Warm Weather

Worked with Bogey a little yesterday and today, but today was way too warm. Heat index of 105 - not going to ride in that weather just yet.

Both yesterday and today I did a little ground work with Bogey. Working on flexing, side-passing/moving ribs on the ground, moving hindquarters, pivots, and large and small lunge circles. Both days ending with some minor showmanship exercises - set-ups, pivots, backing.

Bogey was pretty pushy yesterday, so more backing up was ordered and today the pushiness was gone - great! But, he did pretend to try to bite me while I was asking him to move his hips over, that resulted in a slight come to Jesus back up session and he and I both forgot about it. Sometimes it's really nice having a smart horse, other times not so much - you really have to be on your toes, but you only have to correct them once.

With the heat index as it is, the groundwork sessions were conducted in the pole barn, and I hosed both Bogey and Nancy off at noon and then late afternoon after his work out. They both received their breakfast and supper a la' soup, soaked in water and they both loved it!

On not related to horse news, I did take my clippers out and shaved a couple long haired kittens. They are grateful now, but that was a different story when I was clipping them. Good thing they are so very tame. The weather is supposed to be a little cooler out tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to take Bogey up to the arena and ride.

Riding with the Sister

Today, Bogey showed no sign of the hesitation or lameness so we may be clear on that front. This morning I did some light groundwork with him loosening up his shoulders, hindquarters and beginning to teach him to bend and maneuver his ribs. This afternoon my sister and I went riding up town at the fairgrounds.

It was a very nice day, the only issue was the bugs - but that was remedied with a heavy dosing of fly spray. My sister took her pony, Nancy, out and lunged her then got on and rode around.

On the Bogey front I got on and worked on bending at the poll and bringing his break over rearwards and finally worked on forward and maintaining the lope. Bogey's bad habit is breaking down on me while loping, which is a combination of him looking for every excuse for "whoa" and the lack of stamina to lope throughout a show class. To remedy this I simply asked Bogey to lope and cruised around the arena. I let him go wherever he wanted, with the only requirement to continue loping. I think we made significant progress in this area and there were only minor breakdowns.

Hopefully, that issue will also be behind us, but I'm going to have to continue that exercise to insure that "forward" is maintained in-spite of the collection exercises. He's too smart that he looks for every excuse to be lazy, and this is his biggest excuse.

Busy Weekend!

This past weekend was fairly busy but still fun (with one not so fun component). Saturday was the second clinic my BHF (best horse friend) performed for the county 4-H horse group and this one consisted of warm-ups, groundwork, minor showmanship review, western pleasure, horsemanship and some minor playing around with a few trail obstacles. There were four girls for the majority of the clinic and six in the beginning, a small but good sized group to get a lot of work done.

My BHF emphasized the warm-ups and groundwork heavily. She has a routine of flexing, lunging, and maneuvering the fore-hand, ribs, and hips. It's a very systematic approach to see where your horse is at and how it is responding to you. The kids worked on that and then we moved onto the showmanship review which simply consisted of a pattern to practice since all of the girls were there for the Wednesday session.

I brought Bogey along and participated in the groundwork, warm-up exercises thinking that once it came time for the riding my BHF would want to use Bogey and not tire out her three year old. Nope, it ended up being me riding the Bogey horse and she rode her horse the entire time. It was unexpected but fun to work on my own horse and help out.

The group of 4-H'ers were clearly divided into a more advanced group and and younger group just learning the basics of showing. BHF took the more advanced group and worked on collection and advanced maneuvers to enhance their pleasure horses and I got to work with the younger girls! It was so much fun teaching the lesson. I do wish I could have heard all that BHF said to the others as she has great ideas that she sometimes forgets to tell me since we spend so much horse time together, but it was really fun working with the two girls and their ponies.

We first worked on hand position, body position and queuing for the western pleasure class. Then we moved onto riding our horses gaits, one had a pony with a bouncy trot and we remedied her seat by sitting deeper, bringing her legs beneath her and not "chair sitting" and counting with the rhythm of her horse's gait. There was immediate progress with both girls and you could see their ponies relax and slow down when they sat properly, that was so much fun to see and be a part of! We also played a variation of red-light/green-light to work on transitions, did a few horsemanship patterns and critiqued each-other (the two are sisters so it was handy for them to learn that skill to help each other out), and finally played a little follow the leader.

The two girls had the most adorable western pleasure ponies. One was about 12 hands the other just under 14 and they had the prettiest lopes I have ever seen on a pony! It was amazing! Their parents really hit a jackpot with those well broke, beautiful moving ponies!

At the end of the pleasure/horsemanship clinic my girls challenged the older girls to a horsemanship pattern and they won! They did the pattern so beautifully and had great position! That was so much fun to see!

After the clinic I rode Bogey around a little more since most of what he did was just stand there with me on his back and I found him to be very hesitant to lope off. He was not lame but was very uncomfortable going into the lope and would not hold it. Oh, no - here we go again with the leg issues! BHF saw the issue too so it was not all in my head. After the clinic I took him home and washed him, banded him and buted him. He's so funny with the bute - he gets so sleepy. I've never had a horse react like that, they always hype up - but he takes a nap!

Sunday was our second horse show and I was planning on simply doing showmanship and going home because of the leg issues. He was completely sound at the trot just hesitant at the lope and seemed ouchy. The pattern was the old school way of doing a showmanship class with a very old-fashioned judge. We lined up and one by one he asked us to walk forward, set-up, pivot and trot back to the line-up. So boring, and does not show anything or clearly define the class. He also wanted a snappy set up and perfect placement of the hooves. Well, that's Bogey's weakest part, the set up. He has the nasty habit of cocking a hind foot (it is getting better) and setting up a little slower. Well, the Bogey horse was especially slow because of the bute and his busy previous week making him extra tired, and he cocked a foot for half of the set-up for inspection. I did fix it, but we blew the simple pattern. Our pivots and trot offs are always rocking though so that was nice!

We got fifth place out of five, so we did take home a ribbon and had our names called, but it's just fun being out there and all dressed up. Speaking of dressed up, as I was getting Bogey ready by the trailer some tourists came by (our fairgrounds doubles as a camping ground) and asked if they could take a picture of him since he was the most beautiful horse they had ever seen. How cute is that! He stood all proud with his ears up for the picture - it was pretty cute! Bonus points for my show grooming routine!

Today, I did worked with Bogey a bit to see if the hesitation was still there and it was only slightly. We did some groundwork, desensitization and then showmanship work. I cold hosed his legs off afterward and we'll see how they look tomorrow. He is on a joint supplement, but I'm going to look into some alternative therapies such as the Back on Track leg wraps and maybe even magnetic therapy.

My BHF also suggested he might have been sore from his pull back episode from Wednesday, so hopefully the issue is behind us since it was not as bad today. (He always is a little hesitant on his left lead lope since his right hind has more arthritic changes and degeneration.) Oh, horses!

Final happy plug, Bogey and I are listed on the qualifying website for our 2nd place showmanship win in our open show series! Yay, Bogey aka "A Chip Off the Tee"!

You win some, you lose some...

This look shows Bogey's feelings about today and the weather we've been having. Photo taken 1/2009.

As famously perfect the Bogey horse was on Sunday's show day. Tonight's practice was a semblance of a flop. I need to give him credit though, as normal horses go - he did great. My expectations for him: he fell a little short.

My BHF (best horse friend) gave the county 4-H clinic tonight on showmanship. She asked me to help out and bring my horses, because mine is older and more well behaved than hers (ha ha!), and is pretty much finished in showmanship now (Yay!). She was going to bring her horse as well and deck him out show ready, but with the weather decided to pass. I then offered to prep Bogey as if for show day.

This took a long time as the weather was rainy and I like to take my time and prep Bogey extensively. I washed him, banded him, clipped his stockings, blaze and whiskers (didn't want to fight with his ears - I always have to twitch him :( ), whitened his legs, chalked and greased his face, and put in his tail. Some of this was done at the clinic, but most was done throughout the day. Bogey was tied then for a long time considering all of those activities. I did have a hay bag in front of him, but any horse would be bored.

Once we got to the clinic he was really looky. I had him tied to a fence post - he spooked and jerked back really hard. How dumb, but very much a horse thing! Somewhat embarrassing as well since this was in front of some of my old 4-H members and I knew almost everyone there. That wasn't all! When I was warming him up for the showmanship clinic, I cued him to back up and he took it too sharply and banged himself on the chain, freaked out and backed into a friends horse. Thankfully, it was a friend and she was very forgiving, but come on Bogey! He knows better.

During the clinic then he did do a lot better. He was very crisp in his pivots (something we've been working on and a goal), and he was excellent in his set ups (yay goal). His backs were straight and good excluding the one freak out. He also did a whole bunch of killer pull turns!

It was slightly unnerving to have the kids ask you to do the pattern after you've been critiquing them. Thankfully, Bogey and I did ok - and then laid down an awesome killer pattern in the end! Yay, us!

He did get sick of waiting though closer to the ending of the clinic and didn't stay lined up, but he was probably bored and he was oddly really thirsty when we got home so that may be a factor as well.

Things to consider:
- Ok, the weather was bad - rainy, cold, changing weather patterns
- Bogey hasn't been worked since the show because of his hooves being trimmed and the bad weather we've been having. Can't ride when its pouring out and it has been for days!
- Bogey had to go through the whole show grooming routine - that did take me many hours and he was tied the whole time.
- He had to stand and be patient throughout the whole 2 1/2 hour clinic.

Ok, all things considered Bogey did great, but I was slightly disappointed in him and somewhat embarrassed, horses sure humble you. Thank goodness we did lay down a few killer patterns towards the end, and Saturday will be a continuation of this clinic. Tomorrow really is another day. ;D

First Horse Show of the Season

Today was our first horse show of the season. It went very well all things considered. First off, the weather here has been awful to ride in and because of no indoor - that means no riding, so this was Bogey's 3rd ride of the season. I'm almost ashamed to say it, our third ride and I take him to an open show. Yikes! Do I have a saint of a horse or what?!? Also, since Bogey is seven, he is required to ride in a "big boy bit" aka, a curb/shanked bit. No more two handing it for us anymore. Today was a milestone as it was our 2nd time riding in a shanked bit. Dear heavens, I'm I a crazy person!

All in all it went very very well considering the above! Bogey and I showed in showmanship, senior (18 - 34 years old) western pleasure, and senior horsemanship (without a pattern, since it was sprinkling and it's an outdoor ring). In regards to western pleasure and horsemanship, we had fairly clean rides we fair/moderately good power steering, but ultimately we did not cut anyone off or ruin anyone's rides! Yay us! We also did not have one ounce of silliness throughout the day, that would be justified of a only 3rd ride horse of the season. There were 3 people bucked off and a runaway horse with all the crazy weather, but we were not one of the aforementioned.

The best part of the show was SHOWMANSHIP! My favorite class ever! It was the classic pattern that our open show circuit likes to reproduce time and time again, so we came ready and prepared! Here's what it looked like:



In the above pattern you start at marker 1, trot all the way to the third marker, back to the second marker. Then conduct a 270 degree pivot all in line with the judge and finally walk to the judge and set up for inspection. The number one issue with the pattern in the cleanliness with the back and making sure that your horse's hip is in line with the judge as that will determine your lines. Fairly difficult pattern for a large horse, especially one that you can't see over his back - that is a problem. The best ways to tackle this pattern is make sure you have clean, straight lines in the trot offs, backs, and walk as well as spacing. Make sure you know your horse's stride length and that you are prepared to compensate for the size of your horse when you are spacing alongside the cones initially.

The number one thing I worried about with Bogey was the back, as Bogey tends to swing his hips out towards his right as we are backing. This I have tried to remedy with controlled backing, backing in circles (forcing the issue and creating strength) as well as finally backing along a fence line. It seems to have worked! We got second! My BHF (Best horse friend) got first, and she said that I should have won, also a local trainer said to her client that my pattern was the pattern to beat and that I did it perfectly! Yay for me and the Bogey horse!

We didn't place in horsemanship or western pleasure and had a few break downs in gait, what can I say we both are out of shape! Just wait until we are primed and ready for the next show, we'll be rocking!

Here's a couple win pictures my sister took of my BHF and I and one of me and the Bogey horse! First time wearing my new outfit, what do you think?!?





FYI The dates on the camera are one day off. Those were taken merely hours ago.