Mirror Mirror on the wall . . .who is the grouchiest girl of them all?

*Not My Photo*

We've all heard that horses reflect us, and anyone who has spent a decent amount of time with horses knows it is true. Horses can "sense" how we are feeling. Now I realize that there are scientific explanations. Horses know when we are upset because they can feel our heartbeats and read our body language, ect. ect.  But I don't really care how or why it works, it fascinates me. Being prey animals, horses are extremely sensitive to our every mood and it shows.

Sadly, this wonderful mirror thing can be a real pain. Especially if you're a wonderful person like me who gets incredibly, unreasonably grumpy when she hasn't eaten enough. Did I mention this person didn't eat breakfast, had a small lunch, and was in such a hurry to go see her beautiful horsey that she forgot to eat supper? It was a recipe for disaster. 

Most of the time I try to keep my moods cheerful and energetic. I only get four days a week with Gambler on average, so I can't afford to lose time over an emotional breakdown (almost the entire month of July). That being said, I am human and a teenaged girl so every once in a while I'm gonna have a bad day. 

 My session with Gambler wasn't so bad, nothing horrible or dangerous happened. I just wasn't feeling it (translation: Jenna was so grumpy not even Gambler wanted to be near her) so of course, Gamby wasn't either. That being said he was very good. He popped into the trot with a pointed finger and two clucks. The canter is still a little rough around the edges, but he cantered on cue as well. I tried some liberty work, but when you're grumpy and your horse knows you're grumpy, he isn't gonna want to hang out with you. 

So we called it a day, fed the horses, went home, and sat around a bonfire with hot dogs and chai tea. It's a weird combination, but surprisingly it works. 

grooming while ground-tied

eye close up

artsy pic

So adorable!

Playing with a jump.

And the other way.

It's a pity this picture is blurry, because it's really cool.

A moment of liberty before Gambley decided to keep his distance.

Taking off . . .

. . . landing . . .

. . . and tossing his head 'cause that was so fun!

Hey Jenna, did you want me to do something?

Oh look, it's Kezi!

A Funny Thing

Do you remember the highlight of my summer? I mentioned it in my very first post and then uploaded video proof a few days later. I was so excited. I could hardly believe that after only a few months my horse would circle at liberty.

After that I started playing games with him, making our time together fun and challenging so that we both enjoyed ourselves. Do you remember that? Do you remember the stick-to-me game that Gambler would play with me at liberty?

If you remember then you're ahead of me. Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with me. I know that owning a horse is all about the relationship and that if I ever want to do amazing things with Gambler I have to form that bond of trust with him. But time and time again I get so caught up in deadlines and comparing myself to everyone else that I miss what is right in front of me: my horse. My dream-come-true.

Today, when I go out to see Gambler, my goal isn't to work on getting him ready to be ridden, or to set the whole riding thing aside to goof off, but to play the games that horses play with each other and remind us both of the bond of trust that we once had.

It Is Such A Beautiful Day!!

This morning I woke up to a freezing house. Fall weather is setting in and the windows were left open last night, so the house was quite chilly. A crisp wind was blowing and I figured it would be just as cold when I got out to the barn. Preparing for the worst I wore jeans and leggings underneath the jeans and the warmest shirt in my wardrobe. Yeah, no, it was super hot out at the barn. I guess that's just my luck. :P

Gambler was such a little gentleman today. Remembering how he was when I got him, I can't help being amazed at all the little things he does. Before, I couldn't even groom Gambler in the cross-ties without him walking forward and freaking out. Now I can leave him in the cross-ties to get something or take pictures. It's the little things that really encourage me.

Gamby also stood to let me put the saddle on today. He didn't stand perfectly still, especially when I was tightening the cinch, but it's an improvement. The first time I tried to saddle him western without someone else holding him he spent thirty minutes trying to walk away.

Putting on the bell boots

Standing so nicely!

Of course, he has to bite something,

Still standing!

Once he had the saddle on he just wanted to go, go, go! I have no problem with letting him canter (I warmed him up before I put on the saddle), but I don't want him to get into the habit of running through my cues. We found a happy medium. I let him canter a few laps (only after I gave him the cue to canter) and then made him walk one or two calm, slow laps. Switch directions and repeat. The good news is that today we didn't have any legitimate bucking. He has a tendency of "jumping" into the canter, but he didn't once put his head between his front legs and buck. Of course, luck would have it that I don't have any pictures of him cantering, just walking and trotting nicely. 

After he calmed down and seemed to accept the saddle I took it off and then we played with circles again, just so that he understood that cantering non-stop wasn't the way we are going to do things from now on. He was much calmer after I took the saddle off. Someday he will realize that the saddle perfectly safe. 

Then to cool him off we played a little of the catching me game.

Finally we finished up horse chores. It was an absolutely beautiful day so my mom and I got some wonderful pictures. 

Gambler the Mighty Stallion

I'm really sorry to say that my brother got many, many more videos, but somewhere between his camera and my computer they were destroyed so that you can only hear the audio, without visual. I made the rookie mistake of deleting the originals. I'm really, really bummed about it. The quality was way better on them thanks to my brother who took all my photos and videos. Gambler and I had a very eventful day and thankfully my bro was there to catch every minute of it. Of course, now I don't have much to show for it. At least the two videos taken on a different camera will work.

In the first video that was destroyed, I let Gambler off of the line to go play with the ball. In the clip it is pretty easy to see why I prefer to do that offline. Gambler was even more enthusiastic than usual. It was like watching a little boy play soldier. My little gelding was pretending to be a big bad stallion. I was very proud of him in the end. He cantered away from the "big bad enemy stallion" and then trotted back to the ball to reengage. However, when I asked him to stop and pay attention to me instead, he promptly went from "wild stallion" to loyal friend in a matter of seconds. 

We played a lot with tarps and going through tight spaces, but those videos were lost as well.

Gambler and I played two of the same games we played yesterday: stick to me and catching me.

Stick to me is the game where I ask Gambler to walk beside me and trot, turn, stop, and back up when I say so. Today I really emphasized yielding the forequarters and the hindquarters.

Catching me is the game where I let Gambler loose and play the stay with me game with him until he wanders off. When his butt is to me I add pressure, but when he turns to face me I back off. In the end I found that disengaging his hindquarters work really well to bring him to me.

These are the only two videos I have. I'm really, really disappointed. Not so much because I can't show you, but because now those moments are lost. That and my brother put a lot of effort into them. Oh well, I've learned my lesson!

Troublemaker at Liberty

Gambler and I didn't do much liberty-wise today. We did however do a lot of liberty prep work. I got a few videos, but again, they aren't the best quality. I'm a perfectionist, so it is killing me. I have to convince my brother to be my photographer. It just isn't the same without zooming in and out. Plus when you don't have someone to turn the camera to face you all the best parts happen off camera. 

The first video I have is of Gambler in his new bell boots. I've decided that they fit him, since he can walk and trot in them without slipping or tripping and so far they aren't rubbing him anywhere. Gambler on the other hand, is still kinda convinced that they are going to eat him. He wasn't doing a full-blown Spanish walk like the other day (when we didn't have a camera), but he still picks his feet up extra high. 

The second video is a game that I've heard called by many different names. Basically it is just practicing leading etiquette. I hold the lead rope in the hand farthest away from Gambler and hold the stick and string in the hand closest to him. Then using my body, voice, and the stick and string I ask Gambler to walk, trot, stop, back up, and turn when I do. Today was the first time I ever asked him to trot so he takes a while to pick it up and I reward him immediately after. Later I will expect him to respond faster and trot for longer periods of time. 

The third video is about troubleshooting. No horse and rider team is perfect. Gambler and I have just as many issues as anyone else. Gambler has this one corner where he gets stuck and doesn't want to move forward in the circle. He just backs up when I cue him to go forward. In the video you can see him stop and back up when I ask him to go forward. I shorten the line and continue to add pressure until he moves in the direction I am asking him to go. NOTICE: I do not once hit my horse with the stick and string, you can hear it hitting the ground. Once he moves forward I change my body position so that I am walking beside him in a smaller circle. This gives me more driving force so that he can't stop and back up again. After he has walked several circles without getting stuck in that corner, I bring him in and reward him. You can see him lower his head for an ear scratch in the end, showing that he is submissive and calm.

So the best parts that I mentioned earlier did not make it into the videos. After practicing the game seen in my second video I took the lead off of Gambler and played another game. This game is usually called catching me. I started off playing the leading game without a rope until Gambler decided to walk away. I let him walk away and drove him away from me. I didn't ask him to go faster than a walk or trot, just to move away from me. The rules of the game are as follows: if Gambler is facing away from me he has to keep moving, but if he faces me he can stop or come to me for an ear rub and a rousing "Good boy!" He came to me and left me and came to me again, but by the third time he was starting to get it. I thought that was a good place to stop. That game required me to move around a lot and it was a very hot, sweaty day.