So, we had the vet out to take a look at my little guy and make sure he was good to wean. And, since the farrier wanted some x-rays on his mom, we got them taken, no biggie...

Definite biggie. Her coffin bone has rotated more. She's barely lame. I think we're going to have to put her down, and it's just an appalling idea. She's 6 1/2. You think you get them through the worst of it and it will be okay. And now, we're back where we were 2 years ago. And then you think what if we…

So, we've been working with little Maggie on the longe line, with sliding side reins, then she moved on to long lining, which is tough and requires quite a bit of finesse. So, last night, I gave it a try. It's way harder than it looks, lemme tell ya! But, you can see immediately what you've messed up. And, conveniently, you tend to do the same things wrong on the ground that you do in the saddle. So, I get to see what the impact of what I do is, there's no cheating…

My darling Maggie has been in some intense training of late, with me riding on weekends and her getting training during the week. She's progressed to long lining and it's going quite well. So, then it's up to me to keep everything moving forward, but I hadn't had a lesson in weeks. Now that doesn't seem like a long time, but really, we're trying to move forward and I don't want to be hindering progress.

So, last night, I rode and had a lesson. I KNEW IT, I was NOT riding quite…

We had a clinic this past weekend with a very good clinician we've ridden with before. This week hasn't been all that great, Maggie dumping my trainer and all that, but, I expected a good ride. Now, we've been working on the trot with the girl, less on the canter. But, we were doing great, walk (quit moving so much), trot (softer and wait in the transition), and then the left lead canter, quite nice, developmental, but nice. Unfortunately, the right lead canter is not so good, so more right…

Well, my trainer had her second ride on little Maggie yesterday. Maggie tried her patented move, 'The Maggie', a clever combination of buck, leap and rear. Now I've never really managed to enforce a consequence with that move, you know, laying in the dirt, with my ankle dislocated, bleeding, it wasn't something I was up to. Maggie found out about consequences!

And today was ride #3. Well well, someone's a very smart horse! She was very good, very gorgeous and very contrite. My…

Typical for southern Alberta, nothing is typical in weather. So, this weekend we had 25C and 22C or so. And after the crappy summer we had, I HAD to get outside with little Maggie.

Friday was work in the arena, 25 minutes because that's as long as I could be VERY specific and demanding with her about being forward and answering the aids promptly. She did well. This was my first ride after my trainer was on her Wednesday.

Saturday, pure decadence, I went and…

Ah my little Maggie, aka Muffin, aka Muffinator, aka Magnolia, aka Maggie Mae.

Wednesday I wasn't feeling well, so my intrepid trainer rode Maggie. This was her first schooling ride on her. So, what did we learn? Doesn't react properly to the whip (hind legs move, but she sucks behind the leg), doesn't bend in her body, doesn't really take contact on the right rein, probably because she doesn't really take contact on the left rein....

We've made progress getting…

I just have to post a couple pictures of my little man when we put a saddle pad on him. He's 2 1/2 months old and a 'whole world of trouble'. He's by Popeye out of a Cheops Z x Tango Selune mare. I love…

I've been on vacation, and that was quite nice. After the long weekend I took my mare down to Lethbridge (plus 3 cats), to visit Mom and Dad and the other three horses. My big girl is great in the trailer, but every time I put her in, I worry. I suspect part of it is just me being a worrier, part of it is that I've had some tires blow with her in the trailer, and had to change them. Now that went well, and I have a full set of new tires on the trailer (please people, after 5 or 6 years, just…

Ah my little child, she is quite the charmer. Lately when being taken out to the field, she's been squealing and rearing. Her very favourite means of letting you know she's ready to be seriously naughty. So, we've put on her rope halter, it only takes one good thwack of that with the nice heavy lead rope... consequences, and it's done.

Had a very lovely ride on her today. I think I may have convinced her that I am more patient than she is, I'm not going to give in just…

So, last night Maggie and I had a lesson. We were outfitted with the running martingale, which is working well, although it got adjusted a bit tighter. Beauty of the running, it only engages when you need it and it doesn't help you actually ride your horse or get it round. It also takes away Maggie's favourite game of throwing her head in the air and doing whatever the hell she really wants to do... always a bonus.

So, we warmed up and then out comes the longe whip. Now we're…

Well, my little Havoc is adorable and home. He's scraped a bunch of hair off of his face, lord only knows how. He's happily ensconced in his paddock with his momma, and he goes out in the field with momma and Auntie Cass. He now gets just the tiniest bit of pellets because he can't share his Mom's food, and thinks he's hot stuff with his very own bucket of goodies. And he munches hay with Mom, looking very serious about the whole thing.

He's such a saucy thing. He does NOT…

After another weekend of Havoc... And I mean literally.

So, the dam of my little Havoc, her name is Snip, had her shoes pulled on Thursday. Now she had a bad case of laminitis two years ago and has 23.5 degrees of rotation in her right fore. So, the front of her foot doesn't exactly grow all that well. Which is why we'd pull her shoes and see if she could go barefoot and quit cracking up what little foot she has. Apparently not. P3 is pretty close to the sole, she must have…

Well, our mare delivered unto us a very adorable little boy on July 6. True to the adage that mares are cagey, at 9:30 pm the milk didn't test like she was imminent, she didn't look quite right, 11pm I get the call that the colt is on the ground. After a very tiring 2 hour drive down, I was pretty awake when I saw the little guy.

Momma was a maiden, delivery was easy, but she wasn't sure what she was supposed…

So, little Muffin had three days off, as I went down to where my pregnant mare was for an extended weekend. We've got her moved to where she'll foal out, her udder is huge (well, for her, she's a maiden, after all), her butt is getting slack...

The little girl hadn't been in a trailer since she got pregnant, but marched right on, travelled the two minutes down the road and came off like an angel. She travels like her big sister, that one!

So, now, we wait and…

Well, success is relative... Little Maggie was a very good girl. She doesn't look at much of anything, including the boats that were on the grounds. Little spook in the indoor arena. Low score of 49.6, high of 58.4, both on the same day, the last day of the show, go figure.

So, what have we learned? Balance needs to be better, on the part of the rider. Looks like we have to buckle down…

Today we were off to a schooling show with a UK judge who was in doing a clinic yesterday. She marched over the wooden bridge to the outdoor schooling ring, where she was very good. Easy warm up, although it takes a bit to get some forward going. Into the ring and off we go.

So, let us then enumerate the rider errors that caused her to score under 70:

Stiff hands into the halt.

Inconsistent contact, but better.

Started a 20m circle when it should have…

Well, we had our first Gold show on the weekend since the grand revelation that *I* was causing the bucking and squealing of dear little Muffin. Shockingly enough, she didn't put a foot wrong. Mom didn't get so tense, so there was no good reason for silliness, and lord knows she requires a good reason, honest little girl that she is! Well, mostly.

Friday we had a lesson in the morning and she was one cranky pony. She kicked up when we went to canter, after she thought she was…