Welcome Home Mac!

This is my bestfriend Brigitte and her "new" horse, Mac. Much like Jingle and myself, Mac was Brigitte's Bates "Heart-horse". One of the family members ended up keeping Mac for themselves, and Brigitte was able to lease him for the winter! So on Saturday she brought him home to the barn I board at!! I am so excited to have them at the barn, and probably have another Bates horse trump Jingle in the whole "well-broke, well-mannered" department. hahaha.

Yum.

This WP outfit/saddle/horse combination, yummy.

I loooove the red.

Such a sucker for Western Pleasure sometimes.

"A Good Intention" in the Senior Western Pleasure @ the APHA World Fall Show

(btw his Barn Name is "Baby Mac, too cute)

Photo

"I iz the king of da castttle, and you da dirty rascalsss"

(says my horse, whilst everyone else has friends, and are happily sharing their hay)

Found this photo from the summer, and it made me smile.

Wish I was riding tonight instead of studying the dynastic lineages of Tikal.

Sigh... University...

Riding Diary: 31

Time: 1 hr

Ride: Sunday I went out to ride and focused on steering and responsiveness in the side pull. Jingle did really well, I like how more relaxed he seems in it, and just happier to go to work. He still, obviously, has his moments of "hey, remember that one time 3 years ago my Jaw was broken and hurt, well, I'm going to act like your doing that to me RIGHT NOW", but after exploring so many options I know that's a learned behaviour, and not a pain response. However, aside from those moments, his headset is more relaxed, and he's not gaping or fidgeting as much as I expected him too. Hallelujah!

Taken by a friend, "Mahm isn't here, sew tired, sew happy"

Then, Monday and my lesson happened... Do you ever think your horse has split personality disorder? Because, honestly, I often wonder if my horse is two horses trapped in one body, competing with eachother for my attention/love/anger/pain/sorrow, etc. sigh.
Jingle's right lead is not pretty, and is taking quite a bit of work to get him to pick it up. Right now our stratedgy is while entering into an arc, bend him to the left, add leg, and ask for the lead. However, bending him left just seems so wrong to me and my hands, and we often fumble it up together.

"Mahm, remember when you used to hang out with me and not ride? Let's do that again okay?"

Then.... demonponyboy appeared whilst attempting to lope our circles. Jingle decided that holding an arc through a circle was honestly not what he wanted to do during our lesson, and so he started to jut out to the left. So, I'd correct him. Then, he attempted to run me into our arena wall. No, horse, you can't do that. Then, his "jutting" turned into full blown running through the centre of the arena, whilst everyone else stops and stares at us. His nose was cranked to my knee, he was aiming towards jump standards we have in the middle.... not pretty. Bad boy.

This is where split personality comes into play... my horse would not lope a circle to save his life, instead he'd take me every which way, but where I wanted. This went on for quite some time, and then, all of a sudden after a particularly bad moment, he loped like an angel... what? Who are you Jingle?

After we got back to our normal scheduled loping, we jogged, and ended the lesson with a sweaty horse and a tired Louisa. However, ever-redeeming himself, a little girl who rides at the same time as I do on Monday gave Jingle his first EVER cookie and it was hilarious. (He used to be really nosey and pushy so I never fed him treats, but he's learned to respect my space). He took it and was shaking his head and kept giving her this wild eyed "WHAT IS THIS" look. Adorable.

"Mahm, I love you less when you ride me and get sweaty. No, I dun wanna look at you right now."

So of course... I went and bought him cookies and a lick-it, because he needed them.

& then, I went out yesterday to ride, and guess who was there to meet me at the barn? Angelfaceponyboy... I focused on transitions, and jogging for most of my ride, (lots of stopping - as per usual), and he was AMAZING. Beautiful slow jog, was actually stopping for once in his life, would actually listen to me when I scolded him for his pissy pants "I don't want to do this" act. I asked him to lope and he thought about jutting out, but all I had to do was slightly add pressure onto his side and he'd correct himself.

So what does this mean? Well... it means my horse has split personality. So, that's that. :)

In all honesty, Jingle just gets frusterated and completely looses it, he can't focus, or listen, and just becomes my problem child. However, he's clearly learning, and absorbing our lessons, and so it's coming. Patience is a virtue friends!

"Mahm, today I love you, but I love cookies more"

For Next Time: Woah. The magical word.

A Glimpse: 5

 Last week, myself and three friends from the ranch I used to work at, headed to the barn to visit Mr. JingleBellRock. All three of them rode him, and aside from a couple times where he thought to himself, "No, I don't want to move anymore", and one incident of "trot fast means lope silly!", he did really well. I love watching other people ride my horse, he is just such a cutie pants!

Horse pals, :)

Sipping on a beer, lounging on my pony.

Jingle has a bit of a snooki-puff going on in this photo

Then, the other night, I headed out to ride baby-boy in a sidepull again, he did very well. His stops are definitely lacking, but they're coming.

"Mom, you dare leave my blanket off for less than 48 hours? Well, I will show you how fuzzy I can get AND how dirty I can get"

The life of owning a paint...

"I am da cutest boy, I know I am"

The drive out to my barn is pretty spectacular, probably the last no-snow shot of the season.

Riding Diary: 30

Time: 1.5 hr

Bit: This is no longer a sub-category in my riding diaries (for now atleast) as you will see in a moment!

Ride: We've been having bit/head issues - anyone who has read my riding diaries knows that. Well, now Jingle is becoming an absolute pain to bridle, like attempting to walk on top of me and leave the premises when I bridle him. He used to be an absolute violent terror to bridle, and that has all but dissapeared since the spring, but now he's becoming a bit of a big, overgrown, annoying pest. It's been two weeks since I've had a lesson, last monday I rode in a ported bit with shanks we've been using, Jingle did well. Then I got hit by a tsunami otherwise known as my "early human burials, and emergence of symbolic behaviour" paper in african archaeology, and did not ride my boy until Friday. Friday I went out with some friends, I rode super briefly, let them fool around in his snaffle, and that was basically it.

Monday, Jingle was a terror. Head-throwing, including throwing backwards (watch my nose there ponyboy!), Head-shaking, prancing, not checking back. General disastor mess. My dentist had told me that after a month or two, I will know if Jingle will be more accepting of a bit, and if I wasn't sure - he would give me all the signs. Well, the damn horse has a very well-moving jaw now, after every ride I massage his jaw, TMJ and neck muscles, and we've attempted to under bit, normal bit, over bit, leverage bit, every-bit, well.... looks like my horse is telling me something, hey?

So, we are now attempting the Side Pull!

My trainer lent me her double rawhide noseband sidepull, she covers the noseband with vet wrap so it's a bit softer on their noses, and as she was putting it on him she said, "well... he has a nice forelock." and then, "either this is going to help, or it's going to be like riding around in a halter." I replied with perhaps Jingle and I will just enter "Best Mane" contests... at the walk.

So, the verdict?

Well... Jingle's headset was a lot better, way more relaxed and low. That is a very good thing!
Jingle was still doing his obstinant head-shake-mom don't make me do this-thing. Not surprising, attitude related, not bit/jaw related.

& then... my issue was the steering, Jingle wasn't exactly listening to my subtle steering ques...
During my lesson I almost ran into a girl who was halfway over a jump, also a child who was jogging her horse, very nicely and quietly on the rail, and a couple really pretty - hey, let's go over here! moments. Really embarassing. My trainer, of course, told me to stop that. (yes... I am intentionally trying to kill a child, yes... I love when I underestimate the time I have to move out of the way of an oncoming jumping warmblood. yes... I did infact intend to do a small circle, but here I am, circling half the arena and my horse could care less) More embarassment. Life is good.

I guess, especially in the first steps of this whole new bitless business, over-steering is probably what is going to have to occur until Jingle figures out how this whole new contraption works. However, It's more me struggling with the concept than him, sigh. I'm sure the two of us will get used too it, but, as I was being flung around the arena by my horse I definitely had one of those.... siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhh.... days that I often have when it comes to my horse, his pissy-pants moment, and all his jaw and mouth issues.

So; Side Pull? Well... I went home and feverishly researched bitless options (i've done this before... I love to google), and the side pull looks like the best option for us right now. Jingle seems more... physically relaxed... in it, I saw physically because mentally I think my horse has two elephants in his brain attacking eachother sometimes. So, that's a plus, so we shall continue with this route and see what doors open down the road.

For Next Time: I ordered a sidepull, but it wont come in the mail until Friday. No surprise that none of Calgary's tack shops carry them, and the one that does wont have any in stock for about a month. Secondly, the online options weren't too great. Why oh why dont the big clearance/cheap websites deliver free to Canada? So unfair.

I'll probably just ride him in his rawhide noseband rope halter tonight, and hope he doesn't murder me. Plan of attack for tonight - softening, steering, and stopping - the three big S's!

The Budweiser Clydesdales!

So, I found this really cool video on the making/training of some of the Budweiser Super Bowl commercials, some of the scenes are absolutely breathtaking. I must confess, I love draft horses, always have, always will. I wouldn't mind to have a big drafty out in my field one day!

& then, because i'm a massive sap, two of my absolute favourite commercials..

honestly, both make me cry each time. haha