazoned with:
“SEDUCER… Tournament Bait”
I had grabbed the first baseball cap I saw out of my dad’s collection before we left. I didn’t realize it was the one with the logo of my brother’s fishing worm company.
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
Not so hopeful of showing hunters after today…
Ash went with my trainer for a lesson at her trainer’s today. It had been planned for last week, but cancelled, so this time we hauled
him and Beeko (another TB) up there. The trainer had seen Ash before --she doesn’t love him, but doesn’t totally hate him. Or she didn’t :-(…
Ash was left in after finishing breakfast and his buddies all went out. Not good. He HATES being left inside – probably makes him feel like
he’s back on the track or something. So he was very anxious and hyper and had circled his stall to a lather. He trailered well, but he was
still a snortball with very little attention when he arrived at the farm.
He was definitely not at his best, and I have to say I don’t think my trainer was, either. She hacked him around while we waited for her trainer, who was her usual 45 minutes late. Fortunately, I’d cleared the day so that was OK with me. When she arrived she had my trainer hack him and try to keep him more on the outside rein to keep him focused, which I certainly agreed with. He kept hollowing on her and just didn’t go as well as I
know he can. When she lightened her seat and rode more from leg he didn’t hollow so much, but overall he wasn’t a lovely picture.
After doing a little crossrail they moved to a gymnastic. Trot pole to small cross rail bounce to one stride cross rail. The first time through, Ash came through the trot pole I thought way too slowly. Yup --he stopped in front of the first X. Just slowed and halted. The next time through I still didn’t think he was quite ready, and he went over the first element but ran out of the second X in the bounce. So we dropped that one to a pile of poles, then he went right though. But it wasn’t pretty. He did eventually go through the whole thing, with the second X set way up and the 3rd element set to a 2’6" vertical. And he looked good over those two parts of it.
Then they cantered over a couple of jumps – again OK, but not lovely. He went over the blue astroturf covered barrels and rail just fine,
though, and even had a nice jump or two. The trainer noticed how very much more difficult he is to the right, and my trainer said she was working
her butt off to keep him cantering (maybe NOW she’ll believe me when I tell her I’m working!). We ended when he got one very nice jump over the
barrels.
But…when she went to walk him out of the ring mounted and I forgot to mention how much he HATES puddles. There was one at the in-gate, which has a signficant hill sloping down. He came to the crest of the hill, saw the puddle, and balked. She put leg on, but he surprized her totally by jumping the puddle sideways from a standstill, and she came off. She landed on her side and says she’s OK, but I’m sure she’ll be bruised tomorrow from it. I feel really badly, but that’s so often how
they do get the better riders off – that unexpected out of the blue stuff.
She took Beeko out after that and hacked him. He want pretty well, and jumped rather nicely. But her trainer really hated him – he’s got no
stride and he’s hot. Essentially she said he had “no quality” – a bit harsh, I think, but he IS very short strided.
We discovered that while Ash likes to canter over the jumps long, Beeko will go through so tiny he’s always on the half stride. For ex: Ash will
jump a bounce as a huge oxer; Beeko will try to make it a one stride. Our homework is to try Ash in a rubber bit to see if he stretches more easily in that and to do lots of trot spirals and then canter ground poles to get him to adjust. When he’s asked to adjust right now, he’ll hollow sometimes (not sure if he does it that badly with me – I’ll have to ask) and that messes up his striding and looks like crap.
And after all that fuss, Ash finally dropped his head and started grazing after I rubbed him down. He got so relaxed, in fact, that as I was watching Beeko go I heard and odd sound and glanced over to see no horse at the end of my lead rope, and followed the rope down to see Ash merrily rolling around itching himself. Why couldn’t he relax like that BEFORE he went?!
So, overall, not the best day ever. Ash looked like, well, a plug, not a show horse at all. He exhibited pretty much no talent and very commonplace movement at best. Oh well, good thing I don’t jump high since he didn’t look like he had the talent today, and the As weren’t in my future anyway.
Well… 
Here’s my favorite passage from Steinkraus’ “Reflections on Riding and Jumping”:
“…what you are trying to do with a truly difficult horse is to create a little island of compliance in the midst of its ocean of resistance, and then gradually enlarge it. You cannot always achieve it if you are always picking at flaws and never rewarding…”
DMK, I so envy you with your Riverman. That’s a wonderful sire and I’m sure you have a great youngster.
Big Dreams: We all feel your pain! How do I know Hammie is still growing? He barely fits in his custom-made blanket anymore!
Today, I must lock horns with the Barbie Cow once again. sigh
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
Good news, bad news? master_talley? That was a tough call. Maybe this will all work out. Theres plenty of room at CTETA. And lots of open space to ride in. Plus being out in a huge pasture will literally make him better to be around.
Like another poster said, DMK is right on the money. Nothing works better than going forward! A good pat and move forward, leg on, letting them know, you can do this. They do come around. Maybe slow, but they do figure it out.
Yeehaw aka RumoursFollow… YOU REALLY HAVE GONE WESTERN!!!
Your paint looks lovely, I’m guessing he’s gonna stay a western pony? or do you have other plans for him? what’s his breeding?
Merry and Quinn…Thanks for the replies! I would like to see her in a french link eventually, a little bit nicer than a plain old snaffle. I’ll give the happy mouth rubber mullenmouth a try, I’ve heard its easier for them to start with.
Thanks again!
I don’t believe Tigger will be heading off to another show in the near future. He’d probably suffer a psychotic break.
Ah, the rain… We do need enough to knock down the dust. How about 1/4 inch? Can we order just that much? 
Okay, here’s my forgetfulness problem with the Barbster: She absolutely cannot canter straight going to the right. I have it fixed at the walk, sitting trot and working trot. She moves off my leg nicely. But man, at the canter, she hollows out and throws her shoulder in and her haunches out. Right now I correct it by lots of downward transitions, fixing it at the sitting trot, then going back to the canter until it falls apart, then back to the sitting trot…
Is there any hope, or will the Barbie Cow forever go like the Barbie Crab? I swear, sometimes I don’t know which half of the horse I’m riding. The rear end is trying to pass up the front end!
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
DMK, was that the Blue Jeans and Chaps show? I wish I’d known you were there! I stopped by for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon because my trainer was judging the Hunter ring.
Keeper, I agree with Merry that your horse will let you know when he’s ready to do more. With my mare we went reeeally slowly because each new step was so darn exciting (young TB mare ). We started jumping her when she turned four and stayed over poles, cross rails and really low stuff for at least six months, but most people move along a lot faster than that.
For me yesterday was one odd day, including the scariest horse related incident I have ever been a part of. I’m sitting here with a stiff neck (probably whiplash) knowing that, all in all, I got off really lucky.
The day started with me Tess taking out on the trails, and into a big empty pasture behind my barn manager’s house where we’ve been many times before. She was being her usual silly, spooky trail self which never really bothers either of us(I didn’t buy her for her trail going skills ). We got to the top of a hill where there’s always a barking dog and where, yesterday, there was also incredibly loud Mexican music playing as well as a lady raking leaves.
So Tess did the jig and spook thing and I brought her around again to make her go by nicely. On the third pass, she was so calm, so quiet, that I got started talking to the lady about the nice weather when all of a sudden BOOM! something spooked Tess and we were off like a shot. The odd thing was that although I stayed in the saddle, my head just snapped back like it had no intention of coming along for the ride. Next thing I know, I’m galloping full speed down a hill looking at sky and cannot seem to get myself righted.
Years ago, I had a somewhat serious neck injury and my neck muscles have been weak ever since. It must have taken me three or four strides to get my freakin’ head back up which was the wierdest feeling. Hence today’s stiff neck which, thankfully, is holding its own and does not seem to require one of those collars.
Ahh, but my day wasn’t over yet. Got back to the barn, hosed Tess off and went to let her have some grass. My trainer comes walking by on another client’s horse, a 17 hand gelding who for some unknown reason thinks he’s a stallion. Tess is just standing there eating grass when, out of nowhere, this horse whirls around and tries to attack her. Thank God for my trainer who, when the gelding went up in the air, striking out with both front feet, managed to pull him off balance enough that he didn’t land on Tess’s back (as was obviously his plan.)
Instead he landed where I’d been standing seconds earlier and believe me, that is the last time in my entire life that I want to look up and see hooves waving above my head, especially coming from a horse who’s striking blindly at anything within reach. My trainer’s yelling, “Go! Go! Go! Get her out of here!” as this horse whirls and tries to kick out at us.
Then Tess and I are running away with this idiot trying to chase us–or alternatively rear up and throw himself over on my trainer who is not letting him chase us and all I can think is, if he gets away from her we’re both dead. Which thankfully, he did not. I have never been so grateful for my trainer’s talents. Funny the way adrenalin works. I started shaking about half an hour later, and shook for the rest of the day.
Sorry for the extra-long post. I think I’m still in semi-shock from the whole experience. Tess, meanwhile, seemed relatively unaffected. Go figure.
Reminds of the big show a couple years back, when our coach had this DARLING but GREEN pony and this DARLING but show-ring green rider on her. They’re going into the under saddle, and coach says to rider, make sure you let her look at the banner at the end of the ring, she’s never seen anything like that.
So, as the class goes in, with the rest of the kids tracking left, there goes our pony rider the opposite way, like a salmon swimming DOWNSTREAM, making a beeline for the banner at the far end. She lets the pony peruse it … for like MINUTES. I swear, it looked like that fat little gray pony was reading that banner. The class, meanwhile, is having to go around her.
Our coach, finally breaking free of her frozen disbelief, charges along the outside of the ring, yelling at the kid to get moving. We, the barn groupies, have collapsed on each other in fits of laughter. HYSTERICAL, LOUD spasms of laughter. People all around us begin laughing, the judges are laughing … and there stand kid and pony, reading that damned banner.
She later tells coach, when asked, “What were you DOING!!!” … “You TOLD me to let her look at the banner.”
But have to admit … once they got going with the rest of the class, the pony didn’t spook at the banner. They even got a high prize.
I see trees of green, red roses too. I watch 'em bloom for me and for you. And I think to myself … what a wonderful world. Yes, what a wonderful world." – Louie Armstrong.
