Horse Expo

On April 22, I volunteered at the Diabetes Ride booth, shared with SWIT&DR, at the Horse Expo.  I let them borrow my computer and monitor to show videos from the rides and a slide show - it turns out I probably should have been there from the beginning because I had to work out some technical stuff to get it to work smoothly, like turning off the sleep feature and putting the video on loop.  It went by pretty fast, especially since I got to wander around and look at stuff.  I wanted to find some DAC to help with Snickers gaining weight, but didn't see it. Instead, a booth selling rope and books on how to make your own halters caught my eye, and I got a lot of info.  I also got in trouble taking pictures of the decorative knots done on the nose, which weren't in the book, so that I could replicate them.  The guy said pretty sternly that I really should ask before I take pictures, but let me continue to take them anyway.  Meh, I bought $60 worth of rope and books on how to make the halters for Snicker and Flash, so I think we're good.  The halters were pretty easy and fun to make (of course, I'm the little girl who made all those friendship bracelets years ago, so I'd love this!) and I've received lots of compliments for them.  I'm going to try to make custom halters for people around here if I can get enough intrest.  That would be a fun thing to do to make money :)

I got to talk to a lot of the other SWIT&DR people, including Sandy's husband.  Turns out, there are a bunch of rednecks out further east of Dusty Acres, where I haven't made it to just yet, that will shoot first and ask questions later, so I'm going to have to take a little extra precaution if I do venture any further.  He basically said I needed to make sure I don't go through any shut gates out there, and avoid areas where there's any Confederate or US flags hung upside down.... weird.

A week off

I haven't gotten to ride since Monday and I don't think I will until Sunday so the boys are getting a week off. I've been at an out-of-town work conference since Tuesday morning and will finally get home tonight around midnight. I have horse lessons all day tomorrow and then the SWIT&DR banquet, so I likely will not see the boys until Sunday, even though I have a lot to do then as well. It's been a tough week because, not only do I not get to work with them which I have done almost every day for the last couple of weeks, but also because Flash and I left off on a bad note and I still have his raw lips in the back of my mind and hanging over of my head. However, I now have a lunge cavesson and a surcingle on the way to redo the ground driving. First, we're going to take some steps back and work on renewing the relationship and eagerness he had with me before. Once we're back on track, we'll move into ground driving with just the cavesson and surcingle, and eventually add the bridle and bit back in, but not for a while. I'm excitd to get him working again and making progress. And having a better relationship again like we were having before. I left a message on the group for Dusty Acres for someone to please check on Snickers and Flash, and someone from there messaged back as well as Steve, the other owner, who said I could just text him. I did yesterday and he texted me back today to tell me they were fine and the winds we were supposed to get yesterday never came. It feels good to know my babies are in good hands :) I've been very happy with Dusty Acres! It'll be cool to go to the banquet tomorrow and meet everyone in SWIT&DR and see all the awards and achievements for last year :) I've eaten out at this conference all week, so we'll see how the dinner works out, but oh well. It should be good :) Can't wait to be home and see my boys (incuding Trevor!)

Home Sweet Home

I finally got to bring home Snickers - yay!  I met Barb at Phantasy Arabians at noon and got Snickers all ready, then she loaded him up and followed me to Jill's house!  He seemed pretty excited to be there.  I led him in and let him go!  Cowgirl, the mare there that always picks on Flash, started doing something interesting - she wouldn't let Snickers anywhere near Flash....  In fact, she was so preoccupied with keeping them apart, she let Flash alone to eat.  I guess that was nice.  Either way, I spent about an hour watching them.  Flash was kind of wound up and kept whinnying at my family's horses in the other pasture.  Cowgirl took a couple of opportunities to back up to him or chase him off, but one time when he was eating she threw a kick at him and he kicked back harder.  Neither of them hit each other, but after that the dynamics changed and Cowgirl seemed to cede to Snickers.  Other than that, he ran around a bit and explored.  I was a little worried since he hasn't been out in a pasture free to roam.  If he was out, it was when he was worked or on the hot walker.  However, he was having a lot of fun running around it seemed and was slipping quite a bit, but he seems to have figured out that's a bad idea.

Of course I was a worried mom all night, but when I got over there this afternoon he was doing great, albeit a bit dirtier.  And, when I fed them, Cowgirl came to get the first bite but ran off with it as soon as Snickers approached.  He didn't have to challenge her!  It seems that he's the top now, with her in the middle, and Flash is still at the bottom.  I even got to pet them both at the same time without anybody chasing anybody else off - I think Cowgirl is afraid to challenge Snickers where he wants to be, but won't challenge me, so I got to have them both next to each other for a moment :)  I had homework and met with Naomi from SWIT&DR for the first time, so I didn't get a change to work with them, but it made me feel good to know they're both doing ok there together.  Tomorrow I'll have to bring Snickers over before lessons and ride him.

Speaking of Naomi, that meeting went really well.  We talked a lot about endurance and I got some questions answered, but mostly it seems like she'll be a really good contact to have in the club.  She owns Wild West in downtown Eagle and I really like their food (I didn't realize it, but I'd been there once before with my mom), plus she gave me a hot chocolate on the house!  She's very nice and I can tell I'll learn a lot from her and other people in the club.  Her friend (Rae?) lives really close to my parents and sounds like will be a lot of fun to get to know and ride with as well.  Naomi even mentioned we might be able to work out a deal for Snickers and Flash to move to her place - which would really make me feel better about them being somewhere where someone who knows horses will be keeping a good eye on them.  Plus, then I'll be able to ride with her right from her house (you can even get to the foothills)!  I'm excited to get to know more people from SWIT&DR - so far the experience has been amazing!  I think I'm going to go to the banquet at the end of this month just to make an appearance and meet more people.  It'll also be good to see all the awards and what the club is all about (kinda) :)  Yay!

Riding Partners

Well, I think my biggest endurance hurdle has been wonderfully overcome.  I was really worried that, no matter how hard I tried, I wouldn't be able to properly condition Snickers for endurance because I don't have a truck or trailer or a partner to ride with for safety in conditioning on trails.  Sure, my dad said he would drop me off at Eagle Island State Park, but that's all flat and who knows if that would even work out with our schedules.

However, in the last two days or so, I posted an ad on craigslist for a riding partner.  I got one response from that, but she referred me to a trail riding group of ladies in the area that I joined online.  It looks like there are a few organized things, but mostly people just post when the are going to go ride and others join them!  That would be great for just doing trail work, which Snickers will need especially before we start the actual conditioning.

Even better, though, I joined the SWIT&DR group on yahoo groups and posted a message on their boards with a little more detail about what I'm looking for, and the response has been fantastic!  I've got at least three people who look pretty promising to ride with so far, and one of them is a national rider!  They've all got quite a bit of experience and are happy to help me prepare both of us for endurance.  Yay!  Now I just gotta get Snickers to my place (I can't wait for this weekend!) and work him in the arena so we can both get to know and trust one another a bit better and also work on some better riding skills from him.  He's good and ridable, but it doesn't feel too pretty right now.  Of course I don't know yet how he responds to the bit, but I really want to work on asking him to drop his head and asking for different speeds within gaits.  However, once we're ready to go out, we've now got some partners to trailer out and go riding with us!