Women and Horse Expo – Versatility Three Day Challenge

October 12, 2008Posted inMissouri Fox Trotter, Velvet
I arrived at the Sedalia fair grounds and got Velvet into her new stall home for the weekend.  I met the “Paint Sisters” and their horses. We were chatting and one of them casually mentioned that they had won the Paint World first through fifth placings in dressage, jumping, rail work, etc, with both their horses.  I as bug-eyed at that. She went on to explain that they stopped showing and now into the Extreme Challenge contests. Their horses will swim, jump up or down anything, go anywhere and do…

Nova’s Notebook – Humbling Trailer Loading!

October 11, 2008Posted inNOVA
Yep, that's what horses do! I took Nova on her on her first trail ride today at James A Reed Park.  Hope was kind enough to ride with me.  When we first arrived at the park, a woman came over ..enthralled with Nova's beauty.  Of course I bragged about her just a smidgeon.  For the record, Nova did great on the trail.  Hope and Jazz were good partners to start my trail riding experience with Nova! The woman was still there when we got back..still enthralled. So, I couldn't resist bragging. I have…

Sue – How Do You Do at being an Onion?

September 27, 2008Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
Round pen canter success!  It took poles in the round pen.  I had them about 2" off the ground.  We clattered thru the poles at a pace and that undefined gait, we gaited horse people just love...the anti-rythym gait. We had some actual canter steps and we stopped before she broke out of the canter. I fed her a big Winnie's cookie crumb every time she cantered. Then I decided perhaps we could go for half a circle at the canter.  It took a while for us to canter at…

Sue How Do You Do trying to Canter!

September 24, 2008Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
The problem is that when I ask Sue to speed up enough to canter, she tightens her body in fear and we go into that wonderful gait that only gaited horse people know...the gait where every leg is out of sync with all the other legs.  It's called anti-rhythm. "Transitions," I thought.  We are having a hard time with transitions...even when I ask her to speed up just with a faint higher level of energy. First I thought that asking Sue to canter in the round pen would be the…

Nova’s Notebook – The Hat

September 23, 2008Posted inNOVA
What a good time I had tonight.  I rode two horses at Pine Dell tonight.  That means I got up early enough that I could work 8 hours and still have time to trailer my horses to Pine Dell and ride. That's a big day for me. Good times with good people! I came home so happy, whipped up my gormet peanut butter sandwich..after tearing the moldy corner off the bread.  I mixed the dog's fasttrak supplement in my water bottle and had a great meal.  But enough of my great…

Sue – How Do You Do -Still trying to Canter

September 14, 2008Posted inSue - How Do You Do!
The round pen has fairly deep sandy footing.  That's why Sue canters in there so well. Sue doesn't canter in the arena with me riding.  Oh maybe a step or two now and then when I have a pole for her to lift up her front end. When I ride her, she is still nervous when I put pressure on her to go faster.  If we are trotting and I put pressure on her to go faster, we disintegrate.  (Sue does a lot of disintegrating.) Occasionally I'll get a couple of canter…