Riding Over Par

Palomino Youth World Show

2011-07-19T10:31:00.003-05:00

For those of us now stuck with a horse that has just abscessed, yep that's me and Bogey, the Palomino Youth World Show is now up and running. A live feed is available, and the Palomino World Show will follow the youth.

Palomino Youth World Show: July 13th - 22nd
Palomino World Championship Show: July 23rd - 30th

Live Feed for Youth Show online now!

Selling?

2011-07-17T12:10:00.004-05:00

I've been putting up a couple YouTube videos lately of Bogey and I and a couple days ago I got a response to one that took me aback. (Yes, I promise to write about and post the videos, I'm just really behind! haha)

The message was from a previous owner of Bogey asking if I would be interested in selling him and that the person has "cash in hand". Wow! First I thought it was a scam, but amusing none-the-less and I messaged back asking the person's name and where they were from. Any smart scam artist would not respond back, and I know Bogey's previous owners and their locations from his papers.

Well, the person messaged back and it was in serious. I asked a couple trickier questions about my horse that only a previous owner would know such as what was his barn name when you owned him? I referred to Bogey as "Bogey" in all of my videos and the previous owner got the correct answer of "Lester". I personally do not want to sell my horse at all, but it is always entertaining to "field offers", and I might be able to get some really interesting information about my horse's past from the prior owner.

I only know Bogey's history back to his 3 year old year. It would be interesting to find out who actually broke him out and trained him. I'm messaging/emailing the person back as we speak those questions, but I haven't gotten a "cash offer" yet from this person.

Bogey's part of the family, and we both have a very strong bond together. I couldn't dream of selling him, and if I sold him I would not be in a position to buy another horse of his caliber for 5 more years because of the possibility of future veterinary school. Bogey's a horse I can leave at my mother's house and let him sit and relax all winter and come back the following spring remembering almost everything from the summer before. I don't know many other horses that can do that.

I don't want to sell him but money does talk, and how would I feel knowing I sold off my best friend? Yikes! I wouldn't even consider selling him for $5000 or less, but the $10,000 to $20,000 region - looks pretty good. Who could say no to that? What would people think if I said no to that? I would obtain more than 10 times my initial investment at that point and at the very least over 4 times what I've put into him.

Things to think about. What would you do?

Southern Belle Futurity Live Feed

2011-07-13T08:43:00.002-05:00

Thanks Amber at All Around Horses for the heads up on the American Shetland Pony Congress! Those looking for something stock-horse to watch now can tune into the Southern Belle Futurity.

The Southern Belle Futurity

Live feed link: Click Here

War Horse Trailer

2011-07-01T10:05:00.001-05:00

Looks like a great movie! Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks = great special effects and a great film!

The movie is based upon the youth fiction novel War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. The book runs through a story of a horse that is drafted to World War I and the horse's story of trying to come home again. I have not read this book yet, but it is on my short list! The book was then made into a play of the same name that was the winner of several Tony's, including best play, and is very famous on the London stage.

War Horse, the play, incorporated the intricate puppet stage horses shown in the link below.

War Horse Play: Puppet Horses

The makings of a United States tour of the play are in the works for 2012. If it's coming to a theatre near me, I will most definitely be in attendance!

Warm Weather

2011-06-30T18:50:00.003-05:00

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

2011-06-28T22:39:00.003-05:00

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!

2011-06-27T19:04:00.004-05:00

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...

2011-06-22T22:18:00.005-05:00

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

2011-06-12T16:58:00.013-05:00

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.

Oh, no! :D

2011-03-24T19:38:00.004-05:00

I have found the most useful way to waste away my college horseless-ness. I found my new horse lifeblood.

Netflix for horses! It's called GiddyUpFlix.com. Let me tell you it is amazing!

For only $10 a month I have unlimited access to top trainers via their training videos.

I was so excited to sign up for this that there are now about 30 videos in my queue. I also wasted a ton of time selecting and searching their site for these DVD's, while I should have been studying for my Human Physiology exam tomorrow. Well, the night is still young enough and there's always tomorrow... right?!?

I can't wait to get my first DVD! I'll definitely let you all in on some reviews, tips and tricks!

The finally for the Spring break postings will probably be tomorrow. Don't get too excited, it probably won't be that interesting! :D

Spring Break Part 2

2011-03-23T10:41:00.004-05:00

Part one can be seen here: Spring Break Part 1.

Bogey started to feel better around Wednesday, but there is always that question every horse owner has, "Is He/She still lame?" It's almost if we look hard enough we can still see a little limp or a strange turn of the hoof. Finally on Thursday, I felt as if I was making up a bit of the soreness and called my BHF for some riding time.

My BHF has the ultimate horse playground. She has the coolest indoor arena. It is gorgeous inside and has a great sound system, lights, motivational posters/paintings and the coolest ground equipment to work with. She has giant horse balls, a wooden bridge, a trail gate made out of PVC, (How inventive of her husband!), and ground poles abound. It is so much fun to do groundwork there, ride and have fun.

I took Bogey over to her house on Friday afternoon and he was feeling good. She said that she thought he looked so good, he's a little portly, but when you are almost 16.3 and such a long bodied horse a little weight on you makes you look less like an gangly two year old. Bogey by the way is a fit/thinner 1313 lbs. I wonder what he is at right now with his minor hay belly and chub.

Bogey and I went into her arena and did a bit of lunging as he was a bit amp-ed up. I follow Clinton Anderson's methods of lunging for respect as I don't like to make Bogey do mindless circles over and over again, as he was a lunge liner as a yearling and does have some arthritis and degeneration in his hocks and rear pasterns.

After the lunging my BHF came out with her new gelding Truman. (He is a baby-doll faced 4 year old AQHA that is the sweetest boy ever.) She did the same lunge work with him and then showed me her groundwork that she does.

She puts Truman into small trot circles. She has him do this quite close to her as she can bump up his momentum, his belly and work on his face. Truman has a tendency to lower his head way too much and become heavy on the forehand. The groundwork exercise is a simple way to manuver his body and control all of his body parts as a great warm up. It also doesn't take much space, so if you are pressed for location (or have too much mud around! ;D) you can still do the exercise at a slow controlled pace. She does this both directions and then moves him up to a controlled lope. While doing the circles if he is looking like he is holding himself up and moving correctly she lets out the line and allows him to move into a larger/straighter circle. This exercise helps with lift and some drive, but mostly with control of the feet and strength in crossing over and deepening the hock. Also, this exercise can easily be modified to your desire.

I'll see if I can get a video of Bogey and I showing this exercise sometime this summer. (I need to invest in a good video camera).

I'll go through our riding exercises and fun in the next post. :D

-Amy

Spring Break Part 1

2011-03-22T19:21:00.007-05:00

Since my horses are over two hours away, my spring break was a joyful time of reconnecting and re-establishing manners. Bogey was a saint for most of the break and Nancy was a little more naughty than usual, but overall they both were great.

The first day of my break I had my farrier KH out to trim Bogey's hooves. They had gotten quite long as KH wanted to give Bogey a longer interval to see how his feet naturally progress. Bogey is a high/low horse with a negative planar hoof and one that has correctly positioned coffin bone. This makes one hoof stack up tall with a large quantity of heel and the other to splay out forward with low heels. Both very difficult to work with and remedy. The splayed out hoof also is slightly pigeon toed and he paddle foots with that one when it is too long.

KH took this interval to see where we've progressed and how Bogey naturally works his own feet. My farrier believes in a natural balance hoof trimming with modification. He's not afraid to put a package of shoes on, but prefers to see where the horse naturally do best, whether with shoes or without.

After the trim, Bogey was a bit sore and landed a bit toe first on his splayed right fore hoof, which was not fun. We called it good as he was sound enough and KH told me to take it easy for the next couple of days and give him a two day rest. Not a fun way to start out my break, but all for the Bogey horse.

The two day break turned into five day break and my spring break was almost over. During Bogey's slightly off period we did work showmanship set-ups and I have to say he is doing famously. He understands clearly which hoof I am asking him to move and is stacking up fairly correctly every time. I'm very excited about that!

During his break I did give him some bute and found out that he has an unusual response to the drug. Bogey completely mellows out and takes a nap. All of the other horses I've worked with become completely bonkers after having some bute. It's nice to know that my horse is such a light weight. Or as my BHF (Best Horse Friend) states, "He's a cheap date." Good gracious Bogey, what shall we do with you!?!

I'm going to have to put these postings into a series of Spring Break horse fun, as I can't use up all my good material in just one. :D

I also have some additional ideas and backtracking to do and look into. <--- Note to self.

-Amy

Spring Break Part 2

Post Resolution? Yes, Please!

2011-02-22T21:56:00.003-06:00

Ok, so I started out all fresh and new with a New Years Resolution for more posting, and I need to stick with it! I just went through and read all of my old comments from my blogging friends, and I need to keep things updated. I miss hearing your feedback and ideas.

I have a very dear friend who I email most of my horse ideas, thoughts, stories to every day, and I just need to copy them down here.

Here's some upcoming blogging ideas:
- I'm hoping to do a series on western pleasure breeding, some of my ideas regarding pedigrees and up and coming stallions that I think are ones to look out for in the near future.

- I also want to begin looking and reviewing more of the training videos that I've been collecting and some main points, and ideas from those.

- Looking into some patterns I've collected over the years, some horse show checklists, items you can't live without, ect.

- More Bogey stories! Hopefully spring will be on its way - maybe? - and I'll be able to get home to spend some time with him. I will for sure have updates March 12-20 as I'll be home for spring break. Bogey will have his hooves trimmed then and I'll be able to ride in my friend's arena, come on summer!

School's busy, but not unmanageable - now it's just staying ahead of the game and having some fun.

-Amy

New Year 2011

2011-01-01T22:29:00.002-06:00

2011 a new year. Once again back to the blogging. 2010 was not as fruitful blogging wise, but I hope this year to be better. Even though my words may seem meaningless, I'm sticking to it.

I'm now fully into my Junior year, only three more semester's left of undergrad. Last semester ended very well. Three A-'s and one A in the following classes: genetics, biochemistry I, intro physics I, and intro to research respectively. Worked once again at the school library and studied with some great friends.

School goals for 2011:
- Actually schedule studying
- To really study in the scheduled time
(I'm really good at just taking tests and I can't ride off that anymore, I can do better!)
- Make more time for friends
- Go to more school functions

Onto the Bogey front. He's fat and happy right now, albeit a little more chilled than in August when I last posted, but still great. He had a few mishaps this past fall during a few storms and jumped a fence, scraping his legs. Those then healed without any lameness just minor swelling and now he found something else to scrape one again over my holiday break. I've been doctoring that. There has been no swelling or lameness on that leg just surface wounds. We'll get over this bump and move onto bigger and greater things.

I've been practicing showmanship with him whenever I go home and he's doing great. He has all of the major cues, pivot, set-up and back and now just needs finesse and consistency.

Bogey Goals for 2011:
- Finish him in Showmanship
I want to create consistency and fluidity in all of the movements, and to successfully compete at a few local open shows. I want him to be able to calmly work a pattern and line-up without overly fidgeting. To place at one open show would also be great!

-Put him into the Bridle
I'm going to be working on getting him to rely more on leg aids and I'd like to finally put him into a bridle so I show western pleasure at the local shows since he's now aged out of the snaffle bit.

-Greater sense of collection/cadence/consistency
I want Bogey to be able to successfully move with a higher degree of collection creating greater cadence and consistency for the western pleasure show pen.

-Figure out perfect supplement plan/feeding plan for optimum performance

- Eradicate any question of lameness/hock soreness and get to the bottom of that question or readdress.
When working in August we found issues with his hocks and did do injections, hopefully those issues will be behind us.

Those are the goals for 2011. Also, I'd love to continue with the blogging venture once again.

Here we go again!
-Amy

Monday Not as Planned

2010-08-10T11:48:00.003-05:00

Well Monday was not as planned. The heat index was over 105 degrees and I'm not fighting with Bogey and trying to bring him back in that heat, so he got another day off. On Sunday I did take him out and hand walk him and lunge him a little and I saw some improvement so hopefully it is noticeable and not just me being "Bogey blind".

Today we are going to start riding again, there were thunderstorms this morning and more planned for the evening so hopefully it will cool off a little and I can get out and ride.

At this mornings feeding Bogey did have a little fill in his legs, which I'm thinking might be due to the humidity and weather so I'll walk him out this afternoon and see if it goes away.

That's all on the Bogey front, hopefully riding time today, but I'm not going to push it if the fill does not go away.

Hocks Are A Go!

2010-08-06T13:12:00.004-05:00

Bogey got his hocks done this morning. Dr. Kittleson said that his right hind was very dry and it needed it badly. The left wasn't as dry but she said there might be arthritis starting in the fetlock joint so he's not on a joint supplement as well.

All in all, it wasn't too expensive, only $90 for both of the hocks done. I also had her do shots and float his teeth. He has the softest teeth around, hooks and sharp edges every year to file down. He was fairly well behaved, balked a little at going into the examining room but after that is was fine. She didn't even sedate him for the injections, he just stood there like a champ.

He'll get the rest of today, Saturday and Sunday off to rest and I'll slowly start him back up on Monday.

I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but he looked like he was moving better already - just walking back to the barn! I'm excited to see how great he'll move after this!

Skys the Limit

2010-08-03T21:57:00.004-05:00

Tonight I had another video consultation session with Jamie Novak. We only did a half session because we both could see from the video that Bogey was hurting and decided we are taking a short break until his hocks are done on Friday.

Well for some background information on the video. My sister and I shot the video on Sunday late afternoon, it was hot out and Bogey was hurting. I didn't realize/acknowledge the fact until half way through the ride. On Saturday, I took Bogey over to a friend's house to ride and she just had new sand put into her arena, needless to say it was deep and not good for Bogey's already sore hocks.

The ride on Sunday was filled with refusals to go forward, me nit-picking and picking fights, and Bogey not doing his best. For the video it catches a segment in the middle that doesn't look so bad.

Jamie wanted me to go even further and do more of what we are doing, the serpentine and donut shapes at an increased level of headset. She explained what she'd like to see in a super low dressage headset to have him learn to break at his shoulder point and not 12 inches from his poll which he is doing now. This will help him create lift from the shoulders and the rock back.

For me she wanted me to roll my shoulders back and open my rib cage. This has been a problem of mine for years and since I've always ridden young green horses I hunch over just waiting for something to happen - not good. So we'll have to work on that one!

I asked her about his talent level and what caliber horse he is. Now mind you this is the horse I bought off of videos and spent pennies on. She said he was most definitely an amateur breed show level horse and if she got her hands on him for a while she's thinking and open caliber horse! Isn't that exciting! She said he has a lot of talent and she loves his look and his movement. Now I asked her if she was just saying that and she wasn't, she was being totally honest! I think that is amazing - so the sky's the limit where Bogey and I are concerned!

Video Training

2010-08-02T19:19:00.003-05:00

For a Christmas present my mother bought a video consultation training series from a trainer I admire, Jamie Novak from Brainerd Minnesota. We have just now gotten started on the consultation series and are doing our second session tomorrow. I will be posting what she says and my videos here to remind myself as well as see what you all think.

For our first session she asked to see him walk, jog and lope both directions and just do a normal training session on him. Here's the video.

Jamie stated that I have wonderful hands and seat. What do you think? Bogey takes a lot of leg to ride so sometimes you can see my legs doing strange things.

On the Bogey front, she feels that he is in need of hock injections. She felt he looked sore and his mouth gaping/refusals were a direct link to the soreness. This makes complete sense, he was campaigned as a lunge liner and futurity horse, so it seems he is just asking for the injections.

She liked his "throughness" and how bridled up he was. She thought he had hollowness issues and his back needed to be lifted as well as taking the neck line down lower.

Jamie doesn't like forehand turns at all, and feels that they are only good for a horsemanship pattern. She stated that they push a horse down onto their forehand too much. I was doing the forehand turns to have him gain awareness of his hindquarters (they are so far away from his brain) and reach. I like to be able to have my horse be very handy and be able to do it all. I'm going to lay off the turns but still keep them in my back pocket, just because I'd like my horse to have the knowledge and abilities.

Some suggestions on tack Jamie gave were to use draw reins on him and a medium twist bit. For the exercises she wanted us to do serpentines, donut shapes and piaffes like movements as well as using walking pivots and some stop pivots.

Well what do you think? What should we work on? Any recommendations, tips or tricks?

Summer

2010-07-03T23:59:00.002-05:00

Well I've been home for college for two and a half months and this past summer so far has been nothing like I'd expect.

The weather's been crazy - rain, rain and more rain. And when you have no access to an indoor arena and simply a grass pasture to ride in - well you get what I'm saying. It just doesn't happen.

After the weather dried up a little, my brother got sick with E. Coli - so then I'm stuck staying at home babysitting my sisters and not able to ride once again.

Now we've just started riding again and the goals for the summer have completely changed. I was planning on hitting the local shows, but now I'm just planning on conditioning, training and working with my horse.

Hopefully now things will slow down and I'll be able to ride my horse!

Exams & Finals

2010-05-05T10:19:00.003-05:00

Almost done with school for the year! I'm very excited. Just a few more exams and finals left and then it's home with Bogey. This weekend I am going home as he's getting his shoes on. I'm definitely planning some quality time with him, I haven't been home to see him in 5 weeks now. I'm hoping to take pictures of his feet/shoe job and see what you guys think.

Prayers please for my final exams, I've been catching up and working ahead on a lot of projects so hopefully my hard work will pay off.

MN Horse Expo

2010-05-01T14:13:00.009-05:00

Sorry for the picture quality - it was off my cell phone.

Last weekend I attended the MN Horse Expo. I could only go on Saturday so I did not get to see the full clinic schedules but the bits I did see were great. On Saturday night I also went to the rodeo - it was awesome!

A friend of ours is in a wheel-chair so we all sat in the handicapped section with him. This section was the first row, in front of where the bucking chutes opened up and the return gate was directly in front of us. It was so much fun to watch. We were so close that we actually had fur fly up at us and some of the arena dirt.

The bucking stock were great too, quite a few of them had been to the World Finals Rodeo and most had some kind of record. All of the bulls bucked off the cowboys before the 8 seconds were up. Not one cowboy had an 8 second ride. It was amazing the quality of the stock.

The place was packed and the crowd roared. It was so awesome to watch a great rodeo!

I'll post more about the clinics, I mostly watched Lynn Palm and talked with her a little after wards about some of her theories on straightness. Also, she said some interesting things about Clinton Anderson's one-rein-stop, none of them in support.

All I ever need to know... I learned from YouTube.

2010-04-14T19:22:00.003-05:00

Oh that old adage, "all I ever need to know I learned from kindergarten". Well kindergarten, you have been replaced - welcome YouTube.

YouTube is a culmination of videos from all around the world. Are all of them beneficial? Maybe not, but can you learn something? Probably. Sometimes all that you learn is what not to do, but that's something. I adore YouTube for the simple reason as it helps in my never ending quest for equine knowledge. Right on my computer screen I can see the world champion trainers giving me lessons - for free! Yep, you heard it right, all free. Now, no they do not address me by name, and sure maybe they are trying to sell something, whether a product or a horse. But, each time I click that little red triangle to hit play, I learn something.

Case in point: I just subscribed to a very famous pleasure horse trainer's channel recently. On his channel he shows the beginning stages, 30, 60, 75 day marks of two of his two year olds he's preparing for futurities. With these short videos, upon close examination, one can learn what a two year old should be doing in the timeframe, as well as training tips, tricks, or hints. Now, mind you, this is no replacement for getting out and actually riding your horse and practicing on your own - but it sure is great for a college student stuck in the middle of the city.

I currently subscribe to around 75 YouTube channels - maybe I should go study now instead....

2010-04-11T16:30:00.003-05:00

Not much going on here - I'm going to be uploading some old videos of Bogey soon, as well as patterns, show check-lists, and more! I just have to get through my Human Anatomy exam and do some serious studying. The picture above is from the same series of 4H show photos. Wish me luck and send prayers for my exams this week.

Western Pleasure Photo

2010-04-09T21:37:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts - life has been busy. I had two exams this week that had to take priority. In the meantime I asked my sister to put the pictures of my last 4H show on Photobucket. There will most likely be a multitude of pictures from that event on here in the future.

While looking through the pictures I came across this one. It had me very happily surprised. In it you can see Bogey's naturally sour look. I don't think we can ever get rid of that - but we'll try. As well as the sour look, you can see him lifting and collection. Take a glance at his nice round frame of his neck and the elevated shoulders. Also, you can see the drive from his back hock. Now, mind you, Bogey has a very long back so this is doing pretty darn good.

My equitation on the other hand, is better, but not where I would like it. I'm not hunching as badly and am only looking down with my eyes. Feel free to critique the picture - I'd love to find other areas where Bogey and I can improve.

Tightening Up a Gait

2010-03-28T11:41:00.004-05:00

Please excuse my "hunch". I will definitely be working on my EQ this summer, that's for sure!

When I was going through the images of Bogey and I at the 4H show in July, I was noticing that he drags his hocks out behind him in both the walk and the jog. I haven't been able to find a lope picture yet, but I'll look into that.

Goal for the summer is tightening up his gaits and getting him underneath himself.

There was an article in Horse & Rider I believe on this very subject a couple months ago. I'll have to look for it and let you all know what I find.

If anyone has any exercises, or suggestions on this very topic, I'm all ears! I would love to have more things to do with Bogey this summer.

Revisiting Ideas/Posts

2010-03-27T22:21:00.007-05:00

Please ignore the helmet - they are 4H mandatory.

I was looking back over some of my posts for summer goals and the post about the trailer issues made me smile. In that post I stated that the only goal for the summer was to get him into the trailer, haul around to shows/places/anywhere that would take us, and do some showmanship at the local shows.

We not only succeeded in all three of those goals, but we excelled in others. I was simply wanted to bond with my horse and get both of our feet wet. Bogey and I did that and then some!

To the shows we went, not bringing home any ribbons or placings, but looking good and having fun. We participated in not only Showmanship but also Western Pleasure and Horsemanship. We successfully participated in our local 4H show and was the first runner up to go on to the state fair. This was a marvelous feat since we had only competed in 3 of the 6 qualifying classes! We beat out quite a few participants that did all 6!

Bogey was awesome - I'm going to have to go through some of the memorable shows, but I just wanted to throw a little cheer out for my big guy. We definitely were "over par"!

Industry: Expectations, Disapointments, Redemption?

2010-03-27T21:53:00.006-05:00

The horse industry has its many good points, but it also has its flaws. One flaw that is especially seen in the Western Pleasure horse industry, in regards to futurity horses, is the problem of taking short-cuts. This issue was clearly seen in the abuse of the Quarter Horse Slow Lopin Scotch, under the care of Cleve Wells Quarter Horses. I am not here to lay the finger of blame or make any aqusations. A quick Google search will lend a myriad of information regarding the case as well as the inserted link. I'll let you make your own decisions.

Why I mention this is that my own opinions of Cleve Wells was definitely marred by the case. I had no desire to condone him and was supportive of the America Quarter Horse's one year ban ruling.

On March 6, 2010 I attended an online Pleasure Horse clinic put on by horsetrainingchannel.com. I was questioning attending because Cleve Wells was a primary clinician, but I chose to attend because I wanted to hear and learn from the other two clinicians Rusty Green and Shane Dowdy.

After watching and reviewing the clinic multiple times, I have to say that Cleve Wells did not win all of his world championships for nothing and I saw no abusive practices what-so-ever, from which I was pleasantly surprised. Shane Dowdy, on the other hand, was actually harder on his horse and pushed the limits than the other clinicians and some of the techniques he implemented I would not use on my horse.

What I am getting at is that we all do not know the whole story, we never will, and I feel that we should take each person with a grain of salt. I do not support or condone the harm that was implemented on Slow Lopin Scotch, but I feel there may be a time for redemption possibly in the future, and forgiveness. I learned quite a bit from the clinic and was extremely glad I participated. And really, you can learn something from everyone, including the village idiot - even if it's what not to do.

Trailering & Bogey

2010-03-26T11:10:00.008-05:00

Above is a picture of Bogey's sire, Tee Totalin Fred.

Double J Quarter Horses

I forgot that I have not finished up the posts on Bogey's old trailering issues. That's right I said OLD! :D

Bogey had issues going into the trailer when I first bought him. The trainer that hauled him from Indiana to Minnesota said that she had to bribe him with grain to get him into her 4 horse goose-neck slant load trailer. When I went to the trainers house twenty minutes away - he would not load into our former 2 horse straight load trailer. Mind you, this trailer was not your average 2 horse. It was a very tall trailer, white and very roomy.

We tried lunging him around, pulling him, pushing him and bribing him. He would not go. Since it was December and very cold and slightly icy and I did not want a hurt horse, we quit for the day and the trainer said she would haul him over in her slant load goose-neck. He went in, with bribery.

I do not like using bribery, and expect my horses to load easily and practically by themselves. Point and shoot. This was something we would definitely have to work on. Bogey was then at the boarding stable for the winter and we did not address this issue of loading until spring time, when I took him to my house. When I would try to load Bogey, it would become a battle with him and he would back quickly away and lunge the rope out of my hands - he was flat out scared to go into the trailer at first, but then it became a respect issue and a stubborn issue. Bogey is extremely stubborn and if he does not want to do it - he won't without making a fuss. This has been interesting to deal with to say the least, but with his stubbornness comes the added bonus of when he gets something, he's stubborn about retaining his knowledge, he'll remember it. But the trailering issue was almost becoming dangerous, he would rear and pull back - not cool and not fun to deal with, when you just bought a new horse and don't even know what to think of him.

We also bought a new trailer, it was time for an upgrade anyways, a 3 horse slant that can be converted to a stock trailer and used that instead. A dear friend of my came over and helped me load him. She is wonderful with horses and can break things down for them to grasp. Also, she does a lot of Clinton Anderson techniques, and whatever one says or feels about Clinton - he sure can get a horse loaded in a trailer. I do like his methods and they are a common sense approach.

Stacy, my friend, lunged him near the trailer and circled and made him work away from the trailer but then let him rest near the trailer. The rest became closer and closer and finally he was in the trailer. Bogey now can load, no more issues. All summer we were loading and traveling to all sorts of places. All I would do is point him at the trailer and throw the lead over his back - it was that simple. The problem that I had was getting over that initial fight.

Mind you, I did have to repeat Stacy's methods and do the lunging for myself and would have to refresh it ever now and then, but it never became the problem that it was previously. Many thanks to Stacy, for getting that initial stubbornness out.

Long Time No Post

2010-03-26T10:57:00.004-05:00

Wow - it has been such a long time since I've posted here. I need to finish up all of my loose ends and start writing.

School is good, very busy, but good. I'm not a fan of organic chemistry, but you'll have that. I love my professors though, they are great!

Onto Bogey news: Bogey had a break all winter long hanging out at my house with my pony Nancy. Hopefully he'll be mentally refreshed for the next season - I have lots of plans! A great friend of mine is building an indoor so we'll be over there a lot, and I have some awesome friends to ride with and motivate each other.

When I'm home next I'll put the images from my shows last summer onto Photobucket and get them onto here, and see what I can write about them, it might be a little too late to remember everything!

Also, this winter I've been watching a lot of training DVD's and quite a few youtube videos and trying to learn so I may have some reviews to put up. I also have some plans for this summer involving Showmanship, one of my favorite clases, and blogger.

Do not fear, I am addicted to blogger and do read everyone's blogs faithfully - I just can't seem to update my own.

The photo above is an old one of Bogey, I believe it was one of the images the old owner sent me when I was looking to buy him.

Contest Won!

2009-11-10T17:53:00.005-06:00

That's right, I won a contest! Very excited to see this prize come in my PO box as you can never have enough note-pads especially very cute horse themed ones!

This one comes from a really great blog: The Pleasure Horse Blog. Very fun to read, informative and great contests! Check them out.

p.s. I WILL have updates from my summer, school is just killer and organic chemistry sucks, so that is my excuse from not compiling pictures and posts. :D

Congress!

2009-10-02T19:31:00.005-05:00

Sorry to all for the lack of posts and updates - I'm going to have to go through my summer stuff and tell all the great stories. It was an awesome summer, but busy! Which means no time for the internet! The picture above is from one of our shows this summer - he looks great, me not so much. (Someone also needs to have their hat shaped!)

Congress is upon us so that means that in between my classes and any breaks that I have from Organic Chemistry (yuck!) I will be watching and learning from the live feed!

Click Here!

Also, take a look at the patterns - some difficult some awesome and some just plain interesting!

Patterns

Dancing the Night ... Away?

2009-04-19T10:41:00.004-05:00

Alright, I know that I left you all waiting for pictures of my Bogey, but I haven't gotten a hold of my sister yet to put those up on Photobucket - so you'll just have to wait a little longer. In the meantime, I have quite a funny story to tell. You may not think it that funny - but oh my friends and I did.

One of my roommates is in a dance class for her gym credit here at school. With this dance class she had to go to the local dance club The Tapestry Folkdance Center to learn an "ethnic dance". Well the Tapestry does all sorts of interesting dances and since I opted to go with her so she didn't have to go along, we chose the English Contra-Dance, thinking that it would not be that far out of our comfort zone. I think the real reason we chose it was because there were pictures of that dance class on the website and there weren't that many people involved and most of them there were girls so we thought we would be safe. Oh, were we wrong!

(Photograph courtesy of the Tapestry Website)

We expected to see about twenty to thirty people there maximum. There were about sixty to seventy people there. We thought girls would be in the majority - they were but only by two extra girls. My roommate and I went with another friend we coursed into going, and since our friend Roz didn't want to dance with a guy and I didn't want to dance with a guy - we decided to be partners for the first part and I would dance the guy part. That was all fine and dandy, and actually for the best since all I had to do was dance with old ladies and most of them were very funny. Roz on the other hand had to dance with creepy old men. Yep, I said it - they were a little creepy.

There was one man there who was about forty and he had the complete "fu manchu" mustache.

(Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated CNN.com)

Now, Michael Phelps can wear a fu manchu anytime - this guy, could not. The man's was also fuller, and he didn't wear shoes. That's what really got us, he just didn't wear them - no shoes or socks. Can we say athlete's foot?

There were many other character's at the dance, like a cowboy in wranglers. Now, all for the boots and wranglers, but this is Minneapolis, Minnesota not Houston, Texas. I got the John Travolta "Urban Cowboy" feel, just a little too much.

(Photo Courtesy of Hot Movie Sale. com)

Once we all warmed up to our creepy men, we decided to have some fun with it for our last dance. Now, I was asked by a gentleman older than myself - I'd say he was late fifty's early sixty's. He did not give off the fun grandfatherly vibe, it was pure I'm dancing with a nineteen-year-old creeper vibe. He kept complementing me the entire time.

"You're pirouette half turns in a four beat are wonderful. If you can do those, you are good." It was beginning to be obnoxious, but he was my creeper and - I liked him. He was an extremely good dancer and had been going to the Tapestry for many years, so I finally got to dance the girl part - he could twirl me around and we danced the night away.

Thankfully, I will never see him again in my lifetime, or at least I hope not.

Coming Soon!

2009-04-13T19:25:00.002-05:00

Life has been busy, so I have not been able to come on here and post. But, I have been on and reading all of your posts, faithfully, so that's good.

The coming soon is a post about Bogey! I did get to spend a whole day with him over my Easter break and I have pictures and more to share about him. (I just need my sister to email me the pictures as I forgot them at home, and I'm now back at school.)

Makeover - or Under!

2009-04-02T22:39:00.006-05:00

Ok, Punchy over at Lucchese to Louis Vuitton had a fun little 5 second makeover gadget. Well, I'm sorry gals - but I do have youth on my side (so no wrinkles really to hide), but I could stand to lose some weight. So when the final project was in, and in all reality this makeover turned into a MAKE UNDER!

Here is my before shot:

Pretty decent - don't you think.

And here is the final product. I had everything done to me, from head on up - I had it done! All to the extreme. haha :D

I think I look like Michael Jackson!

If you want to try these fun gadgets out here is a link: New Beauty

Encouragement

2009-03-26T21:59:00.004-05:00

I have a really awesome friend who just emailed me, and all of your comments of encouragement just make my day! Bogey and I will get it together, sometime. I just can't have any expectations with him, and I think I'm pushing the issues a little too much. We're going to start out with a blank slate and go from there. Back to square one!

The goal for this summer is pretty much just the trailer issues. I need him to load into a trailer like the one pictured below.

The dividers can be taken out or left in, which I think we might take them since I'll be hauling only him most of the time. We can put them back when I need to take the pony places.

Once the trailer issues is ok, we are hauling places. He needs to see things, so to the shows we'll go to watch and learn. Thankfully there are awesome open shows that are only 5 miles from my house! These open shows have people that are successful at AQHA shows but just can't afford the fees. If you could win in my open show district you could win regional AQHA. They are just that good. So Bogey and I will grace them with our presence and we may just do some showmanship since that is working out with him.

So minimal goals and lots of trailering miles are ahead of me! Summer here I come!

Bogey --- Just about

2009-03-23T16:11:00.003-05:00

Well, long time no post. I fell a muse coming on so I thought I should update. To all the bloggers on my page, I read your pages faithfully but sometimes I feel that what I write - is just ramblings on and the despair picture comes to mind.

This Despair photo is exactly what I feel like on most days. Thus, the lack of posting of late. But, now with my change of heart - I am writing this blog to accurately remember my journey with my horse Bogey. I never really meant for this to be extremely public - it just became that way for ease of use and I like Blogger's applications. So my journal will begin again.

I was home for spring break all last week and I did get to spend some quality time with Bogey. It was nice. I didn't get to spend much time because of the long jaunt it takes to get to the boarding stable and the lack of a vehicle but I did get to spend some time with him.

Bogey was just that - Bogey. Since owning him we haven't gotten to know each other that well and our acquaintance with each other is interesting at times. Like I've mentioned in previous posts Bogey is a very typical aloof Quarter Horse personality. When people he likes are around, it's great - when he has his alone time that's great as well.

Now, you all know that I've been working showmanship on him since that is my favorite event, and I believe that all horses should know how to do the maneuvers if only for basic safety precautions. Bogey is too smart at times. We've done probably five good training sessions on showmanship and he's picked it up so quickly that he is now bored with it. BORED! With my favorite event! He pivots correctly and plants the right hind about 95% of the time, holds a set up, trots off on cue, backs quickly where I want him to back, walks on cue, rates his pace to my own, and sets up in a reasonable amount of time. The only other things we could do with this is work on quickening up his set ups and creating ques to place each foot exactly where I want it, and a pull turn. The pull turn is not necessary for the local open shows that I attend in the summer but we'll have that down shortly.

With Bogey's recent boredom of the event he's started to do some bad behaviors to show his displeasure. Such as opening his mouth and pretending to bite the chain or my arm. I DO NOT tolerate this and if I catch it in ample time he'll get a quick smack on his neck and will have to do another "harder" maneuver correctly and then do the same maneuver he rebelled against once again. If I don't catch it we'll just increase intensity and leave out the light smack.

From not knowing much about his past prior to the past year, I've found a few things that I really REALLY don't like. Bogey at one time or another had a halter on for a long period of time, had one on that was too small, or had an accident with one on because he has scar tissue and displaced white hairs along the bridge of his nose where the halter noseband rests. Also, if you raise your hand up quickly or even just raise them up at times, Bogey will shy away. I believe that someone hit him, waled on him, and just plain abused him enough to leave a mark but not fully destroy his spirit. This is very apparent when trying to get him to do something he does not want to do, such as enter a new horse trailer. He hates it. The ONLY way you can get him to enter one is bribery, which I hate to do. All of my previous horses and my current pony Nancy load into a trailer by themselves. I point at it, and throw the rope over their necks and they load themselves safely. I then can enter and tie them up and no one gets hurt in the loading process. Bogey on the other hand will not load.

We had a larger two horse straight load trailer that used and he would not load into it. We thought he was just too big, because he was honestly. So we now have a 3 horse slant that can convert to a stock trailer, which has ample room for him. Once again, he would not load. I had him hauled here by a local trainer who used a 3 horse gooseneck trailer and he would load only with grain. I just don't know what to do with this boy.

When trying to get him to load I first walked him around outside and around the trailer so he could get a look at everything. We then just walked up to it thinking this might be better. No such luck. He readily backed away from the trailer. I then did the whole bribery trick with his treats, with some sweet feed. Still no luck. Finally, I did some lunging around the outside of the trailer to get his feet to move and make the inside of it looks so much better. Still no luck. Now I really don't know what I'm going to do.

Bogey did have his breakfast about 3-4 hours before trying to load so he wasn't too interested in the food, so that may be an option just to get him inside. I've learned that he doesn't like new things at all, but once you get him to try them - it's not a big deal and he'll do it again. It is just that initial start.

I can also see some issues where he might have been abused in his issues with new things. He will just shut down or become beligerent and fight it. For a while at the trailer he shut down, then when I pressed the issue he fought it a little with some bucks and lunging. Not at me, oh there would be hell to pay for that one, but as he went into a trot or lope while lunging. Also, if you try to physically force the trailer issue, with pulling, lunge line, lunge whip, ect., he shuts down even more.

I don't know what to do with him and the trailer issue. We're just going to have to work at it, so time will tell. The worst part of the story is that I'm back as school now and won't be home for another two weeks so Bogey wins again.

You're a saint if you read all this and if anyone has any tricks or tips for working on his slight abuse issues, gaining trust, and working with trailering, I would love any and all help.

I also promise I'll be more faithful about the posts, even though they may just be about boring college right now. ;D

Till next time,
Amy

Witticism Wednesday

2009-02-25T18:22:00.003-06:00

So everyone has there "it thing". Some people have pictures they take and all that jazz. Well I've found a really really sarcastic funny site that is just my humor.

I got this from my College Chemistry teacher who is a very funny man. Thank you Dr. Rohly.

So without much ado welcome to Despair.

A Bad day turning into a GREAT one!

2009-02-23T16:01:00.002-06:00

Title says it all. Today - started off horribly!

Once again, we were hosting last night - let me tell you at a Christian private school - hosting is truly HELL! I can't stand it. Well, with the gal that we had last night, don't get me wrong - she was very sweet, but she just didn't really fit in with my roommates and I. First of all, she didn't really want to be there with us. She had a bunch of other friends that came with her that were hanging out in a different dorm. Recipe for disaster because you can't make someone have a good time when they really don't want to be there. My roommate would have let her go over there, but it was a guys dorm and the halls would close within ten minutes of her getting there. Then the issue of getting her back in - our doors lock. It was just a big mess.

Then to top it all off - she slept for seven hours on the way here. She was wide awake and ready to "party" in her own words, at 11:30. My roommates and I are ready for bed if not already asleep at 10:30. I know we do not get out much - we just have a 7:40 AM class the next days so we go to bed early. Our guest had other things in mind. Also, she likes movies and video games - we don't have a tv or video games in our room so we had to impose on a friend of ours. It was a HUGE mess! I hated it.

Thankfully, I had to go to Math Lab to get my homework checked and could "run" away for a time, as well as having a quiz to study for the next day. So I did just that, and took one of my sleep aids, my ipod and fell asleep. My roommate couldn't, she had to stay up with our guest.

When I saw my roommate this morning she said that our guest was the worst one she has ever had and she might not do this again. SCORE! :D I really hate hosting so that would be totally awesome! ;D Thus, the beginning of the great day.

I B.S.'d my Biology quiz and did fairly well on the ones I guessed at, another plus. And the cherry on top was that I have a whole post dedicated to my showmanship questions over at Paula's Showmanship blog. You can check them out ---------> and
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The post is entitled Amy's Question. Very cool blog and she has a wealth of showmanship knowledge, which just happens to be my favorite event. So, I hope Paula's prepared for more questions. :D

I'm making a point to get a ton of stuff done today - wish me luck!

Oh, and Aerobics was awesome yet again! ;D

Hosting... again.

2009-02-22T18:52:00.004-06:00

Yep, we're hosting again. Thankfully it is a campus visit weekend so the hosting is being done by quite a few people. Also, I have gotten quite a bit done, homework wise, this weekend so I don't have to panic about any of that nonsense.

I don't like hosting - but I bear through it for my roommate's sake - it will be ok!

I'm just going to do my thing and all that jazz. I also have a quiz tomorrow in one of my classes, so I have to study.

My weekend was nice and slow. I got things done and got to watch my favorite television shows. I love getting LOST! Watch it if you can - all the episodes are online on abc.com. It is a really great show. The past three episodes have been super exciting and I've been on the edge of my seat the whole time! Give them a chance if you have time! They are very addicting. Soon you'll be "getting LOST" just like I am.

I also watched a 20/20 special by Diane Sawyer - very interesting! It was about the children of Eastern Kentucky. Did you know that a prescription drug dealer could make more in a weekend in the Appalachian towns of Kentucky then they would a MONTH on the streets of New York City! Isn't that outrageous! They also have many areas that have more people in poverty than many places in India a third world country! That is even crazier, and in the U.S. no less! The show blew my mind away - you can also watch it online at my favorite abc.com!

After that, I watched an episode of Bones. It was pretty good - the sad thing was I could identify with the annoying guy who knows random facts on everything. Very Sad! My friends all say I should write a bathroom reader - because that's so me. If we're talking about something, I'll interject with a random fact pertaining to the topic. I hope I'm not as annoying as the guy on the show. :D Oh well, I like knowing things and like sharing my tidbits of knowledge - so I guess you all are stuck with me and my facts.

Oh, I got to go to Math Lab to get my math homework checked out and then I'm going to study my biology for a quiz tomorrow. Wish me luck!

No Time!

2009-02-21T10:25:00.005-06:00

I'm so sorry to all my fellow bloggers - I haven't had time to post, but rest assured I do read ALL of your blogs faithfully every day. I can make time for that, it's just that so much has been going on in terms of busyness that I haven't had time to blog.

This week has been particularly crazy. I had a Chemistry test yesterday. Now the thing with this test is that since I have Thursdays completely off I felt that I could do all of my studying then. This was going well until a gal on my floor came into my room and asked.

"Amy, did you get #21 on the Biology question set?"

I quickly replied, "No, isn't it not due until the test, next week?"

She then pulled out her syllabus and there is was - Question Set due Friday! I had a minor panic - it was 7:30 and I was going to cram in the Chemistry right then and there, but I couldn't I had the question set. Now, mind you that the Question Set isn't just a couple of questions - it is about 60+ questions that will help you study for the upcoming test. I thought that I heard him say that they were not due until the test date, but since she had hard evidence and I only had my believed thoughts I followed her lead. I finished that problem set in less than 3 hours. It was about 10:30 then and I really needed to go to bed. My Chemistry test was at 7:40 in the morning and I need a full 8 hours to function so off I went to bed - praying that I would do ok on the test, even though I hadn't read one of the chapters.

The next day - the test went ok. I didn't bomb it nor did I do as well as I could have, oh well such is life, and it is only the first test of the semester so it will be ok! Well, I went to Biology with my problem set in hand and guess what!?!?!

The problem set wasn't due until the TEST! I was so mad, not at the gal - she apologized profusely and I repeatedly stated "it's not your fault". - But I was mad at myself for trusting her against my better judgement and beliefs. Note to Amy - do your own thing! (And write stuff down!)

The good thing that came out of this mess is that well now - I have the problem set done! hahaha - not really that funny in my opinion.

Oh well!

On lighter note - let me just say that I LOVE my roommates! They are the greatest gals I will ever meet and they just make me feel happy. (They don't read this so I am not brown nosing!) I hung out with the one that goes home usually most weekends and it was just nice to have the two of us and our time together. We're both introverts at heart and have the ability to leave each other alone and know when enough is enough! It's just great that you can take someone at face value and not have to question. Am I reading her right? She is sad? Mad? Happy? We're just open with each other and it is awesome! I love it.

On horse note - Bogey got his hooves done, oh 2 weeks ago already. My mom and sisters went and saw if there were any issues with them that I should know about. They said that they looked fine but the right one looked a little off. (Now, mind you these are not horse people, just extremely descriptive individuals who have come along for the ride with my love of horses. They are the best and are so good to me! (Next post will be about them and their awesomeness! (No they do not read this either!) :D ) Well, here are the non-horseperson pictures they took for me with a video camera and converted it to .jpg (one of my sisters is so tec savvy it's unreal! More than I was at her age and I was addicted to the computer!)

They said that the right looked a little off, but it may just be the way he was standing. The feet looked nice they said. My mom also moved him around, backed him up and they seem to be traveling well. This trim was WAY overdo so anything is better than what it was.

Why the trim was so late is that I got him and he needed to be trimmed when he got here. I pull all my horse's shoes in the winter to just let there feet grow and to be real horses. That's just what I've always been told to do - so I do it. (If anyone has any other suggestions on it! Let me know! I would love to hear more about trims, shoes and the overall hoof). Well, I only had about a week with him so I let them go so I could ride and do things with him, because I knew he would be sore. Also, I wanted to wait to see if my farrier could do it since he was in MN and is in TX most of the year.

One thing led to another and Bogey's feet didn't get done, my farrier went to Texas early and so I had to find a new one. I HATE looking for farriers - I'm always afraid they will mess up so I kind of let the hooves slide a little (which is a bad bad! thing to do I know!) So, on went the search for a new one. I called one - he was on vacation, and the other one hurt his back. Finally, I got a guy who does a couple other horses in the barn but he couldn't come until after a week.

It was kind of a mess, but now they are done so I'm thankful. I really want to see Bo's hooves and see for myself it I like this guy or not. Who knows!

Well, that's all that has been going on - this end. I did buy a new show halter. (I'll leave that for a later post! This one is LONG enough!) See you all later! -Amy

Kickboxing

2009-02-17T19:55:00.002-06:00

At my school for a "sports and physical fitness" class that is required I chose to take Aerobics. Because, hey, if I have to do something why not go for the gusto and become fit, lose a little extra weight, and get an easy grade!

I have absolutely loved it and have decided that I must enroll in a class like this throughout my whole life! It is the best workout ladies, not too intense on the joints, and you can still have fun music and fun with friends!

Well, yesterday we started the Kickboxing segment of the class. It was also AMAZING! I haven't been posting lately because this week school has been insanely hectic and I was stressing for a General Chemistry Test (thankfully has been moved back a couple days!). Well with this stress over my weekend and week and no Aerobics I had been getting this stress tension built up in my right shoulder. It was pretty much in the whole shoulder area. I was not looking forward to Aerobics, but I couldn't remember any instance where I could have hurt it (pulled a muscle or a rotary cuff issue) so I felt I could just power through and work it out of my system.

Oh my word! Did it ever work! I was so into the punches and letting out all of my stress and excess anger and my hate the world mentality, that now - my shoulder could never be better! It is a Godsend, Aerobics and Kickboxing! If you haven't tried it at least once, please do - you will enjoy it and you will feel better and have fun!

One last thing - I can't wait for MY Aerobics class tomorrow! :D

Valentine's Festivities

2009-02-14T19:19:00.004-06:00

I have so much to do for Valentine's day! NOT! For those of you like me, without a significant other to call your own. I've created a perfect solution.

Find a bunch of gal pals and watch a couple chick flicks - some day you'll find your man. Tonight we've watched "27 Dresses" so far and will watch "Definitely Maybe" later on.

This was a cute movie about a gal that just can't find a man and become the perfect bride, but helps create perfect weddings for all of her friends. Very cute romantic comedy movie with a fun ending.

Also, be sure to have chocolate on hand. We all need some on Valentine's day and you can give yourself some too - not just for guys to give.

Here's the kicker. I know later on tonight I will be spending my valentines day with one of the greatest! Grab a bunch of your favorite Horsey magazines and plan for the summer show seasons! My personal favorite is Horse & Rider.

I am kind of a junkie where it comes to horse and rider magazines. Currently I subscribe to of course Horse & Rider (the Bible for all things pleasure stock horse show related!), Performance Horse (for the reining, cutting horse, and roping events), Horse Illustrated (for the fluff! I'm sorry, but it is fun to read about breeds of horses sometimes and the english is fun but this in no means compares to Horse & Rider) and a local magazine Horse Power (for all the pictures and local showing needs).

Those are my Valentine's dates tonight gals! I'm sure going to make this a great one! Summer here I come!

It's Friday!

2009-02-13T18:17:00.004-06:00

Woot! It is Friday today. Friday the 13th to be exact. I didn't have any bad luck today though. Today was an awesome day!

I turned in quite a few asignments, labs and such and now am on to the next ones. There's always something going on here. So, that is what I will be doing for Valentines day - homework! I know, I know! I should find me a good cowboy or any boy, but there are slim pickings at my school. 2 boys for every 3 girls and most of them have girlfriends from back home. Also, I'm the girl in the class that is smart, but is smart enough to know that looks don't matter - so I don't really take care of myself as I should. Today was the first time I had worn make-up in 2 weeks! I know I know! I need to just get up and look good! I can look cute. I have awesome hair that I love - that will do whatever I want it to, I always just throw it up in a pony tail.

So in leu of Valentine's Day and Amy's new plan to take better care of herself. I shall place a picture of me here. I haven't done a big one like this yet, because well I'm not that photogenic and a heavier gal so pictures are hit and miss. My roomie did my eye make-up she should be a professional she's awesome at it. So here we go. A dolled up Amy in her favorite Roper down vest! Bring a little country to the big city!

I took it with my computer. I need to get myself a better digital camera that really works so hopefully there will be more pics up here. I know that there will be when I go home to spend time with Bogey because my mother just bought a great one that I can use.

Also, I don't think I've ever explained the title of this blog. Well my horse's register name is "A Chip Off The Tee" so his barn name is Bogey "Bo" for short and well I'm riding over par! I'd also like to be riding over par in my school work as well so it's a duel pun.

Another aside. I love that I now have a little following, you guys are great people and awesome bloggers! An inspiration to all! Thanks for checking on me - a little ole' college student trying her hand at this! You guys rock!

Thursdays

2009-02-11T20:52:00.002-06:00

Thursdays are beginning to be my favorite day of the week. Because I don't have class - at all. Hopefully I accomplish a lot as well as a nice blog post.

I need to find out how Bogey's farrier appointment went. The barn manager was going to take care of that for me and I just had to write out a check. It's amazing how the bills pile up right in front of you, even when your horse is not in front of you.

One really cool thing, is that a friend of mine here at school has leased horses at a barn 15 minutes north of my school and hopefully sometime I can visit and see if it could be an option for Bogey during the school year next year, or when I have a car. It looks like a really nice place and he would get the same care as he is now with more turnout time for only about $25-50 more. Which is amazing in my opinion because he would be here with me. The thing is that I can afford him to stay at the place he is, my student job covers that. What it couldn't probably cover is the added money, I would probably be going backwards. And where he is at, they take such wonderful care of him and are true horsewomen that are so awesome. I just would rather not move him. I think I would worry more about him right under my nose than 2 hours away.

Oh the choices. We'll see how tomorrow goes, hopefully I get a ton done!

Followings!

2009-02-09T17:02:00.006-06:00

I was a little lacking on the writing this past weekend but now I think I have my second wind! Thanks go to Punchy over at Lucchese to Louis Vuitton for my first comment and my first following! If you haven't read her blog you should! It will make you laugh, cry, and share a piece of the good life! She is one cool cowgirl! Just the kind of role model a young blogger needs! haha! :D

I should talk a bit about my weekend. It was interesting to say the least, not eventful but interesting...

One of my roommates hosts perspective students for overnights, we had one on Friday. Let me say this she was the best visitor we had, but I just don't like people invading my space! I'm truly an introvert at heart. When we host, she obtains payment - I obtain an evening and morning of awkward situations. I also feel obligated to play games and entertain the visitor and I really do not like that.

After playing games, watching movies, and trying to entertain we go to bed. This ensues more awkwardness in the fact that since there are three of us in the room - we have one loft and two bunk-beds. I'm on the bottom bunk, so when we have a visitor the person sleeps right next to me. Isn't that the best! *insert sarcasm* I really hate it like none other. I then end up shoving the mattress pad as far away from me as I can. This is not a good situation.

Another thing I hate, is how the visitors always seem to put their stuff right in front of my closet. I just don't get it, why my closet? I'm not even getting paid for you to stay here! As you can see this is a difficulty for me, but I really love my roommate so very much so I can't say anything to her about it.

I guess I shall endure this suffering. And here's the cherry on top - we are hosting for the next THREE WEEKS! Yippy! NOT!

On lighter, happier note. This weekend I did get a ton of homework done, it was nice. Though today I had two quizes and I bombed one and got all the points and extra credit on the second one, if only they would even out! I could only wish...

Just Another Day

2009-02-04T17:39:00.003-06:00

Just another school day. Not doing much here. I have two roommates and one of them is painting right now. She says it's just scribbling but it looks pretty cool. Maybe she will paint me something. :D I can only hope, she's pretty good.

Today was another busy day. I have the second in my General Chemistry series at 7:40 in the morning that is an ungodly time of day for a college science class! *Funny thing is I'm at a Christian school!* Then I go straight from there to my Biodiversity and Ecology class. The lectures are really boring, but it is interesting topics we cover so maybe that may make up for some of it. Then we have chapel time at my school. I have to admit, I don't really go to chapel all that often - just because my classes are so morning heavy that that is my only break from 7:40 to Noon! So I usually stay in the room and catch up on my email, or homework if necessary. Right after Chapel time I have precalculus. I have to say that it is the most boring class in my life. I took AP Calculus in High School my Junior year. My Senior year then I didn't have a math class so I thought that I forgot a lot. Which I did! But now that we are in class, I'm regretting it oh so much. It is so very boring, and it's even worse that there is a smart a** that sits behind me that must have some form of ADHD or ADD because he's aways jittering! It's horrible. That's how my day goes. After math I usually work in the library for 2 hours come back to my dorm and then go to my aerobics class. It's really fun and the professor is amazing. Hopefully by the end of class I'll have killer legs! hahaha!

That's my school day in a nutshell on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays I have labs for my two science courses and on Thursday I don't have ANYTHING! That's right - not a class! It will be a nice day tomorrow. I should get a lot done, and should make a list right now.

Thursdays Tasks (I'm so clever!):
Laundry
Reading Assignments and Catch up on them
Math Homework
Lab Homework!
Journals for Biodiversity
Do some form of exercise

And that should be it. Hopefully I'm productive tomorrow!

Summer Plans?

2009-02-03T20:45:00.003-06:00

So, with the weather being cold and me being semi-horseless. I've been starting to make some plans for the summer. Hopefully these will all work out.

- Spend as much time possible with Bogey
- Attend quite a few local shows for exposure
- Compete in the 4H horse show one last time (and do well)
- And Nanny for two little babies that are so very awesome!

I don't have a "real job" lined up, but that last one would be great because it would be flexible hours, hanging out in an awesome air-conditioned house, and with two awesome kids that are from people I think oh so highly of. Two great cowgirls and horsewomen that can teach me so much just by osmosis!

I'm really excited by these plans, so we'll see what the summer turns out to be.

4 months and counting!

Spring Semester

2009-02-02T18:34:00.003-06:00

I just finished my first day of the spring semester of my freshman year! It's nice to hit that milestone. My classes shouldn't be too bad, but I'm taking some extra precautions aka study time just in case. I'm also not doing orchestra this semester, which is a bummer because I love the director - I'm just not that into my cello anymore. Which is really sad because my mom just put $500 in repairs on the thing. Oh well!

I better tell about the weekend I had with Bogey. On Friday I spent the whole day with him. First, I took him out and put his prof. choice SMB's on the fonts with bell boots and then polo wraps on the back and let him out in the indoor arena with just a little free lunge time. He was really good. Before I got him he had never worn boots before and he walked really silly around with them. I just like them because he does toe out a little and reach farther than others so when he's out playing he has nicked himself and I really couldn't afford a lame horse right now.

He bucked around and played for a little. Then I put him on the lunge line and he was so very well behaved. After all that I tried on our english gear and worked him with it on. He hasn't ever been ridden english before but he was a charm! He was perfect with it and pushed out at the trot as well. With the most soft and perfect trot to canter transitions. The greatest thing was that everything fit him, except the reins I need an extra long instead.

I worked on some showmanship with him and he's catching on to everything but the back is sometimes hit and miss. If it's a good day he'll be super fast and straight but some days it just doesn't happen right - so I have to work on that.

On Saturday I got to spend some time with him. I just wormed him with the Quest Moxidixin (sp?) and need to get him on a regular schedule. I also gave the boarding owner some supplements. I'm putting him on Farnam's Hoof Builder because his hooves since coming here have not been growing as great as they were so I just want to play safe. As well as the hoof builder he's on Sho-Glo which I thought would be a nice all around supplement to get his immune boosted and a nice coat. :D He's been having a runny nose the past couple days so we'll have to watch that - I might need to put him on Red Cell but that might be difficult since it's a liquid and not pellets like the others. Hopefully the nose is just from the dusty attached arena that's right by his stall.

That was my weekend with the Bo. I probably won't get to see him until March so you'll have to be satisfied with just college stories for now.

YAY! Visitors!

2009-02-01T16:23:00.003-06:00

Alright, alright! I know it's not that exciting, but it is for me!

I have a counter at the bottom of this page and it is slowly - but steadily gaining numbers each day. I always thought it was just me checking in every now and then. Well I looked into the counter and it has the ability to tell me where the people who look at my page are coming from. I thought it would just be all me - St. Paul, MN but it isn't!

I'm so very excited. I know I just posted - but I had to put another post up here because that is just great!

Thanks for stopping by! I thought that this would just be a little journal all to myself, but people are coming around!

Feel free to leave a comment too! ;D

Thanks again! -Amy

Ride the Right Horse

2009-02-01T16:06:00.004-06:00

Right the Right Horse by Yvonne Barteau is a wonderful book to any horseman's collection. I just wanted to put this in here because this is the second time I have borrowed the book from my local libraries and I need to go out and purchase one of my own. I thought this book would be a good one to read only once, boy was I ever wrong. This is a wonderful book to deal with horse personalities and your own riding styles based upon your personality and your horse's.

My previous horse Tater Tot, was a Social/Challenging Mix. With this personality type he loved to talk with all those around him and did not like leaving his buddies. The challenging portion of him allowed him to tune out and disregard some cues and "do his own thing" many times. He never pushed the limits, but he did go right up to them.

Bogey on the other hand is a Aloof/Challenging Mix. He shows the Challenging portion when he pins his ears back at meal times and likes to "test" you to see how much he can get away with during the day. The Aloof portion of him brings in a component of not caring about the world around him. When we moved him to the boarding barn in Winnebago he called out once to the other horses and that was it. No other expressions. I haven't heard him make any noise at all, now that I think of it, except for that one time upon his new arrival.

This will be an interesting personality type to work with because of the disassociation from me as well as the testing. I love having a puppy dog type horse, which was Tater Tot, but who knows how this one will go. It is probably best that he is an aloof type because I am gone at school most of the year.

***I need to tell about how my week with him went, I only got to see him about 3 times, which was a bummer.

Second semester starts tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm a homebody and really would like to be home right now, but I have to be at school. One good thing though, a friend of mine has the pre-calculus book I need and she'll let me borrow it - for FREE! That's a $40 I don't have to spend.

I think I'm going to wind down and have a quiet evening alone with a couple books. This coming semester will be tough so I better study more. Who am I kidding, I better just study!

Journey Part 2

2009-01-25T17:11:00.004-06:00

I decided to name "Lester" ---> Bogey because of his registered name, A Chip Off the Tee. And golf is cute. So Bogey's his new name. When he came home on the day after Christmas we didn't have a lot of time to get to know each other. Here's the journey of how we are getting close and growing together:

During my Christmas break, I did get a few things taught and worked out with Bo. First of all, we're pulling his shoes, he has had all four for quite some time and I feel that he needs a couple months to just let them grow. They are really nice right now, so I have to be careful finding a new farrier, since mine lives in Texas now. If anyone knows of any really great farriers in south-central, MN just let me know.

Secondly, we have to work on his "buttons" and cues. He had a slight spur stop started on him and I don't ride with one, so we are having some stalling periods with cues and my assertiveness.

He does have some awesome points that I don't need to fix or do anything with:
- He w/t/c on a lunge line very well, nice and slow and respectful
- He leads really well
- Ties/Clips awesomely (I did his bridle-path and rubbed his ears with the clippers without a flinch!
- He does everything so awesomely on the ground (so what do I have to complain about!)

The things we need to work on are:
- Undersaddle, we are still working on cues and well sometimes he becomes stubborn and I don't understand so, that should work out with time. He's very gentle, but oh so big! We just need to grow together.

What I am working on with him when I go home is showmanship work. I love showmanship, it's my favorite event because you do not need a 10 grand horse to win it, you just need time and your own precision. Bogey and I are working on this. We are getting the trot offs and gaging the speed down pat, but the set ups are a little slow and pivots are just started. He's such a big horse that moving that whole body around takes a little effort, which he does not like.

He's a really awesome horse, and tomorrow I get to see him and work with him!

Here's a picture of him trying on his new to him show p-j's. I had to see if my old geldings slinkies would fit.

Start of a Journey Part 1

2009-01-24T12:17:00.007-06:00

This is a start of something new. Oh, those old cliche' lines! I decided to start this blog to journal about my trials as a college student that lives 2 1/2 hours away from her brand new horse. Also, I wanted to log our training journeys together. This will just be a journal for myself, to get my thoughts on paper, and if people read it, why not? Now, onto the beginning.

It all started with an ad for a horse.

Well it probably started earlier than that, and I'll have to do some back-tracking later to tell my story completely, but my journey with my NEW horse started with that ad.

I just noticed it one day and he just struck me as something special. He was out of my price range at the time, (the price dropped $2000 in 2 months of watching the ad) but I just couldn't stop going back and looking at it. Another reason why it kept pulling me in is because I know a horse that is by the same sire, same color and everything that I just "clicked" with this past summer. After watching the ad and emailing the owner, I kind of felt like this one was the "one".

I called the owner multiple times and after the price drops I decided to make an offer.

Now, you all must realize that I am probably one of the world's worst horse buyers (or maybe the best from my perspective). I am the person that emails multiple times (not the same questions, but a TON of questions). Calls multiple times asking different questions, calls the trainers multiple times, and searches the internet for every scrap of information I can find on the trainers, owners, and the horse itself. I want to know EVERYTHING about the animal I'm purchasing before I even begin to think of an offer. I collect this information on folders on my computer as well as a hand written manilla folder I have in my files. I did this with the first horse I bought when I was 15 and it really works well for me because I was prepared and knew exactly what I was getting into. (That first horse was also my best friend, but we'll get into that later.)

After all of that anal knowledge based research, I made an offer on the horse. Now, the owner had disclosed that she really needed to sell the horse since her daughter couldn't ride him and she couldn't afford the training bill each month, so I knew I could get a deal. I also had an "ace in my pocket" in the respect that I could and would walk away from the sale if it wasn't for me. Then I did a lot of praying about it and asked God, that if this horse wasn't for me to just have him sell or my offer not work out, but if it is let me get him for "XXX" price.

Well I called and made an offer right before Thanksgiving weekend this past year. I really really low-balled it, and I'm so horrible for doing it, but hey, I'm a cheap broke college student who goes to a VERY expensive private school. I offered 1/2 of their final drop in price $1500. I know, I know! Only offer 10-15% off the asking price, I did read Bob Avila's Be a Smart Horse Buyer book. But, it just felt right to me.

Well, of course the owner would turn down that offer! I would! The thing I had going for me was a re pore of phone calls, a solid offer (albeit cheap offer), and the ability to walk away! There are tons of horses in this world you don't have to settle for the nag when you can have your very own Trigger. That's the trick folks, don't settle for anything but what you want exactly, because it may take a while, but you'll find your dream horse.

Time passed after my offer, I think about 3 weeks, and I get a phone call from the owner. I am very VERY VERY bad about answering my cell phone, just ask my roommates, but I will get back to you eventually, just leave a message! Well, the owner left a message on my phone stating that she had talked things over with her husband and was wondering if I was still interested in the horse. HECK yeah! I was, but as a buyer - never be to eager. Well I didn't get the message till the next afternoon because I had 2 orchestra concerts that day to play for (more on that later as well). And, then it ended up being a Monday afternoon after class. I checked my email and she was still wondering if I was interested and if I got her message. Buyers, watch out for this, this is the classic I want to sell you my horse. Remember, never be too eager to buy.

I called her back that afternoon and chatted a little, keeping things light. She then told me she had talked things over with her husband and was wondering if I would be able to buy him for $2000. I said I couldn't, but my offer of $1500 would still work out. She TOOK it! YAY for me! I was so excited, but then don't get too excited buyers. I still had to talk things over with my family and find a ride for the horse. Well it all came together and I found a ride for him from an awesome gal named Jodie check her out if you need a horse trained and you're in southern MN.

Bogey arrived home on Christmas Eve to Albert Lea and then I got him on Christmas and hauled him over to the boarders the day after. He was a true Christmas present to me.

Part 2 Coming right up!

(Dang, I use too many cliches' haha!)