Night

 

I have been really busy lately. So I hadn't been able to ride Night in several weeks. But a couple days ago I was able to. We rode in the outdoor arena that day. I was impressed with Night. I had thought that she would be pretty spooky, but she wasn't. Actually she behaved better than she had the last time I rode her. Needless to say I was pleased, and we had a good ride. I am doing a show with her in a little over a month. So we have started preparing for that. I am excited about it. This will be the first English horse show I have done. And also my first show with Night. I am really looking forward to it. I think it will be a lot of fun.              

Dover Saddlery

     I was recently on the Dover Saddlery website looking at various things to order when I remembered another person had told me that they actually have stores. I looked it up and sure enough there are a few stores all over the country that you can visit. And about a week ago we happened to be in the area of one so I was like we have to go. It was a little bit of an adventure finding it. (We had never been in that area before and there was a lot of traffic.) But we found it eventually! That has to be the coolest store I have ever been in. I could have spent hours in there! It was full of all kinds of horse tack, and it was all english. I saw these really cute bran mash mixes and got a couple for Mya. I've always wanted to make a bran mash for her as a treat but I've never had the time to go shopping for the right ingredients. So the mix was a really neat idea. Just add water and stir. So, yes, my visit to Dover Saddlery was a fun success.
     I am really loving Mya's new bridle and bit. Each time we use it I think our ride goes a little better. The idea of using a full cheek snaffle was great. I think that bit really works well for my horse. Our last ride we took a break. We went on a trail ride out in a field. Mya enjoyed the change of scenery. And it was good to have a break in the routine.

New Bit

I have been having a few problems with Mya's bit. I was using a loose ring snaffle and sometimes when she was in a mood it would pull through her mouth. Honestly I think she just didn't like the bit. I figured it was time to try a new one. Just for the fun of it I decided to go searching on eBay. I'd never bought anything off eBay before and figured it might be fun. After some research elsewhere I decided on a full-cheek snaffle bit. I found an english bridle on eBay that also came with that bit. So I decided to buy that one. When it came in the mail I cleaned the bridle with saddle soap, and I boiled the bit in water just to make sure there weren't any horsey germs on it. I've read you aren't supposed to wash a bit with soap because it'll make it taste bad to the horse. Putting it in a pot of boiling water was the only way I could think of to disinfect it. (Anyone know of a better way?) Anyways I think it worked pretty well. Monday I finally had the chance to try the new bit on Mya for the first time. The change was amazing! She definitely likes this bit better. I'm glad I decided to try it. Can't wait to work with her some more with the new bit. But the weather kind of took over and I haven't been able to ride since the beginning of the week. There is a TON of snow outside. (and its absolutely gorgeous!) But it looks like we'll have to wait a couple days until we can ride again...

The Great Trot Race

Our instructor on her horse West, Me on Athena, and my friend on Night.

     Last Friday I had a riding lesson. I ride Night now regularly. What was super fun about this lesson was that I got to have a group lesson with my friend. My friend also takes lessons at this stable. Anyways when we got there , we first had to grab the horse's halters and go get them from out in the field. No one had brought them in yet that day. It was pretty muddy because all the snow we had gotten had just melted. I was having visions go myself slipping in it and falling flat on my face in the mud. But luckily I survived. Night was laying down in the field taking a nap when I got up to her. She was quite determined not to get up. Lazy horse just wanted it to be nap time. But alas I could not allow that! It was time to play! Night eventually reluctantly agreed with me. Successfully haltered! Hooray! My friend grabbed Athena. Athena, the horse she rides right now, is this huge and gorgeous horse. I mean she is just such a pretty mare. When we got the horses back up to the stable we put them in the cross-ties to groom. Which was a little more difficult than normal because of the mud. Both Athena and Night were a bit muddy. Our riding instructor told us that when we were done grooming to go ahead and put the saddle on but not the bridle. She was going to have us do ground work with the horses first. I have done quite a bit of ground work before with my horse so I had a pretty good idea of what we were doing. I think groundwork really helps to improve your horse's training. .

Then we put their bridle's on and got on. I gotta say Night is such a fun horse to ride. We started by warming up. But then we did a fun exercise. Our instructor told us first to get the horses to do the biggest, fastest walk they could without trotting. I think Night and I won that division.  I'm pretty sure Athena only has one speed at the walk. Slow. Then said instructor had us get our horse to do the slowest walk possible. Athena dominated. We lost. After that we moved up to a posting trot. At first for a bit we just trotted and tried to keep and equal distance between the two horses trotting around the arena. My friend and Athena were the leader and supposed to set the pace. Then Night and I would try to match that pace. On a side note Athena has a really pretty trot. Then our instructor had us do the same exercise we did at the walk only this time at the trot. It was so much fun! We had the most hilarious trot race! Night is like half the size of Athena, so naturally Athena has the bigger, faster trot. But on one lap Night and I took em. I was was like come on Night was can beat them! Which we did. My little Arab's legs were just flying! Of course ask my friend and she will tell you she won the other five laps. Which in all fairness she did. But hey for my little horse to beat her giant horse in one lap that was an accomplishment! Anyways I was having a great time.

 Then to finish our lesson and to cool the horses down we decided to switch horses. So I rode Athena at a walk for the cool down. I enjoyed that. I felt like I was on a knight's charger and ready to have a jousting competition. (I'm not sure Athena thought that was a great idea...) All together it was a super fun lesson and a great day.

Winter Riding

     I have really been trying to work with Mya a lot lately. I want to get her in shape. The plan is to take her to a few local shows this summer. I want to compete in the English divisions. Now my goal isn't to win. No, our goal is to just get through a class without something crazy happening. I have never showed her before so I have not idea what will happen. So, yes, that is why we are really practicing. (even if it has been freezing cold) We've been doing a lot of pole work and things like bending. I think Mya has improved a lot. She seems like a much more willing horse now, and not nearly as crazy as she has been sometimes. (she really only gets crazy when she hasn't been ridden in over 3 weeks) Regular riding has turned her into a great English mount.

Farrier Visit

As most equestrians know, unless you are lucky enough to live in someplace like Florida, winter makes it more difficult to ride. In my area its not really the cold that bothers me, I actually like cold weather, it is all the rain. We get so much rain in the winter months! I wish it would get colder than at least we would have snow. We've only gotten one or two snowfalls this year. All the rain means I don't get to ride as often as I would like. But it does make me appreciate the time when I do get to ride!
Yesterday the farrier came out to the farm. Mya had thrown a shoe, and she was due for a trim. I had actually called the farrier last week but because of weather he wasn't able to come. One of the nice things about my horse is that she has really good ground manners. She always surprises me at how nicely and calmly she stands while the farrier works on her feet. The farrier even complimented her on that fact. He said she was tons easier than the last horse he did.
On our last ride I began to teach Mya a new way to lunge. I had her doing a sort of figure eight in front of me. I stood next to a fence to begin to teach her how to turn and go around the other way. I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly she caught on.  After that I rode her a bit. Because this was before the farrier visit we kept to a walk. I had her walking over some poles, stopping, and backing up. She was a good pony. And as you can see we had a little bit of snow that day. :)

Challenge #4

I haven't done one of these in awhile. I really need to do them more often! But here is the fourth of the 30 Thing Horse Challenge. This one is on A horse that impacted your life. When I first read this there were 3 or 4 horses that popped into my mind as impacting me. One of them being of course my first (and current) horse Mya. Another was a pony named Tony that I had some of my first rides on. I have some fond memories of later riding him and having horse races with my brother and cousins. But the horse I want to highlight here is the horse I really learned to ride on. His name is Surprise. The lessons I had on him when I was around 8 or 9 years old were very foundational to my riding today. Surprise was always sweet and patient with me. He was the perfect horse to learn to ride on. One of the cool things about him is that he was gaited. If you've never ridden a racking horse before you really need to try it. It is so cool and different! It gives you sort of a sensation like flying. Really smooth and fast. Anyways I even got to show Surprise once. That show is one of my favorite memories. We even won 1st place. Surprise, you will always be a special horse.