Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sunday at the Barn - Rachel and Grandma and Arabian Horse AND Mom!


I know I said that next I was going to post about Rachel and Grandma and Arabian Horses at Pacific Rim BUT after the day we had at the other barn today, I really thought I would post today first. I don't get the opportunity to include Colleen often so I want to do so.

This morning I meet Rachel at the barn so we could work horses. When I arrived, she had Dandy almost all tacked up and ready to go. But since I wanted Rachel to help me with the other horses, I didn't want to start off with Dandy. Rachel can take all day to cool him out and not have any time left to help me at all. She's good at figuring out how to get out of work in other words. So I had her put a cooler on the Arabian horse and tie him in his stall once he was tacked up.

From there I had her tack up horses for me while I worked them. The first three were all put into a surcingle so that I could ground drive them. We have a couple of surcingles, so I could be working one while Rachel groomed and tacked up the next one. After she was done tacking up those three, then I needed Legs saddled as well.

We started off with Vee (Scandalous Love by Scandalous Legacy and out of Krugorrs Heiress) Vee is green broke, very green. She was scared pretty badly by some people trying to teach a horse to deal with noise on aluminum bleachers at the park near home.
Now when she is worried about something, she bucks. So before I get back on her I am doing a lot of ground driving. The barn is new to her and she is easily intimidated so she bucks. I scold her with my voice and push her forward through the bucking. Hopefully, this will alleviate the bucking response.

The mare really wants to please. She loves the attention that goes with being worked and she was good today. She bucked a single buck about three different times but did no strings of bucking. That is good.

Next, I worked Hope (Scandalous Hope by Scandalous Legacy and out of Ballyhoohoo) followed by Reflection (Scandalous Reflections by Scandalous Legacy and out of Krugorrs Heiress). Both of these horses are being readied to be started under saddle.

Reflection had about 4 rides on him last fall but that was only because I had help at the time not because I was really ready in the process I prefer for young horses. Sometimes I put mounting ahead of groundwork for just this reason.

However, currently, I am doing ground driving with both of these horses. Hope I am bridling up high because she really wants to stay up there while Reflection wants to roll over and bridle low. Both are only in the beginning stages of ground driving. They are learning to go forward, change gaits, stop and turn for change of direction.

By the time I had gotten to Reflection, Colleen had arrived at the barn. Colleen loves the horses every bit as much as Rachel. Only Colleen works her butt off for the U S Postal Service as a substitute mail carrier so that Rachel can afford to do this thing.

As a sub, Colleen doesn't get to pick when she wants to sub, she is on call six days a week and sometimes she delivers more than one route a day.Currently they are short on subs and have a couple of regular carriers out. That means Colleen is working a minimum of twelve hour days. Then she comes to the barn so Rachel can get her barn work done. Sometimes they don't get home until after 9 pm.

To be continued............


8 comments:

  1. I know you're busy and have lots going on, but could you maybe identify the horses (and people) in your pictures? Especially when it's not a picture that directly relates to your post. Does your blog software have a captioning capability?

    Also, what the H*** is meme? It's not for nothing that I'm Notablogger...

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  2. Sorry, but I don't understand bridling up high or low. I would love an explanation if it isn't too boring for the rest of your readers.
    I wish you could fly down and give me a lesson!

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  3. Blogger doesn't allow me to put a caption underneath my pictures. I have spent hours trying to figure out how to do it and still haven't gotten it done. Getting the darn thing centered under the picture should be easy but it isn't.

    Usually I try and post a picture that goes with the post. This one is Rachel working on her exercises with Dandy.
    What is meme?

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  4. Molly, I wish I had pictures to help with this but working with the horses and talking the pictures just doesn't work for me. lol But I will try and add some in the future.

    But in the meantime, Hope, when she feel pressure on the corners of her mouth from the bit wants to hold her head and neck up high like say an english horse would go up high. That would put her neck almost straight up, then she would flex at the poll as just her head would roll into position for the bridle.

    For Reflection, when he feels the pressure, he wants to drop his head and neck down. His neck archs over and his head is about level with his back.

    I am starting a slug of young horses right now (or that's how it feels anyway lol). I am going to post about that process from the beginning with the youngsters that I have done nothing with up to now.

    I hope to get Rachel to take pictures to go along with those posts. But, as always, I won't be starting those posts for a while.I have a schedule in my mind I'm trying to get done. But it will be this winter sometime.I promise.

    I wish I could fly down too, I think it's much warmer there! I'm freezing my tush off here. lol

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  5. Well, OK... Thanks for the info on meme...it sounds like a chain letter to me. But I see the difference. As for the captioning, it's too bad that it's so mystifying. When your story is about several horses, and you show a picture of a mare and foal, it's hard (for me) to figure out that it's Heiress? and this year's colt? last year's colt? Which year's colt?

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  6. notablogger, the mare and foal from yesterday's post were Aana and Patriot.

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  7. You may be able to put a caption on your photo itself with photo editing software. I was able to do it once and never was able to do it again, but it can be done.

    I feel so for Rachel's mom, working so much so her daughter can ride. Wow. But it's not for forever -- and the memories will last forever.

    Horses are so good for girls. Of all ages.

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  8. Anne, that would be great if I had photo editing software and knew how to use it. LOL I really am inedpt with the computer.

    I do have optimizing software that makes the photos less dense so they take less time to load. I crop my pictures there but that's about all it lets me do.

    Rachel has promised to teach me about photo software but I have no idea when that might happen.

    Personally, I think it's really dumb that blogger doesn't have a little button to push to add the darn caption. They're the computer geniuses, right??

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