A Big Night for Tari

Tonight I headed out the the barn at 630PM to attempt to ride. At first I thought I was crazy because it was already dark. There is one street light that casts enough light over one corner of the ring that makes riding visable, but thats about it.

The rest of the ring is pretty dark and only lit by moonlight, and there are shadows of the jumps, barrels and poles all over the place.

I got Tari out, and tied her to the trailer and she whinnied to her pasture mates, only once though. Probably because they didn't respond.

I got her out and walked her around the lit end of the ring in big weaving circles.

My goal for the last few weeks have been to get her to stop pulling on my hands which she is better about and to stop sticking her shoulder out when I ask her to turn or bend while we are walking/trotting.

While I'm warming her up I do lots of figure 8 serpentine like things using my legs and trying to "neck rein" her around. I really want her moving off my leg, but I first ask with my leg, then that side rein, then I 'pull' her around if she still hasn't gotten it. She has gotten VERY good about moving over when I put my leg on her. Tonight I barely had to pick up the direct rein to get her turning as sharp as I wanted.

After I warmed her up, I trotted her in big circles trying to get her to bend on a left circle. She doesn't really like going to the left, she is better to the right. After I trotted her in circles and she was bending really well I decided I'd go see what she thought of the dark scary side of the ring. She didn't care. I walked her a few times around the ring and she didn't care about the shadows and she didn't think the jumps stands and ground poles had suddenly appeared to come eat her. Sundance would NOT have been good to ride in the dark tonight.

Another small, less important goal at the moment is getting her to lope. She gets real lazy and stops when she feels like it. The best thing about her loping is that she does usually pick up the correct lead as long as I use my legs. (YAY!) So since she wasn't afraid of the dark end, I decided to try and lope her around the ring. And I did. She did great. She went two WHOLE times around the ring in both directions without stopping. She was pooped when she got done, but she did it!

And finally, the last 'great accomplishment' of the night was that I felt for the first time like she's starting to 'get' the pattern. I've been walking her to the barrel stopping and backing since I got her going good under saddle about a month ago. And another gripe I've had with her is that I get so frustrated that she doesn't walk straight to anything, she zig zags. BUT, tonight, she stopped on her own at all the barrels. She was super light and easy to turn around the barrels and after I got her pointed to the next barrel, she walked straight to her pocket like she KNEW she was going there! WOOHOO!

I was so very very pleased with her tonight. I feel like we are accomplishing big things each and every time we ride now. Its starting to click in her head.

Have I said how much I love this mare?

Ring work yesterday, Trail Riding today

Yesterday I rode Tari in the ring. I have been trying to use very little of my hands with her, but she has started this pulling thing. I won't even put any pressure on the reins at all and she will just stick her nose out and start playing with the bit, the reins, everything. Its slightly aggravating. So, when she does that, I'll get the reins out of her mouth, wiggle her around until she isn't pulling on me, and then let her be again. She lasts all of about 2 minutes before she's back to doing the same thing.

I think she is the type of horse that constantly needs to be busy. She wants to do something all the time.

Also, we do lots of walking zigzags all over the ring. I really like a horse that moves very well off of your leg, and I think its a great thing to teach at such a young age. So, when I'm warming her up and cooling her down, we will walk all over the ring turning in circles, moving off the rail, on the rail, away from objects, up to objects, stopping, backing up, turning 1/4 turn and walking off. She is getting very good at it, but once she gets bored of it, she decides that my legs no longer mean turn, they mean go faster. What a toddler!

After I got off of her I unsaddled her and went to put her back in the pasture. She just moved into a new pasture that was just fenced - and hasn't ever had horses on it. Well, I think the BO underestimated the muddiness of snow and rain, because right in front of the gate to the pasture is about a 20x20 plot of mud that this princess didn't think she had to go through. She didn't want to go back in the pasture because she would have to step in the mud! What a Diva. So, we went round and round and I finally got her back in the pasture after several attempts on her part to swing her butt into me and the gate.

Today was such a beautiful day I couldn't let it go to waste. It is only February after all and who knows how long this wonderful weather is going to stick around. So, I went out to the barn, rode my gelding English, gave him a bath and then my friend Sandy came out and we went on a trail ride. Tari is such a good girl on the trail. She isn't afraid of much of anything. We walked through a big open field and we had to have constant discussions about no you can't eat, and just because you can't eat doesn't mean you can trot all the way across the field. So, as we were walking through the field the first time, she is trying to eat and trot. Then, we get to the end where we turn around, but there is this plastic bag, that Sandy's horse Bettis isn't too keen on. Tari doesn't even notice it, but she does, she realizes she wants to know whats in it. She never once hesitated to go up to it, and once she got to it, she stuck her face right in it! Mind you, this horse hasn't ever seen a plastic bag just a blowin in the wind.

So after she investigated the bag and told Big Bad Bettis that it wasn't as scary as he thought, we turn around to head back across the pasture and back to the barn. So, this time through the pasture we do trot across it. And Tari is just happy as a pig in mud to get to trot through the pasture. Shes got such a smooth trot.

We get back to the barn, untack, and get back in our pasture (this time, no issue with the mud - silly little princess) safe and sound. Hopefully I'll get to go on another trail ride this coming week with her.

I love my pony!

Another day of riding...

This past Sunday I loaded up Tari and took her down to the arena I do most of my showing at. Its deeper, and bigger to allow her more room to move. I've been doing very little, but some loping with her. I only ask her to go a few strides, maybe one whole circle. She is picking it up very quickly. She already responds quickly to my cue to lope (a kiss) and naturally picks up the correct lead 95% of the time.



After we rode at that ring, I took her to her new barn and let her settle in. I had a minute before I had to go home and decided I'd try riding her bareback again. The first time I rode her bareback wasn't eventful, but I didn't ask her to do much. Now, she knows how to trot off, and bend and give to me and turn when I ask and such, so there was a bit more "work" involved in this bareback session. So anyway, a few hours after she was settled in at the barn, I pull her out, put on her bridle and walked her out to the ring and mounted from the mounting block. She did great. I walked her around and she wasn't doing her normal baby "Bob and weave" shenanigans. :) Then after about 15 minutes of walking around and stepping all over the stuff in the ring (a few ground poles) I asked her to trot a slow large circle and she did great. She is doing SOOOO well!

Thanks for reading!

Tari made a move

OK, so I know its been a long time since I've posted. Hopefully, I'll be able to make more posts soon as Tari has made a move that hopefully will allow me to ride her more which gives me more to blog about.

I had Tari at a co-op barn and things were working out ok. I think I saw the BO lady once or twice, but one day, I went down to the barn with my horse trailer to get Tari to haul out to ride her and the lady had an absolute frickin cow that I turned around in her yard (there was NO where else to turn around) and told me that I shouldnt have to come in and out with my trailer as much as I do. She then proceeded to tell me that if I felt it was necessary to haul my horse as often as I had been, I would need to move my horse. SO, I didn't even bring her back. I put her at a friends house, and moved her to her new barn this past Sunday.

Now, there is a ring I ride in at this barn and since the days are getting longer and longer everyday, HOPEFULLY, I'll be posting more.

Tari's impression of a bronc horse....

On new year's eve, Sandy and I decided that we would go to a new covered arena and ride. Rachel took Sundance and rode him around. Sandy rode Bettis and he was doing great loping circles with the barrels up without freaking out. I took Tari.

First, we started out loading her on Sandy's trailer. She didn't want to get on at first, but it only took about 5 minutes and she hopped on. We put her between Bettis and Sundance and she wasn't happy. She isn't happy about much in trailer. Anyway, we get there and unload. Now, its like 40 degrees outside and WINDY! There are flags on pole just a making a horrible sound. I took her in the barn away from the windy stuff to protect Sandy's trailer, and the boys. Id hate for one of them to get kicked. I put her in cross ties and she pawed the snot out of the floor. Luckily she didn't get anywhere cause it's concrete. HAHA!

So then I get on, I walked and trotted her around. Stopped and backed her. She was doing great. I even walked the pattern a few times. She's coming along. Then all of a sudden after Rachel loped circles and Bettis loped circles, sandy says, "Have you ever loped her before?" "No" I said. "I wanna see you lope her."

So, I push her into a lope and she breaks into her best impression of a rodeo bronc horse. Afterwards I asked sandy how many times she left the ground and she said at least 15. She wasn't just bucking. She was a rodeo bronc. Rearing up bringing all four feet off the ground and kicking out. As soon as she hit the ground she did it again. I almost came off to the left halfway through her little hissy fit, but I regained my seat and got her stopped. I proceeded to tell her that was not an acceptable behavior and then went off walking and trotting circles. Then I pushed her into a lope again which took a bit more encouragement this time but she loped about 3 strides and I patted her and ended it at that.

In retrospect, I should have known she was going to do it, and probably could have prevented it, but with her history of this behavior I think this will be the only time she does that. Hopefully that was a one time occurance, and I truly believe it will be.

So, today, I'm soaking a very sore body in a long hot bath. This Saturday, we'll see if she does it again.