This is a picture I pulled from my files because I didn't have anyone taking pictures of me today. Gilly and I had a lesson from my beloved dressage instructor, it's was good. My riding is improving and Gilly is more responsive with each ride. I have been riding him everyday, mostly with the western saddle because I feel more comfortable in it but today it was the dressage saddle. I am trying to learn to sit Gilly's big trot and it's a lot of work to try and keep yourself deep in the saddle. I did it for short periods but would lose the rhythm of his trot. I hang onto the front of the saddle and pull myself deep into the seat and hang on. I'll get it at some point!
My instructor rode Gilly and worked on his stops, turns and canter. He is doing very well and learning fast, probably faster than I am. After riding him for awhile Vicki wanted to ride him bareback, cause she said he had such a nice big back. You can see from the picture above that he does have a very nice back! Well, when she jumped off him she said, your turn! Well, I'll tell you I had a heck of a time getting on him but I did it. Climbed on the fence of the round pen and Gilly being the good boy he is moved over to the fence so I could just step over and sit down. Wow, what a back he has, wide and your legs just fit right into like he is molded for you to just melt into him. How long has it been since I rode bareback, oh, 30 years or more, I can't remember. It was Copper the little horse that was pulling the sleigh in a recent post and she was a little horse not BIG like Gil. I felt so good at the walk that I asked him to trot and we did!!! I had to hold onto his mane and really pull myself down to stay with that lofty trot but I did it!!! OMG how much fun, I've got to do it again!!! This will help my balance and riding skills too but it just so much fun; will I try the canter.....probably! I will see if I can get Kim to come up and take pictures tomorrow.
The trailer loading went well yesterday, Gilly had a few fits but came out of it to finally get in the trailer for Sheri and for me. Today all I did was point at the trailer and say, "Load up"! that's the word to go into the trailer. He did it every time I ask him to and stood there resting one foot. Kim was even in the trailer once at the front with a cookie for him, what a good boy. We will practice this everyday for a week or more then try with the divider in position. Right now we have the divider over so there is more room and the horses feel more confident with more room. Lacy is doing well also but Gilly seems to be more willing to hop right in the trailer. He has been a great boy this week and learned a lot and seems to be on a roll, so I had better keep up with him...........this is great I am so proud of him. Oh, yes, he crossed the creek many times yesterday before we had the trailer lesson! You rock Gilly!!!
Tuesday was a great day, I rode Gilly and we cantered more in the roundpen. He was a little hard getting started but ahhhh, the canter was great! We need to work on cantering a lot and trotting, well everything! LOL I want to try and ride him every day at least a little bit, it makes such a difference when I ride everyday, for both of us. What fun cantering is, I can't get enough of it, feels like flying! Like this pictures even if his feet are a little blurred. Run Gilly run! I haven't been brave enough, just yet, to canter down the road or with the dressage saddle but I will before the summer is over!
After all the fun of cantering now it's time to try crossing the creek again, the place he doesn't want to go. So down the road we go to the field to the left and head for the creek, notice my doggie entrauge? I always have at least my two with me and Kim's dogs Otis and Sophie are in the lead. Gilly says, "you want me to do what? Maybe I don't want to!" He did back up and not want to cross but I got off and made him walk into the creek and back through it, then he wanted to play in the water. Oh, this is fun, watch me splash the water and sling it everywhere! He played and played in the water but I decided it was time to get back on and cross the creek. He isn't one to paw the water he likes to shake his head back and forth and really churn up the water. Poor minnows in the water were probably wondering what the heck was happening to their home! There we are crossing the creek! He started to hesitate and I tapped him on the shoulder with the crop and he went across. We crossed a couple of times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke! Oh, Gilly what a good boy you are! Who knows what the reason was that he wouldn't cross it with me on his back. As you can see it's not deep or wide, nothing scary around there, he isn't scared anyway, just being stubborn. Thursday and Friday we crossed it again and again and once even rode up the old road and back and didn't have any problems. I hope that this is the end of the problems with this creek anyway. Who knows what other things he will think up to challenge me with! This afternoon we had trailer loading lessons and he finally got on the trailer. He sure gave Sheri a workout though before he would but then he got a workout too. Because of being a brat and trying to run and jerk the rope out of her hands he had to back up all around the trailer, up the road several times. He finally decided that was not the thing to do because it made more work for him so he decided to be a good boy and stop. He went into the trailer several times (no I didn't take the camera to get any pictures either) and backed out quite well. Now for the next week we will be working on trailer loading everyday, so when I say "Load up" he will jump right in and be ready to go....LOL....keeping my fingers crossed, it may take longer than a week or maybe not. More on that later.
Had a question posted to me the other day about horse trailers. (this is just a stock picture I grabbed off the internet.) A marketing researcher asked me if I would post on my blog this question to all of my followers. Here goes:
Hi Folks. I am helping a horse trailer company in Pennsylvania improve their website. So rather than trying to mind read what visitors to a horse trailer website would want, I thought I would go directly to the source: you guys! Just a simple question: when you would go to a horse trailer website, what top 3 tasks do you want to accomplish. Anxious to hear what you guys think! Thom
OK everyone now this is where you come in! (I have nothing in this just helping someone out.) Talk to me...... :-)
I forgot to say that my daughter got me some beautiful earrings, gave me a massage, got me some chocolate and took me to lunch for my birthday! We had a mother daughter day, it was raining so we didn't get to do as much as we wanted so will have to make another time to do more............like shopping!!! Thank you Jennifer!!!!
I have a new toy! Yesterday was my birthday, not telling how old....LOL! But have been wanting to get a lap top for some time and found one I liked from Dell, they had a Mother's Day special so ...... my husband said happy mother's day and birthday, since they are a week apart. Now trying to figure out how to get things from the desktop to the laptop, I know I can do this....yea, right!!! Put all my documents on a flash drive and loaded them onto the laptop but they ALL went to the desk top!!! So now all I see it all my documents and it's covering up the picture on there. LOL OK, I will figure this out and move them where I can't see all of them at the same time. GRRRRRRRRR!!! A new brain exercise for sure!!!
Gilly has been being disrespectful ............ again! He still refuses to cross the creek to go up the old road. He isn't afraid of crossing the creek, just refuses to go over this crossing. He still wants to back up and go sideways, with a "you can't make me" attitude. I can get off him and send him across, make him back into it and even into deep water. He will just stand there relaxed resting one hind foot.
Does he look like he is afraid of the creek? He isn't and where I am asking him to cross is not like this. This was when the creek was up last July. He also will back up when he doesn't want to do what he is told, he will keep doing this until he gets his way. We need to go back to round pen 101 and do a LOT of ground work. He needs to become respectful instead of sticking out his tongue and giving me the raspberry! This is what Parelli says about horse personalities that fits Gilly very well:
Left Brain/Extrovert Characteristics of a "Left Brained" (LB) Extrovert include being mischievous, energetic, willful, disobedient, domineering, and may have a tendency to be mouthy, nip and bite. LB Extroverts are easy to train unless you are boring and repetitive in which case they act up and become unruly. LB horses are not afraid of people, they are self confident, brave, are relatively insensitive, playful, mouthy, exuberant and dominant. At minimum, these horses can be pushy and disobedient, and at worst they are aggressive. Keep in mind, these horses can be dangerous when they don’t like or trust people. LB horses need you to become a lot more interesting. They need things to do. They are usually quite playful and are easily bored by riders who are fixated on perfecting a maneuver, and that’s what makes them act up. Because they are so confident they are fast learners.
This pretty much describes the brat boy. So what do I have to do, step up a lot, which is hard for me because I am not an assertive person but to get stinker to be good that's what I will have to do. Guess I'm gonna have to open a can of "whop ass" to get his attention and show him that I mean business! LOL
How Gilly is going to look after a long workout in the round pen............
Here are some pictures of the herb garden off my patio that I started in April. I had another smaller flower bed, that's why all the rocks are piled up....getting ready to move them out. A large sage plant was already established and another plant called "White Nancy". Pretty pink flower and the leaves have a white strip in them.
(looking from the end of the patio) I was going to move both plants but couldn't decide where to put them so they are staying where they are. I found, on a walk, large pieces of a pottery crock and carried it home. I use it to help keep the sage in line. Looking toward the house and patio from out in the yard. Mike got these large sand stones moved with the back hoe......boy, does that thing come in handy. He also went back the hollow to a place where we have dumped manure from the barn for several years to dig into it to get me some really good rich dirt to fill in the bed.
Here is the bed as of the other day. I have Bronze Fennel, Garlic Chives, Rosemary, Citronella scented Geranium, Curly Parsley, Stevea and Basil. I will be adding some more plants or planting some seeds, just not sure what else I want in there. Oh, back in the corner by the sage is a patio tomato plant. You will have to click on the picture to enlarge to see it, look for the yellow blooms. I always plant a cherry tomato plant there, it so easy to come out the door and pick a few to just munch on........yum!!!
There was a break in the rain, it didn't today! YIPPEE! Still everything is wet, muddy and soggy but I rode on the road in front of the house. Short ride but any ride is a good ride! I'm just happy to be able to even have 20 minutes on him but we got in an hour! Fun....just worked on leg yields, side passes and trotting. I didn't get any pictures, forgot to take the camera out, so this is a picture from last fall.
I fed Gilly his birthday breakfast this morning; sorry no party hats for the boys. I had to hurry because I had a dentist appointment. But Gilly didn't care about the party hats he just wanted to eat! He had his oats, two slices of bread, his favorite, some applesauce and a handfull of baby carrots. Notice that he ate all around the applesauce, he was saving it for last. I gave Pokey some of the mixture also, except for the bread, Pokey isn't too sure about the bread just yet. But he does like carrots and applesauce. The battery died on the camera before I got him eating. The birds were certainly happy this morning!
This is the first picture I saw of Gilly, his name was Davy then, on a rescue web site. Such a tiny, thin little red fuzzy boy. There was something in that face, those eyes that just melted my heart and made me cry. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would own a horse again, 20 years I had been without one.
Begged my husband to go and see him and this is what he looked like first time I laid eyes on him. Pretty sad looking little guy; but I over looked the outside and saw something deep in there that was beautiful. I'll take him I said, my husband just shook his head! April 2004, he is 11 months old here.
After a month and a half of good food and a good bath, he is starting to shine! End of May 2004
Here he is at two years old and our first ride, just a very short one, doesn't he look soooo happy!
Last spring as a 5 year old and tomorrow he will be 6. I have had this wonderful majestic creature for 5 years. I love him so much, what joy he brings to my life and a lot of challenges too. But oh, what a gift he is!
It has been raining again so I am not getting to ride like I would like to but maybe tomorrow a short one. There is suppose to be a break in the weather, then back to rain! No party but he will get some special treats tomorrow, he loves bread and applesauce so he will get some of each for both meals, yes, Pokey will get some too!
(He got an early present today, the chiropractor visited the neighbor and I got him to come here and adjust Gilly. Good thing too, his neck, one shoulder and one hip was out.....boy, he feels better now!! He really liked the guy and stood there asking for more!)
Happy Birthday my beautiful boy!!!
This is a picture I pulled from my files because I didn't have anyone taking pictures of me today. Gilly and I had a lesson from my beloved dressage instructor, it's was good. My riding is improving and Gilly is more responsive with each ride. I have been riding him everyday, mostly with the western saddle because I feel more comfortable in it but today it was the dressage saddle. I am trying to learn to sit Gilly's big trot and it's a lot of work to try and keep yourself deep in the saddle. I did it for short periods but would lose the rhythm of his trot. I hang onto the front of the saddle and pull myself deep into the seat and hang on. I'll get it at some point!
