Back in February, I started training a 5 yr old paint mare.  She is owned by Very old friends of mine - who used to live locally, then they moved to Virginia, but we stayed in touch.  Then they came west again, to Arizona.  Last year they wanted to send Two horses to me, but their barn was struck with Strangles, so no one could go anywhere, then the roof on their home got damaged and all money went to that - so fianlly, Reggie and Rainey came to me in February.  Reggie was a 6 yr old morgan…

It's foaling season at Sweetwater Ranch.  One of my clients bought a lovely dressage mare by Olympic Ferro already bred to Grannius II - and I covered two of my own mares with Louie.  So, this year I will get to see what he produces, and we already have one foal on the ground.   He has been named Sweetwater's Alliance - barn name Lance - and he is lovely with good straight legs, up on his pasterns and nice feet all around.  And BIG.  In fact, Dr Marteney said he is the biggest foal he has…

Yesterday, I gave Bella Benedict another riding lesson on Gunny. This wouldn't be so significant, after all I teach horseback riding lessons for a living. But Belle is just 6 yrs old and she has to clean corrals to EARN her own lessons. Her family is Very tight financially, so I offered Belle a chance to join the 'work to ride' program. She works Hard to earn enough credits to get to ride.



So, this was her 3rd lesson, and we worked on developing a SMOOTH whoa - a nice easy slow pull…

Well, I feel I left a story untold.  So, I will quickly tell you all that Belle and I happily completed our first endurance ride last May- we actually placed 13th in a field of 30 - so I was pretty happy.  And maybe a bit over confident as we sent in entries to go all the way up to Mendocino to a ride in the redwoods.  SEEMED like a wonderful idea - camping, company, and a ride.  But the haul up was a basic nightmare - instead of an easy 9 hours, we were in the truck for 12, I was so tired…

Thursday April 22

At some point, riding lots of miles starts to feel a little redundant. Today, Robin and I rode around the buttes – we mixed it up a little by going over the steep pass down to Ave Q, then across to…

Monday April 12, 2010

Back on track and making tracks

It Poured rain last night – very late season storm for Southern California. But Robin and I agree that…

Talk about falling off the wagon! Last week, the train derailed! Robin and I skipped our very first ride together on Monday – it was cold, and windy and raining early in the day, so we opted to miss this one time. I was also sick on Easter – woke up with a headache and nausea – it may have been my first experience with a migraine – so I was very worn out on Monday. Well, Tuesday, I…

Thursday April 1, 2010

The biggest April Fool’s joke was the weather prediction! Dire warnings of rain, snow and wind. So what did we get? Clear and sunny. A little chilly – high was just around 60 – but So…

Sunday – March 21

Shake Rattle and Show

Well – not quite in that order – today was more like Show, Shakes and Rattlers…

Wednesday Mar 17 – Happy St Patrick’s day!

This is a big teaching day, so not as much time to ride. I combined teaching a student with getting Belle worked. We just rode 40 minutes, doing about 2 walking miles on the trail and then some arena trot work. Happily, it is…

Saturday – March 13Had to help at the 4H gymkhana, and in the afternoon, it was screaming…

Tuesday and Wednesday were windy and not ridable.

Thursday – March 11

So…

Saturday, March 7, 2010

Well, I settled for free lunging and wind sprints today. Not enough hours in the day. Still, for the week, Belle got ridden 3 times and free lunged twice, and I can’t recall when she has had that consistent of work schedule! Still, I need to…

Thursday, March 4th - Well, the concept of getting ‘two-fer’ work sessions isn’t looking quite as bright as it did this morning. I had decided to use ‘Sundance’ a 3 yr old welsh cross pony for her partner for the first outing. He is the Only equine on the property who is smaller than Belle is, he has been ponied before and he is calm and not prone to nip or bite. Seemed like a…

So the weather hasn’t been kind – but I am determined to keep up the work schedule. First of all, I found a GREAT on line article about conditioning for your first endurance ride. It is from the Southeast Endurance Riders Association. The link is below.…