Nov 17 - Taught Barrel Racing

Today was my day where I got to teach my class a certain topic and I chose Barrel Racing. I still don't know everything about Barrel Racing and I know that I have a lot to improve on but it was a really great experience all the same. Because I wanted the others to know more of what a "barrel" horse looked like I ended up using Indian Joe who one has a lot more go than Chester and also has done Barrel Racing before and is fairly good at it.

My set up: I asked the class to read an article about rates, pockets and bend. And then before obiviously starting I asked if anyone would care to try and explain what each one was. I then demonstrated each of them while riding Indian Joe and basically had them split into groups (because there were two patterns set up) I know that I learn better just by practicing and having someone watching me telling me what I can improve on, so that is what I tried to do for everyone as I watched them. Some that were strongly with their horses moving into the barrel too much I helped them give their horse a bigger pocket and also work on leg pressure getting them to keep their shoulder away and swing thier hips around. I think it went really well, and when people came up to me asking questions, I made sure to answer them as well as I could and if I couldn't figure it out a group of us would discuss it together until we came up with something that they could try to work on whatever their problem was. It seemed like everyone really enjoyed it and were having a lot of fun.

At the end of class we then had a "stump race" where two people go at once and whoever finishes first wins. That was a lot of fun I could tell everyone really enjoyed that. Even some that only wanted to trot thier horses around the barrels raced each other which I thought was wonderful because they still had a chance to try the race out.

The evaluations I got back from everyone gave me some really good feedback. I realized that I was nervous at first and everything was kind of confused and I definitely need to clarify that better. I also realize I didn't ever tell them when a good time was to actually the rate the horse and explain that each horse will be different. I did learn though than many people liked how I watched everyone going around the barrels and would point things they could improve on and were doing good.

I think the idea of having each student teach something was a great idea and I'm glad I got to teach something that I love and can show everyone my love for it even if I am still learning about it.

Below is a video of me riding Indian Joe around the Barrels, this was a slow lope or a fast trot not when I went all out with :)

Nov 16 - Helped Teach Barrels in Basic II Class

Today in Basic Class, Randy had me help teach barrel racing in preparation for teaching the 347 class the next day. At first I was really nervous about having to teach but as I warmed up to it I really started to enjoy it more. I showed everyone the pattern in a large group first and also explained what a pocket is - the distance between your horse and the barrel as you come into the barrel and out of the barrel - and rate - the speed you and your horse are going while rounding the barrel and where you would slow your horse down to get around the barrel - then we split into two groups and I helped with one of the groups. The first few times we just walked around the pattern then we trotted between the barrels and had them walk around the barrels when they reached them. Eventually we brought it up to a lope and a trot around them. I really focused and watched as each person would go around and gave them different tips to help them move around the barrel better. They did really well! It was SOO much fun!!! I LOVED TEACHING!! Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves and a couple of the kids would ask me clarification about the pocket and the rating.

After a while of having a split group, we put out the full barrel pattern and timed each other on doing the full barrel run. We made sure to remain safe and not let them go all out but stay at a controlled lope. It was such an awesome experience to be able to see how much fun they were all having and their faces light up when they understand something and learn something new. I loved my first taste of helping teach a Basic Class.

Now Chester during it did AMAZING!! He was really responsive and really opened up while coming around the barrel. When we did the full run he didn't do too bad at the lope. I think I do still need to work on him turning that hip out and around the barrel and not cutting into while coming out of it.

Nov 14 - Barrel Practice

So for Open Riding time on this Saturday I wanted to try Barrels with Chester for the first time before I taught it. I quickly realized that he likes to throw his shoulder into the barrel when going into it. After realizing how close he would push into the barrel I made sure to give him a really large pocket while entering a barrel. Sometimes he would go out to wide but he started to get better by the end.

To help him keep his shoulder out of the barrel I focused on putting presssure on his inside shoulder trying to get him to not turn into it. Then I started to just trot around the barrels with him and Realized that I have to rate with him EXTREMELY LATE because of how slow he moves.

He definitely has a lot of work to do with Barrel Racing. But I'm glad I did it with him because I love barrels so much. It's one of my favorite things to do with horses! :) He did better than I expected and I could tell that he was slowly improving and listening to me as well.

Nov 12 - Straight Lines, Leg Pressure, Lead Changes

Today we talked a lot about lining your body up with your horse and having them follow your body to feel where you are going. I ended up practicing going in a straight line and keeping my focus ahead of me and going through my phases - shifting body, leg pressure and then reins when necessary.

At a walk Chester did fairly well, I had to go through the phases fast but gently and he was able to pick it up w/less pressure the more we practice with it. I then tried going in a straight line without using the reins and sometimes it worked really well with just shifting of my body and leg pressure. Other times i had to pick up the reins just slightly to have line up with me again.

Trotting however was a complete different story I had to use a lot stronger phases then when just walking. I decided to grab the carrot sticks to use as a bigger phase I wouldn't rely on the reins as much. Starteed working really well when just walking but of course when trotting it all went downhill from there.

I learned a lot and was really focused. I could tell that Chester was focused on me as well and I could feel the improvement as we went along even though we did have some difficulties.

Nov 10 - English Riding and Jumping

So today was the day that Emily was teaching our class and she was doing Jumping and in an English saddle. I was excited but kind of nervous because I've never ridden English before. I actually to learn how to saddle the English Saddle which was awesome. At first when I was in the saddle it felt awkward. Then the stirrup flap thingy was pinching my knees REALLY badly! It hurt so bad and when I tried trotting it made it worse. Emily did a really good job and had some trotting poles set up and I tried those but again it hurt and she tried helping me figure out a different way to hold my feet and knees so I wouldn't be pinched. Then Russell also was trying to help as well. I was even offered to wear someones chains to help me! Haha then I was turning and completely popped my hip out and basically just collapsed out of the saddle because i couldn't hold it anymore. Some reason though after that my knees stopped being pinched even though my hip was thrown out... it was kind of wierd.

At first I couldn't quite figure out how to two point and I kept trying to ride like I was still in a Western saddle.... and I wasn't. Then Emily described how I wanted to bend my hips back and then forward... or something like that. And then I FINALLY got a hang of it. Once I figured out the correct way to post ... I enjoyed jumping!! I actually really like jumping when in an English saddle it is so much more comfortable and feels more natural that way.

I think that such a eye-opener for me. I never dissed on English riding I just didn't like the "hoity-toity-ness" of it so never really wanted to try it. If others did it... then cool but it wasn't for me. Then when I tried it! I realized how much better it was for me. It was fun after a bumby start of being in pain. But I actually liked jumping in English. I have never been a fan of jumping I just really don't care for it. But i'll jump now in English saddle no doubt!

Nov 9 - Loping :) (Basic II Class)

When I start saddling him, he still pins his ears back at me and kind of shows me his teeth. So today I put the saddle on more slowly and rubbed him with it and seemed to calm down a little bit better which I was grateful for. In class today we were learning how to trot. And when we were trotting around, he broke into a lope for like a stride or two! It was crazy!! I didn't even ask him to! Sometimes this can be a bad thing, but I was thinking well if you wanna lope so bad today I'm gonna let you! Kind of reverse psychology almost.

When class ended, I stayed behind a little bit longer and just let lope and picked it up so fast! It was awesome! He is better at going to the left than he is to the right. He has some difficulty pick up his left lead. Afterwards, I took his saddle off and he even rolled in the arena! First time he was rolled (other than when he had colic) after we have played together.

It felt wonderful having him wanting to lope and I hope I'll be able to practice more with him and he'll want to do it more often.

Improve on: Picking up his left lead.

Nov 6 - Dominance

I wasn't feeling too well today and was extremely tired. Chester I believe sensed that so was being extremely dominant with me. I could barely get him to trot even! He wasn't picking up on my energy at all and so had to use the savvy string just to get him to trot. Then I decided to just let him wander around doing whatever he really wanted to do (as I practically fell asleep on his back :) ) I then went up to the green ball, which is the first time I've gone near it when on his back. I kicked it slightly and he shied away a little bit and froze up some, but then as I kept moving him toward it he stopped shying away but just kept his eye on it the whole time.

Improve on --> work on picking up my energy again, getting him used to the green ball

Nov 5 - Circles and Pressure

Today was absolutely beautiful day outside, so we ended up riding in the outdoor arena again. Brother Twitchell taught us about the box game - where everytime you enter into the box you change something may it be speed or direction. He also talked to us about a really interesting way to teach our horse how to spin - you have a small box in the ground and ask your horse to straddle the outside line. Then you ask your horse to walk around it without walking out of the box.

I then starting playing the box game with Chester but he wasn't listening to me at all

• He keeps turning in the opposite direction I'm trying to get him to go.
• When he goes off the circle outside of the box it's almost impossible to get him back on it again.
• I was having trouble keeping pressure on him when turning left because of my messed up shoulder was starting to really hurt.
• I also was starting to get extremely frustrated with him which I know is a really bad thing.

Brother Twitchell then talked to us about circles and how we have to let the horse make a large mistake before we can correct them. We don't want to force our horse to stay in the circle because then we are micromanaging them. He also said that when we first start doing circles instead of having a small "line" have like a zone of some kind of within the circle.

I then started truly focusing more on letting Chester make mistakes and then correcting him. Things started gettting a lot better and I was less frustrated. By the end of class I was able to trot completely around in a circle with only minor mistakes. I even got hin to lope almost a full cirlce without making any drasitic turns.

What was truly amazing about this day was that it was the most perked I've seen Chester in a LONG time! It felt great!

Improve --> Not getting frustrated so easily and letting him give his head to me instead of fighting all the time.

Nov 4 - Ground work/ bareback (Basic II Class)

Chester was finally not salivating anymore :) I was really happy to find this out. However for the last few days he has been extremely grumpy and keeps getting dominant with me. I played with the green ball again and he did really good, he was dead like last because of being sick. He was more alert but it didn't seem to bother him as much which is a great accomplishment. Rode bareback in class which on him is purely amazing. :) However, I noticed right away from the last time I rode him bareback, that he had lost a ton of weight because he was a lot more bonier that previously. Quickly started to realize that he is better at neck reining than direct reining. When we trotted he always wants to turn around at the gate by the door into the arena. At one end of the arena he cuts the corners, at the other end he goes way out. So I believe I will definitely have to work on doing circles more often.

Oct 28 - Ground Work (Basic II Class)

Chester was still sick today. He was losing weight drastically and ended up being put on meds and also grain. He was salivating really badly, so I didn't do much with him, not wanting him to get worse. Practiced groundwork exercises - such as yielding hindquarters and actually was doing fairly well. I got out the bouncing green balls again and bounced them against his stomach and stuff, he didn't respond really like he normall would. Basically I could really tell that he just wasn't feeling well, so I didn't want to make him too nervous or exert himself too much.

Before class was over Randy talked to Dr. Waddoups and told him to give Chester some Butte when we were done however, it seemed that he basically just salivated all of it out again. Hopefully he starts feeling better and they are able to figure out whats the matter with him.

Oct 22 - River Ride

Today we got to ride out by the river, however Chester was sick again and had been drooling in a way for the last few days, and wasn't eating very much. So Dr. Waddoups asked me not to use him for class today so I was assigned to ride Chess for the class today and it was definitely an experience that I really needed to have. The next part is basically what I wrote on the discussion board because I really liked how I put it and I don't think I could rewrite that without missing something.

A lot of how Chess reacted I believe had to do with that I haven't ridden her very much before and we both didn't know each other too well. When doing something like this on a horse I have never worked on the 7 games with before, totally helps me appreciate those games so much more. It is harder to communicate with your horse, its not impossible I don't think but it does make it a lot more difficult. Chess was definitely being dominant over me. She didn't trust me at all and kept running back to the herd every opportunity she got. She was nervous around me and didn't know me. However I didn't it make it any better better by "making" her do things and forcing her to go only where I wanted to go and do want I wanted to do. Then of course becoming angry did NOT help whatsoever. I was mad at her for not listening to me! I mean NOTHING I did worked so I just got madder and madder and angrier and angrier (many of you saw me). All I wanted to do was go back to the barn.

My attitude from the very beginning wasn't the best either. One, I didn't really want to go down by the river today - not because it was cold - but I was just not in the mood. I didn't really want to do anything today (my own personal issues) even with Chester. I really wanted to just groom Chester and calm myself down. Then having to switch horses REALLY didn't help with my attitude. I wasn't nervous persay I just wasn't very thrilled. I missed Chester right from the beginning and was wishing I had him to ride instead of Chess. I should have been IN the moment and completely apart of what was going on NOW instead of wishing class to be over or wishing to have a different horse.

Overall, I learned a lot - mores so after the fact when I realized how stupid and annoying I was being. My attitude affected almost the whole entire trip to the River. Only on the way back were things starting to look up because I wasn't as annoyed and agitated. I was finally relaxed because I knew we were going back. This was definitely an experience that I really needed to face. I have to learn to control my frustration and not let it out on my horse, no matter who it is. I need to learn to be IN the moment and not focused someplace else. I also need to have a better attitude about things at ALL times. If you are having a bad day for other reasons than your horse, your horse is going to feel it. They will read you and know that you aren't in the best of moods. I need to remember to let myself go when playing with my horse or any other horse for that matter. I need to get in the mindset as someone told me once "This is going to be fun!" and truly believe that and then it will be!!! I know that, I've done it before I just have to remember it especially when I'm really not in a good mood about anything.

How this will affect my relationship with Chester? I think it will help me a lot. Sadly enough, maybe it was a good thing I didn't go out on Chester when I was in that kind of mood. I probably could have made things even worse and have betrayed our partnership and his trust. I do believe though that after working with Chess, I will love playing with Chester even more and appreciate that special bond we have with one another. -- When I rode back into the barn on Chess, Chester was there tied up and he turned around and even though he had been completely listless, he gave me the most adorable nicker greeting! The first time I've heard him do so! It was amazing! It was at this point when I realized how stupid I had been out by the river with Chess, and how EVERYTHING that happened had been initially my fault not the horses. --- Don't you love it when your horse makes you see sense and makes your day feel so much better?? :)