Oh, wanted to ask, too…
How would you decide if a horse needs a chiro? Rio is slightly shorter coming under himself on his left side than his right side. I thought I read somewhere this was one of the tests to determine if he needs a chiro. Shouldn’t there be more than one “test”?
And here’s one more of the “fatty hunter”, cantering…
^-^
Don’t ask me, I’m just the mom!
If Dressage is Symphony, and Eventing is Rock 'n Roll, then Hunters must be R&B
There was a book called “Reschooling the TB” by Peggy Pittenger (?). The original was probably published at least 35 years ago, but I think there is a 2nd edition. A good source of info about OTTB’s.
Seems like the greenies have been busy the last few days!!
Beezer, good luck with the new horse. Its great you can try a horse that belongs to someone who knows you well and understands your goals. Let us know how it goes, and keep us updated on Tigger as well!
I’m going to start regular group lessons with my filly this week. She’s going in a western saddle and bridle and is becoming a neck reining pro. Its all very different to me, I’ve been in a close contact saddle since I started riding 13 years ago. I didn’t even know how to cinch up a western saddle until a few weeks ago…shame on me for always being a hunter snob! 
My beloved Ainsely is now collecting dust in the tack room, and I have this nagging feeling that I should start looking to acquire some western tack…!
Love the snow, great for my Birthday, but…
We have to make this schooling show this weekend.
So snow is a nono
Are you in Eastern or Western WA?
V. .V
.( * )
So, like, um, you know this Merry person you’re all so chatty with? SHE’S THE BORG QUEEN!! Whispering here out of fear she’ll hear: She assimilates horses!! 
We know. We’ve been assimilated. Beaten. Turned into mere shadows of our formerly proud selves. Heads down, supple. It’s soooo very, very sad. 
I, Hammie, buck and sass back merely to keep some shred of myself intact. I, Tigger, occasionally still do the twisty-heady-thingie just so I can keep an eye on what she might be up to.
You know what she did today?? She brought over this book by this William Stein-somebody-or-other that has all his methods of torturing us poor, unsuspecting baby greenies listed in it. And she tried some!! “Gym-nasties,” as my sainted (horse) Mom calls them, Tigger says. And boy, were they. Nasty, that is.
So, just remember us, the next time you are chatting with Merry. She is the Borg Queen. Resisting her has proved futile. (We even ordered a sign for the front gate of El Ranchito warning others of her presence.) 
Bulletin Board Goddess
I couldn’t do it… sell him, that is.
So I still own (and will probably never be able to sell) the crazy greenie. Went over to the trainer’s, wrote him a nice check for the work he had put into him, loaded him, well, tried to load him… thirty five minutes, 2 longe lines and 5 people later, he was finally on the trailer and off we went.
Tally is now living in a 200 acre pasture with 9 other horses at CTETA (one of the big combined training venues out here)… and I really feel like this was the right thing to do. It looks like my cousin, who rides quarter horses and is absolutely fearless, is going to work him a couple of days during the week for me, complete with western saddle. It should work out nicely- she’s free during the days and looking for something new to ride and spoil, he needs to get worked every day, and I have a hard time getting out during most weekdays.
Luckyme- my boy has a nasty spook, too… and I am going straight to the western saddle. DMK is right on the money with how to work through it.
Again, thank you for all of your support!
Hitch up that new trailer to your fancy truck. We leave at dawn to steal Yeehaw’s horse!
Bulletin Board Goddess
No rain whinage!
We so need it. If I saw one more dust devil cruising thru the parking lot, well…Plus now my horse is beginning to like puddles. Not near as scarey as a blue liverpool…
Congrats Tigger, now Merry you deserve alot of that too 
Plus just think, if Beezer hadn’t been a QHSM’s in training and pushed you into the ring, you would never have found out how much fun Tigs is. Have to say, he was pretty darn good. Walking past the announcers booth, all those lovely things to spook at, he finished up really well! So next show is when??? Tigs ready for Indio? 
DMK… LOL! I soooo “feel your pain” about everything: the sense of superiority that evaporates the next morning, the attack of the killer ponies, the leaping toward the judge’s booth, etc., etc. Welcome to my world! 
I always figure I can eek out a high prize in the hacks with Hammie. But then, on the horizon… is it a hot air balloon? A pony? A hawk eating a gopher? Who knows what Hammie sees! 
Keeper: It sounds like you’re doing the right thing. I’d just stay at cavaletti, trot poles, crossrails and low verticals forever, until your horse tells you when he’s ready to go farther. Hammie progressed really quickly. He’s too smart, and very physically talented. (Just watch his contortions). His half-sister, though, is the same age as your horse, and exhibits little talent or interest beyond being a western trail horse at this point. sigh
“Friends don’t let friends eat fish tacos.”
I went to ride the Tater Tot (wait, is that how you spell “tater”…I don’t know). After my 45 minute drive up to the barn, it starts raining instead of just drizzling. Of course the indoor isn’t done yet (brand new barn…footing has yet to arrive so it’s currently beach sand, cuz yes, we live on Lake Michigan). I thought “Forget this, I will ride today”. She was quite the happy horse about getting outside and we perfected our jig during the warmup, and what a perdy jig it was. Finally, once I started working her and asking her to do something that involved her brain, she settled down. I did mostly trot work, as she’s still turning like a bus (but MUCH better…yay!!!). Did a tiny bit of cantering at the end and wanted to see if she knew anything about flying changes. Whoa… Tater Tot does them like ain’t no thang. So I pushed it and tried getting them on a straight line. No problemo. My eq horse had more problems with them than that after 4 years!!! This horse hasn’t really been worked with in 2 years and she’s got them down like nothing. My mom’s explanation for this is “she’s a smart horse.” Yes yes, a smart horse that I now love like no other. My mom’s a bit in love with her, too. Her whole maternal instincts of feeding her “kids” is coming in and Tot (being the rolly polly beast she is) looooooooooooooooves my mom. Oi… Attached find a (very blurry) picture of the two of them.
.: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.”
Went to a AA show a few seasons back and trainer was horrified that most of her string spooked at a WCHR banner hung at one end of the main hunter ring. Same as every other WCHR banner but the hated this one. And they all spooked at it, young and old green and finished. Boy were we glad when that show was over.
Until we got home and saw…yep she brought it home and hung at the end of our outside arena. They NEVER did stop spooking at it. Especially when she kept sticking skinny jumps with no standards in front of it.
Last time we will ever complain about anything the horses are spooking at during a show. Don’t want her lugging anything else home to torment us with.
From Allergy Valley USA
As I wave the wand over Brody’s head, his urge to gallop through turns dissipates,
the pining for his turnout buddy (who is still in the field while he, poor baby, is forced into performing endless canter-walk transitions) ceases.
Ah, for ability to canter on a lunge-line without trying to kill the human holding on for dear life at the other end.
The freedom to ride said baby in a ring containing no other horses. Heaven forbid his royal highness not have anyone to suffer with while some chick on his back tortures him with such menial tasks.
In his head, he thinks he’s a jumper. But we know he’s much too cute for that. now if he’d just SLOW DOWN!!!
PS My Mom (sugarbr) posted a pic of the beastie on the first page of this tread.
Ya know, I am just NOT going to respond to this maxipad/helmet thing, and I want you all to admire the restraint that requires…
Tomorrow should be interesting. RV has been off for about 6 days while I was out of town, and meanwhile, winter has finally decided to pay us a visit (sigh… I didn’t miss it). I opted for the chicken’s way out this afternoon and decided to lunge him. He really was a good boy, so here’s hoping he is tomorrow!
I did try a nice little exercise with him before I left, and was very impressed with how it worked. His main problem (I wouldn’t want to imply he only has one ) is that he doesn’t have a good natural back up in front of the fence. He doesn’t rush or make a bid at all, but he just doesn’t back himself up (and let’s face it, if you are going to be a fancy hunter you gotta have the backup!). As a consequence, he lands in a bit of a heap on the other side, and the first stride out is an On The Forehand Special.
Enter Legendary Trainer/Rider suggestion… Instead of your normal landing pole 9’ out, try using a triangle of 3 poles 6’ to 8’ feet out. GOOD GRACIOUS GOD ALMIGHTY, WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE??? Works like a charm. A 24 carat charm, I might add. Tons of backup and lots of balance on the other side…
In fact, just to really test it, I trotted Robbie over it. Now Robbie is not a perfect horse by any means (although he has been known to take a nice picture ), but what he does have is “Natural Backup” in spades. As it turns out there is too much backup, and if your horse already has it, he’s going to have way too much with this exercise. Needless to say RV will live in this exercise for a while, and Robbie isn’t permitted near it!
Perhaps I exaggerated a wee bit, but I do make sure his hind end isn’t pointed toward my head!!
He did manage to do exactly as you described though - I lunged him out in the field, and he decided to do a buck-fart-bolt, on what turned out to be a slick spot. Went down like a ton of bricks, got up like a cat though.
Also, now that I think of it, the first time I turned him out in the big field, it was a tad wet, he went roaring to the back 40 (uphill), then roaring back to the gate (downhill) and at the last minute he decided to make a sharp left. That’s technically not a good plan on wet clay. Yup, had a horse slide about 20 feet down the hill, to end up mostly under the fence and got up with nary a scratch. The good news is the NEXT time he came roaring back down the hill, he elected for a mincing trot when he got about 50 feet from the gate, so at least we know he has a learning curve.
On the other hand, maybe I should worry about this potential hunter who spends so much time ON the ground!! And we won’t even discuss racetrack superstitions about horses that walk away from an accident/event that should have caused an injury, and they don’t have a scratch!
Tomorrow at 11:30 am I will be taking my first lesson on Elliot since the “Lawn Dart” incident.
No jumping for a few more weeks though, just flat and getting my “sea legs” back.
I told my trainer my lesson could be from 11:30 to 11:45
OK, so I spent a week working Riverman on the lunge line, working on some specific things relating to rolling over on his hind end, disengaging his front end from his hind end, and just generally putting his hind foot somewhere near the track of his front footstep, instead of 4" inside, which is where he thinks his hind end should go…
So Saturday I climb back up on him and off to the big field we go. He was actually doing pretty darn good until the neighbor, who was mowing, managed to get the blade stuck on something loud. Something that went WHAP WHAP WHAP. And of course he was behind a bunch of bushes, so it was noise without visual context. Didn’t think a 17 hand 4 year old could be that agile about leaping 45 feet to the side. By some miracle, and an incredible sense of self preservation, I managed to stay on. Of course he was a wee bit mentally fried now (fired a double barrel with his hind end when my leg slipped back as I was unwinding my stirrup leather after losing it/picking it up on the fly after Incident #1). We stayed up in the field for a few more minutes, to establish that it wasn’t a bad place, then went down to the ring to get some work done. Not stellar, but OK…
Sunday I figure I will just save myself the many hazards of the field and stick to the ring. Our barn property has a house that is separately rented from the barn. For the longest time we had a tenant who used to own horses, had horse sense, and was just all around wonderful. Alas, all good things must come to an end… Now we have tenants with a complete lack of horse sense, and unfortunately for us, the ring is in close proximity to the house. Obviously it has been a LONG time since I have had to keep my horses in close proximity with people who lack horse sense, and I realize how very spoiled I have become…
Sunday I decide to lunge briefly and work on getting that right hip under him a little before I hop (climb) on. Life is good. I then get on and start riding. He is starting out good, but a tad looky. Enough that I know he will get over it before long. Or at least until the guy comes out of the side door of the house, and lets the glass door slam. Now I know this horse will have an elevated head as we come down that side of the ring for at least 3 more rides. That’s OK, we will just have to deal with it - that’s why it ain’t easy being green. But what I DON’T expect is that he comes right up to the ring, to where the big plastic trash cans are, looks at me, and - just as I am going by (not 12 feet away) - DROPS EMPTY PAINT CANS IN THE TRASH CAN!! Again, I stayed on, but this one was much more in the miracle category than most… Hopefully my frantic attempts to stay on, along with major cursing might possibly have made him consider the ramifications of his actions.
However, I doubt it. So far, they have left fishing gear by the lake (in the barn area). Now we know how to remove a large fishing hook from a dog’s leg. The guy was sitting on the porch shooting off his bb gun (or a 22 possibly) - presumably at birds. However the horses were almost going over their stall doors, since this qualified as a loud sharp sound from behind them that had no visual context (funny, but during hunting season, we hear a lot of gunfire, and that just never bothers them). He tossed something out of that same side door as my friend was riding her greenie - she experienced a similar response as I did with the trash can episode. And once he was doing the gun bit while I was riding my older horse up to a jump. But the piece de resistance which makes me think that they (he, really - so far there is no evidence the wife is this much of an idiot) are lacking in just plain old common sense is that I saw them grilling last weekend. Open, unattended grill, lit and burning on the front porch. It’s a solid wood house. An OLD wood house. One spark flying up to the roof or drifting down to the floor and can we say WHOOOSH?
I have a baby greenie who is not started over fences yet. He jumps manure piles in the arena, so we’re well started. =) We jsut started with a trainer and are coming along great!
I was sooo proud of the Riverman the other day… If y’all recall somewhere around page 2-5 of this thread he was learning to deal with the Evil People Who Make Scary Noises At The House?
Well I wasn’t sure how much progress we were making with scary noises until last week. The people across the street decided to engage in their Annual Bushhogging and Lawn Care of their front property. Poor guy had to handle a) a riding mower on the easement (makes interesting noises when it runs over a beer can, which only happens when it is behind him), b) a guy with a weedeater (more of that buzzing with a periodic WHACKETY WHACK) AND a bush hog that was working on removing some low growth trees (LOTS of “special” noises). Bless his heart, the Riverman was umm, a little “alert” when we started, but he finished up like a trooper, and I even did his trot gymnastic to an X as part of the flatwork.
Had to give him credit - he handled it better than my 10 year old would have!
Curbs they are a jingling Bumpy
We have great feelins they will be wonderful!!
Boy when I read your Arena Avalanche Warning, thought it said Area Avalanche Warning. Scared me to death, was worried you were about to slide away in a white wave. Thankfully, it was only my eyes.
Ok, I’m feeling a little better now…The professional who has been riding my beast agrees that he’s a bit difficult to steer/bend right, i.e., kind of like steering a school bus. He also agrees that, while we would like to put more leg on him to try to help the situation, we might need a tad more bit/and or a bit more leverage (have a plain D snaffle in him now) should he decide that a 20’ stride isn’t long enough.
Tomorrow will be my first flat lesson on him. Wish me luck!
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