Double Team and Two-a-Days

Reffy's training is officially in full swing. Last night, Ashley and I double teamed him on the lunge line. Me on the line and her with the whip. Gotta make him realize the only way to go is forward! No more of this ploddy western pleasurey horse garbage. Lol. No offense to you western pleasurey types, just not my cup of tea! He seemed to learn pretty fast that in order to escape the wrath of Auntie Ashley he must go forward at all times. And with impulsion! We're still tending to get a little behind the bit in side reins, especially when they get a little tighter. Work in progress :)

Today will hopefully start his series of two-a-days, consisting of lunging in the AM, then going out to play, and me riding in the PM. Fingers crossed he takes to the extra work and doesn't give me his opinion in fun ways. If all goes well, I plan on getting back on a lesson schedule with Megan next weekend. I definitely feel like I need eyes on the ground and a lot of guidance at this stage. I know what I'm doing, and what he's supposed to be doing, but it's hard to tell if we're on the same page and I'm getting the results I want. Theo was never one to dip behind the bit, so that's a little foreign to me. Tonight Ash will be around to watch. Expect another post later or first thing tomorrow!

Here's a still from a funny video of Ref playing with Zam's extra dead jolly ball. He got a new one for in his stall too!

Freedom!

Reffy is officially outside! He's currently by himself until we figure out who his buddies are going to be. Here are some pictures of him rolling in the snow. Yay!!!

Happy New Year!

The first day of 2013 begins what is hopefully going to be an awesome year. Reffy moved home! I'm so excited to have him under my feet and in my care at Hidden Hollow. The next couple days will include a brief settling in period, getting turned out in a field for the first time in a month, and getting back to work.

Of course, nothing can always go perfectly smoothly. Both horses got on and off the trailer without much fuss, Pepper leaving the farm and Reffy coming. Super score! No banged heads or heart palpitations from scrambling on slippery surfaces. We were home free and safe. Until I tried to walk Reffy into his stall. Apparently, the step down was akin to a bottomless pit, and there was no way he was going in willingly. It took about 10 minutes and Jeff and Alyssa literally shoving him from behind til he launched himself in. Hopefully when I have to take him out and put him back tomorrow we won't have that problem. I won't have as many extra hands to get him in. Poor Ref will have to sleep in the aisle. Lol.

Christmas celebrations

Between eating way too much, being a bad horse mom (so busy!), and everything else that comes with the holidays, it's a miracle I'm posting at all today. But I absolutely HAD to post pictures of my Christmas gift to my 18 month old niece Mahlya. As any good horsewoman would, I purchased her very first horse, a wooden rocker, which she absolutely loves. I took a bunch of pictures, including one where she's giving her new baby doll a ride. Within five minutes, while she wasn't paying attention, she toppled off the back of her noble steed and conked her head on the floor. Of course, as her aunt, I let her cry a little and calm down before I stuck her back on that horsie to make sure she wouldn't be afraid. Needless to say, 15 minutes later (after a cuddle with mom), she was back at her horse asking for help to get on.

Merry Christmas everyone and here's to the next generation of eventers!!

Clipping, Bits, and Lunging

Today Reffy's vacation officially ended! He may get a short one next week due to that Christmas nonsense awesomeness, but he'll be working steadily till then and even more so after. Our session started with a little bit of beauty work. As usual, he was a sensible dude, and allowed me to clip his bridle path, whiskers (until he stuck his nose in a bucket of water and was too wet to continue, doh!), stick the clippers close to his ears to see how that will go, and even clip a bit at the top of his tail where he'll eventually get a fancy dressage tail. My clippers are not so sharp for tail sculpting, so instead I grabbed my pulling comb and got rid of some of those awful dead broken bits. Check out the difference!

His tail when I first brought him home:

His tail after a little pulling and trimming today:

Looks pretty good right?

Then we headed into the indoor to lunge. You would never know he's had a whole week off. I put him in a loose ring, french link snaffle, and though he didn't fuss at all, I think it is too small for his mouth. Tomorrow I'm going to measure him to the best of my ability and then borrow as many different bits as I can until I find one we both like. I'd rather not buy a bunch of bits he's not going to use.

Here are a couple screen shots from his lunging video today.

Once again, I am really awful at holding a whip and line in my left hand and keeping him moving as forward as he should be while video taping. He was definitely much better when I wasn't trying to multi-task. He is also not as bendy and round when he is travelling to the left, so there will be more work in that direction from now on. I just can't wait to get this guy HOME!!! Lol.

We also worked on his habit of turning in every time I ask him to walk or woah.  I think the biggest problem is he doesn't actually woah until he feels like it, no matter what I'm doing on the end of the lunge line. Hopefully if we do a little bit every time and I verbally say woah while I'm riding for a while he'll figure it out. Woah means woah!! ;)

Lastly, I have cracked the awful head tossing, must rub, I'd like to see you try to get my halter on, nonsense after I take his bridle off. Hooray! I tied the lunge line around his neck for something to control him if needed, and just let him stand and settle after his bridle was off. Then I moved and stood in front of him, slipped his halter on, clipped on the cross ties, and viola! no thrashing around AT ALL! Go team!

Tomorrow we'll just continue on with much of the same and I think I'll get on him on Thursday. Stay tuned!

Too Much Excitement

For a Monday!!!!

I had such good intents of going and working Reffy today, but of course, things happen, and I only had time to fit in a quick groom and stuff some treats in his face. And give him cuddles. And take pictures of his Christmas present from Megan. And the chunk of tail he ripped out earlier this week. Gahhhh! As if his tail wasn't already a hot mess. Lol.

Oh well! Back to work tomorrow, and only 2 weeks til he moves home! Yayyyy!!!!!

First Ride!

Ok, so technically it's our second ride, but its the first time I've ridden Reffy since I brought him home. Of course, absentminded as I am, I completely forgot his bridle currently has no reins attached, and all of mine were at home in my trunk of stuff. Awesome. But I am, if anything, resourceful and creative, so after his longe, I buckled the side reins together to make a rein. Not exactly the greatest way to feel his mouth, but they worked in a pinch! All we did was walk, trot, and halt, working on coming back when I squeeze my knees and thighs rather than when I haul on his face. Because we don't haul on faces in dressage. Lol. He definitely is going to need MUCH more work on the longe in side reins and I think a lesson is going to be in order as soon as he moves home. At the end of the month. Woot! I can't wait. Life will be so much easier when I don't have to drive anywhere to ride him.

Back to the riding part. He definitely started to get the whole halt with the squeezing deal, but trot to walk he pretty much blew me off and I was bouncing around like an idiot with my stirrup leather width reins clutched in my hands. Glad no one saw that! He started to get a little fussy over my half halts, possibly from the chunky reins that gave me no feel or from the fact that he doesn't like his bit. Currently I have him in a plain eggbutt snaffle, because it was attached to Megan's bride (which I'm borrowing). I'm gonna hopefully get my hands on a couple double jointed ones with fun center links to see what he likes best.

The rest of this week I probably won't be able to get to the barn with everything going on right now (drs appointments, parties, etc). But next week I'll be back on track and hopefully making some progress. Yay new horse fun!