Lease Horses

So yesterday I met my lease horses for the first time :) I think I'm going to just do an extra ride time lease for now. I don't want to claim ownership just yet. So there are 5 horses. Trip, Abby, Cody, Thunder, and Sandy. Sandy is 19 so she's not going to be ridden much. I'm looking at mostly riding Thunder ( huge grey horse) and Cody ( black and white paint.) Right now it's work to ride and they have an arena not to far from the barn and trail access. I'm pretty excited. I'll post more as it comes. 

Friday Night Grooming T5 and T6

So tonight I helped teach the T5 boys and T6 girls. I got their early to help. My friends and I mixed all the grain mashes and brought up Jade, Elmer, Black Diamond, McGee, and Ivan. They all dragged us hahaha they wanted their food so bad. I checked out Nugget. Each wrangler was supposed to have 5 kids but I somehow ended up with 4. I didn't care! Made my job a lot easier. I had 3 girls and 1 boy. They did really well. Two had a hard time paying attention but it's a long class. I definitely prefer the smaller groups hahaha. It was exhausting. I love teaching them though. That was basically it! No specialties tomorrow so I have to try and be like a normal person. What do I do on a Saturday? Hahaha

Stock Show Cancellation

Due to the number of rental horses being used at stock show all my specialty classes were cancelled. But I am going to meet the horses I'm leasing for the first time. Do you guys want me to post about it on here?

Guess The Horse #24

Last week's answer was Chili #96

Your riddle is I am a 13 year old sorrel mare. I have 3 socks and am most known because I currently don't really have a tail from a medical condition a few years ago. I'm very sweet and ride mostly in White Division. My number is between 100 - 105. Who am I?

Stampede Saturday 1/17/15

So yesterday was a good and bad day haha. So I got my horse, Banjo #117. So it was SUPER windy this morning. So bad our rides were moved inside. Banjo was great for grooming he is just so tall. So we had to warm up in the blue with J1 while they watered down our arena. It felt cool being the older rider haha. There was this beam of light coming through the window and I felt Banjo tighten up and start shying away. I couldn't stop him. He reared and spun around to the center. It was kind of fun actually haha. I lost a stirrup but I wasn't shaken up. My instructor said,"It's the light so you'll just have to push him through it." So each time we went by I gave him an extra nudge. He actually tried to jump it a couple times. His trot isn't bouncy but it's definitely not smooth. He also has a ton of energy so I had to check and release a lot. When we got to move into the Red I circled Banjo a couple of times to get him listening more and he spooked at a puddle of water. He is a fidgety horse hahaha. So we actually worked on our drill a little! We worked on Propeller, Out, and Diagonal Pass Through. I rode 3-7 and 1-7. We didn't actually have positions but that's where I was riding. None of my team knew what they were doing. My instructor kept asking questions and me and another rider were the only ones answering. Eventually she said," Does anybody else besides these two know what they are doing?" It was funny the way she said it. I just wish my team could get it together. I was on the very inside of Propeller and Banjo pivoted so nicely. Diagonal Pass Through was so scary when people didn't know what they were doing. That's all I'm gonna say. The whole thing wasn't very pretty. So we made a group in the middle and my instructor was not happy. She said if she were to name officers today there would be 3. You know who they are. Your diagrams can be pretty but if you can not apply it in the arena it doesn't matter. She also said it was very obvious who had studied. So I tied Banjo on the rail. I watched some of my friends Glory ride. Then I had diagramming. I got 4's on all my diagrams except 2. I forgot motion dots (wow stupid!) and switched the numbers on my propeller (again stupid) So then we went over some study tips, and what to study. Then we went out for a walk through. They said pick your spots!!! I ran over to 1-1 and no one else fought me for it :) I GOT TO CALL OUR FIRST WALK THROUGH!!! I felt like I did really well for my first time. Because we switch callers in our drill it was kind of hard to call after Out of Star. We all got pretty scrambled up after Fours Crossed the Center so we stopped and looked at the diagrams and just lined up anywhere. I ended up as 4-7. Lace is really hard to do. I hope I get a chance to call again :) So that part of the day was good. Then I went home and my corrections took 2 minutes. That was my day :) I just wished we had gotten to lope.

12 Hours of Westernaires - LOVE IT

Okay I'm back in the land of the living! I arrived at Westerniares yesterday at about 7am to groom and saddle for Liberty. I checked out my horse, Pepper, and she was in a special pen! So happy cause it was solid ice and we were already slipping everywhere. So I carefully led her up the icy hill, letting her find her footing. It's amazing how much trust the horses put in us. So Pepper was amazing for grooming, not a fuss or a fidget. Rock was next to me and he calmed down when I touched him and put his head on my chest. It was so adorable. Since my ride wasn't until 9 I had a lot of free time so I helped my teammates and hung out with Pepper. Then we walked the horses down because it was too icy to ride. I got to lead the group down! I led Pepper and Sampson. On the steepest part down I slipped. My horses could have spooked, stepped on me, anything but they just stood there and let me regain my footing. Never have I been so grateful for my horses trust. So I tied up Pepper and Samson, and unsaddled Pepper. So I tried mounting up and I got my foot over and was wiggling up then my shoe came off! Dang it! I'm getting so close! I improve each time so I guess that's a plus. I got a leg up and off I went. Pepper was really comfortable and I decided to practice lifting a little while everyone else was mounting... I did it! I got my butt clean off the horse! I was sooooo excited! So once everyone was up the instructors called us into the middle. They told us we would not be removing bridles or working on jumps/ground poles because it wasn't safe. The arena was almost pure ice. So we mostly worked on wire work and we also built a star and a propeller which was really fun. Then we played a game where we had to use only the wire and take our fours down the arena, back up, turn our four around, and go back to the line. My group did really well! It's a lot harder than it sounds though because we aren't using the bridle It was a fun little game. Even thought the ride was kept entirely at a walk it was still good. Pepper was taken by a Precisionette. Then I had batons, which was good. We learned some new stuff like figure 8 switches and back hand rolls. Other than that I knew everything so it was kind of boring. Then we got Halos to go on our batons. (Colored tape) I finally had some free time and ate food and bought a new cinch. Then I headed to ropes at 12. Only instead of solid ice I found 5 inches of mud. I called a flat loop and we did a few more then we did 5 toe dances to leave. It wasn't worth ruining our ropes. So I got to watch Nighthorse, Crimson, and Royal. All the teams had a really rough day... It wasn't pretty. So at 3 I filmed my friends in their trick class. They did really well. I watched White Vaulting at 4 but they didn't do much. I checked in and my partner and I started unsaddling Utah Girl. So I got a leg up and pulled my partner up behind me. It was hard because Utah wouldn't stop walking. She was in a feisty mood. She also has a really short back so it was hard to do the tricks. I was almost on her butt at some points. We did some work in pairs and fours then pulled into the middle. We went through all the tricks and learned where to hold and it was really helpful. Then we switched. My partner and I tried to switch standing and we did it! It was awesome! Then I got to try the tricks. It was super fun! Some of them take a lot of core like star, flag, and one leg hang because your side ways and hanging down. So then we played the pyramid game and I got to run crossed the horses this time! It was really fun! Then we dismounted and unsaddled. Utah didn't eat yay! She also didn't roll so we took her home. We left about 6:30 I was home by about 7. So I took a long hot shower to wash off the 12 hours of dirt... never felt so good :)

Colorado Stampede Steppes Style!

Yesterday was really fun! So I decided to ride the rail for risk of lengthening my recovery time. I helped my teammates groom and carried bridles and blankets. So my awesome instructors let me stand in the center with them during the ride because we were doing something special today. It's really scary actually. I have a whole new respect for the instructors. But anyway they warmed up the horses then changed into tennis shoes. Owner horses and specific rental horses were brought to one end. Then we lined up the remaining horses facing GE in the Red Arena. My instructors told me to watch first and then see if I wanted to try. So half the team was on the ground the other half on horses. Then we had to get our teammates up and help them across the butts to make a pyramid. It was basically a team builder. It was really fun and you could feel the team drawing together. So I decided to try base next time. I hoped on Shorty and moved to the end of the line. I got to help people up. It was awesome. Everyone was laughing and having a really good time. Then we had to try and move the line forward. It was really hard... whole new respect for steppes riders. Then I got to lead shorty out. So I still got some horse time :) After I picked up my embroidered carhartt. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I watched Varsity ride and it was the last practice before stock show so the Senior's horses were decorated and they wore crazy costumes. It was fun to watch but it really made me realize that day is coming up very fast for me and I don't want it to happen. Then I had diagramming we turned in our diagrams and I looked through my corrections while my teammates took sequence. I scored ten 4's, six 3's, and two 2's. So I have 8 corrections because I am working toward all 4's. They are all pretty easy fixes. Then we broke into groups that our instructors assigned. One person with really high diagrams and two with lower scores. I was the high score in my group. We basically went over certain charts and helped the others with corrections and questions they had. It was really useful I think. Then we were done. I went home right as it was starting to snow. It was really slippery outside. That was my Saturday!

Guess The Horse #23

Still no guesses on last week??? Well it was Cahootie #43

This week your riddle is I am a 9 year old sorrel quarter horse. I have no white markings other than a blaze on my face. I am well known for pulling back HARD at the rail during bridling. I run low Red division down to Tenderfeet. I do Liberty but I HATE IT. My number is between 95 - 100. Who am I?