Having Fun

I've had alot of fun during our last two rides.  The first ride it was my mom and I, with Artemis running free in the arena.  She was in a very energetic mood.  She kept running circles around us, bucking and tossing her head around.  She'd run in front of Jimmy, cut him off and then slam her breaks off.  Then when he tried to go around her she'd lay her ears flat against her head and chase him.  It was pretty funny to watch.  She's definitly taken after her mom with her bossiness.  When I had gone out to catch her that day the pasture horses were just coming up for a drink of water.  They were all at the water except Artemis and she came running up, bucking, and then chased off all the other horses away from the water except for one.  She even chased the lead mare away.  Tona was the only one she let drink.  If the others tried to come over to drink, Artemis would lay her ears back and they'd back off. 

Socks and I just played around with Artemis.  We'd lope a 20-metre circle and she'd lope it beside us.  Then she'd go bucking away from us and run over to my mom and Jimmy.  We didn't do any real work, we were just fooling around.

Today when we arrived the arena was full of people.  D was going to have a lesson so we tried to saddle up slowly.  Luckily when we finally got on only D and M were still in the arena.  We rode around with M and Zanza.  Socks, who's been in heat lately and kind of cranky, decided she can't stand Zanza and would lay her ears back and try to snap at him if he came near. 

Once D's lesson was over I pulled out the barrels and set them up.  I haven't worked on them lately because I knew Socks' teeth were going to get done and I wanted to wait until after to start training again.  Her turns are so much better now.  Usually when I train though, it's just Socks and I working on the pattern while my mom does whatever with Jimmy.  M wanted to try them too with Zanza so tonight her and I took turns.  It was a lot of fun.  It was fun to watch M and Zanza, this giant Thoroughbred all decked out in his shiny english gear doing the barrels.  He was great for his first time around them.  M had a lot of fun doing them too and it's the best Socks has been forever.  She's such a competitive horse and if she doesn't have any competition, then she gets lazy and puts no effort in.  The first few times Zanza went around she didn't pay attention.  But the first time he cantered around them my horse was glued to him.  She just stood perfectly still, ears perked forward and eyes trained on him.  She got serious about it after that.

It was a lot of fun, we're going to try to get together again to do it.  Socks needs the competition and it's good to expose Zanza to different things, including our brightly coloured barrels.  Socks and I managed to knock over two barrels, both times when I was too busy looking at the barrel to steer her.  It was a lot of fun, I forgot how nice it is to ride with other people.

I Was Smarter When I Was Younger

My horses are such nerds.  These pictures were taken on the same day.  I think I need to make a sign for Artemis that says "Please Do Not Compliment".  Anytime she gets a compliment she feels as though she no longer needs to behave.  I can hang it over her tail.  She's so butt-high I wouldn't have to worry about it touching the ground.  She had her feet done and she recently had her second bath.  I can't really say she was that good for either but I try to remember that she's only three and a half months and I can't really expect her to be perfect.  It'd be nice but then again my life would be much less exciting.  It doesn't help that she's figured out that by stamping her feet and whinnying her displeasure with us gets her the attention of the other boarders, the chiropracter and the massage  people who come out.  The monster seems to have everyone wrapped around her little hoof.  All she has to do is squeal and people are oohing and aahing.  :)  Also, I measured her today and she came in at 12.1 hh.  I have no idea how tall the average three and a half month old is, but I still think she's a little tall for her age.  Her butt must be if nothing else.

She's had more reasons for temper tanturms lately as we're working on her getting used to being seperated from Socks.  At first we put her in the round pen because it's safest and still near the outdoor arena so she can see her mom being ridden.  It was fine, except when she decided to see if she could headbutt the gate open.  She could not but she managed to get the first scrape of her life trying.  It's tiny though and she'd rather people not look at it.

On Friday my brother came out with us so we put her in the grass pen beside the outdoor arena.  She loved it in there but she was angry when Socks started running, as you can see in the video.  Her babysitter, my brother, took the video.

I've recently rediscovered something I knew and lived by when I first had Socks and was first learning to ride.  Back then my dad lived on this tiny farm with absolutly no good riding.  Just the back field.  We had absolutly no where to go and it was the most fun riding we ever had.  We went on night rides all the time, we constantly raced each other (which is probably why Socks loves to run so much now).  It didn't matter that we had nowhere to go or nothing really to do.  We just had fun.  I like to think that our horses did too.

This past winter Socks and Jimmy came down so I could work with them on barrel racing.  It was nerve-wracking.  I had no idea how to train a horse how to barrel race.  Anytime we practiced I felt more and more discouraged because we couldn't get the tight turns and we couldn't do the speed.  It sucked. 

Since Artemis has come along, we've spent weeks just riding in circles, watching her run around, bucking and having fun.  Socks is getting back into shape and reminding me that she loves to run as fast as she possibly can, as often as she will get away with it.  We've started practicing barrels again and I am having a blast.  I stopped worrying about being technical about everything.  If we don't have a tight turn, oh well, we'll try again.  When we have a bad turn (and we've had some really, really bad ones) I can and do, laugh about it, a lot.  And we have really been improving.  Our first barrel, which is the one we were having the most trouble with, is amazing if I may say so.  I couldn't ask for Socks to be better.  And our secret?  I'm having fun.  Every single time we ride.  Every single thing we do during a ride is fun.  Even when Socks smashed my leg into a barrel it was funny.  It was a what-in-the-world-are-you-thinking moment.  I've stopped obsessing over what went wrong and I focus instead on what we did right.  I still get annoyed at times with them, especially when Socks gets overexcited and starts tossing her head around like a racehorse but I'm spending more time having fun then being frustrated.  So is my mom now that she's stopping having to worry about Jimmy all of the time.  It took one hyper-active monster baby, very limited riding space and a mother who gets insanely excited at finally being able to trot to remind me to stop stressing and just enjoy riding again.

Sorry for preaching in this post, but I think it's something important that all riders should remember.  No matter what, always have fun.  It doesn't matter what you're working on, barrel racing, patterns or just getting the horse used to being ridden, keep it fun for you and your horse.  You'll probably succeed much faster if you make it a chore and get frustrated with it.  I know Socks and I are doing good.  When my brother took her around the barrels the other day, she clocked in at 25.07 seconds, which isn't bad considering she loped around the barrels, had AWFUL turns (we've gotten good laughs from watching them.  If I find the video I'll post it) and only galloped on the way home.  Sure, it was on a bit smaller course than the standard but still, I'm proud of my pony since it was her third day back into training :)

So here's Jimmy, saying he approves of this post and reminding all of us to smile and enjoy ourselves.