Progress

I've had a very busy past few weeks.  We had family out from the East, two of my cousins stayed with us in the city, and an Aunt and another cousin stayed with my dad up at his place.  We took them to the zoo, Banff and Drumheller to see the Royal Tyrell Museum.  It seemed like every second day we were with the horses, and I am not complaining.  My one cousin owns a horse of her own back East so she knows about them, but my other cousin had only ridden a handful of times.  It was a lot of fun to ride with them. 

We've been able to get back on our regular schedule of going out to the barn three times a week, so here's an update on the three of them.

Artemis:

Our newest thing has been ponying her off of another horse (so far it's only been from Socks).  Usually when we're in the arena we just leave her free and she loves to run around and buck.  However, lately there have been more people there when we are so there have been other people riding in the arena with us.  I don't want to leave Artemis free for fear that the other horse could injure her or that she could injure the other horse.  So that's why I've been ponying her lately.  I can't say it's that much fun.  When she's free she likes to run ahead and lead, but when I pony her she lags behind at the end of her rope and acts like every step takes a great effort and she can't possibly go on.  I am thankful that I ride western and the extra leverage the horn provides.  So far she's had two ponying sessions and is slowly learning that it will not kill her to walk beside us.  Both times there has been a horse lunging at one side of the arena, so we've only used half.  When we're along the rail she lags behind as far as she can possibly go, but when we reach the corner she leaps forward and tries to cut in front of Socks.  When that doesn't work for her, she falls behind again. 

She's also growing insanely tall.  Everyone at the stable agrees that she's tall for her age.  She's not much shorter than Socks now.  It shouldn't worry me but I'm pretty short and not that flexible and I like being able to get on my horses from the ground if I need to.  I don't think there's a chance she'll be under 16 hh though, I better start exercising and working on being more flexible.  Sommer can get on all of our horses without any issues and she's shorter than I am.  If she can do it, I can.  Somehow...

My cousin took this picture of Artemis when they came out to see Socks, Jimmy and Artemis.  Artemis' favourite thing is to rip around the arena.  The jumpers have jumps set up and usually she runs right at them and then swerves to the side at the last second, but she's jumped over a few of the low ones.  She loves to show off and runs around with her tail up in the air like an Arabian.  I keep meaning to take a video to upload on here. 

Jimmy:

Jimmy has been our problem-child for a few months now.  My mom and I had actually decided that if he didn't improve by the end of the summer then he would go up to my dads.  I don't claim to be a horse trainer, I know a bit but I am by no means at all an expert.  But now, Jimmy is being an angel.  We haven't had any issues with him.  He's been getting ridden more regularly and I think that's been making a huge difference in him.  He loves working.  As soon as he realizes that he's being ridden he's perfect. 

His paddock buddy, Eli, has been moved in with a different horse, Charleston, in the paddock beside Socks and Artemis because Eli's owner was complaining that Jimmy was too rough with Eli.  Eli has a nasty bite on his shoulder and two more bits along his rib cage.  They don't fight when they eat, but I've noticed that Jimmy likes to have the shelter to himself.  It's strange to see the little guy being the dominant one, at my dad's he was the one everyone picked on.  I don't actually mind that his in a paddock by himself.  He's calmer when he's alone, and he still has company.  He has four horses on either side of him.  We're working on getting him and Socks in shape now so we've been doing a lot of trotting.  He actually worked up a sweat tonight, the first time in a while.

Socks:

Socks has been pretty good.  To be honest I don't do as much work with her as I do with the other two because she doesn't need as much.  She's usually the calming presence in the stable and the horse I hang out with when I just want to relax.  She hasn't disappointed lately.  She's been getting some extra love from the BO's kids lately.  They love to come down and brush her and help me clean out her feet.  She loves all the attention.  She has been worrying me a bit lately though.  I've been thinking about bringing out a chiroractor to look at her.  The last couple of rides she's been stumbling a lot in her back end and just generally feels weak in the back.  She is amazing when she turns to the left.  When we turn left on the barrel patter her turns are fantatistic, seriously.  She can get around them so quickly.  But her turns to the right are absolutly horrible.  She can't do a tighter turn to the right, which for barrel racing obviously causes some problems.  I worked on it a little bit but it wasn't improving at all so I backed off, afraid I might be hurting her instead of helping her.  One of the other boarders had the chiropracter out not that long ago and she really helped the horse.  I figure it can't hurt.  Socks' is nine now and has taken her fair share of spills out on the trail.  She's been in the mountains more than any of our other horses and carried me through some very rough rides.  I think it's realistic to assume that she could have something out of place after all of that. 

On another note, I saw Cowboys and Aliens the other night.  While it is by no means my favourite movie, I really enjoyed it.  It had all the elements that I think make a good western and then of course the scary alien parts (my brother didn't find them terrifying but I am terrified of aliens ever since I watched the X-Files when I was three).  I think the best part though was after the movie when my mom was going on.  "And I knew that horse had a star, and that one had a blaze, and that one had a noseband and none of the others did!"  She was so proud of herself for noticing all of it.   My brother and I found it pretty hilarious.  Maybe we'll make a horse person out of her yet.