Pony Ride!

Mon Mar 28, 2005

Turns out today is one of my Great-Nieces' birthday (Grand-Niece? My Niece's daughter!), and I was asked politely by the Mom if the kid could come out for a Horsie Ride tonight, LOL! Sure, why not, I think Quzqo's plenty worn out from his three consecutive days of riding. Besides, this GrandNiece is the one who won a blue ribbon in Lead Line last year, so she's a pro. Might as well get her practicing, she's only 5, so she's got 2 more years of Lead Line ahead of her!

I'm sure Quzqo will enjoy all the apples and carrots he's sure to get...he'll think it's HIS birthday! (it might be, for all I know!)

My niece is also hauling along her other 3 kids too, so Quzqo will be getting a workout whether he wants it or not (well, maybe not, the youngest can't walk yet, and the boy is scared of the horse...he's the one who insisted Tezlu was going to eat him...which may have been true!!) (According to the Bedouins, a horse with four white legs and a white face is EVIL!!! NOW they tell me!)

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Later....

LOL!!! What chaos!!

BTW, my theory that all the teenagers & kids would be at the barn all day due to it being Spring Break was WRONG! They were all there yesterday EVENING! GAAAH (what, were they hanging out at the mall all day???) Madness!!!! My niece showed up with ***6*** children in tow (I forgot she had a baby last year, BWAHAHAA! I'm a great relative, ain't I?) (one kid was a cousin of her kids, so he technically wasn't her child). Oh yes, and her NON-horsey husband still in his work clothes (three-piece suit, leather coat)...he pretty much held the baby and stayed as far away from horses as he could (which meant he eventually went out to the car and sat there, LOL!)

Since the indoor arena was full of teens and adults working their horses (around 6 or 7 at any time), we went into the round pen...I figured that way we wouldn't get in the way of those riding, and it'd be safer all around...those kids don't know how to steer a horse very well, I could just see them meandering right into the path of the girl riding that shire/paint cross! (That thing has a GORGEOUS canter! Whew!)

The Birthday Girl got to ride first (she's now 6!), but she's an ole' veteran, having won a blue ribbon in lead line last year...she had no trouble making Quzqo move, by slamming him in the ribs with her pink snow boots...that's what he NEEDS though, LOL! She rode him around in uneven circles for about 5 minutes before we put her younger sister on board with her, and she did a good job, riding around (they were in my English saddle, at least with that I could make the stirrups short enough that she could actually put her feet in them). Then the youngest girl got to ride and cried for about a minute before she decided it was kind of fun, then she just grinned from ear to ear while the oldest sister (the birthday girl) lead Quzqo around! He seemed content to just meander around at a walk, that's his speed!

Then the Big Brother (he's now 8) got to ride, he's also a lead line veteran, but not as confident as the girl...he wanted (of course) to go FAST! Uh...no, I don't think so. "Make him go FAST!!"...meanwhile he's only got one foot in a stirrup, is holding the reins at the buckle, and is sitting 2" off center! No, I don't think we're going to go FAST right now. He wasn't as good at steering, Quzqo kept wandering over to where I was standing...but damned if that boy wasn't able to make that horse back up!!! GRRRR! I seem to recall he did that in the lead line class (which proves to me that the horse doesn't have a problem backing up per se, it's Operator Error!!).

He kept pleading to "go faster" & my niece & I said "go ahead, if you can make him!". Yeah, of course, he apparently kicked just right and Quzqo broke into a trot!!! Here's the boy holding the reins at the buckle, his hands up by his ears, and Quzqo trotting with his head sky-high! Oh SHIIIT....he only got 1/4 of the way around the round pen before we got up there and stopped him...LOL!

Let's see, THEN the Cousin, who was the oldest (around 9 or 10 I think) got to ride, he didn't want to, he was frightened, kept trying to get out of it, LOL! Nope, we got him up on the horse. The kid didn't know anything (it was his 2nd time on horseback, ever...the first time was on Tezlu a couple of years ago)...it turned out I just walked around the pen, and Quzqo tagged along behind me, so the kid got to ride the horse "by himself" (since I wasn't holding on to anything), yet safely. He couldn't get off the horse fast enough, LOL!!! Not a horseman, that one!

Then the Birthday Girl got to ride AGAIN...meantime the other kids are bored, and thirsty, and had to go PeePee, and my niece tried to have the older kids take the younger ones to the potty or to the car...which meant they had to make their way across the busy horse-filled arena to the gates! LOL...she had the 6 yr old (before she started riding again) take the 4 yr old to the potty, but the 4 yr old started dragging her in another direction, and there they are, basically hiking around the outside of the round pen, and there's people cantering their horses along the rail, heading right for them! My poor niece got a workout herding children, finally she had to round them up and take them ALL to the car (except Birthday Girl). While Mom was gone, I taught her how to lunge Quzqo in the round pen...except she kept trying to hit him with the whip...she seemed to like the whip a little too much!

So she got another ride on the horse, and we managed to talk her down off of him with the time-tested story that it's his bedtime and he has to go night-night now (well, it was around 8:30 by then). I don't feel one bit sorry for that horse, he made out like a bandit with an entire bunch of fresh leafy carrots, and a shiny red apple the size of his head! He did look sort of pleased with himself when I put him in his stall, LOL! Good work if you can get it!

An amusing side note: we basically hogged the round pen for two hours straight! BWAHAHAA! I lost count of the teenage girls who were standing around outside with their horses, obviously waiting to get in there to work their horses! LOL! Tough shitski! Haw!!! Paybacks are hell, aren't they, girls??? They eventually gave up and left...heh heh. Cry me a river.

I think poor Quzqo deserves a day off today, poor little guy!

Cool New Horse!

Sat Mar 26, 2005

One of the families at the barn added a new horse to their herd...a COOL Paint/SHIRE cross gelding! Black overo, and BIIIG boy! Way cool!! I should get pix!

There's also a new pony in Quzqo's pasture...a TINY little shit, he's maybe 36" at the withers if that, solid black and solid ATTITUDE! He got the whole herd riled up and had them all cantering all over the hillsides when I was leaving this evening, LOL! Cripes, he looks like he could walk underneath the wires and not even get a tickle!

And it was "Rock Star" the Arabian that was put down this week, his condition had worsened so bad that he couldn't even get up, would just lay on the ground and eat his hay, so...that explains the freshly-turned earth in the pasture. *sigh*. Damn beautiful horse...his dapples are featured on my Hoof Pix web site. He used to bomb around the pasture, tail flagging... reminded me a lot of Tez.

My farrier decided he needed to rototill the indoor arena just as I had Quzqo tacked up late this afternoon, so, dammit, I was gonna ride...so I did...we pretty much followed the tractor/tiller around the whole time... Quzqo wasn't too sure at first, but soon settled down into bored fretting, but nary a spook or flinch or funny twitch out of him the whole time!!

Got him to back up REAL nice, and got him into a sweeeeet canter! And NO TEENAGERS!! lol!

I miss my self-propelled horse.

Get Back,Honky Cat!

Tue Mar 22, 2005

Now that the weather's finally warming up (mid-30's today!), I want to get out to the barn on weeknights again, which is what I managed to do tonight. It was pretty busy, and my farrier was riding and giving loud (and helpful) advice to one of the teenage girls (a new boarder) and her horse...he's a pretty good unofficial trainer, he should produce his own set of videos, LOL...lots of common sense, none of that "joining up" and "whispering" junk, just good ole' horse sense!

But he was telling her how to get her horse to back up...of course I was listening...and his method made some sort of sense. Now the way I'd been TRYING to get Quzqo to back up since last summer was patterned after Chris Cox's method on RFD-TV...some sort of breathing mumbo-jumbo and getting your horse to flex and round and of course HIS horse backed up like its forelock was on fire. Quzqo would just brace his neck and IF I got him to shift his weight backwards (w/o any hoof movement), I was thrilled.

But my farrier's method made such sense...to move the horse's feet one hoof at a time...so if you want to move the left hind, you pull back on the rein and light pressure by the girth on the right side...and then move the right hind, pull the rein back and pressure on the left side, etc etc. Sooooo....I tried that....and DAMN if that horse didn't take entire STEPS backwards!!! Quickly and softly...like he "understood" what I wanted!!! No tugging match, no bracing, no gaping mouth trying to evade, no flinging the head! No goofy breathing and buttock-squeezing and Lord knows what else!

Pretty cool I say!!

Quzqo was pretty distracted otherwise tonight, I think he needed lunging but the place was too crowded for that. No matter, I was content just to admire his beeyoootiful face and feed him peppermints, he earned them!

1-1/2 weeks until the clinic at the barn, I figure since I signed up to ride in it, I'd better get more saddle time in between then and now so I don't embarass myself TOO much!!

Cantering Does Not Lead To Weight Loss

Sat Mar 5, 2005

I haven't written about Himself in quite a while, frankly because I haven't done anything with him for quite a while! In fact it's been a week & half since I rode the little goober at all!

Beautiful sunny day out there, temps around 40, still a couple of feet of snow on the ground though. Quzqo was way out in the field at a big pile of hay, but put up no protest when I brought him in, he just calmy do-bopped along behind me on the rope. He was extraordinarily mellow and friendly...maybe it pays to not ride him too often, eh? He even allowed me to put his spint boots on without causing a fuss, and he about sucked the bit into his mouth on his own!

I rode him English with his Dee ring snaffle & the running martingale, our biggest problem was motivation! That boy did NOT want to move! It might have been that it was "warm", and he's FAT, and it was sort of a drowsy sunny day out there...when the horse is yawning BEFORE you ride him, that's a clue! But I know better than to judge a horse by his cover, the little dink was full of energy, he just didn't want to use any of it! We did a lot of bending and circles, then sitting trot (which in itself is an achievement! Rarely can I get him to go slow enough that I can sit the trot), plenty of posting trotting, and...cantering!! I can now say his training re: the cues for the canter is complete! I can get him into a NICE canter from a standstill with just the one heel now...no more need for exaggerated cues or making him trot until he breaks into a canter...he knows what I want and responds! Both directions!! Huzzah! Got him into a couple of sweet canters, very balanced and nicccceeee! No extended cantering, because there was a married couple and their horses aimlessly meandering around the arena, basically getting in my way...I'll be so glad when the snow is gone and I can ride him in the outdoor arena! More room!

Confidently I could say today, I could canter him safely out in the hayfield without him tearing off with me, LOL!

Found a flier up in the viewing room, the regional horse club is sponsoring a Seminar, Tack Sale & Horse Auction at the barn on April 2nd!! They're getting a pair of trainers from downstate to work with people and their horses...hey, sign me up!!! If only to get an outside opinion that I'm doing all right with the little guy, considering!

And, I found a photo I took of Quzqo last Spring...and thought you might get some amusement comparing him to "now", LOL! I'm going to make up a gag poster with these pix for the barn..."The Windsonnet Diet", ha! Little fuzzy tubby! Even his butt looks rounder! (and that ain't ALL hair, believe me!)