Strategies...

My trainer is in Vegas, and so I didn't have my normal weekly lesson. However, I went out to ride anyways. I did a pretty big hour long ride with ponyboy, and we both worked hard. My abs were killing me, and I looked down at the end of the ride and realized that Jingle had worked up quite the sweat. I was pretty proud about that honestly because a lot of times my mindset is "quit on a good note" - i.e. quit before your horse hits his plateau (generally around 30-45 minutes) and starts getting really fricken pissy. Some days quitting on a good note is a really good strategy, other days, working on lots of different things, and working through issues is the strategy I should be using.

We loped - a lot. Jingle has gotten used to loping his small 1/4 arena circles and so I attempted to open him up to more of the arena with his left lead. He did well, and started listening to me a bit more. We did have a bit of our flinging around the arena and ducking corners issue, but what can you expect? My horse just loves to fling-flang around sometimes.

Then, we tackled the right lead. He was doing really well. He was really trying to lope his right lead on a small circle, I could tell, he would start to break down and only needed a little bit of encouragement before he'd pick it up again.

But then... we slammed right into my horses plateau. Does this happen to you guys? Jingle decides he's tired, and tired of me on him, and becomes a total.... pain in my behind. I was attempting more right lead stuff and he started just being a big out of control pissy pants. Stuff like this usually a) annoys me highly, which then gets my energy up, resulting in a disaster between the two of us b) scares me, resulting in me babying him. I caught myself performing both a) and b), and so I sat up straight and told my horse to lope his right lead, and not be such an a**hole to me, and by god - stay away from those standards and barrels in the middle of the arena or your going to break my knee caps right off, and if you decide to go bolting towards those aforementioned objects, I'm going to get after you, with reins, voice, leg and yep - spur, so quit that!

Result... Jingle loped his right lead. He wasn't exactly happy (snorting and neighing ensue), but he did it, and did it pretty well.

So we quit on a good note... after a long ride. :)

Some Photos....

Jingle, banished to the arena, because he attempted to pee in the breezeway.

Unhappy with me. Unhappy he is tied. Unhappy I keep leaving him alone.

Jingle's theme of the day = Unhappiness.

"Mahm, why are you leaving me here - I will certainly DIE!"

Jingle, looking particularly beef-cakey.

This photo lies.

"Mahm, stop messing around and let's go already.... i'm clearly all tacked up for a reason! Or - better yet, take all this junk off and let's eat grain."

A much more realistic shot of Jingle - my lanky small boy. 

Sweaty and sick of photos after our ride.

But what else am I suppose to do when you are drying off mister?!

"Mahm, I am all sweaty, cold and I hate loping my right lead and its all YOUR FAULT!"

I am blessed to have a horse with crazy eyes, that never fails to make me laugh, or roll my own eyes right back at him. You're a silly boy, and even when your a big pissy-pants, I love you.

& finally, a creepy shot of my drive home.... Apparently Hurricane Sandy's effects on Alberta are a "freezing fog" that basically enveloped me the entire way home. Spooky stuff two days before All Hallow's Eve. ;)

Want: Dubarry Boots

 You've probably seen these boots at all the major horse trade shows. They're called Dubarrys, all the ones here are from their "Country" Line of footwear, and generally at the shows you see reps standing in a bucket of water, declaring their water resistant, warm, miracle technology!

Well... I have been suckered into the hype, plus, I just think they are really cute. My go-to for warm footwear are my Muck Boots, but i'm uncomfortable riding with how bulky they are, plus they aren't exactly the cutest things to wear from school to the barn.

Dubarry's on the other hand.... 

Drooooooolllllll

Unfortunately, their price tag is disgustingly steep, and definitely not something I can ever justify spending money on. Sigh.

A girl can dream...

100 Posts! (& a Riding Diary: 29)

Time: 1.5 hr

Ride: Winter has arrived for us poor southern-albertans my friends. 10 cm one day, snow warnings, flurries for three days... absolute madness!

My mother came to the barn for the first time ever, she's met Jingle before but has never seen the barn. First, she commented on how Jingle looked bored and tired when I was grooming. Personally, I love that he's so calm when I'm getting ready to ride now - such a change from a few years ago. She says he must call her "mumsie" (lol), not "grandma". Fine. Deal. She then drooled all over a couple other horses at the barn, poor Jingle, so unloved.

Our ride was really good, we worked on circles at the jog/trot, we're figuring out our circles - I tell ya. Did lots of stop work. (This is getting repetitive, every riding diary is circles-stop-lope-circles-done haha) & then we loped to the left. My trainer seemed genuinley surprised how well Jingle was loping on his left lead - told yaaaaaaa. After that we just did a bit of jogging, and that was pretty much our ride!

My poor mother was freezing her bum off, I later found her sitting infront of one of our massive heaters. I don't quite think she's ready to be a barn girl just yet.

& due to the fact winter has arrived early, Jingle's 'move-in' date was bumped up, so baby boy went in his own stall for the first time ever. I left him with some grain and he happily munched away. I wanted some photos, but he wasn't cooperating, "MAHM, GRAIN!" and neither was my mother who very badly wanted the heated seat of her Jeep. Ugh, family... A friend texted me an hour or two later and said that Jingle was snoozin' happily in his warm stall. =) Good boy.

For Next Time: Lopin' - stops - Lopin' - stops - Lopin', now that we've started to really figure out our left lead, it's time to start slowing down and not zoom around so much, and then of course, maybe the right lead will just fall into place one of these days, and well.. can't forget about the fact that we still must work on our stops at all times. :)

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Let us not forget...

Happy 100th Post to Meeeeeeee!!!!

100 Posts... absolutely crazy. This blog has been up & running for a little bit over a year, and honestly... what a year it has been. From last September until now, I've learnt SO much about myself, and I've learnt so much about horses. This time last year I was working at a crummy barn that had me so stressed out I thought I was liable to explode into a bazillion pieces at any moment. I was dreaming about Jingle, I was mourning summer, I was recieving lessons that was taking any natural ability I had and squashing it in the dirt... I was in total limbo.

Now, I am a horse owner, I am at a barn I absolutely love, I have a wonderful trainer. I have a blog where wonderful friends, family, and internet-friends (followers hehe), follow and comment and assist and lend advice!!

What a difference a year can make - here's too 100 more posts, and getting better and better as the posts go on. :)

Customer Service... The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

I have had some really interesting run-ins with customer service in the equine industry lately...

My first experience, I detailed when I bought my beaaaautiful Jeff Smith Cowhorse Saddle, the people at Frontier Western Shop in Claresholm, Alberta were absolutely WONDERFUL, and coddled, guided and helped me via email, phone, and in-person, every step of the way. Including taking in my old Circle Y, letting me return an ill-fitting saddle, and guiding me to one that I love and fits well! They also threw in a cinch for free, and guided me toward a saddle pad they thought would work best (Classice Equine ESP). In the end, I don't really like it as much (... post for another time), as my old standby - professional's choice SMX, but that doesn't matter - they honestly tried their hardest to make sure I was happy, and my horse was happy. I'm the type of person that appreciates that, and spends more money as a result. Isn't that the whole point behind customer service?! - Treat your clientele like gold so they continue to always come back, and spend lots of money.

Secondly, I went to Horse Life to get a saddle pad repaired and cleaned, they have a wicked fast, and cheap, cleaning and repair service. The store manager then educated me on a range of blankets, and I ended up buying one. He did make a semi-snarky comment about western riders, but he was pleasant and really easy to deal with. I was happy, and impressed with his product knowledge, honesty, attitude, opinions etc.

Then... 2 weeks later, I had to call them to see where my pad was - they had told me repairs were 10 days at the very most. Apparently the lady was a little behind due to a big order, and mine would take a couple more days. I wasn't bothered, but if I had needed the pad ASAP I would have been. However, when I went in to pick up my pad the staff was really nice and attentive, the repairs on my pad were excellent AND when I brought in tags showing I didn't think I had recieved my 20% off from last time, they were quick and no questions asked, refunded me the difference.

& then... there is the third customer service experience... which was not good at all. Atleast for this week, Lammles, you lose, big time. I shop at my local Lammles pretty regularly, especially for clothes. They definitely aren't the best with their immediate customer service, atleast at the location I shop at, they don't say "hi" and you have to go to them if you need help - but, that's okay, i'm a pro shopper, so I don't need to have my hand-held and don't mind being left alone.

However, one day, i really did need help and when I asked the lady working she seemed less than happy to oblige. I was looking for a cheap rain sheet for these hot days-cool nights we've been experiencing. They had tons of stuff on sale, and when I asked if they had my size in something on sale, she just stared at my blankly. Okay... I started to feel customer-guilt, I'm not some bargain-bin only shopper. So, I asked her for full-priced items, it then took quite a bit for me to finally get her to walk over to the blanket display (a big wall, requiring a ladder) and help me look. Then, that took her quite some time. Then when she finally found something, she threw it on the ground and kind of wandered off... No product knowledge, no assistance, no nothin'. Okay, one bad egg, I've worked, and been a manger, in retail - I get it.

I went over to the desk to see if I could order in a cinch I need. I had been in a couple weeks previous and was looking for the particular cinch and they were out of stock. I was later informed by a friend that works at another location that, they can order things in for me - that was definitely not offered that day... So, I went back, same day as blanket fiasco, and was handed over to a young boy who seemingly didn't understand what a "cinch" was. Okay... now i'm being snarky, but after 10 minutes he finally got me a Weaver catalogue, threw it on the counter and told me to find the cinch.

So... I proceeded to sit there, looking for this random cinch. Once I found it, I told him that I could take one of two, depending what they could order in, and what size I needed. I then had to prompt him to write my personal information and the cinch information down. This was all under the eye of the man I know to be the Store Manager...

Whatever. Atleast I got my cinch ordered, right?

No.

I called today and spoke with a girl who sneezed, coughed and sniffled into the phone without apology, who asked me "Well... like... did anyone write your information down?"... Yes. "Did they like, write, it, in a like book?" .... No? Maybe? I don't know? Well.... she then went to speak to the store manager and came back and said "Oh ya we got an email back awhile ago, your order would have to be a special order. So like no one called you? Wanna order it? It'll take anywhere from 5-8 weeks to get here."

No. I do not want to deal with you at all.

& so, in a last ditch effort for her to redeem herself, I dropped the customer service F-bomb, "No, that is fine, I will just order it online off of Irvines."

Her response, "K bye." click.

***************************************************************

So, Frontier - you win this week. Your personable, happy to help, well educated staff, never fail to impress. I am more than willing to take the 1.5 hour trek to your store because of how amazing you guys are, and if my gas light is low - your online store is the one I go too first.

Honestly, all I do is spend my time on the internet looking up tack stores, tack sets, funky tack, etc. etc. So perhaps I should just go and open my own tack store - 50% all my original blog readers ;)

"GOOD BOY"

Would ya look at that?!

Went out to ride the boy last night, another late night ride, I think we both must be night owls - everything just works out for us late at night.

We did a bit of a warmup and I was fooling around with getting him to trot the barrel pattern, and then I was getting him to do figure 8's around two barrels - No hands! GOOD BOY. It was just one of those rides were I was kind of goofing around with him, and he seemed happy to follow along. Then I asked him to lope his left lead and BAM, perfect, absolutely fricken beautiful. I loped a small circle, one-handed, reins on his neck, and he just loped nice and slow around the circle, didn't try to break down, didn't try to throw a fit, just nice and slow and quiet.

His right lead wasn't AS pretty, of course, but he wasn't taking the circle so I asked him to lope the rail, which he did, and then as we came down to the end of the arena I got him to lope a small circle - he did it, beautifully. GOOD BOY.

Then, we trotted the barrel pattern, and loped home. He used his hind end and whipped around the barrel. GOOD BOY.

& Then... well, I decided to do something I've never done before...

Last weekend a friend of mine came out and asked if i've ever ridden Jingle bareback, which I haven't. He probably didn't mean anything of it, but it, for some stupid reason, the comment stung a bit, and then he made some comment along the lines of "Jingle doesn't like when I put weight on his back". Jingle isn't weird about weight on his back?! WTF?! I always lay over him and cuddle him.

I don't exactly love riding bareback, I used to ride bareback a lot when I rode outside in -30, because it would be too cold to even think about a saddle. & trust me, loping through snow drifts bareback gives you some darn good balance, and good core strength.

I then, at 18, attempted to jump on a green horse bareback and was dumped on my bum and broke my wrist pretty badly. After that I really only liked riding one horse bareback, Jed, to bring horses in, in the morning, but I trusted him with my life. He was one of those horses that would correct for you if you lost your balance, and like, attempt to catch you if you went to slip off. He was wicked. My core balance isn't bad - I can jog, post, and lope bareback, but honestly, I just prefer riding in a saddle.

& then I looked down at my horse that follows me around like a puppy, and clearly loves me as much as I love him, and thought - well, let's try this. I got up on a step and put weight on his back, he was fine, laid over his back, he was fine, put a leg over his back, he was fine. Then it got to that point where I realized MY horse was perfectly fine, and I was the one with the issue. This realization happens for me almost daily. So I clambered up there. He seemed confused at first, and only wanted to back up, so I asked him to turn a couple circles to get used to my weight, and then asked him to move forward - he wouldn't. I then, once again, realized this was MY ISSUE and so I sat up, pulled on my big girl pants, and nudged my horse and told him to walk, and then he did. We wandered around the arena, he cooled down, and I gave him a massive hug and told him once more, GOOD BOY.

I love my horse.

My mom once asked me if Jingle was the horse I should buy, and at the time I was unsure, I knew buying him was an emotionally loaded purchase. Now I know that he's becoming the horse that I should have bought, and I'm becoming the rider that he needs.

Such a nice warm fuzzy feeling.

Do you guys ride bareback at all, any Stacy Westfall readers out there?! or are you like me and prefer to be seated in a saddle?

Riding Diary: 28

Jingle cooling down in his Weatherbeeta cooler.

By the way - mini product review, I bought this cooler for him before I actually bought him (crazy horse mom, I know), and clearly I envisioned him much bigger than he was, so it's 2 sizes too big. BUT, this is Weatherbeeta's combo fleece/cooler and it's AWESOME. Highly recommend it - super soft, really good material, high quality, and I think I got it off Chick's for a wicked deal - like $40 or something? Maybe even less.

Bit: Shank bit with roller

Time: 1.5 hr

Ride: Jingle was being such a majestic ponyboy for me this last week that I expected some great things from this ride. Welllll.... we did so-so. Remember what I said about putting expectations on my lessons?  It never works out the way you want it too.

We started off with our usual warmup, Jingle was lookin' fly with his nice composed, quiet, slow jog. Atta boy! He is continuing to stop better and better at the walk, trot, and jog, which i'm awesome! Steps toward success!

Then we started to lope, Jingle just gets so hot and then starts to become a gigantic pissy pants. I don't work him very hard when I ride him alone, mostly because I never lope him, as I'm still uneasy about my leads/doing something wrong while trying to teach him to learn how to properly lope. So, our rides are usually blissful and, well, pretty easy and un-sweaty. Then my lessons come and he's asked to really work and he does a big "Hell no! Go away!" This generally features running amuck, being sassy, stopping, refusing to slow down, etc. It is something we are working through, and I just need to grow a backbone and atleast "work" my horse once a week. (I don't think he needs to be worked every time I ride him, in fact, I think our calm slow days are good for both of us, but like... I need to be able to lope my own horse... confidence, where art thou?) 

However, during our lesson, his left-lead is starting to really come along, I can lope him on a much longer rein, he's starting to slow down and not just zoom around like a cracked out race-horse. So, I'm hoping that now that one side of his loping is coming along really well, his other side (right lead) will just sort of click one day and fall into place because at the moment, the right lead is still a struggle. Picture this ever-stunning scenario, of my horse just trotting around like a chicken with his head cut off, whilst I try to ask him calm and collectedly for the right lead. When that doesn't work I attempt to ask with a bit of encouragement from a spur (my trainer has me wear really mild english spurs). He'll generally pick up the wrong lead, or if he does pick up the right one, I'll lose him in a minute. When that doesn't work I ask with a little bump of my crop, that tends to work for a bit, but honestly I become a totally uncoordinated mess with a fricken crop in my hand, and then I lose him... my fault ponyboy. However, we're working on just getting the right lead out of him and then quitting, moving to the left, and ending on a positive note.

It'll click, I know it will. We're getting there! Both my trainer and the mom of a girl who rides in my lesson said we were doing really well, and coming along nicely. yay. Another lady commented how Jingle has cute markings. (... are you insinuating his attitude isn't so cute? hahaaha)

For Next Time: keep on keepin' on until my horse can lope a circle on his right lead.

Trail Journal: 6; "A Fall Ride with Friends"

This post is long overdue, so I might as well get it out now while it's still topic (and weather) appropriate. The last two years friends from my ranch and I have headed out to Griffin Valley Ranch and done a bit of a fall "thanksgiving" trail-ride. A lot of the girls on the ride have volunteered there and one works there. It's a nice place to go for a little trail ride, and really close to the city! I still can't quite believe they let people go on unguided trail rides... craziness!

We headed out, expecting it to be freezing cold. I was bundled up in a long sleeve, two sweaters, a vest, my chaps, and gloves. However, it turned into a really nice afternoon fall day. I rode a big appaloosa named Sam, it felt weird to ride another horse, especially one I knew nothing about. This summer I predominately rode one horse, Cash, and then Jingle in the evenings, and when I was forced to ride another horse due to Cash going lame, I was an unhappy Riding Leader. I used to think I loved riding all sorts of different horses, but ... in my old age, I guess i'm becoming a one horse girl.

Fall in Alberta is definitely one of my favourite times of the year, all the colours, and the sunlight through the trees was pretty breathtaking.

Griffin has an interesting variety of horses, a true dude string of half-pony, half-quarter horse, half-who knows horses. Each horse was such a mutt, but they were all very well behaved and cute! One was even named Kesha - how silly.

Brigitte, our fearless leader.

Me and Sam... this is not a very flattering photo.

We did a bit of a loop, went on a big lope down a trail, and even did a little bit of log jumping!

The sun provided me with an insta-arty photo...

The crew heading back towards the Ranch...

Jon on "Randy", Myself on "Sam", Brigitte on "Reggie" and Laura on "Freckles"

... have I ever mentioned in this blog that I really don't like human names for horses? (Most of the time) So, it was quite amusing that most of the horses on this ride had human names.

All-in-All it was a really fun ride, and it was nice to get out on a trail again. Sam was a good horse, and I had fun on him. But, sorry Sam, you ain't no Jingle-horse.

& then, of course, the obligatory shot of Grand Valley Road.

A road that can lead anyone home.