Another Frustrating Show

Thu Aug 24, 2006

*sigh*

I give up. If I want to do any horse shows, I need a different horse.

Yeah, another embarassment at the benefit "fun" show last night. Short of shoving firecrackers up his arse, Quzqo ain't NO show horse and he proved it. When your horse stands YAWNING in the line-up...not good. He was THE most un-motivated beast I've ever seen!

When you can get your "Arabian" into a sweet, slow, shuffling JOG TROT during the WARM-UP...not a good sign for any kind of spunk later on!

Well, he did fine at the trot (had to squeeze him up into something ground-covering for gosh sakes!), really ass-dragging at the walk, and for the canter...well...let's just say he took his leads...every single time I had to cue him for the gait! Which was an average of FIVE TIMES each direction because the little slug kept STOPPING or slowing down to a trot!

Needless to say, we didn't even get booby prize...and were beaten by a couple of Paints that ALSO broke gait from the canter, LOL...but they only did it a few times...I guess our dozen was the deciding factor.

Yeah, yeah, my friend with the Paint took 1st (GRRRR), and went on to place well in the Western classes.

Guess I'll focus the next week or so on cantering, and trying to get it through SOMEbody's little horsey brain that it's okay to canter for more than 10 seconds at a time, and when cantering, you don't HAVE to go full-speed!

Only consolation is, I bet those fancy show Arabians that were sweeping all the other classes (5-figure Class A horses from Wayne Newton's ranch) probably wouldn't step over a dead raccoon on a roadside by gosh!

I'm used to Crazy though! This Lazy thing is a whole 'nuther ball of wax!

Well, I guess slogging along is better than almost running over the judge, eh?

I forgot to mention that the MORONS who run the fairgrounds left the lawn sprinklers on too long, so pretty much the entire rail area of the arena was SOAKED muddy puddles, so some of the nonsense that went on was horses avoiding the swampy areas. I'm sure that contributed to Quzqo's silliness (he doesn't like sloggy swampy bits...but he LOVES actual puddles, go figger)

Ah well, look at all the money I'll save by NOT further pursueing any horse showing really...don't need to waste money on Western junk & fees.

Who Wants Horse Belly Reference Pix

Mon Aug 14, 2006

Lookit Quzqo's cool tummy!! I forgot I took this pic early this summer, LOL...I just put the camera on the floor and snapped it. How neat he's got the dark brown hairs right along the "midline"...and so many whorls and whirlies!!! Tezlu had a nice, smooth tummy, but Coos has all sorts of things happening!!

Good reference for hair patterns, veining, armpit & poo stains for model horse painters! Otherwise, admire his impressive girth, lol!

Oops I Did It Again

Mon Aug 14, 2006

Yep, got brave tonight after work, and jumped up on the horse bareback in the pasture to ride him back to the barn, Hoorah!!!

Trouble was, THIS time I had to lead him about 50 yards AWAY from the barn to get to that big pile of clay-dirt I used for a mounting block, and he was NOT enthused about that...he defintely wanted to go TO the barn, and not AWAY, and even though he balked a few times, got him by the clay pile

Then there was the issue of standing still. Last time he stood stock-still like A-#1 Best Horse in the World. Not today! Today he was Mr. Wiggle-Worm "Whatchoo doin', crazy monkey?" swing-the-butt-away horse! Round and round we went, me trying to stay up on the hill, trying to get him in close enough so I could hop on, having him stand still for two seconds without swinging his rear away...after moving about 3/4 of the way around the hill, he FINALLY got in a good position, he stood still, and without a second thought, I JUMPED up and was laying across his back...when he started moving off! AGH!

All I could think of was the BIG rocks below me, I'm out in the open in a 30 acre pasture, side-ways on my belly with the horse heading for the barn (all downhill!). While he's do-bopping towards the barn, I managed to clamber on board and ended up back by his croup practically, LOL! He got upset and hollowed his back & his head went up, I tried to pull him in a circle to the left...and the end of the lead rope I'd tied to his halter (to make "reins") pulled loose, and I only had one "rein"!

So now I'm on top of a hill in a 30 acre pasture, bareback (no helmet) on an agitated Arabian with only one rein and rocks below me (and I had my new digital camera in my back pocket, so I knew if I fell off, that camera was destroyed!)...basically now turning the horse in tight circles to the right, because that's the only side I had the rope connected to!!

By this time Quzqo had had enough of this nonsense and just started walking towards the barn, I had to keep turning him in tight circles, trying to NOT fall off, and trying to scooch up behind his withers where I belonged! Finally got him standing still, and was able to reach forward enough to grab his left cheekpiece (thank God he's a short/small horse, if he was some 18hh Warmblood, no way could I have reached it...not that I'd have been able to get on him in the first place!), and hauled his face around enough that I was able to re-tie the end of the lead to the ring on his halter!

Thus situated, we began our trek downhill...he wanted to go through the herd of horses in front, I wanted to go AROUND them...didn't know if anyone would attack him (and me!), didn't want to risk it...but he wanted to go THROUGH them...we
compromised and we sort of went halfway, which unfortunately also meant going down the steepest part of the hill! SOMEbody hasn't had his feet trimmed since June (he gets them done tomorrow), but thankfully any tripping he did was minor and I stayed on all right!

Then as we got closer to the barn, the flies showed up! They were all over him, and he was kicking at them, shuddering, shaking, turning and trying to bite...all very wiggly for someone riding bareback! We ended up with me doing the fly-shooing with my legs and one free hand, LOL...hey, he didn't mind, fine with me!

Made it back safe and sound...I think I might tote a 5 gallon bucket out there, keep that as a mounting block for future adventures!

Good Ole' Quzqo

Sat Aug 12, 2006

Took Himself for a nice quiet, walking trail ride tonight (walking only, because after a bout of food poisoning yesterday, the last thing my tummy needed was a lot of jouncing around!). We came home via the road leading to the barn (paved two-lane). He was perfectly calm and mellow with the cars going by (just a few, it was almost 8 pm after all). Suddenly a pick-up hauling a trailer with FOUR jet-skis went BLASTING past us w/o moving into the other lane at all (i.e. mere FEET from my foot!) I about jumped out of the saddle, but Coos just kept walking on (probably because he could see the barn from there, lol!) Good boy!!

LOL...Bob's busy moving the fences around, and had a temporary gate on one of the front pastures full of his sales horses. Well, the Belgians pushed the gate down, and the pair and about 4 other horses and ponies ESCAPED and were up in the ROAD!! This happened just as Coos and I were leaving, so we sort-of helped round them back up...Bob was sitting at the picnic table by his house w/their company/guests of the evening, and I got to ride up hollering that his horses were loose, LOL! Hey, a Belgian in the middle of the road is not a good thing!!

They got them all shooed back into the pasture and fixed the gate! LOL...good time of day for all that silliness to happen!!

I guess Coos got loose this week when they were turning him out in the morning...there were other horses blocking his way, so he bolted and ran AWAY from the other horses...as far as the nearest GRASS, so he was easy to catch, LOL! That's my boy!

"Runaway" horses rarely go far around there...usually as far as the nearest grass.

Pain in the Neck (reining)

Wed Aug 9, 2006

Well, last night was Quzqo's first Official Neck-Reining Lesson, and other than being a lazy, petulant, opportunistic, ring-soured BRAT, he may have done okay... considering.

I even went to the barn "late", to give Himself time to thoroughly relax and enjoy his dinner, which he did, because Bob brought him inside around 6 (the horse was standing by the gate, neighing, according to Bob, lol) (Emperor Quzqo is SO aptly named!! "Yo! Peasant! I command you to bring ME to my Imperial Stall and feed me MY dinner!") So by the time I got there after 7, he was on the final 1/2 flake of hay (he gets two fat flakes, plus a scoop of grain, + black oil sunflower seeds (hand-picked by vestal virgins of the highest virtue, of course). Had to physically PRY him away from the food, and literally DRAG him out of the stall, and he proceeded to dawdle and drag and slump along behind me, 100% NOT interested in ANYthing I had to offer him.

He was even less-interested in taking the snaffle bit, and proved he DID have energy by the display of head-flipping and wiggling, trying to avoid the bit, LOL! Drama Queen!

Well, we tried to warm up in the arena, and he was wretched about staying on the rail...there's three or four spots where he will suddenly VEER towards the center of the ring...totally without warning or subtlety, just BAM, head for the center! He got a leg in his side and a pop on the butt, but I also used the occasion to work on neck-reining, since I had to "direct-rein" his face back towards the rail, LOL. There's NO reason for this, just him "yanking my chain" . Nothing scary on the rail, nothing on the other side of the fence to spook him, he's just being Difficult. Or as the trainer lady called it..."messing with you".

He found out I can be Difficult as well, and tried the tack of letting him rest and linger in those spots on the rail, then taking him to the center of the ring and riding his ass off! Circles, cantering, backing, turns on the forehand, backing some more, circling even more, the returning to the rail to dawdle and woolgather. My luck he'll learn to STOP moving on the rail altogether, *sigh*

ANYhoo, re: the neck reining...after countless circles in both directions, using the direct reining/rein laid across the neck/leg aids, he was starting to turn with very little, if any direct-rein! But...only if we were turning in the DIRECTION OF THE OUT GATE! LOL! Little SHIT! If we were going the OTHER way, forget it, LOL!

So we went out the ring (I always make him back out though), and did some work in the field behind the arena...again, if we turned in the direction of the woods, it was like pulling teeth...if we turned in the direction of the BARN....he about did it on his own! *sigh*

Guess I'll limit neck-reining to the indoor ring, where there isn't quite the distractions (though he does tend to gravitate towards the end nearest to his STALL)...but hopefully he's "getting it"

Yep...that week and a half off really spoiled him!

Quzqo Becomes A Man!

Sun Aug 6, 2006

Today Quzqo became a Man! Or a Horse...LOL! Yes, today he was initiated into being ridden with his Big Horse Bit! A CURB! Sniff...no longer a little baby with a big fat eggbutt snaffle, now he's a Horse!

Been toying with the idea for quite a while, but reading how a snaffle just pinches the tongue vs the more finessed curb...I thought what the hell. Removed Tezlu's nice cowboy pelham off his old bridle that I had on the wall next to his portrait, gave it a good scrubbing (removing all the 3 yr old Tezlu DNA), and put it on Quzqo 's western bridle (formerly holding the fat eggbutt snaffle).

Crikey, he's 8 bloody years old, it's about time! lol!

He was cute when I first put it in...he was going "gaaaah" and mouthing it and flopping his tongue around (might have been the dish soap residue, I thought I rinsed it good though) and playing with it. Since it's a cowboy pelham, it's got two sets of rings...one up by the mouthpiece for a more direct snaffle-like pull, and another down the shank for a proper curb action. And I used the broken-in soft leather curb strap, rather loose. Tried a couple practice applications before mounting, and he tucked his head immediately, and didn't seem upset.

He was more upset by the fact the evening feeders were putting grain in the stalls, LOL! He didn't care WHAT his monkey was doing, he was more interested in DINNER!! Rode him a little, and he was a distracted dingbat, so we moved to the outdoor arena, where he became a petulent dingbat who only wanted to go back to the barn! Didn't have a lot of luck with the bridle on the "snaffle" setting, so I moved the reins down to the lower rings for proper curb action. That's when I discovered he really canNOT neck rein to save his soul, BWAHAHAA! Gotta work on that I guess.

BUT...even though he wasn't warmed up or properly tired out or really paying any kind of attention, I was able to get him into a SWEET slow Western jog trot for about 10 seconds! I was thrilled to DEATH! I've never gotten him to trot quite that slow (well, a couple of times this past winter!). Gee, there might be something to this curb caper after all! He also backed nicely after a brief head-tossing/tail-switching incident! Steering is a total cock-up though, we really need to work on that, LOL!

I'm seriously pondering taking him into the Novice WP Class at the barn show in September (on Sunday, w/the single judge, so I only piss away $4 in fees)...just for shits & grins. I wonder if my horn-less trail saddle would be legal, or do I need to borrow one. Hm.

(Hm, have to remember how to ride one-handed, dang!)