Lesson 12/19/11 - My First Fall

I know a lot of you have been waiting for this blog post for ages, so I'm finally going to take the time to do it. This happened a couple of weeks ago, right before Christmas.

Since September, I've mostly been riding Chachi, but he was getting so frustrating (he kept running me into things and just being annoying) that my lessons weren't very productive anymore. So I recently switched to Janie, who I like so far. The first time I rode her was a little weird since I'd been riding Chachi, who was tall and very swingy in his movements, and Janie is pretty small and not as big of a mover as Chachi. I don't really remember in detail what happened in the first two lessons with Janie, but I do remember the third lesson, which is what I'm about to write about.

I'd been able to trot on Janie fairly well - no cantering yet as I'm not that used to her - and I'd been trying to fix the problem of Janie trotting too fast. She would be trotting at a normal pace and then when we turned a corner she would speed up, making it really hard for me to post. I tried to post slower as my instructor told me but it wasn't working too well at the time. So as I was trotting down the long side of the ring - and Janie was speeding up a lot - I ended up leaning forward to try to slow her down. I wasn't intentionally leaning forward, it just kind of happened. The next thing I knew, Janie was cantering. I got kind of startled and leaned back to try to get her to stop and that's exactly what she did - she stopped dead in her tracks, legs splayed and everything. And as that happened, I flew out of the saddle and over Janie's shoulder, falling onto the ground. But I didn't just land. As I was landing I did a somersault, so I ended up landing on my back facing away from Janie.

I remember seeing the world spin and Janie go upside down as I rolled. What a weird feeling - and scary too. I was really freaked out so I guess that's why I was crying as I got up off the ground. I was just kind of scared and my back really hurt too because that's essentially what I landed on. It's a miracle I didn't hit my head though. I did break my helmet visor on the way down, but that's minor damage compared to what could have happened, like me landed straight on my head. I need to get a new helmet, as you're not supposed to use one that you've fallen on, but I haven't really had time to get out to a tack shop this week. I'll most likely borrow one at the stable until I can get a new one.

Anyway, as I got up, my instructor came over calmly (I guess she didn't want to freak me out even more by panicking) and she just kept asking me if I was okay while I composed myself. I was, of course, just merely freaked out - this was the first time I had ever fallen and it was really scary! But, despite that, I got back on Janie after a couple minutes. You're probably thinking I'm crazy, right? But that's the thing - I was scared, but it was over, I was okay, and I wasn't going to let it stop me from riding. I was a little more cautious afterwards though, and made certain not to lean forward too far.

Poor Janie though. She seemed freaked out herself and didn't seem to know what to do. Maybe she felt bad that I fell off, I don't know, but it was kind of slow going after I got back on. We were both uncertain and I didn't want to do anything to upset her, or myself. Eventually we did some trotting again because my instructor wanted my lesson to end of on a good note rather than a bad one, which it did. And I actually ended up laughing about all this afterwards and calling myself a ninja for rolling as I fell. I guess it was a learning experience as well - now I can say I know what it's like to fall off a horse!

I'm Back!

I can't believe my last post was in September. Ever since school started, I kind of stopped blogging as I became too lazy to take the time to write about my weekly lessons. But now that it's finally Christmas break, I've decided to start posting again. It's going to be one of my New Year's resolutions to continue to blog on a weekly basis. I know this will be a little difficult when school starts up again this Monday, but I'm determined to get this blog up and running again! My future posts will most likely not be up until the weekend after my lessons, so please expect it to take longer than it has in the past.

Coming up: Whenever I have a moment, I will blog about my recent experience that involved me falling off my horse for the first time (exciting, I know!). Then I will blog next week about Monday's lesson and hopefully all we be back to normal. :)

Thanks to all of you who have stuck around this far, and I'm sorry for months of not posting.

Lesson 9/26/11

The first thing I heard when I got to the barn is that Annie was lame. Lame pretty much means the horse has a sore leg or foot and it won't put the proper amount of weight on it. So anyway, my choices of horse were Chachi or Captain. Or as my instructor said, "Do you want a challenge, or no challenge?" As much as I love Captain, I chose to go with Chachi because I wanted to try a new horse. My instructor also put me in a dressage saddle, for some reason. Usually I use a general-purpose saddle, which can be used for jumping and other stuff (these are all English saddles). Dressage saddle just have longer side panels and a deeper seat to encourage riding low and balanced.

I've actually ridden Chachi once before at Pony Camp this summer, but it was only for about five minutes, so I knew he was a lot different from Annie or Captain. But even as I got on I realized just how different he really was. Chachi walks as if he is marching - that's the only way I can describe the feeling. His walk, trot, and canter are very swingy and pretty powerful, and a lot faster than what I'm used to with Annie.

The first time I trotted on Chachi I was thrown way off balance. After a while I got the hang of it, but his trot was so bouncy that it was hard to not get jostled a little. The barn owner was watching and said I looked graceful, even though I didn't feel one bit graceful. After some trotting my instructor let me canter. That was a big surprise too. I'm used to Annie's canter now, so when I felt Chachi's fast, rolling canter, I was a little freaked out. Again, once I got used to it a little it wasn't so bad, just really really fast. I often had to make circles to avoid moving that quickly. Chachi's canter also kind of hurt because I was flopping up and down a lot since I wasn't used to the fast movement of his canter. It was a little hard to sit to and find a good rhythm, but it was still really fun!!

By the end of this lesson I was pretty wiped out. It was a whole lot of fun though, and since Annie most likely won't be getting better any time soon (for all I know, she will, but you just can't tell), I asked if I could ride Chachi again next week. Hopefully I'll be able to but he might be ridden too much that day for me to ride. I'll just have to wait and see, I guess!

Lesson 9/19/11

Sorry about skipping last week's lesson. I couldn't really find the time to do it.

Anyway, so I'm just going to skip ahead to this week's lesson. It was, like, the perfect day. It was cool and breezy, I didn't have a lot of homework, and I knew we would be working on jumping - the perfect combination!!

I rode Annie, as usual. She wasn't grumpy at all, either! My instructor said it was probably because of the cooler weather and because we're working on jumping - apparently she enjoys doing that, which is good because I do too. Since I tack up faster than the lady I ride with, Sarah, my instructor let me go up in the ring to warm up, so I was all ready to go when they got up there. I like the time to be alone a little, so I can familiarize myself with Annie before the actual lesson starts.

After some trot warm ups, my instructor had me do a small jump course that had three sets of ground poles and one low jump (not the lowest, but the second hole up I think). The first time Annie swerved a lot, so my instructor told me to look way up ahead of the jump and to just basically tell Annie that we were going to go over the jump/poles. It actually worked, too! Just setting that goal in my head and keeping my body focused on that goal helped Annie to go where I wanted her to. So the third time I did the course Annie didn't swerve at all - a big accomplishment for me.

After that, we moved on to cantering. I warmed Annie up with her left lead, the easy lead, and then we set to work on getting her nearly impossible right lead canter. I feel like I tried everything - I did small circles, big circles, I tried to get her to bend... But it didn't work. Every time I told Annie to canter she took an extra step and set off in her left lead canter. It's not entirely my fault though because Annie's not good t bending to her right so it was even harder for me to get her to do that. And when I did get her in the right bend, I didn't ask for the canter soon enough. So it was a pretty frustrating thing, as it is every week. I've gotten it before though, so one of these days I will be able to do it again (I hope).

Right before the end of the lesson Sarah was learning how to post for the first time. My instructor asked me to demonstrate some things at the trot - first two-point, then a half posting half two-point (I think that was a hunt seat), and then regular posting. It felt really nice to be able to demonstrate something to someone instead of the other way around for once. And later, when my instructor was talking to Sarah about how the next thing they would be doing was diagonals, it again made realize how far I've come in riding, I guess you could say. It's just that I remember learning diagonals and being extremely frustrated with it, and now I can do it without thinking. It was just a nice reminder of where I am now, and I'm really happy that I've stuck with riding and made it this far!

You can tell it was an awesome lesson, right? :)

Just a quick shout-out to my step-mom, whose birthday is today. Happy birthday!!

Working at a Horse Show

A couple of days ago the barn owner emailed me asking me if I could help out with a horse show on Saturday the 10th (yesterday). I would get paid 30 dollars (yay!) and it would go from 7am to middle-afternoon. I said yes, of course.

When I got to the barn I met another helper named Alfia. There were other helpers and riders around too. The barn owner had hired someone to trailer their horses to the show (it was about 30 minutes away) because there were maybe seven riders that were going to be in the show, and we needed to bring five horses with us: Dusty, Moo, Annie, Chachi, and Dixie. Annie was trailered seperately than the other horses because there wasn't enough room. We helped load the trailer with all the supplies, like water buckets, hay, grooming tools, and tack, and then we left. I rode in a van with Alfia, four riders, and someone's mom and sister.

When we got to the horse show location I saw there were two rings - a big one and a small one. I think the small one was made of all gravel while the big ring had a ring of gravel around the outside and grass in the middle. Grass was everywhere - it was heaven for the horses! We unloaded the horses and let them graze.

Basically what I did was hold horses that weren't in upcoming classes, and I was just there if anyone needed anything. I took turns holding Dixie with Alfia because she required you to walk with her - she wouldn't stop moving! So while I walked with Dixie, Alfia got to sit down, and vice versa. It was a long day - and it all consisted of standing. It was fun to watch the classes though, and some classes had almost all of the people from our barn in them! It was often chaotic too, because some riders had to share horses or switch them to start their next class. At the end of the day though, when everyone had their ribbons, I was happy I had come. I unfortunately got a horrible sunburn all over my face because I didn't bring sunscreen. It was cloudy when I left my house!

Anyway, by the time we got home I was almost falling asleep standing up. I was so tired from standing all day. But like I said before, I was glad I came, and I even made 30 dollars doing it. :)

Lesson 9/5/11

I'm sorry I'm getting to this post so late! It's hard to do it on a school night, because when I'm not doing homework I'm trying to relax by reading or watching TV. Hopefully I'll find time to write about my next lesson sooner than the weekend, but don't be surprised if I haven't written till then.

The bad thing about blogging six days later is that I don't really remember everything. So I'll just write about the basics of what we did. I rode with a lady named Sarah, who I think is fairly new to riding. She rode Moo, and I rode Annie. Annie was being really weird though. When I was grooming her she just kind of collapsed, like she was falling asleep. And she was being extra sensitive of people going near her butt or behind her. Luckily though, once we started riding she wasn't too bad, and she wasn't as slow as she was last week either.

I unfortunately didn't get to work on jumping this week, because of Sarah. My instructor can't really give me one-on-one instruction with someone else there. So I worked on getting Annie to move faster, and I worked on getting her to canter without stopping so much. It was hard because every time we went around a corner she would try to slow down.

That's really all I remember. Sorry for any disappointment... But you can still look forward to this week's post, which I promise I will write before next Sunday. :)

Volunteering/Working 8/31/11

Tonight was my last night of volunteering. Since school is back in session, I know I won't be able to go to the barn for more than two hours every Wednesday anymore. I wish I could keep coming, but hopefully later this year and definitely next summer I'll be able to help again.

For the first hour, that young girl named Ruth would be riding again. When I arrived at the barn though, someone told me that Ruth and another girl were already up in the ring with Captain. The other girl helping was nine, and her name was Megan. I've seen her around the stable before, so I recognized her. When I got up in the ring she was helping Ruth with the girth, but Captain kept trying to bite them so Megan held Captain's head while I fixed the saddle and girth. Then the instructor came up so Ruth could get on Captain.

It was pretty much the same as last week, except this time I just stood in the middle of the ring because there wasn't really a need for me to walk beside Ruth. So after warming up and doing some trotting (I honestly can't remember if I helped her trot or not... I don't think I did though), the instructor attached Captain to a lunge line. Basically the line is connected to his bridle so that if you stand somewhere the horse will walk, trot, or canter in a circle around you (see picture). The purpose of this was to let Ruth trot without holding on to the rains. She's been trying to get good at posting, and the instructor thought this would be a good exercise because it teaches you to post with your whole body while staying balanced.

I don't really remember what Ruth did after that. It was my second day at my new high school, and I was exhausted, as Megan pointed out to me as soon as I arrived in the ring ("You look tired!"). Anyway, when it was time for the second hour, the instructor told me that I would be leading a pony ride. I can't remember the little girl's name, but she was really small and really adorable. She barely said a word, either. She got to ride Rita, the smallest pony there. So when I brought Rita up from the paddock I showed the little girl and her dad how to groom a little. I showed the dad and he helped the little girl brush a small section of Rita's back while I did the rest. I picked Rita's hooves because that's obviously not a very safe thing for a little girl to do. It was pretty fun getting Rita ready. Since she's so small, everything was even smaller. I used a special saddle that was really small and used for pony rides, and the bridle was also very tiny. It was all so cute!! Up in the ring, when the girl was in the saddle, all I had to do was lead Rita around while the instructor held her leg to make sure she didn't fall off.

Meanwhile, during this pony ride, the instructor also had to teach a lesson (Carlee and Lydeah again - I think the little girl and Lydeah were cousins or something). After a while when Lydeah started trotting, the little girl saw her posting and tried to copy. She kept flopping up and down in her seat - it was really cute. Since she wanted to post so much, we let her trot a little, for small sections at a time while the instructor made sure she stayed in the saddle. That girl was being bounced around so much up there! She even kept posting when we were done trotting. I said to the instructor later how that girl is going to be a great student when she gets older because she's so eager to learn.

That's pretty much how the whole pony ride went. We walked mostly and we let Rita trot occasionally. The only word that girl said throughout the entire ride was "Chachi" - the name of the horse Lydeah rides. We ended the pony ride when the lesson was over, and we all headed down to the barn. I think the parents were very pleased with their daughter, and they thanked me as well. We all just couldn't stop laughing when that girl kept posting!

All-in-all, I'd say it was the best volunteering/working session I've had. Unfortunately it was my last time. The instructor kept saying, "Now I need to find a Greta replacement!" and I felt really bad, but she understood my situation. It's unfortunate though because this was the week we'd finally gotten into a good routine, but of course it was also the last week I would be there. Again, I hope I can come back and volunteer at some point, most likely in the summer. And I do look forward to coming back!!

Lesson 8/29/11

Wow. What a lesson. Tonight I jumped for the first time!! I don't think camp really counts since I jumped maybe twice. So obviously I'm very excited and happy! It was so fun too, especially when I got to canter over some jumps. And I'm really glad I had this lesson tonight because tomorrow's the first day of school and it really cheered me up and got me thinking about something else.

So tonight I rode Annie, and as always she was being really annoying. She kept trying to pull her head away from me and wanted to eat stuff when I stopped. But in the end I guess I was pretty glad I rode her (haha!). We started out the lesson in the small ring since there was a lesson going on in the big ring. I walked around a little and after a while my instructor told me to pick up a trot. Who knew trotting could be this hard! It took me forever just to get her to walk faster, and even longer to get her to trot. And she did the slowest possible trot she could. I had to use my crop a lot to get her to actually move a little, but once she knew she needed to go faster she stayed pretty fast for the rest of the lesson.

After trotting some figure-eights (some were excruciatingly slow), I got trotting Annie fast enough at a steady pace that my instructor told me I could canter. I tried to get her to pick up the right lead (we were tracking right), but as usual she wouldn't do it so I eventually switched directions. I got the left lead canter but I found it really hard to get her to stay in that canter. She kept speeding up and stopping and speeding up and stopping. I got Annie to canter a little longer but at that point the other riders were moving out of the big ring so we moved over there.

Now comes the really exciting part (for me anyway). There were four jumps set up in the ring. The two farthest away were just some poles flat on the ground (one pole in one and three in the other). The two jumps closest had two tiny crossrails set up on them (the lowest the poles could go). So my instructor told me what to do, and I had to just do it. There wasn't much explanation, which I was okay with since I wanted her to just cut to the chase and let me jump (I was very eager!). So I had to trot in two-point over the set of three poles, trot over the crossrail and keep going to head over the other one. Then I just had to keep trotting over the one pole. It was a little crazy the first time but it got easier the more I did it (and I did it a lot). Also, Annie kept wanting to canter before I went over the three poles, so I had to really tighten up to stop her.

After a while of doing those jumps at a trot my instructor told me that if Annie wanted to canter I could let her canter. So after trotting over the three poles I had to trot over the crossrail and then let Annie canter. Then I was to canter over the second crossrail and over the other pole. The first time I did this I didn't hit the second crossrail straight so Annie kind of leaped over it and we swerved to the middle of the ring. The second time was so much better. I headed towards the jump straight and we cantered right over it and over the other pole. It was so much fun!!! Trotting over jumps is fun too, but the exhilarating feeling of cantering over them is even better. And I wasn't even jumping that high!

So all in all, it was a very productive lesson. I'm pretty proud of myself too, I must say. I also learned (and I told this to my instructor) a lot: I learned how important it is to have loose and relaxed ankles, to look ahead over the jumps, and that I can't give up on Annie. Relaxed ankles really help you absorb the bounce as you go over a jump and even poles. Looking ahead helped Annie know where I wanted her to go - looking down at the jump is just inviting her to slow down or stop. And not giving up on Annie means that I have to keep asking and telling her what I need her to do - whether it be going over a jump or just getting her to trot. Needless to say, I can't wait for next week's lesson. :) And I will try and blog after volunteering, so you can look for that - it will probably be up on Thursday rather than Wednesday. Wish me luck in school tomorrow!!

Volunteering/Working 8/24/11

I have to say, I really did not want to volunteer tonight. I was really tired and my eyes were sore from trying contacts for the first time earlier, but I went anyway. And when I was done, I was really glad that I did.

When I got to the barn, I again wasn't sure what to do. It had been three weeks since I'd last come and I couldn't remember if I should start getting the horses ready or wait for the riders to get there. I ended up waiting, which I now realize I shouldn't have. But I emailed the barn owner today and she told me that I should start grooming and tacking up the horses before the riders get there, so that's what I'll do next week.

Tonight there was only one rider, a young girl named Ruth. I actually went to pony camp with her last summer, so I recognized her. We got Captain ready and we headed up to the ring (a little later than the instructor wanted, but oh well!). For this lesson all I had to do was walk beside Captain and help Ruth if she needed it, like telling her where to go if she forgot. After a long warm-up Ruth was told to trot. For this I had to attach my lead rope to Captain's bridle to help lead Captain and get him to move. And let me tell you, it was really tiring after a while from running alongside Captain. A little later the instructor's daughter set up a small obstacle course, so Ruth did that. That's pretty much all there was to this lesson. When we were done we went on a short trail ride that went alongside the riding ring, down past a pasture, and back onto the gravel driveway that leads to the barn.

When we got to the barn the next lesson's riders, Carlee and Lydeah (I think that's how she spelled it...) were already mostly tacked up. Well, Lydeah was completely ready and Carlee was almost done. Carlee was again riding Fresca and Lydeah was riding Chachi after returning from a month long break. Much like three weeks ago, I didn't really have to do anything during this lesson, except for the occasional poop clean up. I also was told to tell Carlee if she needed to look ahead or fix her feet on the stirrups. Lydeah was more independent of the two of them, so she didn't really need help at all. So they warmed up their horses with lots of circles, and then they took turns trotting around the ring to catch up to the other horse. Eventually, towards the end of the lesson, Carlee and Lydeah moved into the small ring so Lydeah could canter a little. She's just started to though, so she didn't canter for long. Both Carlee and Lydeah had family watching, so I guess they wanted to show off the canter a little. The instructor even asked me to go down to the barn to get Lydeah's grandmother so she could watch her canter.

Anyway, all in all, I'd say it was a pretty relaxing night, and I again earned a whopping five dollars!! It's better than nothing I guess. Every little bit counts towards paying for my lessons, so in the end I think it's worth it. Unfortunately, next week is my last week of volunteering, because school starts on Monday (nooo!) and I'm not sure I can juggle volunteering and homework in the same night. Maybe I'll be able to help again in October, but I've decided to not help in September. So you can at least look forward to one more blog post about it next week! :)

Lesson 8/22/11

Yesterday's weather was perfect - not just for riding, but in general. It was sunny but breezy and not too hot. And it was a much needed break from all the thunderstorms we've been having lately.

When I got to the stable I was happy to find the barn owner there, and she asked me if I had gotten my ribbons. I took the opportunity to tell her that I did but I wasn't exactly sure what they were for, so she told me that the big purple one was just for attending pony camp, and that the blue first place one was for winning the costume contest (remember our underwater themed horse?)! We then talked a little about next month. I think I'll be going back to having my lesson at 5 o'clock, which I miss doing. I don't really like having to eat dinner really early to get there on time.

Unfortunately, when me and Jess went into the barn we were told that our horses were both up in the ring so we had to wait for a while. I guess it was easier since we didn't have to groom or tack up, but I actually really like doing it so I can familiarize myself with the horse I'm riding (I rode Captain again today). All we had to do when the riders came down to the barn was switch out the saddles. Then we headed up to the riding ring.

For the first half of the lesson we were in the small ring since there was a lesson being held in the big ring (there were a lot of overlapping lessons tonight - a different one every half hour!). So Jess and I warmed up our horses with S-curves at the walk. I also practiced some bending with Captain around the corners to help his body loosen up. When we were warmed up we did some trotting. My main goal was to get Captain moving since he was being especially slow tonight. I got him to do a fairly fast trot, but he could have done it much faster if he was actually trying.

When the other riders were done with their lesson we headed over to the big ring. We did some figure-eights at the walk and then we moved on to figure-eights at the trot. By this point I had gotten Captain into a pretty decent trot that I was pretty happy with. He also tried to avoid some corners but after a while I learned to prepare him earlier for what I wanted him to do and he got better at turning when I wanted him to. After a little while we did some trot in two-point. Captain usually slows down when I do two-point and he did this time as well, but I eventually got him to keep his earlier pace. It was harder to do the turns though since I have less control in two-point - my hands have to stay on his neck for me to keep my balance. Again though, I got that I just had to prepare earlier for my turns and look ahead where I'm going so Captain knows where I want him to go.

After that we took a small break and Jess and I took turns cantering. I got to go first while she walked in the center of the ring. At first I just did plain old cantering around the ring with no specific starting or ending points, just so I could get ready to do more complicated things. And I have to say it again - I love Captain's canter! It's just so comfortable. Anyway, once Jess did some cantering it was my turn again, and this time I had to do a figure-eight. At first I had some trouble keeping Captain in a canter when we headed towards the middle of the ring to switch directions, but once my instructor told me to ask him to trot at a certain point and then canter at a certain point, I got better at keeping Captain cantering when I wanted him to. It also helped with down-transitions, which I've said before is something I'd like to work on.

After the figure-eight I got to canter around the whole outside of the ring again, but this time I had to tell my instructor what letters I wanted to stop and start at (remember there are letters placed around the ring to use for dressage). I told her I wanted to canter at K, trot at H, canter at M, and trot again at F (basically cantering on the long sides and trotting on the short sides). After a couple times my canter transitions were pretty much spot on. But then Captain started to speed up and it was harder for me to post, and he kept cantering when I wanted him to trot, so the transitions got a lot harder. Overall though, I think me and Captain did pretty well tonight. My instructor even said that next week, since I'll have a private lesson (Jess is going to college on Thursday!) I'll get to start working on crossrails - meaning jumping!! I'm very excited to start actually learning to jump in a lesson setting, rather than all the confusion I got from camp.

I'll definitely try and blog as soon as possible next week, but I might not get to it for a while because that's the first day of school (yikes). And don't forget to check my blog tomorrow night (or Thursday, whenever I get to it) for my post about volunteering/working with lessons!

Working on Sundays

I recently received a comment from someone (you know who you are!) that they would like to see a blog post on what I do on Sundays at the stable. So since I have nothing else to do right now, I will walk through everything I do at my job. Keep in mind that this is the most recent way I've done my job - the way I do it and the horses I feed change a lot. And yes, it is a job, because I get paid. Though I don't get paid directly, the money goes towards my lessons, so I only have to pay half price. In my opinion it's a very generous deal and I'm happy to have the job (I got it because I'm the only available person who doesn't go to church on Sundays).

The first thing I do when I get to the stable at 10:30 is check the barn floor for any papers. The barn owner usually sets out a cup of grain that I have to give to Captain, and if there's anything I need to know or do differently she'll tell me in a short note. When I get there there's normally one lady who rides her horse, but often times there won't be anyone on the property. I'm glad for the quiet time, just me and the horses.

After checking the barn I go get the horse Chief. He's usually in the Grandma Paddock (across from the Esbin Pasture), so I put on his halter and lead him to his stall in the barn. Then I go down to the hay shed. I get a wheelbarrow and haul a bale of hay into it, and then I stick some scissors into it so I can cut the strings. I wheel the hay back up to the Esbin Pasture and give three or four flakes of hay to Lucky and Dixie. A flake is one portion of hay - it is pre-separated into them when it's bought. This makes my job a lot easier. I then check the barrel of water and refill it if necessary (there are water pumps placed all over the property with hoses to connect to them).

Next I wheel the hay down to the Pony Paddock (next to the Grandma Paddock), where I give two flakes each to Rita and Rosie. Next to the Pony Paddock is another paddock which I cannot remember the name of. Anyway, I feed the two horses there, Dusty and Lionel, and check both this paddock and the Pony Paddock's water.

Next to the paddock I can't remember is the Middle Paddock, which has a gate that leads to a pasture. I give Annie, Janie, and Fresca only one flake of hay each and open the gate so they can go down to pasture. They only get one flake each because they get to eat all that grass too. I open the gate halfway and prop it open with a rock so the horses can come back up for water. I then climb through the fence leading to Ashlea's Paddock, and prop open Teddy and Mia's gate to a different pasture. I walk back up through the paddock and climb through the fence to go check Ashlea's Paddock and the Middle Paddock's water, filling it if it's less than maybe three quarters full. Usually by the time I get to feeding the Middle Paddock's horses I run out of hay, so a lot of the times I'll have to go back up to the hay shed and get a new bale (which is something I'd rather not do since it means more walking and heavy lifting).

Once all the horse's are fed on this side of the property, I take the wheelbarrow up to the barn and give two flakes to Captain and Chief, and only one to Tuffy since he's sick and I'm not sure he can eat that much hay. I check their water buckets and fill them if they need it, and I sweep the fallen hay on the floor into a stall. Then I abandon my wheelbarrow (yay!) and head down a big hill to what is called the Bair's Area, since that family owns two horses that stay down there. Often when I come down the hill Moo will see me and start neighing. I head into the hay shed that is attached to the side of two stalls (the stalls are open to the paddock) and I give one flake each to Moo and the other horse named Skye. Moo usually ignores the hay and heads over to the gate, waiting for me to open it, which is what I do next. He often canters down the hill and into the pasture, which is a fun sight to see.

Unfortunately I then have to head back up the huge hill which makes me really tired and out of breath. And once I'm up the hill I have to head up another one to the upper pasture. There I feed Doc, Magnum, and Chachi two flakes of hay each from the hay pile that is set near the fence.

This is where my feeding duties end. Now it's time for me to muck out some sheds. They're basically stalls inside a paddock that are open to the rest of the paddock so the horses can enter them at will. First I head down the hill to the barn to get a pitchfork and to retrieve my wheelbarrow, which I empty of any excess hay. Then I walk down to the Pony Paddock and head over to the sheds (there are only two). All I have to do is scoop out the horse poop and spread around the dirt to make it even. It's normally pretty easy when there's not that much poop, but on a day like yesterday when there's a ton I often have to make multiple trips to dump it out and I end up hurting my back. Not too mention all the flies in there and the sweltering heat when it's summer. Luckily it's not a very physically demanding job, other than bending over a little.

When I've mucked out both stalls I open a small gate near the sheds and wheel the wheelbarrow of poop into the woods where I dump it on the many piles of manure back there. Some are so old they have mushrooms growing out of them! Anyway, when I'm done I grab my pitchfork and head up to the barn to put that and the wheelbarrow away.

That's all there is to my job on Sundays. I don't have too much work and the job only lasts about an hour, so I'm happy to do it every Sunday. Especially if it helps pay for my lessons!!

Lesson 8/15/11

My new ribbons!

I was so happy it wasn't raining for my lesson tonight. I hadn't ridden since camp - and that was the end of July! I also rode Captain, which was nice but weird since I haven't ridden him for a long time. For this lesson I was with two other riders: Jess and another boy named Mitchell (older than me by maybe a year or something) who I've seen around the stable before because he and his brother own two horses I think (or at least their dad does).

My mom, stepdad, and half-sister came to watch my lesson tonight. I always bug them about coming to watch, but they don't like to in the summer when it's really hot and humid, so I was happy they came. We started off the lesson in the big ring and getting our horses to do long strides on the long sides of the ring and short strides on the short sides. Then we did some trotting for a awhile.

After a break (remember how Captain needs a lot of breaks?) we did figure-eights at the walk, trot, and canter. It was easy at the walk, but not as easy with the trot, only because Captain was giving me what my instructor called a "pretty trot" when she wanted a much faster, working trot. Once we started the canter figure-eight, I realized how much I've missed Captain's canter. Annie's is very fast and I sometimes have a hard time sitting with the rhythm, but Captain's is the perfect speed - not too bumpy and very comfortable. Captain also has a much easier time picking up the right lead canter, so the figure-eight was pretty easy. I don't think Jess did a figure-eight at the canter. She just did a small stretch of it at the end of the lesson because I think she's just started.

After the figure-eights we did a canter exercise. We were to all track right and canter on the long sides of the ring and trot on the short sides (Jess just trotted/walked). This exercise went very well for me - I would ask for the canter and Captain would immediately do a perfect transition into his canter, right on cue. My instructor was happy with that I think - and she said my cantering looked "fabulous!" It was also really fun to canter so much. The only thing I said I would like to work on would be my canter to trot transitions. They were pretty bumpy and I think I could do them better.

The last cantering exercise we did was trot diagonally to the far right corner of the riding ring. From there we would turn left and pick up a canter. Captain (as always) did this very well. He really is a great horse. Not to mention he's good-tempered and adorable! We did that a couple of times. To end the lesson and cool down we had to say something about each other rider that we noticed they did well. I hate when we do this kind of stuff, because you have to say it directly to them and it's really awkward for me. So my mind froze up and the first thing I said about Mitchell was "You looked comfortable." That's it. I meant to say he looked comfortable despite his horse being energetic and bucking a little, but the moment had passed and it was Jess's turn. I regretted saying that, but it was too late. Oh well. I said good job to Jess for getting Annie to keep up a trot, since I know that's hard to do. Both Mitchell and Jess said they thought I looked really nice at the canter, so that was a good compliment for me (and Captain!).
 
Another good thing about tonight was that when we returned to the barn to untack my mom noticed a bag with my name on it containing two ribbons (see picture). The big purple one says Pony Camp and Congratulations on it, while the smaller blue one says First Place and Horse Show. I'm still not really sure why I got them. I think the purple one is just for attending riding camp this summer, and I'm thinking the first place one also has something to do with camp, but I'm not sure what. I'm hoping to get the chance to talk to the stable owner and politely ask her about it,  if that's not too weird. All I know is they look great hanging up on my wall, even if I don't know the reason I got them!

Just so you don't come to my blog on Wednesday or Thursday looking for a blog post, I'll tell you now that there won't be one. The volunteer coordinator emailed me and said I wouldn't be needed for this Wednesday, since a kid moved his lesson or something. I will be volunteering on the 24th and 31st of August though, so you can look for blog posts then.

Also, click here to look at a website with articles about Jin Shin Jyutsu (remember that blog post?).

New Blog Gadgets and a Shoutout

I know this blog post isn't really about horses, but I just wanted to tell you about some new gadgets I've added to my sidebar, if you haven't seen them already.

The first new thing I've added is a pageview counter. It keeps track of how many times my blog had been viewed. It's actually been counting how many times I've visited it as though, so it's probably not very accurate. I changed a setting so that it won't count my views from now on, but who knows if that will work.

The second gadget I've added is a search bar. It's near the top of my blog, so that if you want to find a certain post or something, you can. It will also search for links I've posted and it will show results from Google (for if you want to look up a certain term I said or things like that).

The last new thing I added isn't really a gadget, but it's also on my sidebar. It's a picture of a horse that I drew a while ago. It's done in colored pencils, and some of you might have already seen this on my Facebook profile, but it's one of my favorites that I've done. I actually drew it by looking at a picture I found in a horse picture book, and it really interested me so I decided to recreate it. I tried to find the original picture so you could see, but for some reason I couldn't find it in the book I had thought it was in. Oh well, I hope you like it anyway.

One thing I've been wanting to do for a while is give a shoutout to anyone who has given me money for riding lessons within the past year. I recently counted all my money, and I discovered I have enough to pay for five more months of lessons! That will last me until after Christmas, which is when I ask for riding lesson money from all my relatives. It was a struggle last year to come up with the money to ride each month, but money wasn't even much of a worry this year. Every little bit counts, and I can't imagine not riding anymore. Thank you!!!

Volunteering/Working 8/3/11

A couple months ago, the stable owner emailed me asking if I would like to help with lessons on Wednesday. I couldn't do it because I was still in school. She asked me again a couple of weeks ago, and I finally said I would do it, but only for the month of August, at least for now. I'd like to try and do it again when school starts, but I want to figure out my schedule first before I agree to do it. So anyway, the deal was I would come for two different lessons (so about two hours - 5:30 to 7:30). The first hour would be volunteer work, but I would get paid for the second hour (only five dollars though). Yesterday was my first day of working there. I came fifteen minutes early, as I was told to do, but I ended up waiting in the barn for the riders up in the ring to come down.

Once they were down, we went right back up again. For this lesson there were two riders: a young boy named Jack and an older boy named Matt (who I later learned was 18). Matt was the rider I would be working with. He would be riding Chachi, and Jack would be riding Lionel. We were allowed to choose whoever we wanted to work with, but the other volunteer (named Ada) and I just agreed to stay with who we were already with.

Since Jack is not yet off the lead rope, Ada had to lead Lionel around. Matt is off the lead rope, so all he needed was a sidewalker - basically I had to walk beside him and tell him where to go and stuff. It was very awkward for me at first. Matt obviously had some communication problems, and he often refused to talk. It took a while for the lesson instructor to convince him to get on Chachi, and it took even longer for her to get him to actually tell Chachi to move. And once we were moving, I wasn't sure what to say at all. I would occasionally tell him where to go and what to do, but I wasn't sure how to speak to him. He was 18, so I didn't want to treat him like he was 4, but it was hard to tell when he never answered me. I got more comfortable as the lesson went on, and by the end I wasn't feeling as awkward. It's difficult to talk to someone who won't respond. I felt really satisfied at the end of the lesson though. I was happy I had said yes to coming on Wednesdays. I'm hoping after a while I'll get more comfortable talking to the riders.

The second lesson was a complete turn-around from the first. It was only one girl named Karlee (I think that's how she spelled it). She was pretty old, maybe 10 or 11, so she knew how to do almost everything. After putting Chachi in his stall, I was supposed to help her get her horse, Fresca, groomed and tacked up. I occasionally had to help her with something, but she was pretty independent. Once up in the ring I helped her tighten her girth, but after that the lesson instructor told me I wouldn't really be needed to do anything in this lesson. Karlee didn't need a sidewalker or anything, so I could just sit and watch. I helped only when I was needed, which wasn't very often.

The lesson instructor also explained to me that the next time I would be here there would be different kids. There would be two girls in the first lesson instead of Matt and Jack, and there would be three independent girls in the second. For the first hour I would be doing what I did in the first lesson, sidewalking or leading, and I would be used as "crowd control" for the second hour (her words, not mine). All I would have to do was keep an eye on the other girls if the instructor was helping one individually, and things like that. I'm okay with that though, because I think it means it will be a relatively laid back lesson (hopefully).

After the lesson was over, we headed back down to the barn, where I stood around while Karlee put away her stuff. I helped her take Fresca back to her paddock and then we were done. Before I left the barn owner came down from her house and explained some more things to me. So from now on when I come on Wednesdays I get to take the horses out and start grooming and tacking them up for the riders. She also said something about where I could find what saddles to use, but I got a little confused, so I'll have to ask her for clarification. When we were done talking I went to the barn to retrieve my envelope of five dollars and went home. I got home at around 8, so you can see why I might not be able to do this on a school night. I can't wait for next Wednesday though. As I've mentioned before, I won't be here next week so I'll be working/volunteering the week after. Hopefully it will go smoother than this week's lessons did!

Lesson 8/1/11

Sorry for not posting when I usually do. I was too lazy to do it Monday night, and I got home later than normal because my lesson has been pushed back an hour. Then on Tuesday I was at my friend's house for a sleepover, so I didn't get home till yesterday afternoon, and last night I was volunteering/working at the stable (I'll blog about that after this). So today was the day I finally decided to blog.

Of course, it rained during my lesson, because if it's going to rain, it will most likely be on a Monday. It was also thundering, so we had a barn lesson. Since my lesson's been moved back, I was with the girl I used to ride with, which I'm actually happy about. Having a private lesson's nice because I get one on one attention, but sometimes it's nice when my instructor's focused on someone else so I can do my own thing. Not that it mattered this week, since we weren't riding.

According to the list posted on the bulletin board, I would be using Captain because the other girl (Jess) was using Annie. We both got out our horses and groomed them. Then our instructor gave us some options for the barn lesson. We could do some relaxing exercises with our horses, use a small skeleton to learn more about body position and riding, or use the mini trampoline to work on riding position and stuff. I said I wanted to do the relaxing techniques, so that's what we did.

Every week when I groom, my instructor always puts her hands on certain spots on my horse and just kind of stays there for a while, and then moves on to different spot. That's what we learned to do this week. Apparently it's called Jin Shin Jyutsu, and it's used for relieving stress and tension by putting pressure on different energy points or something. I looked it up when I got home and found a bunch of articles about it (click on the link to read one), and apparently you can use it on yourself as well as horses and other animals.

I can't remember exactly where the spots were that we put our hands on our horse, but we did two spots on the neck, two on the stomach/back area, and I think just one near our horse's tail (along their spine). Basically our instructor showed us where to put our hands, and we did the same on our horse. All we had to do was place our hands using a minimal amount of pressure and take deep breaths. The goal was to get our horse to give a release or show signs of relaxation such as lowering their neck, licking and chewing, or snorting (it's kind of like a deep breath, I guess). Some spots were very relaxing for Captain, like the ones on his neck. He never really licked and chewed, but he did snort often and at one point had his neck below the horizontal line of his back (a very good thing!). We did each hand placement on both sides of our horse.

I've got to say, these exercises were not only relaxing for Captain, but for me as well. I know that for me, I often have trouble keeping my shoulders and elbows back and heavy when I'm riding, so as the lesson went on, I could feel my shoulders and elbows lowering and getting heavier. By the end of the lesson, I felt very grounded. I wish I could have ridden after that, because I feel like it would have made a major difference in my body position. It was also nice to just have an hour of peace and quiet, just me and Captain. So about halfway through the lesson when my instructor asked me and Jess if we wanted to continue with the Jin Shin Jyutsu, I said I did.

So after that, we did some more relaxing techniques, but they were a little different. I don't even think they were actually Jin Shin Jyutsu. My instructor mentioned some centered riding lady named Peggy something who used techniques that were kind of like the ones we used earlier, but different. It might have been Peggy Cummings, but I'm not sure. We did this thing called the 'wither rock' (I think it was called that), where we put our hands on our horse's withers (right about where the mane stops) and gently rocked our horse from side to side. It didn't have to be a huge difference, we just had to use enough pressure to change the weight in our horse's legs. We also couldn't just use our arms, we had to do it from our center (the whole point of all this stuff) by shifting our whole body. We did this kind of rocking farther back on our horse's too.

After those, we learned another technique that involved using the backs of our fingers on one hand and gently pressing them into a couple different spots along our horse. We had to push into our horse for five seconds, and release for ten seconds. The farther back I did these on Captain, the more he relaxed. When I did the pressure thing near his butt he even started licking and chewing a little. The last thing we did was something called the 'Caterpillar'. We had to cup one of our hands into a C shape and by using the side opposite our thumb we applied pressure on our horse - just enough to move the skin up a little. We did this all down our horse's neck on both sides, which is why it's called the Caterpillar - you inch your hand down their neck. I think Captain really enjoyed this one. He lowered his neck so far I had to lean down a little do it.

That was the last of the techniques. I really liked this barn lesson, because it was fun to really connect with Captain and learn something a little different than what we would normally learn. I hope you guys reading understood at least a little of this. I'm not even sure I know what I'm talking about. Oh well. If you didn't understand, than I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway! I won't be blogging next week because I'll be up in New York for vacation where I won't have Internet (that and I won't be having a lesson, obviously). You can read the week after when I blog about that lesson.

Camp Day 5

[Sorry about the huge space after the pictures - I couldn't get rid of it!] Today was the last day of camp. I'm both happy about it and sad about it. On the bright side I won't have to wake up early, pack my lunch, or be in the sun all day, but I also won't get to ride as much, swim in a pool, or be around everyone at the barn anymore. I'm definitely planning on coming back for next year's camp though.

Annie was barely grumpy at all today. She wasn't kicking or biting or screeching or anything! I was so happy about that. Annie is much more pleasant to work with when she isn't cranky. We again started out riding today with a game. Each of us got an ice cube that we had to hold. Then the barn owner would tell us to do something, like a walk or trot or canter, and we had to do all that with the ice cube in our hand. Some people were eliminated when their ice cube melted completely, but most of us (including me) had an ice cube until the very end, at which point we ate them.

Then all the riders got in a line and we took turns doing different jumps (they were all low ones so that everyone could jump them). If you look in the picture of me riding at the top you can see part of a jump in the corner. That was the height of our jumps, if you can imagine another rail crossing the other way. Like I said, they were low enough so everyone could jump them - even me! This time when I tried to jump Annie didn't shy away from them. But she kept kind of stopping in front of them and then trotting over them. I did some good jumps over poles, but most of them were just okay. I'm still a little confused about what a half seat is, which is what we sometimes used to go over jumps, so I'll have to ask about it in my next lesson. Luckily we mostly had to jump them while posting, which was a little more clear to me. I'm just glad I made some progress by getting Annie to actually go over the jumps. I will work more on me and my body position later, hopefully at future lessons.

After jumping we got to switch around to any horses we wanted to ride to experiment with them a little, and after that we went on a little trail ride, which I think Annie enjoyed because she managed to sneak in a few leafy snacks along the way. The trail ride was a nice little cool down, both for me and I think for Annie.

When we were done feeding the horse's and eating our lunch, we headed up to the garage to get started on the posters for our contest. But before I explain that, I'd like to explain my group's costume. As you can see, I posted some pictures of our horse, Lionel, who we painted. Notice the scuba mask on his head, the oxygen tanks on his back, and the floaties around his front legs. We also put a lei around his neck. I painted all the seaweed that is running up Lionel's legs, while the other people in my group worked on the fish and the blue-green water (the fish are kind of funny, I know). I think it turned out really good! My group and I were all dressed up in bathing suits, towels, flip flops, and goggles to match Lionel. When we were all ready the barn owner took us outside and took pictures of us as a group and with Lionel. Later she printed some of the pictures out and gave them to us, which is how I got these.

So about the posters: Today each group got to make one of those tri-fold posters to promote our costumes. One of the people in my group had to leave early to take her horse back to her barn, so it was just me and one other girl. The day before she had made these cool paper bubble letters, alternating blue and green, and she made squiggly lines for sand and seaweed. She also cut out cute orange fish that looked like Goldfish. We glued those on and a ton of pictures showing different aspects of our costume, Lionel, and us. I think it looked really nice when it was done. Maybe I can take a picture of it sometime - it's standing in the barn right now. Everyone else kept saying that we would definitely win. But we won't find out until the October Fun Show. I'll probably forget about it by then!

So overall I though this was probably the best day at camp, even though painting Lionel was really fun. I'll definitely miss seeing all the campers and talking to other horsey people. I already can't wait to come back next year! Oh, and I'll let you know in October which group won. :)

Camp Day 4

Before I start, I'd like to answer a comment that was posted on a previous post asking, "What is a fly bonnet?" I tried to comment and answer back, but for some reason Blogger wouldn't let me, so I'll answer it here. A fly bonnet is used to keep flies out of a horse's ears. I posted a picture so you can see. They're really cute! And my barn has a lot of different colors to choose from. For camp I've been using a dark green one with light green ears.

Annie was way grumpier today than she's been any other day, if that's possible. In the barn, anyway. She wasn't too bad in the ring, except she kicked a horse that was too close to her butt (not too hard though, luckily!). And she only made her angry moaning noise once (which someone said sounded like a seal, which it does). Anyway, grooming was a whole different story. She kept moving away from one wall until she was backed up against the other, making it hard for me to groom her. She also kept bringing her legs up and threatening to kick me and bite me. Needless to say, I was one of the last people to go up to the ring. Which is actually okay with me because I'd rather just take my time.

We started out riding today by playing a game. We again split into our Red and Green Teams, and we again had two bucket on either side of the ring. This time there was a full bucket of water on one barrel and an empty one on the other. We had to take turns filling a cup with water and taking it over to the other side of the ring to dump it in the other bucket. Whoever had the most water in the other bucket when we were done won. My team won again. :) We got to take a victory lap around the ring, which Annie ruined by turning to the middle of the ring again. She really does not like those corners.

After that game we split into groups of three, and each group got a different puzzle. We had to know what pieces were on our puzzle, and then the barn owner mixed up the pieces and put them in different places around the ring. Once she said we could, we split up to find the puzzle pieces. Whichever team had all their pieces back in the puzzle won. Again, my team won! So I got to take another victory lap around the ring, which Annie didn't mess up this time.

The third thing we did wasn't really a game, it was more of a competition. Each team (the same groups of three as the puzzle game) had to stand side by side. Each person on the end got a long piece of a streamer (you know, that roll of tissue paper used at parties? I wasn't sure what to call it...), and the person sandwiched in the middle had to hold the ends of each streamer. Then we had to walk, side by side, around the ring. Whichever team held on to their streamers without breaking them the longest one. Surprise surprise, my team won again! After another victory lap, the others teams took one too, just for fun.

When the other teams were done their victory laps we got to work on jumping some more. Me and one other girl were pulled into the small ring to get some closer instruction with the barn owner. After a couple tries I got Annie to go over some crossrails (the lowest they could go, of course!) and we worked with that for a little bit. Then we headed down to untack, feed the horses, change, and eat lunch. I take so long untacking Annie that by the time I'm done the feeding is pretty much done also.

After lunch was the most anticipated part of today, at least for me. I told you a little about the costume contest before, but today was the day we actually painted our horses and dressed up. Hopefully I will get pictures to show you later, so I won't have to describe it to you. Basically, we painted our horse, got in our outfits, and posed for some pictures. The barn owner took pictures of all the aspects of our design as well, because I think later we might be posting them on a poster board or something.

After our pictures, we are supposed to give our horses a bath to get the paint off, but apparently the horse we picked doesn't like baths, so when one of the people in my group took him to the outside wash stall and started spraying him, he broke one of the cross ties and preceded to gallop up to the house. The girl spraying him actually did manage to get a lot of the paint off Lionel's (our horse's name) one side before he broke loose. I tried to help but most of the time I stayed clear of Lionel (our horse's name) so I wouldn't get run over. When the girl caught Lionel and brought him back, he ran away again before we could tie him up, pulling the lead rope out of the girl's hands in the process. It wasn't her fault, Lionel was just being a pain. Lionel ended up heading towards the driveway that leads out to the highway, but all three of the people in my group ran and blocked him from running that way. When Lionel was caught, they tried a different approach - they put him in the inside wash stall, and closed the barn doors. That got the job done, though when he was put back in his paddock (with some blue paint still on him) he promptly rolled in the dirt, so he is now muddy and blue. That was an entertaining thing to watch!

That pretty much ended our day. We spent about an hour at the neighbor's pool, then hung out in the barn until it was time to leave. I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow, but I hope I get to work on jumping again with Annie. Maybe this time I can prevent her from swerving as much as she did today.

Camp Day 3

Today's weather was just as nice as it was yesterday, if not better. There was a nice breeze and it was cool in the shade. In the circle today we shared who was the first horse we've ever ridden. For me, it was a horse named Sargent (I'm not sure how to spell that). All I remember about him is that he walked really weird. It was funny to hear reactions when people were remembering the horses that had come and gone.

Today for riding we worked on jumping (yay!). While other girls had to switch their horses for ones that could jump, I was glad because I didn't have to switch from Annie. I'd never jumped before, so I was a little apprehensive, but only because I knew almost everyone else had. Luckily for me, after our warm up the barn owner just kind of went over everything again to remind everyone. We started by walking and trotting our horses over some poles. Then we did that in two-point, and we practiced doing a sort of half-seat, where it was half posting half two-point. It was kind of strange to me. I still don't think I really understand it. Anyway, then the barn owner set up the smallest jump you could have, and we all trotted over that. The first time I tried Annie swerved around it. The second she stopped right in front of it. The third time I got her to go over it, and most other times after that I could too. This was pretty much the extent of my jumping today, if you could call it that. All Annie really had to do was hop over it. Not even. Most of the time she stumbled over it, making me lose my balance. I guess it's a start, anyway!

After a while of taking turns going over poles, we sort of separated into two groups - the people who wanted to jump higher, and the ones who didn't/couldn't (me). My group and I watched the others jump for a while. It was definitely cool watching them, though the jumps weren't raised very high. It was cool because the horse would trot up to the first jump, jump it, and canter out of it and over the second jump. Eventually I started to try to get Annie to go over the smallest jumps and poles over on the other side of the ring again, but she insisted on swerving and was being very difficult. I talked with the barn owner and she helped me get Annie to go over them a couple times. I don't think I did them very well, but I guess it's good just to get used to the rhythm of a horse going over some poles. Hopefully I can talk to my instructor at my next lesson and we can discuss jumping a little more.

After jumping we got to canter. All the riders got in a line and we took turns cantering around the ring. Normally Annie's pretty good about cantering, but today she refused to go into the far end of the ring, so when it was my turn and she swerved into the middle of the ring, the barn owner had me do it again until I got Annie to go into the corners. It was not an easy task and it took me a bunch of tries, and by that point I was getting really annoyed at Annie for being difficult, which I shouldn't have been, because it was partly my fault. I think I got her to do it once before we stopped. After that I was ready to go down to the barn, which is what we did.I untacked Annie and washed her back legs as I was instructed by the barn owner. Because that took me a little longer than normal, I changed and went right up to the porch for lunch.

Yesterday the barn owner told us we would be having a contest, like they did every year. It's basically a costume contest - you and your group have to pick a theme, and you get to dress up and paint your horse. My group picked an Underwater/Scuba Diving theme. I'll explain our idea in more depth later, when we actually have the contest. So after lunch, my group and I talked about what materials we needed, and then we headed down to the garage to do our craft, which was decorating memory books and sun visors. The memory books have pages so you can write what you did each day of camp.

Once we were all finished our craft, we got changed and headed over to the neighbor's pool again. This times we stayed until about 3:15, at which point we headed back to the barn to do some horse grooming type things. We watched the barn owner give Tuffy, who has an infection, a shot, and I was taught how to pull a mane. Pulling a mane is what it sounds like - you pull out hairs to make it thinner and shorter. All you have to do is seperate out a couple of hairs, wrap them around a comb, and yank. It sounds painful, but most horses don't mind it too much. I got to do it on Tuffy, whose thick, coarse mane looked much better afterwards. I'm glad I learned how to do it - it's often done on horses and I thought it would be a good thing to learn.

I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow. Again, I hope we do bareback riding (which I'm starting to think we'll never do), and if not that I would like to try jumping again. I'm also hoping the weather stays nice and breezy!

Camp Day 2

Today was based around the same structure as yesterday. When we were gathered in a circle in the garage, we were all given a designated place in the barn to groom and tack up, which we would be in for the rest of the week. I got to go in the inside wash stall, which is near the front of the barn and set back from the main aisle. I got this because of Annie's sensitivity near hear butt, but I was happy too because it's a little bit away from the chaos of the rest of the barn. We also shared what would be our dream vacation with horses. I said mine would be to go trail riding in the mountains. I think that would be really fun. After that we groomed, tacked up, and got on our horses in the ring.

Today was a fun day for riding. It wasn't as hot and humid as yesterday either, and it felt pretty nice in the shade. Even Annie wasn't too cranky. After warming up, we did some relays. We split into a Green Team and a Red Team (I was on Green) and we went over the rules for the first relay. Both teams had two white barrels at each end of the ring. We had a bucket, a glue stick, and a list of horse related items on the first barrel, and a horse magazine on the other. We had to trot (or walk or canter, it didn't matter) over some poles until we got to the barrel at that end of the ring, dismount, and flip through the magazine until we found the picture of an item on the list. Then we had to rip out the picture and walk our horses back to our teammates, where we had to get back on our horse. The next person after you couldn't go until you were back on your horse. Once we had pictures of all the items on our list inside our bucket, we had to glue them all onto a piece of paper. The first team to glue on all the items won. My team ended up winning too! It took a while, and it was hard to find some pictures in the magazine, but it was definitely a lot of fun (even though Annie was pretty annoyed at me for getting on and off of her so many times).

The second relay went a lot faster. There were two lines of poles set up, one for each team, with a small cup on the first one. We had to line up single file with our teammates, and move at a trot along one side of the poles. The first person had to move the cup from the first pole to the second, the second person had to move the cup from the second pole to the third, and so on. If you got the cup to the last pole without dropping it or skipping a person, you won. But if you dropped it, you had to get off your horse to pick up the cup, get back on your horse, get back in line, and start the whole thing over again. If a person missed getting the cup, the whole line had to loop around and continue from where they left off. I'm not really sure we even had a winner for this relay. We ended up practicing it so many times that we didn't really compete against the other team. That's okay though, because it was so fun to do and really funny if someone dropped the cup. Luckily I had thought to bring my water bottle up today, so I took some breaks to just sit and drink.

After the relays, we got to do some cantering. We took turns though, so one group stayed in what used to be the small ring while the other got to be in what used to be the big ring. I attempted to get Annie to do a right lead canter, but we only got it once. It's better than nothing, I guess! It was really fun to just fly around that ring though, without too many people getting in the way.

This time when we went down to untack I wasn't too tired or dehydrated. I got Annie back to her paddock with no major problems, and then we went up to eat lunch. After that we went back to the garage to finish up our jewelry boxes. I ended up putting a lighter green trim around the edges of my box. After hanging out for a while, we got to go over to the neighbor's pool that we were going to go to yesterday. I didn't feel like swimming, because it actually wasn't that hot out, so I sat with some other girls on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water. It was a nice time to just sit and talk in the shade. We left a little early to go back to the barn, where we could either color in the garage or watch someone free lunge the horse Janie. I chose to color for an hour. That pretty much ended my day. I would say today was much more enjoyable because I was more comfortable, and it wasn't as hot. I'm hoping tomorrow we get to ride bareback because it's super fun. I should have time to blog about camp tomorrow, so check back here then!

Lesson 7/26/11

About a month ago, when we were deciding on whether or not I wanted to have a lesson on the same day I would be at camp, my answer had been "Duh!" But as my lesson approached, all I could think was "What was I thinking??" I was really tired from camp and I was running out of water. But I still did want to have my lesson, even though I was already beat. But I can't say the lesson started out too good. When I went to get Annie in her shed, I got stung by two wasps, and once I got Annie on the crossties in the barn, she was even grumpier than she was earlier that day. I guess by that point she was sick of being ridden and wanted a longer break. Also, I kept messing things up that I normally don't, like putting on the girth backwards. My mind was kind of somewhere else then.

Anyway, once I got up to the ring with no more major issues, I got on Annie and we started our warm-up. We talked about half halts again and I practiced those, and then I did some figure-eights at the trot. After that I told my instructor I wanted to work on getting Annie to do a right lead canter, which we worked at for a while, and which I eventually got (yay!) Then I worked on turning from my seat, so I had to loosen my reins all the way and try to get Annie to turn without using them. That was not easy, and I found out my seat bones don't stay balanced when I try to turn from my seat. I was told I should practice from a chair to help me get the feel of it, which I will try to remember to do.

I guess I was pretty glad when the lesson was over. It's not that I didn't enjoy it or anything, it's just that I was tired of using my seat to turn, mentally and physically. I'm hoping next week I will be more focused and energetic at my lesson, which I should be. Right then I just needed to go home, get some water, and take an ice cold shower (which is just what I did). And thank goodness for my mom, who brought me some chocolate and a bottle of ice cold water when she picked me up. Even after my shower though, my whole legs ached and I went to bed extra early because I was so tired. It's a good thing too, because I had to get up at 8 again for another full day of camp. I will blog about my second day at camp after I finish this post, so look for that later!

Camp Day 1

Sorry I didn't get a chance to write this post before, but I didn't get home until about 6:15 yesterday, and I was extremely tired from riding and being in the sun all day. I have to say that when I woke up yesterday morning, I really did not want to go to camp. I was tired from being up early (and getting up at 7 rather than 8 because my clock was set wrong) and a little apprehensive about the day ahead. And once I stepped outside my house, I realized it was going to be really hot and humid that day (it's going to be all week though). Luckily it did rain in the afternoon, giving us a break from the humidity and sun.

After getting our name tags (there's only nine campers, including me) we went up to the barn owner's garage and sat in a circle. We went around and took turns saying our scariest horse moment and something we wanted to learn or improve on in the week. I said that I didn't have a scariest horse moment, because I haven't even been riding for that long, and that I wanted to learn how to tie a fly bonnet. Then the barn owner went over the horses we would be riding (I rode Annie) and we went to go tack up.

Annie's usually grumpy, but today she was especially grumpy. She kept making weird squealing noises when a horse got too close to her butt that freaked everyone out. It was chaos in the barn too, which didn't help, but I did learn how to tie a fly bonnet! Once we were up in the ring and on our horses, we all warmed up around the ring (which had been turned into one giant one so there would be more room). It got a little crowded at times when everyone was trying to get by jumps and barrels and poles at the same time, but once you broke away from the group there was enough room. We then worked on half-halts, which basically means you ask your horse to halt, but when they are just about to, you ask them to move forward again. This helps your horse collect itself and rebalance.

After a while we switched to pole bending. This was how it worked: We had to walk, trot or canter our horse (it didn't matter) along one side of a row of poles, turn around at the end, and then weave the poles down once and up once. Then we had to turn around again and walk, trot, or canter back to the beginning without weaving. We were also timed. I went last the first time, and I trotted the whole way except for the last straight stretch, which I cantered. I think I got around 59 seconds or something. For my second turn I half trotted, half cantered the way up (because Annie decided she wanted to canter), trotted when weaving the poles, and cantered coming back. I got about 56 seconds this time. Everyone got two turns, so it was nice to just sit in the shade and watch.

When everyone had gone twice, it was time for anyone who wanted to switch horses to switch. Someone wanted to ride Annie, so I got off, switched a couple times, and ended up with Annie again when we were done. After that we went down to the barn to untack. At this point I was dying because I had not thought to bring my water bottle, so I was desperate to hurry up and untack. Once I finally did I ended up chugging so much water my stomach hurt (I now know not to do that!). Then we had to feed the horses, which didn't take long, and after that we went up to the porch to eat lunch, which was a much needed break.

The next thing on our schedule was to go back to the garage to paint wooden jewelry boxes. I painted mine dark green, and it was fun to see everyone else's too. Some people went crazy and painted their's ten different colors, and some people went simple like I did with one solid color. We were to finish painting them the next day. About half-way through painting, it started to thunder, and then it started to pour. After painting we were planning on going swimming in the neighbor's pool, but their filter was broken so we couldn't. It was okay though, because we wouldn't have been able to swim in the thunder and rain anyway. So we decided to go into the house and watch a movie and eat popcorn. We watched this old movie called Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, and I must say I wasn't expecting to like it much, but I actually did. It was a true story, and it was pretty incredible.

When the movie was done we all decided to try vaulting, which we saw in the movie. Not when the horse was moving like in the movie, but just when the horse was standing still. So we brought two horses up, one small (Rita) and one bigger (Rosie), and left them bareback so we could practice. We tried to lift ourselves up onto a horse's back without using anything to help us, which was pretty much impossible on Rosie, so we all brought her next to a wooden platform about six inches high and we vaulted from there. That I could do (sort of). I wouldn't say it was graceful or anything, but I got up there somehow. With Rita, no one needed a platform because she was so tiny. I could get on her with no problem. It must have looked very funny to see me on such a small horse, but I definitely had a lot of fun trying out vaulting and laughing with people at our lame attempts.

By that point it was around 4:15, so when my stepdad came to pick me up I decided to just stay till my lesson at 5. So I went down and got my riding clothes and changed into them again (which was not easy to do when all my clothes were inside out and sweaty). I'll write about my lesson in a different blog post, as usual. I hope I didn't bore you guys with my ranting about my day, so congratulations if you made it this far! :)

How to Groom a Horse

This was another post requested by someone who reads my blog. Now that I think about it, I probably should have done these types of posts when I started my blog - teaching the basics and everything - but it never occurred to me. So I'm doing it now.

Grooming is something I do before every ride. It's a simple routine, that involves only four basic steps. I'm going to go through my routine, step by step, and teach you the way I was taught.

I also posted a picture of grooming tools so you can see. I'll put in parentheses where each tool is on the picture.

1. Curry Comb (top left) - This is used to bring up all the dirt and loose hair on your horse. You use it by brushing in circles on the horse's neck, back, shoulders. You shouldn't use it on the horse's face or legs because the rubber points would really hurt the horse.

2. Hard Brush (top right) - After the curry comb comes the hard brush. The name pretty much says it all. It's a brush with rough bristles and it's used to flick off the dirt and hair that you brought up with the curry comb. You use it by brushing in a flicking motion to sweep the loose hair and dirt away from the horse, always going in the direction of the horse's hair. As with the curry comb, you can't use it on the horse's legs or face.

Note: Some people like to do the curry comb and then the hard brush, one after the other, because when you're done you can clean out the brush with the curry comb and vice versa, but I like to do each separately so I can place my hand on the horse. This is what my instructor taught me to do, and I like it because I can feel my horse as I brush. That sounds weird, but I feel safer if my one hand is on my horse for some reason.

3. Soft Brush (bottom left) - After the hard brush, I use the soft brush. It's used to get the remaining hair and dirt off the horse, and it has softer bristles so you can use this on the horse's face and legs. Basically all you do is brush with long strokes all along the horse, going with the direction of the horse's hair.

4. Hoof Pick (bottom right) - This is the last step I do. Some people brush their horse's mane and tail with a comb, but I usually don't do that. A hoof pick is used to get the mud, dirt, and manure (fun stuff, I know) out of the horse's hooves. The first thing I do is stand next to my horse's leg, facing backwards towards their tail. Then I run my hand down their leg, because it lets my horse know what I'm asking them to do. If all goes well, my horse will pick up its foot for me to grab with one hand. If that doesn't work for me I will lean into my horse's shoulders, which forces them to shift their weight and pick up their hoof.

If you look at the picture below you can see that in the middle of the hoof there is a triangle shaped thing. That is called the 'frog'. Once I have my horse's hoof in my hand I take the hoof pick and start picking out dirt along the frog. You should never try to clean the frog with a hoof pick, because it's pretty sensitive and the horse probably won't like it. Then you do the same thing for each hoof. (Often when I try to pick up the back hooves on my horse they will bring it up really far to stretch it out, which can be annoying. It's also annoying when I'm picking the back hooves and my horse will swish their tail on my head - and sometimes it gets caught in my hair clips!)

That's pretty much all there is to grooming. After grooming I tack up (meaning I put on the saddle and bridle). Again, sorry if I make this confusing to everyone and I hope you learned something!