Busy busy busy

My next week isn't looking too good for Walker.  After his 3 days off, I will be sure to give him lots of attention tomorrow afternoon because it doesn't look like I'm going to get to go out to the barn too often until I get my first two exams under my belt.  If I can manage it, he will probably only get ridden every other day for the next week, and frankly, I probably don't even have time for that.  Unfortunately, I also should be going to the Living Christmas Tree on Sunday, which my friend is dancing in, but right now, it's not looking doable.  I haven't scheduled it in, but I will just have to see what the end of this week brings.

December is going to be a pretty lazy month for Walker.  After my first two exams, I have about a week until my last one, which will be good for him because I don't really need a week to prepare for it.  After that, I will ride him every day for about half a week until I leave for Christmas, and then, unfortunately, the best I can do is four days in between rides (since I will have to drive 2 hours back here to ride him).  He's going to be so fat by January!

Also, if you recall, I was supposed to do a clinic at the beginning of January.  I've heard rumours that this clinic was actually just for 6 people who are supposed to be on some winter show team or whatever.  They tell me that there is another clinic at a later date.  When I talked to my barn owner about the clinic, I suppose she never specified if I was doing that first clinic or the second one.  I was a little cranky at first because I felt like I signed up for the first one and was pushed aside because I'm not one of the top riders at the barn.  However, looking at my schedule for December (and my dire financial situation), it's probably a blessing that Walker doesn't get a bunch of time off and then I expect him to be in tiptop shape for the beginning of January.  I'm still not sure what the situation is but I've sent my barn owner a message to insinuate that January 3rd may be a little early for us after all.  I want to do a clinic with this guy before I move in May, but the Christmas holidays are about spending time with family and relaxing.  I'd much rather have a few enjoyable rides and see my family and friends (including a friend of mine who is currently working out west) than stress myself out for this clinic.  Currently, the only stress I have time for is this blasted paper and my three stupid exams. :S

Can't wait to see the boy tomorrow.  Walker always cheers me up :)

The Long Stretch

Today was the last day of classes, and I finally passed in one of my two papers.  I have one more to pass in on Thursday, and then I simply have my three exams until freedom.  Unfortunately for Walker (or perhaps not so unfortunately), he is getting three days off in a row (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and we are missing our lesson.  I usually take December off for lessons anyway because of my normally very hectic exam schedule and because I go home for Christmas, but this December my barn owner let me have free lessons all December whenever I want since she knows how busy I am and because I had to miss so many lessons throughout the semester.  She has been very good to me since I got Walker.

On Thursday, I plan to have a nice long relaxing ride with the pony.  On Sunday when I was riding with M and Lark, M set up the crossrail on a diagonal in the ring, and I think I may try that out the next time I decide to jump.  Normally, I set a crossrail up along the long end of the indoor arena because it gives me the entire arena to get him building up his speed, and then the crossrail is conveniently in our road. :)  However, this is problematic because when I'm done jumping (and too lazy to get off my horse and move the crossrail), the jump is in my way.  M set up the crossrail in the middle of the arena, but not so that I would have to cut across the middle of the long end to get to it like most of the girls do.  I don't like that way because we have to make a quick 90 degree turn and then we have barely a stride before he has to jump.  He slows down on the turn and we just don't have enough momentum (#slowponyproblems).  M's way was perfect for us.  You can go around the entire arena without the jump being in the way, but I can turn at the corner and come down the diagonal.  I have included this handy diagram for your viewing pleasure.  The box is the arena, the red cross is the crossrail, and the blue line is our path (which probably actually does look that erratic in real life).  I know that I keep saying that our indoor arena is super small and it's difficult for you guys to imagine, but for reference, it takes Walker about 1 - 2 strides of a lope (lope, not canter) to do the short end and probably no more than 4 to do the long end.  I'm sure most of your horses who actually do jump would eat up our arena.

On a final note, I am stealing this video from Julie at The Little Bay Princess which fits in line nicely with the other post I did on this subject.  For the record, I don't regret getting my undergraduate degree.  I don't think that university is for everyone, but I did enjoy my degree (I studied Classics, with a double minor in History and Latin - yeah, that's right, Latin).  I learned a lot of things there that I wouldn't have learned elsewhere.  I learned to be a better writer, a more critical thinker, besides all the lovely things I learned within my degree itself.  I also learned a lot of life lessons, about living away from home, growing up, etc.  However, I have always taken issue with an education system that focuses on regurgitation and which doesn't allow the mind to grow creatively.  I believe it was Margaret Atwood who said that she was glad that she never took a writing class because they would have forced her to choose a writing style, and of course she dabbles in everything. I agree with this guy's idea that education comes in many forms, and often people discount the knowledge that others have because they didn't go to university.

Fun Sundays

My other boy helping me write papers last night

Although the barn is usually pretty busy on Sundays, it was actually just me and M at the barn today.  I like riding with M and Lark because we're the only adults at the barn, and sometimes it's just nice to have another adult around.  Lark and Walker seem to get along pretty well actually, especially since Lark doesn't exactly get along with all the horses at our barn.  I also never worry about anything happening because I know that if Walker had a freak attack, Lark can handle herself and so can M.  Sometimes I just worry when I'm around kids, especially little kids, that they might get in the way at the wrong time, since they don't necessarily know any better.  I find it good practice for me to ride with M because she and I got back into riding around the same time, so it's not as intimidating as it is to ride with people who are busy being awesome while we bumble around the ring.

Today we worked on a little bit of everything.  I especially was glad to work on some cantering while another horse was in the ring because our indoor ring is so small that it is going to be difficult in lessons with 4 people.  In fact, in lessons, we usually only have room for 1 - 2 people to canter at one time, so the others have to wait.  I'm often at the barn alone, and of course, we rode outside for most of the summer and fall.  So it was nice practice to canter and maneuver around Lark, the speed demon, without also hitting M's mom who comes out to the barn with her most days.  Walker's lope and Lark's canter are two different speeds altogether, so it takes some thought not to hit each other.  We even set up some crossrails, and although Walker was lazy at first, he really seemed to get into it once he saw how excited Lark got.

Then, before we finished our ride, we practiced riding around the ring without any reins.  I do that a lot with Walker because he has nice slow gaits and he's really super about moving off the leg.  We're getting pretty good, and I can almost pivot him on the spot with just my leg.  Lark, on the other hand, being trained English, seemed quite distraught that M didn't have any contact on her mouth.  She's also so much faster than Walker, and I died laughing while Lark pretty much took M for her own guided tour of the arena at top speed.  I then convinced M to hop on Walker, and it was a whole different kind of hilarious.  Of course, he felt so slow for her, and she couldn't tell if he was trotting or walking! Then, when I convinced her to lope him, she started to yell: "Why is he putting his head down?  Why is he putting his head down!  Natalie, where is his head?!"  By this point, some other girls had shown up to ride their horses, and they were laughing also. Of course, that's Walker's thing: his head never goes above level.  Whereas sometimes, when he's feeling a little fresh, his head goes up at the trot, his head NEVER goes up at the lope or canter.  He's trained so that every time you apply leg, he puts his head down - which, might I add, really does take a long time to get used to!  All in all, it was a pretty fun ride, which is nice to have.

Other than that, I tried Walker's rainsheet on him to make sure it fit because my instructor says that it's best to start them out with a rain repellent summer sheet for Winter because of the barn being heated.  The lightweight sheet won't make him overheated while he's in the barn but will offer some protection when he goes outside.  Then we'll slowly move him up to his midweight Winter blanket that I bought him.  Unfortunately, temperatures are going back up and today after it snowed, it rained :S  I left the rainsheet hanging on his stall but I doubt he'll need it for a couple weeks again.  Make up your mind, Winter!

Conformation

After reading this post by SprinklerBandit, I've become a little obsessed with conformation.  I tried to take some pictures of Walker and compare them to SprinklerBandit's thoroughbred, but this was an inherently flawed plan since Walker is not a thoroughbred.  Walker is pretty fat by my standards, but as a general rule, quarter horses are just not as slim and trim as other breeds.  I personally love looking at ads for jumpers online and laughing at how much slimmer they are than my boy.  Don't get me wrong.  I love that Walker is chubby, and in fact, it is due to this characteristic that we continuously won ribbons in Halter Gelding in the summer.  Judges like their quarter horses with a little meat on their bones apparently.

So I looked through a few pictures I had of him to try and compare his progression, but unfortunately pictures really don't do him justice in that way.  The quality of most of them just don't show off the parts of him that I want to compare.

The first picture is one I found of him online.  It was taken before he came to me, and although I don't know how old he is, I would imagine he was around 4 - 6 at the time.  The second picture was taken this past August.  He definitely seems a little thicker in the belly, but generally the same.  He's all shined up here because I had just washed him, so the sun really gleams off him.  I also love how perturbed he is with me in this.


I also went and found this photo from the American Quarter Horse Association.  Apparently it is a painting that was done in order to show the "perfect" quarter horse.  Comparing it to Walker is difficult since you can't really see all the muscles in the same way, but it's clear that Walker is still a little more overweight than "ideal".  I read online that quarter horses bred for halter classes have a tendency to be a little thicker than their performance counterparts, and so perhaps this is why Walker has got such a belly.  I was actually worried that he was losing weight until I started looking at pictures like these.

As a final comparison, I found this photo of Zips Chocolate Chip (one of the horses that is in Walker's pedigree and a pretty famous quarter horse, around here anyway).  In  my opinion, he seems slightly comparable to Walker, although I think that it would help if I had a good shot of Walker with his head carried level (unlike the one in August).

Finally, for my own amusement, I tried to take a more recent conformation shot when I was at the barn the other day.  Walker obliged, since he didn't want to come in from the fields, but he has a weary eye on me just in cases I try something smart!  I'm posting this photo not as an accurate conformation shot, but as a laugh.  Walker has put on his winter coat (he started putting it on in August actually) and he looks so shaggy here.  Considering the dreary backdrop of dying grass and hard ground, he almost looks like one of those backyard ponies that you see sometimes, instead of a horse who is very well-looked after!  Also, notice that he is not wearing a tail bag.  I then had to go through the field looking for it.  Bad pony!

Don't worry, love, you look better in person

Today we put an extra 500 bales of hay in the barn.  My barn owner always gets 5000 bales of hay per year for the horses, but she always does the last load at the end of November to give us a chance to make a dent in the first load.  At my barn, the barn owner gives us a discount if we help put the hay in, so it's usually a pretty fun affair, with a whole bunch of people around and hay EVERYWHERE.  My barn owner was running around like a maniac trying to rake up the loose hay which was getting all in her brand new footing in the arena.  All the kids tacked up their horses to ride afterwards, and I drug out all my riding gear, planning to do the same.  But then there ended up being 5 - 6 kids trying to ride, and they decided that the outdoor arena was still frozen.  Our indoor arena can barely hold 4 at a time, and because I was running late as it was, I decided Walker wouldn't mind a few more hours outside in the sunshine with his friends.  I'll ride him tomorrow to make up for it.  

I took this photo of one of the horses the other day in the field.  This is Ash, the horse that my friend H rides in our lesson.  He has boundary issues.  When you go in the field, he comes right up to you, and after I took this photo, he even put his nose in my hair before I got angry and shooed him away.  He's a pretty fun guy to ride, or so I'm told, although he is a little stiff in one direction (aren't they all?).  However, he has some serious tacking up issues.  He pins his ears against his head the minute the saddle touches his back, and H tacks him up with a crop in her hand because he always bares his teeth like he's about to bite.  He's fine in every other way - he just absolutely hates to be tacked up.  I'm assuming that he must have had problems in the past with a rough kid maybe.  It's unfortunate because he's really like a big dog - he loves being scratched behind the ears and being brushed. 

Now back to my dreaded papers. :S

Lazy

I ended up having a bad sleep last night, so instead of getting up, working on my papers, and going to the barn, I decided to go to the barn first thing to help invigorate me for the tedious task ahead.  I was pretty cold when I left the house, but riding in the indoor arena warmed me up pretty fast.  Apparently they finally moved to the indoor arena last night since the outdoor arena is officially a frozen mess.  I don't know if it's going to stay like that since apparently the temperature is going back up again next week, but I wish we would just stay inside so that I can stop switching back and forth and start preparing myself for the long winter ahead.

Speaking of the long winter ahead, I feel pretty bad for Walker's feet.  His front feet are chipping pretty bad, but I checked with my trainer today and she said that it's not uncommon at this time of year since we don't have snow yet.  Once the snow comes, all should be well.

Today Walker and I mostly worked on some basics: walk/trot/canter in my English saddle, and I did a little bit of: trot a circle, canter a circle, switch directions, repeat.  I set up a pole in the arena and went over that a couple of times, and then I put up a crossrail to trot over.  He was feeling pretty lazy at first, and he was trying to slow down to a walk over it.  I made him pick up the pace, of course, but the whole ride pretty much exhausted me!  He's so lazy that it takes SO much effort to keep him going either at the trot (i.e. not a jog) or a canter/lope.  I usually end up puffing pretty bad after just a couple circles of the lope, and I feel like I've run a marathon.  It's times like these that I wish he was a little more forward.  Of course, a lot of that is his training and the fact that the indoor arena is so much smaller.  He actually picks up a nice pace for me considering his tendencies, but I feel like I'm going to pop a lung just getting him to lope more than one circle in a row.  Perhaps that's more a sign that I'm out of shape...  Of course, I've never been so in shape since riding Walker.  Horses really do that to you and lazy ones especially!

On a final note, I joined Instragam today and I decided to play around with some photos of the pony.  Still getting used to all the buttons, but hopefully it will encourage me to take more pictures at the barn!

Shadows, kisses and love :)

Follower

So I generally don't fill these things out, but I'll do pretty much anything to avoid writing my papers right now (even though I had to skip my lesson to do school work).  Luckily, I get tomorrow off from school (and by "get school off", I mean that one of my classes was cancelled by the professor and I took the liberty of cancelling the other one for myself).  That means that I can work on my papers, see my boy, and go to a last class bash that we are having where all the funds raised go to a scholarship for a student who passed away in my first year.

I got these two fill-out thingies from Julie at The Little Bay Princess but I'm pretty sure they came from Viva Carlos since they've been popping up on  my blog feed for a week or so now.  Here goes:

1. Equestrian Goal(s)? learn to jump and get to do cross-country
2. How many horses do you own? one
3. Do you watch horse races? sometimes, but not regularly
4. Ever been to a horse race? I have and I would much rather watch them in person - it's the gambling thing!
5. Dream horse? Hmmm.  I feel like it's wrong if I don't say Walker, and Walker is definitely my dream horse of the moment.  I don't think he will be able to do all the things I want to do in the future, but I also don't think that I will ever sell him, no matter how many other horses I own.
6. Dream barn? not one in particular, but if I had to describe one, it would have: LOTS of turnout/paddocks, big box stalls, locker room, indoor/outdoor arenas (maybe even more than one, including a cross-country course), and I would love for Walker to have his own runout 
7. Describe a barn friend. knowledgeable and helpful, and someone fun just to play with on horseback
8. Describe a rider you're jealous of. can't think of anyone in particular, but pretty much anyone who has good control and talent.  I am inspired by Ian Millar though - he's such a talented rider and I hope that I'm still riding when I'm older!
9. What do you wish to improve on? everything.  mostly: better hands, better seat, better control
10. Best thing you're good at in riding? my heels are always down.  it's like I have lead in those things.
11. How many hands is the horse you most often ride? 15.2 hands
12. What breed of horses do you ride? Quarter Horse
13. Favorite supply store? Northstream Tack, a little tack store not far from where I live - they know me by name, they know my job, and they even remember the times I have horse shows or activities.  they are the sweetest people ever and they look out for me (especially when I need things)!
14. Do your parents approve of riding? they do, although I think my father is sick of hearing about Walker!
15. How many people ride at your school? Only one other than I can think of and she started riding again because of me :)
16. Any other sports  you participate in? haha.  no.
17. Describe your perfect ride. Walker and I had one beautiful ride where he acted like the perfect Western Pleasure horse (in the summer, when that's the discipline I was focusing on).  He had this beautiful controlled lope, and I just felt so good about us
18. Riding flaws? lots of them: leaning forward (hard nut to crack!), hands out of position, thumbs never on top (ever), hunched shoulders
19. How many times do you ride a week? 6 times a week if I am able
20. Describe horseback riding in one word. Escape

Splurge or Save:

1. saddle: splurge (although both of mine have been kind of a save right now; next time I will splurge though)
2. board: save, as long as it doesn't compromise Walker's well-being
3. halter: save, even on his show halter (although I may start singing a different tune if I showed more)
4. bit: save, although I don't know if it counts that I have bought a million different bits...
5. bridle: splurge (two splurge bridles, two save: use the splurgey English one and the save Western one on a regular basis)
6. saddle pad: save
7. trailer: if I had a trailer, it would probably be a save, as long as it was safe

First thing that comes to mind:

1. Haflinger: I've got nothing.  Never seen one in real life.
2. Quarter Horse: Walker
3. Thoroughbred: Izzy (horse at the barn)
4. Warmblood: Lark
5. Welsh Cob: Hi (yes, that is the name of the pony)

This or That:

1. English or Western: even though I want to ride English so I can jump, I think Western will always be in my heart
2. tall or short
3. trail ride or beach ride
4. long mane or short mane: I'm kind of undecided on this.  I'm letting Walker's mane go shaggy just so I can see what he looks like as a wild horse, but then I will probably cut it again
5. hunters or jumpers
6. XC or barrel racing
7. outdoor arena or indoor arena
8. trot or canter
9. canter or gallop: Walker and I haven't done much galloping, but I think that if we did, and I could semi-control it, I would love it
10. paddock boots, tall boots, or cowboy boots
11. horse shoes or barefoot
12. saddle or bareback

About you:

1. How long have you been riding? I started riding when I was in middle school through the summers on and off for the next few years.  I have no idea when I stopped, but I started again in university in the summer (then got sick and had to stop), so I consider my "real" training starting in the summer of 2011 when I began riding regularly again in law school (we "re-riders" all seem to have that similar story)
2. Do you own or lease a horse? own
3. Breed? Age? Height? Name? Quarter Horse, 7 years old, 15.2 hands, Walking Hocus Pocus (Walker)
4. Do you have any other pets? Chester (a cat)
5. If you horse was a person, what kind of voice would they have (you can use a celebrity for an example)? Walker would be like Joey from Friends because I can definitely hear him in the field with all the mares saying, "How you doing?"
6. Does your horse have a "color"? teal
7. Does you horse do any tricks? he can get his bucket off the hook in his stall (and spill water everywhere)
8. Have you ever dressed your horse up for Halloween? no, but oh did I consider it...

"How you doing?"

Favorites:

1. Breed? Quarter Horse (for now)
2. Discipline? Well... if I could answer that question, my life would be less all over the place.  Western Pleasure in the summer , but I want to jump on  my clumsy boy who is going to hate me for this ambition
3. Coat color? Dark (although I used to be a palomino fan)
4. Famous horse? Big Ben (mostly because I love Ian Millar)
5. Horse race/competition? Anything at Spruce Meadows
6. Brand of tack? don't really have one
7. Thing to do with your horse?  just ride and be with him

h 

Whiny Baby

The title of my post, "Whiny Baby", refers to me, not Walker today.  I am so exhausted from writing my papers, and I had such a chill in my bones today that it took every ounce of energy I had to go out to the barn, even though I got out of class early and I was in no rush.  I didn't even bother to take my camera so I also have no pictures.  :S

I thought that Walker might be a little hyper today even though he was outside since it has been so crisp lately, so I threw him on the lunge line for a few minutes.  This pretty much set the tone of our ride to follow.  He was pretty lethargic, and I had to really get after him to get him to move.  Since all I wanted to do was lay in the arena and nap, the lunging ended pretty quickly.

I rode English today mainly to try out my new Winter riding boots.  I tried them out the other day in my Western saddle, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to them.  They are pretty warm, and I definitely like them.  But as with all warm things, they're pretty thick and I find it hard to maneuver.  When I rode in the Western saddle, I could barely tell if I was kicking him at times between the thickness of the stirrups and the thickness of my boots - luckily, Walker seemed to know what I wanted from him regardless.  Today was a little better.  They're definitely an English style boot and they work better in an English saddle, I think.  They're still bulky, but at least I could tell if I was kicking my horse or not!

Our ride pretty much lasted a maximum of 20 minutes.  Have you ever had one of those days where you're just too tired to bother doing anything too strenuous and so you quickly run out of things to do?  Instead of wasting my limited energy trying to get after Walker to canter for a more extended period of time as I often do to work on his laziness/fitness, I decided that I would just canter him for a circle, stop, do a turn on the haunches, repeat.  I did this at all the three gates for a while, but the little bugger is smart, and he quickly figured out the pattern.  I did some leg yields but I got bored of that as well, and Walker was clearly in a similar mood.  When my trainer arrived to feed the horses, I figured that I might as well call it quits, and Walker didn't seem to mind!  He was turned out today anyway so he got plenty of exercise with his buddies in the field.  Even though I did absolutely nothing, I feel like I wrestled a wild boar - just one of those days, I guess.

I was proud of my big puppy dog because he followed me down the barn aisle without me bothering to take a hold of the reins even though there was a giant stack of hay bales and my trainer was rolling the grain cart down the aisle.  He just lumbered on by beside me.  He only got a little greedy when we got to his stall, and I had to make him wait for me to take off his bridle before he practically bashed his head trying to get his supper.  Silly pony.

In other news, I guess my trainer got herself into a sticky situation the other day.  She was trying to bring in one of the horses, a 5 year old mare, and the horse was misbehaving big time.  She was rearing and dragging my instructor all over the place and wouldn't settle down.  This is another horse at the barn that I do not entirely trust, and what makes it all worse is that my trainer is pregnant and she has high-risk pregnancies.  Because my trainer was trying to get a handle on the mare, she couldn't latch the gate and a whole bunch of the horses in Walker's field escaped.  Walker didn't go anywhere of course.  He is smart enough to know that the humans feed him.  Needless to say, the mare is currently not being turned out anymore until they can manage to figure out what to do with her.  My trainer isn't allowed to ride, and from what I gather from the situation, she really shouldn't be doing strenuous/horse-related activities of any kind.  There's no one else who does chores who could put the mare out or bring her in, and we only have one trainer at our barn.  There's a girl that currently rides the beast mare regularly so they're hoping that she will be able to manage her with a little guidance.  Another horse who needs to be put into line.  :S

I realize that from my last two posts it sounds like my barn is a madhouse, but I swear that most of the horses are angels!  There are only three horses I do not trust - well, two horses and a pony.  The two horses are Lark and this mare, and the pony is this evil little jeezer that I hate with a passion and seem to be the only one who does.  He's a bigger pony, and he needs an attitude adjustment as well.  I'm not afraid of him; I just don't like him at all.  Something tells me that when the clinician comes next month, this mare is going to end up getting put in her place real fast.  The clinician often works with my trainer and barn owner with breeding and training some of our horses.  I know that my trainer looks up to him as kind of a mentor, so I imagine that the mare will be put through her paces soon enough!  As will Walker and I, I'm sure... but hopefully in a different way