Happy Halloween! 

I was M's only lesson today.  The kiddies all begged off to go beg for candy.  I don't feel the need to beg for treats; I just steal them from co-workers.

Because it was just me, we dusted off Doc and I had a longe line lesson.  I get little shivers when I think about having to suffer through one of these.  I'm not so bad at the trot, but when we speed up to the canter, I start getting really worried about coming off and eating dirt.  I managed to stay on the entire lesson, but parts of it were pretty darned ugly.  My transitions from canter to walk need some serious work.  My inside leg creeps up at the canter, making my seat very unstable.  M told me it just takes more time in the saddle to fix these flaws.

After sitting Doc's bumpy, lopsided gaits, I have to say that I am really beginning to appreciate Blondie's smooth steps.

Ah, the view from behind a driving horse is always, er, interesting. Sometimes dangerous, too!  And, in addition to learning a little more about your horse's bowel movements than you'd ever wanted to know, you constantly have dirt kicked into your face!  Plus, if your pony gets really pissed at you, you're right in the line of fire if he decides he's had enough of you tailgating behind him.

I'm so glad Blondie doesn't act like this when I try to bring her in for our lessons!

We had a fairly good lesson tonight.  Blondie was feeling a little lazy; it must be all of that walking around she gets to do now.  Her turnout is in a 5 acre pasture, and it must seem quite roomy after being cooped up in her stall.  Lily, DeeDee, and Xena share her new digs.

Amber rode with me tonight, and as we were trotting, M would have us trot circles along the rail, or reverse, making a teardrop pattern.  Then we practiced the UPHA pattern, which is a serpentine.  Amber was having a few problems with it, but I think it's because she was confused about what the pattern was supposed to look like.  Blondie was able to complete it with only a little trouble.  She was actually very good when we were waiting for our turn.  Normally she won't stand still, but she did tonight, for the first time.

When I took her back to see her buddies in the field, they raced over the gate and greeted her as though she had been gone for a few months, instead of for an hour.  It's good to know that they are getting along.

Little kids and horses always look cute

It was freezing this morning!  Literally.  32 degrees at 8 am.  I started feeling very guilty, as last night was Blondie's first full night outside.  Hope she doesn't resent me too much. 

Kim went out to the pasture to help me catch Blondie, which turned out to be anticlimactic.  The horse walked right up to her (I am not as nimble as she is, and was still in the process of clambering over the rail).  The biggest problem was getting out of the pasture without Lily following right along behind us.  Tina is calling them the Bobbsey Twins, but they are more like Siamese twins. 

Both of Blondie's eyes remembered about the back door, and she wasn't scared of it at all.  Yeah!  Hope they remember about it tomorrow, too.

I had a good ride, which consisted mostly of cantering.  Oh, and trying for a nice flat walk.  That wasn't happening today.  Blondie was jigging to her own beat, and she kept falling out of the canter.  Right when I had her at a nice, easy pace, she pooped out.  Then she'd race down the rail when I cued her again, and quit again, which only made the cantering prolonged, as M wouldn't let her tell us when she was finished.  Needless to say, she had to stand in a stall with a cooler, while I watched another lesson.  She wasn't really all that hot, but I wasn't about to take her while she was still damp.

At the Ludington show, they had a jumping class for Morgans. There were only 2 entries, and I missed the first. Next summer I want to go to a hunter show so I can practice taking pics of the jumping.

Yesterday's lesson was really fun!  Before I got on, M had me walk Blondie around the two jumps that were set up in the middle of the arena.  The previous lesson was a jumping lesson with Jimmy.  I walked Blondie up to the jumps and let her sniff them and check them out.  She was very skittish, and highly suspicious of them.  I tried to reassure her that they wouldn't just leap up and eat her, but I don't think she believed me.

Then M dragged one ground pole and set it in the middle of the arena.  While she dismantled the rest of the jumps, she had me walk Blondie over the pole, making sure to let her inspect it when she stepped over it.  Blondie wasn't at all sure about walking over that scary white thing in the beginning, but after a few times, she hardly paid it any attention.

Before I hopped on, I asked M to point out Blondie's conformation faults.  To me, she is perfectly arranged, so I wanted to know how she compared to others of her breed.  M pointed out that the angles of her shoulders are a little too straight, and that her neck is short and too thick.  Her eyes are slightly small.  However, she has a nice set of hocks.  If her front-end was a nice as her back-end, she'd be a really nice horse.  With a shorter neck, she can't crank back her head as easily, and her shoulder angles makes it harder for her to trot over level.  Some of the things they didn't like about her motion when she first arrived have been fixed by D changing the way she is shoed.  M then mentioned that she would make a nice brood mare.  Since I'm not ready to be a grandma, she'll just have to keep her day job, which is basically being at my beck and call.

When I got on, M had me trot around, and then take Blondie down the middle over the ring, over the ground pole.  At first I let her duck out away from it, but the second time around she hopped over it.  We did that a few times, until she wasn't so skittish about going over it.  M said that if we can get her used to the ground poles, there are some balance exercises we can work on with them. 

Then we went on to the rail work. Blondie was being a total spaz.  She kept spooking at the end of the arena, where the light comes in from under the door.  After almost two years of being exposed to the same thing, she's still scared to death of it!  It was really hard getting her to canter by the door, and we were both hot and tired by the end of the lesson.

This is DeeDee. She is supposed to be a saddle seat horse, but she's much happier being a hunter.

Another exhausting day! And then Blondie was soaked when we were finished with the lesson. I walked her about 20 minutes, and she was still hot! In addition to the bitter cold, I hate winter because it takes so long to cool the horses out. I didn't get home until much later than normal, so I'll blog about the lesson tomorrow.

Ok, so Audie looks really happy, but Gio looks less than thrilled. In fact, he looks like he could bite the next person to cross his path!

Last night's lesson was very challenging.  We worked on first trotting, then cantering, spirals.  The exercise is to help the horse become more elastic, and to help the rider learn to better maneuver their horse.  Starting with a large circle, you trot or canter successively smaller circles, and then gradually make them bigger.  Blondie wasn't bad at the trot, though she was stiff and didn't really bend, but the canter was not a pretty sight.  We almost mowed down the instructor!  M said that this is a good exercise for both Blondie and me.  Blondie needs to learn how to bend, and it will help me better understand how to move her around.

Lily at the Ludington Horse Show

For some reason, I'm exhausted today! I'll blog about my riding lesson tomorrow.

Blondie in the Freedom class in Ludington. She looks like a pointer.

No horsey news today, but I did go to the eye doctor's for my annual check-up.  My vision has been causing me some problems, especially when I read or stare stupidly at the computer screen for long periods of time.  Resigned that I needed bi-focals, I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that I don't.  Nope!  Instead, my prescription was too strong, going from -5.00 to -4.50.  Weird that my vision is improving as I get older.  Maybe I'll have 20/20 by the time I'm 50

D warming up devilish Gio at Ludington

Today was another freakishly warm day. I think it's the last, however, as the forecast calls for temps to drop to the 50s. Boohoo. I hate the cold.

We worked at transiting from the trot to a walk, and then halting.  Blondie hates to stand still, so this is really hard for her.  M told me to work on just walking straight lines, like diagonally across the arena, or transitions.  Just simple stuff to get Blondie paying attention.  I wasn't feeling very confident at the canter today, and was told that I am gripping too tightly with my knees and not letting my legs hang down.  It seems to me that the force of gravity should pull them down, but no, they constantly creep upwards.  Grr!

Blondie was a little sluggish, which, I was told, is from her running for hours with her new buddy, Lily.  I was told that she is the easiest going horse of the bunch, which is really hard to believe.  Her new pasture buddies are DeeDee, Lily, and Xena.  Ruby is going to be sold, so I hope she doesn't get too attached to her.