Little Sora Story

Hours

2011-10-29T10:35:00.001-07:00

and hours and hours away from my girl.

I got sent to Menard's headquarters this week to help with seminars and between the long drive there and back and the amount of hours I worked for the week it was exhausting. I got back last night and passed out on the couch while trying to watch Just Like Heaven. This morning I drove home to pick up Riley from my mom and dad's, who were watching her for the week, and will be making the 2+ hour drive back home again tomorrow.

During the week I had a lot of time to think about Sora and when I got back home I started reading empowered horses again. Things with Sora went really well again the week before and I actually started doing Chase the Tiger with her and she got it! For the first time she was actually willing to chase rather than just being afraid.

I know that I haven't been spending as much time with her as I should and also that I will never reach the goals I have for her and myself if I don't start pushing myself more so I am making a pact with myself to actually drive myself towards those goals rather then always standing back and watching other people reach theirs. I also finally found my dream saddle, which I can't currently afford, and I am going to start saving for it even if the only money I can save is from recycling =D

Dream Saddle ->

which is a Startrekk Espaniola! I will of course trial it to see if I like it as much as I think I will but it has almost every feature I have been looking for in a saddle :)

I am also going to be posting more which will mean that I have to take my computer to McDonalds more since I can't blog on my phone, at least not well, but I am going to try my hardest to make it work. I will also be getting more pictures and hopefully some video of us working as well.

Fall Falls

2011-10-08T11:15:00.000-07:00

Things this summer have been off and on with Sora. I've been mainly unmotivated to work with her which I completely hate but I think I was just kind of burnt out and also getting used to working full time and living on my own and all that comes with not having more than one person to share chores with. I've gone through a second "crisis" of wanting to sell her and at that point decided that something needed to change.

Right after listing her for sale I went up to the stable and took her out to ride, she was perfect, and just as I was climbing on things at the barn went crazy! Four horse trailers pulled in, a horse that was getting loaded across from the ring tried to climb out of the trailer through the window and got halfway, people ran to help the horse while screaming?, and three young horses in the drylots right next to the ring started racing around in a panic. While all of this was happening Sora stood calmly for me to mount and than gave me an on the buckle pony ride around the ring only watching all of these scary things with a calm face.

I found out later that all these people were coming for a group lesson, one that a Dressage instructor teaches, that I have been invited to multiple times. I was always concerned about what her expectations would be especially since Sora is so green and although I was invited to ride that day Sora was not moving off my legs at all which would be scary in a ring of horses so I decided to dismount and watch the lesson instead.

Long story short I was really impressed and decided to ride in the next and after some more thought I came up with and idea. I am going to plan on riding her in every lesson and working on her as much as possible between. I am also going to try to keep up more with AND and change my training techniques just a little. In the spring after all of these changes and work I will make a decision either way and no matter what I will stick to it.

The real issue is that I know I tend to give up on things rather than struggling through them :/ However I am weighing this in my decision about what to do with Sora and while I know that this is an issue I also know that I have some other valid points. Currently I am just not sure I am up, mentally, to having a horse that is as spooky and athletic as Sora is. Also I am really struggling with what I ultimately want to do as far as riding. When I bought Sora I was looking for a Dressage prospect but things have vastly changed and now I am undecided about exactly what type of riding I am interested in. I am jealous of the people with the calm horses that can go out trail riding and yet at the same time know that I would get bored of that pretty quickly.

Ultimately I really would like to keep Sora. I think I just need to commit to spending more time with her. Even through all of this I love her more than anything and when I go to see her and she screams at me, comes galloping up lowers her head and does that mommy throaty nicker to me it tears my heart out. I just really want to do the right thing for both of us.

Encouragement!

2011-07-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

I am currently blogging from the very ritzy St. Croix Falls McDonalds because I do not have air conditioning and I was feeling in danger of melting :)

Because of the heat, all I have done with Sora for the past four-five days is bathe her, scratch her (a lot), and share food with her like oranges, apples and granola bars. I feel like she has greatly deserved it!

On Thursday I went out to see her thinking I would do ONLY what she wanted. I brought a bag of carrots and an Orange and brought her in the arena to play and hang out. For awhile I scratched all her itchy places and encouraged her to roll and get nice and dirty and then I left to get her grooming stuff. Sora is far less confident when I leave her so she started running back and forth which quickly turned into a very energetic game. Two years ago she wouldn't have been able to calm herself down and I would have been too scared to go back in the pen with her but when I got back with the grooming tools I went right in and started brushing her. At this point I had an audience of several people and one of them is someone I have been spending more time with who we will call J.

Once again I am reminded not to judge a book by it's cover because she is not someone who I would seek out to ride or spend time with but she has turned out to be incredibly supportive and open minded, and fun! She wanted to ride her young horse and said she would feel better if someone was around so since the other group was leaving I said I would hang around with Sora thinking that I would just play with her on the ground a bit. J started to roundpen her gelding and he started to race around and Sora charged him from outside the fence!!! I think that my normally submissive little horse was getting something from him she didn't like. I smooched to her a little to drive her away and then kept her further from him with my body language.

Eventually J brought her horse into the arena to ride and after some more groudwork mounted. Up until this point I had no plans to ride but everything with Sora was going so well that I led her over to the mounting block by the lunge line, tied it up at the end and stepped up on the mounting block. I left it up to her whether I would mount or not and it took her a couple of tense minutes to relax and finally she sighed and stepped up so perfectly lined up that I knew she was willing and hopped on :D I was holding the lunge line attached to her halter but didn't have anyway to steer her other than my seat. Of course she was incredible!!! I was talking to J about the type of training I do and although she probably thought I was crazy to climb on like that, she quickly saw that Sora was happy and relaxed and started drilling me with questions :) It was wonderful and she was so encouraging.

What is funny is that the thing that made me the proudest is that I listened to Sora and when she stopped in the corner and pawed when I asked her to turn I climbed off!!! Funny when you are pleased with yourself for doing something that most people would warn you away from lol.

Lazy Summer

2011-07-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

This week I have really settled into AND/NHE again with Sora. It had been awhile since I spent much real time with her that didn't involve more pressure so it took her a little while to relax and try to listen again. As soon as she did, however, things went swimmingly.

I started out by wanting to take her on a trail walk but she didn't want to even allow me to catch her so I put her stuff away and got out the fly gunk, all three different bottles of it. I went to put it on her ears and she pulled her head away (like normal) so I moved a couple of steps back, crouched down, closed my eyes and explained to her in my head what I was trying to do. When I opened my eyes she was standing closer and I stood up and slowly reached out my hand towards her ear. She held perfectly still and let me rub it in which is normally impossible. I was so happy that that had worked that we played around a little in the pasture. At one point she froze and wanted to share breath with me. I blew slowly into her nose, breathing in incredible horse breath with my eyes closed while her chin rested on my shoulder. We stood like that for almost five minutes. It is amazing the images that came into my head as we stood like that in calm, quiet communication.

After that I was kept away by two days of storm but I was out again yesterday. We were in the arena together right next to the road when a huge, noisy tractor came by. All the horses along the road were galloping and screaming and Sora screamed back but I just ignored her and ran up to the fence to watch the tractor pass. As it was right next to us Sora trotted up to the fence next to me (towards the tractor) and watched it and the truck behind it pass like she was watching a parade, all calm happiness. It was only then that I realized that the man in the truck behind the tractor was one of our biggest doubters who can not get it into his head that she is no longer afraid of vehicles. He ignored me for the rest of the night which is perfectly fine with me.

After the tractor was gone I worked on our two newest behaviors, passing to me and passing away from me. I worked on lining her up to the fence and getting her to do shoulder and haunches in. It wasn't pretty but we did do a couple of nice steps and at one point she offered it so beautifully with a hint of collection that I was jumping up and down and squealing and we both capered around a bit :)^Not us, yet ;)

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2011-07-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems as if Sora and I have made no progress or even have gone backwards. For me this blog is more to remind myself of where we were and the progress that has been made than anything else.

For the last few months I have been in continuous flux about how to train Sora, trying to figure out the "right" way. This has unfortunately been not because I have/had doubts but because others have had doubts in me. Honestly I am a big chicken and my safety has always been my highest priority. Riding is the only risk I take and although it is a big one I have ALWAYS taken every precaution available to reduce that risk including not riding anything scary. This means that when I had two "knowledgeable" horse people at the barn telling me that I was going to get hurt I listened.

At least for a short time :)

The conclusion I came to is that they can't even begin to imagine the type of relationship I have with Sora. Relationship maybe isn't even the word to use. The words I think of are trust, confidence, time, experience, feel, belief, caution, respect, sensitivity, years, training, familiarity, and I just can't think of a word that encompasses them all. They are all trail riders (slow with a drink in one hand type trail riders), they train their horses not to spook and to carry them slowly down trails. While I respect their ability to do this I have absolutely no interest in that type of horse sport and neither does Sora.

They seem to see her running wildly around her pasture and not see her standing still under me without tack after I mount because I am shaking (Thanks to the fact two of them are watching me just about ready to dial 911) or taking a couple of steps at a time while waiting for me to calm down. Walking with her head on the ground to calm me. Licking me like a foal when I've had a bad day and come to her crying. Allowing, no Asking me to mount and go for a ride. Galloping to me to do things because they are fun and she likes me and believes in me.

Now I'm not saying every horse/human relationship should be like this. In fact for many it would be dangerous and not recommended. However for me Sora has been more therapy than anything else could be. She has changed the very way I look at the world and they way I react to everything. I live in the moment now more than I ever did before, I am calmer and far more positive and the controlling and unhealthy part of me is just about gone. I can now climb on a horse without a huge rush of adrenaline which is unheard of for me and if that can only happen on a young, hot, tackless Arabian than I am proud of both of us!

Today I took the time to read back through my posts to the point where I started AND. I am amazed at the progress that has been made. Much of it hasn't even been noted on here but when I read about something that I was having trouble with in these posts and compare it to where we are now it makes me happy. Seeing the progress in both of us makes me even more certain that I am on the right path for me and the right path for Sora.

I hope to track more of our progress, and current issues, as soon as I get back home from this weekend but for now,

Happy 4-TH of July Weekend!!!

Life Changes

2011-07-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Life is good! I'm finally living on my own, in a gorgeous little farm house, and I am so happy! Sora is being boarded at a really nice little boarding stable and I have access to two outdoor arenas and a nice sized indoor which is just as wonderful as I always thought it would be. There are a couple of people at the stable that seem intent on making my life (because of my style of training) miserable but that is for a different post. What is important is that Sora is happy and I see eye to eye with the stable owner on horse husbandry so that is wonderful as well.

The only other bad thing is that the only access I have to the internet is on my phone so lengthy posts are not possible. I have been following all my favorite blogs but because of a glitch I can't seem to comment on them. Now that I am more settled in I am going to try to do more short posts to record our progress so hopefully there will be more content on here soon.

Training is mostly going well. Due to one of the people who is making my life miserable I was contemplating selling Sora for a whole weekend but now I am so glad that I came to my senses. The good is that we have progressed to where I am very comfortable riding her either with a bitless bridle or just a cordeo in the arena and we are working on leg yields in the cordeo. The bad news is that we are still struggling with the trot and she remains very spooky outside of the arena. I am working slowly on the trot but the spookiness has me sort of stumped. I am not at all reactive when she spooks (and I am very proud of myself that I have come that far) and I am working to desensitize her to things almost daily. She is more confident with me around then when she is on her own so I don't see that I'm doing anything wrong. I am beginning to think that she is just a very spooky horse but that is just not a comforting thought. Because of that I have decided to take a step back and do more of what I really love with her just in the arena where she is confident. Her side passing is getting polished and we are just starting to work on some of the other behaviors/movements such as bow and rear. The best thing for me is feeling soooooo comfortable on her back especially since most of the people here seem to think I am going to die :D

Another Gorgeous Day

2011-03-11T15:01:00.000-08:00

and still no pictures :/ I am hoping to get some video this weekend but it will depend on if my dad is willing.

I went for a ride on Jackson again today and was pleased to find that he was more willing to have the saddle on his back. He must like the treeless which doesn't surprise me because he has always been difficult to fit. He walked me around the pen for a little while and then I climbed off out in the pasture and switched the saddle onto Sora's back. She was even calmer this time as though expecting it and was pleased to have my attention back on her, the princess :)

This time when we got back to the drylot I used my favorite tree stump mounting block and asked her to step up to it. Several times while I played with her saddle and stirrups the other horses would come up too close trying for grain and I would swing the rope at them while Sora stood stock still next to me. She made me extremely proud and I even managed to work through her snatchiness with treats that's made worse when she is around the mounting block, probably me and my nerve's fault. I am proud to say that this is her third (yes third) year of mounting practice and she is standing stock still and willing. I am really glad that I didn't do more riding when she was three or four because I can see the increase in her confidence and physical maturity. I really think this will be our year for heading out on trail rides and spending more time training.

I was also impressed and relieved to see that thanks to a new, small, increase in wither (thanks to her increase in maturity over the winter) the treeless saddle stayed upright easily and I would now feel confident climbing on her with it.

Oh, and look at this cute little barn! I so want something like this when I finally get my own property.

Finally a couple of pictures of where Sora will be in a month or so :D I would love to hear any suggestions for a new boarder. I'm a little nervous about the move and not having Sora right outside my door :/

The Mythical "Go" Button

2011-03-10T11:46:00.000-08:00

Today I decided was the time to work on encouraging Sora to go forward. This was something that she was overwhelmingly good at. When I first got her the barest move on my part would send her racing to the other side of which ever field we were in thanks to her previous abuse and lack of human contact. In other words she was extremely right brain dominant. Now she is so left brain dominant that it is almost hard to get her to move.

This summer I trimmed her hooves right in front of our garage door without any type of restraint, she wasn't even wearing a halter, while my dad revved his Ducati in the garage which made a sound like an airplane taking off. Not only did she hold still, she was actually relaxed. Regularly she stands still in front of me while I jump up and down, cluck, wave my hands around like a nut case and throw a rope at her. I actually am proud of this because it means she will be a willing and nonflighty riding partner, however she does actually need to move sometimes as well and since I am against using pressure, such as a whip, I need to think of a different way of teaching it.

Today I got started by jogging with her jogging next to me. With me moving she happily matches my speed right along next to me but won't go fast or slower. I tried getting her to outpace me by swinging a rope next to me but she was having none of it and I was worried, although she gave me no reason to be, that if I increased the pressure she would kick out at me as she passed. I therefore gave up on that method and started doing some free lunging.

In AND a horse that will lunge freely in a perfect circle around you without a single piece of tack is spoken about in hushed tones but thanks to Sora's high food motivation it was something that I could ask for fairly quickly. The problem is getting her to turn off and leave the circle which is necessary at points both for AND and for my purposes today. The pressure of flapping a rope at her and clucking wasn't working very well so I started to reward any tiny movement away from me and it started to work.

After some work, and exhaustion on my part, she actually started to run in a line away from me, getting extra grain for a canter or gallop. I would wait until she was a couple steps away and then call "check" and she would spin and gallop back to me for her treat. Eventually she was going several strides away from me and I changed up the game a little.

One thing that many people in AND are able to accomplish quickly that I've always had trouble with is mimicry. Sora will do many things to mimic me such as backing up, pawing, almost rolling :) and so on and she will trot or walk right next to me but she won't mimic me from a distance. As soon as I start to move in the same direction as her and not point my front at her she just falls into the circle and comes right to me. So today I used one of her established tricks, backing up when she is in front of me facing me, and would get her started out "lunging" and then start moving in the same direction. This is something that I have tried before but I tried it harder today and in different ways. It was quite rough but I actually got her to mimic me cantering which is what I really want. The reason for this is that if I can get her to canter mimic me at a distance and learn to mimic canter where she can move faster than I can, I can get her to mimic canter right next to me at a slower pace and therefore teach collection at that gait. Something that I am striving for.

Oh, and the picture is two year old Sora from before I bought her although right at this moment her mane doesn't look that much better :/ I truly meant to get some pictures but my camera battery was uncharged. I'm hoping to get pictures this weekend since it has been so terribly long.

More Progress

2011-03-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

This morning it was incredibly nice outside and I had a day off work, finally :), so I spent some time working with Sora. It was pretty rough because we are both out of practice and have forgotten a lot about the training that we did before but we made some good progress.

After the trouble we were having yesterday I decided to step back a step and make sure I could yield her shoulders and hindquarters individually, both towards me and away from me. She actually did really well with her shoulders which I didn't expect because at on point she was really sticky with them in either direction. However, I did have more trouble with yielding her hips. All she wanted to do was back up so her head could be closer to the treats. I did manage to get some really nice yields from her after backing her up to a fence but after a couple good ones I took a break from that and spent some time working on getting her to yield from a cue from the Cordeo.

She remembered this one really nicely and will either move towards me when I pull the Cordeo lightly towards me or step away when I push it towards her. She also backs or stops at a backwards pull. I was really happy with that and decided to end on a good note. I am hoping that I will have a chance to spend some time with her after work tomorrow but even if not I will have a chance again on Thursday. If she does really well I might even sit on her again or ride Jackson and work with her from his back :)

More Good News

2011-03-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

It is official! I now have an HR job! I am so excited and I actually start next Monday :) I also got good news from the boarding stable that I was interested in. They have space and are willing to possibly let me work off part of my board which is exactly what I hoped for! Now I just have to find a place for myself and Riley to live.

I also had a short chance to work with Sora today thanks to getting off work a little early. I was working on an AND exercise called "stepping under" which teaches a horse to carry weight on their hind and also is the beginning of teaching shoulder in. If you are interested you can see the video below.

It was actually going pretty well but Sora was nervous and pushy and just wanted treats "no thank you on this moving crap" and finally gave up. I was just about to leave the pasture when she came back over to me and I decided to try one last time, this time with different body language. As usual it was proven to me that I was the one having the problem because with a simple change of body language she side passed perfectly to me. This wasn't really what I was looking for but it was close enough to what I was asking that she got a jackpot :D

Blaaah

2011-03-05T17:54:00.001-08:00

It's still quiet. I have been working crazy hours since Wednesday and will be working still through Monday. I'm not complaining because I need the money but I am ready for a break. Sora is good although both of us are ready for the warmer weather. She had lost a bit of weight (no more than ten pounds or so) for likely no reason other than I stiffed them a bit on hay for a week or so without realizing but she is back up again and happy.

On the job front it seems I am likely going to get the position but I still haven't heard officially and I'm trying to prepare myself just in case I don't get it. I have Sora's housing all figured out but still have to figure out my own lol. the only thing I am worried about right now is finding a place that will accept a medium sized dog :/ and how long I will have to commute before I can move. The drive is not too much worse than I was used to for Grad School but I would just as soon move sooner rather than later. I can't wait to have two out door arenas, a round pen and an indoor at my disposal. I have NEVER had an arena to ride in so this will be like heaven even if there is some adjusting to not having Sora on my property :)

Ready for the Spring

2011-02-26T17:29:00.000-08:00

Wow, here I come back and say I'll be writing more and than completely ignore this blog for far too long. We've had crazy weather recently, first with warmer than normal temps and now terrible snow storms with high snow fall. It has been extremely difficult to do anything with Sora other than working on her feet and some small work on her simple tricks. I do need to get some pictures of her feet which I will try to do either tomorrow or in the next couple of days because I am really proud of my improvement in rasping skill.

I do have some incredible news though! I have an interview on Monday and there is an extremely high chance that I will be offered a job. If that is the case I will finally get to move out of my parent's house :) Because I would be making very little money I am currently seeking a place near where I'll be moving that would allow an arrangement where I could work off part of her board. I'm so excited to find someplace and finally get to move!

I also found some pictures of me when I was twelve riding Bucky and I want to get them scanned in to post here. Maybe another thing for tomorrow :)

Early Morning Adventure: part one

2011-01-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

Right now where I live its awful outside. The cold isn't so bad because I have warm clothes, layers, warm gloves etc. to deal with that. The real problem is that at our farm whatever isn't covered in 2+ feet of snow is a skating rink. Its so bad the horses are locked in two small pens which aren't bad thanks to the manure and leftover snow. Even getting out to feed them is a slow process as it means traveling across our ice rink, which used to be a driveway, and on a small path cleared for me, which is also glare ice, to our shed. One corner of the shed is particularly bad and is not only an especially shiny polished ice but it slopes downhill which means I can't stay up on it at all.

Because of that, when I woke up this morning and saw that Jackson and Khepri had gotten out I knew that getting them back into our pen would be an adventure. They had lifted a small red gate off its hinges, traveled out the path by and around our shed, across our driveway, and up another small path to our bird feeder where they were happily munching on spilled bird seed. Sora, my funny little angel, was staying happily in the pen regardless of the wide open gate.

I fed Sora to keep her calm and in the pen, grabbed a halter and some grain and skated slowly toward the horses. As I approached they occasionally lifted their heads to watch me and when they figured out I had grain decided that it would probably taste better than stale bird food and began to approach. They met me at the end of the bird feeder path which wasn't that slippery and as I put Jackson's halter on and gave him a handful of grain for the journey I contemplated how to approach the crossing of the driveway/skating rink.

Having come to a decision I tossed Jackson's lead rope over his back and climbed onto one of the snow piles. As I walked on top of the snow towards the shed I lured him along next to me with grain. He is extremely experienced with Minnesota ice and snow but was still slipping and sliding. Luckily he kept to his feet and went slow. Khepri slowly followed alongside him but at some point she hit a bad spot and all four of her feet started going in different directions. With a look of desperation she quickly slipped and slid her way to the huge snow pile at the edge of the driveway and went down on her knees in the snow. I breathed a sigh of relief that she had handled herself so well and continued with Jackson who was able to reach the path to the shed safely.

Having passed the first obstacle we continued toward the shed.

To be continued....

Welcome 2011

2011-01-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to welcome 2011! 2010 was crazy between work, lack of money, starting a new part time job and stress over the fact that after two years of grad school, constantly looking for work, while my classmates got jobs all around me, I still don't have a job.

2011 will be a year of changes for me. First I'm sure I'll find a job, hopefully sooner rather than later, which means that I'll finally get to move out of my parents house but more pertinent to this blog it will mean moving Sora and boarding a horse for the first time in my life.

I'm sure I'll miss having a horse right outside the house, feeding in the beautiful mornings with the birds singing, getting to make choices about how to care for her and getting to see her out the window. However, right now I can't wait to board. Partly because we don't have a good place to ride, no good footing, and I have no one to ride with or talk about horses. I also don't have a trailer so I'm completely stuck here. There will be so many good things about having Sora in a boarding facility and while I'm sure I'll have some complaints once she is actually there, right now I can't wait for the freedom that comes with not having to feed three times :) and mostly I just can't wait to have a nice, safe arena to ride in and people to ride with!!

In other news I just want to say how lucky so many horses in the blogs I read are to have such wonderful people. A couple of weeks ago my hoof trimmer, Erika, invited me to come with her after she trimmed our horses to help with a foundered pony (the owner's words). Once we got there we realized it wasn't founder, just a case of neglect. The ponies poor hooves looked like elf shoes and it took us almost two hours to get them looking anywhere close to normal. I was incredibly impressed with what Erika was able to accomplish and the pony looked relieved to be able to walk.

There were also two other horses on the property and as my trimmer put it they were "lucky to have weak hooves because they could self trim." The worst part was that no sooner had I left to come back home then Erika texted me that the horses had no water and were licking frozen puddles to drink. She couldn't even find any type of permanent water trough but finally found a bucket to give them water. I almost cried and it was nice to be able to come home to Sora, standing in her clean shed, in her puffy blanket with warm water only a few steps away.

Finally, the master list of goals for the year.

1. Strengthen Sora, especially her back to prepare for some light riding
2. Do more to desensitize her to the saddle
3. Perfect my hoof rasping technique and Sora's hoof holding technique
4. Reduce the amount of treats Sora gets and increase the time between treats, especially with the behaviors Sora is good at
5. Push Sora a bit more working toward behaviors that are more perfect and her to perform better than just adequate

Further Goals

2010-12-29T16:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a lovely time with Sora. I worked on her hooves, mainly getting the quarters down on her front two feet. This is something I was neglecting and that my trimmer reminded me about last time she was here. They are looking much better and I'm hoping to take pictures to send to the trimmer soon. I also worked a bit more on the back feet but I've learned that if I don't push it and go at Sora's pace she is much more willing to do more the next day so I was careful not to push her past her comfort zone. We also did a few simple movements like yielding her shoulders away and then into me, backing with me and some more with her front feet. I had a lot to remember about my body positioning and she was a patient (fairly patient anyway :-) teacher.

I also came up with some more goals for the new year. The first is to reduce the amount of treats I feed Sora and to build up more time between treats. Mainly I just need to be smarter about this because I don't always pay enough attention and then Sora gets two handfuls of grain for a simple trick and when she does something really spectacular I'm completely out.

I did make one big change with treats this winter and Sora is getting Purina Senior as treats instead of the unhealthy snacks she was getting before. The senior is a low sugar palatable feed that Sora loves and the grain instead of cookies tends to be easier to feed without getting fingers caught in an anxious mouth. It's also so much healthier thanks to the low sugars.

My other new goal is to push her more when I think she is getting a behavior. Too often I settle for just the beginning of the behavior because I'm so amazed by my incredible horse that I don't want to push. However I realize that if I ever want to make any kind of real progress its time to see what she can do and begin pushing her gently to work harder for rewards.

Hopefully everyone in the midwest will survive this incredible ice storm we are supposed to have. As if our weather hasn't been crazy enough this year already!

Forward Movement

2010-12-27T15:43:00.000-08:00

reNow that the new year is close I feel like it is a perfect time to make some goals for myself and Sora. Now because grad school is over I shouldn't have any big distracting events that take me away from her so I should be able to concentrate on my girl and really make some progress.

First I want to make sure she is really strong, fit and moving well before I ever get back on her. Luckily the timing is right for this because I wasn't planning on doing much more riding until she gets to be five in May.

To do this I am going to go more methodically through the AND exercises then I have in the past starting with teaching her to lower her head while she is moving. For an Arab this will be tough :) but because of the endorphins it creates it will not only calm her but do a lot to strengthen and stretch out her back.

Another big goal is to get her more comfortable with things on her back. She has always been touchy with the saddle and even though she is good about it I can tell she is uncomfortable. Since I've never really ridden her and she hasn't spent much time with a saddle on so I don't think its discomfort, just a lack of experience.

I also need to work more on her hooves both with perfecting my technique and also making sure she is more comfortable with her back hooves. Luckily I have a patient and helpful hoof trimmer so working on my technique should go well.

I'm sure I'll think of more so I think I'll add a couple every day until new years and then make a master list.

Finally, over the past couple of months while I've been so busy I can barely see Sora other then at feeding times I've been inspired by my friend Hannah. Here is an incredible picture of what she is doing with her horse Mia and a link to her training journal which is also incredible.
http://www.cambriahorsemanship.com/

I'm Baaaaaack!

2010-12-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

I am officially done with grad school. It's incredible and I'm so excited and it hasn't even completely sunk in yet. I'm going to be back updating this blog and keeping up with everyone else.

Thank you to all who have stuck with me through this extremely quiet period :) Happy Holidays everyone!

Grad School Sucks

2010-10-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Really really sucks =*(

I've been far too busy with my classes, work and applying for jobs to do anything with Sora other than trim her hooves, pick burs out of her mane and spend a little time with her. Because of that I have zero motivation to work with her even when I have a day off and a little time.

I'm reassuring myself that this is my last semester of school and that as soon as I'm done and have a job and am able to board Sora I will be soooo motivated to make progress with her and I'll finally be able to spend the amount of time with her that I want to.

This is the reason I haven't been posting. I miss reading everyone's blogs and miss writing in mine. Hopefully I'll be back, full time again soon.

Breathtaking

2010-10-04T09:43:00.000-07:00

Circling Game

This is Karen and her horse Tamarack. She is one of the people who has been doing AND the longest. By the way, the horse made up this "game" =)

Confusing =/

2010-09-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

First I would like to introduce you to my newest family member. This makes my little family me, Sora and the dog AKA Riley. Riley is a ten month old female rescue that's a mixed breed. As far as I can tell she's either Lab/Pit, Greyhound/Pit or some combination of the three. She's incredible and nearly perfect partly because she lived with a foster family for about seven months before I got her. After this experience I would happily rescue again (although not in the near future =).
The confusing part is about Jackson. As I mentioned in a previous post I thought he had foundered. He showed allllllll the classic symptoms, had always been overweight, had recently been more out of shape, had that incident where he got into the corn etc. Because of this we had the vet out again and after carefully examining him this time he wanted X-rays.
I've never had a horse x-rayed before and didn't know what to expect but the wonderfully positive vet and her assistant made it easy. Going into the x-rays I thought, according to the vet and my own knowledge of Jackson and founder in general, there was about a 95% chance he would need to be put down. I was surprised when the vet took the first x-ray and said, hmmm, that's interesting. After taking all four she called me over and I saw that there was absolutely NO rotation, none, zip.

"He didn't founder" the vet concluded.

"Hmmm, so then what's going on?" I asked

What we found is that he has two big abscesses in each front foot. We feel that a combination of more constant trims that are stressing his soles a little (which will eventually be a good thing) and possibly some laminitis explain the abscesses.
Mainly the most incredible news is that he's already feeling better. He's walking around in Duct Tape and Diaper creations (note to self, purchase hoof boots at some point) and getting daily Epsom salt soaks along with Antibiotics and Bute.

(Obviously the above pictures were from before he foundered as I would carry him now to keep him from being uncomfortable if I could)

Hiatus

2010-09-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the brief hiatus! I just welcomed a new family member to our house and have been busy and tired from the short nights. Hint for my next post, she's canine not human =)

Shizen=Naturalness

2010-09-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

Today was wonderful! Great weather, great horse and great training session. I went out originally to work on the fence but while I was in the horse's pasture I couldn't even do anything because Sora was right in front of me and was blocking me even from walking sometimes. I finally listened to her and took her out.

Recently one of the behaviors I've been working on is getting Sora to put her foot on things, like a pedestal, to make hoof care easier for me and to teach the beginnings of the Spanish Walk. For a while she has just been pawing when I ask her to leave her hoof on the object so today I decided to show her what to do. I placed her foot on the crate I was using and held it there for a minute while feeding her treats. When I let it go she left it a little longer and I continued to feed her until she took it off. She chewed for a minute with a thoughtful expression and then neatly placed her other foot on the crate and left it. I fed her treats for about a minute as she left it there while jumping up and down and giving her a hug (yes she does like hugs lol).

After that I worked a little more on liberty lunging her, in our front yard with good grass underfoot, and she was perfect. The best change is in her behavior and courage in different conditions and environments. A year ago with the same circumstances she would have been flipping out, galloping around with her tail flagged, snorting at everything I asked and difficult to catch. Today she was calm, studious and thinking hard. She is so interested in trying to figure out how to behave to get treats that she's not even paying attention to the scary things or just doesn't care about them anymore. It is the best change out of everything!!!

I also was able to do some more work on her hooves. It is completely up to her most days whether she wants me to work on them or not. This works because everyday she is out I do at least a little so they never really need it. When I do NEED to work on them I tie her and she's perfect. Today though she was happy to show off her knowledge of when to pick up her hoof. The cutest thing is that since I let her pick up her hoof before I take it sometimes she mixes up which one I want. Today I wanted her to pick up her left rear and when she was grazing, not paying enough attention, she kept picking up her left front and holding it up like "look lady, I've got a foot up, it will just have to do." and of course it does, I just work on that hoof instead. Kind obliging girl probably thinks that hoof needs more work anyway lol.

Absent

2010-09-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

I've been quiet recently for no really good reason other than a general lack of motivation and time. I've been doing all the necessary horse owner things and Sora is content but I haven't been training with her or spending that much time with her so I just haven't had anything to write.

For part of it I've been sick but mostly I've just been unmotivated. Part of it is probably that the horse we've had the longest, Jackson, foundered about a month ago and it's been tearing my heart out. He's finally better to the point where he is walking around sound and in much better spirits.

It wasn't anybody's fault really that it happened, just a bad collection of events. He's older and gotten heavier and when he was at his heaviest he broke out of our drylot, diet program, and got into our corn field. The other two horses are fine because they are in better shape and Sora is also younger and better able to bounce back from the excess sugar. Still hard not to blame myself.

Today I finally went out and spent some more time with all three horses and it was wonderful and very motivating. The cooler weather is making them all more energetic and cheerful and Sora was extremely happy to run around and play with me after the long break and I figured out how to ask for two behaviors that I've been having more trouble with, namely putting her front feet on a pedestal and sidepassing.

Hopefully you will all be seeing more of me in the next week or so =)

Friendly

2010-08-16T15:56:00.000-07:00

What happens when I try to take a video.

Normally she's much better at this trick but she was distracted in a new pasture and by what I was doing with the camera.

Trust and Other Important Things

2010-08-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

So, people reading this blog maybe think I'm being really irresponsible to ride a green/unbroke, young, Arabian without any tack other than a neck rope. I don't have any reason to think this other than the fact that I myself would have thought exactly the same thing if I had read this a year ago =)

The thing that I'm realizing now is that as long as there are a few things in place there is far less danger doing this than in relying on any tack at all.

First, trust - Trust that Sora has in me and that I have in Sora. Since I trust her I rely on her to make good decisions which includes not even letting me on her back if she's nervous or unwilling to have me there. Since she trusts me she believes that if something happens that she's scared of I'll take care of it/kill it =)

Secondly, Awareness - When I get on Sora with or without tack I am extremely aware. Aware of my surroundings, the temperature, and anything that could be possibly scary. If I hear that a truck is coming up the driveway I get off, if I see that the other horses are running around I get off. Soon the other points such as trust and practice will mean that I don’t need to do this as often simply because fewer things will be scary. Because I’ve spent so much time with her now I know intimately what will set her off and how.

Third, Practice – Practicing working around things that are scary on the ground, practicing quick dismounts, practicing a good (really really good) Whoa for when it’s needed etc.

Finally, Flexibility – Simply the fact that if Sora doesn’t want me on her back that day I don’t even climb on. If it’s a cool windy day and Sora is hot we work on fast energetic things, if it’s a hungry day Sora gets to graze while I groom or rasp her hooves. Because of this Sora and I feel free to do whatever is best and it has meant lately that even on some days I wouldn’t plan on riding, Sora has overruled me and in that case I go ahead and ride. Once again trust paying off.

Lastly the whole thing works because of intent. I am completely committed to doing what is best for Sora. I don’t bring anything negative into our relationship together. No pain, no fear, no pressure, no force at all, ever. Because in the end what I want is a friendship relationship with Sora, not one built on control, force, fear etc. Once in a while I need control for farrier visits, vet visits, first aid etc. but because I never force anything on her Sora is willing to go along with me when I NEED something and is quiet and well behaved because she trusts that I have her best interest in mind.

Because of my proper intent Sora’s whole way of moving has changed. She’s off her front and using her hips and hind legs more, She’s well balanced and much, much, much calmer. All I needed to do was show her how much nicer it is to move/be that way and once she tried it she realized that I may sometimes be right =)

Bored

2010-08-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

Very bored....

Very, Very bored....

Now you probably are too lol.

I still haven't even been able to do ANYTHING outside *sobs*. I've been cleaning tack, calling around about getting the zippers in my boots fixed, reading riding books and trying to catch up on blogs that I've been missing out on but the one thing I really want to be doing I can't.

I wanted to at least have a picture of Sora getting a bath today but it was hot enough that my sister refused to come out to take a picture and holding a hose in one hand and a camera in the other is not likely to end in the survival of my camera. Because I don't have any new pictures you get to enjoy the outtake from our last picture taking session where my horse is checking out my sister =)
The weather this Sunday is finally going to be cooler and I truly can't wait to get outside again! I've just finished reading Empowered Horses by Imke Spilker and it is one of the simplest, most enlightening and uplifting books,much-less horse books, I've ever read. It has two main suggestions for improvement that I can't wait to try. Namely her version of playing is very different than I've been trying and she emphasis the importance of teaching a horse to step carefully under their body. We'll work on it on Sunday and maybe I'll even be able to get a new video!

Finally news =)

First, this weekend I'll probably be going riding with Erika again, either on Sunday or both Saturday and Sunday. We're going back through our little town and Erika was so impressed that she told her friends so I'll be tour guide to some other people as well. I can't wait!

Secondly, two of my AND friends, namely Hannah and Ivy, have been invited to speak and present at a big horse expo in Wisconsin. At this point I'm planning on going to cheer both of them on but it depends a little on my school schedule.

Finally a fun video of someone who is much better at multitasking then me.

Hot and Slow

2010-08-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

Today for the fourth or fifth day in a row we're under a heat advisory =/ Once again between the heat and humidity the horses are blackened with sweat even standing still in the shade. The only thing I have been able to work on with Sora is getting her used to the hose but that's something that I really wanted to desensitize her to so I'm not complaining =)

A few days ago she was still quite nervous, yesterday she stood still only if I didn't spray her hips and needed me to hold her still and today she came to be sprayed without a halter at all. Of course I was sneaky and when Jackson came over earlier to be sprayed off, also without a halter, I gave him treats and made a big deal over him. Sora came trotting up like "hmpf, you didn't tell me treats were involved" (pout) and pushed her little chest into the spray. After that I altered hosing her and Jackson and giving them treats while they stood. It was cute as they tried to make the cuter face to get me to spray them more.

During all of this Khepri, always the critic, grazed and pouted that I had forced her to get wet.

Anniversary

2010-08-06T10:33:00.001-07:00

I realized when reading Andrea's post on Eventing a Gogo about her four year anniversary with Gogo that my two year anniversary with Sora just passed and I completely forgot to mention it. Sora came home on August first in 2008 and my life has been irrevocably changed since then.

It's funny to think now about what I was looking for when I bought her and how different that is then what I'm doing now. When I starting looking for my dream horse being competitive at Dressage and a calm and trainable nature were both at the top of my list. Now I don't care about any of those things and while a powerful movement still means a lot to me I feel like everything else matters less than the bond that I have with her.

Yesterday my hoof trimmer came out to do the hooves of the other two horses and must have had something bothering her because she yelled at both horses and snapped at me for the first time since she's been coming here. Part of me wanted to tell her to just leave and part of me could see that our horses were being testy (maybe because of her attitude in the first place) and wanted to just wait it out. That's the part of me that won and while eventually she got over it and calmed down I was very uncomfortable about the whole thing. The reason I even write this is that while our trimmer was yelling Sora came over to me and started playing, lightening my mood and calming me down. After that I was able to roll my eyes at the trimmer and try to work with the horses to make it easy for her.

Because of Sora's playful mood I decided that it was a perfect day to play/train with her once Erika left. I planned on riding her with my new saddle but couldn't quite work up the courage since I hadn't been on her back in a while and hadn't ridden her with a saddle in quite a long time. So I pulled the saddle once we got to the mounting block and slid onto her bareback with just the cordeo. It was wonderful, she was in a teaching mood and so I started to figure out how she wants me to cue for going forward, tilt my pelvis forward and tighten my butt muscles, and turn. She would stand completely still until I got it right and then reward me with a few forward steps or a turn. When she wanted me off she backed up a couple of times and stood still and I obliged and got off. I was so happy I walked around for the rest of the day smiling =)

Happy second anniversary baby

Humidity Blues

2010-08-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been extremely unmotivated, mostly it's due to my work schedule and the incredible heat and humidity that we've been having. Also, probably because of the heat and bugs, Sora has been unmotivated as well and we end up butting heads when we spend time together. Two irritable mares annoying each other lol.

Today the heat isn't sooo bad but because of the humidity the horses, standing completely still in the shade, are absolutely soaked with sweat. Even if I felt up to dealing with the heat I can't ask Sora to move because it would be near abuse in this weather.

I have come up with some interesting hot weather activities to keep our horses occupied. I've had them bobbing for apples and have filled up a huge tub of water for them to splash in and dump on themselves. Today I went out with a sponge and got the worst of the sweat off of Jackson and Sora. Khepri was having none of it and was likely to just get sweatier because she was upset if I had continued. I have worked on some of Sora's simple and quiet tricks while standing in the shade but even then my temper is short so I've been avoiding anything tough. Sora has wildly improved on the Cordeo and I hardly use her halter anymore. She's also learning to pick up each foot on a number cue. Right now I still need to point at the hoof I want lifted but soon I won't even need that anymore.

I have been online a lot more because of the heat and would love to share what one of my friends in currently accomplishing with her mare. Hannah lives a ways north of me and we've met up a couple of times. We met on the AND forum and after finding that we lived quite close to each other became friends. This video is of Hannah riding her four-year-old PRE mare named Maia. This is after only a handful of times cantering with someone on her back and as Hannah explains she's still unbalanced partially because of Hannah's position. If you would like to see further back story you can go to youtube and see what Hannah has to say.

I'm amazed at the trust and communication between Hannah and Maia and I'm incredibly amazed by how far she's come. Hannah has done all of Maia's training bitless and most bridless and started seriously training only this spring.

I also got to spend the end of last week in Duluth at the Tall Ships festival. It was incredible and I managed to get some beautiful pictures.
The ships were mostly reproductions but still breathtaking and it was incredible to see them in the modern setting.

Swimming

2010-07-19T07:19:00.000-07:00

It turns out that Erika's finger wasn't that badly hurt and although she's got a splint on it she was up for riding. She trailered her horse White Heart over to my place and I took her on some of the little roads through our tiny historic town, the cemetery where the founder of the town is buried and down to the Mississippi for a swim =)

We had a wonderful time and Erika was impressed by how beautiful our town is, actually I still am too =) I rode Jackson, Lauren's horse, because Sora is still terrified of cars to the point of being dangerous and I just didn't want to undo all the hard work of the last couple of months. Jackson is a blast to ride though, very forward but smooth and beautiful under saddle so I wasn't too disappointed. Other than being attacked by mosquitoes we had a near perfect trail ride. Unfortunatly I think Java's Mom's bad camera luck is catching as I just lost my second camera in only a year and a half. Because of that and since my mom had her camera with her on a road trip I have no pictures of our beautiful day.

Something that surprised me was that Erika, against perhaps my better judgment, brought her two well behaved dogs and they came with us on the ride. I'm used to dogs jumping out of brush and scaring horses but Jackson never once acted nervous even with the dogs leaping out right in front of him. In fact he was calmer than normal and far less reactive than he's ever been. One dog would even see cars coming up fast and walk out happily onto the road to slow them down. We probably had some unhappy motorists but we certainly had safe and happy horses. Overall I was extremely impressed and it felt nice to have them along. They even diffused one nervous and growly dog by going up to it and getting it to play.

Now I just need two of my own lol

Cooldown

2010-07-18T08:25:00.000-07:00

I spent this morning working on rasping Sora's hooves. They are looking great after two days of work but I think I'll need one more to return them to how they should look. Keep in mind that I only rasp a tiny amount off of each hoof at a time to keep it easy for both Sora and I. Because of this if I miss a week (or two) it takes a couple days to get back to where they are supposed to be. However that also means they are certainly not too long or bad in any way, not even long enough for an actual trim at this point.

Now I'm waiting to hear from Erika about a trail ride today. She hurt her finger yesterday and our ride will depend on what she hears from the doctor. I'm sending healing thoughts her way. Hopefully we'll be able to go especially since today is the first reasonably cool day we've had in a week.

Fireflies

2010-07-17T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well, this post probably should have been titled Mosquitoes but that's just not as romantic.

Last night when I got home from at work at 9:30 I changed into riding clothes and when out to work with Sora. By the time I got out there it was dark but thankfully much cooler. Sora was happy to come up to the mounting block for treats but tried again to eat and run. This time I stopped her lightly with the Cordeo and then slid onto her back.

We had a wonderful time =) It was like magic riding in the dark with the other horses grazing and fireflies everywhere (and mosquitoes helping the fireflies out adding a certain ambiance). We had some major breakthroughs in forward movement and steering which is nice because it's been a while since much has improved in riding. It sounds like there are going to be storms tonight or I'd probably go out late again because it was so much fun.

Today we didn't do anything, I wanted to but it was just too hot and humid and I spent a large part of the day working on the fence so that we can dry lot our two fatties before they make themselves sick. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little cooler.

Two in a Row

2010-07-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, I'm actually updating this blog for the second day in a row =) I went out today very interested to see what effect yesterday's work would have on Sora. I was worried that she would have taken it badly and our relationship would have suffered but it looks like I didn't really need to worry.

I was very impressed with how Sora had generalized the lesson that I don't really want her eating grass. Even though we were in a different place I could tell she was consciously not grazing even though she wanted to and that was a big deal. I could see that we didn't quite have the connection that we have and that she was a little more reluctant to follow me or offer me things but it wasn't a big difference and I know that our whole relationship will morph and change as I do different things so I'm not overly worried about it. Now I just need to especially work on relationship stuff next time.

I continued to work on leading her with only the neck rope and it went well but when I need to put pressure sideways she reads it as pressure back and stops. I don't want to change that because more than anything I need brakes but I think I need to work on the subtleties of the cues and help her understand sideways cues as well.

I tried to work on bow again and had the same problem of her jumping backwards. Hannah suggested trying it with her backed close to a fence so I'll try that tomorrow.

Sora's energy was so much calmer today. I don't know exactly why, either my energy was in a really good place or it was because of the heat but she was thinking and trying to work with me rather than just reacting. Something to think about =)

All in all a good, if short, day!

Road Trip

2010-07-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

Today was beautiful and I had fun plans so it was a good day. I drove about two hours north to meet up with the closest person to me that does AND. Her name is Hannah and her horse's name is Maia. It was wonderful and very helpful to see how someone else does their training and I was taking notes lol. Maia is certainly ahead of Sora in training and not only knows more of the dressage movements at liberty but also walks and trots with reasonably good steering and no tack other than a neck rope. She is still a work in progress though so it was great to see a horse that's somewhere in the middle.

After dinner when I got home fresh from my experience there I went out to work with Sora. I had a few goals and managed to achieve all of them though with varying levels of success.

First, I introduced Sora to endo tapping. This is something that's talked about on the AND forum but was something that I didn't understand and was confused enough not to look into it further. However, Hannah really cleared it up and so I decided to add the techniques to my time with Sora. Basically you tap softly on a major muscle until the horse drops it's head and licks or chews. Eventually you increase the time so that you continue even when they drop their head until they reach even deeper relaxation. I managed to get her to do it nicely two times but because of the grass she was looking for excuses to drop her head so it was hard to find an opportunity.

Second, I decided it's time to be able to drive her away from grass if I need to. This was harder to do without making her upset. Even though I stayed happy and patient we're both very stubborn so I'd chase her away and she'd trot a few steps before dropping her head and munching again. Finally I'd increase the pressure and she'd tear across the arena in mock terror to stand in the corner and danger snort at me once or twice and finally come galloping back across the arena to get her treat *roll eyes here* =) Actually though I was pleased with the improvement we made and happy that she would come back to me even after I was "scary".

Third, I wanted to be able to lead her with the cordeo even with the grass beckoning. This went really well and even when she shied once she lightly hit the end of the rope and stopped rather than pulling it out of my hands like she could have.

I'm hoping to work on these again tomorrow and continue working on Bow.

AND in a Nutshell

2010-07-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

I was going to write about my incredible evening with Sora but I have work at 1:00 and I'm short on time so I decided to just post what a forum member used to explain AND to someone new. I haven't really explained what AND is and thought that maybe now is the time.

The AND philosophy in a nutshell.

First, there is no set right and wrong, no rigid rules on how you MUST work with your horses. The idea that is supported here is that the needs of the horse come first, and bitless is promoted, but again, it is not dictated. You are free to choose for your horses.

The main theme is that we are all on a learning journey. We must be open to learning from all sources, good or bad. And the primary teacher for all of us is the horse itself.

The idea is that you listen to the horse. You are observant, you watch for signs and signals from the horse that he/she is being stressed and you try to determine the source of the discomfort. You also watch for signs of composure and "happiness" from the horse and take clues from that.

When it comes to encouragement/motivation food is fine, or whatever your horse finds enjoyable. If food is not what you want to use, then experiment with other means...a good scratch, a kind word, whatever your horse finds motivating. Experiment and play.

You are always free to choose what is right for you, and what you feel is right for your horses.

Desensitization

2010-07-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

So, today apparently was Sora's day to desensitize me.

I put the cordeo on her and my helmet on and walked over and climbed up on the mounting block. For some reason right at the moment I had an adrenalin rush/panic attack thing I still have no idea why, there is still no reason that I can think of.

Sora walked over and as usual stood happily next to the block and took treats from me while my heart raced. I decided to try to get on and just as I got ready to Sora turned slowly and asked me to scratch her butt. I was, at the moment, disappointed because she has never done that before but I scratched her and then asked her to line up again. My heart was still beating so hard that I was shaking and once again Sora calmly walked away from the block just as I got ready to mount. This time I realized what was going on, Sora didn't think I should get on, so I climbed off the mounting block and went and sat in the grass for a while trying to calm down and Sora came and grazed around me. I think she was protecting me

I decided to leave and get myself in a better place. I left the pen and headed into the house but I heard hoof beats behind me and turned around to see what was happening. Sora was racing back and forth along the fence line and when I turned Sora stopped and screamed at me. Sora's not vocal at all so this was really strange for her. At any rate I took her advice and headed back. This time I put her halter on and not the Cordeo. I decided that in case I HAD to stop her I could that way and yet I would very little control of turning etc. I went back the mounting block and climbed on with my back turned to her, leaving it completely up to her whether she wanted to continue with this. I was truly terrified by the time she got there and after feeding her some treats I climbed up quickly and sat there shaking.

Sora proceeded to desensitize me at the walk. She would walk forward a few steps and then as my heart rate mounted she'd stop and stand with her head low, licking and chewing and even resting a hoof sometimes. After a while I was doing better so she marched up to the fence. I got tense and scared when she started to nose the fly spray bottle, sure she'd knock it off and then shy. She nosed it a few times completely ignoring my request that we back up and then picked it up and threw it at the fence, she stood with happy ears clearly saying "see mom? Fly spray bottles aren't scary at all"

After that I relaxed and calmed down a lot. It's amazing what laughter can do. We worked on moving off my aids a little and she was still somewhat sluggish but far better than she has been. Mostly after that amazing demonstration of her trust I was unwilling to try to teach HER anything so she got lots of treats during and after and we cuddled a little after.

Pegasus

2010-07-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Just a short post because it's late. I was able to get some short (and shaky) video of myself riding Sora bridle less. Kids, don't try this at home lol

Fun huh? You probably feel like you're actually there.

Slow Progress

2010-07-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today was lovely. I finally decided three days ago that I needed to have some goals or I'd just spend the summer running around with Sora doing easy things and feeding her treats. Nothing wrong with that of course but I do have higher aspirations =)
I decided that the most important thing right now is to start working with her more often so that I can be more consistent. I decided to try to do some sort of training her for three days in a row before taking a day off. Along with that basic goal I decided on a few easily reachable goals.

1. Spend a short amount of time during each session on Sora's back
2. While mounted try to figure out what I need to do to encourage forward and turning, especially forward
3. Practice getting Sora to target parts of her body other than her nose
4. Work on desensitizing Sora to a bicycles and cars
What we've already accomplished since starting AND around the end of March =)

-Bravery for both of us, I no longer "shy" when Sora does even for the big ones-Sora's learned how to target different things consistently including my fist, a cone and anything "scary" that I ask her to touch
-She's learned the behaviors Paw, front leg lifts, backing to me, Ramener, Cordeo cues, lowering her head, and lunging at liberty at a trot and canter
and most impressive to me, she'll step up to anything I'm standing on to use as a mounting block and stand perfectly still while I climb on without a single piece of equipment on =)
-Finally she's become incredibly brave about many things and will ignore even the tastiest grass just to be with me (and of course for treats)
-Last goal is to do more updating on this blog =)

The above is of course what we'll look like by the end of summer

Partners Again =)

2010-06-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to ride Sora for a little while despite the crazy weather. It is only in the 60s here and is windy and stormy feeling. This could freak any horse out especially a young hot Arabian so I've been reluctant, more than I need to be, to spend any time on Sora's back. Today I finally got over it. I don't have any pictures yet but I do have more from the other day.
Sora was perfect, what else is new =) She shied as we stepped away from the mounting block but stopped instantly when I pulled on her neck rope lightly. She also turned as well without saddle or bridle or bit as she did when she had those things. She is still a little reluctant to move off nicely but I feel that a lot of that is because since I'm bareback she can feel more movement from me and it throws her off. This is the first time I've really asked for anything bareback so I'm happy with any small movement.
After that we did some other things again at liberty out of the pasture. I asked for some behaviors but mostly we just ran around and expended some energy. I also picked some more of the knots out of her mane.
We're supposed to get thunder storms again tomorrow but if not I'm hoping to do some more riding.

Summer Cometh Accompanied by Sadness

2010-06-17T13:05:00.001-07:00

Finally after some of the most wet and rainy weather I've been through, we seem to have more mushrooms in our lawn then grass, it is sunny and warm. on Monday I got most of the knots out of Sora's mane and we had a wonderful liberty walk down the driveway. Then yesterday I got my little sister to take pictures of Sora at liberty before Hanna left for her music camp in Vermont.We've done most everything at liberty for the past week or so. The things I'm the proudest of are some of the smallest. One of those is that if I stand up on anything to use it as a mounting block I can get her, with a little persuasion to step up to it and wait calmly while I climb on her back with or without any type of halter or bridle. I also rode her for an extremely short time a few days ago with just a Cordeo and it was really lovely. She stopped and turned even lighter than she ever has with a halter.

I'm also extremely pleased with how she's maturing. She still has some awkward baby look but she's really filling out and getting more muscular. Her head is also drying out and I can't believe how I ended up with such a beautiful horse.
Completely at liberty trotting with me. No small feat especially with the corn (or "bestest food ever" as the horses would call it) right next to us. For the entire photo shoot Sora had maybe one bite when I wasn't paying attention to her =)

If this post sounds a little subdued it's because I just got the kind of call that no horse owner ever wants. Suz, the woman who bought Loki left me a message that he was put down today after tearing all the ligaments in a leg.I don't quite know how to feel. I had him for longer than any other horse and I did so much with him but we never clicked. Because of that, although I'm extremely sad it's not the life altering experience that it could be. I am extremely sad for Suz who was crying on the voicemail and I'm so glad that he had someone who really loved him and who he really loved.
Bye baby boy, you will be missed by all who knew you.

Happy Birthday Baby!

2010-05-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Just a short post on an extremely hot day to say happy birthday to my girl. She is officially a mare today. Her birthday present is a treeless saddle so we can actually get out together. Pictures to follow =]

Hey Soul Sister

2010-04-20T16:39:00.000-07:00

Today was wonderful because I finally felt like a wall that Sora and I have been struggling with has been crossed. We were having trust issues and it felt like either I would cross the wall and Sora would smack into it or, more often, Sora would cross the wall and I'd smack into it. Today I feel like we both gathered ourselves and jumped it together =)

It started with me feeding hay. Sora as usual got to come into the barn for her grain and easily left when I asked. However as soon as she was out, instead of going to eat hay, she spun around and wanted to come back in so I opened the door and let her. I filled my pockets with treats (I always assure Sora that we've had a bountiful harvest so not to worry) and we did some simple behaviors like leg lifts, shoulder targets, backing and yielding, all of this halterless. She was good so I invited her to come out the other end of our barn. This leads right onto our lawn where we keep the VERY tasty grass. She followed me softly out and started grazing just as I hoped she would. However unlike normal she kept coming to me to get treats!

I spent a little time with her before leaving to get the cats some food. This gets kept in the garage or four LARGE raccoons fight over it which tears our barn apart. I was a few steps away from Sora when she started following me! I was so ecstatic and Sora got a jackpot but I didn't really think she would come any further. Happily Sora proved me wrong and came all the way to the door with me, waited for me to go and come out and then followed me, at the trot!, back to the barn. I had run out of treats at that point so I had to race in the barn to get her some and she trotted next to me all the way in. We went back out and spent some more time together and in the end I didn't even need a halter or rope to put her back in with her herd. She did really want to come back with me though =)

My sister, Hanna, has agreed to come out and get some more pictures of us as soon as her schedule is a little lighter. She just finished auditioning for several of the biggest music conservatories in the country and is now getting ready for two different concerts so she has a lot on her plate. Hopefully more of her wonderful pictures will grace this blog soon =)

Invisible Connection

2010-04-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying this more and more. I realized a few days ago that this is really always what I wanted when I thought about having a horse. I dreamed that it would be like it was for Alec Ramsey, riding bareback and bridle less on the beach with a horse that actually wanted to be with me rather than being forced to put up with me. Reality was sadly very different and Bucky completely shattered that dream in so many ways. Because of that I really forgot about that dream, wrote it off as an impossibility but now it's actually getting closer and closer.

Yesterday I went out to spend time with Sora. I brought two carrots but didn't really plan on doing any training. I used the carrots getting Sora more comfortable around the mounting block but then she wanted to leave me and go with her herd to graze so I let her. She ran out to them and I could tell she was interested in running around and playing so I went to play with her and we had fun =) She ran and bucked and reared. Finally she stopped so I just sat on the grass and we spent some time together. One of our horses chased her and I chased the horse and then she was stuck to me like glue.

Sora just stuck by my side and she kept wanting to just smell me. She'd press her nose up against my hand and just stay like that for several seconds. It was wonderful and when I left she wanted to come with me.

Today the weather is nuts and I don't know if I'll spend much time outside but I have tomorrow off so I'm hoping to start teaching her a new behavior. Now that we're getting better at communicating maybe it's time to start teaching her to rear, or maybe I'll chicken out and teach her how to bow =)

Finally one of my sources of inspiration

Herd, not Human

2010-04-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

A change has happened with Sora and my relationship. Starting earlier this week I finally became a treasured member of Sora's herd rather than simply Katlyn. With that said, I am a very treasured, respected and valued herd member that never gets kicked at, bitten or run over. However that really isn't that strange as horses generally don't do these things to each other anyway except in extremely rough play or when vying for dominance.

Currently not much training is going on but there is a lot of learning happening with both of us. I'm learning how to be and remain congruent with positive and appropriate energy. Sora is learning how to read my body language and how much more delicate I can be than a horse which means that it does hurt me when she snaps and that I react with fear if feet start flying too near me. The thing is that right now all she needs as a correction is the fear. She backs off just as I do when she gets fearful and nothing more needs to be done since we respect eachother.

The more specific work that has happened has been working with the Cordeo and teaching Sora that I would like her walking next to me when we are "working" but that she can be where ever when we play.

I have come to a few powerful realizations. First, that working with/playing with a horse either at liberty, doing groundwork or on their back is not dangerous (at least no more than walking to your car) as long as there is respect from and in both parties and as long as both parties are fairly alert. Basically the things I always saw as impossible, dangerous or stupid simply aren't with the type of relationship Sora and I are working on. I wasn't thinking about the fact that riding, for example without a bridle, isn't dangerous at all if you are able to listen to what the horse is telling you. If the horse tells you something is scary or dangerous you climb off and that a horse that respects you just won't buck to remove you, only to show exuberant mood (if at that point you can't stay on that's hardly the horse's fault lol).

These are simple things but I am discovering that I tend to be fearful of everything in my life (the fact that my first few experience with horses were with horses that did want to hurt me didn't help at all). Sora is the same way and we are teaching and learning from each other. A good example of this is when I climbed on Sora for the first time ever bareback yesterday. She wasn't sure she wanted me there and I could tell she thought that feeling me move that clearly was strange but she didn't want to hurt me! She values my friendship and respects me. Even though she knows that I wouldn't hurt a hair on her if she expressed herself that way (natural fear response), she also knew that I would climb off the minute she needed me to. Because of that even though I had a rush of adrenalin and was shaky she stood stock still until I gathered myself a little and when I lost my balance (I haven't had a chance to ride all winter and am disgustingly weak in my core) she stopped and waited for me to regain my balance. All of this in a halter, on a windy day with completely loose reins.

Sora has been learning a lot from our time together as well and has never been calmer. I've realized that if I were to tell someone that something was dangerous and they ignored me it would only heighten my fear whereas if they responded to it and then ignored it I would feel completely safe. I've started to acknowledge everything Sora tells me is scary. I look, smell (breath deeply) and sometimes “shy” while remaining calm with an in control, leader sort of attitude, and most of the time after acknowledging the scary I go back to what we were doing. Between that and the increase in time I spend with her she is now calmer than any other horse I've been around. This is all because of trust. As a member of the herd she knows I'm looking out for both of us and wouldn't lead us into danger. She also sees that I respect her decisions and pay attention to the things she thinks are scary. Yesterday I went to save a rubber ball from the wind and when I tossed it over the fence into Sora's pen, the wind took it and threw it against her legs. She just stood there looking at it. She was ready to run but since I didn't and just smiled and waited she came over to me relaxed not even really looking at the ball. Very impressive (at least to me) from a still three year old Arabian filly.

School is Torture

2010-03-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

I have been quiet recently because of school. I'm in Midterms and have a short term class final in a couple weeks. Because of that this is copied from my training journal on the AND forum.

Things have been great with us! Starting Wednesday I had three really good days with Sora. I didn't write earlier because school is nuts right now. In the span of two weeks I have two accounting quizzes and a final and a public policy final. Today I finished one of the accounting tests and after Tuesday the public policy final will be done. Because of that its been tough to work with Sora.

Wednesday I took her out to our arena/pen to play a bit. I had forgotten that we have grass growing everywhere in that pen and Sora has never been able to ignore grass even for treats. I wanted so much to push her or chase her a bit but i didn't. I just walked around, not really ignoring her but not asking her to come either. I had almost given up when she came over to me for a treat. She stood nice and calm without mugging and got one but then walked off to graze again. Once again I let her go and after only a few more minutes she came to play! She was glued to me for the rest of the time I was in with her and we had FUN. She was rearing and spinning and "cutting" me as I played keep away but was extremely polite the entire time and only forgot herself and tried mugging once or twice

Then on Friday morning we tried Karen's idea of patrolling the fence line. It was windy and cool and although Sora was calm I decided I wanted to play a little. I found a tree to beat on (made Sora confused since that's not one of the "scary trees") but the best part was when I shied. We were waaaay up in the pasture away from her herd which makes her looky anyway and then I "shied" snorting away. She raced off but came right back to me! Trotting like she was floating over the ground and I could tell she was teasing me. Not scared at all just laughing that I'd shied. She always comes back but normally she stands and looks for a long time first. This time she just came straight back.

Then tonight I needed to work on her hooves. She's barefoot and with the guidance of an incredible barefoot trimmer I've been doing it myself now for about six months. The trimmer also happens to do Reiki(sp?) and is an animal communicator so I know who to go to if I ever have trouble

I normally cross tie her, which she's good for, and she gets tons of treats. This time though I'd read about someone on here who sits on a stool with the horse's foot in their lap and I realized that would really help me as I'm not that coordinated yet with the file so I decided to try it. I put down some hay to help her be calm this first time, didn't tie her or even have a lead rope on her halter, and then I carried a stool and tools over to her. As I was setting my stool down next to her she was already lifting her foot wonderful obliging girl that she is she held it up for me as I sat down. She was really good with every foot except the hind right which she is normally nervous about. She was actually better than normal with that one too.

I love doing anything with her feet because she was impossible with them at first. I had people suggest to tie them up but I could never do that. In the end I decided to just wait for her and one day she picked them up with just a touch Now she's so good that she actually waits to set the back ones down until I step away. Her own decision, not something I ever asked of her, so that she doesn't step on me i think

I'm trying to get some pictures but I don't have anyone here who's really willing to take them and when I try all I get is nose

So as you can see things are going GREAT! I also managed to sell both my saddles so as soon as my rebate check comes I'll be able to buy a saddle that will actually fit her!!! I'm SOOOOOO excited!

Now, back to stressful studying.

Beautiful Weather!

2010-03-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

It's been so nice here lately. It's almost like mother nature is trying to make up for our awful winter. Not only has it been warm but the mix of weather means that we almost have no mud which is usually my least favorite part of Spring.

It looks like tomorrow it's going to be a little colder and during the weekend we have snow and rain to look forward to but after this incredible week I almost don't care =)

I had a wonderful walk with Sora this morning. I'm working on trying to get her more confident out on the road and with cars because that's the ONLY place we have to ride. My dream is to be able to ride her down into our small town, down to the beach and on some of the beautiful little roads around here by myself this summer because I have NO one to ride with and no trailer so if I want to be out at all it's going to completely rely on getting her comfortable with cars.

I am hoping that some of my horsie friends will be willing to come and pick us up to go out on trails but I just can't rely on that and I don't want to have to wait for it.

Berry Treats Please!

2010-03-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

Things went sooo well with Sora today! I worked with her in the barn since everything at our farm right now is mud. I also worked with her for longer than I have in a while since she seemed to have a really long attention span.

She learned not to mug me for treats, the beginnings of the Spanish Walk, I started teaching her Ramener and we worked on backing towards me. All of this without a halter on and with hay present.

The best part was when she did this PERFECT Ramener (she still doesn't know what she was doing, she just thought she was getting treats for no reason lol) and I started jumping up and down and telling her how perfect she was. She looked SOOOO proud of herself.

oh my but this is fun =D =D

I'm really anxious to get my first pay check from my new job so that I can get her a side pull. I'm going to try to make my own Cordeo because I think I can make one of those pretty well and then all I'll need is my new saddle and we'll be all outfitted =)

Sorry for the lack of pictures but Sora looks, well, interesting, right now between the globs of mud and the extremely hairy coat. I feel she would be embarrassed if she knew that pictures of her like that were getting out so for now you will have to imagine her in all her perfect glory.

Here is a video of her from a week ago. That entire expanse is now thick mud =X

Thrilled

2010-03-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

First, not too much that's really exciting is going on. Tonight I spent some time just getting the knots out of Sora's mane because I've been lazy this winter and they were pretty bad. She looks like someone cares again which is good =) I also got some rasping done on her hooves. They've also been let go a little. Most people would probably hardly be able to tell they're too long, but since all I can do is rasp it's imperative that they don't get too long or I'll be stuck and will have to call my trimmer.

Secondly I've been working on starting her with the Art of Natural Dressage stuff. It's amazing how all the trust I'd lost in her last fall has come back along with more. I'm remembering just what a great horse she really is and she's remembering that I'm fun sometimes. At this point we aren't doing anything really exciting. She's learned how to paw with each front leg on cue, how to back towards me, and most importantly that she can leave when she wants and the training gets to be too much for her. It was fun watching her the first couple of times with this because she expected me to chase after her. Last night we worked on reinforcing good treat taking/clicker skills and it went better than expected. Now I just have to remember the order of things and she'll remain polite =)

Finally, that saddle I bought last fall is going up for sale along with the Wintec dressage. I really don't know why I've held onto the Wintec so long as I know it will never fit her and I don't plan on getting a horse that it will fit. I like the Thornhill but while the Wintec fits her shoulders but is too narrow in the back the Thornhill is too wide wide in the shoulders but fits in the back. Sora is in that awkward back phase where almost nothing fits so I looked into options and as soon as my job picks up, and I get the other two saddles sold, I'm going to get one of these saddles on trial. I REALLY like the reviews and I think it looks cool too. Plus it's a price I can afford =)

Thoughtful Thursday

2010-03-04T15:26:00.000-08:00

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my goals for myself and Sora over the past few days.

One thing I've been thinking about is about Dressage and Dressage competition. I've said on here before that I want to do a little of everything with Sora and also that I have no interest in getting to the upper levels of Dressage. Something I haven't mentioned here is the fact that while I've always wanted to be able to show Sora I have no interest in competing for ribbons, competition, or certainly money. The only reason I would like to be able to show her is so that I can be in that environment with other horse people. Which is the same reason I love going trail riding or simply riding with friends. To me its the people and the environment that I lack here where I wish so much to have others to ride with and simply to talk to about horses. I was pushed at a young age to compete with my instruments and it was a very serious, life altering thing whether I won or did well or not because it meant getting into a better school, getting scholarships etc. I NEVER want horses to be that for me.

The reason that I realized this is that I've been thinking long and hard about going bitless. Starting with when I first got Sora and wanted to do everything for her the best way I could. I had a reminder of that when I was so successfully riding her with only her halter and more recently as I was going through this Bitless horse blog. Last night while I was at school I was doing some more research and I stumbled on this website and felt like I'd come home and found a family I never knew I had. The people on the forum are open and offer warm encouragement to each other even if different views are expressed. This is what Dressage to me is truly about and should be about. This is the kind of relationship I have always wanted to have with Sora and always been too embarrassed, or pressured to express.

I've always felt that a Bit was a very useful tool and that people who never rode with one were extremists but the more I see and read and think about it the more a different kind of riding makes sense to me. Because of that, last night when I got home from school at 11:00 I went out to be with Sora and to think. I brought her into the barn and while she had a snack I groomed her and got some of the knots out of her mane. For about half an hour we just spent time together and I carefully mulled all of this over in my head. Finally I made a decision and went in to the tack room, took the bit off her bridle and hung it up. It felt very symbolic and I know it will completely change my future with not just Sora but with any horse I end up owning.

I feel like I've made the right decision for me and for Sora and for the first time I feel like a weight is off my shoulders and I know where I'm going with her. Ever since last fall when I posted on COTH I've realized that I really don't fit in with most of the Dressage crowd but now I've found my tribe =)
This picture is of Sora's first trail ride, almost her first time on the road, when she was still slightly scared of cars. It also turned out to be the first time we'd canter. I rode her in just her halter because I completely trusted her and she proved me right. Even slowing down next to another horse from a canter to a trot with just a tightening of my hands on the reins.

Tagged!

2010-03-01T09:43:00.001-08:00

And it's my first =) I was tagged by Dressage Pony.

Part of the award is that I need to tell you seven things about myself that you don't know yet. So here goes:

1) I live in a club house/fort. Yes you read that right. Being 24 and living at home I had last choice of living space and this is what I ended up with lol.

When my parents built our house they made this little fort for us since we were good kids and watched our baby sister. It's actually really cozy with just enough space for my bed on the floor and only one place where I can stand upright=)

2) I was home schooled from when I was 5 to when I went to college at 18. I never even was in a class room until drivers ed. We, my brother and sisters and I, were home schooled so that we could spend tons of time practicing our instruments at 3-8 hours a day and other than math we didn't study anything else. Now, before you condemn our mother, we did TONS of reading, had interesting discussions on everything from religion to politics and I did well enough on the SATs and entrance paper that I got a full scholarship to every university that I applied to along with graduating Cum Laude.

3) I was in 4-H for many years and raised Dairy Goats, Rabbits, Sheep, cooked, sewed etc. etc.

4) I taught one of the above goats to pull a cart and gave rides at our county fair lol.

5) I interned for a year with American Public Media/Minnesota Public Radio and my booth was right in the middle of all of the DJs. I got to watch Mary Lucia doing her thing in the booth all day while listening to the live streaming of The Current, on my headphones at my computer. Best job I've ever had!

6) My first pony was a little black and white paint named Prince. While his name did NOT describe him well, my second equine was named Bucky and that did suit him exceptionally well =X

7) I live in Minnesota about an hour and a half south of the Twin Cities in one of the most beautiful places in the world =) I live right between two tourist cities, Red Wing (home of those famous Red Wing Shoes) and Lake City which is like being transported to Greece or Italy =) All of the members of my family commute at least 3-5 days a week to the cities traveling untold miles on our cars (3-4 hour round trips) but non of us would trade living here for anything. Afterall, being able to ride from our house, through a small town and be here is just about the best thing in the world =)

So, now I need to list fifteen blogs! I believe that some of these have already won this award but these are the fifteen blogs I follow regularly.

Dressage Mom
Braymere Custom Saddlery
Sincerely Paige
Javas Barn
Equine Mine
Horse Crazy American in Germany
Bitless Horse
Soltice Art Studio
Jumping Percheron
I is Roxie
Eventing a Go-Go
Sofie Learns Dressage
The Eventing Percheron
Always There Are The Horses
Tekes Tally-Ho!

See?

2010-02-22T14:08:00.000-08:00

For the first time since Christmas I gave Sora a good work out yesterday. I knew there would be fireworks since it's cool and she's been itching to have an excuse to bounce around =) There were quite the fireworks but it was my fault because I was overthinking things. Over the winter I've been thinking alot about Sora's progress over the summer and trying to figure out what I can improve on. I decided that I should push her a little harder not roughly just in clearly getting my point across and making sure that I didn't let her get away with anything.

The problem is that I was actually doing a great job with her in the summer and had figured out exactly how hard I could push and when. I started yesterday by pulling her into the barn and putting her saddle and boots on. She was a little jumpy but that was to be expected with the long break. Everything went well until she decided to freak out going to the left on the longe. This is normally her better side and I still can't figure out what was going on. She was scared enough that she basically jumped sideways all the way around the circle. Because of my plan I gently pushed her with vocal encouragement and by slapping the end of the longe against my leg. However she just got worse and worse. I couldn't tell whether she was being naughty at this point or scared so I kept trying different techniques but just kept pushing. By this point I was using everything I had to try to get her moving in the right direction. Finally I gave up my plan and let her stop because I could tell she was now getting scared. I made her stand at the end of the line quietly and calm down. I waited until she lowered her head and let out her breath. Then I took her back to the beginning as if I was teaching her to longe all over again and we ended with her walking around me quietly a few times.

Lets just say I learned my lesson all over again. I should have remembered that this horse tries her heart out for me and is very rarely actually naughty. Today I remembered and we had a great session. I took her out to a different pen which should have been scary. She was bouncy hyper, fast, and feeling playful but despite that she didn't put a foot wrong. She didn't buck on the longe (even though she wanted to). She didn't step into my space. She slowed back to a trot or walk when I asked. All of this brought out how well she was behaving especially because she did want to bounce around and go fast. She did well today because I waited for her in little ways. For example, when I first asked her to go to the left she just stood there and looked at me and I just waited for a minute. When I asked gently again she sighed and went perfectly as if saying "See, just be gentle and respect me and I'll do what ever you want and be happy to work for you". Needless to say she got tons of vocal praise, petting and some treats when we were done.

I LOVE this horse!

Affordable Tack

2010-02-18T19:11:00.001-08:00

I'm sick and have been unable to do much at all outside. Tonight however it was warm and so I brought Sora in the barn, worked on her hooves and worked on getting her to softly lower her poll. She did really well which is encouraging since this has been a problem since I got her.

In other news, I finally found a saddle I can afford.Too bad it's for a model horse cause it looks comfy =) This one's pretty nice too if hunt seat is more your thing =D
The above saddle pictures are from the very talented model saddle maker Jennifer Buxton.
http://braymere.blogspot.com/

Things, They Be A Changing

2010-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

After more than a year looking for a job I finally have two good (really possible that I'll actually get a job offer) interviews next week. One is near where I'm currently living with my family but is the less desirable (to me) of the two. The other is far enough away that it would mean a move but I'd be making enough to make that possible. If I get that job, knock on wood-crossed fingers-no walking under ladders, it will mean not only a move for me but a move for Sora.

I am so completely ready to move her that I can't even express it =) It's been WONDERFUL being able to keep her at my parents. It means that I have only to pay for hay and grain and I get to see her everyday and care for her myself. Those are things that I will really miss once I am eventually boarding her (whether or not it happens now). However, it also means that I'll actually be able to start working her again because I'll have access to an arena or round pen of some kind. It may seem silly that it's impossible to work her in our current set up but it truly is impossible.

If you were to cut out a sample of our snow you would find that it varies by where you get it from 1" to about 2.5'. There is glare ice underneath most of it and at least three different layers of hard, sharp crust at various depths. Add to that the fact that you can't even get into our arena and, even if you got in, can't close the gate because it's stuck. The only place that my family can even walk is on our driveway and road and guess what, that's slippery glare ice and it's also just rock hard. Not a good combination to work a hot, green, four year old on even for ground stuff.

The dry lots, winter pens, that the horses are in would be the best place but they are on a slant and fairly slippery which completely rules out lunging or anything faster than a walk/halt. I've done some work with her yielding etc but there's only so much we can do on that topic.

Because of the above I dream of an arena, or something, to work in. I really don't care much about the cold (although I wouldn't work Sora with the recent temps of 10) and would be happy even if it was outdoors as long as the footing was reasonable. So, although I've got the cost of keeping a horse at an amazing low, the absolute impossibility of being able to work with her is soooooooooo hard.

While I'm excited about a move for her I'm also nervous =3 In my 12 years of horse keeping I've never kept a horse at a boarding stable. Yeah, the math means that I've been keeping them since I was 12 years old and that includes fixing and setting up fences, first aid, training, and feeding each morning and night even when it's 40 below and in blizzards. Although it will be a nice break to leave some of this to someone else I'm really going to miss the control. I'm hoping to keep Sora somewhere with stall board, mostly because of dietary reasons, but where the horses are out all day. This makes me nervous because I've never kept horses in stalls, ever =S. Sora has however spent a fair amount of time in one when she was younger and I would suspect she will be a "stall baby" and love it just from what I know of her behavior around here.

There are certain things I just can't imagine, like having someone else worm her, or even lead her to and from her stall. I'm just sooo used to being the one who does everything with her and will really miss that. In my mind though the opportunity to work with her, spend time with other horse people, have access to trails and an arena outweigh the worries I do have.

These are some of the facilities I'd like to look into/visit.

http://triple-sranch.com/default.aspx
http://www.sunsetridgeranch.com/index.htm
http://kadlerfarm.com/default.aspx
http://www.ridesportstables.com/home
http://www.windyslopesstables.com/
http://lonerockranch.net/

Hostage

2010-02-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

It would seem that I have started a new trend =D

I started this Winter putting Sora's hay in (what I will call) the "Hay Spot". As shown in the following carefully drawn diagram (where the yellow squiggles are sun and the Grey squiggles are wind), this is the best spot in her pen for hay when it's windy.
To put it lightly, this has caught on in a BIG way. When I feed I always go to the barn, prepare Sora's grain (tiny handful of sweet feed and some supplement) and then put it out the door at the end first thing. While she's eating that I toss out hay over the dividing fence for the two other horses since it's not fair for Sora to be eating and not them =)

At first while I was doing that Sora would eat hay out of the barn with her head through the door which distracted her. What's happening now though is that Sora has stopped trusting me to get her hay in the correct place. She eats quickly and by the time I get back to the barn to grab her portion of hay she's standing impatiently by the barn watching me. I go in the barn, under her disapproving stare and grab her hay.

It's at this point that I become a hostage. As soon as I leave the barn I have an escort who politely but firmly guides me to the proper place for the hay. She doesn't try to eat it, or pin her ears. She simply walks right next to me with her neck all arched watching me with a critical eye to ensure the proper delivery of her food. This is sort of the look
Once I've been properly escorted I'm expected to place her hay just so. It needs to be in the right place so that she can eat it either in the shed or out and it can't be too close to the line. If it is she exasperatedly moves it with her nose as if saying "here, you stupid person. Why do you never get this right?"

At this point I'm free to leave, although she does watch to make sure I haven't rethought that second helping of grain.

Saturday Selections

2010-01-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

This was going to be Friday Favorites but I forgot to post it on Friday erp.

This is in no particular order and is a non horsie list, otherwise I can assure you Sora would be on it <3

1. Battlestar Galactica

My favorite tv show of all time! The extremely human way that they portray people really amazes me. There isn't a single character on the show that you like all the time because they are always making decisions that you may or may not agree with. There isn't the "evil" character that so many shows have. Plus there is a healthy dose of hotness lol. My brother, who I've been watching the show with (for the second time) is a Sharon fan, I really like Lee and Kara <3 although Helo and Sharon are some of my favorite characters.

2. Diet Coke

My drink of choice. <3

3. DeviantArt - http://www.deviantart.com/

Incredible website with some incredible artists. One of my favorite places to get gifts from plus I just love browsing around drooling over the art.

4. Imogen Heap

My favorite musical artist would vary depending on when you asked but Imogen is always at or near the top. I've been using my 1 1/2 hours on the light rail to listen to her new album, Ellipse, over and over =D

5. My ipod touch

Which actually contains three of my other favorites on it, doesn't get much better than that! My favorite app is the kindle book reader. I read so many books on it it's not even funny =X

6. Jacqueline Carey

One of my many favorite authors. Her writing is like poetry and even the political parts of her book are written so beautifully they could be lyrics to a song.

7. The smell of Apoxie Sculpt

This is what I use to sculpt and when it heats up from my fingers or when I'm sanding it the smell is intoxicating. It's sort of earthy/musty and like nothing else.

8. My Netbook

I seriously don't know what I'd do in my classes without this little computer. I write extremely slow but I type very fast so this thing saves my life. Especially in accounting where I swear my teacher covers then entire white board in under a minute =X This picture isn't of mine but it's a good illustration of the size.

9. Wraeththu

A surprising last minute purchase from Half Price Books this has turned into one of my favorite books. Very unique =D

10. My Cello

From 12 to 20 this thing and I had a love hate relationship but I spent thousands of hours of my life with it and much of who I was/am is tied up in it. I haven't played it since May 2008 because it's just too painful, and I don't have the time, but I hope to pick it up again in a few years when I do have more time.

Even Worse Weather

2010-01-25T13:08:00.000-08:00

This is what Weather underground is telling me today

"Breezy. Widespread snow. Blowing and drifting snow in the afternoon. Visibility one quarter mile or less at times in the afternoon. New snow accumulation around 1 inch. Highs around 25. Northwest winds 20 to 25 mph."

To me a Windchill of 10 °F is not "Breezy". That along with the fact that all the melting we were having turned back into ice and has been further polished smooth by snow blowing across it makes even walking difficult.
The horses are warm and cozy in their shelter. No one's hair was standing up and there was no shivering this morning so I didn't blanket but I will be tonight, if I can remain standing up long enough to do it =X
A few days ago we spread cat litter, the only thing that works that they won't try to eat, all around their pens to help with the slipperiness. It works well but with the melt it simply sank to the ground and now is caught within the ice. Verrrry Helpful *snorts*

Here is a short video clip that I caught while taking the pictures trying to show the desolation. It's hard to capture just how strong the winds are though.

Finally, an update on Model Khepri. Last night after I posted my previous entry the artist that was donating a paint job on my donation to Show for the Cure emailed me this picture.
This is, as far as I know, the first copy of Khepri to have been painted. Cassie Black, the artist, paints in oils and acrylics and her website can be found here.

Of Nasty Weather and Plastic Ponies

2010-01-24T14:03:00.000-08:00

After my last post I got really sick for a week but I'm finally feeling better.

I went out today to work on Sora's hooves again and she was a really good girl about it so I took her out of her pen to our arena for a while so she could run around and explore a little. I got a couple of pictures of her on my phone since my camera is acting up =P

It's hard to tell but she's having a good shake in this one, it was cute =) You can also kind of see the awful weather we've been having. It's warmer than it was but now there's been freezing rain for the past three days =3

Because I haven't been able to do anything with Sora recently I thought I'd post a little more about my other hobby. I started collecting model horses, specifically Breyers, when I was about five =) At that point of course I just played with them but by the time I was sixteen I had twenty or so. When I went to college, however, I left them behind and didn't really think I'd ever get more.

In my second year of college I discovered Artist Resins =D More detailed than Breyers there are also many more available. I was hooked! The only problem was the price. Even unpainted the largest scale, referred to as Traditionals, run between $100-$1000 or in some cases even more. Then, on top of that, paint jobs cost $150 - $5000? or even more. There was no way aI could afford this =X

For a while I made do. I bought a broken "classic" scale (slightly smaller than traditionals) model for a good price and had him repaired.
I also bought a couple of Stablemates, the smallest "popular" size. Here is a picture reference of the different scales (the picture isn't in scale however lol).

Traditional Classic PaddockPal StableMate MiniWhinnies

I was still having trouble affording the models I really wanted but then I discovered the tiniest scale which are called Mini Whinnies by Breyer or Micro Minis by most others. I've always loved miniatures and micros are TINY. About the height of a Quarter there were enough different models to keep me busy for a while. You can see some here.

The only problem was that there just weren't that many models available since there are really only one or two sculptors that sculpt in that scale. I decided that I would try making one myself and Paris was born =D After about a year I made a stock horse mare named Khepri and am currently working on Nafre
Hopefully I'll be able to spend some more time with Sora tomorrow and, if I'm able to, I'll try to borrow a camera to get more, better pictures.

I'm Still ALIVE: part 3

2010-01-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

New Years was great this year especially since we invited family over that I hadn't seen in a long time. My cousin Jenna and I were like sisters several years ago but since she recently started her own family I haven't seen her. We used to spend weeks at our farm either riding stick horses, before we had real ones, or riding Bucky and Jackson once we had them. It was wonderful to see her again!

On New Years Eve I noticed that Sora was uncomfortable chewing. She had just been floated in April so I hoped that wasn't the problem. Because of the grinding sound I heard I was 88.8% sure that she was just having some problems loosing some baby caps. I decided to wait for the next day before I decided what to do.

On New Years Day I was disappointed to see that Sora actually seemed more uncomfortable and during the evening feeding she didn't finish her hay. I told her the next morning that if she wasn't better by Monday I would call the vet. She decided to follow through and by Monday, if anything, seemed slightly worse. I called the vet and set up an appointment for the next morning.

It turned out the stubborn pony just wanted to see the vet because the vet found that she had JUST lost two baby caps, just as I thought lol, and said that she should be feeling better. He also found a few points on the back, but nothing he thought was causing discomfort, and took care of them.

Over the next few days she improved remarkably and not only hoovered up the hay I gave her, but also cleaned up the extra hay that she was leaving from before. Today she was bouncing around bucking, rearing and doing all kinds of acrobatic manuvers while flirting with Jackson over the fence. It was nice to see after looking out to see her standing miserably by her shed last week.

In parting, since I don't have any recent pictures, I decided to post this one. This is the picture that Robin took for me after I told her I was interested in Sora. It was partly this picture that caused me to fall in love with her <3

I'm Still ALIVE: part 2

2010-01-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas was also wonderful, if very quiet this year. My brother has joined the Marines and will be heading off to Basic in April so it will be my last Christmas with him for about five years. I'm very proud of him and it's something he's really happy about so I'm glad for him but a little worried and sad at the same time.

On Christmas Eve the horses got lots of hay and extra grain because we had a huge blizzard/snowstorm. Luckily being Minnesota born and raised our horses took it in stride and with their blankets, shed and extra food weathered it out all right.

The bad part of the snowstorm is that it was above freezing when it started so along with a couple feet of snow we got ice, ick! Because of this ice although I sometimes could be riding otherwise, I simply don't want to risk Sora or myself in these conditions. This means that it will probably be months before I get any riding in again so I'm planning other types of work so that I can at least spend some time with her. She's great with her ground training so I would be happy to take cold weather training suggestions =D

Also I'm hoping to use this time to work on myself, namely loosing the weight I gained over Christmas *blush* lol and working on more core strength.

Picture of a happier (ie. Warmer) time rofl!

I'm Still ALIVE: part 1 =)

2010-01-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

I am actually still alive, even though the weather is trying it's darnedest to make that a lie (-10 to 0 degrees for the past five days ) lol. I have a lot of catching up to do so instead of one big blog I'm going to divide it up a little. This post will be the first of a series of three or so.

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year. Our celebration consisted of only my direct family but it was nice and quiet and enjoyable. The horses got special treats in the form of Carrots and Apples in their grain bins which received mixed reviews =D

Sora, who LOVES Carrots very delicately picked out every Carrot while only taking a few teeny tiny little bites of Apple (I think just to make me happy lol). Khepri hoovered everything but spilled little bits of everything everywhere *rolls eyes* and Jackson didn't eat any of the treats, simply gave me a look that clearly said "why oh why on the one day I get grain do you torture me by putting all this weird stuff in here that I have to pick around?" Luckily we have a goat who is realllly not picky and who was happy to clean up all of the unwanted fruit and vegetables.

Pictures of the treat bins =D

Sora's carefully sorted treats when she was all done with them, lucky goat ;-)

Another Great Day, Another Uninspired Post Title =)

2009-11-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

After my great ride on Sunday I rode again yesterday (Monday) and it went even better! For the first time in a couple of months I rode her with a bridle/bit and her steering was much improved from last time and over the halter alone (duh).

I rode her for a little longer this time as well and I took her out of her comfort zone. I was prepared to do some trotting but although it was very warm, for Minnesota in November, it was also quite windy and although Sora behaved wonderfully and with class, she was tossing her head a little and I just didn't want to give her a chance to misbehave since my main focus is still on short successful rides.

Once again I have no pictures but I am getting closer to having some rather boring video posted so don't despair =)

Beautiful Day!

2009-11-08T15:25:00.000-08:00

Everything has been fine here. School's been busy like normal, it was rainy for about two weeks straight and Sora has been getting a little fat lol!

Today was BEAUTIFUL and over 50 degrees so I went out for a ride. I'm still working Sora for a really short time and working and improving just a little each time. Today she was wonderful and very quiet so I had a very nice but short ride. I actually took video of the whole thing but now I need to edit it so I can actually upload it and so as not to bore anyone :D

I'll try to get it done and posted tomorrow.

Great Ride

2009-11-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Finally an update. Today I went for a wonderful but short ride on Sora. Sadly it was nearly my first ride since her personality change because after her thinking about rearing or bucking at the same time I lost my nerve a little. We have been working on other things so that I can reinforce good behavior but no riding. Today however she was back to her beautiful, normal self and she carted me around like an angel even though I was a little nervous. I'm sure our next ride will be even better!

I also spent a few hours sculpting and, at the risk of having more posts recently about model horses than real ones, here is what I came up with!

It May Not Be Davinci,.....

2009-10-28T10:48:00.003-07:00

I mentioned previously that I do a little sculpting and I posted a few pictures of some of my sculptures but I wanted to show what they look like painted.

The reason I'm doing this now is that I just got one back from the painter that I sent out about a year ago. It was really exciting to get him. These are very bad pictures because the lighting is terrible today but this is what he looks like. That is a nickel :P
This is the picture the painter took for me.
Finally this is another one that was painted quite a while ago.

I'm mostly proud because of the fact that since I've been casting them I've actually sold a nice number and recently I sold one to a woman in the Czech Republic. It's just so cool to think that something I created is desired by someone so far away!

If you are interested in my work there is more information on the link to Grain of Sand Studios in the bar on the right.

The painter of the first one is Katrina Michaels
The second was painted by Cassie Black

Happy Traaaaails, To Youuuuu,,......

2009-10-27T16:05:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of trail training lately and I've been wanting to write about why.

A couple of weeks ago Sora underwent a MAJOR personality change. As in my sweet horse that always tries her hardest for me and has no real behavior problems, other than being a little forward about demanding treats :D, changed into this naughty, pushy, animal who was interested in running into me, kicking out on the longe etc. I really couldn't believe it! I bought Sora for her personality and ability to learn quickly before anything else and I selected her very carefully as a horse/Arabian I felt I could train and live with and all of a sudden it was like a had a different horse.

With the extreme and disappointing change I posted a question on COTH asking for ideas. A few people hassled me but I expected it and really don't care (I'm a big girl :D) and there were some people who were very helpful and suggested a change in diet. Sora was getting Safechoice as recommended by my vet but, after talking to a few others who also suggested a change, I decided to switch to just hay with a vitamin supplement and I GOT MY HORSE BACK!!!

The real point of this is that when I posted on COTH I put my question on the Dressage forum because she will be at some point and I didn't really know where else to post it but when people started posting training questions I kind of had an epiphany.

I realized that I bought Sora as a FUN training project and I never thought we would go straight into Dressage. I planned on starting her really slowly and then spending a year or two just on trails and bumming around. I knew I had no business buying an unstarted horse and starting right off with Dressage but I also knew that I was capable of turning a horse into a good citizen and not teaching her any habits that would bad for Dressage. Some people were scolding me for not longing her in a bride, which I understand, but I realized that right now I don't want/need a horse that has to be longed in a bridle, nor do I feel capable currently of longing Sora in a bridle without ruining her mouth, balance etc. My plan has always been to get a trainer before I do any real Dressage. That was my plan all the way until this summer when I started to stray from that path lol!

The problem was that I started reading more forums, blogs, books and magazines about Dressage and was falling more and more in love with it. I was starting to feel incapable of training horses because I was comparing myself to those people who have Dressage experiance and are training their horses.

When I came to the above realization I started spending more time on trail, endurance forums and boy do I fit in there better right now lol! I feel like I actually have something to contribute and when I started working with Sora on trails we both started having fun together again. Before she wasn't really capable of getting out on the trails because steering and stopping were still an issue but now she is really good at those things and perfectly capable of trail riding.

It's funny how a little bit of a new perspective can change your outlook :D Afterall, trailriding was my first love :D

Trail Training, or Why Sora Should Be a Member of MENSA

2009-10-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

Just one more example of Sora's brilliance :D

Yesterday we were doing trail training, I'll explain why we were doing trail training in a later post, and Sora was acting scared of the cars again. I swear we've ridden and walked past the same cars in the same place dozens of times but Sora wants to stop and look every time. This time, however, I had just read a very appropriate post about trail training on COTH where someone had trained their horse to target and then used it on the trail to get the horse to touch things it was scared of.

Because if that I decided to see if Sora remembered her fifteen minute targeting lesson from last year. She certainly did! All I had to do was march up to the car, point to it and say "touch it Sora". It took her a second but then she happily touched it and got a treat. I had her do it a few more times just to make sure it was really solid and then we moved on. On the way back from her walk I was mildly surprised and pleased when she led me straight over to the same car to touch it and get a treat again. That'll be fun when we're riding along a road lol!!

Today I took her out again and as soon as we started down the driveway she marched straight towards the car. I laughed and let her touch it once and gave her one treat figuring that I'd probably not continue with that car since she was no longer scared of it so I lead her forward and without any prodding on my part she led me straight up to a car we had never targeted before!

Of course she got a treat and then we went on our walk. I was ready for her to lead me to both those cars when we got back and I led her right past them. On our way back out into the pasture she tried it again and once again I led her right past but then Sora came up with an idea :D

She came right with me but instead of staying back and trying to touch the cars like I thought she might she marched right up to our ancient tractor (that looks nothing like a car) and slammed her nose into it. She then stood and looked very proud while I fished out a treat and gave it to her laughing. Little bugger sure knows how to work the system :P

And here is what our tractor looks like. Not much like a car, huh.

We're Still Alive!

2009-10-25T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, I am actually still alive even though the weather and school are trying to change that :D

School has been CRAZY for the last three weeks and will be through the rest of this week. Our teachers to be "nice" spread our midterms through three weeks which was necessary but also means that it feels like we haven't had a break for a really long time. Currently I'm part-way through a 15 page paper that half of my grade in a class depends on, studying for a staffing midterm, writing a bio for myself :P, and working on a group project that is due on Thursday. I did get a few pictures, from online, of the building that I have school at so here, for your viewing pleasure!^This is actually the room I have two of my classes in. Those chairs are wickedly uncomfortable.

Weather has been crazy as well. Ugh, we had steady rain for two days which turned into heavy snow on the morning of the third day and continued through the night. This is what it looked like partway through the snow that day.If you look really closely you'll see that two horses are sharing hay in the right side and Sora is by herself in the left side. The two on the right are kind of in love which is cute because they are both in their late teens or early twenties and it's like they finally found true love :D

At any rate with all of this weather stuff going on it's been hard to work with Sora but I've been doing some thinking about our plans for the future. That will be a post for later.

Love

2009-10-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

This is just a random short post to say how much I love my girl.

I got home from school and was feeling really stressed and down and she was there for me. I went out to our barn, turned the lights on and pulled her in just to eat hay. I sat next to her while she searched for the best pieces of alfalfa and made me laugh by making funny faces at the cat.

It's amazing how much better that can make me feel.

What's in MY bucket :-)

2009-10-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

This post was inspired by a recent post of Dressage Pony. It's something I wanted to show for a while but I've been trying to gain the courage lol! So here goes.

One of my favorite things to buy for horses are brushes because there are so many different ones available, they are affordable and they are something that the horse actually enjoys (vs. a girth or something :D) When I first got Sora I started collecting brushes and one of my favorite purchases for her was the pink tote and stickers which turned into >
This really makes me feel like a dork lol! These are the brushes that I curently have. I've picked them up everywhere from our small local tack shop, the state fair, Minnesota horse expo etc.
With Sora's long, fine mane the cowboy magic, brush and rubber bands are essential. The brushes are all a different stiffness with the one with the brown heart being the softest. The yellow one I only use during winter when she has a thick hair coat and she's muddy because it's quite stiff.
Yes, those are Hello Kitty stickers and yes, Sora is a HUGE fan :D
Finally a picture of Sora after the brushes were in use. You'll have to excuse the mouthful of hay and the grumpy expression. It is quite cold here and I feel about the same lol :P

I'm also happy to welcome Andrea from Eventing-A-Gogo! as my first follower. I love her horse and her sport and wish I knew even a quarter of what she does about horses!

Big Change :P

2009-10-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a difference a day makes.

A Tour and a Ride

2009-10-11T16:58:00.008-07:00

I went on a ride today. Looking ahead at the forecast it looks like it will be colder and either snowy or rainy so I took advantage of our relatively nice day and had a really nice ride. I started just for a little in the arena then went out to our ditch pasture for a trail ride. I was trying to think of how to explain the ditch pasture when I realized that with the sad lack of pictures in recent posts I could do a farm tour that would take care of both :-)

So without further ado!
^This is outside the non horse side of the barn. We usually tie up along this fence line for grooming and tacking up. That is the arena straight ahead where we have our mounting block and where I usually start out on Sora.

This is looking along the arena fenceline with my back to the barn. Our house is to the left.
In this pictures the barn is to my left and the house is right behind me. These are our two main dry lots. Our waterer is in the middle of the two lots and they both have access to the run in shed. We have it arranged so that the dry lots are like the center of a wheel and they are surrounded by pastures all of which can be accessed from the dry lots. One of the dry lots is for one horse, smaller portion of shed and only two pastures. The other is for two horses, bigger portion of shed, has access to three pastures and an extra small lot for dividing horses when feeding.
This is the one horse lot which has Sora in it right now. To the left is a gate to the upper pasture and straight ahead is the gait to the middle pasture.
This is the other lot which has Khepri (right in front of me :-) and Jackson. That gate to the right leads into the small lot we use for dividing horses while feeding. The grainery is to my right.
This is the upper pasture that leads from Sora's lot. The barn is over my left shoulder. I didn't get a good picture of the middle pasture but it is off to my right.
This is the first pen that splits off of the two horse dry lot. We call it the ram's pen because when my parents used to raise sheep for whool this is where they kept the rams. We WEREN'T allowed in here as kids :-)
This is standing in the small dividing lot. The grainery is to my right, you can see the house and garage, the well is right ahead and the driveway is to my left. The dry lots are to the right.
This is turned 180*. This is our newest pen which we set up just after we sold off part of the farm. There is a drainage ditch to the right which is why we call this the ditch pasture. the Ram's pen is to the left. Straight ahead is where our new neighbors are building their house.
This is turned to the right about 90*, looking down into the tree lot pasture. This used to be a corn field until my parrents planted it full of trees. We just recently turned it into pasture and it is my favorite. Straight ahead is the drainage ditch. The cat that you can just see has a mouse in her mouth :D
This picture is straight ahead still looking down the tree field pasture. The ditch is to my left, the driveway is to the right, you see a path to the south and your sword is glowing blue :P
This is much further down the pen looking at our prettiest tree across our driveway towards the ditch.
Back to our barn, newly full of hay. It smells incredible!!!!
This is looking into my just organized tack room. That saddle is my new one.

Standing in my tack room. That's my new saddle again :-)
Looking at the other corner of my tack room. Feeding stuff to the left, and a bunch of other storage. Sora's grooming gear is in the cute pink tote.

More Shtuff

2009-10-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Brrrrr! This morning when I woke up we had snow and the temp was 28*. Poor Sora was shivering because I never thought it would sneak up on us that fast and hadn't put her sheet on her the night before. It was quickly remedied and I tried to make up for it with a few treats and a grooming in our nice warm barn while she ate hay and grain and stopped shivering.

Just a few minutes ago I got back in from rasping all of her hooves. She was really good especially since I had let them get a little long :P I also remembered that I didn't really report much on her last trimming and so I'll add some of that now.

Erika was out a few weeks ago and trimmed Sora's hooves. I had also asked her to help me try on some hoof boots because I was worried that Sora had hurt herself on all of the gravel and had subsequently abcessed. First, Sora was wonderful about all of her hooves (I think even Erika was really impressed *grinz*). Second, she didn't think that it was the gravel that had caused the abcess and after asking me a few questions, and trying on about five pairs of boots :D, said that she didn't think Sora would ever really need hoof boots since she has such great feet!!! I was really happy because if she doesn't need them I certainly don't want to have to deal with them. Finally, and most exciting, when I asked when she wanted to have me set up an appointment again she said, "well, if you keep doing what you are you won't really need me out again. Just call me if you get behind and she needs a trim or if you have a question. You can also just email me pictures of her hooves if you have any questions and I can email you back suggestions. This way, maybe by the time you move you'll be doing it completely by you self and you won't need to worry about finding another bare foot trimmer."

I was STUNNED, and soooo excited. I have been honestly concerned about trying to find another good barefoot trimmer that will trim her hooves as nicely as Erika so now that is one more weight off my mind.

I'm also excited because I put in an order with State Line Tack for a bunch of stuff and it shipped yesterday. I ordered a chest sleazy thing, because last year Sora was getting fairly bad rubs, a pair of bell boots, they actually had a pair of white ones in small *shocked*, a cooler, because they had one in her size that was $9.99! and I couldn't resist, a bit, because the copper one I have made her drool like she had rabbies and it's NEVER going back in her mouth and her happy mouth is all chewed up after only about three uses *rolls eyes*, and finally my favorite! a pair of boots!!!, because I've been riding in tennis shoes :X. With economy shipping it should get here sometime late next week or the week after. I feel like I've been on some kind of buying spree but that entire order was really cheap (because its from SLT :P) and I've really needed some of it for a while. Don't tell the college loan people lol!

Feeling Better :-)

2009-10-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, first, it's the weekend!
Second, I got home early enough to work with Sora. I lunged her and she was doing well. Her saddle has been sliding forward just a little so I put her fake "wool" saddle pad under it and magically there was no more slipping :-)
Third, because she was doing so well I rode!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She was really good. I think this weekend it's time for me to get a little more serious about forward movement. I think I'm going to take a crop with me and when she doesn't move after I start with a small squeeze and escalate a little I'll just touch her behind the saddle. This has proven to be a very affective method for getting her to move forward so I think it's time to use it again. There will be updates. Maybe I'll even get my sister to take pictures.

Feeling Down :-(

2009-10-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

I'm already having problems with the riding schedule I wrote about in the previous post.

We had about five days of constant rain and cold wind. It literally went from about 70*-45* overnight, add rain and you've got a wonderful recipe for mud and rainrot. I've been keeping Sora dry in the "best blanket ever" which is one I bought for about $25 dollars on sale from State Line Tack. It has kept her ABSOLUTELY dry. I really can't believe it but I'm really happy with my purchase :-)

At any rate it has been impossible to ride and then yesterday (Wednesday) on my day off it was beautiful. In the sixties, sunny, just a little windy. I couldn't believe it and after doing some much needed barn chores I scooped my saddle up from my bedroom, brought it out to the barn and got Sora.

Since it was warm and sunny she was sleepy and loving in the pen and I was really thinking we'd have a great ride. She was nuts! I don't know what was going on, she's not in heat, but she was really nervous, whinnying, jumping all over. I knew I didn't want to get right on her so I took her out to lunge her and all hell broke loose.

When I first taught her to lunge if I asked her to canter so would FREAK out and start galloping around in a circle, breathing hard with a wild look in her eyes. Usually I would do what I could to stop her, get her calmed down and then end our lunging session. She just looked so terrified that I hated to continue pushing her and hurt her or have her slip. One time she even went so nuts that she fell :X (in a deep snow bank) This summer I started calming her down and then continuing and it worked but as soon as it got hot she stopped doing it completely. I thought that was the end of it but apparently not.

Now, I'm not proud of myself but on Wednesday I lost my patience a little. It was obvious to me that she is no longer terrified of me or the lunge so instead of trying to bring her in and let her stand and calm down I just kept insisting on a trot. I wasn't beating her or anything, as if I could ever do that to her, but I would jerk hard once on the line while giving her a voice command. Sora would just keep galloping, I would jerk again a little hard this time, Sora would keep galloping, I would pull really hard a third time and Sora would slam on the breaks and look at me like "hey mom you don't have to pull!" (insert winy voice here). I would push her back up to a trot and the galloping and heavy breathing would continue. Rinse and repeat :X.

We did this about five times going to the left before she finally was trotting nicely. After having her trot around me (mom I'm so tired when do I get to stop?) about five times. I turned her and had her go to the right. Same scenario except she was already tired.

I really don't believe in spending much time on the lunge and I was frustrated after. I just don't know any other way to deal with it and since kindness has gotten me nowhere with this problem I think it's time to try a little stricter approach.

I wasn't frustrated until she started galloping so I really don't think she was picking up on me and I was happy and relaxed when I took her out so I don't think she was getting that from me either. I hope dearly that I won't have the same situation on my hands again next time I take her out. On Wednesday I didn't end up riding because although she probably would have been great (she was MUCH calmer when we finished :D) I just hated to put any more stress on her body and I REALLY wanted to ride. I know it's not all about riding it's just that I feel like I'm doing continuous ground work and she really needs some good hours under saddle. Yesterday she fell apart again when I went to put the saddle on from the right side. She never used to have a problem with it and I've been doing equal desensitization on both sides since she started being nervous about it a few weeks ago.

Gaaaa, I am really happy that I'm training her myself but sometimes I want to pull my hair out!!! (By the way, she wasn't even sweaty after our work out on Wednesday. I wish I had that kind of stamina :D)

Finally

2009-09-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

I finally got a chance to ride in my new saddle today. It's WONDERFUL! It fits her perfectly and sits right where a saddle is supposed to (imagine that :D) and it puts my leg in a good place for the first time ever. My Wintec placed me in a chair seat while also pushing me forward onto my crotch not a good thing lol. This one feels really weird to me because for the first time I have a dressage leg :-) She also moved sooooo much better at the trot and when I longed her to start out she didn't hump her back.

I think that from now until it gets too cold to comfortably ride I'm going to try to ride Sora about three days a week but I'm going to try to ride for shorter periods of time and spend plenty of time hand grazing etc. I'm going to especially concentrate on getting her a little more in front of my leg. I'm planning on riding this coming weekend on both Saturday and Sunday and will see if I can get someone to take pictures then. It might be hard because my sister will be gone and although my dad takes GREAT pictures his horse pictures leave a little to be desired :-)

Happy Day :-)

2009-09-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning (at 6:30) to the most wonderful smelling bedroom I could ever imagine. I stopped and breathed deeply of saddle smell and then proceeded to get myself ready for school. It was a wonderful way to start my day. I think even my midterm tonight will go perfectly!

I found one, I found one

2009-09-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

A saddle! :~)

It's a Thornhill Vienna II with a wide tree and a 17" seat and it's sitting in my bedroom right now looking at me as I type this. I think I'm in love! I already tried it on Sora which I thought was going to be a project as it is CRAZY windy here and all of the horses are keyed up but she just let me put it right on her back. It fits like a glove!

I still need to see what it's like girthed up and with me in it but I'm not too keen in getting on her today so that will have to wait. I'm hoping that I'll have a chance to try it out on Wednesday since tomorrow I'll be at school ALL DAY. I'll try to remember to take pictures and I'll let you know if it's as comfy as it looks *jumps up and down like a child*

Weekend Fun

2009-09-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend is looking really productive so far! We are getting our first load of hay either today or Wednesday next week and I've been out cleaning up the barn already. I'm happy that we'll be all ready for winter but the first load of hay always signals colder weather and less riding and this year it's coming depressingly early.

I'm hoping to ride but may have to go bareback which could be interesting since I haven't ridden Sora bareback yet :~)

In saddle news, I'm really excited because I may have found a saddle. I'll keep you posted.

Pulling Hair Out

2009-09-24T08:10:00.000-07:00

So right now everything is really nuts. As a side note I didn't get to go on a trail ride because of certain boyfriend issues but we are hoping to be able to get out this weekend. *fingers crossed*

First, Sora has been uncomfortable with her saddle so I've been madly searching for a new one that is actually in my budget that will be enough better to make it worth it. It couldn't have come at a worse time. Both because I am crazy busy and because some of the best trail riding is happing right now and I'm just not that fond of the idea of riding a green three year old Arabian on an hour long trail ride bareback, call me crazy :~)

Secondly recruiting is so intense. It really sucks right now because we are all really worried about actually getting a paid, fully time internship while the process for getting one is really confusing and hard to deal with. All of the students have to apply for jobs on the recruiting website along with applying on company websites for some of the jobs. Some of the applications take more than an hour and we're trying to churn out 10-15 every week. One job application had two different timed tests! including a reasoning test where you had to match shapes to make a pattern (MUCH harder than it sounds) and an ethics, leadership, teamwork test, owih! Add to that the fact that out of eight or so jobs so far that have selected candidates, I've been denied an interview from all eight :*(

Thirdly grad school. I already have a midterm next week for a half semester class, I have written two 5+ page papers and have two projects due next week. Some of them don't take me that long to do but at this point anything like that is a major project just because of how busy I am. I have four classes instead of most peoples three and one of those has a lab. I have four text books with so much reading that I really don't know if I'll ever get it done. Unlike college most grad professers seem to think that people can read half a text book over a weekend. Multiply that by four and that is my current life. Add to that the fact that I comute two hours each way and I feel like I'll never have free time again.

Finally, and worst in my current opinion, I haven't been able to spend ANY time with Sora. I had her feet trimmed yesterday (that will be a post for a different day) and she was so starved for attention. It really hurt (and kind of made me happy at the same time) to see how happy and desperate she was to see me. I'm hoping that this weekend I'll be able to take a long enough break to go for a trail ride and at least get her out for a little. It would certainly make me feel less stressed.

So I guess to leave off, if you don't hear from me for awhile, it's probably becaused I've been burried alive under a mountain of homework and job applications.

Can't Wait For Tomorrow!

2009-09-19T11:22:00.000-07:00

I am so excited right now! My barefoot trimmer, who I've trying to get to come ride with me, called and is coming out tomorrow for a trail ride and to trim Sora (in that order of course :~) She is bringing her own horses and her boyfriend for the ride so it should be interesting.

We are going to ride into Old Frontenac and hopefully do some riding around on the little town roads and maybe even down to the beach. I'm a little nervous about how Sora will do because she hasn't been out on a trail ride for quite some time. She really needs the miles and since we'll just be going at a walk I'm sure it'll be fine but you just never know with horses and since she doesn't know the other two it will be interesting how they do around each-other. I'm counting on the fact that if she's really worried I can take one of our other horses but I REALLY REALLY want to be able to take her.

Wish me luck! I'll write about it as soon as I can :~) Maybe we'll even get pictures!

Who Knew?

2009-09-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

This? Is Sora?
So today I searched "Little Sora Story" on Google just to see what came up and this is what I found. I had no idea lol! I know that this is a really popular game but it's not one I've ever played and in case anyone was wondering, this is not who/what I named Sora after.

I have always been fascinated with names and naming. When I was younger I carefully picked out names for my stuffed animals and model horses based on what was important to me at the time and what I thought was pretty or matched whatever I was naming best. As I grew older I started to collect names I liked. I found those names everywhere, often from different languages or words in our language that aren't often used. Most recently I have been picking names mostly from baby naming sites looking at what they mean, most often looking at different languages. As an example, the name Khepri is Egyptian for "morning sun" and was chosen by me and Hanna because we wanted something really pretty and very different so that people would stop and ask about her. Plus it just fits her so much better than Clue lol!

Finding Sora's barn name was no different for me except that I put even more effort into it. I really wanted her name to mean something to me since I had been waiting for her my whole life. I also wanted it to at least sort of pertain to her registered name. I also wanted something weird and something that would make people ask about her name. Because I really wanted it to mean something to me I picked a made up language from one of my favorite book series Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time". Because he had just died, leaving his last book unfinished, it sort of meant even more.
I found the word sora on this site which is a dictionary of words from the "Old Tongue". I considered several different names on the list such as (sei'taer = "straight eyes" /or/ "level eyes" (one who has gained honor) and n'dore = dancers) but just imagine a show anouncer trying to pronounce them or trying to get people to spell them correctly! Ouch :P

If you looked at the list you probably found sora=life. This means so much to me in so many different ways. First, Sora is my life right now. Everything about my decisions for the last couple of years have led up to this including changing my career path from music (something that I had spent my entire life on) to HR (which is something that I can make enough money in to support a horse while still being passionate about it and engaged). Also, life is just such a wonderful term to me. from loving just about all living things to just really loving life in general. I also found that in Japanese sora=sky, not a bad meaning either :~)

It also aligns with my goal of having a name that is similar to her registered name, TF Lilly's Shoshana. Sora/Shoshana, not so different really. By the way, Lilly's Shoshana, loosely translated means Lilly's Lilly, or Lilly's Rose which is really cute because Sora's mom's name is Lilly Langtree so she is really Lilly's Lilly :D

So there you go! Now you know way more about Sora's name than you probably ever wanted to.

What I've Been Up To: Part II

2009-09-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

School this past week was stressful. Because it was the first week teachers seem to feel the need to tell us everything that's coming up for the entire semester so the first few classes are a test in managing stress as you try to figure out how you will accomplish everything. I did survive the first week and I am really excited about all of my classes. This semester I have classes in Stats, Staffing, Sustainability in HR and Compensation and Benefits. I also started to get ready for recruiting which officially starts on Monday.

I was also excited to finally order and receive more clay for my most recent sculpting project, "Khepri".
She's been on hold for the past few months since I lost my sculpting kit so now with the new clay I just need some more sculpting tools and I'll be able to finish her. I also sold another copy of "Paris" to a wonderful woman in the Czech Republic.
This past week made Sora mad at me :C She missed me and was very clingy when I was able to spend time with her on Friday evening. I made a point of spending some quality time with her and then yesterday when my friend was out I finally rode her again for the first time since about a week before she was lame with her abscess. It was the first time Emy saw me ride her and I think she was impressed over all, she is a western pleasure rider that doesn't really get Dressage and has never trained a horse so is not used to a green horse. Sora was very good and really didn't offer any resistance even though I rode her with a bit for only about the third or fourth time. It was wonderful to be on her again and I can't wait until our ride later today.

A few more pictures I found when sorting through the hundreds that Hanna took.
^Just lookee at that back leg :P *drool*

What I've Been Up To

2009-09-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

For me the summer is now officially over. I had orientation for school last week Monday-Wednesday and tomorrow school starts for real. This semester along with the stress of just going to grad school I'm going to be doing intense recruiting for a paid summer internship. This is something that often turns into a full time job so it is essential not only to get one but to get a good one. The competition is intense as is the schedule. I'm excited about it but also a little scared and already missing my summer.

On the Sora front everything is good. I haven't gotten on her again since her abscess partly because with the cooler weather she's been a little more hyper and partly because, for some reason, her saddle seems to be bothering her even though to my eyes it really looks like it fits perfectly. I have been working more on ground work which is what I really wanted to work on for the rest of the fall. Her longing is getting much better and I'm continuing to work on keeping her out of my space.

However, the real reason for this post was to share these wonderful pictures that my sister took. She is obviously much better than me at getting pictures and she gave me a few hours of her time to take dozens and dozens of pictures :~)

As a side note I would like to add that I know her saddle pad is pretty screwed up and her saddle is sitting too far forward. I had it girthed too loose and by the time I noticed we were well into the pictures.

^That's my little sport horse :D It continually amazes me how lucky I got with my first Dressage prospect purchase <3
Sharing a quiet moment.^
This one is my desktop background right now.^

Just a Taste

2009-09-03T20:18:00.001-07:00

She's Always One Step Ahead :D

2009-08-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

I keep talking about how smart Sora is and now I have a good story to prove it. :D

First a little background to this story. I've been soaking and bandaging Sora's left front foot, because of the abscess, twice a day since Saturday when I did my first session in the evening. I've been using treats as reinforcement and to keep her willing and happy. This isn't how I would do this if I had more time because it means that she's been getting away with some behaviors that I don't like. Because of this experience, when I have more time I'm going to work with her on standing still and keeping her feet in things without treats when she is sound. The reason I'm doing this now is because I don't want to hurt her when she is already sore and because it just needs to get done. I haven't had hours to work with her on the lead to get her calm and patient and the treats work very well for doing this and keeping her in good spirits lol!

I'll start the story with Saturday evening: Sora is sore and grumpy. She doesn't understand why she has to stand in the cross ties with her foot in warm water for ten minutes. I give her tons of treats when I get her foot in the water, along with lots of praise, and more treats periodically as she keeps it there. She only takes her foot out once and fights me when I put it back in which is accompanied with tons more treats.

Sunday Morning: Sora is fussy, now realizing that this has to happen more than once. She doesn't fight me when I put her foot in (tons of treats, HELLO) but she does take it out continually and dumps over the entire tray of water once. This is before I bring extra water so I spend the next 6 minutes fighting with her to keep her foot in an empty tray :X

Sunday Evening: I easily get Sora to put her foot in the tray but she takes it out a few times. By now realizing that when I put her foot in she gets more treats then when she just leaves it there. Overall she is much better and I can tell that the treats are starting to sink in. Instead of just being grumpy she is happy and is thinking hard about everything.

Monday Morning: Sora is in a GREAT mood today and willing PUTs her foot in the bucket but removes it at least ten times, knocking it over three times in the process. I realize something must be done.:~)

Monday Evening: I've decided that I won't give her treats when she puts her foot in the tray, instead I'll give them to her once she's kept it in there for a short while. At first this doesn't go over well.

Tuesday Morning: Sora figures out that she has to keep her foot in the bucket for a little while and stands perfectly the whole time, she is also distracted by something outside though lol.

Tuesday Evening: Sora gets the concept and is perfect through the beginning of our session but later on gets bored and knocks the tray over twice. I give up for the rest of the session and decide I need to think of a new approach.

Wednesday Evening: (yes, I missed my Wednesday morning and I felt SOOOO bad) I thought about it over night and have decided that every time she moves her body but her foot stays in the same place I'll give her a bunch of treats along with giving them to her when she stays still for a while. This way she can get treats for doing something which also consists of keeping her foot in the tray rather than taking it out. She does well this evening. She takes her foot out twice but easily puts it back in and I can see the gears turning in her head as she thinks about this new system. Realizing that it is better to move and keep her foot in than to take it out.

This Morning: I can tell right away that the new system is a hit lol! Sora moves around a fair amount but her foot never leaves the tray. Success!!!! I'm brushing her to pass the time and at one point I go over to get a new brush and as I'm walking back Sora looks at me and very deliberately picks up her right hoof and puts it in the tray with her left! I was laughing so hard that I could hardly stand. I eventually got control of myself and fed her a ton of treats. As soon as she got the treats she carefully removed her right foot, looking at me the entire time like "see, I know how this works."

She didn't remove her foot for the rest of her ten minutes and I actually took it out when our time was up. I'm getting a kick out of the new system because she'll shift around and then look at me like "Ok mom, where are the treats? Look what a GOOD girl I'm being!" ROFL. Now hopefully she won't get bored and this will continue to work :D

Not Much News

2009-08-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

I don't have too much to report today. I've continued with soaking and bandaging Sora and both of us are getting better at it. Saturday is the last day I need to do anything with her abscess so hopefully that will be the end of that. I'm hoping to start building up her muscle again starting by long periods of walking on the longe and maybe some ponying interspersed with some trotting. I'll wait until she is a little stronger before I climb on her again but hopefully I'll be able to get some more nice riding in before it gets too cold. I do wish our riding season was longer in Minnesota :P

On another note, I finally got Sora's records all straightened up. I bought a three ring binder, some sheet protectors, separators and a pocket for it and proceeded to put all her stuff together. I now have a way of recording her deworming, vet visits, hoof trimming, registration, etc. all in one convenient place. I must be kind of a dork because I had TONS of fun getting it all together and organized and I was kind of excited to put her recent vet visit stuff in there lol!

Now I need to start thinking about bed. I have my internship tomorrow which means that I'll have to be up at 6:00 to get Sora soaked and bandaged before I leave. Hopefully the little princess won't give me any trouble tomorrow when I have to wake her up at such an early hour :D

Smoothness Resumes

2009-08-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

I trotted Sora today and she is perfectly sound! Now I only have five days left of soaking and bandaging. I'm so glad my baby is feeling better!

I'm glad to say that we have been bonding over this as well. Now she is following me around in the pasture and when I leave she she tries to follow. I switched to purple duct tape today because we don't want anyone thinking that Sora doesn't like variety :P

Pretty in Pink

2009-08-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

I had another interesting bandaging this morning but over all it went much better than it did yesterday. I am certainly perfecting the art of wrapping a hoof and it looks really messy but it is tight in the right places and loose in the right places. The one thing I really don't want to do is hurt her leg in a different way while I'm trying to get her hoof to heal.

I'll try to get an actual picture of the abscess tomorrow for anyone lucky enough to not have seen one but for now, here are some pictures of her pretty pink hoof :P
Look at the tongue on khepri!!! :D
"Hey mom!! You don't happen to have any treats on you do you?"

It's Like Mount Vesuvius Down There

2009-08-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

Soooo, the vet came out today and Sora has an abscess in her front left hoof. At least I was right about where she was lame :P I'm upset that she is hurting but I'm relieved that it's only an abscess and not something worse.

I LOVE my vet! He was really nice, patiently walked me through what to expect and what to do to treat her. He didn't charge that much for diagnosing her and he was very kind to her even though she was hurting.

Don't laugh but in my eleven years of caring for horses I've never had to deal with any kind of health problem! I've never had a horse more than slightly lame where they slightly head bob when trotting and of course never called a vet out for that since that never lasted for more than a couple of days. I haven't had to deal with stitches or any other type of wound like that. Because of that, although I'm not happy about Sora hurting, I am kind of glad that I get this experience now when I can easily deal with it so I have the experience.

I'll try to get a picture of the patient's pink wrapped foot tomorrow. After all a lady has to be fashionable at all times right? :D

So Now She's Gimpy :*>(

2009-08-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

I just got back after bringing my younger sister back to college in Cleveland. I got back tonight and Sora is REALLY lame! She's painful on her left front leg. She'll walk on it and put weight on it but when she walks her head bobs noticeably. I'm really concerned about her! I've never had a horse this lame and the worst part is that I don't even know when it started so I don't know how long she's been like that.

The vet is coming tomorrow. Hopefully it'll just be a pulled muscle or a stone bruise. Think good thoughts for the both of us

She's Horizontal Again!!!!

2009-08-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

I went out today to rotate pastures and Sora's withers have caught up to her butt. I never thought it would happen lol!!! It looks like she'll be kind of tall though :~( I'll love her soooooooooooooo much no matter what but I was hoping for a 14-14.2 hander *grinz* I am beginning to wonder about the name of this blog though ;~)

Flying Without Wings and a Decision

2009-08-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the twelfth, I took Sora on a really long trail ride with her babysitter. She was fantastic. Truly this horse is like a dream come true!

The only really place we have to ride is into a small town and the only way to get there is along a road. Because Sora is still a little nervous around cars and because steering can still be interesting this can be dangerous. We went slow and I climbed off for the first few cars but after that she was wonderful! It was funny because after I stopped her and had her look at the first few cars she decided that meant that we should stop at every car. She would hear a car coming and stop without looking at it or paying any attention :~)

The best part of the entire wonderful trip was when, on the way back, we were trotting alongside Khepri and the horses were racing a little. We cantered! It was wonderful. She was balanced and it was rocking and beautiful. It will be great for Dressage when we get there and even though Khepri was cantering right alongside her when I gave her the lightest pull to slow her down (she was only wearing a halter) she slowed to a trot and than to a walk and even stopped when I leaned down and hugged her :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

The decision I made is to slow down with her training a little. I'm not going to quite riding her it's just that I'll be happy if I ride her once or so a week instead of being disappointed if I don't ride her a few days in a row. I realized that I have been pushing her more than I ever planned on and although she hasn't had any problems I just don't want to risk it. I have also read this article and I tend to agree that waiting until four is better for more horses. Because of this I'll ride her a bit more this fall and than just work on things like desensitization and trick training this winter and into next spring.

I may be moving her next summer to a boarding stable where I'll have a couple arenas with good footing and flat ground to work with and hopefully a Dressage trainer. I plan on continuing my training on her myself and if I have my way I'll be the only person ever on her back but having someone to give me lessons would be helpful so I won't be fumbling around in the dark.

First Road Ride

2009-08-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

I took Sora on her first ride along the road tonight with Hanna. This was our first time up there because she has been nervous about the road and since there isn't much room to get off the road I've been reluctant to take a chance. I'm finally feeling like she is controllable enough and Hanna decided to ride Khepri who is the best baby sitter EVER so I decided today was the day.

I was sooooo proud of Sora. Only one car went past and I kind of panicked *blush* but Sora handled the car, and me :P, with grace. We went on Sora's longest and hardest ride so far and she was definitely tired but she did a good job and really wanted to go the entire time. The best thing for me was that she didn't shy even once! *jumps up and down* We also did a LOT of trotting and she listened and was willing to slow down whenever I wanted :~)

I was also pleased with how willing she was to ride on the gravel and how tough her hooves are. That's really good since I really want to keep her barefoot!

and now, finally :P, some pictures!

Ground Work Wednesday :>)

2009-08-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned in the last post that Sora has been a little nervous about me putting the saddle and saddle pads on her back. Not only have I checked her all over for pain but she is comfortable when I get on her back, walks with her back loose and, most of all, is just as nervous about me taking them off. All of this has led me to believe she's just nervous about it and not that she's uncomfortable or in pain.

I decided not to ride today and just to take it slow and work with her on the saddle pad issue. I brought her in from her pasture and longed her to figure out her mood. Her mood was perfect, she was tired lol! It was warm so she was being lazy which was just fine with me since I wanted her quiet. I worked with her as I did from the begining. Desensitizing her to it flaping and getting closer and closer. Then I started rubbing her with it. She did really well and after moving away from me and some "please don't mom" s *pouty lip*, she sighed and stood still. I worked on both sides first outside, where we had more room to move, and than indoors. Finally I put her in the crossties and added the saddle. She was a little nervous but we worked through it and in the end she was calm and good. She got tons of treats and grain after.

I neglected to come through on my promise of pictures woooooops! I'll try again tomorrow.

1st Real Trail Ride

2009-08-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

I finally got a sister to ride with me! Yay!!!

Lauren (the 21 year-old) took Jackson out with me today and we went on a trail ride. We both started out in the arena and then headed up our old hill road. Sora was good but I wasn't really working on anything which meant I was letting some stuff go that I really wanted to work on. Sora needs rides like that sometimes but it's hard for me because I am such a perfectionist.

On the hill road we ended up in a tricky situation where we were up a really steep little hill with a bunch of ditches to go through before we could get back home. I thought about getting off but I didn't and Sora allowed me to gently guide her down. We did very well together and I was proud.

The best thing was when Lauren complimented me on my work and said how calm Sora looked. I could tell that she continued to be impressed as we rode down the driveway and Sora stayed just as calm. I was proud of my girl as usual.

I did find a couple of things I need to work on though and I think I'll try to address at least one of them tomorrow.

First, Sora is still being weird about me putting the saddle and pad on her back. I've checked and checked and she really doesn't seem sore so I don't think that's what it is. I did realized today that she really started getting nervous about it after she snagged her saddle on the barn door and shied from it.

Secondly, she had her first nervous moment in the barn when Jackson left without her. Apparently not having a horse in the barn with her is ok, but having one leave her in the barn is not. At least now I know lol!

Third, although she stands perfectly for me while I mount, as soon as I'm up she moves off. She also doesn't stand for long when I stop her. I think we'll start working on that in a few days when I ride again.

I know, I know. I promised pictures. I promise I'll get some tomorrow even if it's just of Sora's new saddle pads.

Time Off is Wonderful!!!

2009-08-03T18:38:00.000-07:00

Really wonderful :~)

I rode Sora again today and once again she was wonderful (over use of the word? :P). I wondered about her before I climbed on her because she had been in heat this weekend and she went through a fence while I was moving horses out of the arena preparing for our ride tonight.

The fence was easily fixed and Sora is fine other than a tiny little welt on her chest. That is one reason why I like our thin wire for fence, it will snap before a horse hurts itself and on our large farm away from any roads that is preferable to always needing to keep them in.

As soon as I put her in the crossties I knew she was going to be calm and wonderful. She stood still and listened as I tacked her up. I'm so impressed with how much better she stands for her hooves now. She lifts them all nicely and stands still with them up for a fairly long time. Now I'm just hoping she does the same for my trimmer next time she comes out!

She stood perfectly at the mounting block like normal. She stands still and watches me while I get ready, putting the stirups down, reins over her head, etc. The look on her face is so cute, like she's waiting for me to get all that stuff done and just get up already but she never moves a foot until I'm on and I never even trained her to stand still like that lol!

Once I got up I rode her around with her halter for awhile and she was good, especially once she got going, so I switched over to her bit. I would love to never make her wear a bit but I know it's important if I want her to be able to do Dressage and all of the other things I'm interested in doing with her. She was not happy about the bit in her mouth and the fact that I was pulling on it and I was really thinking about just putting the reins back on her halter and riding her like that but I realized that if I don't start working on it she'll never get better :-s so I stuck with it and after a few minutes she was turning and stopping fairly well. She is going to be very light on the reins. So much different then Loki who acted like he was trying to pull my arms off. I will work more with the bit this week and hopefully by sometime next week I'll be able to use the bridle alone and get the halter out from underneath it.

On a slightly different note I need to order another bit :O I've been using this one but she already has pretty bad chew marks in it right over her tongue that actually split the plastic open and I don't want it hurting her so I think I'm going to get her an all metal one like this.

After I had worked with her with the bit for a little I attached the reins back to her halter and took her on a trail ride. Once again she leg yeilded right over to the gate and stood still while I opened the gate and leg yeilded out nicely. We went on the longest trail ride so far and other than some pretty big spooks she was wonderful. I don't even mind the spooks because after everyone I feel more confident in my ability to stay on and she never tries to bolt or do anything else silly.

I still haven't gotten a sister out to ride with me but I'm not going to complain because it is giving me a chance to work on getting her out on her own. I can't wait until my next ride. Seriously Sora is the best horse I can possibly imagine :D I will be getting more pictures from next time I ride so no fear :~)

Last day of Work!!!!

2009-07-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

Today was my last day of work at Target. I've been there for almost exactly a year and I was really ready to be done. I now have about a month before school and I plan on making the best of it.

I had a wonderful ride on Sora this evening. I started off like normal but was a little tougher on her than I usually am. I pushed her a little harder on things like steering, trotting and continuing to move forward and she took it. She worked nicely and I was very pleased that she didn't pull the spoiled pony card :~) We even went on our first real trail ride and other than thinking that maybe that meant she could graze she was really good.

I thought maybe it would be time to talk a little about my background since you know so much about Sora.

I am currently a student at Carlson working on my Human Resources Grad degree. I commute two hours each way to get there but I only have school three days a week. School starts again in early September. I have a bachelors degree in Music Performance and play the Cello. I changed my career path at the end of college for the simple reason that I knew I needed horses in my life. I miss the Cello but I am so happy each and every day that I wake up and remember that I get to spend the rest of my life around horses that I know I made the right decision.

Along with loving real horses I have collected model horses since I was about three lol. I recently started sculpting them and you can find one of my first attempts here
I've always loved Arabians and always wanted one although throughout my life I've liked different types of horses and different sports. My love of Dressage came about when I was too nervous riding out on the cross country courses with my sister and our friend and would stay in the arena saying I would rather do Dressage. It ended up that I really did love it and have ever since.

My family got our first pony when I was only seven. My mom was terrified of the little beast for good reason and he did everything he could to defeat my dreams of riding him. Eventually I gave up on him completely and we sold him soon after.

My next horse experience consisted of English jumping lessons where my favorite horses where a white Arabian mare and a buckskin pony. They only lasted a month and then I had a very depressing few years until we got Bucky.

Bucky is really a blog all in himself so I'll talk about him later but he was quite the horse experience. I am proud to say that I stuck him out until he was nearly perfectly behaved and then traded him for Loki.

Loki was wonderful, a beautiful mover and a very well behaved calm horse but we never got along. I think we both hated each other a little and we were always having arguments. I stuck with him while I was going to school for music because I didn't think I was going to be able to have horses and therefore it made more sense to just keep one that was uncomplicated but as soon as I changed my profession I put him up for sale. He found a wonderful woman that called me after she got him home and said she had just had the best day of her life :D I used the money from Loki to buy my long time dream horse, Sora.

Along the way I participated in 4-H where I showed goats and rabbits. I have a cat named claudio that thinks he is a dog and my family also owns a welsh corgi and another cat named Benedict along with the horses and goat that you know about. I have two sister's that kind of like horses and a brother that won't set foot near them. We currently all live on a newly split twenty acre farm in southern Minnesota right near the Mississippi river. In fact we live so close that we take our horses swimming in it.

I've done tons of other interesting things in my life but I think these are the most relevent and recent things. I'm sure I won't be posting as much once school has started but I'll let you know when that is.

ahhhh, me :P

2009-07-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well, today I had my first bad day with Sora in a long while. It was weirdly bad too in a way I'm having a hard time capturing or figuring out.

I took her into the barn with the idea that I was just going to rasp her hooves and try her SmartPak saddle pads on with her saddle. She seemed tense from the first moment she walked in the barn. Like something between being in pain and being in heat. She was extremely nervous in the barn and was jumping at all kinds of silly small things.

The thing that really got me though was that she was jumpy and didn't want the saddle on her back. She was pretty sure it was going to hurt her or attack her in some way and she NEVER acts like that. It is an especially sore point for me because my previous horse, Loki, always acted that way and it drove me nuts.

After I took the saddle off her back I started on her hooves and was waiting for it to be rough but she was better than she's ever been. I got through all her hooves and was able to do a really good job on all of them. I'm supposed to be doing it every week and it had been a little longer so it took a while and she stood extremely still the entire time :~) My trimmer should be impressed lol!

After I finished with her hooves I decided to go out in our arena and join up with her since it's been awhile and it would give her a nice amount of exercise in a less structured way. She did really well at that too and even trotted and cantered after me when I ran away from her for the first time. She was very respectful and stayed joined up really easy.

What bugged me during this though was that she didn't really want to do anything but graze. Honestly! our horses get to graze 24/7 and yet whenever you take them out that's all they want to do. Sora didn't used to be that bad but for some reason, even though she's fatter than ever, she just won't stop. Since we don't have any space without grass it's just part of life here but sometimes it bothers me more that others and tonight was one of those times.

At first I was having a tough time getting her to stop but by the end all I had to do was cluck and she would stop and start following me but that was really all that was on her mind even though I was out to play around and enjoy her company she was thinking only of grazing and was getting pretty po'd that I wasn't letting her.

I know I shouldn't let it bother me, I mean she's a horse right?, but she usually isn't like that so when she is it bothers me too much. After she was really listening we went for a walk down our driveway and made a nice loop. Usually she freaks out about a dozen things on that loop but this time, as long as I stopped along points and let her graze urg *pulls hair out* she was calm and well behaved.

So as you see the whole day really went fine but I was kind of disappointed. Maybe it was me, when something goes wrong with Sora it usually is :X

Again So Wonderful!

2009-07-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

I rode again tonight and Sora was, as normal, wonderful! I longed her first and she was very fast. She cantered and trotted more than she has in awhile. Probably because of the weather. In Minnesota it didn't get above the upper sixties today :X I thought it could be an interesting ride but I've completely gotten over any worry about riding her. She has proven to me that she is trustworthy even in "spooky" weather and I no longer have any qualms about getting on her back.

After our speedy longing session I climbed up and started riding her around the arena and she decided that she was reallllly tired lol. She wandered around and didn't really want to listen to my steering and acted like she didn't remember how to go forward. I laughed and got her working off my legs a little better and the rest of our ride she went forward much better. I do think I'm going to start trying to ride a few days in a row to help build up strength and work on discipline now that she knows what's going on.

Part way through our ride she had her first big shy with me on her back. We did well together and it reminded me that I am a better rider than I give myself credit for. After I gave her a chance to settle we continued on. It was good because I got a taste for how she is going to shy and I have more confidence in my abilities now.

We also did our first long stretch of trot today. I've worked on getting few steps of trot out of her before but I have no interest in pushing her and she simply wasn't moving off my legs well enough for me to get her to keep it up. Today I did and we trotted half way across the arena. She has a nice trot and after I get her to stretch through her back and get her head down a little we'll be golden :-)

After our ride I brought her into our barn, crosstied her and checked her all over for any unusual warmth or sore spots. She was fine but I rubbed liniment into her back and legs and took her out to hand graze for a little.

I have noticed that I need to work on my riding. I haven't really spent much time in a saddle since last fall and my balance and core strength are definitely lacking. I'm going to try to start riding Jackson on the nights when I don't ride Sora. It would be good for both of us pudges lol!

Not too surprisingly I've been having trouble getting Lauren to go on a trail ride with me and I really want to get Sora out of the arena. Luckily Hanna is coming home this weekend and although I'm sure she won't want to ride right away she'll be more excited about trail riding with me.

Sorry for not getting any pictures. I'll try to recruit a family member tomorrow when I ride so there is something interesting to look at :P

Lazy Monday

2009-07-27T20:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't feel like riding today so I decided to just post some pictures.

This is Hanna, my sister, riding Dancer. Dancer was one of the ponies we sold last year.
This is my friend Jeana riding the horse my mom used to own. Her name was Hero and she was a Missouri Fox Trotter.
This is my cat Claudio. Isn't he cute!!!
I love this picture of Sora!
Finally a rare picture of me and my sisters all with horses. Lauren is in the background, Hanna is in the front and I'm in the middle. This is one of those "see how many mistakes you can find" pictures lol! and yes, Hanna is texting while riding backwards on her horse *rolls eyes*