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Monthly Archives: April 2012

Pixie Dust Magic

Lucky Star is at his owner’s farm. There is magic pixie dust in their large arena.
This pixie dust will help set Lucky’s flat foot walk and fox trot. Magic Pixie Dust and some coaching from Lucky’s learned owner, Teresa Osborn, will help us find true the groove.

Lucky got to return to his pasture with his horse herd. You know Lucky has a low impulsion drive (that I love). He can be indifferent to requests to move his body. When a dominant mate named Sassy asks you to move, you should immediately comply. I have started carrying a healing ointment for Lucky. He’s got a big bite mark on his neck.  And she is his full sister too!  It’s very evident that Sassy is in charge of the pasture.

Tonight was a big night in our relationship. Lucky Star did not argue with me! He had been lifting his head and pushing out his nose in a teenager kind of  “talk-back” , “I’m doing what you want,but I’m sneering at you.”

The sneering stopped. Was it the Saturday wonderful Groundskills Clinic and coaching from Tony Vaught? What you do on the ground translates up!  We had really improved the quality of my requests to ask Lucky Star to move.

Lucky Star is DEVELOPING!!
It’s a wonderful experience to bring a brave little horse along a path to realizing all his great potential!

Yee Haw

PS:  Pixie dust looks a lot like sand!

Lucky Star Easter Trail Ride

Missouri Fox Trotter club sponsored ride was attended by Lucky Star. We got to park at the wonderful S&S Campground Extraordinary. Steve was there to make certain all was well and when I missed my turn off, he guided me safely to the campground where Hope was anxiously awaiting our arrival so she could eat lunch.

Note: It’s wonderful to trail ride with people who make egg salad sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches and dessert. Thank you Hope for feeding me!

Carol came to join us and off we went. Carol rides a million trail ride miles every year.

Note: It’s wonderful to have experienced trail horses to lead the way up and down the muddy ravines and cross the streams. Thank you Carol.

This is a not extreme difficult and not extreme easy ride. There are short steep 4″ muddy hills strewn with rocks and narrow muddy hills to clamor up and down. Every now and then you get a glimpse of a beautiful lake. We saw some rock formations that were wonderful.

Our first challenge was a tree that had fallen on the trail. It was about two feet off the ground and wide. Carol’s mare hopped over it. Lucky reared up with his front legs to get over it and then hopped over with his back legs. I’ve never jumped obstacles with him during our short time to ride. His confidence was extreme.

I’ve forgotten how inexperienced horses react out on the trail. My memory has been reinstated. Our first muddy down hill was upon us. Chip was leading this time and made a successful trip down and over the stream. Lucky thinks his job is to be right at Chip’s rear end. He impatiently waited my signal to start the down hill descent. His first muddy, rock strew hill and he trotted down it while I screamed silently. We argued while going down the hill which slowed him down somewhat. We arrived alive at the stream and walked through the mud and water. Whew!

That’s when I remembered about inexperienced trail horses.

A good trail horse is supposed to have the head down and watch where they are stepping. Lucky Star did pick that skill up about half way out. His thought was just to plow thru ditches, mud and rocks like they didn’t exist. Lucky Star is very sure-footed, thank goodness.

There were pleasant times where Lucky Star was self piloted and slowed down when the horse in front of him slowed down instead of wanting to run into their rear. He really did well at that.

Lucky Star waded through all the mud water crossings without leaping. That was really really nice.

Then the muddy uphill ravine was upon us. It’s a narrow trail much deeper than the landscape. The trail is muddy. It’s muddy on the trail and the on the sides. The landscape is brushy. You can’t avoid going thru the muddy ravine. By this time Lucky Star had learned to dislike the sucking mud. So we went up the ravine’s side. Lucky Star was trying to get out of the ravine onto the high ground, even though there was no room for a horse. So we ended up climbing the muddy wall of the ravine. That made me a little bit emotional as I pictured us falling sideways. Thank the Lord on Easter Day to get through that patch.

Oh yes, the tree. We were standing on the trail. I went next to Carol to hand her my GPS. We went between her and a big branchy cedar tree. It was not my idea to ride into the thick branches of the tree. I handed Carol my GPS and then Lucky Star and I disappeared into a tree. That was fun too.

We went 4 muddy miles today. Lucky Star did fantastic on his first hilly and muddy trail. He’s a horse of anyone’s dreams.

Next week is arena riding to work on perfecting his gaits and getting a canter going. Yee Haw

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Goals

My groundskills Goal for Lucky: Move out immediately when asked. All I want is a snappy 2 or 3 foot depart (Lucky footsteps) .

Lucky Star’s goal in an arena: Nap or stare around at interesting things. Lucky Star could be a great teacher of how to stay ground tied.

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If convinced that he should move, Lucky Star’s favorite speed would match that of a tortoise.

My goal is “snappy”.

I think it was about 3:00 this afternoon when I finally realized how to ask and get snappy.
If you see me around, ask me to demonstrate the “make my self get big” move.
Lucky Star is moving out snappy now.
He even jumped over barrels late this afternoon
If course he was mentally exhausted at the end of the clinic and needed a nap before going home. He whined about his neck being cold, so I let him wear my vest. That is the picture that ended the clinic.

Lucky Star and Wed Group Lesson Night at Pine Dell Farm

Lucky Star is enrolled in Wednesday night group lesson with Karen Moulis at Pine Dell Farm. Group lessons are great experience for horses and people too.  For one thing, horses get used to other horses zipping around going all directions.  When Lucky Star and I go into the show ring, he’ll think it’s pretty tame compared to a group lesson.

Lucky Star keeps getting better and better every time I ride him.  He had all the impulsion I wanted tonight.  He did everything asked of him and he was one tired little pony when it was all over. I’m so grateful to Jenny and Tony Vaught for his training.

We had quite a great ground game where all the people walked around the arena, sending their horses around them at a trot.  People walked forward while horses circled their humans.  It was quite an adventure for Lucky Star to maintain his gait.  When we were done, he was sweating.  It took a lot of effort for him to understand, “Do Not Stop”.

We rode.  The next game was musical barrels. This was a little different from musical chairs. Everyone has a barrel and the barrel has a treat on it.  Horses really really like this game.

Our next game was tag. We all carry horseman sticks…carrot sticks, etc.  One person is “it” and they have to tag someone on their thigh.  Sadly, there was a lot of cheating going on.  People tried to pretend they weren’t “it”.  People blocking  a horse so “it” could tag their rider.  People “it” sneaking up on you.  Oh the indignity.  Lucky Star had enough impulsion that when I got tagged as it, I could actually catch a rider and tag them.  Oh he’s getting better at moving forward off my leg.

He’s so  much fun to ride.  His body stays squarely underneath my body.  He is short and cute!

Remember, he’ll probably be for sale after I ride him at the World Celebration.  He belongs to Teresa and Junior Osborn.

Tomorrow is our first trail ride at James A Reed!

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