Big step forward.

I marched into the barn determined to set my nerves aside and not let Riley get away with his naughty-ness.

I lunged him for a couple of minutes, then got on. I let him free walk to warm him up, then gathered his face. He stopped and swished his tail and I turned him around both directions then asked him to go forward. Every time he stopped I would turn him around. It took a good 10 minutes before he started to realize that walking forward willingly was better then turning in a tight circle. When I asked him to trot he would take a couple of steps and stop. So I turned him again and asked again, and off he went. After that we didn't have any issues going both directions. And I felt 100% confident in my riding today. Which is a big plus.

Showmanship was very eventful too. We worked on having him stop straight, and setting him up. He actually started doing it on his own, which is awesome. With some more work he should have setting up and stopping down pat. Now his back up.. ha he doesn't have a back up. So my trainer took him and had a little "talk" with him. When I got him back, he back with little encouragement.

While my trainer was working him, I had a chance to see him from afar being worked, and he looks like CRAP he has no top line or muscle, but with consistency in his work he'll start to develop into his body. This is the second "real" week of actual work since I got him.

Pictures are from yesterdays ride [: He's very confident in his pink polos haha. (sorry these pictures suck but there all off my phone, my cameras broken :[ )

So I'm a big pansy. I don't know why, I'm having this issue getting Mr. Riley Pants into the trot. I'll ask him to trot, then he would just stop and swish his tail. Nothing naughty but I just can't seem to push him forward. I'm thinking its just nerves for me. He's my first horse that I've ever broke myself. Theres a lot riding on him, proving that I'm a good rider, hoping to show him this summer, etc. I've ridden green horses but they weren't ever my own but idk. I'm so confused with myself. I had a friend of mine come in the middle with a lunge whip to help get him into the trot cause I wanted to trot during our ride. He didn't hesitate once when I asked and she asked. So I'm 95% it's just me and my nerves. What do you guys think?

And how often do you ride your babies? He just turned 4. I started him as a late 3 year old and gave him time off when he started growing earlier this year. I want to ride him tomorrow but that'll be the 3rd day in a row and I don't know if I should ride him or not..

Good Day

So I gave Riley a week off after his horrible ride. I kind of figured that I pushed him to hard, to fast. So I took a step back and let him relax. Yesterday I went to the barn not expecting to much out of him. I wanted to do mostly lunging and working him with the side reins. He has this issue of putting his head up as high as his Pleasure self can to avoid the bit. He actually did pretty well. He was a little pissy when I asked him to canter cause he couldn't throw up his head up, but he didn't do anything bad, he's not a real bucker on the lunge.

His canter going clock wise is coming along so well on the lunge! When I first got him he would trip and almost fall onto his face when going into the canter. Now he's nice and slow and smooth, makes me really jealous that I'm not on him!! ha ha.

I got on him and we just walked around, working on lifting his shoulders and rounding him around my leg. I wasn't to worried about where his head was, as long as he was giving to the right, and left I was happy. The aim for this ride was for no bucking. Every time he stopped and I asked him to move forward he would swish his tail and stomp his back leg but I would just swing his head to the side and push his hip over and he would go forward. The more I did that the less and less I got attitude. He actually went into a trot and I let him. We did a full lap and I let him walk and ended the ride there, on a good note. I wasn't aiming for the trot, but if he felt like he could do it then why stop him? Hey no bucking and thats what I was aiming for.

Going out later today to ride him. My trainer wont be there which makes me a little nervous because shes always pushing me and she makes me confident for some reason lol. Maybe I'll drag my boyfriend along?! haha I'm sure he'd LOVE that.

I seriously love his face.

Riley Pants new(well old) fly sheet. This was my old horses fly sheet. If he grows anymore it wont fit! lol

Before our ride, cant you tell hes so excited?? :P

Didn't ride.

Didn't ride mr. naughty today, thought it would be good for him to have the day off, he's also getting tomorrow off due to work :/

But I did ride Clue, my 16.1hh AQHA gelding(not really mine but I say he is [: ) for a mini clinic for little 4h kids. Pretty cute how most of them didn't know anything about reining. I showed off our HUS skills, my trainer reined, and a friend of mine, mel did WP.

Overall it went pretty well, we might have gotten a couple of riders. Whats really weird is the week before they went to my old old old barn where I rode saddleseat, gosh and I thought that guy out of town!

Fell off the cloud.

So Mr. Riley pants found his naughty button today.

Lunged him for a couple of minutes then got on. The moment I got on him he started swishing his tail, but other then that we had a pretty good ride at the beginning. He kept stopping at the jog but I got him going again with no problem, tried cantering him and that's when it went all down hill. He kicked out a little, but then moved forward. He stopped for some reason and wouldn't moved up so I whacked him in the butt and that's when he kind of just exploded. He doesn't "buck" he just kicks straight out, multiple times, rapidly. I'm not to worried about losing my seat, but boy does he have some power!

He was just being a complete ass! I didn't do ANYTHING, no feet, no rein but just trying to cluck him forward and he just kept kicking out. His last "buck" was a pretty good actual buck that made me lose my stirrup but I stayed on. After he finished with his tantrum I got off and lunged the SHIT out of him.

I understand this was the Fourth day straight riding him,and actually working. He could have just been tired and crabby. But he needs to understand that is not how we're going to handle things. Or he could be in some kind of pain, I'm giving him Friday and the weekend off to re-coop, and see how he does on Monday. If he's still bucking I'm going to have my Chiropractor check him out.

I'm hoping that he's just a child that gets a new toy and plays with it like crazy for a few days then loses interest. [;

Goals

So I want to have some goals for both Riley and I for this show season.

Me:

• Get more confident in an english saddle.
• Steady my legs.
• Ride 4+ times a week.
• Work on as many horses as possible.

Riley:

• Work on lifting Rileys shoulders
• Steady him at the jog
• Work more on his lope
• Softening him in the bridle
• Get him to his first show, weather is just walk/ trot or walk/trot/canter.

Cloud 9

So Riley suffers from a mild case of contracted tendons. I started him on SmartPak SmartTendon (love, love, love it. Highly recommend) and had my vet come out to give me her opinion and she suggested corrective shoes for a couple of months and it should fix its self!

It blows my mind how simple of a fix it is! I would freak out every time something abnormal happens to his legs. Now I can just put shoes on him and semi relax on that issue. Which is good, cause I'm only 19 and I swear this horse is going to give me a frigging heart attack or something! haha

After getting the OK for riding from the vet I started his work out schedule Monday, with light trotting, mostly working on getting control over his shoulders and hip. Riley's big issue is dropping his shoulder. He just does not keep it up when I'm on him. Worked a lot on circles, circles, circles, and switching directions. Did the same thing on Tuesday.

Today I got on him and really worked on getting his shoulders and balanced. The moment he starts dropping his shoulder, and/or losing his balance his jog gets really bouncy and unbelievably hard to sit. My butt is seriously bruised from riding him the last couple of days but hes getting better. I was able to sit without bouncing all over the place. lol Anyways, I also worked on getting him to soften in the face, he was NOT having any of it though, he tries so hard to be naughty with his little bucks/ kicks, and trying to bite my foot but he just doesn't have it in him. haha He was finally starting to get it though towards the end of the ride.

My trainer was watching me ride and convinced me to try to canter him. Her logic was "Whats the worse hes going to do? Not canter?" which is true, cause Riley's really not big on bucking, not even on the lunge line. He bucked once when we first trotted him ever, then today due to me whacking him pretty hard cause he was not moving forward. So I took a deep breath and asked for a canter going clock wise (his better direction) it probably took us 5 times around the arena at a trot to finally break into the canter, and OH MY GOD! is he smooth!! compared to his bumpy ass trot I thought his canter would have been worse! But nope nice smooth rocking horse canter that I LOVE! Did like two laps hoed him, then tried counter clock wise. Think it took us 1 round to get him into the canter, stopped him then got off.

My body parts were like jello, I was so excited/happy/thrilled/relieved all in one. I just kept thinking, I broke this horse myself and I'm the first ever to canter on him. It's a great, great feeling. I could not love that horse ANYMORE then I do right now. Maybe canter classes wont be to out of reach after all?



On a side note.. My friends Appy gelding pretty much lost his whole tail due to her pretty much wrapping it all winter, granted she didn't have it wrapped EVERY SINGLE DAY of winter, just the mojority. She has a horse show this weekend. Ugh this is why I do not wrap tails, I just braid. ]: