Ah, Tux, gotta love those grasshopper moments. Or, as we say, “He jumped like a stag.” 
Brigadier, hold on tight! Don’t cha love being whipped around like you’re on the Scrambler ride at the county fair?
Bumpkin: I’m guessing about 4 months??? Usually much after they’re weaned they get more lean, ribby and growthy.
“Charter Member of the Baby Greenie Support Group of North America”
Would you explain the poles again? I am not quite getting it. Do you mean an upside V with a rail in the middle?
Thanks,
A bit dull, here tonight.
Hmmm… so, we have a few candidates for the “Trainable Mentally Challenged” award? 
Hey, I can say that. We raise warmbloods. They’d all get voted off the island.
“Charter Member of the Baby Greenie Support Group of North America”
We’re all cheering you onward! Climb aboard that beast and ride, woman, ride!
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
I feel your pain. Rode at one point on a barn leased from some very non horse sense people. They were dropping stuff, and firing up stuff, such as the equipment that he used for work (did i mention he owned a construction company?) at the same moment that the greenies or even better teh OTTB’s were in the ring. Then rode at another place with tourists. They would wander through the barn. Had a little girl walk up to my horse who was leaning over the stall guard, she walked up put her hand near his nose adn when he sniffed her she screamed bloody murder poor baby throws his head up, nails it on teh cross piece above his door, scrapes a patch of fur off about three inches long, four wide, fortunantly does not break skin, but lacks fur.The swinging up of the head scared the child so she screamed even more loudly. The mother of the daughter then turns to me, infuriated that i had let my horse be afraid of a SCREAMING CHILD. ooohh… non horse people around horses… never works well
marion
Merry and Beezer, Looks like you’ll be joining the QH club! Its not a bad place to be! I love my QHs, I’ve strayed toward other breeds but in the end I’ve always come back to them. Is he a full QH or an Appendix?
EqChika, I’ve heard only very good things about the Norfleet line, many successful hunters from what I understand. Sounds like you’ve got a nice horse on your hands. Any pics??
Oh, DMK, I think the other half of your bush whacking crew was parked out in front of El Ranchito today! They were up in cherry pickers whacking down the tops of the eucalyptus trees. Every now and then there was a creeeeek-POP! as the limbs broke. Then they were fed into the wood chipper. Ain’t it fun riding in these sorts of situations?
And it’s so nice to know that I’m not the only one who stations human defense shields around scary parts of the show arena! Gee, do ya’ think the judges get a clue when a bevy of humans station themselves at intervals along the arena rail?
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
Guess who was Champion today, (albeit in a non-rated division),?!?!?! 
Bless VTrider, who called me on her cell phone to give me a course commentary as Gramento went around his two rounds. The first one was a titch rough, with a couple simple changes and one definite WHOA in a line. 
But, the second sounded great and it turned out that he WON that class!! Then, he won the under saddle. I’m so proud of him. Hopefully, he’ll be a good boy tomorrow when his mother gets to watch him!
I missed VTrider’s second call and didn’t get a chance to ask how her day was. SU - did you hear?
Sorry Merry, those are the pits!
We want details!
Serendipity, the first winter I had my TB mare, I always lunged her before getting on. This was not a work and learning lunge, it was simply a get-your-bucks-out-now kind of thing. I didn’t lunge her long enough to make her fitter, usually five minutes or so in each direction did the trick. When she was ready to settle a bit and pay attention to me, I brought her right in and got on. (I tacked up first, then tied up my stirrups and put a halter over her bridle.) It seemed to really help her concentration level a lot.
By the way, I recently reread an old article in Practical Horseman by Geoff Teall where he advocated use of what he called the “break all the rules lunge”. Pretty much what I’ve described above. And since I spent a good deal of time last week watching him ride, I’m here to tell you, that man knows what he’s doing (even if I often don’t). 
Good luck!
HA! Wty beat you all! While you were chattin it up, wty was hauling a-- down the road to go snatch Cisco!
Yeehah, he really is nice. No kidding…Looks like you will enjoy playing and showing this guy…
Meshach, we don’t go silently into this good nite. So hey, welcome!
How did we ever let this get to the 2nd page??
I figure its time for a Cisco update.
I rode him today for the third time. I’ll just quickly chronicle all of our rides for you.
Monday- Got on and decided to just show him around. Didnt have the western saddle yet so I rode him english. We walked and walked around the ring until we calmed down. Then we did some steering. He was pretty good, but when he didnt want to go where I was telling him he would shake his head and try to halt. We worked through it pretty good I think… considering major ring distractions include the fact that BOTH pastures back up to the ring… and since Cisco was the new horse they all were hovering around the ring wall trying to get at him! LOL
Wednesday- The western saddle had come so I decided to try it. WOW… am I glad that I did. It was lesson day at the barn, and we had our first experience with another horse in the ring. we were fine when they were walking and trotting, but the first time we cantered we lept into the air like a flying lipizzaner… very classy. So we spent that entire ride just trying to calm down. We only got about 15 minutes before they started to jump, and I figured I’d rather live than try to keep him in the ring for that!
Thursday- Rode western again… in beginning of twilight… and again, the only thing I could do was just try to get him to relax. He’ll put his head down and totally relax 3/4ths of the way around the ring and then FREAK OUT for the other 1/4th. At one point he proved to me that he will be a grand prix jumper by leaping six feet (straight up) into the air… we eventually made it around the ring without trying to buck me off or anything, so I quit with that… because it was getting dark and hed had enough.
He just gets so frustrated!! When he did his leaping tonight I’d been on him for a while and he was being SO good but I just wanted him to walk by that end of the ring ONE MORE TIME and he just blew up. Am I asking him to do too much? I mean… 30 minutes of walking around the ring without breaking into a panic jog or trying to dump me doesnt seem like alot. I ask him for NOTHING else. No trot, no bending, nothing. Just to steer and be calm. I cant fathom that I’m going too fast… hes GREAT on the lounge line… knows all the voice commands and everything. I figure the logical thing to do is to be sitting on his back. Am I rushing it??
I know hes not in any pain… I just had him vetted a week ago when I bought him.
Yeehaw- Formerly RF
COTH BB Resident Cowgirl
"She’s gone country… look at them boots, shes gone country… back to her roots, shes gone country, a new kind of suit… SHES GONE COUNTRY!! HERE SHE COMES!!! 
Figjam, that second picture looks just like a Ralph Lauren ad!
God, NO, Bumpkin!!! My daughter was riding her pony, Mini, bareback. Pas moi!!! 
So I rode the Tot yesterday. She’s getting into shape…maybe I should work on myself now. I was tired and she was like “C’mon Erin…letsgoletsgoletsgoletsgo!” Ahhh yes, the Thoroughbred is showing now. She was pretty good though. She’s starting to get much better at bending. Now I need to get her off of her front end a little more. Suggestions??
We did run into some problems with (cue scary music)…shadows! Ahhhh! Run away run away! Apparently they jump at her and want to bite her feet off. Yes, we did jump over the particularly scary ones. Otherwise we did the every-so-sneaky body contortions around them. Fun times…
.: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.”
Thanks for the nice comments I like him a lot too
Pam, here’s more good luck wishes! And Cleveland Clinic has a great reputation, so I know you will get the best care. Keep your chin up and pet a warm fuzzy horse - I’m sure this is quite unnerving…
As for the exercise, Justalurker has got it! I suppose I could have just said to make a pile of poles instead of a single landing rail and pull it in as far as possible, but that would be too easy The extra height and depth really gives them something to look at.
I rode RV yesterday after a 6 day vacation, and aside from th eusual “I AM a Giraffe” routine he likes to pull for the 1st 15 minutes, he was a pretty good boy. Just for giggles, I trotted him over an X set up in the ring (no takeoff or landing poles on either side), and he did 4 very nice slow fences, so I am pretty pleased.
Today we go back to the landing pile o’ poles exercise, and I think I will add a second element to the exercise sometime in the next few days.
I’ll be at a two-day San Diego-county show at Del Mar Horsepark (Showpark). We school on Friday. Usually warm-up day is fine. It’s the next day, when everything is so much more exciting, and all the horses are all gussied up, that Hammie’s mind starts to wander.
By Sunday afternoon I’m sure the palomino will seem mighty appealing for me to just tootle around on.
“Charter Member of the Baby Greenie Support Group of North America”
Come on Laurie! Fess up!
Bumpkin - waiting to hear about your lesson. I’m sure Elliott was perfect!
I am such a pathetic wuss. I hadn’t ridden Gramento since before Christmas. He still hasn’t been able to be turned out anywhere he can do anything, because of the footing. It took today’s weather at 60 degrees for me to brave getting back on him!
I even put him on the lunge first - just trotted a bit both directions until his tail went back down.
Phew! I feel SO ridiculous to be proud of myself for actually cantering both directions. How pathetic is that? Geesh.
Oh well. Hopefully, our small success today will get me going in the right direction again.
Glad to hear the other creatures seem to be on the right track as well after all of our bouts with “other than perfection”!
Ah, yes, Laurie. I’ve been in THAT movie before. sigh
The first breakthrough with Hammie was when he began being really good in the warm-up ring. Then he got to where he was next to perfect on warm-up day. Now, if I could only keep his attention when the actual competition began! 
The last show, I was having what I was sure was the winning ammy adult round. I saw this lovely moving up spot jumping into the final line. Alas, Hammie did not, and I made one of those ugly, “Huh, I could’ve sworn he was leaving the ground right then” moves. I was soooo embarrassed!
“Charter Member of the Baby Greenie Support Group of North America”
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