Baby Greenie Support Group now open: Share Your Pain!

aw Pam,

At least it sounds like you’re getting close to knowing what the problem is. Once you know for sure, maybe there will be treatment options? Damn, life is always handing out these roadblocks isn’t it?

Teaching is a great idea. I bet you’d love it and be great at it. Yeah some kids are no fun to teach, but not all of them. There are some that will be a blast to help. And don’t forget about adult students! You know first hand that they can be the best One of the trainers at our barn would love to have only adults to teach. They’re much less pressurized and doing it purely for the fun and love of it.

LordHelpus- SM is a cutie! Good luck with her! I like the name Montrose best.

Ms Cool-Wow…wanna come help me find a diamond in the rough? More pics??

.: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, Bumpky, don’t worry. When you graduate from Long Stirrup, we’ll all be there to hand you your diploma! I wish I could do long stirrup with our babies. It would certainly be less stressful than doing baby greens against the pro’s. But I think I’d be barred at the in-gate.

Thanks, Pam, for your input. How big is Hammie? Well, he kept growing! I was totally satisfied at 16.1. Right now I’d guess he’s close to 16.3, although when he “puffs up” he looks 17.3!

I like young hunters to be a little “looky”, too. As long as they’re brought along slowly and you give them good rides, they do jump the best.

“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”

While Midge is not a baby at ten years, she is green in her non-racing career.

I know you spent six years learning to lean on the bridle, but could we stop doing it now?

Could we not bulge quite so hard to the left?

Watch out for sunburn with that cute nose!! haha

Isn’t Dekster staying at the same place as Jade?

<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> LOL - I have always said that after the biowarfare holocaust, when all our beasties have to fend for themselves, Robbie will be the first dinner!!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jade has the opposite problem. She will, under no uncertain terms, be THE last one standing. That means at the hint of anything threatening, she uses all of her athletic prowess to dart in an undetermined direction, leaving me behind, and IN the ground. Let’s just say that you don’t “fall” off Jade…she has this inate ability to catapult you to the ground. Usually when you come to your senses and emerge from the ground you have left a crater the size of Lake Mead.

And at the last show a trainer asked if she was for sale - she is looking for a nice, DEAD (read: one blink away from death) quiet packer for an older lady. I just looked at her and chuckled.

Oh yes Mr Cresty was lunged first.

But I wonder, I want him fit, but is he getting too fit?

Oh well it tis the New Year, and back on a more sensible eating schedule for his rider, who hopes to beable to fit back into her TS’s and Dehner’s.

Even though I will still have to have the Onion soup at the “Club” with Hoopoe once in awhile

My pelvis actually feels better today!!!

I had my first fall off my greenie, Belle, this weekend.

My instructor had us canter in on an angle (to avoid the first fence in the line) to an in and out, and she just couldn’t figure out what she was suppossed to do. Almost ran out, almost stoped, then popped over the “in” fence, putting me WAY off balance over her shoulder. We head toward the “out” fence, and she ducks out at the last minute, throwing me even further off balance.

I eventually realised that there was no way I was getting back in the saddle, and I had no control, so I stopped fighting to stay on and “made a ball”.

I think it freaked her out more than me.

We tried again at a trot, and she was fine.

I took Tess back out on a trail ride yesterday (when will I learn? ) and we were just all over the place. Not that she’s ever particularly pleasant trail mount–This is good for you, this is good for you, I keep repeating virtuously–but she’s usually not an idiot. We shied/bucked at logs, bushes, birds, dogs, trees, and one Domino’s Pizza delivery man.

Usually when I get off, Tess gets apples, carrots, more brushing/rubbing, hand grazing. Not yesterday. Yesterday, I figured I’d indicate my displeasure by simply untacking and throwing her back out in the pasture. (Besides, Mr. LaurieB had eaten all the apples I’d brought while he was waiting for our return. )

It turned out that was exactly what Tess wanted. She goes out with a small band of about six other mares. The day before, a gorgeous new gray mare had been added to the herd. Poor Tess is subordinate to everyone but a two year old paint filly, and while she was gone the filly had been palling around with the new mare.

Tess is in an absolute tizzy over this new arrangement. Is my status changing? Isn’t it? What can I do about it? How come I’m not in charge of anyone?

Anyone else dealing with a greenie who’s also a social butterfly?

Better yet-I can’t wear a bit-any bit. My mouth is built differently than any other horse in the ENTIRE world. There is no way anything other than your new bridle will ever stay in my mouth. No no nono-not a french link, or a nutcracker, or mullen mouth or full cheek with or without keepers, no not any single solitary bit will ever allow me to close my mouth.

oh goodness-it is in my mouth. Oh no I can;t move, I can’t BREATHE, I can’t steer-no no no no no maybe head up will help-no can’t see, shoot-there is a jump, ouch-that hurt, maybe if I go low low low, ouch-watch out for that fence. aaaaahhh yayayayaya maybe if I chew this thing it will go away…

Lead changes and jumping are now something I hear horses do somewhere-anywhere but here…

Life is too short to dance with ugly men

Oh Beezer, I’m so sorry to hear about Tigger’s ringbone. At least now you know that what you were feeling wasn’t all in your mind. Maybe the new black prospect can cheer you up a bit?

Batgirl, don’t you just love it in those rare moments when everything comes together just right?

Merry never would have told Beezer this. She thinks Beezer is going to show this fire-breathing vacuum cleaner in a hack class? Sometime soon??

Beezer thinks NOT!

Bulletin Board Goddess

DMK, your post deserves a thoughtful answer. Hopefully I will not run on too long. When I bought my mare she was… hmmm, let’s say difficult. Mondo difficult. I-might-die-today difficult.

Not her fault. She came from a farm where she’d been on 24/7 turn-out (her idea of heaven). I promptly changed that–having no choice in the matter–to a schedule that put her out about 10 hours a day. Not enough, in her mind. She’d also, until I bought her, led a rather sheltered existence. Thrown out into the “real world” she found everything worth spooking over: dogs, cats, birds, jumps, trees, mailboxes, mail, cars, flowers, etc. So the very quiet mare that I tried pre-purchase, arrived at my barn and became somewhat of a wild thing. It didn’t help that I bought her in November and faced winter weather right off.

So there I was, a 47 year old ammie, with less than two years back in the saddle after nearly thirty years away faced with a very green, very excitable, three year old TB. Let’s just say we probably weren’t the best match. Ah heck, I was way out of my league. Honestly, the only thing I could think to do was just pray, get on, and ride. Good days, bad days, good weather, bad weather–that first winter was pretty much one long miserable blur of broken bridle parts and crash landings (mine, not hers.)

I didn’t pick my days to ride, because if I had, I probably wouldn’t have picked any of them. If I let myself “off the hook” one day, how the hell was I going to psych myself back into the saddle the next? Or the one after that? It scared me to think that I might find so many excuses that I never got on at all.

So I didn’t make, or take, any excuses. I just rode through the problems and hoped for the best. It was the only way I could see–at the time–to get the job done. That’s why I still ride on the “bad days.” Force of habit, I guess.

Ardy, whom I mentioned a while back on this thread, was my project OTTB I was riding for my camp. He seemed to always be lame, and towards the end of summer, he just was always a bit off.

Part of the problem is his chipped knee, which seems to have recurring problems (after 9 months of stall rest last winter), and it seems like he may have some neuromuscular type issues as well.

To make a long story short, we found a home for him as a pasture pal, and he’s doing well, although his riding days are over.

I miss him.

Pam- Hope you find out whats up so you can feel better soon!

No kidding about that cold front- I opened my door this morning wearing shortsleeves and regretted it very much!

Unfortunately I still do not have a horse to try to throw me off with the weather change. I still have not managed to get the people to agree on a time to go and get him. Saturday changed to Sunday… I’m just hoping we can manage to stick to the sunday plan. -sigh- I was hoping to get in a weekend ride. But, that wont be happening! Atleast all his tack will be here first.


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!!! :stuck_out_tongue:

Your “Hammie Reports” are always so entertaining, I don’t know what we’re going to do when he grows up. Hope for continuing mayhem from Barbie Cow perhaps?

Tess went to her last show of the season this past weekend, and since I love pictures, here’s one of us having some fun.

I am most assuredly not the horse training guru here (that would be Merry, DMK, LordHelpus etc. ) but I only want to say that if you feel that your filly is beyond your abilities or your confidence level at this point in time, there is certainly no shame in admitting that. If you think sending her on somewhere where she can have professional help would serve both your needs better, then that’s a good decision to make.

If there’s one thing that working with my own greenie has taught me it’s that false bravdo gets you pretty much nowhere. My horse and I both do better when I’m ruthlessly honest about my own capabilities. “Hello trainer? Bring your chaps to our lesson today.”

Just a thought.

And Findeight that was the BEST Christmas story!! You have given me a laugh and wonderful visual. thank you thank you thank you!!

I’ve often wondered if a QH trainer could help, because the general explanation as to why he can’t get the leads consistently is that he is built to go long and low like a finished hunter, and he is not elevated in front enough to get the changes (yes - I ride him in an elevator). Since he is built like a QH, maybe they would have more success! I wonder what miracle man would think of Justice spending some time at western camp?

He’d probably have a coronary! But if it meant he learned the leads - hey - it’s okay by me. Any recommendations in Southern Cal?

Sounds like fun in the hills.

BUT congrats on the lesson!!!
Now go to bed dreaming about those rounds!!