We've had another three quarters of an inch of rain in the last four days. I pumped water out of the corrals Monday and Thursday mornings. They are still quite sloppy. Jessie is NOT a happy camper. We are hopeful the sun will be out this weekend.
Ritchie Waterers is auctioning off two Downunder Horsemanship shirts that Clinton wore during last year's tour stops. I'm in the bidding for this one. The proceeds go to NARHA. I'm currently the leader, but it's a good cause and I'm sure someone will out bid me. This would be a nice addition to my Stalker Collection (that's a joke).
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
A quick video
A quick little video from Sunday's ride. We had an encounter with some helium balloons on a windy day, some trots through the high grass, and a walk through a lovely little unofficial dump site. Some of our neighbors are unclear on the concept of "Keep America Beautiful". Since we can't stop them, we'll use it as a desensitizing area.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Neither wind nor rain...
We were able to get in a couple of rides in despite the threatening skies. We haven't had the opportunity to do more than just ride out to our usual haunts. We have been working harder though. We are doing a lot more loping, enough so that Jessie works up a good sweat. Jessie's speed is getting much better. I actually had to ask her to speed up on Saturday. Steering remains our biggest challenge.
One of the benefits from loping so much is that I am getting a better feel for the horse underneath me. I can tell when Jessie is pulling me around on her front end and not using her hindquarters. I know three months ago I had no clue about any of this. Oh, I had heard people talk about it, but I couldn't feel it. Now I just have to figure out how to encourage more of the hindquarters when loping. The more we lope the better it'll get.
We get a lot of de-sensitizing practice on these spring rides. The dirt bikes, dune buggies, and even other horses are out in good numbers. Jessie is far more interested in other horses. We can see a couple of horses half a mile away and she will fixate on them. I'll pick up a rein and ask for a hindquarter yield and it's like pulling on a rope tied to a tree. Our solution was just to ask for a trot, sit, one-rein stop, over and over again. It improved...or were we just getting farther away from the horses?
On a side note: Our Youtube channel just got its 300 subscriber. Pretty amazing. We (my wife and I) just started posting videos to chronicle our progress. Having people emailing me to say the videos have helped them with their horses was totally unexpected. We have a couple more in the works. I'm taking a video editing class in the hopes the quality will go up. The hardest part is finding the time (and place) to actually shoot the video. We're hopeful that once the time changes we will get more opportunities.
One of the benefits from loping so much is that I am getting a better feel for the horse underneath me. I can tell when Jessie is pulling me around on her front end and not using her hindquarters. I know three months ago I had no clue about any of this. Oh, I had heard people talk about it, but I couldn't feel it. Now I just have to figure out how to encourage more of the hindquarters when loping. The more we lope the better it'll get.
We get a lot of de-sensitizing practice on these spring rides. The dirt bikes, dune buggies, and even other horses are out in good numbers. Jessie is far more interested in other horses. We can see a couple of horses half a mile away and she will fixate on them. I'll pick up a rein and ask for a hindquarter yield and it's like pulling on a rope tied to a tree. Our solution was just to ask for a trot, sit, one-rein stop, over and over again. It improved...or were we just getting farther away from the horses?
On a side note: Our Youtube channel just got its 300 subscriber. Pretty amazing. We (my wife and I) just started posting videos to chronicle our progress. Having people emailing me to say the videos have helped them with their horses was totally unexpected. We have a couple more in the works. I'm taking a video editing class in the hopes the quality will go up. The hardest part is finding the time (and place) to actually shoot the video. We're hopeful that once the time changes we will get more opportunities.
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