Ponying the Big Boy

I wanted to ride Roscoe, but he was already out in his night turn out. So I thought about riding him out there, but Ember was around and I had visions of him jumping on us. Well I solved the issue by deciding to pony Ember.

My mom was there and worked Ember on the line while I warmed up Roscoe. Roscoe decided that working in his turn out meant he could be lazy. I walked up to a tree and broke a branch off to be my whip. That was enough visual to get him working. Then the fun part came when mom brought Ember over.

"I am thinking evil thoughts"

Ember wanted to suck back so he could bite or jump on Roscoe. Roscoe wanted to stop and put Ember in his place. I had to keep Ember up by my leg and tell Roscoe to let me do the managing. Roscoe still was sticky especially when Ember bumped against us. Eventually, they worked out the walk.

Pardon his mud

Trot was another learning curve. Roscoe would not trot, but Ember would. Then Roscoe would and Ember would not. I had to pick up another stick to encourage Roscoe. Finally, they both trotted. We had to walk for downhills since Ember could not balance. Ember is so big that he would outpace Roscoe at times. Our baby is bigger than dad now.

Roscoe says "if I have to..."

The big boy

Hiding dad

No to downhill

Afterward, I let Roscoe move around without Ember. I think he was not happy his time was shared. Plus this was the first time he was on the other side of ponying. The last time he was ponied by DaVinci who he tried to jump on. Like father, like son.
They shared a haybag later, so I guess it was not to terrible to work together. Ember did enact all the evil thoughts I blocked during the ride on Roscoe when they were free. Luckily Roscoe is totally used to it by now.

I'm Changing His Name to Molasses

I think, just maybe, we might be on the right side of this horrible cold now. Hopefully, I can start getting everyone back into work. Rosemary has put on too much weight and could possibly give birth at any moment. Until she is working steady, she gets to spend the night in a stall with only her hay net. Ah well it lets the older horses have less competition for the good hay.

Anyway I have wanted to try ponying Ember, but needed to have an extra set of hands. Finally yesterday Peggy was available, so we nominated Comrade to be the babysitter. I started out with Ember to Comrade's right. Ember made baby faces so Comrade would not eat him and Comrade wondered why he was stuck with an extra attachment. At first Ember walked next to us, but gradually he lost ground. Seriously?? That baby has long legs and a huge walk. Nope I kept after him to keep up. Bless Comrade for not taking offense to the slacker.

I have to deal with this walking him in hand too. I think he believes his spot is at about the hip, when I would prefer him to be at the shoulder. When we halted, he was perfectly happy standing at Comrades shoulder. And chewing on my sneaker, the stirrup or the reins. Then when we walked he became molasses, dark, sticky and slow. I decided to try him on the left, but he quickly said that was not an option.
Going back to him on the right, I put the lead line around Comrade's neck to keep the pull off me. Then I said what the hell and asked for trot. Poor Comrade would jog, hit the dead weight on the lead and stop. So confused. We persevered and after a few jump starts and stops, we achieved trot. By the end Ember was trotting right by Comrade on a nice circle. What started out rough ended on a great note.

Even better was that when Peggy hopped on Comrade for a walk in the woods, Ember was better about respecting my space. Normally he is bad about leaning into me. He had a couple of baby tantrums which earned him a hind end yielding session when Comrade was far ahead. To date though it was the best leading walk he has ever had. I think the ponying helped him with space and keeping pace. I definitely see more in his future.

Multi Tasking

So, I have been on vacation for a week now. There has been rain. More rain and then more rain. We finally got some sunshine over the last couple of days. I took advantage of the good days to get some rides in. Monday, I rode Comrade who was very energetic after his time off and no longer bumpy. I just brought the bareback pad since I was not sure how the footing would be. Well, I got a workout riding the go go pony. I would do lateral work, but as soon as I straightened him off he would go again. I finally added the jumps that were still set up from the gymnastic. That got him thinking especially since we had to come at an angle. That boy figured it out and handled it great. I only did two in a row after he was in the working frame of mind. I love when they can take a break and pick back up like they had worked the day before.
At my barn I was itching to ride, but did not want to risk my older horses checking the footing. By default, Rosemary was up. This was also my first solo ride with both dogs. I put them on the buddy leash and counted on Griffyn to keep Deliah away from the horse. That went well. Plus the footing was great. Rosemary got a chance to walk out after days of mincing through mud. Even that short ride refreshed me. It is amazing what days of dreary clouds can do.

Sunshine finally

 Today brought clouds, but I was determined to ride again. I had hoped Peggy could come ride with me. She ended up getting my message too late. Oh well, at least Comrade would get worked by her. My plans to ride more than one of my horses was shot to hell when I went to do Jenna's feet. I let her eat her food while I worked on her hind feet. That kept her occupied and cooperative. Unfortunately by the time I got to rounding her toes, she was not standing still any more. When I corrected her, she overreacted. Lately that is her normal response. I guess the girls did more than we knew. So I told her if she wanted to move, then she would move. I backed her, lunged her and waited for her to figure out standing was a good idea. It took a couple of sessions, but I was finally able to finish her feet. During all this, I saw where the abscess blew out. Talk about ugly.

Well after Jenna killed my time, I decided to ride Dottie. Mostly because she was the least muddy. Then as I groomed her I thought about Rosemary. And to continue my multi tasking, I decided to pony Rosemary. The logistics of getting on Dottie while holding Rosemary... complicated. The actuality of it... a near failure. Even with a big mounting block I have to hop to get on Dottie bareback which combined with Rosemary pushing her, freaked Dottie a bit. After a "you will be okay" patting session we were able to start walking. Then came the "you are suppose to follow" conversation with Rosemary. Super tough for Miss Giant Stride to adjust to Dottie's lesser stride, but she did it. My girls were even able to trot together. I found using the driving directions helped me lead Rosemary. We did circles, went over poles and changed directions.
The biggest problem I ran it to: NOT ENOUGH SUGAR CUBES
I only pocketed enough for one horse. They each got a carrot when we got back to the barn.
At least my vacation has not been a total lost cause. Let's hope the rest keeps getting better.

My Super Girls

Tiny Terror Rises again

So, I think Roscoe is going through another phase. The "Its always rough house play time" phase is not great for humans. My sister fed the horses for us last night and ran into the same issue I did. Roscoe refused to let her leave and tried to play with her by rearing. She did get away with the help of canine distraction.
Today mom and I decided he needed work. I put the bareback pad on DaVinci and mom brought the Brat out to the arena. Ponying lesson #2.
He decided that DaVinci and I made really good moving targets. I had to multitask: ride DaVinci, direct them both, and beat off the baby. Have I mentioned that DaVinci is worth his weight in gold? All during the Roscoe attacks he just kept walking and listening to me. Occasionally he would give a good swish of his tail and tell Roscoe to behave.
After Roscoe nearly pulled me off, we tied the leadline around DaVinci's neck. I also picked up a short whip to keep him off of us both. That worked great for a while. Then Roscoe would hang back and try to rear up onto DaVinci. Thank goodness I do a lot of riding bareback, because he tested all my skills. We did get some peaceful moments and ended the lesson there.
Then he tried to pull the rotten pony routine on mom as she was leading him. Ha, jokes on him. Mom chased his butt around. All the way back to the barn, mom had to move him around. I swear that sweet face hides a devious mind.
DaVinci got a big carrot for his patience and cooperation. Roscoe not worried at all over his activities, cocked a leg in his stall and went to sleep.
We are hoping this behavior is just 8 month old testing us and not hormones starting to show. Any ideas?

Great Long Weekend

Well I already told about how well Saturday went, so I will move on to Sunday. Weather forcasted rain and/or snow all day on Sunday. When I left the house it was grey but no precipitation. I went to Peggy's barn first and did a bareback ride on Comrade. The great feeling from Saturday's ride was still there. Also still there, the German Shepherd nipping at his hocks. In the end we all survived, especially the dog.

Then it was on to my barn. I chose to ride the opinionated young girl first. She is very good at stomping her feet when she does not understand a concept.

Hmm, anything in the bucket?

Bending and softening while traveling straight is tough for her. Mom and I are still working through methods. On Sunday she was in a fighting mood. Eventually, I put my outside hand on the grab strap then using my inside hand I lead her head in and then used inside leg plus indirect rein to push her back into the outside. We did this at the walk. I stayed the same and let her figure things out. Light bulb moment. She softened so nicely and at one point she picked up a trot maintaining the contact. She had a nice soft, floppy neck when I got off her. Why are moments like this so satisfying with a green horse? It felt really good to break through.

Ooh, a camera.

Up next, DaVinci. I decided to put a saddle on him for the first time since his injury. As soon as I sat in the saddle I realized it was sitting too close to his withers. Well, he normally picks his back up after some warm up, so we headed out. DaVinci wanted  to go for a stroll around the fields which worked with the saddle situation. We had a great walk past the woodpile and the deer stands. He wanted to walk around the pond, but I had to say no because the grass was long and no way was I taking a chance with him. DaVinci was a happy pony when we got back to the barn.

My Polar Bear Pony :)

If you read Saturdays post, you will remember the crazy teenagers. They were back on Sunday. At least they came after I was done riding. After I fed the horses their dinner and was getting ready to turn them out, 2 of the girls came over. "Are you leaving soon?" "Can we ride?"
Cricket, Cricket, hmm.
I took a chance and said they could ride Dottie, but I had to get on her first. Dottie was lame for a while and we gave her time off. She has been looking frisky lately so I felt safe to work her. I only rode her a short time, but she felt good. Then the girls got on one at a time. In one of her prior homes she did therapy work, so she followed me around the yard. I stopped, she stopped. Such a good girl. She even followed one of the girls around while her friend rode. I don't know which of the three was happier. I love when my horses are happy. Sugar cubes and carrots made up for being used as a pony ride horse.  A lovely end to the day... with no snow.

Today revealed 3in of snow at home, but it melted quickly. To save on gas I took a miss on riding Comrade. Mom and Dad had plans to start painting the feed room, so I went to play with Roscoe. Armed with the camera and a lunge whip I was going to get a 8 month video of him moving. I got the video, but the camera did not end up sharing it. This was not the end of the technical difficulties. Later I tacked up DaVinci and Mom led Roscoe out to the field for a lesson in ponying. He was so quick to figure out about following. Mom took a video, but the camera again rejected it. So here is the one surviving image of the ride.

So my long weekend consisted of great rides, break throughs, happy ponies and a lot of work completed. I hope everyone else had as great a weekend.