My Horse Blog..

Riding Aside has been shelved for a bit.  I am so sorry about that...but let me tell  you the whole story.

Coming into this year, I had 2 horses in training, Sport, who is the really nice show horse I bred and Bella, who was just in for her initial start up training.  She just turned 3.  Well it was time to evaluate Bella and one thing she really needed was to grow, so I decided to bring her home for a while.  With that loosened up some funds to be used on our house.  Before I went to pick her up, I found myself constantly thinking about weekends and parts of the week I would not be at the farm for certain out of town horse shows and that bothered me.  From the moment we started construction, since we only hired a consultant and not a full time contractor (to save tons of money), I felt the need to be on the job site daily.  Something critical could happen when I was away and if days went by before I noticed, it could cost us in either money or a big headache!

Other personal things went along with this decision, but I called the trainer to discuss it with him and he said that 2 different ladies were interested in leasing Sport!  Wow - what a blessing that was!!!  Sport would stay in training under the trainer I trust.  He would continue on with his show career with seasoned riders that I trusted and when either of us wanted to end the lease, we could.  I felt such a wonderful peace come over me when he told me this and I knew it was the right thing to do for both Sport and I!

My Boy Sport..

..is learning how to pull a cart!! He has only been hooked for a couple of weeks and I am very proud of him!! Sport is in training and I am taking sidesaddle riding lessons on my other horse Oliver, at Bluebonnet Farm and it has been such a wonderful experience for me. I look forward to it every single weekend!












I know these pictures are kind of fuzzy. Erica was nice enough to take them for me with her phone since I AGAIN forgot my camera~

Bella Equus

Sorry it took so long for me to post pictures..but Brittany is a very protective Momma and would not let anyone near her baby for 4 days!

















Then I had internet problems..uggh.. anyway - here she is ~ Bella Equus.

















Not trying to be mean or anything... but do you think she will grow into that rather large behind???

Alas.. me thinks God has a plan!!!

NEWS...

...but no picture!

We have a new little bay colored filly. Too bad my internet connection would not stay connected so I could post a picture... :0(

A Success Story!

I have a lot of horses...currently 8 1/2 to be exact! Each and every one is very different. One is easy to work with on the ground, but a pill to ride; one is very laid back and only took 4 months to completely break to both saddle and driving a buggy...and then there was Dominus Villa. His name means Master of the House. His trainer worked with him for over a year and told me, "Julie, I think he is the most difficult horse I have ever broke." Dominus was shown at a very prestigeous show and prior to going in the ring, the trainer told me he had no idea what was going to happen in there. Thankfully, Dominus was a good boy and did not take one step out of place. This was one of his show photos.














Well, I am not a professional trainer. Over the years, I have learned (the hard way) that it is much easier to stay ON a horse (or as horse people say - staying WITH a horse) then to come off of one!! well, Dominus gave me a real run for my money. He hated to canter to the right. All of the misbehavior you see in these pictures is from me asking him to canter to the right~!















Also at this time, we had just learned that Don was ill. I believe he had just started his chemo. Every time Dominus reared .. or bucked ... or just jumped up and down.. I would think... "What happens if I get hurt and cannot take care of Don?" That is the worst type of thought you can have if you need to deal with a horse behaving badly! I was not mentally in a good place to deal with him.
















...so I stopped riding him. I would bring him inside to groom him and one day he cow kicked (kicking out sideways) at me as I was brushing his tail. That was it! I was DONE with him. I took him out to the back pasture and let him go telling him, I am DONE with you! I even told him that if we got hungry and had to kill 1 animal on our farm to eat... it was going to be him!















.. well, for the next 2 months, when I took feed to the horses in the back pastrue, I had to watch him. He would try to run into me and bully me. Ironically, I noticed with all of this hateful attitude towards me, he was the lowest horse in the pecking order of the back pasture horses! After those 2 months, he started to try to befriend me. I IGNORED HIM! For almost two years I totally ignored this horse. Other than feed, meds and hoof trimming, he received no attention from me.

Thank God Erica came along. Erica is a friend of mine who is very used to 'strong' horses. She took a liking to Dominus and approached me about leasing him. I laughed at first.. but when I thought about it.. realized it might be a good fit. Erica has been working with Dominus now for 3 weeks. She says he has not acted a fool with her at all.. and in fact, he follows her around like a puppy dog! I am so thrilled and can not wait to see them in the show ring some day. Erica.. you may have saved this horses life! Not that I was really serious about eating him.. but if I had to sell my horses, I can only imagine where he might have ended up!

Sport

Week 1 - he was being lunged in the bull pen and would cut the corners ..so it looked more like he was doing a square instead of a circle and he was scared to go out to the end of the rope. Wearing a simple surcingle, not attached to anything. Also wearing a headstall with bit - but being lunged off of a halter.

Week 2 - lunging out to the end of the rope and traveling in a circle. Lots of confidence - using his legs and neck straight up, shoulders back with head tucked... oh yes - and snorting!!! Just breath taking. Even the people in the big arena were looking at him. He got their attention when he was snorting! Same equipment as week 1.

Week 3 - Wearing surcingle with crupper, headstall w/bit attached to rubber side reins (no over check) I could tell he was confused by the new equipment. Slamming tail down over the crupper and playing with the side reins by extending head and neck forward - taking hold of the bit and stretching the side reins.

Week 4 - when this picture was taken. Getting used to the new equipment (same as previous week) using himself better .. but has lowered his head significantly. The guy who was lunging him would flip the lunge rope and he would raise his head for a few seconds - but then return it to the lower position. I am pretty sure this will be corrected when they add an overcheck.

Did You Know ...

Fox hunting is still very prevalent in North America.

There is even a fox hunt club in Texas!

Now before you go feeling sorry for the fox - I just want to say that those whom I know that do fox hunt say that in America they do not chase to kill as they do in Europe.

...and just for fun...

A Little More Info. About the Next Post.

This horse has been completely vet checked. He had his teeth floated 6 months ago. He has seen an Equine Chiropractor and a Massage Therapist. He is not crazy either - just a bit stubborn!

For those who are not horse-savey...Horses, like people are either right or left "handed". Therefore, going in one direction is very easy. Going in the other is more difficult. Dominus has a difficult time going clockwise and resents me trying to work him on his weaker side. Progress is being made though. You see - only 2 weeks ago, he gave me all of this grief at the trot (clockwise). During the lesson photographed, he was minimally disobedient at the trot clockwise. As I said - we are making progress!!!

He is not in weighted shoes. His feet are not long. I was not asking for any extra leg motion, what you see is completely natural. I was not even asking for collection. All I wanted was for him to go F-O-R-W-A-R-D...not up, not back and certainly no double barrel kicking!

A Typical Lesson - for Dominus Anyway!

The first 45 minutes of my lessen went very well....it was just the last 15 that became very interesting!

First I warm him up by lunging.

I take him through all of his gaits on a long rope.

..and then I use a mounting block to get on him.

Now we start to walk.

Trot.

Trotting more.

Now trotting the other direction.

Dominus has really good natural motion and WILL be a great show horse one day!

Trotting figure 8's through the center of the ring.

..a little rear - typical when we are going to the right

Before we canter, my trainer Kelli Lowery has a little talk with Dominus.

Cantering to the left is good.

Getting ideas..

and we start to canter right ok...for now.

not happy about it though.

Jumping into the canter again..

Nice Trot!..but you are suppose to be cantering!!

Tail swishing is never a good thing.

Let the fight begin..

Ummm..

Buck..

Big Buck! Enlarge this picture for unbelievable details.

Behaving badly..

Positioning for the rear..

Going Up!

and up higher..

Coming down.

Can I get off nowwwww???

He is mad..

I am madder!

Up again..

..and again..

Flex Dammit! (This is something called the one rein stop and something we do everytime he rears up with me.)

1 more buck..

..and a rear.

Until he finally canters to the right 3 full size arena circles (very large) without incident. YEAH!!!