She is Finally Home and Ready to be Trained!!!

Many months ago I sent one of my 3 yr old filly's to be broke by a friend...I have told you guys before I am sure but I'll give a refresher! The filly's name is Mya she is a beautiful paint. During the winter months she looks pure white...well except for the times when she rolls in nasty LOL!!! When her Winter coat sheds you can she her markings, they are black skin not hair so therefore she is a white and gray/black paint! I have owned her since she was about 3 months old and she's really a sweetie! She left us those months ago a baby and came back a baby that will let you ride her now LOL!! She has a very timid personality, she is not a leader in the herd and there are times when she will hide away from the others and simply wait till there is no one at the bail to eat! Silly girl! I know soon enough she will work her way back into the pecking order but she will forever be a timid horse..

So my friend Cowboy S ended up having her much, much longer than he anticipated but he has a family and works constantly and his kids also rodeo so his time was limited! He was having some issues with her wanting to buck every time he saddled her. Finally he sat and thought about it and had a realization that this had happened with another horse and what he finally figured out was the neoprene cinch was causing issue's. So he decided to switch on her and instantaneously she was better, no more bucking! Amazing how sensitive they can be! So he continued riding her to check cattle on a daily basis. She did great out there, she found some quail a few times and some deer. She was more afraid of the quail than the deer but we think that might have something to do with the fact that they flew under her and right at her feet LOL!! She did not come unglued though so I was thrilled to hear that!!! She is a speed horse that's for sure! The very first thing she does when you get on and set is try to take off at a run, she just loves it!! And she's pretty stinking fast! So she is currently learning that is a NO NO!!! Cowboy S says this might be my speed horse...So we shall see how she does after I start training her....If it would warm back up a bit that might help me LOL!!

Mya before she left last summer....She is such a beauty!!



Chowing down!


She was still at Cowboy S's house but I so needed to see her so I snapped some pics! This was about 2 months ago..



Looks snow white!!

I Think it's Almost Time for Her to Come Home!

I think the time is coming near for my beautiful 3 yr old filly Mya to come home!! She was sent to a friend of ours some months ago to be broke. The arrangement my Hubby had with the Cowboy was a trade deal, he gave him something he needed for his horse trailer and in return he would break this filly for me. But as luck would have it Cowboy was very busy all summer with rodeo for his kids and then football season, so now it has come down to she is going on to the Cowboy's uncles to be finished. Which is all fine by me, I'm just ready to have her back and get her muscled back up!! The working she has done and then not having a turn out onto pasture over the summer she has really lost her muscle mass, I went over Saturday and took some pictures of her..

She wasn't real thrilled with the camera :)



She has the prettiest eyes!!



So WOW, she looks yellow?!?! She really is white LOL!!



Something caught her attention!



And away she went LOL!! Here is where I noticed some loss in the thickness of her neck!



She is a paint, but with her winter coat you can hardly tell! She actually just has black markings on her skin that show through her summer coat really well!!



This is her summer of '08, you can see her "paint" markings! Interesting information for you, the new filly that we just got and had the naming contest for...They share the same sire!

No Seriously..I'm Not Breaking her....She's Broke and Trained!!

Could you possibly believe that I have a mare that is 9 years old and has regressed to the mental age of a 2 year old?!?! Seriously, I don't know what her problem is... This mare we bought 2 years ago and she was a great trail riding horse, I was not able to ride her when we got her because I was only a month and half out from breaking my back. But the intention for this mare was she would be DD's horse. Well when we bought her she was in foal so she had that filly Spring '08, while she was further along in her pregnancy we of course did not ride her and after her foal was born we choose to wait a few months till weaning and then we would get her back into shape.. So the first few times we took her out she did OK, she was not responding exactly right but with patience she could be ridden. Well we decided to send her to our friend who trains horses and have him give her a tune up. So he had her for a little over a month and when we went to get her she was easily ride-able, she was trained more of a cutting horse style so DD went over everything with them and she was doing great. I rode her when we brought her home and she was OK, but it was like she wanted to throw a fit because of the change again?? Anyhoo, I've mentioned before that we took her to have DD show her in 4H halter classes and then at the practice meeting they decided to ride well we only brought Ebony so DD said yes she would ride her. So I ran home got her tack and headed back. We got her all saddled up and then DD proceeded to walk her out and after a few steps Ebony kind of crow hopped. So my friend Cowboy S got on her and had that come to Jesus meeting I told you about before and still she was acting up. So after that we had the farrier out and he determined that her back was out and at the trainers they had her shod and when we got her home 2 fell off and so we wanted the other 2 off so the farrier found 2 nails about 1 1/2 - 2" long drove into the quick of her hooves. So our farrier said he believes she is acting this way because she is in pain, which seems logical to me. But we have looked for an Equine Chiropractor and can't find one, the one we were given the number for won't return Hubby's call. So what am I to do, I can't sit here and let all of this money spent on training go to waste so I decided I will start riding her lightly since my farrier said the spot in her back that's out can probably be something she gets used to, or it won't bother her as much.

So today we worked on ground manners, longing, some bending exercising, and lots more. Then I take her out into the field because of course Hubby isn't liking this one bit, he won't even come watch to tell me exactly what she's doing with her feet. So I asked DD if she wanted to come and she said sure and she wanted to take pictures so I told her she could. Well after getting a refresher on the exercises in the field I did some standing in the saddle, moving around to see if she would react and she was fine. So I asked her to walk out and BOOM she explodes!! Starts trying to buck me off, which would not be a good thing LOL!! So I get her head around and then dismount and longe her some more. We repeated this multiple times with her bucking and then me longing her. We finished on a semi good note, I got in the saddle and dismounted without any further blow ups but that's because I only asked for a short walk. Now I am obviously trying to not let her win the bucking battle but there is only so much I can do with her because of my back... I can't risk getting thrown and so therefore I'm fairly frustrated on what to do with this mare. It's pretty sad that she did so well until she had her foal and ever since then...Nothing!

So I'm hoping you all can give your opinions or things you've done or seen?!?!

Stretching her neck out to make sure she's not being stiff


Right after her first session of buck, now I'm trying to get the reins back in order LOL!




Now Longing...


And More....



Gotta go both directions!



Umm can you clearly tell it's my 10 yr old daughter taking pictures LOL!! I think she was startled because Ebony was starting to throw herself around here..




So then she got more longing...Yes I am gritting my teeth :)



She longes perfect and responds just like she's supposed to... Which just adds to her mystery...


Last easy ride off




Is it just me or is this picture sideways?!?! Gonna have to talk to DD about that LOL!! So here is where we ended short walk..

I'm Lovin this Filly!!! Who Knew She'd Ride so Well!!

A few weeks ago I partially introduced you all to one of my 3 yr old Filly's Macy...Macy had been sent to the trainers to be broke and on her last day when we were supposed to pick her up we couldn't because she had an injury right by her left eye...I did a post about this here. She has literally been healing for 45 days now!! When we brought her home my job was to simply keep the wound as clean as I could and remove the stitches.. So I did but the swelling in her eye was horrific, and it is still swollen!! I think it has something to do with the weather, like when the weather is nice out her swelling goes down, when is hot the swelling comes back!

Macy with her eye injury when she came home



Poor baby she could barely keep her eye open!



So Saturday August 1st was our County 4H Horse Show!! We were very excited about riding her and also had plans to ride DD's mare Ebony but as we now know she is out in her back and hip and can't be ridden.. So more on them in a later post :) We like to take our horses that we are training or new ones that haven't been in this environment just to test them and see how they do.

Now Macy I don't think we've done a proper introduction of her yet. So I will just give you a bit about how we acquired her. A very dear friend of ours was going through a rough patch and he had this paint mare and a beautiful black stallion that had bred unbeknownst to him and come the Spring of '06 out pops a beautiful black filly...Unfortunately he was not able to care for her so as soon as we could wean her I took her and put her with another weanling and have been nourishing her ever since...So fast forward a few years and here we are, she is now 3 years old and just as beautiful as can be!!

So we sent her back in May to a friend that was looking for a horse to break (lord knows we don't have the time or facility for that yet) so away she went!! Due to the weather they had some off days but in the end he got around 40 days on her before her injury. So after she had gotten hurt he refused to let us take her home, he felt like it was his responsibility to take care of her...He even fought with me about the Vet bill!! He only let me pay half of it...So anyhow he was going to take her back for a week after she healed just to give her a refresher, but really we ran out of time. The Hubby is gone so much for work that she never got over there. So we went ahead and signed for Hubby to run her in the open classes just to get a feel for her and how she is riding around the other horses..

Now when we got there it was too funny because I rode over with J in his Suburban and I walk up to the trailer thinking "why is Ebony saddled"?? Then I look and see Ebony, so no it's not her....OH DUH it's Macy LOL!! I had never even seen a saddle on her at all LOL!! She looked just beautiful, and I decided that I would do the testing the waters as I can't afford for Hubby to get injured :~) So I step up into the stir up...nothing....bounce a little...nothing....lay over her seat...nothing...WHAT?!?!....OK so I climb on and try to get my feet into the stir ups but OH YEAH it's not my saddle LOL!! I let me niece use mine for rodeo because she likes it real well.. So I am not going to ride her far because this is how I broke my back, by riding in a saddle that didn't fit me and a fresh horse...So Hubby decides he's going to lead me around a bit, I'm like SERIOUSLY?!?! I'm a big girl LOL, I can handle this :) He is overly concerned sometimes! So finally I said give me the reins I won't go far, I just want to walk her and see how she does...OH did I mention that NO-ONE had ridden her in 45 days and WE had never ridden her at all LOL!! So we just walked a short distance and turned and came back.. She did well, there was one point where she wasn't sure what I was asking her to do so she got a little frustrated but all's she did was show frustration, no crow hopping, no pawing, nothing!!!

Hubby watching the other events


Their one of maybe 2 or 3 semi-fits!!




Better Now!!



So Hubby rode her for all of the events; Trail, poles, barrels, flags, and a few other local fun races. The goal for him was to just get her used to him riding her. He said he fully expected to get bucked off because she is a little hot on the ground..They did GREAT!!! I was so proud of them, there were a couple of times that they got frustrated with each other but they worked through it. He of course did all of the speed events at a walk because we are not trying to train her in those events we just simply want her exposed. So there was some friends and family that were kind of like come on already LOL!! But they all understood she was brand new and we all thought they did great!!!

Trail class..


Backing through the L in the Trail class

4H Horse Meeting & A Come to Jesus Meeting?!?!

As we prepare for our county fair in a little over a week we are also preparing for our County 4H Horse Show. So tonight was a meeting to discuss and practice Showmanship...Well Hubby has been out of town so that left me and the kids to get everything ready! Since the note about the meeting said "showmanship" and bring your horse I didn't think they would be doing any riding, well what's that old saying "that's what you get for thinking"!!! So of course we arrive to find out that they will be doing some riding to practice Trail, so my SIL and I high tail it back to my place to grab DD's saddle and my saddle that my niece uses..

Practicing the trot in Showmanship




Of course since we "thought" it was just showmanship we took DD's mare Ebony since that's who she's showing, but Ebony is not who she's riding during the show. She will be riding Pete, but today she said it was fine she would ride Ebony!! Which honestly she can ride this horse it's just that everyone gets her worked up because a lot of people think she is a B***H (the horse, of course LOL)...So we get back to find out that DD's horse and Little Cowboy's (my nephew) horse had a little battle while we were gone. Apparently DD circled Ebony around because she wouldn't stand still and as she did that she got to close to Little Cowboy's horse who then shot out with a kick and Ebony kicked her back well then his horse lunged forward and stepped on the the side of his foot *ouch*!!

Getting Ebony in the proper stance..



Well so when it was time to ride DD had gotten a little worked up because Ebony was being a handful but we got her saddled anyways and DD went off on her. OK this mare is 9 years old, she was an excellent trail horse when we bought her but at that time she had just foaled and was in foal again! So needless to say she spent a couple of years not being ridden a lot. So anyhow they go into the arena and DD is trying to get her to flex and stretch her out and Ebony starts side stepping...DD did everything she could but Ebony wasn't responding. So I told her to just walk her out and see if she would calm down. Well that didn't work either, she just kept crow hopping and was trying to put her head down so she could buck! Which is crazy for this mare!! She was never like this...So after a couple loops around trying to get her into check it wasn't working. So SK our friend and 4H leader switched her horses and he got on and Ebony instantly tried to pitch him so he worked her for a minute then when she wouldn't stop he took her off to the side to have a little come to Jesus meeting and try and get her attitude in check! Unfortunately even though he did a great job with her he needed a side pull to get her head around and none of us had one..So she was just tied for the rest of the evening...

Kisses for Miss Beauty!!


Cowboy SK helping DD out..




So what do you all think?!?! Like I said before this mare is 9 yrs old and was a great riding horse and now acts like she's never been ridden before?!?! Let's have a little history on her here too.. As she was broke they used the typical martingales on her and then they never graduated her out of it. So a few months back I sent her to a trainer and he and his daughter worked with her for 40 days and she was doing better, but they also only rode her in the martingales and I really wanted her away from those!!..But we are now back to square one with her, UHH!!! It's so frustrating....

DD and SK discussing the problem??


Ebony had another almost buck, and DD was not liking it...




I told Hubby tonight when he got home from being out of town that I need some ground worked and some panels set up so I could be working with her everyday in a smaller area, just big enough to run a figure 8... His response....No....I'm like seriously I need this done because I need to ride her everyday to get through this and he refuses because "I might break my back again"...I was like come on, this from the man who does crazy stunts all of the time and then says well I can get hurt doing anything so I might as well have fun doing it!!!

OPP, now she's in solitary confinement...


She's still beautiful~

Such a Strange Filly....

Back in May I introduced you all to a filly named Sissy, at that time I explained how she had kind of wigged out on us and we have been working on her with her issues...I'm not sure if I ever told you all about her kicking me a month or so ago?! Well she did, I was in feeding her in her corral that she was in and after I poured the feed she decided she wanted me out of the way so she spun around and shot those yearling legs out like a couple of rockets!! Luckily I jumped and she only got my calf!!

Sissy standing for Hubby like a good girl!



So anyways after that she basically just hasn't gotten any better and she managed to escape her corral and get into the 20 acre pasture with some of the other horses...So Hubby decided well maybe that's what she needs, so we let her be and just continued to try and bond with her at feeding time and slowly she got better but just not progressing like she should. So last Sunday Hubby decided he'd had enough of her crap and her ran her into a corral and fought with her for a bit then slipped that halter on...And guess what happened?!?!.....She stopped, stopped dead in her tracks...She automatically knows when the halter is on that she must behave...So Hubby left her tied up for a couple of hours then we went out and loved on her and lead her around and she did great!!! So just one tiny step up this huge mountain we have with her..But all in all, mission accomplished for the day!!!

Hubby leading Sissy around...Funny that she acts like an angel now...BRAT!!!

Are we Making Progress Here??

Well it has been a couple of days since I have been able to get on and ride Ebony who we just got back from the trainer's Saturday night. Our first night of riding we knew something wasn't right with her and upon investigating her we found that she had started milking again because we put her out on our 5 acre pasture up front here so that she would be easy to catch, but we have the yearlings out there also and one of those yearlings is her filly Ellie. They had been separated for over 9 months but I guess with her that wasn't enough. So we moved her to the 17-20 acre pasture out back.

Ebony's yearling Ellie..


So today we decided that to ride her we were going to take her to our friends house and use their riding arena, in hopes to have Ebony's full attention so we could work better. Of course since we were going there we took DD's rodeo horse Pete and let her and her bestie Tay ride.

My beauty Ebony!!


Well as we started our workout Ebony was pretty set on returning to where her halter had been removed as to say OK I'm done now! Ha not gonna happen!! We worked first through some bending exercises, and moved on to just walking the arena for a bit. Every time we would circle the arena she would always want to stop in the same place, so we reversed and went the other direction. It didn't make a lot of difference but it was enough to keep her attention in the right place. From that point as she continued to have issues with that spot we circled large circles until she would ride through without stopping. We then moved on to a slow paced trot and up to a fast paced trot. It is a bit difficult for me to do these gaits because of my back however my new theory is "it's not going to fix itself, so it will either get worse and they'll fix it. Or it will stay the same and I will deal with it"!! One issue I spoke about in my first post about her training is that they continued to use martingales on her which I wasn't totally thrilled with because that was something we wanted her graduated from...Well I am not riding her in martingales, I would typically use a tie down on a horse who carries their head to high but with Ebony she isn't carrying her head high she just doesn't respond as well...She is also very tender mouthed so I have to be very cautious to not pull the bit to harshly on her. Of course I say that but when she is throwing a fit I am pulling her head down to my knee in a hurry and that does hurt her a bit. Hubby nicely reminded me that the trainer said if you frustrate her she will lose all attention span to you, well I told him I don't care if she gets frustrated at that point because she is not behaving and she needs to be corrected not babied. Another thing we are not allowing for her right now is a full lope, because she needs to master her steering at all of the other gaits first!! I did walk the pole pattern with her when I was working on getting her attention back and I agree with the trainer that she will be a great pole bender. She has great flex, and moves her butt out pretty quickly, so I am excited to see what the future holds for her!! So for our riding session tonight we got a good 2 hours in, which I was thrilled with!! And hopefully we will have her back out within the next couple of days...May be a little hard to do as DD has a softball game tomorrow night, then we rodeo Friday and Saturday, and then Sunday Justin has a football game for a special passing league he is playing in...OHH I will figure it out LOL!!

Of course being that I was on the horse this time I have no riding pictures to share with you :( I will work on that next time LOL!!