Guess the Horse #11

The answer to last week's riddle was Teton #3

Teton #3

This week I am a 19 year old Mustang mare. I am a Red Roan and very sweet. I do red division and my number is between 75 and 80. Who am I???

White Star Summer Ride 7/22

So tonight went really well. I got the horse I wanted. Skeeter #62. I had never had him before but always wanted to ride him. He was great for grooming and I picked his hooves while he ate his grain. He is a bit stubborn for the bridle but not too difficult. It was so hot and humid during grooming. During the ride we warmed up just a bit and got flags. Finally!!! I got a red flag. Skeeter took it without any problem. His trot is so nice! He just is hyper and likes to throw his head a lot but he switches leads and turns so quick. His lope is really collected and smooth too. So then we worked on loping in 4's and turning. We also did like 4 thread the needles all at a lope. Then we set up for Standard Drill. I was in 1st Four again :) Then we set up to run our White Star Drill. I was 1-1 and the minute I yelled," Team are we ready!?" Skeeter got sooooo excited. Then once I called split Danielle called a lope! So we actually started loping our drill from the start!!!! We had a Halt Ho in Mariner's Cross but nothing to bad. We  lined up and started again. We made it through but got all scrambled during Circle so the whole line up was thrown off. But we made it work. For our 2nd drill I called again and it went much better. We loped it really well and our Propeller was kick butt!!!! We are still getting used to loping it but it's coming along. It is soooooo much fun!!!!! I love loping it so much! Especially with flags. AHHHHHHHHH!!!! We made a line and dismounted. We had one renter who had to unsaddle. I stayed with her the whole time. On top of it her horse had to eat. Overall it was a good ride. I am out of town for the next week, so it will be pretty boring. I will miss ropes this Saturday and White Star next Tuesday. So I guess I will write for Juniors next Saturday!!!

Guess the Horse #10

The answer to last week was Count #94

Count #94

This week's riddle is I am a very sweet 11 year old mare. I am a mustang and a dark brown and white paint. I am on the smaller side and very fast. My number is between 1 and 5. Who am I?

Juniors, Lecture #2, and Ropes 7/19

So yesterday was really fun. I had Maverick #70 for Juniors. The old man shocked me. He is great with spurs. While we were riding down I noticed his walk felt weird and he was limping a little bit. He was just stiff and when we got down I circled him a little and he got much better. His trot is so nice!!! We practiced on equitation so that was awesome. He doesn't like to lead though so there has to be another horse in front of him. So when we got to cones I thought he wouldn't leave the herd. But then he charged the cones. It was awesome. He changed leads so nice. Had a hard time with stopping him probably cause he is older. Then we worked on lead changes a little. He would switch in the middle but not when he was on the rail. Then we made a circle and Mr. Keller came and gave the Interclub trophy. He watched the whole class. Ahhhh! Our lecture went really well and we got a lot done on the study guide. Ropes was good. It was soooooo hot though. Danielle took the red ropes and red division girls on white to the volunteer to practice for heritage show. So the rests of us just worked on specialties with the other instructor. I am getting so good at double spoke hop. It is really coming along. Then my friend and I are nailing tandem spoke hop. We may even be able to preform it for Olympics. I am also working on drag hop. Bird in a cage is still giving me fits. I am gonna try a different sized rope and see if that helps. I have butterfly reach thru and double butterfly. Once I master bird in a cage tandem spoke hop and drag hop I can start new tricks. I have basically the whole list mastered. Yay!!!! Then we did 5 toe dances to leave and that was it!!!!

Rest in Peace Chester

So one of the Westenaire horses, Chester, had a leg injury. They had him x rayed and it showed he would suffer with pain so he has been put down. He was my first White Star ride with spurs. He listened so well and had a great trot. I will miss him a lot but I'm glad he won't be in pain anymore. Rest In Peace you will be missed. 

Guess the Horse #9

The answer to last week's riddle was Sally #53

Sally #53

Your riddle for this week is I am a beautiful mustang gelding. I am brown with very unique white colors splashed around my legs and face. I am 16 and can be rather grumpy towards other horses. My number is between 90 and 95

White Star Summer Ride 7/15

Well tonight rocked and sucked at the same time... So when we get our horses we get one shot to pick our horse and then they give us one. I wanted to keep my White Horse streak going but I really wanted Cedar and Utah was in sick bay for weight. Nope Cedar was riding in Crimson. So guess who I got stuck with. Chico #63. Great! I was thinking in my head please don't do flags!!!! We didn't so yay!!! So he was fine for grooming. A little head shy for the bridle but I worked out a technique for him. So we mounted up. I had the stirrups all the way up but they were just a tad long. No way was I using shorties so I just went with it. I basically went the whole ride no stirrups. Chico freaked at this one corner because there were people weeding. His slow trot is great but not so much his fast one, especially with long stirrups. They weren't too bad but just enough that it was annoying. We warmed up with some work in 4's. I had the worst 4 in the world. Our inside horse would not pivot and we literally had to shove her around with our horses. Nearly impossible when we picked it up to a lope. It wasn't a good start to the ride. So then we rode Standard drill. I was in the 3rd four. It went OK. Definitely getting smoother. Then we lined up for our drill. I got to be 1-1. I like being Captain :) I get to call all the time. It went pretty smooth. We kept it at a trot. Our 4's got a little scrambled though. Otherwise a good drill. Then for drill 2 I was 4-1. Outside of propeller. Westernaire Lover got to call again :) She was so quiet I couldn't hear her at all but she got louder as the drill went on. We got to pick it up to a lope at star but it didn't go so well. Then we got to lope the rest of the drill after circle too. Our propeller had issues though cause our inside wasn't guiding. So we had to take it around a few times to get it straight. Chico doesn't like staying out but I worked with him. I had to use two reins though. He was being such a butt tonight. We got to lope the rest of the drill. It was pretty fun!!!! I can't wait until we can do the whole thing. So even though it was a rough start and I couldn't keep my seat very well it was still an OK ride. Can't wait for Juniors on Saturday!!!!!

Ropes 7/12

So today started out as usual with me helping the tenderfeet groom. Well guess what. Their bareback was cancelled yet again because the instructors want to practice more on Equitation Testing. So maybe in august. I watched white liberty 4 then rode my friends horse around the pasture across from the three arenas. She asked if I wanted to lope and I just smiled at her and we took off. It was fun. It actually cooled down very nice for ropes. Lots of cloud cover. We warmed up with flat loop and then worked on specialties forever! While I was working on double spoke hop I yelled at the wind and said you can't follow the wind ropes. Oops lol so I had to take my second lap. I got 6 steps of double spoke hop!!! I was so happy. I may actually have it ready for Olympics. I changed my 12ft color to orange as well. It's so bright and colorful.  I also am getting really good at butterfly reach thru. Then one of my friends and I worked on Tandem Spoke Hop together. One person spoke hops while the spinning the rope and the other just spoke hops in the same rope. It was really entertaining and we were having way to much fun with it. Then we lined up and did our drill once. So then we were called over to discuss Western Heritage Show. Turns out only red Ropes and red division girls in white ropes are performing. I am pretty bummed. Then we were released. Good Day :)

Guess the Horse #8

Last week's answer was Rock #31

Rock #31

Your riddle this week is I am a 13 year old mare. I am a Dun colored Kiger Mustang. I have a small blaze and some socks on my feet. I am very sweet and my tack number is between 50 and 55. Good Luck!

White Star Bareback Ride

Well tonight was interesting for me... We all made a pact in line not too fall off (foreshadowing!!!!) So then the head wrangler asked me who I wanted. I asked for Utah Girl but she said no :( So she said Yukon #84. Joy. One of the top 3 most bouncy horses at Westernaires. So then it took 3 trips too and from his pen. Trip 1: I go to get Yukon and his pen is locked. Trip 2: Wrangler said someone down there had the key Trip 3: Finally got the key and unlocked his pen. So then he was absolutely filthy. I got as much as I could off and bridled him. It was so nice not having to saddle. Then we helped the White Knights and headed out. Yukon is bony!!!! Oh my gosh. Probably just as bad as JD. It hurt just sitting on him. Yukon also has this over exaggerated walk that kept slamming me into his withers. It was just an overall painful ride. I was bouncing all over. So we warmed up a little and went into standard drill. I was in 1st 4 :) That went really well. I just had a hard time keeping up cause Yukon hurt so much. He was not listening like at all. He would not slow down. He must have been out for a while or something. So then we lined up for our drill. I got too call :) I was happy because I finally got to call after show and it made me feel like Captain. So we went through our drill. It went pretty well. Again struggled due to unbearable pain. Lined up for drill 2 and was 1 - 3. During star I started to slip and caught myself after I was halfway off. Danielle yelled it's not trick riding! It was really funny. 2nd Lieutenant (Westernaire Lover called) She did great up until Out of circle. She called it at the wrong time and it threw off the rest of the drill but we made it all work :) As a bonus she got to be outside of propeller. So after that drill came some loping. I went for it. So loping is always easier but remember how Yukon wasn't stopping. So Westies Girl fell off. Danielle said I didn't give you permission to fall off! LOL. So then we loped again. So she yelled halt ho and I tried to pull Yukon to a stop but it only brought him to a really fast trot which was almost worse and I felt my self go. I tried to swing my leg over but came unbalanced and tumbled backwards crashing into Apache's legs. It was a pretty soft landing despite how it sounds. Danielle said I didn't give you permission either. I just laughed and got a leg up and away we went. I took my spurs off as well to see if that would help. However I did not lope again. Not because I was scared or didn't want to because Yukon wasn't listening and I didn't think it was safe to me or the rest of my teammates. So then we had one more fall. 3 falls is not bad at all. After that we made our lines and dismounted. All our horses were taken by Chaparrals so I got to go home :) I am gonna be SO SORE tomorrow.

Red Division Move Ups

So all of Nighthorse just got moved up to Royal or Crimson. There were enough people who graduated and Nighthorse was small as it was. I'm really sad. I love watching that team with the wolf howl and capes. But that means a bunch of people should move up to Red Division in the fall :) it will be there next year. Congrats to all who moved up. 

Juniors, Lecture #1, and Ropes

WOW! So today was absolutely amazing. Juniors was the best part of it. So I got Chey #119. I love her so much! She was great for grooming. I had stirrup issues today. They were either too long or too short. So we ended up going short because otherwise I was reaching for my stirrups. So we rode in the Hutchinson today :) I love that arena. We warmed up the horses with some Interclub for equitation testing. Then we worked on the cones. They made us do it at a trot first :( I did ok the first round. Took my turns just a little wide but I still did good. Got to the end. Stopped, backed up a step and Chey turned and galloped home! It was awesome! Her gallop is great! Then the second round they let us pick our speed as long as we were in control. So I loped it, we were flawless! I kept her straight and guided with my legs changed some leads. Barley turned at all. It was beautiful. Planted her stop and drove her home again! Then I hoped off so the poor girl who had Dakota could get a turn. She did good on her. Came back and I got back on. Then we went on the rail to work on stopping. So I thought we were just gonna lope like last time and work on quick stops and staying planted in the saddle. Well we did but while we were loping my Instructor yelled," LET 'EM RUN!!!!" I didn't hesitate a second Chey and I took off into a gallop leaving everyone in the dust. I can't even describe to you how that feels. She turned into like a whole different horse. She does do Red Division after all. This was the first time I got to gallop for more than a few strides. It is really hard to pull her back into a quick stop though. I popped out pretty good the first few times. The last time though I planted my heels, sat deep, rounded my back, and curled her head in to round her back and the dirt flew and we comfortably came to a stop. Not the rough bouncy one. It was great seeing us improve in just that short time. GALLOPING IS AMAZING!!! Your horse just runs and everything becomes a blur.. It's almost effortless to stay in the saddle. I kept my seat so well today I was very happy. I have struggled with that for a while and this year alone I have improved a ton. We cooled them out with a little work in 4's and 8's then the ride was over. Man I hope we do that next ride. I just... WOW!!!!! Then was our Junior Lecture #1. We were given a big packet. During the Lecture we went through it and started filling in the questions. Man this one is detailed compared to tenderfoot. We have to match what bridle part pushes on what pressure points and all parts of the hoof. A lot of really interesting advanced horse information. Saddle rigging positions and a bunch more. We only got through like a 3rd of it too. Really reminded me of how great this organization is. It doesn't just teach you how to ride, and teamwork but how to care for the horses and teaches you so much about them. It's insane! Then was ropes. We started out with flat loop as usual then spent the rest of the time working on specialties. We went over to Danielle and told her the tricks we wanted to learn over the summer. She sent out a list and we had to pick a minimum of two. I am working on Butterfly Reach Thru, Double Butterfly, Double Spoke Hop, Split Jump, Bird in a Cage, and Drag Hop. A good list for summer. My priority is Double Spoke Hop so it's ready for Olympics. So I spent the first 10 minutes or so helping a ton of my teammates who wanted my help. Then I worked on Double Spoke Hop. I am so close it's ridiculous! My left hand just hates me and doesn't like to cooperate with me. So Danielle had me work with a guy who gave me really great tips. I am almost there!!!! I worked on that almost the whole time. Then I tried Bird in a Cage. It's really hard but will be so cool once I get it. At the very end Danielle came and demonstrated Butterfly Reach Thru to me once again. I can't wait till I can do it. You change hands through the butterfly. It's amazing. I can do so many tricks it's insane. So it was a really good practice but really hot. I drank A TON of water. I wanted the day to last forever but it was done. I want to gallop on Chey again so bad! Write on Tuesday for White Star. WE ARE RIDING BAREBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess the Horse #7

The answer to last week's riddle was Java #61

Java #61

This week's riddle is I am a dark brown gelding. I have a blaze that is fuzzy and kind of distorted. I have terrible ground manners and run Precisionettes. My number is between 30 and 35. 

Standard Drill (AA)

So for those of my teammates who are trying to learn standard drill here is a link
Hope this helps! It seems really simple.

White Star Summer Ride 7/1

I was unable to make the ride tonight :(
I felt so bad ditching my team second week as captain. I hope I didn't miss anything too important. I will be at the J1 ride and lecture on Saturday though. Ropes as well. Sorry this week is really boring.

Here is a small clip from Propeller at White Division Show