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So I finally got my free time back, and I had another longeing lesson for the Doop.

First, I called them because I always end up running around the pasture only to find them chillin in the barn. Nobody came up to see me except the old arthritic Cody. I thought, "Well, if Cody's happy to see me, I'm happy to see Cody" and gave the old boy a good grooming and grazing.

During which the brown faces appeared and made moony eyes at me for ignoring them. Serves them right. I released Cody to go roll in muck and un-pretty himself, find more stickiburrs and etc for his mane, and snagged Dante. Dante, of course, behaved very well. No problems grooming and even tacking wasn't bad. He hated the saddle as always, but once I get that first buckle on it's not so bad.


We went and worked near friends. Having been away, I didn't see just how bad his feet got, so he was a bit trippy if cantering downhill, which sent him into a frustrated worrisome buck. So I did my best to get him to trot down the very slight hill instead. I'll get a video up soon. I took one.


I still think he needs to develop his canter like he did his trot. It's just been a while and he's out of shape for it. We'll add that to the list of things to work on. Afterwards, I hopped on and we rode up and down the drive, which was apparently within the limits now. Better, but not exactly down the road better.

Hooven

Hello, One Red Horse!

Peeking at who's looking at me, I see you're into feet. Well we have four feet and pictures thereof, so I thought I'd share.

Dante was a normal pasture-trim horse. After getting him, I had my friend Kelly start trimming him. She's a little cheaper, and just super into feet and barefoot trimming etc. I told her to go nuts.

So here's some before and afters:
3/14/07 before special trims: underrun heels and flare


5/10/07



And 6/19/07



12/12/07


And 12/23/07


His feet are even better now, I just haven't been photographing them! I'll be sure to update that.... after my exam!

Bad, busy owner.

I have been pretty good about riding and hanging out a good 2x a week (one weekend day of pony fun, and one evening). Sometimes more, rarely less.

However, I have a huge exam for my degree in a week, and I'm trapped studying and preparing. Doopy has to wait. :'(

So in leiu of that, I thought I'd throw in a picture of a while ago when I did his mane all purty. I'm a sucker for a long mane. I don't show so this was simply for fun. And I ran out of bands or I would have kept going. Yes, this was my first time doing it.

He can't even be a proper punk!

Thursday:
So I had bought Longe Whip (people at Fleet Farm gave me a "why would you need a BIGGER whip" horse-abuse look) Wednesday, and had a longe line because they were on sale before, and was all prepared for hell to break loose. I had had a bad day at work, was ready to be no-nonsense and de-stress. Didn't mean I felt like beating him, just that I was too drained from the stress to put up with B.S. and too tired to get all that rough on him.

Luckily Kate was around so I explained what I was going to do. She's very no-nonsense, but also very Western. She does not longe, do ground work, etc. Her horses do not hold their feet well, do not tie so well, and one does not catch well (may have been abused in a previous home, though). However her horses do tack up and ride exceedingly well. Nothing fancy, maybe a little side pass, but can canter through the woods without a fuss, stand for saddling and mounting and bridling, etc.

So anyways, I explained what I was going to do so that she didn't think big whip= big retard. She knows I'm a noob and just might think that. I get him out, and after a few "quit"s and light halter jerks he didn't graze. The horses had just come outside- they have a run-in shelter they hide in during the day away from the bugs, so he probably DID want to graze. He stood like a rock for grooming. He was cocking a back leg pretty far when I wanted to pick it, but a fwop to the belly stopped that. I'll clarify: a fwop is a kick. Some people freak out about that. I point my toe and strike with the whole surface from the toe of my boot to just below my knee. It's very blunt. He has a pretty big, fat belly to kick. I'm rather certain it doesn't hurt. Were it painful, he would probably move at least a step and not just look at me like "Aw, crap. Fine," give a big sigh and then behave.

So he's being good. Too good. I showed him Whip and he tried to eat it. I rubbed it on him and he nearly napped. His friends were watching. We began longeing and he was being perfect. A few touches with the whip and he stopped trying to eat and had a positive work ethic. Decent working trot. I was so impressed I didn't realize his friends moved away so we then followed them. He was worse behaving on the grass where they were than on the drive where they had been. He'd be distracted or try to grab a bite, trip, then flip out like it was somehow my fault. Or, he'd trot faster and faster, canter, then gallop and flip out. Big farty bucks. We haven't worked too much on downward transitions on the longe, because usually it's hard enough to get him to go, and they aren't a problem under saddle. So sadly, I thin he was probably just trying to please me by actually going faster, but then frustrated because he hit a peak. I let him have enough line to finish it then asked him again to trot like it never happened. Heck that's even more work for him, and it's not getting him out of anything. Wasn't going to whip him for it because he'd probably not figure out why, again it doesn't happen under saddle, and it would just make the rest of what we were doing harder for him to learn. He'd be all "OMG she BEAT me!" and ignore all the "good"s and "atta boy" etc. for things he was doing right afterwards.

So then we walked into the woods and chilled. For all my riling up, he was ready to nap in the woods. I think he was tired. We walked back, worked near friends, then chilled in the woods again. At this point it was getting dark.

So, successes:
1) He stood well non-grazing. He was a bit pissy for saddling, but that's an ongoing thing. I did sit on him for a little while and he was good for that.

2) He longed very well, for him. He really was trying. He was not heavy-headed, and I was good at being fair. Maybe a little weak on my part, but better than crude.

3) He was being so good I didn't notice his friends leave. Hmm, maybe that's a failure. He was respectful of my space. I could tell his friends were gone when I went to sit on him.

Failures:

1) He did not flip out when leaving his friends. Makes the problem harder to fix. He didn't want to leave them, but stood with me perfectly fine in the woods.

2) He needs his feet did. He was trippy, which he wasn't last time I saw him. I'll call Kelly, they'll be taken care of. They're also chippy, which he's never had before. Dry, I guess?

3) We need to do some down transitions. I'd give them, but he didn't act like he knew ones other than "and ho."

Always always, a work in progress. He did get a decent exercise though; I think he and his friends are being lazy.