Our trail to happiness !

Our trail to happiness !

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Feb 8 - April 6, winter indoor riding after our winter break!


After our winter break !


A Picture of my daughter riding her gelding coby over the winter in the indoor :)

Kizz running with his ladies the first day at Dena's 


So we haven't rode in 3 months ..

It's time to get back at it! Kizz is getting rolly Polly too! (And me! I've put 10lbs back on since we quit!)

I have our apha gelding over being boarded since Nov 8, so that my daughter can ride in the indoor. It's so cold and bad weather a lot (even though she would ride in any weather!) I get cold watching her and we don't stay long.. I decide I'll switch the horses and ride kizz for a while. By time he comes home, I can start right out on trails!


Saturday noon time comes and we switch horses. They both trailer perfectly :-)

Kizz gets there and runs a bit with his new buddy Bambi (my friends horse that was here in the fall) they get a long great. Dena - the barn owner tells me Kizz runs around and plays all afternoon!

That evening my friend Robyn says we should go ride. I figure I might as well get that first ride over with! Especially since he ran and played all day. Maybe he'll be a little more relaxed ha ha

So we meet over there around 8 and tack up the horses. We take them to the barn and I lunge kizz a bit. Walk a bit one way then a little jog. Then the other direction. He seems nice and quiet so I mount up. He is great. We walk around doing some bending and warming up. He is hesitant to walk along at a nice pace. He keeps stopping and slowing and picking up pace. He won't stay out along the wall at all. But he is well behaved. After a bit I ask him to trot and we trot around a few circles. He is good. We do the other direction and is good. He doesn't bend in the corners at all. Either from being so fat and round or because he just needs the work. Whoa is perfect. We have even rode along a wall or straight line since he was started to saddle there years ago!  Dena (barn owner) is impressed with how he's doing :-)






Ride goes great! Robyn decided to head back to the barn and when she rode out he got very upset. He started yelling and turning on me. And dancing a bit. But he didn't rear , buck or take off on me.
I do lots of turning and switching directions and keep him moving. He starts to calm a bit. Then we trot a good few circles and he is good. I whoa and he stands quietly. So I decide it's a good time to quit. I dismount and we walk back to the barn with Dena. I untack and give him some love then head home.

What a great first ride!! Can't wait to see what he's like tomorrow night. I hope to ride enough that we get some progress with him riding alone and getting a better work ethic from him. And get into shape enough to canter around!

We need to get prepared for our first  50 coming -early June!! If we are ready , it'll be great. On our at home trails! If not we can always do the 30 mile LD. But we are hoping to be ready for the 50!




Our next ride - tues night
feb 11/14

I get there with Robyn and haul the horses in and tack up , kizz seems quite hyper ! But when we get to the arena and I get on he isn't too bad.
(He stands quietly for me to mount )

We do lots of bending and walking. Then I trot some. Each direction we trot around the wall. Trying to stay along the wall and bending out in the corners. He does a little better than Sat when he inverted on the corners.

At the walk he doesn't really stay between my legs he walks all over the place and doesn't stay consistent speed. He walks slow /fast/ stops/. Even at the trot we don't get a good consistent speed.

He gets nervous when Bambi trots away from us he's scared she's going to leave us alone. He also gets a little racey when we trot and she comes up by us or passes us. But when we are walking or standing and she passes trotting he's fine.

All in all a good ride. We don't ride long it's freezing out ! We ride 30 ish minutes only. I check my tracker and we only did 1 mile! Haha! Long way to go! Rode 33 minutes only








Our 3rd ride -Monday

Alex takes me over. We meet Robyn there. I tack up and we head to the arena first alone. He acts foolish jumping around and being nervous. I just lunge him and wait for Robyn to come over. Then we ride for quite a while. After he is warmed up pretty good, I ask for a canter each direction. He's quite willing to pick it up but is fairly discombobulated both directions and racing quite bad. But we do a good circle each way.

Then I work on slowing down his jog and bending in the corners. He doesn't  keep a very good pace. We whoa and back and do some leg yielding and lateral work. My son Alex comes back and sits on the tractor and watches for a while.  After a while Robyn leaves and I stay back and ride kizz alone. He whinnies and spins around some but isn't too bad. We work through it and then when he is quiet and good we head to the barn. Alex turns off the lights for me so I ride back and dismount at the trail to the barn :-)

Good ride!! About 2 miles I figure lol
He's fairly sweaty too!


Our 4th ride - Wednesday
Feb 19/14

Robyn & I meet at the barn and tack up and head over. We ride quite a while walking and bending and such. I then trot around working on keeping a consistent pace. Bending in the corners. We work on a few more things. I realize kizz is moving better off my leg and outside rein than he ever did. That's nice! We have a great whoa and back. We canter again a circle each way. He drops it before I get a chance to ask him. I have to do to the right twice. But his left feels much smoother than last ride. We do some more trotting. Robyn rides out and I stay in riding. He acts up but only whinnies once and calms much quicker than Monday. :-) yes! We have a good ride and I feel he has progressed some! We get over 2 miles this ride! 50 minute ride.


Our 5th ride
Friday feb 21

Rode over from the barn to the arena through the snow tonight. Soooo makes me miss trails!

Walked and trot well did some bending , backing. Lateral work. We picked up both leads cantering. Kizz decided to buck all the way across the arena when I was trying to get his right side lead. I got him stopped and trot around another circle then asked again.


Right lead not so great but we got it after 3 tries. He seems pretty unbalanced. I think that might be why he started bucking I was off to one side a bit as he was racing and throwing me to the side.

I'm sure we'll get stronger soon. We both need a lot of work!  Rode out if the arena first tonight. He didn't mind at all leaving Bambi. Guess him being left behind is his worst problem.


6th ride
Sat feb 22

Another downer :-( I stupidly thought we were over these.  Maybe never ??
We have a horrible ride today :-(

Kizz was perfect during the first part of the ride with Robyn & Bambi. (Shawna rode too a bit) we walked and trotted around and got both leads one circle each. Then after Robyn decided to leave we kept riding as usual. He wasn't too bad until Robyn put Bambi out in the pasture and she yelled a few times. Then kizz started whinnying and spinning worse. They whinnied back and forth a few times. Then Bambi stopped (the other mare got turned out and she wasn't alone)

But kizz was still bad. He spun around and whinnied and through his head and trot very fast looking out the door. We rode another 30-45 minutes. He was quite sweaty! I was worried he wasn't EVER going to be quiet so I could quit !

Alex arrived and watched a while. Finally I asked Alex to get me a crop (I sometimes pop him with it when he's screaming to get his attention !) Kizz finally started quieting (as soon as I got the crop he didn't tell again. I didn't push it!! I just did one or two more circles and dismounted. Then I untacked and lead him around waiting for him to stop steaming :-(
He was bad again in hand. Yelling and ignoring where I was walking and getting in my space. :-(

I decided Kizz and I need to do some more ground work. I decided from now on I'm going to do some ground work before riding each night  !  I plan to make some obstacles  to lead him over and through next ride.

Wish me luck next ride is better! I'm thinking I'm always going to have to deal with kizz's herd bound issues so I might as well stop feeling so hurt by his reactions, keep my cool and just work through them each time. Like a friend Amanda said "it's nothing personal"!



Wed feb 26
7th ride back

Started back to boot camp last week. Feels so much better to be getting some exercise ! I'm still sore from Tuesdays work out but kizz has had Sun, mon and Tues off. It's time for me to go get over that bad ride. I always feel so down after a bad ride :-( I NEED a good ride tonight please !


My friend Amanda came over and went to the barn with me. Robyn is already there and we Walked the horses  over.

 I start out with some ground work first. We lunged. Walk,jog and canter each direction briefly. He was super quiet and good.

I ran the lunge rope all over his body. I layed it over his back all over his neck and wrapped it over each leg too. He was perfect. I whipped the lunge around my head in a circle in the air all around the front of him and at each shoulder. He didn't budge or look worried at all!! (I've never did this with him)

I treated him and then went and saddled him up. I added a training fork to his reins to see if it would encourage him to drop his head some. At first you could tell it felt strange to him (even though I had them very long. Barely engaging ) but he's very sensitive to these things normally. So I figured he would notice it for sure.

We walked around warming up doing circles. Then we trotted around and did some smaller circles in the corners (he usually lags and stops when we do smaller circles ) he did great!! He was perfect and quiet. We picked up his right lead first. He raced a bit going into it but he picked it up fine. We only did half a circle or so. Then we did the other direction - and did at least one full circle and he was a bit more steady than he's been. Maybe gaining some balance ?

We picked up both leads the first try! Great !
He is very quiet and good. When we stop he stands with his head low and relaxed too!

Robyn and Bambi leave , we walk on and do some small circles walking. He is A1. Doesn't whinny , doesn't spin around, barely even looks her direction!!! I'm so super amazed. I have no idea why but he is the best he's been EVER!! I only do a few circles and get off. Even when I'm on the ground gathering things and such, he's perfect!! We walk back the barn, untack and head home

I'm so so super surprised at how he was tonight I'm almost worried!! Is he testing me or playing games with me to make me think I'm crazy?!?

Hahaha I'm pretty sure my friend Amanda thinks I'm completely nuts since everytime she's around kizz he acts like a perfect gentlemen.


8th ride
March 1

Met Robyn at the barn tonight and tacked up the horses. Walked over to the barn and lunged kizz a bit. I was trying out a new haf pad with the strange bottom so thought I'd be safer to lunge first ;-)  he seemed fine and quiet. (He wouldn't pick up his canter either lead though. But didn't seem sore. Just seemed very lazy )

Got on and rode around. We jogged (actually jogged for real!) around quite a bit! We did some lateral work and he basically side passed for me across the arena. He's responding really well now that he knows what I want. He turned on haunches excellent too.
We worked on walking 10 steps them trotting 10 steps over and over. He started to figure out what we were doing by time we quit.

Robyn left the arena first. He half whinnied a couple times but walked around in circles quietly. He was excellent. We did a few small circles and backed up a few times. Then we rode to the barn. He was perfect !!!

We did 2 miles tonight. Surprising since we sat in the middle of the arena and watched Robyn ride most of the time lol he was super quiet. (I Didn't try to pick up a canter at all )

Rode 80 minutes.

(Was super sick so no riding for me)

March 8 9th ride (day ride )

Had a great ride! Kizz was great! Walked , bending , side passing, cantered each direction (he semi bucked one on the left lead. Have video  )




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After Robyn left we rode longer he was great when we quit. Not long at all.
Rode a little over an hour


March 10 , Monday evening
10th ride this year!

Walked and bending lots. Whoa, backing, turn on haunches , lateral work. Was really dusty so didnt do much trotting. Just a little and each lead canter. Left lead again he did a little buck. But was fine after. Kept the right lead up longer and better and got him out on the wall somewhat. Got off and walked over a mat while Robyn went to barn. He wouldn't do his back feet for quite a while but finally did. :-) was nervous of the lunge whip. :-S
Good ride. At least an hour ride.

Friday March 15
Rode kizz around lots of walking bending. Did some bending in around pylons

We trotted around and over a pipe a few times he did great!

March 21 & 24
Good rides

Rode a few times a week for the last few weeks, had a great time riding with my friend Robyn!

Brought kizz home April 6
snow is HANGING ON  in the fields.. ..... who knows when we will get out on trails :(

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