Gear

I feel like my tack wishlist keeps growing and it has been so completely awesome and freeing to be able to think about having fun/cute/popular tack for my girl. Right now the list goes something like this

People On Horses Dressage boots

I'm getting a set of four of these in one of the pink options because they are SOO pony appropriate.


Custom Mattes Pad

I have ALWAYs wanted a Mattes pad but didn't think I would be able to get one in a size small enough for a pony so when I found out how small they come and that you can get them without the fur under the saddle, since I'm worried it will make my saddle tipsy, I knew I needed one. Now I just need to figure out what part of the pad should be pink :-)

Nice Bit

 I have a nice quality bit coming so that I can start to figure out what Katai likes but I've heard amazing things about these bits and if the one that I just ordered fits and she likes it I will eventually get her one of these which are specifically made for ponies with smaller 10mm mouths for their lower pallets and smaller cheek pieces to fit their smaller heads but with all the features of the nicest horse sized bits.


Pony Sized Shipping Boots

These are completely adorable and useful of course

Of course it will take me awhile to get this stuff and half the fun is just finding cute pony stuff but it is nice to be able to actually think about being able to have some nice stuff.

March Goals

Following in the footsteps of several other bloggers i'm going to start setting goals for each month and following up to see how I did at the end.

With that cleared up ;) here are my goals for March;

1. Get Katai's feet sorted.
I was finally able to get a good trim on both her front feet but since they had been so bad, she wouldn't let me even touch them when I got her, I've been doing things a little bit at a time so there is still some heel I need to take down after I give her frog a chance to adjust to bearing weight again. She is a little tender and I think I'm going to fit her for some boots to help with the transition.

2. Get her ground driving polished up.
Once her feet aren't quite as tender I plan on getting her ground driving to the point where I can trot her around the arena in both directions and do some circles before I climb on her again.

3. Saddle time
Until her steering and stopping are good with ground driving there is simply no reason to do much riding but once she is at that point, hopefully by March 20th, I plan on really starting her work under saddle :)

4. Desensitization
Katai is extremely bold and will march straight up to new things with me at her side but when I approach her with scary stuff she is not as brave. I would like to work on exposing her to more new things and to start walking her around to get her out of the pen and her comfort zone.

Hopefully we can get this accomplished in the next month :)

Mind Set

Is something I constantly struggle with when it comes to really throwing myself into this journey with Katai. I had no trouble doing it properly with my music because my mom made sure we had plenty of opportunities and I have no problem getting the mindset right with my career because I make the opportunities myself but I still can't believe that I can make things happen with Katai.

Part of it is not having those opportunities with horses when I was little. I never had the correct tack, no transportation for our horses so no lessons and no good instructors in the area for lessons anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I am incredibly thankful for the fact that we even had horses. I'm bringing it up just because it is affecting how I think about being competitive with Katai.

I'm hoping that as we go into spring and summer and I have more of those opportunities it will start to sink in. It's also really helping that I'm finally able to afford the right tack. I'm not talking popular tack I just mean tack that fits properly and is appropriate for the type if riding I'm doing. I do have to say that I am very excited to get my custom Mattes pad in pony appropriate colors though ;)

This quote by Ayn Rand is something I just found and feel is appropriate,

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplacable spark. In the hopeless swamps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all, do not let the hero in your soul perish and leave only frustration for the life you deserved but never have been able to reach. The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."

Pony Family

With my new promotion things change a little as far as me being able to attain my goal of getting my bronze medal, or at least most of my scores, on Katai. Basically it allows me to fast track a bit.

Something I haven't even been able to dream about.

Because of that its time to change up my pony family a little. Myshla deserves tons of attention and I know I won't be able to give her the time and attention that she deserves. Because of this I am seriously considering rehoming her. I have neighbors on each side that have been wanting her since I got her and the person who we get our hay from would love to take her as well. All three would be excellent homes with wonderfully behaved small children.

The other thing that makes rehoming Myshla a good option is that I'm going to start boarding Katai. I will now be able to afford it and with a better arena, indoor and more chances to take lessons it's exactly what we both need to help my goal become a reality. There are two facilities that I'm trying to choose between and barring availability I have a tough decision to figure out where she should go.

I will say that whether I keep Myshla or find her a new home it will be done only with her best interest in mind and if she does go to a neighbor I'll see her on almost a daily basis :)

Promotion :)

I started this blog with the idea that it would mainly be about my ponies but an important thing happened yesterday and that is that I got the job offer I was working towards! I've done a few interviews over the past month and did plenty of worrying but today I officially got the job offer.

This changes a few things with my plans for my girls which I will go into further in a future post. For now I'm just going to bask in the joy and excitement of a hard won promotion :)

Progress

I didn't realize until I really started working with Katai just how impossible Sora was to train. I was starting to feel like a completely incompetent horse trainer and I'm not. I'm hardly an expert but I did train three ponies that all went on to young kids and two horses, one of which ended up with a couple of beginning trail riders. I've also retrained horses and brought them to higher levels.

I would never suggest that I know everything, or even most things, about horse training but I would say I'm pretty competent at getting them started well and safe with no bad manners and with the skills to go onto a performance career if desired but Sora was starting to make me think otherwise.

I don't know if there was actually something wrong with her mentally or if it was her background but now that I have another horse to compare her to I'm beginning to realize that there was definitely something wrong. She simply couldn't retain things and couldn't generalize at all. I could teach her something simple in one place, after tons of repetitions, but take her someplace else even if it were familiar and she felt safe and she would completely loose the lesson that she previously had down. It was insanely frustrating and I was blaming it all on myself.

Now I feel like I can at least share the blame.

Yesterday, in about half an hour, Katai learned more about ground driving and quicker than Sora ever did because she had retained and can generalize information. I had taught her all the necessary steps and she put them together just the way she should, with some help from me of course :) It certainly wasn't elegant but she worked with me, tried her hardest, thought about what I was asking and learned from the experience which is all I could ask.

There is a dressage trainer, that I would really like to take lessons with, who has just about given up on me because of Sora. She teaches at the place that I was boarding at and tried to give me advice, which I happily took and tried so hard to accomplish but never could. She showed me a bunch of desensitizing techniques that I did a TON of with Sora and while she would eventually calm down about that stimulus in one environment as soon as I would change it even a little I would be back to square one. She would see Sora freak out and I'm sure she thought that I wasn't even attempting to try her suggestions.

The whole thing was sickening to me especially since I've been a student since I was 5 years old. I've taken weekly lessons for music, and sometimes bi-weekly lessons, for the past 20ish years. If there is anything I DO know its how to take what a teacher is saying and put it into practice and this was making her think I didn't want to or couldn't.

This trainer knows that I have Katai and knows that she is untrained. I'm sure she is thinking this will be a train wreck especially since she didn't see what wonderful citizens the other horses I trained where once I was done with them.

I'm competitive and stubborn. Katai and I are going to wow her and change her mind if its the last thing I do

Talk about motivation ;)

Saddle Tryouts

I knew when I acquired Katai that I would need to buy another saddle because her back is shaped so differently that Myshla's. I did hope that Myshla's Niedersuss would fit her well enough to use for the first couple of months but alas it wasn't to be so and so I've been using a western saddle when I've been working with her recently. Over this winter with fewer hours and smaller payroll bonuses a saddle wasn't in the budget but I just received my profit sharing bonus so I finally had a good saddle budget :)

Time for saddle shopping, yay! (Dripping sarcasm)

I started out with the local tack shop since they have about 50 or so dressage saddles that you can take out on trial. I ended up choosing a Kieffer Wein 16.5" with a medium tree and a Thornhill Danube 17" with a wide tree. I thought that the Kieffer would be too narrow and the Thornhill would be too long for her back.

I tried both on her without a saddle pad and, while they both fit, the Thornhill looked like it had been custom made for her. Then it was time for me to try it out since a rider can change a lot. I was nervous that since I hadn't been on her back since December she would be a naughty pony but she was perfect! She remembered everything that we had done at out last ride and was stretching out her back and relaxing which told me that the saddle did still fit well. Even better I love it as well, its sooooo comfy!

I was originally hoping to spend less than either saddle was listed at and thought that if either did fit I would go online and try to find a good deal just like I did with my $450 Niedersuss but the Thornhill seriously fit so well and was in such great condition that I just drove straight back to the tack shop and bought it.

Pictures will follow :)

Another Personal Fitness Post

Since my last post about gaining strength and loosing weight I've lost another 10 pounds which means I've lost over 40 so far. I have a bit more to loose and definitely want to continue to improve my fitness level but it is amazing how much easier everything is now!

When I was trying saddles on Katai I found out that my 16.5" niedersuss that fit snugly now almost feels big to me. I can also really tell the difference in my core strength. Then there is the fact that I have removed nearly the weight of a bag of grain from my girls backs. I am now well under 20% of Katai's body weight which is an awesome feeling :)

I will continue to work out at the gym and I'm hoping to do a mud run or two this summer to help me continue to work toward my goal. Bronze medal here we come!

My Past

Long time, no post.

Winter in Northern WI sucks. Between the ice and snow I haven't had any time to work with Katai at all. Then last weekend after receiving my bonus check from work I decided it was time to find her a saddle that fit. That whole story will be my next post but saddle trials and the thought of her bucking brought back thoughts of my first horse so I found a picture.

This is Bucky. The 16.1 hand appendix that tried to kill me on a daily basis. It's no wonder I have a thing for ponies lol. Just getting him tacked up when I was that tiny meant lining him up with a hill so that I could reach his back to puuussshhhh that heavy western saddle up there. He was an incredible teacher in many ways though and I owe him a lot. I've written about him many times because many of my fears related to horses are his fault but I also wouldn't be nearly the rider I am today if I hadn't overcome everything he put me through. I think we all need at least one horse like that to teach us, to make us better riders and make us truly thankful for the horses that actually want to work within and be our friends :)

Personal Fitness

Anyone who knows any member of my family knows that we are all obsessive :-) It makes family gatherings interesting, to say the least, but it has made us all successful in our chosen fields. When we go for something we throw ourselves fully into it and don't look back. When by brother chose to join the Marines a few years ago he started working out, on his own with no trainer, and kept it up for two full years before he was actually enlisted. My sisters routinely practice, they are both successful violinists, up to seven hours a day on their own and my mom decided a year ago that she wanted to run in a marathon and has signed up and ready for one early this next year.

I have always felt that it is important for the rider to be as much of an athlete as we expect the horse to be and have always been fairly fit. When riding larger horses I felt as though I was strong and fit enough, now I realize that I wasn't, but when I changed to riding smaller equines I started to feel differently. Since I bought Myshla in April I have lost over thirty pounds and in October I added a gym membership. This is the first time I have EVER worked out at a gym. In the past I have walked, run, done sit ups, some stretching and even lifted some weights but never in any real sort of routine. However, when I decided that my goal with Katai was to earn my bronze medal I knew that I would have to do something more.

The first few times that I went to the gym were incredibly intimidating. I had two sessions with a personal trainer to teach my how to use the equipment so that I wouldn't do anything wrong and then started working out on my own. It is amazing the difference that a month and a half of routinely working out will make! I've only lost a pound or two, partially because my diet suffered when I initially started working out, but I've lost several inches and for the first time I can actually truly claim to have at least some core strength. I went from barely being able to do 20 crunches on the ground to being able to do over 50 on the inversion table thing :-) I have a long way to go to be really fit but I'm on my way.

For anyone that is curious about an adult riding a pony there are several things that I personally keep in mind. It is widely known that riders should weigh no more than 20%-25% of a horse's body weight. Some people say that ponies can go up to 30% but in my mind that is too much especially if you are asking them to be very athletic. Currently I am right around 20% of Katai's weight but when I loose the rest of the weight to meet my goal I will be closer to 18%.  I would also be curious to know the ratio of some cowboys on reining horses. To me they seem much more unbalanced size wise than me on my ponies but it is hard to know. Secondly there is the amount of bone and build of the pony. Some ponies are built more like small horses and are very dainty, others are built more like small drafts. Both Katai and Myshla are more like the second although of the two Myshla is built much heavier. Finally there is the balance of the rider. The smaller the horse the more you can through off their balance with your upper body. I can feel this when I ride Myshla especially when she wasn't in as good of shape as she is now. This just means that you have to be much more aware of your balance and how you use your upper body.

I truly adore riding my little girls and want them to have the best health, comfort and happiness that they can. I am always aware of how they are doing both health wise and emotionally and pay careful attention to their needs. I know that riding ponies isn't for everyone but I truly enjoy them so much more than bigger equines that I am happy to pay for a gym membership to keep my ponies :-)

Not a DQ

I'm back after a short break that was mainly because of the weather and Thanksgiving. I work in retail so the entire week was spent getting ready for Black Friday and I had to be up at the awful hour of 3:30 to get ready for work that morning :( After I spent Saturday recovering I did some work with Katai on Sunday and during the rest of the week but I just haven't seemed to find the time to write about it.

Today though we made real progress! When I last sat on Katai I was able to find some major issues that I feel were caused by her being spoiled. She froze entirely when I got on, which alone would have been normal, and than turned stubborn and angry. She would move her hindquarters around but was completely  unwilling to go forward and I had the feeling that if I kept pushing she was going to go up instead.

Unfortunately it meant that I had to fix it which meant going back to work on more ground work. The good part is that she showed me that issue at that point, early on, rather than out in the middle of a trail ride or at a show or other completely inconvenient place. To fix it I worked on reinforcing a huge FORWARD at just a signal or click of my tongue and than refined it to be able to cue her for the exact speed I was looking for. 

Today was finally the day to put it to the test. I knew that she wouldn't immediately be cured and would revert back to her initial behavior once I was on her but the point of the ground work was to create the beginning of a language, or way of communicating with her so as to remove any confusion. The weather was also helping me out since it was in the 40s rather than the teens like it has been. To start with I reminded her of our ground work lessons and once I felt that she was really listening to me I laid over her back with the saddle on and clicked. She got just as tense as she did last time but this time she actually thought about forward. I then used the end of the leadrope and tossed it against her hips until I got a step. I relaxed, rubbed her all over and repeated. After a little while, still just laying over her back since she has had the tendency to think up or buck, she was starting to relax and realize that this was a lesson just like any other. She also seems to think that I'm going to blow up and freak out when she doesn't do something right and when I remain calm and just repeat she eventually calms down as well.

Eventually she was relaxed enough that I swung up and sat properly on her. She really relaxed then since my weight was more balanced over her and was dropping her head, chewing, soft and actually offering forward steps on her own. I worked on getting just a couple of relaxed steps in a row and actually had some steering and then called it quits.

I did have Lisa there just in case and she got a couple of pictures of us. This is where the not a DQ part comes in lol! I am really normally not this much of a mess but I was cold!! I know I also wasn't wearing a helmet and please don't beat me up about it. This is literally the first time in over three years that I have even sat on a horse without one and I realize it wasn't the time to start but I really wasn't thinking I was going to do more than lean over her and it was one of the moments that everything was just perfect and I felt safe.

It won't happen again and I assure you that if you ever see me without again in this blog you are all welcome to scold.

On to the messy and awkward pictures, I always seem to be doing something strange with my face when people take my photo :/ I can't wait to see her in actually dressage tack and I actually have a really nice bridle that I'm saving until we start to be able to add the bit to the mix :)