I have been giving free pony rides at the Daviess County Fair in Kentucky, and tomorrow is the last day! We are walking from 6 pm to 9 pm, and would sure love to have you come out and see us! Party Ponies was sponsored by Castlen Welding this year, so all rides are completely free! Hope to see y’all out there tomorrow!
For all of my wonderful followers, if any of y’all happen to be at the Daviess County Fair tomorrow, then I would love for y’all to come see my club and I put on our horse demo from 3 pm to 4 pm! I’ll be riding Drover, carrying the flag, and doing barrels and poles! I would sure love to see a big crowd! And if any of y’all are close to us, and would like to join the Daviess County Young Rider 4-H Club, we sure would love to have you!
Stretching out Sam after a good workout!
I’m going to start by saying that there is no one discipline that is the best, and there is no one saddle that is perfect for every situation. Many people split the disciplines, or styles of riding, into two categories: Western and English. Of course, english people think they’re better riders than western people and vice versa, but that’s beyond the point. It doesn’t matter what saddle you ride in as long as that saddle fits your horse and the job you’re trying to accomplish. For example, if you’re going to jump 4 ft high, you wouldn’t want to in a western saddle because it hurts like heck when that horn slams into your stomach, but an english saddle isn’t good for barrel racing because it’s not secure enough. Of course I say english saddle and western saddle as if it’s really that easy…. it’s not. There are saddles for every thing under the sun that you might want to do. There are saddles for jumping, dressage, barrel racing, endurance riding, ect. And there are LOADS of different brands and styles for each of these styles of saddle. Personally, I like all kinds of saddles, and ride in different ones all the time. I’ve ridden in an Aussie, a Paragon (english endurance), an Abetta (type of western), Calvary (a very practical, and ridiculously uncomfortable piece of history), and quite a few hybrid saddles. Some were better for what I was doing, and some were not so great, but all of them basically do the same job: keep me on my horse. So, as long as it fits, and works well for what you’re doing, it doesn’t really matter what saddle you’re using or what discipline you ride. To be honest, I don’t really have a discipline. I have a lot of western tendencies, but I also love jumping and will probably always hold my reins english styled! I’m happy and safe, and so is my horse. That’s all that matters.
Sorry I’ve been MIA lately, life kicked into overdrive without me realizing it!
Every morning at Jem Ranch, we’ve been fast riding Sam to maximize his “Fat Farm Diet”. When Sambo came to us 3 weeks ago, he was waay over weight with a body score of 8, and a crested neck that was 7 inches too tall. When he came, our girth barely fit, NOW his girth is on the last hole!! Poor thing has been working hard to get that weight off! We had to work up slow, but he can now handle an hour of fast gaiting! He is just the sweetest guy, happy to please, and a gait from heaven now that he’s conditioned! Before, his owner says he didn’t gait at all! We also went to look at a little horse down the street as a possible project, but he didn’t work out. Had a 4H meeting and learned I’m going to ride the flag for a demo, so worked with the flag with Drover!
I rode in an Aussie saddle for the first time, and as I expected, he did fabulous with the flag! Didn’t spook or anything! We did rodeo a bit at the end because a big mean fly bit his rump and us, by ourselves, away from Mom, while I was holding a scary flag was just too much for poor Drover to handle! I stayed on, he jumped up and down, and when he calmed we gaited around the field a couple more times (still holding the flag) and finished a great ride! I love this horse!
This coming week, Fat Farm training continues every morning! Sam goes home Friday, and then I’ll get to spend more time with Drover! I’m also going to look at a horse tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes! I love horse shopping! So much fun! And just by going, you can learn so much!
On many ads nowadays, you’ll see the words “dead broke” or “bomb proof”. What these owners mean, is they believe their horse is absolutely desensitized to everything and there is not a thing that will make them jump so absolutely anyone can ride them. Well, hate to break it to them, but they’re wrong. They may have a really well trained horse, and a beginner may be able to ride that horse on that person’s property just fine, but I promise there will be something that that horse hasn’t seen before. If that horse has never left that person’s property, then I guarantee you, once you bring him home to a new environment with new animals and a new rider, you will have yourself a new horse. Maybe that horse has never seen a falcon… or a tractor… or a butterfly! No matter WHAT it is, I promise you that horse hasn’t seen EVERYTHING. Even if that horse has been away from it’s farm, it still hasn’t seen everything! Horses are big animals with minds of their own and the muscle to do what they want. There will never be a horse completely broke horse, and there will never be a 100% chance that you will be completely safe riding one. That’s just how our sport works! That’s why we have to do the best we can to desensitize our animals to everything we can, and wear our helmets, because at the end of the day, all you can do is hope for the best and hope that you trained your horse well enough to not get you (or someone else) hurt.
If you have a horse who has never been touched, you know how hard it is to touch it. I found myself in this situation last spring with Patrick, and again last Winter with Eli, and it is not an easy thing to fix. The absolute best thing is to find an itchy spot and just scratch away! I’d never wish a horse to have lots of ticks, but tick bites are fabulous when your horse doesn’t want you to touch him! Soon he’ll be begging you to scratch him!! When Patrick came to me, he had never been touched. He was born in the field and left there till he was a year old because his owner just didn’t have time for him. Luckily, his field was filled with ticks. I had him following me off the leash like a dog after 2 days.
The idea behind a showmanship class is to show how much control you can have over your horse without needing to touch him. This class is mandatory for 4H District and State. In my pattern, I had to walk, trot, back up, and turn 90 and 270 degree turns.
Drover does Barrels at District
We got 12th of 21 horses! We were the only gaited competitors in our age division! I think we did pretty well for our second time ever doing the pattern!
So, next week is a very busy week for me! I have district for 4H next Tuesday in Bowling Green, where I will be competing in western contesting on Drover! Then, on Thursday, Patrick comes in, and I will begin a daily post on how his progress will go! I am so very excited to see my former baby again, and finally ride him! Until then though, I will be very busy preparing for the big show! I’ve never been to a big show like this (yes, for little me District is a big show), so I’m not really sure what to expect, but I know for sure that I have a lot more work to do with Drover, and I’m not sure when I’ll get it in, but we will do our best, and see how it goes! Today we spent a little time working on going around barrels and picking things off barrels, and just getting the feel of each other again because it’s been over 2 weeks since I’ve ridden him! He did pretty well, kind of hot, but that never bothers me! It was nice to be riding him again, even if it was a HUGE difference from the pony I was riding on vacation! Let me tell you, a 6 inch difference is a LOT! So, Monday night I’ll probably post about best ways to get show ready, and Tuesday I’ll tell you all about how it went! Wish me lots of luck as we compete in barrels, poles, and flags!
Live To Train 