Tag: horses

I was at the store (Fun n Games) a few days ago and somehow it came up, how cool it would be to have Magneto’s powers. I figured that having them around the barn would be even nicer as it would allow me to open and close gates without having to actually be there.

But then I started paying more attention to the things I do around the barn and how many of them could be done with some handy magnetic powers.

All of the doors in the barn could be unlatched and slid open or closed  allowing me to do so from across the barn in order to let horses out or keep them in their stalls for turn-in and turn-out.

As said before, all of the gates to the paddocks and pastures could be opened and closed. Little tugs on the horses’ halters could have them come in and go out without them actually having to be led.

Fences could be repaired and maintained with a bit of metal bending, perhaps even removing rust. (Dunno if Magneto could do that, doubt the all powerful mutant would ever bother.)

Some halters with metal in the proper places could actually go out and put themselves on horses’ heads, allowing me to bring in the horses I needed for lessons without having to go into the field.

Finding thrown horseshoes in the pasture would be trivial.

Picking up leftover scraps from the farrier would be likewise.

The tractor is entirely metal and so I could run that with the spreader or water the arena with no need to actually be on it.

After thinking about it, the power would be much more useful than I would’ve thought.

So when I first got my horse, Tori, she was extremely underweight. Her previous owner was going to have a baby by the end of the month and apparently feeding the horse had fallen a bit by the wayside. Well now that she’s in Deb’s barn, she’s been getting plenty of food to put weight on all the right places and she’s really starting to look great again. I’ve also just started framing her, and this is maybe a week in on that.

So ever since I was a kid, I wanted a horse. When I was in high school I was able to pay for lessons for maybe a two year period. I loved the time there and I even planned on going to college for equestrian studies. That fell though and I went to college for computer science, but I digress.

For a long time, one of my life goals was to eventually have a horse. For some reason I always assumed I would have to have a yard big enough for the horse to live, and have my own little barn. I think because the cost of boarding a horse seemed so daunting. While in college that dream drifted away.

It wasn’t until we moved back to Blacksburg that I even got back into horses. The miracles that led me to a job at Advantage Ranch then seemed to continue into getting me my own horse.

One of the riders at the barn, Rachel, has always been very nice and expains things that I still have not yet learned about horses. When I found out how much a made, show worthy stock horse would cost, I knew I’d never be able to afford it. She suggested that maybe I get a foal and raise it, which would spread out the costs instead of a lump sum.

So I started, not very seriously, looking for a foal on dreamhorse.com. I found some cute ones, as I really didn’t know what else to look for at the time, but I shied away from ever actually going to Deb and saying “Would you find me a horse?” Mostly I was unwilling to get a horse for myself while I was not bringing anything monetarily to the household.

Eventually I found a pretty colt, almost leopard, for a decent price and the ad had up four generations of his genealogy. I thought there might be some decent breeding in there (I mean if they bothered to post it) so I sent it to Deb.

She brought me in to talk about it, and while that colt ended up being nothing special at all, I happened to be in the office when in the process of looking for a horse for another client, her contact mentioned a mare that was for sale. Her owner was having a baby and selling her. Her sire was All Hands on Zip, a rather prestigious stallion that is also the sire of Rachel’s mare, Ella.

The price was the top of my price range, but still within it, so I asked for more information over the next few days. She ended up being a ridiculously colored 10-year old who had been shown and even earned some points (meaning she placed) in events in which I was interested.

Matthew eventually agreed to the purchase, and it ended up that Deb’s brother was going to Florida (where she lived) on a business trip, so even getting her home ended up being much cheaper than it could have been.

Deb was impressed with her when she saw her, the vet exam went fabulously and a week ago, Tori arrived home.

And on top of all of the things that fell into place to bring this mare home to me, Deb has offered to teach me to teach beginner lessons so that I can even have a little bit of an income. It won’t be much, but it will be actual money. And in working there I am paying off her board and for my lessons so except for the fact that it’s freaking 20 degrees every day, I am entirely happy with my life.

Pictures:

Pictures from her old mommy:
Riding
All the color

Picture once she arrived:
Bad lighting

She is not used to the cold:
Cold

So my next step with Maggie has been Setting up, which is when you move a horse’s hooves so they are in a box. This shows off a horse in their best position and is apparently when, during a horsemanship routine, the judge comes over to look at the horse? Not perfectly clear on what the judge is doing the rest of the time yet, but I’m sure he/she knows, so I won’t worry about it.

This is actually something I learned way back when I started, but my first few (failed) attempts I was trying to make Maggie move her feet with only the little movements that Morgan and Deb can make, and of course Maggie would just ignore me. Once I was reminded that, as a beginner I should over exaggerate my signals I began getting a response, and am slowly working my way down to smaller signals. Though it it worth noting that Morgan told me to avoid ever trying to move the back right leg (on my left) unless the other three were perfect because it’s the hardest to move. I had noticed that by trying on several occasions. I think I will take her advice. 🙂

In other news, Becca rode Homerun today. She is thinking of buying him and wanted to try him out. Also, Nora has gone MIA to New Jersey. Not sure exactly what’s going on there, but I expect to be doing MWF mornings on my own for a while. Blah.

So recently we got a new horse in the barn named Scarlett. She’s solid brown with a flaxen mane and tail. She’s rather skiddish, and I’ve heard that several people had her charge past the wheelbarrow to escape the stall when it was being mucked out.

Today after I watched Rachael, Najerri (I know I spelled it wrong, but at least I know what her name is now.) and Morgan ride, Deb did some training with Scarlett in the round pen.

She ran her around and used a long rope (I forget what they called it.) to have her halt when she called out ‘ho’. After that Deb tried to join up with her, but Scarlett seemed to be too unsure of it. She stood and watched Deb, but didn’t make any attempts to go to her. Deb ended up eventually making her way to Scarlett, moving up whenever the mare looked away from her.

When I got home I did some research on Rocky Mountain Horses, which are an extremely hardy breed that was developed in the mountains of Kentucky. They are gaited horses (have an extra gait from the time they are born.) and apparently the “silver” gene is a trait, which is why they almost all have the flaxen mane and solid body.

Apparently poor Scarlett has trust issues because the the breed is supposed to be extremely loyal, like dogs. Thus the fact that she didn’t join up with Deb is unusual for the breed and is probably attributed to something that happened in her past. Hopefully she’ll feel better with some good, solid training.

Still having problems with Maggie just being ahead of me when I stop. She’s been doing pretty well stopping exactly when I do, but I’m still ending up behind her neck. It’s frustrating me, so today I did some laps without a horse seeing if I could figure out why I kept ending up behind. I didn’t come up with much.

In a month Carol (I realize now I never asked for a last name.) is going to be coming to give a clinic at the barn. Since I’m not riding yet, I would only be in the horsemanship part. I’m rather excited about the prospect, and the cost isn’t totally prohibitive, though it isn’t a nominal amount either. Plus even if I’m not in everything, I can still sit and watch. I’m learning tons around the barn just by doing this, so I’m actually still excited to just watch as well. I wonder if she’d let me tape it. I guess I could always ask. Worst thing, she just says no.

I also finally got my camera to the barn. Got some pictures of the horses who get turned out every day. It was a beautiful day, so I hope they turned out. I’ll see if I feel like posting them later.

So for this lesson Deb taught me the trot. It consists of lowering your body, crouching almost and jogging forward while keeping the top part of your body straight and hands still.

It feels kind of weird in a silly way, but Maggie responded immediately to it. My particular problem seems to be in that I kind of straighten back up a bit as I move, meaning when it’s time to go back to a walk, I don’t have much place to go back up to.

I’m still having issues with stopping. I practiced such that I don’t take an extra large step when I’m stopping which caused Maggie to think I was continuing forward, but it seems to be an issue that my arm is too long. I can’t have my hand beside her jaw and stand at the right place at her neck unless I have my elbow beside me instead of in front like I was told to.

I was getting rather frustrated about it as I keep being too far back even if Maggie stops right when she’s supposed to. I started dropping my elbow back even though I’m not really supposed to so I can try and stay in the right spot better.

Then today Morgan came out with Money and did some horsemanship. I’m not sure if it was for my benefit or not, but it was nice to see it up close again now that I know what to look for. The way she stops is something I really would like to aim for. She kind of leans back just a bit as she steps into her final place. Money still overshot her a few times, which made me feel a little better about my own failures. She also did a perfect haunch turn that made me extremely jealous. I haven’t tried that in a few weeks but I still remember the disaster that was my trying it.

Dill behaved himself today, which is the first time I’ve seen him do so. I also got his story.

More terminology: Leg yields, half pass

I’m working on my own posture now. Putting my shoulderblades together, which of course sticks out my chest, which is something I have avoided. That and my back is really weak so holding my shoulders back gets tiring really quickly.

I also seem to be thinking about stopping too much and tend to take a larger step when I am about to stop, which confuses Maggie. So I worked without her on Wednesday (Tuesday Deb couldn’t make lessons.)

Despite it being hard, I am enjoying it. Not always thrilled to get up in the morning, but once I get there my mood improves. The next step is working on losing weight and getting in better shape. Of course it won’t be easy, but after the doctor’s appointment tomorrow that I need to not forget, it’s my next goal.