Exams & Finals

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

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.

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....

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

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

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

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"!