You know what makes a girl (this girl, anyway) very, very happy and very, very proud?
This. [can't insert the picture because they won't let me!]
And this.
Long-time readers, recognize that face?
Yep, that's my Rhapsody girl! (Click here for all the stories...)
(And yes, I have been sleuthing the interwebs ever since I left that barn to try and figure out what became of her...)
Going off the bright new halter and the girl-riding-who-I-never-met, I'm guessing that's her new owner.
I'm going to go with that anyway.
Because if any of my ponies can sell on to a teenage girl who needs a friend and if they will let her play around in a halter bareback, then I'm very, very happy and proud!
Showing posts with label Rhapsody. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhapsody. Show all posts
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Blogging Is Great, and Rhapsody Is Too
So first I just want to say y'all are awesome. :) I have really been thrown into the deep end with this exercise riding/basic training; Coach has had to leave (did I say that already?) so I don't get her on-site expertise, and while Instructor D is happy to have me ride, neither she nor anyone else wants to ride or really even touch (lol) the babies. So I am very very much on my own with not a great deal of training in how to train--about six months with the Coach.
I'm not complaining; if you'll tell me how to swim, or if I can figure it out myself, I learn best just getting thrown in over my head. I love the challenge, and it's a fantastic way to build saddle time for free! But sometimes a bit of commiseration, even in the virtual world, is very nice. :) When people have more ideas and/or experience than I do, so much the merrier!
(Everyone at the barn just seems to think I have more guts than brains. Which is most likely true...teehee...)
Yesterday I rode Rhapsody. She was really very good for having had about a week and a half off--even let me get on bareback off the fence! I groomed her a little at the car, rode her bareback up to the barn, gave her another quick once-over, put the tack on, did a walk/trot ride in the arena, and then rode her back out to the pasture again. Brought the tack back up in my car. Yay cars! Haha. It worked well and gave me nearly an hour of ride time instead of the 20 minutes I might have had otherwise. We worked a little over poles. She went nicely over a ground pole, but when we raised one end she thought very hard about running out. Second time was better though she was not what I'd call calm over it. We'll just have to rinse and repeat a lot, get her used to it, and move up the levels very slowly so she doesn't ever feel like she has to run out. She's an honest horse, not one to refuse just on basis of being naughty, so I think she'll end up going well. It'll just take a bit. She has come so so far though! Used to be she went crazy with just a couple days off.
Her pasture is next to a subdivision, and the horses have conned an older couple who live in a neighboring house into coming over to the fence and giving them alfalfa cubes every night before supper! Lol I happened in on it when I went to get her. Lovely couple, and I don't complain--they're helping put weight back on my ponies! :)
I'm not complaining; if you'll tell me how to swim, or if I can figure it out myself, I learn best just getting thrown in over my head. I love the challenge, and it's a fantastic way to build saddle time for free! But sometimes a bit of commiseration, even in the virtual world, is very nice. :) When people have more ideas and/or experience than I do, so much the merrier!
(Everyone at the barn just seems to think I have more guts than brains. Which is most likely true...teehee...)
Yesterday I rode Rhapsody. She was really very good for having had about a week and a half off--even let me get on bareback off the fence! I groomed her a little at the car, rode her bareback up to the barn, gave her another quick once-over, put the tack on, did a walk/trot ride in the arena, and then rode her back out to the pasture again. Brought the tack back up in my car. Yay cars! Haha. It worked well and gave me nearly an hour of ride time instead of the 20 minutes I might have had otherwise. We worked a little over poles. She went nicely over a ground pole, but when we raised one end she thought very hard about running out. Second time was better though she was not what I'd call calm over it. We'll just have to rinse and repeat a lot, get her used to it, and move up the levels very slowly so she doesn't ever feel like she has to run out. She's an honest horse, not one to refuse just on basis of being naughty, so I think she'll end up going well. It'll just take a bit. She has come so so far though! Used to be she went crazy with just a couple days off.
Her pasture is next to a subdivision, and the horses have conned an older couple who live in a neighboring house into coming over to the fence and giving them alfalfa cubes every night before supper! Lol I happened in on it when I went to get her. Lovely couple, and I don't complain--they're helping put weight back on my ponies! :)
Sunday, May 5, 2013
7 Habits
http://watapama.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/the-ten-habits-of-highly-effective-dressage-riders/
It says dressage riders, but I think it applies to everyone. Some thoughts for life in general, too. ;)
It says dressage riders, but I think it applies to everyone. Some thoughts for life in general, too. ;)
Thursday, May 2, 2013
A Funny Thing & a Choice
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| Boss mare says "Back off!" [image from Google] |
Not now! There are about 6 other horses in her field now, and every other time I see her, she is ordering someone else to move here, get over there, and most particularly, "Get out of my way so I can go see My Human" (a.k.a. me)!
Makes you feel loved anyway, in an odd sort of way. :P Once out of the pasture, and always when interacting with me, she is Ms. Perfect Manners.
I have made the decision not to even look at buying her. It was a hard choice to come to but I'm graduating in two years and have no idea where I might be going or what I might be doing or what my pay might be like. I would feel terrible to develop that close of a relationship for two years (because with her, it would be close, I know it) and then have to just sell her on because I couldn't keep her.
It hurts, yeah of course it does. I love that little horse. But it is a good thing to know where I'm headed. Now I can just focus on bringing her up to the best of our ability, and hope and pray the right person comes along to buy her. The time will come for me, it's just not right now.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Dose of Cuteness
Since I haven't had any pictures in close to forever, I thought I would give you this barrage of pictures of the Rhapsody.
Being scared someone would buy her, I took lots of pictures last week. Some of them actually turned out.
She is the most "yawn-ie" horse I have ever met!
THAT FACE!! Adfawelafjsdk I love this horse. I should stop putting up all these pictures. Somebody's going to buy her, and my heart's just going to get torn out. I keep scheming ways to make her seem terrible so nobody else will want her, but I'm coming up with fewer and fewer as time goes on! Two years. Two more years and I can buy her myself, hypothetically. Suppose I can keep her in training that long? Unlikely to say the least, I know...
Being scared someone would buy her, I took lots of pictures last week. Some of them actually turned out.
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| Practicing the cross-ties. "WHAT are you doing?!?" |
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| Oh look, the ears DO come up! |
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| "Umm...this isn't normal groundwork..." |
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| Yawn |
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| YAAWWWNNNN |
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| "Who, me? I'm just Miss Adorable..." |
Sunday, April 21, 2013
One Less Pony
Well Fringe sold yesterday! Pretty excited that my first project now has a home of her own!The folks who bought her were supposed to look at Rhapsody too, but apparently they didn't end up looking at her at all, they were taken enough with Fringe. I've no problem with that. ;)
Instructor D says that they had Rhapsody tied up at the barn for three hours during a very busy lesson time, though, and she was apparently fantastic with the kids and the bustle and everything. Yay yay girly!
Apparently she was hard to catch though. Bad girl. But I am not sure what to do with that as she is stuck like glue to me all the time. She whinnies and heads over to the gate as soon as she sees me approach the pasture. Sooo I don't know how to fix her catching issues myself. At least she is catchable.
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| And I still have this face to see :D |
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Untitled Post :)
Nothing incredibly new on the horse front. :) Apparently instructor D either forgot or decided not to watch us ride on Wednesday, so the girls and I were all by ourselves while her lessons worked in the big pasture and the jump arena. So I put in 45 minutes on Rhapsody, with a nice long walk warm up, a lot of trot, and some canter transitions. I started letting her reach down a fair ways, then gently holding the reins with an elastic contact, and frequently she stayed there "on" the bit (not really on the bit, but accepting it nicely) for several strides. Also discovered that her canter is "lofty" and free-moving enough that I may have been accidentally letting her canter on the wrong lead--just glancing down, you see front hooves on both sides! Oops! Of course I should be able to just feel for the leads, but I can't always. I make excuses that she's too unbalanced, and that's true, but still. I need to improve my feel for both diagonals and leads. But, first of all, make sure she's going on the right lead to begin with! We don't want to start bad habits on both our parts!
Rhapsody did, however, get a nice compliment from my friend R, who although two years younger than me, is a much better rider (or I think he is anyway), and a trainer in his own right. So I was pleased with that. I'm tickled to bits with her progress, but it's nice to hear that other people can see it too! I wonder if that trot will ever get old. I suppose when we "harness" her canter, that will be pretty amazing too, but right now it's a ways from getting harnessed in any way. ;) Think warhorse Arabian thundering across desert sands--flagging tail and all. Hehe silly goose. For now we ride it, and play with half-halts. Happily she just likes to go, and so we have almost no problems with bucking or otherwise goofing off in canter.
Surge got some groundwork and was very good until she spooked and then decided to put on her best snorty-fiery-halter-horse impersonation. Heh. So I turned her loose in the empty arena and told her to get it out of her system. She gallumphed around a bit, snorting at me whenever she stopped (why at me, silly girl, I'm not the one who spooked you!) and then I caught her and we did a bit more groundwork and went up to the barn without running over anyone. I'm still on the fence about how to best get her to calm down--whether to encourage her to run and goof off and get it out of her system (when possible of course), or to focus on calm, steady, "staying-still" work. I'll just have to experiment with it I guess. Probably some of both and I'll just have to figure out how much is too much on either count. Finding things to really keep her mind busy would help too I think.
Rhapsody did, however, get a nice compliment from my friend R, who although two years younger than me, is a much better rider (or I think he is anyway), and a trainer in his own right. So I was pleased with that. I'm tickled to bits with her progress, but it's nice to hear that other people can see it too! I wonder if that trot will ever get old. I suppose when we "harness" her canter, that will be pretty amazing too, but right now it's a ways from getting harnessed in any way. ;) Think warhorse Arabian thundering across desert sands--flagging tail and all. Hehe silly goose. For now we ride it, and play with half-halts. Happily she just likes to go, and so we have almost no problems with bucking or otherwise goofing off in canter.
Surge got some groundwork and was very good until she spooked and then decided to put on her best snorty-fiery-halter-horse impersonation. Heh. So I turned her loose in the empty arena and told her to get it out of her system. She gallumphed around a bit, snorting at me whenever she stopped (why at me, silly girl, I'm not the one who spooked you!) and then I caught her and we did a bit more groundwork and went up to the barn without running over anyone. I'm still on the fence about how to best get her to calm down--whether to encourage her to run and goof off and get it out of her system (when possible of course), or to focus on calm, steady, "staying-still" work. I'll just have to experiment with it I guess. Probably some of both and I'll just have to figure out how much is too much on either count. Finding things to really keep her mind busy would help too I think.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
New Challenge
Instructor D said that she would like to see me ride Rhapsody and Surge on Wednesday, and possibly take some pictures for Rhapsody's sale ads. (Boo... :'( lol) Me being me, I promptly freaked out that the girls would turn into crazy monsters on Wednesday, so yesterday (Monday) I did a "dry run," pulling them both out and hopping on without groundwork or any other such thing besides a thorough grooming.
Rhapsody lived up to her recent loveliness and was a star. We had a nice relaxed walk and quite a lot of stretchy"ish" trot. I'm going to have to start picking her nose up a little before she rubs it raw dragging it in the dirt! ;) Canter is still a work in progress; she knows not to scoot into it like she's leaving the starting gate, but she doesn't know how to transition to canter without scooting. So right now she trots incredibly fast for a long, long time, and then canters rather awkwardly and can't sustain it. Lol. We'll be working on those trot-canter transitions a lot more now that her trot is solid and relaxed. Also I need to work on giving to the bit and backing up. She doesn't back much and I think that's an important skill every horse should be able to do some at least. And she needs to learn to change "gears" in canter, instead of just going as fast as she possibly can. So lots to work on, but she is being really lovely about it.
Surge however is going to be my new challenge. :) She was okay at walk and trot--not relaxed per se, but not scooty or spooky--so I asked for a canter. She transitioned, took about two strides, and promptly bucked. Then she threw her head down, snaked it around, and kicked out/bucked some more before I grabbed her and informed her no mas of that. (Prior to that I was focused on staying on! lol) I brought her down to a trot, waited till she was a bit more relaxed, and tried again--same result. So I hopped off and lunged her to see if it was me doing something--nope, same thing. And I remembered that she'd done the same things without any tack on, so it wasn't a tack fit issue. Well well fun times. I got back on and did some more walk/trot without too much of an incident (just snaking her head around once or twice) and called it a day. Decided if instructor D wants to see her cantered on Wednesday, I can lunge her or D is quite welcome to canter her herself! ;)
Still pondering the best way to respond to that. A martingale of course is a quick fix for the head tossing, and I may yet do that just to help me stay on. But really she is just "pushing" me in all kinds of ways, in the saddle and out, so I think I need to do a lot more groundwork and walk/trot and work on respecting me. And forward work. She was occasionally balking at moving out even in trot. So we'll see just how to implement those ideas. Thoughts welcome. :) For myself, my stupid lower leg was all over the place yesterday. Argh! I tend to lean towards a "chair seat" and my leg has a mind of its own I believe. I need some good two-point, standing in the stirrups, and no-stirrups posting trot to get it back in control!
Rhapsody lived up to her recent loveliness and was a star. We had a nice relaxed walk and quite a lot of stretchy"ish" trot. I'm going to have to start picking her nose up a little before she rubs it raw dragging it in the dirt! ;) Canter is still a work in progress; she knows not to scoot into it like she's leaving the starting gate, but she doesn't know how to transition to canter without scooting. So right now she trots incredibly fast for a long, long time, and then canters rather awkwardly and can't sustain it. Lol. We'll be working on those trot-canter transitions a lot more now that her trot is solid and relaxed. Also I need to work on giving to the bit and backing up. She doesn't back much and I think that's an important skill every horse should be able to do some at least. And she needs to learn to change "gears" in canter, instead of just going as fast as she possibly can. So lots to work on, but she is being really lovely about it.
Surge however is going to be my new challenge. :) She was okay at walk and trot--not relaxed per se, but not scooty or spooky--so I asked for a canter. She transitioned, took about two strides, and promptly bucked. Then she threw her head down, snaked it around, and kicked out/bucked some more before I grabbed her and informed her no mas of that. (Prior to that I was focused on staying on! lol) I brought her down to a trot, waited till she was a bit more relaxed, and tried again--same result. So I hopped off and lunged her to see if it was me doing something--nope, same thing. And I remembered that she'd done the same things without any tack on, so it wasn't a tack fit issue. Well well fun times. I got back on and did some more walk/trot without too much of an incident (just snaking her head around once or twice) and called it a day. Decided if instructor D wants to see her cantered on Wednesday, I can lunge her or D is quite welcome to canter her herself! ;)
Still pondering the best way to respond to that. A martingale of course is a quick fix for the head tossing, and I may yet do that just to help me stay on. But really she is just "pushing" me in all kinds of ways, in the saddle and out, so I think I need to do a lot more groundwork and walk/trot and work on respecting me. And forward work. She was occasionally balking at moving out even in trot. So we'll see just how to implement those ideas. Thoughts welcome. :) For myself, my stupid lower leg was all over the place yesterday. Argh! I tend to lean towards a "chair seat" and my leg has a mind of its own I believe. I need some good two-point, standing in the stirrups, and no-stirrups posting trot to get it back in control!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Bareback
Rode Rhapsody bareback in a halter for the first time yesterday!
I was burned out and exhausted after the week and decided all I really wanted was to love on a pony. So I pulled Rhapsody out and after I groomed her up we did groundwork a while and then I got on bareback in the round pen.
She did super good really. I wish I had pictures! She didn't like the pressure from the rope halter--kept swishing her tail and pulling against it. Next time I'll try with a regular nylon one and see if that helps. But she stopped, turned, walked both ways, and was good. Afterwards I put a regular bridle on and rode her bareback down to her pasture. We met the farm owner on the Pony-Eating Gator of Death and though she jigged sideways and was jittery for a bit afterwards, we didn't have any major issues. Yay! One step closer to my goal of bareback and bridle-less! :)
I was burned out and exhausted after the week and decided all I really wanted was to love on a pony. So I pulled Rhapsody out and after I groomed her up we did groundwork a while and then I got on bareback in the round pen.
She did super good really. I wish I had pictures! She didn't like the pressure from the rope halter--kept swishing her tail and pulling against it. Next time I'll try with a regular nylon one and see if that helps. But she stopped, turned, walked both ways, and was good. Afterwards I put a regular bridle on and rode her bareback down to her pasture. We met the farm owner on the Pony-Eating Gator of Death and though she jigged sideways and was jittery for a bit afterwards, we didn't have any major issues. Yay! One step closer to my goal of bareback and bridle-less! :)
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Week's Rides
I have no idea why Blogger has decided I only want one post at a time on my blog! So frustrating!
Okay. For the training diaries. Last Friday I was feeling quite meh because of my sickness plus it was frigid cold. So I stayed home. This week though I have been out twice and hopefully going out again tomorrow. Monday it was frigid cold anyways! Felt like Christmas and my fingers just about came off!
However I did get quick rides in on Rhapsody and Surge, and a fair bit of groundwork with Surge. She was hyper and super distracted and all she wanted to do was gallop around, throw her head around, and stick her nose over the round pen to scream for her old friend in the next pasture over (who she never was really friends with anyways). Arrgh mares. However with a lot of groundwork on respecting and listening to me, she settled down to the point where I felt comfortable getting on and walking her round, bending both directions, and getting off. Must say I'm rather proud of myself for being able to work her through that. :) Rhapsody was very good; we did walk and trot and though she wasn't as relaxed and stretchy as last time, we still got some nice intermittent trot stretches and went by some scary things--the mounting block where it wasn't supposed to be, people walking around by the arena, and a clipboard on the side of the arena with papers blowing--with nothing more than a sidewise look and an attempt to give them a wide berth. She tried hard in a distracting environment and I was proud of her.
Wednesday was much warmer (thank heavens) and I just rode Fringe as I (thought I) had an evening appointment. Instructor D was giving a showmanship lesson, so staying out of the way of that kept us busy. We still managed some nice walk/trot work though, and then we went on a trail ride out almost to the river. Fringe was very good and only got nervous on the way back when one of the little girls was playing in the run-in sheds and chute area alongside the road. Can't say I really blame her for not being sure of that. We worked through it and she was good. Tomorrow it's back to Rhapsody and Surge again, provided it doesn't rain!
Okay. For the training diaries. Last Friday I was feeling quite meh because of my sickness plus it was frigid cold. So I stayed home. This week though I have been out twice and hopefully going out again tomorrow. Monday it was frigid cold anyways! Felt like Christmas and my fingers just about came off!
However I did get quick rides in on Rhapsody and Surge, and a fair bit of groundwork with Surge. She was hyper and super distracted and all she wanted to do was gallop around, throw her head around, and stick her nose over the round pen to scream for her old friend in the next pasture over (who she never was really friends with anyways). Arrgh mares. However with a lot of groundwork on respecting and listening to me, she settled down to the point where I felt comfortable getting on and walking her round, bending both directions, and getting off. Must say I'm rather proud of myself for being able to work her through that. :) Rhapsody was very good; we did walk and trot and though she wasn't as relaxed and stretchy as last time, we still got some nice intermittent trot stretches and went by some scary things--the mounting block where it wasn't supposed to be, people walking around by the arena, and a clipboard on the side of the arena with papers blowing--with nothing more than a sidewise look and an attempt to give them a wide berth. She tried hard in a distracting environment and I was proud of her.
Wednesday was much warmer (thank heavens) and I just rode Fringe as I (thought I) had an evening appointment. Instructor D was giving a showmanship lesson, so staying out of the way of that kept us busy. We still managed some nice walk/trot work though, and then we went on a trail ride out almost to the river. Fringe was very good and only got nervous on the way back when one of the little girls was playing in the run-in sheds and chute area alongside the road. Can't say I really blame her for not being sure of that. We worked through it and she was good. Tomorrow it's back to Rhapsody and Surge again, provided it doesn't rain!
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
She Stretches!!
Had a lovely ride with Rhapsody today. Nice because instructor D was there and she isn't so sure Rhapsody is all that great so I was hoping we would look halfway decent!
I tried something new today. I've been riding on a very light contact but last time Rhapsody went totally inverted on me, stuck her head in the air like a demented llama, forgot what "forward" meant, and I learned just what "hollow" feels like! It was awful! Today I went looking for the martingale but couldn't find it. So I purposely put a little loop in the reins and focused on my posture. I tried to only touch her mouth for steering or when she tried to break gaits, and focused on keeping my upper body tall and my shoulders back and down. We did a long walk warm-up and then moved into trot, trying to stay out of the way of instructor D's lesson. I posted steadily and tried to post my "hips through my hands," and when she sped up I tried to keep the image of riding as fast as she could move, so I wasn't tempted to touch the reins to slow her down.
The first bit was okay but nothing special. We did a couple big circles and some diagonal lines and finally were able to use the whole arena. And WAH-LAH! I had THIS!
Well okay not really but that's what it felt like compared to what I had last time! And she kept it up! She just kept stretching down and down and down over and over, both directions. At trot. She has never stretched down at trot before. I praised her lavishly every time and it was just like she realized, Hey, this feels good, I should try it again! And again! And again!
We did two or three laps of the arena in mostly-all-stretchy-ish trot. She would pull her head up a bit to look at spooky things, then drop her nose down again. And this with nothing special. No martingale, no neck stretcher, no nothing. I had her on a simple full-cheek snaffle and the Western saddle. That's all. It was awesome! After all that I asked her to walk, then stop (she's also starting to get the seat signals for down transitions, yay!), hopped off, and gave her lots of scratches and pets. She earned her grain tonight! What a good girl!
I tried something new today. I've been riding on a very light contact but last time Rhapsody went totally inverted on me, stuck her head in the air like a demented llama, forgot what "forward" meant, and I learned just what "hollow" feels like! It was awful! Today I went looking for the martingale but couldn't find it. So I purposely put a little loop in the reins and focused on my posture. I tried to only touch her mouth for steering or when she tried to break gaits, and focused on keeping my upper body tall and my shoulders back and down. We did a long walk warm-up and then moved into trot, trying to stay out of the way of instructor D's lesson. I posted steadily and tried to post my "hips through my hands," and when she sped up I tried to keep the image of riding as fast as she could move, so I wasn't tempted to touch the reins to slow her down.
The first bit was okay but nothing special. We did a couple big circles and some diagonal lines and finally were able to use the whole arena. And WAH-LAH! I had THIS!
Well okay not really but that's what it felt like compared to what I had last time! And she kept it up! She just kept stretching down and down and down over and over, both directions. At trot. She has never stretched down at trot before. I praised her lavishly every time and it was just like she realized, Hey, this feels good, I should try it again! And again! And again!
We did two or three laps of the arena in mostly-all-stretchy-ish trot. She would pull her head up a bit to look at spooky things, then drop her nose down again. And this with nothing special. No martingale, no neck stretcher, no nothing. I had her on a simple full-cheek snaffle and the Western saddle. That's all. It was awesome! After all that I asked her to walk, then stop (she's also starting to get the seat signals for down transitions, yay!), hopped off, and gave her lots of scratches and pets. She earned her grain tonight! What a good girl!
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