1 Day-2 Posts (Part 1)

Yes, I am a lazy blogger who didn't post an update on Thursday like I should have. In my defense, I've been trying to get to bed early which reduces the amount of free time I have in the afternoons. Today I will make up for my lack of content by posting two updates. Right now I'm going to fill everyone in on Thursday, then I'm going out to see Gambler and I'll post again sometime this afternoon.

On Thursday Kezi was still in heat and Gambley was still being a hyper-energetic dork, so I decided to continue channeling his energy into jumping and trot poles. He did a much better job of trotting over the trot poles instead of jumping them.

After Gambler started to slow down, lower his head, and pick up his feet, I added the small cross rail that he jumped last time I was playing with him. He mostly trotted over it (my horse is so confused), but partially jumped it a couple of times. 

He really didn't want to jump over the jump because it was so small, so I used the buckets to make a vertical. It worked pretty well, except the pole kept falling off  the buckets if the wind blew too hard or he brushed them at all. Here is a video of him knocking over the vertical.

 Since the buckets weren't working so well, I set up a much bigger cross rail with two barrels. Gambler had no problem with this jump. Here is a video of the barrel cross rail. 

To finish off the day, I did a little of the circling game and discovered that if I give the right cues, Gambler has an adorable slow trot. I can't wait to ride it! Here is a quick video. 

Frisky Pony

Kezi is definitely in heat again, and both horses were feeling frisky today. I went out to get Gambler and they both ran away from me bucking and rearing. Then Gambler proceeded to chase Kezi all over the pasture. At this point, I knew that I was not going to get them into the barn without grain, so I brought one of their buckets outside and shook it. That got their attention! Both of them took off cantering/galloping (I wasn't looking very closely) toward the barn.

What's that? You want us to come in?

Maybe some other time.

As you can see, we're a tad busy racing around like madhorses.

Trotting over to check out the dog.

Once they finally made their way into the barn, I left my brother to take pictures while I set up in the arena. He got some really great pics!

He just loves dogs.

When I was done setting up, I brought Gambler out to the arena.

My plan for the day was to work on the acceptance of the saddle, since he was pretty upset last time I saddled him up. However, he was really uppity from running about in the pasture, so I started out by trotting him over some poles. The little stud muffin proceeded to jump the poles instead of trot over them. 

There was one point where he spooked at something scary that I didn't see and jumped two ground poles. My brother caught it on video. If you pause while he's jumping, it's absolutely beautiful. Thankfully, that was the only spook today and he snapped out of it very quickly. 

There were a few moments when he really understood the trot pole concept and showed some great knee action.

 

Since he was jumping everything that I didn't expect him to jump, I decided to try a few little jumps. First I longed him over an itsy, bitsy cross rail and then I made it a little bigger using buckets for jump standards. The barn owner has wonderful jump standards, but they are hard to use when you are longeing because the rope gets tangled with the standard. Here is a video of the itsy, bitsy cross rail.

This is the bigger jump.

To finish the day, I let my brother longe Gambler. I was very impressed with both of them, since it was only their third time working together. My brother longed him at the trot for the first time and they both did great. 

Sick Day

The title says all. I woke up this morning with a sore throat. I would have stayed home from school, but today was my Gambler day. My family has a rule: "if you are too sick for school you are too sick for anything you want to do." I can't let the horse down just because I'm feeling a little under the weather. So I braved the school day.

When I got out to the barn I set up the arena. Then I went through the tricky task of getting Gambler into the arena without letting Kezi out of the pasture. It's actually not as hard as I thought it was going to be. Although the arena connects directly to the pasture, I usually lead Gambler through the barn to get to the arena so he doesn't every try to run through the fence back into the pasture (he has done this before). So I led Gambler up to the door of the barn and used the rope to chase Kezi just a few feet away. While she was walking away, I tossed the rope over Gambler's neck and let him into the barn. He of course made a beeline for the grain bucket (which to his dismay was empty) in his stall. Ta da! One horse in, one horse out.

Once I had him out in the arena, I groomed him and put his bell boots on. Then we started our warm up. Gambler was a little edgy because of the wind, so he did canter earlier than I usually let him. I quickly brought him back to a walk. Today he responded so well. He was trotting on nothing but the voice cue. But then I noticed something was off. Literally, Gambler was a little bit sore. It was so slight that I thought maybe I was imagining it. So I took the boots off and felt down his legs. Nothing was hot or swollen. I picked out his hooves (I probably should have done that first), but there wasn't anything in them. Mom and I agreed that he was off, but it was really slight. So far, nothing to worry about. Obviously, I didn't do anything more with him today. I guess we are both feeling icky today!

Since I had some extra time, I decided to decorate the jump poles. The barn owner mentioned a while back that I should get some duct tape and tape the jump poles. I've had the duct tape in my vehicle for a while, but I've never found the time to do it. After decorating two poles, I stopped to take advantage of the light and take some awesome pictures.

Picking out his feet.

Apparently Gambley "parks" when you scratch his itchy spot.

I love the layers of color in this picture. This is the road that runs beside the arena.

I got him in the middle of a head-shake.

He's pretending to ignore me, but do you see those perky ears?

Behold: The Horse-Eating Trees!

Another head shake.

The jump poles.

It looks really nice for being duct tape.

Summer's End

This summer has been very eventful for Gambler and I. We have come very far together. The whole experience has been wonderful. Our journey is not even close to over, but sadly, this summer is.

Two days ago I started my senior year of high school. It is so strange to be a senior; I still feel like a sophomore. School has it's pros and cons like everything else in life. I really want to enjoy this year, since it is my last year of high school. However, it is hard to enjoy anything that takes time away from your passion; in my case, horses and writing. So far, it isn't too bad. I'm not taking very many classes, so there isn't a lot of homework. Some of the classes even relate directly to one of my future career paths: writing. But no matter how fun school is, I only have twelve hours of daylight and school takes up seven of them.

I still plan on riding Gambler as soon as he is ready. He has accepted the saddle and the girth. When I feel that he is comfortable and ready for a new challenge I will introduce him to my weight. Honestly, right now I would be content to just sit in the pasture with him. I haven't seen Gambley since Sunday, and I'm definitely feeling it.

Here are some pictures from our first five months together: March 2015-September 2015.

Looking Gorgeous!

Eat that tarp.

This is the first time I put the bareback pad on him.

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Tarp? Why not

One of his better jumps